Clarion 2003-02-05 Vol. 78 No. 08

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Wednesday, February 5, 2001
NEWSPAPER OF BETHEL COLLEGE
Volume 78 Number 8
Senior Scott Hammer and sophomore Karl Nelson prepare the set for
Guys and Dolls: A musical fable of Broadway
Thursday, Friday, Saturday at 7:30 p.m., Sunday at 230p.m.
Meet the cast and go behind the scenes on pages 8-9
Lettingas to leave after 19 years
By Rachel Head
StaffWriter
After teaching at Bethel for 19 years,
professors Neil and Virginia Lettinga are
moving to Canada this summer. They
recently accepted the position of joint-chaplains at the University of Northern British
Columbia and will start work this fall.
"We've loved Bethel," Virginia said. "We
just felt that God was calling us on to something else."
Neil Lettinga has taught history courses
at Bethel as well as being the Department
Chair of the History department. Virginia
has been involved in many ways here at
Bethel. In addition to teaching CWC, Art
History, and College Writing, she is currently the director of the Academic
Enrichment and Support Center (AESC),
which she started.
Booth thought they would retire from
this college, but eventually felt God leading
them to this new job. They aren't dissatisfied here, but they felt God transferring
them to a new assignment. This new job
opportunity virtually dropped into their
laps.
Virginia saw the ad for the position and
showed it to Neil because she thought it was
interesting. From there, everything else
seemed to fall into place. They prayed, and
it was clear to each of them that this was
what God wanted them to do.
The campus where they will be teaching
is located in Prince George, British
Columbia. It is about 400 miles north of the
U.S. border, and the town is located five
hours away from any city.
The Lettingas are excited to see where
God is bringing them, but they don't know
what it entails. Neil said, "a lot of our work
is going to be hospitality." As well, they will
no longer be at a Christian school; the
University of Northern British Columbia is
a public university.
"It means, on one hand, we're walking
in as Christians," Virginia began. "On the
other hand, we'll be coordinating for
Buddhists, Hindus, Sikhs, etc. It will be a
delicate walk."
They are stepping into this without
knowing much about what they are doing.
Virginia said, "We, in fact, wish we knew
more."
These soon-to-be-former Bethel professors are taking a step into the unknown,
but as Virginia stated, "We do think this is
the kind of opportunity that is rare." Their
desire to work for God appears to outweigh
their desire to be comfortable.
Trustees approve
university status
By Meika Vogel
StaffWriter
The Board of Trustees unanimously approved the shift to university status at their Jan. 31 meeting.
The Trustee Task Force on
Governance (TTFG) was created in
November with the purpose of studying the proposed shift. After their
meeting on Jan. 10 the following five
recommendations were given to the
Trustees: (1) that Bethel establish a
university organizational and governance structure (2) that the corporate
name "Bethel University" be adopted
at a time to be determined (3) that the
administration be directed to establish an implementation plan with
timelines and budget that will be presented for ratification at the May
2003 meeting of the board (4) that
any necessary bylaw changes regarding organization and structure be presented to the delegates for ratification
at the biennial meeting of the Bethel
Corporation in Fresno, California, in
June 2004 (5) that the trustee members of the Trustee Task Force on
Governance be charged with ongoing
review of the implementation
process. All of these recommendations were ratified.
"I think it gives us the opportunity to reach out to an even broader
prospective student population," said
Sherie Lindvall, Vice President for
Communications and Marketing. The
prospective students it would have
the biggest effect on are international
students. "In the international world,
college refers to high school students," Lindvall said.
For the most part, this change
would not have a noticeable day to
day effect on students here at Bethel.
"The major differences are in the
organizational structure and the way
the governance happens," said
Lindvall.
Since its first meeting on Nov. 12,
the task force met twice more, on
Dec. 11-12, 2002 and Jan. 10, 2003
to discuss the possibility of Bethel
shifting to university status. During
these meetings, members of the
TTFG received input and heard testimony from faculty representatives
and administrative personnel as well
as community feedback. They also
looked at other universities as models
and came up with the proposal for the
Board of Trustees.
Part of the reason for Bethel's
desire to change to university status
is because of the increasing amount
of post-graduate study options. The
goal is to provide the residential college, seminary, non-traditional, and
graduate programs with the support
and ability to have autonomy in their
curriculum as well as the resources to
fulfill their own missions and needs.
The task force sees many advantages to the shift to university status.
It would assist the Center for
Graduate and Continuing Studies in
expanding and improving their excellence and options in their continuing
education programs. This shift would
also provide additional research and
support to achieve goals Bethel has
in the areas of programs and facilities
over the next five years.
Another possible change which
would be beneficial to Bethel is one
of the most recognizable. The name
"Bethel College" would change to
"Bethel University" for all of the
educational programs that are part of
the institution. The names for the
individual institutions such as the
residential college and seminary have
not been decided on at this point.
This change would be advantageous because it would give a clearer
image and enable better marketing as
far as what Bethel really has to offer.
It would also show a more mature
and forward-looking image as well as
put ing Bethel into a group with other
evangelical Christian institutions
such as Azusa Pacific, Biola, Seattle
Pacific, and Union universities.