 | |
| Type | Private college |
|---|---|
| Established | 1887 |
Religious affiliation | Mennonite Church USA |
| Endowment | $30 Million |
| President | Jon Gering [1] |
Academic staff | 60 |
| Students | 500 |
| Location | , , United States [2] 38°04′29″N97°20′33″W / 38.0747°N 97.3425°W |
| Campus | Rural, 90 acres (36 ha) |
| Colors | Maroon and gray [3] |
| Nickname | Threshers |
Sporting affiliations | NAIA – KCAC |
| Mascot | Thresher |
| Website | www |
Bethel College is a private Christian college in North Newton, Kansas. It is affiliated with Mennonite Church USA. [4]
Bethel College, founded in 1887, is the oldest Mennonite college in North America. [4] Bethel College became the second institution of higher learning associated with the General Conference Mennonite Church (now Mennonite Church USA), replacing Wadsworth Institute in Ohio, which had closed in 1878. [5]
During the 1880s, Kansas cities and towns competed with one another to create and construct institutions and buildings, including colleges. On May 11, 1887, representatives of Newton and the Kansas Conference of Mennonites signed a charter for Bethel College to be built on a plot of about 120 acres (0.49 km2) north of the town of Newton. Around 2,500 people gathered on the property on Oct. 12, 1888, to lay the cornerstone of the main building, which serves as the current Administration Building and has been on the National Register of Historic Places since 1972.[ citation needed ]
The building project took around five years to complete. Fundraising was slow, but on September 20, 1893, a service of dedication opened the building, and classes began.[ citation needed ]
Cornelius H. Wedel, a young teacher from Halstead, Kan., was the college's first president. There were 98 students – 77 men and 21 women ages 13 to mid-30s – living on the west end of the main floor and the ground floor of the Ad Building, while Wedel and his family lived on the east end of the main floor. The classrooms, chapel and library of 600 volumes were located on the second floor.
In those days, students were up by 5 a.m. and in bed by 10 p.m. Each worked 2 hours a day at a campus job. Student conduct was strictly monitored. Men and women were not allowed to be in the library on the same evening, so they alternated evenings.
Five men, including President Wedel, made up the first faculty. They taught classes in Bible, church history, German, English, mathematics, science and music. Bethel was a bilingual college until early 1918, when the United States entered World War I. German was removed from the curriculum, but later reinstated and remained as a major until 2006, when it switched to a minor. [6]
Bethel College Administration Building | |
 Bethel College Administration Building | |
| Location | Bethel College campus, North Newton, Kansas |
|---|---|
| Area | 1.5 acres (0.61 ha) |
| Built | 1887 |
| Architect | Proudfoot, Willis T. |
| Architectural style | Romanesque |
| NRHP reference No. | 72000505 [7] |
| Added to NRHP | March 16, 1972 |
The Ad Building was the main campus structure until 1925, when Science Hall was completed. The cornerstone for Memorial Hall was laid in 1938 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the laying of the Ad Building cornerstone. "Mem Hall" was completed in 1942. Various other buildings have come and gone since the Ad Building went up, but of those still remaining, the next to be built after Mem Hall was the current Franz Art Center, in 1947 – originally the general shop, home of the industrial arts department and the shop for the Bethel College farm, and now the home of the Department of Visual Arts and Design. The library finally moved into its own building in 1952 – today this is the Mennonite Library and Archives. Bethel College Mennonite Church, founded in 1897, met in the Ad Building chapel for almost 60 years, until its current building south of the main campus was completed in 1956.
The 1960s and ’70s saw a building boom on the Bethel campus, beginning in 1958 with construction of Haury Hall as a student residence, with a major addition in 1963. Warkentin Court (student residence) and the Fine Arts Center were both completed in 1966, Thresher Gym in 1978 and Schultz Student Center and cafeteria in 1979. In 1986, Mantz Library was built on to the old library, and Kauffman Museum got its current building. The newest buildings on campus are Voth Hall (student residence; 2000) and Krehbiel Science Center (2002); the newest structure is Thresher Stadium in the Thresher Sports Complex (2005). The old Science Hall underwent a multi-million-dollar renovation – completed in 2012, including a major addition on the east side – into the James A. Will Family Academic Center.
Luyken Fine Arts Center includes Krehbiel Auditorium, and the Prairie Sky Stage outdoors, for stage performances, lectures and events, and the Robert W. Regier Art Gallery, which hosts exhibits by local, regional, national and international artists, including Bethel alumni, in all types of media. It houses the music, drama and communication arts departments.
Jon C. Gering, Ph.D., was inaugurated as Bethel's 15th president on Oct. 7, 2018, and appointed to a second term in July 2021.
Bethel's curriculum is founded on a general education program in the liberal arts and sciences, and is geared toward students of moderate to high academic ability. There are requirements for the study of religion, and a cross-cultural experience.[ clarification needed ] The college offers majors in the traditional liberal arts disciplines and selected career areas – with the newest majors being software development, and biochemistry and molecular biology – and accredited professional programs in nursing, social work and teacher education. [8]
The Bethel athletic teams are called the Threshers. The college is a member of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), primarily competing in the Kansas Collegiate Athletic Conference (KCAC) since the 1939–40 academic year; which they were a member on a previous stint from 1902–03 to December 1928 (of the 1928–29 school year).
Bethel competes in 17 intercollegiate varsity sports: Men's sports include basketball, cross country, football, golf, soccer, tennis and track and field; while women's sports include basketball, cross country, flag football (added in fall 2022), soccer, softball, tennis, track and field and volleyball; and co-ed sports include cheerleading and dance.
The mascot is a threshing stone, based on a piece of farm equipment that the Mennonites who moved to the Great Plains of the United States and Canada in the late 1800s used briefly (just before the invention and near-universal adoption of the mechanical threshing machine) for threshing their wheat crops.
In 2022, a new mascot, "Threshy," was revealed during the college's Fall Festival homecoming game. The mascot incorporated Bethel's threshing stone logos and styles on the character's head, arms, and shoulder, and was covered in the college's iconic maroon and gray.
The newest facilities on campus are both athletics-related, the Ward Tennis Center (2010) and the Allen Wedel Softball Field (2017; clubhouse completed summer 2021).
The University of Missouri–Kansas City is a public research university in Kansas City, Missouri. UMKC is part of the University of Missouri System and has a medical school. For the 2023-2024 academic year, the university's enrollment was over 15,300 students. It is the largest university and third largest college in the Kansas City metropolitan area. It offers more than 125 degree programs over 11 academic units. It is classified among "R2: Doctoral Universities – High research activity".
Wichita State University (WSU) is a public research university in Wichita, Kansas, United States. It is governed by the Kansas Board of Regents. The university offers more than 60 undergraduate degree programs in more than 200 areas of study in nine colleges. The university's graduate school offers more than 50 master's degrees in more than 100 areas and a specialist in education degree and 13 doctoral degrees. It is classified among "R2: Doctoral Universities – High research activity".
The University of South Dakota (USD) is a public research university in Vermillion, South Dakota. Established by the Dakota Territory legislature in 1862, 27 years before the establishment of the state of South Dakota, USD is the flagship university for the state of South Dakota and the state's oldest public university. It occupies a 274 acres (1.11 km2) campus located in southeastern South Dakota, approximately 63 miles (101 km) southwest of Sioux Falls, 39 miles (63 km) northwest of Sioux City, Iowa, and north of the Missouri River.
The University of Denver (DU) is a private research university in Denver, Colorado. Founded in 1864, it has an enrollment of approximately 5,700 undergraduate students and 7,200 graduate students. It is classified among "R1: Doctoral Universities – very high research activity". The 125-acre (0.51 km2) main campus is a designated arboretum and is located primarily in the University Neighborhood, about five miles (8 km) south of downtown Denver.
Bethel University is a private Cumberland Presbyterian-affiliated university in McKenzie, Tennessee with satellite campuses in Jackson, and Paris. It is accredited to award degrees up to the master's level.
Elmira College is a private college in Elmira, New York. Founded as a college for women in 1855, it is the oldest existing college granting degrees to women that were the equivalent of those given to men. Elmira College became coeducational in all of its programs in 1969. As of 2023, the college has an enrollment of approximately 657 students.
Goshen College is a private Mennonite liberal arts college in Goshen, Indiana. It was founded in 1894 as the Elkhart Institute of Science, Industry and the Arts, and is affiliated with Mennonite Church USA. The college is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission and has an enrollment of 824 students. While Goshen maintains a distinctive liberal Mennonite worldview and Mennonites make up 30 percent of the student body, it admits students of all religions.
Fresno Pacific University (FPU) is a private Christian university in Fresno, California. It was founded as the Pacific Bible Institute in 1944 by the Pacific District Conference of U.S. Conference of Mennonite Brethren Churches. The university awarded its first Bachelor of Arts degree in 1965. The first master's degree program was introduced in 1975.
Wesleyan College is a private, liberal arts women's college in Macon, Georgia, United States. Founded in 1836, Wesleyan was the first college in the world chartered to grant degrees to women. It opened in 1839, two years after the opening of Mount Holyoke College.
Pittsburg State University is a public university in Pittsburg, Kansas, United States. It enrolls approximately 7,400 students and is a member of the Kansas Board of Regents.
The Alexanderwohl Mennonite Church of Goessel, Kansas, is a congregation affiliated with Mennonite Church USA. The congregation has a continuous history dating from 16th-century Europe.
Hesston College is a private college in Hesston, Kansas, United States. It is associated with the Mennonite Church USA and has an enrollment of about 400 students who typically come from about 30 states and 15 other countries.
Bluffton University is a private Mennonite university in Bluffton, Ohio. It is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission, with three programs that have earned programmatic accreditation: education, nursing and social work. The university has more than ninety majors, minors, and interdisciplinary programs, and eighteen NCAA DIII athletic teams and a co-ed esports team.
The Mennonite Historical Library (MHL) is considered the world's most prominent and complete collection of resources and artifacts pertaining to Mennonites and related Anabaptist groups. It is housed in the Harold and Wilma Good Library on the campus of Goshen College in Goshen, Indiana. The specialty library was founded in 1906 under the guidance of Harold S. Bender and Ernst Correll. Elizabeth Miller is the current director.
Wadsworth Institute was a Mennonite seminary in Wadsworth, Ohio, from 1868 to 1878. Officially named the "Christian Educational Institution of the Mennonite Denomination", it accepted men aged 18 to 35 for a three-year program centering on biblical studies and other topics relevant to training pastors and mission workers. Starting in 1876, women were accepted as day students. Classes were primarily taught in German and some in English.
Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary (AMBS) is an Anabaptist Christian seminary in Elkhart, Indiana, affiliated with Mennonite Church USA and Mennonite Church Canada. It was formerly known as Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary until its name was changed in 2012.
Columbia Bible College (CBC) is an evangelical Mennonite Bible College in Abbotsford, British Columbia, Canada. It is affiliated with two regional Mennonite conferences, British Columbia Mennonite Brethren and Mennonite Church British Columbia. Columbia is accredited by the international Association for Biblical Higher Education (ABHE), and is registered with the British Columbia Private Career Training Institution Association (PCTIA).
A threshing stone is a roller-like tool used for the threshing of wheat. Similar to the use of threshing boards, the stone was pulled by horses over a circular pile of harvested wheat on a hardened dirt surface, and the rolling stone knocked the grain from the head of wheat. The straw was removed from the pile and the remaining grain and chaff was collected. By a process called winnowing, the grain was tossed into the air to allow the chaff and dirt to be blown away, leaving only the grain.
The Mennonite Church USA Archives was founded in 2001 under the denominational merger of the (old) Mennonite Church and the General Conference Mennonite Church. Prior to 2001, the two largest Mennonite denominations maintained separate archives: the Archives of the Mennonite Church, located on the Goshen College campus, housed materials pertaining to the (old) Mennonite Church, while the Mennonite Library and Archives on the Bethel College campus held the records of the General Conference Mennonite Church.
Polingaysi Qöyawayma, also known as Elizabeth Q. White, was a Hopi educator, writer, and potter.
| Topics | |
|---|---|
| Lists by state |
|
| Lists by insular areas | |
| Lists by associated state | |
| Other areas | |
| Related | |
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
