Paradox panel
Three professors discuss artwork from the new gallery show By Elena Vaughn The Underground was packed with students and faculty Wednesday night for The Paradox of Beauty panel discussion. Art professor Wayne Roosa, philosophy professor Carrie Peffley and English professor Angela Shannon engaged in discussion about The Beautiful, the new exhibit in the Olson Gallery. The exhibit is sponsored by Christians in Visual Arts and features 33 artworks focused on the theme of beauty in the fallen world. Art professor, gallery director and CIVA board member Michelle Wingard moderated the event. Roosa gave a thoughtful musing on the different paradigms of “classical beauty” and the expression “beauty is in the eye of the beholder.” “Beauty is not a thing,” Roosa said. “It is more like an agency, the living dynamic.” After Roosa’s remarks, Peffley discussed the difference between kitsch, surface level aesthetic appeal and true beauty. “The beauty of true… Keep Reading
The self-serving identity crisis
A manifesto on being a 20-something with a migrating identity. By Jamie Hudalla | Columnist Recently, I put myself in a time-out for the weekend. Three friends and I took a writer’s retreat to Door Country, five hours and 12 Amish-crossing signs away. We rented a cabin in the woods from a white-bearded man named Ransom. He had freezers full of meat, windows without blinds and a bidet in the bathroom, so we slept with kitchen shears under our pillows. We survived the night and wandered Sturgeon Bay the next morning until we found a bookstore. Popping our heads in morphed into an hour and a half endeavor. A middle-aged man named John worked the front desk. He was a retired nuclear physicist, or in his words, he made very little objects that made very big booms. He’d lived in Israel and Russia, attended John Hopkins University and owns a… Keep Reading
We are all Bethel stereotypes
By Josh Towner I like to think of myself as an independent person who isn’t tied down by the cliches and stereotypes at Bethel. I don’t attend chapel very often, I go on rants where I curse like a sailor and I have occasionally broken the covenant. I don’t party at the U, but I’m also not a shift leader. I like to think of myself as a mature, nuanced person, separate from the Bethel bubble, but I also think my Vans look pretty cool. I have a hydro flask mug and a metal water bottle. I know what kind of panini I like, I say hi to Geetha and I enjoy sitting in the BC. I like to think of myself as a free spirit on a campus that seems to agree on a little too much, but when I truly examine who I am, I’m just another Bethel… Keep Reading
The Bethel starter pack
Everything that you need to survive and thrive in the Bethel Bubble. Captions by Jamie Hudalla, Lindsey Micucci and Mary Hitt. Photos by Katie Viesselman and Mara Hayes. Keep Reading
Transforming Bethel’s DNA
Chief Diversity Officer Ruben Rivera discusses exclusive Christianity and tackles what it means to be a reconciler amidst diversity in Bethel University’s community. By Emma Harville Junior Hilda Davis knows what it’s like to be the only one. Pulling up to Edgren Hall at Bethel University her freshman year, she knew that it would be different from Champlin Park, the diverse high school she spent her last four years at. What she didn’t anticipate was the lack of connection she would feel with the rest of the student body because of that difference. Davis was shocked during Welcome Week as white students flooded the campus, but she couldn’t seem to find many students who looked like her. She sat in several general education courses in which she was the only student of color. When she greeted a group of girls on her floor, she was met with little response. Discouraged,… Keep Reading
A 1950s Hangover
Ring by spring culture is reminiscent of the 1950s. By Josh Towner Graduation in May. Wedding next February. Then, life. This is the timeline for seniors Tim Rockford and Marisa Griner. The couple met while working for Student Ministries. “I had to talk to like five people to see if it [dating] was okay,” Rockford said, since he was the Director of Student Ministries. They got engaged after dating for one year and three months. Rockford, 21, and Griner, 22, are getting married much earlier than the average age of marriage in the United States: 28.8. From the outside looking in, the two are taking a huge leap. But from Bethel’s perspective, getting married young is nothing new, as Bethel currently has its highest-ever number of married students enrolled. Nationally, 5.7 percent of women and 4.6 percent of men are married by the time they’re 22 years old, according… Keep Reading
Bethel’s past, present and future
Shaped by founders and changed by time, Bethel tries to pinpoint its identity. By Jasmine Johnson The first time Holly Haugen knew she would attend Bethel, she was 7 years old. Wandering through the halls with her grandma and hearing stories about spending time in the coffeeshop for hours, roller skating on the weekends and attending football games from her alumni parents, she was convinced of her love for the university. “I always told my cousin ‘We’re gonna go here,’” said Haugen, a freshman communications studies major. “I always had a plan of coming.” When looking into what Bethel has been, is now and will become, the university’s identity can be defined by many different factors: gathering spaces, faith, denomination, enrollment, academics, moving forward. Although these factors also contribute to other postsecondary institutions, director of admissions Bret Hyder says that something about Bethel is different. “Have you ever been to… Keep Reading
Bethel seems scared
Vinding is an English professor and Director of Writing at Bethel. By April Vinding Scared. It seems we’re mostly scared. Afraid to speak in class. Afraid there’s no job waiting. Afraid being at a small Christian school undermines our credibility as scholars. Afraid we’ll lose the jobs we have. Afraid we’ll never find love. Afraid the love we have is as good as it gets. Afraid to disappoint our parents. Afraid we haven’t given our children enough. Afraid of being unknown. Afraid of being known. And those fears are valid. I haven’t published for two years because the judgement I received when I divorced, from intimate friends and the church, destroyed my belief in the goodwill of strangers. I’ve stopped bringing treats to classes because students stopped saying thanks. I’ve stopped asking acquaintances to plays or yoga because half don’t even respond to the invitation. I’ve stopped asking some of… Keep Reading
Bethel is where science and faith collide
Biology professor Joy Doan fused her love for science and God by coming to Bethel. By Joy Doan Fifteen years ago, I was a disillusioned academic living in Denver, Colorado. I was coming off a dozen years of traveling what the world told me were and always would be parallel roads. The first road included intensely secular doctoral and post-doctoral training in Immunology. The second and more important road concerned my faith in Christ. I felt called to the former. The latter was deep in my bones. I had no idea how to bring them together, if it was even possible to bring them together. I had the beginnings of a plan to leave academia for full-time ministry. Then, I had an idea. Some might say a nudge from the Holy Spirit. I asked the internet how to find an open faculty position in Biology at a Christian college. Bethel… Keep Reading
Bethel’s difference is in the small words
Political science chair Chris Moore sees importance in the little words at Bethel. By Chris Moore If we ask ourselves what Bethel University has been about or what it should be about, we’re inclined to pay attention to the big words. We look for those big nouns to define our goals. I’m attracted to words like “endowment” or “facility.” We zoom in on words like “opportunity,” “award,” “championship,” and “employment.” If we can somehow make our way past the nouns, we’ll soon arrive at the verbs. Verbs motivate us, after all. So, we “strive” and “commit.” We “seek” and “build” and “reconcile.” We “study” and “practice” and “prepare.” Then come the adjectives: “excellent” and “driven” and even “whole and holy.” Those are good things, too, but I’m not convinced they make us all that much different from the other colleges and universities down Snelling Avenue. What I hope makes us… Keep Reading