Bethel Clarion Issue 6 - November 14, 2013

THE BETHEL UNIVERSITY

CLARION

@TheBUClarionwww.bethel.edu/clarionVolume 89 · Number 6

Thursday, November 14, 2013

The View from abroad p. 10-11

NOVEMBER 14, 2013 • THE CLARION • 32 • THE CLARION • NOVEMBER 14, 2013

Have a question that you want us to explore? Email us at [email protected] or tweet it to @TheBUClarion with a hashtag: #Goodquestion

oodquesti

on

What happens if you get hit by a car on campus?

Luke Waltersfor The Clarion

By no means is getting hit by a car on Bethel campus a common occurrence, and even if someone did get hit, it ’s unlikely that many students possess any real trepida-tion at cars traveling in Bethel’s 19- mph speed limit zone.

Be that as it may, students have gotten hit by cars on Bethel’s cam-pus in the past; therefore, Bethel security has a set response proce-dure and safety for car accidents on campus.

Any student in any kind of acci-dent on campus, automobile relat-

ed or not, should contact security immediately. All Bethel security officers are First Responder, AED, and CPR certified. Whether or not the accident seems severe, officers are trained to respond and act accordingly whether that is administering first aid, traffic control or giving an escort. Offi-cers are always available for the Beth-el Community members.

After security has been notified and an officer has responded, they will assist in the appropriate manner for the level of accident that has oc-curred. If the driver flees the scene, security will request a report of the accident from the victim.

Once security has gathered as much information from the victim as they can, they will utilize a plethora of surveillance devices around campus to locate the driver.

Regardless of the severity of the accident, the only action you need to take is to give security a call and let them handle the rest.

MISSION STATEMENT

The Clarion is a student newspaper for the Bethel Univer-sity community. The views expressed are not necessarily those of Bethel University.

The Clarion provides a forum for the exchange of informa-tion and ideas. Through truthful reporting, it functions as a resource and voice for the body it represents.

Write a letter to the editor.Send submissions no longer than 400 words to [email protected]. Anonymous letters will not be considered.

The Clarion is published biweekly. All material herein is copyrighted and may not be reproduced without the written consent of the editor and Bethel University.

All non-assigned material to be printed must include the author’s name and be submitted one week before the next date of publication.

NEWS EDITOR

Sarah [email protected]

CULTURE EDITOR

Cherie [email protected]

SPORTS EDITOR

Jared [email protected]

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Drea [email protected]

STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

Kristine [email protected]

LAYOUT DESIGNER

Mary [email protected]

LAYOUT DESIGNER

Chris [email protected]

COPY EDITOR

Isaac [email protected]

COPY EDITOR

Jillian [email protected]

STAFF WRITER

Michael [email protected]

STAFF WRITER

Rachel [email protected]

ONLINE EDITOR Patnacia Goodman [email protected]

ADVERTISING AND MARKETING

MANAGER

Renee [email protected]

ADMINISTRATIVE ADVISER

Heather Richards

ACADEMIC ADVISER

Phyllis Alsdurf

PRINTER

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THE CLARION

Disagree with something you see here? Photoof the WeekPhotoWeek

of the

Information from Office of Saftey and Security.

PHOTO FOR THE CLARION COURTESY OF ALEX HUNTER

As part of the Gadkin ask, sophomores Devin Nelson, Jake Thompson, Jake Hanzalik, Jake Toedter and Alex Hunter dressed up as greasers. The crew then took their dates to a sock hop Friday night, the football game Saturday afternoon and to Big Thrill Factory later Saturday night.


News

Patnacia GoodmanOnline Editor

Learning for the Love of God: part 4 Misprints: Issue 5

What's happening around the world?

Greta SowlesEditor-in-Chief

We live in a story-framed life. We were all born “once upon a time” and have since lived out the plot points of our lives among a cast of some interesting char-acters. In chapter four of Learn-ing for the Love of God, authors Donald Optiz and Derek Melleby emphasize the fact that the Bible is really an epic story that spans the course of history.

“Evidently God enjoys a good story. Otherwise, why create the glorious and pristine creation and then subject it to time and to human oversight?” Opitz and Melleby say.

And truthfully, I often find myself reading the Bible as if it is a long lost art or an encyclopedia. What if we enjoyed the Bible by

entering into the story and losing ourselves in the adventure?

Opitz and Melleby suggest that the biblical story is in conflict with other stories, most notably modernity and postmodernity.

Modernity: Modernity is the story of matter, ignorance and human progress rather than cre-ation, fall, redemption and con-summation. It is attractive and most of us fall into living out that story. Opitz and Melleby state that modernity suggests the fol-lowing things:

1. Reality is based on mate-rial things.

2. Only the empirical can be truly known.

3. Human insight can right whatever is wrong.

4.Eventually, humans will solve the problems of the world, and our technology will be the

key.Wow. Have we not fallen into

believing the story line of moder-nity?

Postmodernity: Postmoder-nity is expressed through popu-lar culture and even the words that we say to one another on a daily basis. It has given up truth and settled for relativism, and it follows a culture-oppression-expression storyline. Opitz and Melleby state that postmoderni-ty suggests the following things:

1. Reality is socially construct-ed, a human fabrication.

2. Humans can’t help but to create realities that serve some and oppress others.

3. There is no hope for ulti-mate healing, but at least we can strive to give voice to those who have been silenced.

Do you find yourself over-

committed and indulging in the storyline of postmodernity?

Opitz and Melleby emphasize that as Christian students, we must be careful to let the biblical metanarrative rule the other sto-ries of our lives.

“Our world, even our aca-demic world, is already storied. College curricula are rather like scripts or stage directions for a story,” Opitz and Melleby say.

The challenge is to find ways to live out the biblical narrative while you are endlessly tugged by the other stories of culture and society. In all of this, take com-fort that one day the story of the One connected perfectly to His creation will the be the story that rules all.

Cuts made to fight for finan-cial health (p. 7)

The original stated: "On Nov. 13, BSA will be sponsor-ing a town hall meeting in Benson Great Hall..."

The correction: "On Nov. 13, BSA will be sponsoring a town hall meeting in The Un-derground

Faces of Bethel: Dan Minea (p. 14)

The original stated: "BBEA is the largest branch of BSA, and its members exceed the size of BSA itself."

The correction: "BBEA is the largest club within BSA's clubs and organizations de-partment."

New York, United States: The oldest female runner in the New York City Marathon died hours after the race. After suffering a head injury, 86-year-old Joy Johnson completed her 25th consecutive run at the marathon and died in her sleep while resting.

Brazil: Brazilian police charged and fined Justin Bieber with illegally defacing a building. Bieber, in Rio de Janeiro for a performance, received consent to spray graffiti on a building but changed locations without permission which led to the charges and fine.

Russia: Russian cosmonauts have taken a torch for the Sochi Winter Olympics into space. The torch and cosmonauts went to the International Space Station, where the cosmonauts will make the first ever spacewalk with an Olympic torch.

Australia: Scientists have discovered a fossilized platypus tooth in Queensland, Australia. Due to its size, researchers are calling the species “platypus-zilla” and believe the animal measured more than three feet long. That is twice the size of a modern platypus.

Photoof the WeekPhotoWeek

of the

Iran: Iran’s culture minister said social networks should be available to all Iranians. Social network sites like Facebook were blocked in 2009 after online protests of the Iranian presidential election. This caused people to use private networks to bypass government restrictions.


News

nMarch of Dimes recognizes Karen Drake's achievements

Nursing professor named Nurse of the Year

Michael UrchStaff Writer

March of Dimes recently rec-ognized Behtel professor Karen Drake for her contribution to nursing education in Uganda. She was awarded with the title Distinguished Nurse of the Year. While helping the Ugan-dan Christian University (UCU) establish a bachelor program, she saw the need for a masters program. Bethel has paired with UCU and is now teaching 15 stu-dents in the university's fourth cohort.

Ugandan students are brought to Bethel for a period of time. They use the simulation fa-

cilities, interact with nurses at the PhD level, and benefit from cross-cultural experience.

According to Drake, the pri-mary focus of the program is to develop nursing educators. Annette Kanyunyuzi, one Ugan-dan student who is currently at Bethel. She has already taught and plans to continue teaching nursing in Uganda.

“I have learned through ob-serving professors here how to best bring out the teacher-stu-dent relationship,” Kanyunyuzi said. “I’ve begun to apply it in my own classrooms now, and it does bring a big difference.”

Academically-oriented nurs-ing education has only recently started growing in Uganda. Previously, nursing was taught in hospitals. UCU was the first Ugandan university to offer a bachelor's in nursing.

Drake’s work with UCU has had a great impact on Uganda, a country where the limited num-ber of doctors makes nurses all the more important.

“[Bethel’s program] has given us an opportunity to gain skills that will possibly benefit all of the [nursing] education in Uganda,” said Janet Obuni, Ugandan masters student and president of the Uganda Nurses and Midwifes Union.

“I would like to thank Beth-el University for giving us this opportunity and for allowing Professor Karen to initiate the nursing program in Uganda,” she said.

The relationship between Bethel and UCU is not lopsided. According to Bethel nursing de-partment chair Beth Peterson, it

is a mutually beneficial relation-ship.

“It’s not just that we some-how go there and help them or that their students come here and we help. We have 16 CAS students there right now,” she said.

In addition to this, Ugandan students who come to Bethel in-teract with Bethel students, al-lowing both groups to learn new things.

“I think we can learn from one another, and make our world better,” Obuni said.

The current program, with Ugandan students coming here, is a short-term solution to sup-port a long-term investment in Ugandan nursing education. This is a mentality that is not new to the nursing department.

“It has just been kind of one step at a time over the long hall that has gotten us where we are today,” said Peterson.

“The whole idea is to develop the capacity to develop leader-ship,” Drake said. “As our criti-cal mass [of masters students] grows, it may be less and less necessary to bring them here.”

13 students have already graduated from this program and the third cohort, a class of nine, will graduate in May. This will free up room to begin a fifth cohort. Regardless, Drake does not view this as a game of num-bers.

“My greatest fruits are see-ing my students do things…the best thing is to see them learn-ing, taking the leadership and moving forward,” she said.

PHOTO FOR THE CLARION BY KRISTINE SCHMIDT


NewsNews

Nursing professor named Nurse of the Year

Professors push for increased diversity Sarah BoadwineNews Editor

With Bethel enrollment numbers staying statis, some professors question whether rising efforts for diversity could solve the problem. Alhough this is not a new topic around Bethel, it is one that professors Ruben Rivera, Curtiss DeYoung and others are bringing back to campus.

During the 2011-2012 school year, 15 percent of CAS was said to be an ethnic minority. DeY-oung and Rivera claim that this number needs to rise in order to keep up with the changing world that surrounds Bethel.

According to DeYoung, by 2040 whites will drop to less than 50 percent of the popula-tion of the U.S., and by 2023, the population under the age of 18 will be predominantly persons of color. The birth rate for white families has already dropped below 50 percent.

“One reason I believe that we need to focus on diversity is that our nation is becoming radically diverse. In order to stay caught up with where the country is going, we as a school need to work on issues of diver-sity,” DeYoung said.

Multiple professors are bringing up the issue of whether Bethel will tap into the chang-ing demographics or if, as a uni-versity, it will let it pass by. With this change, DeYoung and Rive-ra believe that Bethel needs to follow this lead because of both economic and business reasons and the Christian motives.

“I believe that being a Chris-tian college we should be com-mitted to reconciliation and diversity,” DeYoung said.

One question that has sur-faced is whether Bethel can afford to diversify at this point in its financial health. Rivera stated that Bethel is a tuition dependent school and has never received a strong endow-

ment. He claims that Bethel has always had a church model of funding through donations.

“There are people doing this out there, where are they get-ting the money?” Rivera said.

According to DeYoung, in-creasing the diversity at Bethel will help to better its financial state in the long term. In the short term, it may be expensive but this will shift eventually. Both him and Rivera believe that for this to happen Bethel has to work on bringing in stu-dents from more diverse areas and work on its ability to retain these students.

“One thing that is being worked on is to strengthen our programs in retention, for all students, but especially stu-dents of color,” DeYoung said.

DeYoung discussed how ca-reers are going to be diverse when students enter the out-side world, and they need to be prepared. According to him, if Bethel’s alumni get 20-25 years

out of college and are not pre-pared for the world, they are not going to contribute to the university, meaning that it will have many long-term implica-tions.

“How are we going to reach these people for God?” Rivera asked.

According to Rivera some-one out there is going to reach them, so why not Bethel? He believes that it is going to be hard on Bethel financially in the beginning, but everything that is worth doing is hard.

By reaching toward differ-ent ethnicities to attend Bethel, Rivera believes the university will take part in helping close the academic achievement gap that exists in America.

Both Rivera and DeYoung believe there are certain steps Bethel should begin to take to further their reach toward peo-ple of different ethnicities. To begin, the university needs to look at schools that are doing

this same thing. According to Rivera and DeY-

oung, schools should then part-ner with local churches in the community. They added that Bethel needs to strengthen its programs in retention and make the university climate welcom-ing and empowering for stu-dents of color.

“We need to diversify fac-ulty, staff and administration so that when people arrive to visit they see people like them-selves,” DeYoung said. He be-lieves that when students come to Bethel to visit they need to be able to see mentors and fac-ulty members out of their own communities.

“We’ve read some of those scriptures that say to go into all of the world, but the truth is the world is coming to us and we have to invite them in,” DeY-oung said.


Bethel veterans fly under the radar on campusNews

NOVEMBER 14, 2013 • THE CLARION • 7

Chris DeWuskeLayout Designer

This Veteran’s Day, people around the United States honored their mili-tary personnel who served to protect their country. At Bethel, the calendar remained vacant to recognize its vet-erans.

Former active-duty members are currently being under-recognized. Home to over 150 veterans through-out the entire Bethel system, most un-dergraduate students remain unaware of their presence on campus.

The nursing and athletic training programs are focal points for incom-ing students. According to former Vet-erans Resource Center Coordinator, Ryan Turnmire, the Christian atmo-sphere and holistic approach to educa-tion make Bethel an attractive option.

“It’s not in-your-face Christianity. There’s more to Christianity than just theology,” Turnmire said.

By his junior year of high school, he was preparing to enter the Army. He was deployed after graduation for 18 months in Iraq—the longest period a soldier could spend overseas at that time. Upon returning, Turnmire en-rolled at Bethel to begin his first un-dergraduate semester in the spring of 2008.

After difficulty in the CAS program, he signed up for CAPS two years ago to better accommodate his learning.

“ S o m e of the students are

quick to judge,” added Turn-mire. “I did not go to war because I like to kill people. I went to war be-cause people I knew were going, and I wanted to go with them. I fought for the man on my left and the man on my right.”

Some veterans have found that Behel's counseling services are geared toward the traditional stu-dent, making it a poor resource for them.

“I don’t feel like there’s a lot of support for that," senior Love Wash-ington said.

Veterans require a safe place where they can connect with each other, the college and the outside world. It may be difficult for some to integrate themselves into the in-dividualist college environment after being trained to work as a team.

Washington was deployed for 10-months in Basrah, Iraq. Her pla-toon aided the developmental phase to help set up government and mili-tary prior to Iraqi elections. During this period, bombs were still a threat.

“They had a system where they’d bomb every Thursday, so we knew they were coming. It became a rou-tine.”

She returned to the United States in February 2010 with only two days to regroup before starting school. She opted to tour the first day of classes rather than attend them.

The transition to Bethel can also be jarring both financially and aca-demically. While students are able to receive military benefits toward their

e d u c a t i o n , few know where to

look to apply.“A lot of people don’t understand

the financial piece of being in the mil-itary and what kind of process we go through,” Washington said.

“There are some soldiers here who receive funding, and if they don’t have things done the proper way, they can miss out on an oppor-tunity for that whole semester.”

This affects veterans’ registration and their likelihood to come back.

In fall 2013, undergraduate stu-dents weren’t receiving veteran funding through Federal Tuition As-sistance.

“I’m not even sure why they weren’t accepting that military fund-ing when that was something that was in students’ contracts to help them through the college process,” Washington said. “When they did bring that back, they didn’t tell. I didn’t get an email, so I missed out twice on a whole semester of funding because I wasn’t told in time. I had to take out extra loans.”

Military experience can also make academics more difficult. Some suf-fer from post traumatic stress dis-

order and anxiety. While faculty

members are typically understand-ing, most are not aware of what vet-erans have experienced. Turnmire would like to see more literature distributed to raise awareness.

Washington added that while Bethel has been a welcoming place for students in general, there is more that could be done for the veteran community. She would like to see Bethel foster the environment to fa-cilitate more conversations about how faith fits in with the military.

“I think to have a talk about whether Christians should be in war is a really good topic to have, be-cause I personally don’t know what those opinions are.”

According to Turnmire, his posi-tion at the Veterans Resource Cen-ter from June 2011-2013 was closed. Veteran resources are now only available online, a change that could be harmful to veterans who need community to have an open and honest dialogue about their military experiences.

With different organizations oc-cupying the offices on the main cam-pus, Turnmire remains disillusioned at the lack of support for military members.


Opinion

For so many current students and alumni, the Bethel music de-partment has been and is a home and a family. Whether music majors or not, students in music ensembles develop deep friendships with each other, enjoy rehearsing and perform-ing music together and are led by inspiring in worshiping God through our music. Almost every ensemble member can look around during a rehearsal and see several of his or her closest friends. The same is also true for music majors when they look around their music theory or history class.

Thus, when the results of the Prioritization and Review were sent out on Oct. 18, many in the music department took the changes pretty hard. Four music degrees have been cut for future students (music edu-cation, vocal performance, sacred music and music composition), and two music faculty members were let go. The honest first reaction of many was anger, which then turned to sorrow. Many of us simply could not get beyond what we believed to be a crippling blow to the music com-munity that we cherish so much here at Bethel.

Due to our strong convictions, we felt it necessary to communicate the harmful effects we believe these cuts will have, and so a group of stu-dents joined together to form the Bethel Community Music Initiative. The group recently went public, seek-ing and garnering involvement from a wide variety of Bethel community

members. Students, alumni, parents and others are now coming together to communicate our love and care for the Bethel music community, to show our concern over the ill effects we believe these cuts will have and to hope that we might help open dis-cussion between administration and faculty about the reinstatement of the music education major.

We want to clearly communicate that we did not choose this specific major because we believe the other eliminated music majors were less important or less worthwhile. In-stead, we chose to focus on music education because it is currently the largest and most indispensable music major at Bethel and is the only degree that can certify a future music edu-cator. The music education degree is vital to the music department's ability to flourish. We believe its re-instatement would allow the music department to maintain the core of its committed and unified Christian community.

Beyond the numbers, music edu-cation students are also some of the most committed students in their ensembles. They are deeply involved in every part of an ensemble through pursuing musical excellence, acting as student conductors, managing en-semble retreats and tours, creating continuity that links ensembles from year to year and learning how to walk in the footsteps of their directors. Even outside of the music depart-ment, these students are engaged members of other musical activities

on campus, including the UNITED Ministry at Chapel, Vespers and the Bethel pep band. Lastly, the music education degree is also vital to the Christian presence that Bethel gradu-ates can have as teachers in a highly interactive field.

For these reasons and more, we have come together to communicate our concern for the future of music at Bethel. We are also praying to exhibit a peaceful attitude, as we completely respect and trust Bethel’s administra-tion. Nevertheless, we feel that must speak to this issue out of the love that we have for the Bethel music com-munity.

Thank you so much for taking the time to read this. We would be deep-ly grateful if you, too, joined us in this effort. You can do so by “Like”-ing our Facebook page: Bethel Community Music Initiative. From there, you can click the link to our representative let-ter at our Change.org site, where you can lend your electronic signature in support. We thank everyone who has supported us already. We have over 400 signatures as of Sunday night. We look forward to continue bringing glory to God through music at Bethel.

Sincerely,The Bethel Community Music Ini-

tiative, led by Bethel students:Stephen SeabergJared HedgesMichael UrchMichelle HofeldtGrant McEachern(and others)

The following are letters written to the Clarion regarding students' views. These are not the views held by The Clarion. If you agree, disagree or would like to submit a letter of your own, please e-mail [email protected].

Dear Clarion Editor,You invited me to write a letter to

you if I disagreed with something, I'll play ball.

One, in regards to your cover story Students Making Money, with a cool looking design. Personally, my interest was peaked, so I turned to the centerfold. At the top it said, "How are students making money?", which is very interesting question and I was just dying to read about the different ways. Then I read the content, the tiny bit of writing sur-rounded by two massive graphics. Four students... Your cover story found four students to talk about? An entire center fold?

Two, isn't school for getting learned good? Where are the aca-demics in the Clarion? Aren't we scholars training in meaningful dis-ciplines that have wide-reaching impacts? 1/5th of the Clarion is designated exclusively to sports and those stories are usually in depth and an entire page long. I'm not arguing against that but maybe we throw in a little academics here and there. That thing we're going to college for?

Editor, I have no doubt you and your staff put a lot of time and ef-fort into your publications. Also, I don't know Bethel's rules behind the Clarion or how "student run" they ac-tually let it be, but I do know that the Clarion is doing the exact same thing that it has been doing for the past several years now. Looks the same, sounds the same, reads the same.

My opinion, Revamp it. Cover stories should be cover

stories.Add academics, come on. I want

to hear Biokinetics majors telling me what to eat to maximize study power, Accounting majors telling me how to start dealing with my college loans, chem majors telling me about the harmful chemicals in the Moun-tain Dew I drink. I get that you are going for entertainment, but not only is that stuff I just said entertaining, but it also engages different groups of students with different disciplines.

The Clarion is boring, I'm going to come out and say it. It's boring and people don't read it.

I'm challenging you, because I'm not sure if anyone else is. Even if you and your staff have to stand around and hand the thing out to people to get them to read it, why don't you do it? I personally would hand them out to people for you. Your goal as Clarion staff should be to get people interested and excited about our school's publication, which they are not.

These are my opinions and I don't mean to offend. I just think it would be very cool to see the Clarion revamped and made a bigger part of Bethel's community and discussion.

Thank you,Connor Luetke

Students form Bethel music initiative The Clarion needs a revamp


OpinionIs it really possible for a university to be “Christian”?Stephen SelfProfessor of Music

Every once in a while I wear to the gym a T-shirt that simply says “Bethel Universi-ty.” Anyone from our campus community who saw it would not give it a second thought: it looks like standard book-store merchandise. But to me, it is a significant T-shirt because it was given to me one summer day when Bethel officially changed its name from that of “college” to “uni-versity.”

Along with that name change came plenty of other changes, some of which have probably been of significant benefit to the institution. However, in my opinion there has been at least one signifi-cant casualty of that change: a tendency toward a dra-matically more administra-tion-driven institution with a concomitant decrease in the value and appreciation of fac-ulty and staff.

I’ve witnessed it repeat-edly over the last several years, and it has become glar-ingly apparent during the fi-nancially troubling times we have experienced and are still working our way through. The change has been so dra-matic that it ’s made me pon-der an even more troubling question: can a university re-ally ever model Christianity in its day-to-day affairs?

In the good old days, if I was experiencing some aca-demic difficulty, I felt entirely comfortable going to then-Provost Barnes to discuss it. I honestly felt I had an ad-vocate in the administration, someone who was on my side,

who would deal with me fair-ly and in a wholly Christian manner. I never felt that I was being judged and I always walked away knowing that Jay was supportive of me as a person and as a professional.

Those days are long gone, unfortunately. In fact, I wouldn’t even consider ap-proaching the administra-tors who supervise me within the Academic Affairs offices about a pedagogical mat-ter now. If I were to do so, I would be skeptical that my status at the institution might be compromised or that I would be tagged as the next casualty. The dean who im-mediately oversees the music department recently affirmed that he assumed that certain decisions that were taken (and he approved of) could prove to be “toxic” to the music department. So if the immediate administrator for the Music Department does not find a problem with tak-ing toxic steps over one of the departments that he is sup-posed to nurture, I am tempt-ed to stay as clear as possible of the administration, lest I be the next victim in the eu-phemistically-labeled “priori-tization process.”

It is very difficult for me to justify such action as Chris-tian. “Speaking the truth in love” doesn’t seem to me to allow for such cavalier and damaging statements. Nor does a sense of “community” that Bethel wants to assert so frequently seem to allow for such a divisive partitioning of members.

There have been times in the last several years that I have initiated correspon-

dence with administrators in the academic affairs offices and have had to wait tedious-ly long periods of time to re-ceive an answer, if at all. It probably goes without say-ing that if I were to recipro-cate the behavior when called upon to supply information to administrators, I would be re-minded of my dilatory behav-ior in not-so-gentle terms.

Even letters of apprecia-tion for my teaching that I and many others receive from time to time are form letters. I’ve stopped reading them closely; I know what they say from the outset. Doesn’t an aspiration for Christian com-munity at least require that academic administrators should give faculty the same regard that they expect fac-ulty to give to them?

The cuts that have been made within the faculty rep-resent what seems to me to constitute the most Chris-tian-challenged behavior yet. I realize that cuts had to be made, and I completely un-derstand that no department should feel the privilege of exemption from them.

However, no one—no ad-ministrator or faculty repre-sentative on the committee charged with making the recommendations for cuts—came to talk with the music department (or any academic department, as I understand it).

Instead, cuts were recom-mended and then approved that are indeed—and un-abashedly so—toxic for the department. I would think that a Christian community would want the music depart-ment to own the process just

as much as administrators owned the process.

Furthermore, I would think that a Christian community would want all such deci-sions to be transparent and based on solid, trustworthy information—or at least in-formation that was with good reason assumed to be trust-worthy. But when I and oth-ers of the music department were shown data that is clear-ly problematic as to its verac-ity, only reluctantly were we told that there might be some reconsideration of the data.

How can a Christian com-munity justify such flagrant disregard of its members to the point of making life-changing decisions based on data that it should have known was flawed? Even businesses that have no in-tention of identifying with Christian principles know bet-ter than to engage in such egregious behavior.

It is particularly troubling to note that when budget reductions occur and those reductions do not reduce an identical percentage across the board for all academic departments, but are decided individually, those within the academic affairs offices who have responsibility for reduc-ing music department bud-gets are persons who almost never attend Music Depart-ment recitals, concerts, re-hearsals, or tour concerts.

How do they know what we do? How do they know what kind of impact we have? Maybe our departmental bud-gets would be cut the same amount anyway if they did frequent our events, but at least I would feel that the de-

cisions were better informed and made in good faith. And frankly, actions in good faith are the absolute least that I think we should expect from a Christian university’s ad-ministrators.

So is Bethel a leader in Christian higher education, as it purports to be on its web-site? After all, we have cha-pel services, ask faculty to sign belief statements, and ask students to sign a cove-nant of behavior. Sometimes we even have prayer in class. But it seems to me that being a Christian institution is a lot more than that.

In fact, I think a Christian institution is mostly more than that. I believe that a Christian institution models mercy, grace, forgiveness, fairness (not in the juridical meaning of fairness), justice (again, not in the juridical sense), and value for the in-dividual, all in the interest of living out the Gospel daily.

To me it seems that all of the other visible, procedural signs of a Christian institu-tion have almost no validity without the practice of Gos-pel-nurtured relationships. But given the lack of com-munication between faculty and academic administrators at Bethel and the capricious manner in which administra-tors deal with faculty, I have become skeptical as to wheth-er there really is such a thing as a truly Christian university.

I am deeply privileged to serve as the music director at a vibrant church immedi-ately adjacent to the Univer-sity of Minnesota and one of the major campuses of the Fairview medical system. We


Opinion OpinionIs it really possible for a university to be “Christian”?

have visitors in church every Sunday, sometimes “street people,” many times stu-dents, and more than our share of hospital visitors and parents of students.

One of the most important lessons I’ve learned from my service at the church has been this: everyone has something to teach me.

That includes people who carry around most of their possessions in a bag, es-teemed neurosurgeons who make twenty times the salary I make, students who come to the University of Minnesota having no idea what they’re going to pursue degree-wise, visitors to the hospital who are desperate for some com-fort and encouragement, and even patients whose attitude toward a gracious God has been strained or even broken because of their illness. Every one of them has something to teach me.

So then, if it really is true that everyone has something to teach us, and that esteem for the individual is an impor-tant hallmark of the Christian faith, it stands to reason that in our institution’s current fi-nancial situation, the input of faculty and staff should have been considered essential.

Perhaps no valuable in-sights would have come of such a gesture, but I doubt it. In fact, I think that, handled well, the faculty could have owned the entire process. As it is, not only do I and many of my colleagues not own the process, but we have tried to distance ourselves from it as much as possible. And furthermore, I have begun to question the foundational

principles upon which the in-stitution operates.

I realize that I may be alone in questioning the ex-tent to which Bethel espouses and intentionally operates under Christian principles: I have not talked about this particular issue with anyone. I am only comparing the ac-tions that I have witnessed with what I believe to be fundamental principles of gospel-driven living. And the result has been a devastating failure.

While there have been nu-merous kind exchanges and gracious gestures—in fact there have been so many ex-pressions of regret, agonized decision making, and trust in God that my ears have be-come jaded to them—those cannot make up for the de-structive additional actions and words.

I’m pretty certain that many, many institutions op-erate according to a standard set of ethical guidelines, but they don’t proclaim them-selves to be Christian in orien-tation. But shouldn’t Bethel be different?

I would like to be proven wrong—I would like to find out that a university indeed can operate across the board with its actions firmly and un-waveringly grounded in Chris-tian principles. But for now, I have my doubts that there really can be a truly Christian university.


Focus

THE VIEW FROM ABROAD

Cathedrale de Notre Dame, ParisSantorini, GreeceMilstat t, Austria

Tinturn Abbey, England

Cesky Krumlov, Czech Republic

Lindisfarne, EnglandJENNY HUDALLA

APRIL HARDING

KELSEY WIDMAN AND KAYLIN CREASON

KEVIN WINGE

BILLIE INGALLS

Kassie snyder for The Clarion

Ranking seventh in the nation for study abroad op-protunities, Bethel offers stu-dents many chances to learn in other countries.

These opportunities are offered year-round, and include studying an entire semester abroad, studying abroad during interim or studying abroad during the summer. Melinda Eslinger, assistant director of interna-tional studies shared some

facts about the study abroad programs at Bethel:

-75% of Bethel’s stu-dents participate in the study abroad program at least once during their four years

-More females than males study abroad

-About half of the partici-pants that study abroad go during interim

You can find out which trips require prerequisites that may be specific to your major or may have to do with a language requirement. If a certain country interests


Focus

THE VIEW FROM ABROAD

Las Valles de Los Cadios

Dober Castle, England

Venice, Italy

Mt. Vesuvius, Italy

Millstat t, Austria

Cathedrale de Notre Dame, ParisMACKENZIE VANREMORTEL

JOYCE WEIS

CAROLINE PUGH

JILLIAN SCHINZING

NICOLE PATRICELLI

MATTHEW DAVIS

you, don’t hesitate to look through the non-affiliated programs that offer more op-tions posted in the Office of International Studies and Off-Campus Programs.

What trips are going on at the moment?

Daystar Term (Nairobi, Kenya), England Term (Brit-ain, Scotland, Wales), Europe Term (Germany, Austria and Switzerland) and Spain Term.

Why do it? It’s an experience that

is built for cultural learning and self-exploration. Learn-

ing in another country is not something one experiences on a daily basis. Exploring and learning in other parts of the world is key to understand-ing the present culture and society.

If you have any other questions about the study abroad program, stop by the Office of International Stud-ies and Off-Campus Programs in CC320A or email them at [email protected].


Culture

What is the big DEALWith Black Friday? a how-to guide for navigating the

season’s craziest shopping event

DO: participate in CyberMonday.If you prefer to enjoy your turkeycoma in the warmth of your home, don’t feel the need to rush out on Black Friday. Cyber Monday has some of the same great deals, allfrom the comfort of your couch.

DON’T: skip out on Thanksgiving dinner to wait in line. No deal is worth missing family time and turkey. It may be tempting due to the early store opening times this year, but you will regret it when your mom yells at you for not caring about the family enough.

DON’T: impulse buy. Research before you go, and look to see if you actu-ally need things that are on sale. It can be awfully tempting when everything is on sale to over buy and wind up with things you don’t need. It’s best to go in with a concise list. This makes the whole process quicker and easier on your bank account.

DO: get Christmas lists before you go. Black Friday is a great time to check o� all your Christmas shopping and get great deals on things your family and friends really want. That way, when Christmas break rolls around, you won’t have to be stressing about last minute shopping.

DO: make friends in line. It is a cool opportunity to learn someone else’s story, and you might be standing next to them for quite a while. Plus, if you talk to them in line, they are more likely to help you once you get in the store, if you are having trouble finding a certain deal.

DOS & DON'TS

TheDEALS

TARGETOPENS: Thursday at 8 p.m.

BEST BUYOpens: Thursday at 6 p.m.

WALMARTOPENS: Thursday at 6 p.m.

Beats by Dre Solo HD headphones: $119 (reg. $179.99)

50” Element 1080p LED HDTV: $229 (reg. $599.99)

iPad Air16GB: $479 w/ $100 gift card (reg. $479)

Nikon L320 16MP & 26x Zoom: $99 (reg. $229.99)

Movies and shows: $1-10Over 100 movies and shows at these prices.(reg. $5-44.99)

Beats by Dre HD headphones: $114.95 (reg. $199.95)

HP Pavillion Touchsmart Laptop: $278 (reg. $599.99)

iPad mini w/ WiFi: $299 w/ $100 gift card (reg. $429)

32” LG 720p LED HDTV: $98 (reg. $241)

Movies and shows: $1.96-9.96Over 500 movies and shows at these prices.(reg. $4.99-24.99)

Movies and shows: $1.99-9.99Over 700 movies and shows at these prices(reg. $2.99-59.99)

55” LG 1080p LED HDTV: $499.99 (reg. $1,449.99)

Amazon Kindle Fire HD 7”: $99.99 (reg. $199.99)

39” Insignia 1080p LED HDTV: $169.99 (reg. $329.99)

iPad 2 w/ WiFi: $299.99(reg. $399.99)

Amanda AhlmManaging Editor

Want to learn more about Black Friday deals? Go to blackfriday.com for ads and information.


Culture

Going on a Bear HuntnFaith and skepticism in the 21st century Rachel WilsonStaff Writer

For many believers, skep-ticism and believing seem contradictory, but for former Bethel professor Dan Taylor, the two are not mutually ex-clusive. In fact, they go hand in hand. He may even argue they’re his story.

In his recently published book The Skeptical Believ-er, Taylor writes, “We didn’t much use the term ‘skeptic’ in churches I grew up in. We called such people doubters. Sometimes backsliders or car-nal or lost, but mostly doubt-ers. I didn’t know exactly what a doubter was, but I knew pret-ty early that I was one.”

Students, alumni, faculty and community members filled The Underground Nov. 7 when Taylor came to Bethel to speak at a forum he titled “Going on a Bear Hunt” where he delved into the idea of faith and skep-ticism in the 21st century.

“God is telling us a story,” he stated, “but it’s not the only story in town.” Taylor went on to reveal the foe and friend he refers to as his “inner atheist.”

After giving a brief overview of the history of human thought ,including premodern, modern and postmodern views, the former English professor quite fittingly used three children’s stories to explain the intellec-tual movements.

The first describes a move-ment characterized by author-ity, tradition, simplicity and security. Premodernists rarely ask questions. The Modern movement, which includes the

last 300 years, is characterized by rationale, science and cer-tainty.

Finally, the postmodern view relies on sensibility and individual reason, avoiding generalizations at all costs. Postmodernists are known for creating their own reality, in-stead of discovering it. They often advocate on behalf of the ‘what’s true for you is true for you, what’s true for me is true for me,’ idea.

“I find myself in each of these groups,” Taylor vulner-ably admitted during his talk Thursday.

Thus, Taylor suggested a fourth category worth not-ing. Using the children’s book, We’re Going on a Bear Hunt by Michael Rosen, he described a category that delicately balanc-es all three of the aforemen-tioned intellectual movements.

Appropriately, Taylor used a story to tell his story. The book described a family going on a bear hunt in which they met several obstacles, over-coming all, until they met a big, black bear in a dark cave. Upon sighting the bear, the fam-ily ran from the cave into their safe home.

Why is this representative of Taylor’s story? Because it’s a quest story. It’s a story with big goals and big risks. It’s a story that realistically portrays obstacles and failures. It’s a story that requires community. It’s a story not about the end goal, but the process—just like Taylor’s own story.

“I was wrong all those years in trying to kill him,” Taylor admits, referring to his “inner

atheist.” His self which wants to believe and his self that doesn’t want to believe are in-explicably intertwined. How-ever, it’s this very side of him that most vividly represents the grace, love and mercy of Jesus Christ.

All stories told, the greatest story of all for Taylor is the love story of God for His creation. Taylor added that what God wants of us isn’t belief—that’s the easy part—but a life orga-nized around Him.

“Skeptics are skeptical. And believers, well, aren’t. Un-less they are. The two con-cepts can, and often do, go together because we live in a fallen world where knowledge of truth is always partial and often distorted,” Taylor writes.

For all authentic believers, both inner selves exist—that is, the believing self and the non-believing self. Some would go so far as to argue that both are necessary for authentic be-lief. We don’t have to silence the latter in order for the first to flourish. We do, however, need to entertain our believing self in order to not let our skep-tical self take over.

“Even though I write the occasional book about it, I’m not a champion for doubt. I’m willing to argue, however, that there’s room for us doubt-ers—us skeptics, if you will—in this story we call the Christian faith,” Taylor writes, conclud-ing his talk by intimately invit-ing us on that journey with him.

Taylor’s latest book, The Skeptical Believer, and many of his other works are available in the Bethel bookstore for pur-

chase.

Culture

PHOTO FOR THE CLARION BY DREA CHALMERS

Dan Taylor speaks on his belief that faith and skepticism go hand in hand.


CultureFor their love of music and community n Students Joe Munson, Krin McMillen and Dan Sievert receive Bethel’s Performance Prize

Cherie Suonvieri Culture Editor

In a celebration of music, friends, family and faculty gathered in Ben-son Great Hall on Tuesday, Nov. 5 to listen to nine students perform mu-sical compositions of the past and present. Bethel’s Performance Prize Competition series began in 1990 with the Bach Performance Prize, and has been held yearly since. This year’s recipients were Dan Sievert (trumpet), Krin McMillen (voice) and Joe Munson (piano).

Dan SievertYear: FreshmanMajor: Music EducationBackground:

“I started playing the piano in first grade. I am the youngest of my three siblings, so I followed in their footsteps. The trouble was that I didn't like practicing so I gave up the

piano for the trumpet in sixth grade. The trumpet seemed like the instru-ment for me so I just stuck with it ever since.” Involvement in music at Bethel:

I am in the Bethel Wind Sym-phony, the 10:20 Jazz ensemble, the 5:40 Jazz ensemble, the Bethel Chamber Orchestra, and I am also taking lessons”Why he chose “Sonata for Trumpet and Piano” by Kent Kennan:

“The piece was actually picked out by my teacher Dr. Thompson.”Why he makes music:

“I make music because I enjoy making music. It's something that has always been a part of my life and I can't imagine stopping."On the value of music in community:

“Performing a piece is like giv-ing all the hard work and dedica-tion you've put into the piece to whoever might be listening. I think

it is very beneficial to the performer because of the skills they learn. It is also beneficial to the audience because they get to support their community, and they get some en-tertainment out of the deal. I think it is all around a positive experience for everyone. Sharing music is shar-ing feelings; it's telling a story with all your friends to an audience. Have you ever tried to tell a story with five of your friends at the same time? That's sort of what it's like playing in a band. It takes a lot of cooperation and teamwork.”

Krin McMillenYear: Junior Major: Vocal Performance Background:

“I have grown up around music my whole life. My mom and brother were both music education majors, and there was always music being played around the house. I was very

involved in choir and professional theatre in the Twin Cities before coming to Bethel.” Involvement at Bethel:

“I am in the Bethel Choir, I take voice lessons, piano lessons, and I am involved in the opera program.” Why she chose “The Doll Song” by Jacques Offenbach:

“I chose to perform "The Doll Song" because it's a piece that showcases a coloratura voice well. There is extreme difficulty in the piece, as it features soaring high notes and fast malismas, which are things that I usually look for in an aria. I also love the character of Olympia (the mechanical doll) in the opera itself.” Why she makes music:

“I love to make music because I believe it is something that God has called me to do with my life. I couldn't do any of it without Him- He is the reason that I sing. All the glory goes to Jesus Christ."On the value of music in community:

"Music has the power to heal people and to move them, and sadly, it is usually one of the first things to be dropped in schools dur-ing times of economic struggle. Karl Paulnack said that 'Music is a basic need of human survival. Music is one of the ways we make sense of our lives, one of the ways in which we express feelings when we have no words, a way for us to under-stand things with our hearts when we can't with our minds.' I think that it was a huge mistake for Bethel to cut three music majors from its cur-riculum."

Joe Munson Year: SeniorMajor: Music - Applied Perfor-manceBackground:

“I started piano lessons at the age of eight. After a while, I ques-tioned whether I was going to con-tinue with it or not. Looking back, I am glad I did! I worked on classical music in high school and also played piano at my church. After this I de-cided to come to Bethel to pursue a music degree.” Involvement in music at Bethel:

“I am so thankful for all the op-portunities I've had to develop my musical gift here at Bethel. I've been involved in solo performing, male chorus, Bethel choir and United worship ministry.” Why he chose “Prelude in B Minor, Op. 21, No. 10” by Sergei Rach-maninoff:

“I chose the piece because Rach-maninoff is one of my favorite com-posers. Few pieces have I played that have the same level of intensity as Rachmaninoff. The piece con-tains some very gentle parts and also some very dramatic parts, dis-playing the expressive capabilities of the piano."Why he makes music:

“I make music because God gave me the gift. The least I could do to say thank you is to develop and fos-ter that gift for Him.” On the value of music in community:

“There is something powerful about sharing music in commu-nity. Recently, I was thinking of all the great memories I have in Ben-son, whether it was for Festival of Christmas, music hour or Vespers. All of these brought great joy to my life and allowed me to feel a part of the community. All those shared music events did everything from lifting up my head to bringing me to my knees. Music is very valuable to community because it brings people together and allows us to encourage one another.”

Dan Sievert, Krin McMillen and Joe Munson won the 2013 Performance Prize Competition in their respec-tive instruments, trumpet, voice and piano.

PHOTO ILLUSTRATION FOR THE CLARION BY DREA CHALMERS


Culture Culture

Not just a stage, but a mission fieldnTheater department gives students skills for life, allows them to reflect on deeper issues through actingRachel WilsonStaff Writer

The Twin Cities has built it-self a hefty reputation in the art world. Among various muse-ums, first-rate concert venues, numerous architectural attrac-tions and the ever-cultured citi-zens, the Twin Cities also boasts the highest number of theatre seats per capita across the en-tire United States, next to New York City.

It’s no wonder theatre has taken on a life of its own in the midwestern city Bethel calls home. In the same manner, arts are playing an increasingly important role at Bethel.

While small, the theatre de-partment constituted of three full-time professors, several adjuncts, twenty-some majors and numerous minors, holds its own on this liberal arts campus. The department offers a major in theatre arts where students can choose between two em-phases—acting and directing or musical theatre. They also offer several minors, including a new minor, educational the-atre.

Nestled in a cramped wing on the first floor of the Clau-sen Center, where props are casually used as office furni-ture, the theatre department presents three shows each aca-demic year. Previously, the de-partment had four productions, but faced the loss of one show as part of the “Prioritization and Review” cuts.

While theatre majors are re-quired to participate in at least six shows prior to graduation, all productions are open to any student at Bethel and can be

taken for class credit. Faculty of the theatre de-

partment intentionally choose challenging productions. This theme seems to be one the de-partment is committed to—not just training for the stage as an actor or actress, but training for life as a Christ follower.

“I agree with the depart-ment’s choice to occasionally push the boundaries,” junior Krissi Dines said. Dines has de-clared an individualized major, performing arts entrepreneur-ship and administration and is actively involved in the theater department.

“How can we, as student of Bethel, be expected to go out and witness to those who believe differently than us if we have only been exposed to our own set of ideals and standards?" questioned Dines. "When I am asked to play a character with questionable morals and evident sin, I, in no way, consider that glorifying sin. Rather, I grow to love that character just as Jesus loved the sinner.”

Professor Meg Zauner, the chair of the theatre depart-ment, is intimately involved in the department’s decision-making in this regard.

“Sometimes we think that evangelism is about being a missionary. I can’t think of a place that needs things more than the secular world and the-atre,” she said.

The productions pres-ent timeless themes and dig into the head and heart of the human experience. “You don’t have to dumb everything down. Part of what we see as our mission is to present challeng-

ing questions,” Zauner attests, recognizing that students and audiences alike are more than ready to rise to the challenge.

“I believe that we are…ex-posing human nature. Theater is an extremely raw art form. Characters are inspired by real people, with real sin,” Dines explains, acknowledging how uncomfortable it can be to ex-perience the results of our sin-ful world in such an intimate way.

Theatre gives you more than skills for the stage. It gives you skills for life. Try out for a show. Buy a ticket. Chat with them. They’d love to get to know you. Head on down to the first floor CC for more information.

PHOTO FOR THE CLARION COURTESY OF BRENT ADAMS

Brynn Berryhill and Lily Podany portray Olive and Flor-ence in Bethel's Odd Couple: the Female Version.


Sports

Tyler SchmidTfor The Clarion

Plastered on the back of the women’s hockey team shirts is the phrase “Take the Next Step.” The team looks to the future with optimism, seeking to avoid complacen-cy and make improvements in every facet. Led by senior all-american forward Cristina Masten, the Royals have their sights set high for a successful season.

The Bethel women’s hock-ey team is off to a promising start this season, beginning with a 5-3 victory over the No. 6-ranked UW-River Falls Falcons, after falling to them by just one goal night before. This is the first time in Beth-el’s history that the Royals have defeated the Falcons to start the season. Coach Brian Carlson credits the Royals' early success to the team’s

upperclassmen and leaders.Picked to finish third in

the MIAC preseason rank-ings, Masten and the rest of the Royals have their sights set much higher. When asked about goals the team has for this current season, Masten was quick to say that they are striving to make the national tournament. The Royals have made the MIAC playoffs each of the last three seasons, so the team is expecting big things.

“Gustavus is also our big-gest rival,” Masten com-mented. “They’ve knocked us out of the playoffs every year I’ve been here, so it would be awesome to knock them out for a change.”

Head coach Brian Carlson said that he is excited for this season as he and the rest of the staff are encouraging the team to build off of the mo-mentum from the last few

years.The Royals’ success, while

most certainly a team effort, has been aided by Masten's stellar play. Entering her fourth and final season as a Royal, Masten has already be-come the all-time goal leader with 56 goals, breaking the previous record of 50. If Mas-ten continues her progression of goal scoring, she could dis-tance herself from the previ-ous record holder by 30 goals. Not only is Masten’s name at the top of the Bethel record books, her 24 goals last season tied the all-time MIAC record. The native of Fergus Falls also recorded seven game winning goals last season.

As if contributing by scor-ing goals wasn’t enough, Masten is no stranger to shar-ing the puck either. With the all-time goals record already in her possession, Masten is also on pace to become Beth-

el’s all-time points leader. At the start of the season, she needed only 18 total points to claim the record. With the vic-tory over River Falls, Masten narrowed that deficit by three points with one goal and two assists in the contest. In the 2012-2013 season, Masten scored 37 points.

Despite having an abun-dance of personal success and recognition, Masten has a different view than most on these statistics.

“Breaking a record was never my goal,” Masten said. “I just want to do everything I can to make an impact for our team.”

When asked about her re-action to becoming Bethel’s all-time goals leader, Masten said that she had no idea she even broke the record until an article came out talking about it. As the accolades and re-cords continue to pile up for

the Bethel senior, she remains humble through it all, giv-ing credit to everyone on the team.

“As far as personal suc-cesses go, I give all the credit to my line mates and team-mates,” Masten said. “They’re the ones that make every-thing happen. Those are team successes.”

An 11-5-2 conference re-cord last season and plenty of returning firepower gives coach Carlson a reason for confidence. “I think we’ll be faster, smarter, and we look to Cristina and two of our ju-niors, Kalie Johnson and Lind-say Burman, for leadership this year.”

Coach Carlson’s squad re-turns to the ice on Friday, as they host Augsburg at the Na-tional Sports Center in Blaine. The puck drops at 7 p.m.

------

Masten and Royals seek to' ‘Take the Next Step'll


SportsBethel is “major step up” for former Division I coach Michael UrchStaff Writer

Armed with 23 years of bas-ketball coaching experience, including seven at the Division I level, Doug Novak is now the head coach at Bethel and feels no regrets about the transition to the Division III level.

“I think that I just took a major step up into Division III at Bethel,” Novak said. “For my life, for how I want to run a pro-gram, for the kind of kids I want to coach, this is a big step up.”

While he was in the area re-cruiting, Novak came to Bethel on a simple fact-finding visit. He was here to learn a bit more about the school, but he ended up having a three-hour inter-view with the athletic director and all of the coaches.

According to Athletic Di-rector Bob Bjorklund, nobody had the intention of making it an extended interview. The in-terview made it clear to Novak that Bethel was the right choice for him, and the athletic staff at Bethel was impressed with Novak.

“I was blown away by what Bethel had to offer,” Novak said. “I mean just blown out of the water. Shocked at the quality of coaching of all of the sports.”

“He wanted to be here for all the reasons we would want someone to be here for,” Bjorklund said.

The culture of Bethel ath-letics, specifically the family atmosphere and the presence of strong Christians had a pro-found impact on Novak.

“One of my favorite things in the world is talking about the culture and the atmosphere of the department," Bjorklun said.

“It’s something he was look-ing for. I think he’s attracted to it, and he’s already meshed him-self in."

Coming from Division I might mean a cut in pay and working with different types of players, but in Novak’s eyes, giving up these things is far outweighed by the benefits.

“You might think there were some sacrifices, but the other coaches, the school and what it stands for was such a good investment for my family’s fu-ture," Novak said.

As far as his performance on the court, Novak certainly knows his stuff and has earned the respect of his players.

“Just talking to him for five minutes makes you feel smarter about basketball,” senior guard Tyler Schmidt said.

For Novak, it is and always has been about more than basketball. His office holds a multi-layered “circle of control” diagram that outlines his philos-ophy about both the game and life. This is something that he passes on to students.

“He knows how to apply bas-ketball to life,” Schmidt added.

“Doug being here is one of the things that I’m just really thankful for. I’m thankful for who he is and how he interacts with the people around him,” head women’s basketball coach Jon Herbrechtsmeyer said.

The Royals tip-off the 2013-2014 season on Nov. 19 at UW-Stout and Novak is happy to be there to coach Bethel through the season.

“Not once have I said that I’m not sure about this. Every-day just reinforces that this was the right choice for me,” he said.

PHOTO FOR THE CLARION BY KRISTINE SCHMIDT

Doug Novak, Bethel's new men's basketball coach brings 23 years of experience to the program. He was previously the top assistant for the program at Tulane University.

BROTHERS AND MOTHERS


Jared NelsoNSports Editor

Bethel’s football team is 9-0 (7-0 MIAC) on the season, crowned as the MIAC champions and currently holding onto a No. 6 national ranking. The Royals’ play has been consistent all year long, with a ball-hawking defense to complement a balanced offensive attack with big play capabilities.

According to head coach Steve Johnson, the team’s chem-istry has distinguished itself as the most crucial element to the team’s success. Their unity transcends what is normally as-sociated with a team, and it has become a brotherhood. Within the 2013 Bethel brotherhood are five sets of siblings.

The Clarion caught up with the people who know these ath-letes best to garner insight on what it’s like from a mother’s perspective.

Every parent is proud to see their child have success in a sport they love. Here are five moms who have been lucky enough to see two of their sons go through that journey together.

CRUMFreshman Dalton joined his

sophomore brother Dillon on the gridiron this season, where Dillon starts on the offensive line, and Dalton is a defensive end. The Crums hail from Kirk-land, Wash., where they played together on the varsity team at Juanita High School. While their mother Kristi wishes the boys were closer to home, she couldn’t be happier they chose to attend the same school.

“We’d love for them to be at a school in our backyard where we could be at every game,” she said, “but the Lord took them both that way, we’re so happy

they’re together.” Kristi noted that it was no surprise that Dal-ton chose to follow Dillon to school, as they’ve been close and have gotten along well their entire lives. However, Dillon stayed out of Dalton’s college decision for the most part.

“Once Dalton realized Dil-lon was going to be so far away, that put Bethel on his short list of colleges,” Kristi said, “but Dil-lon was gracious and let Dalton come to that decision on his own.”

Although the Crum boys have always gotten along well, Kristi said that they’ve had their share of friendly competition. Because of their laid back dis-position, they’ve remained ex-tremely close.

“They could be pretty com-petitive but Dillon is the bigger kid as far as size goes but he has the more easy going personal-ity,” she said. “They really got along well when they were kids. If Dillon had the more aggressive personality, he would’ve beat Dalton up a lot,” Kristi added with a laugh.

PLOCKERBefore Daniel and Steven

Plocker donned the Royal blue and gold, they sported maroon for Blue Earth Area High School, playing together on both the basketball court and the football field. This season, Daniel, a junior, plays wide receiver and Steven, a freshman, has gotten snaps on the defensive line.

Coming from a small town, Daniel and Steven grew up with a lot of mutual friends, spending a significant amount of time hang-ing out with one another, always

playing sports to satisfy their competitive drive.

“They were competitive but they’ve always been an encour-agement to one another and have gotten along,” Becky Plock-er, mother of the two boys said. “They enjoy playing together and like hanging out, which is neat for us as parents.”

Despite Daniel’s silence during Steven’s college decision, Becky says the older brother played a significant role in the younger’s choice to attend Bethel, as Ste-ven watched Daniel closely for his first two years of school.

“Just by watching Daniel and being with him at Bethel, [Steven] could see all the positives that came with this place,” Becky said. “It wasn’t until the very end that Daniel told Steven that he hoped he would come to Bethel, speak-ing highly of his experiences there both athletically and aca-demically.”

According to their mother, Daniel and Steven have different personalities, but they both pos-sess qualities that make for a suc-cessful student-athlete.

“They’re both conscientious

Sports


Sportsand responsible,” Becky said. “They set high goals for them-selves and they’re hard working. Steven is a little more reserved, while Daniel is pretty outgoing.”

MATHISSeth and Landon Mathis, se-

nior and sophomore respectively, are a foreboding sight for oppos-ing offenses, standing tall as line-backers for the Bethel defense with long golden locks flowing out of the back of their helmets. The visual resemblance is unde-niable, but their mother Brenda claims that their personalities dif-fer significantly.

“Landon was always the more sociable one,” Brenda remem-bered of their childhood. “He’s very lighthearted and social, while Seth is more quiet.” Brenda talked about how Landon used to help his older brother when they were younger, because Seth was bashful around strang-ers. It’s hard to imagine Bethel’s All-American being anything but bold, but Brenda notes that her boys have grown a lot since com-ing to Bethel, and she couldn’t be more proud.

Seth and Landon are just two of five sons in the Mathis family, and their bond on the football field has had a positive impact on the family as a whole.

“When the boys were younger

there were some brotherly things going on,” Brenda said with a laugh. “There were some pretty wild driveway basketball games, but it was all in good fun and as they got older their respect for one another grew.” Brenda said Bethel football games have be-come events for the entire family, as all of the brothers come out in support of Seth and Landon.

The Bethel defense is happy to have the Mathis brothers on their side, and they just might have Seth to thank for getting Landon to suit up for the blue and gold.

“Seth was definitely a recruit-er,” Brenda said. “He wanted his little brother there because he knew what Landon was capable of and he had a deep appre-ciation for the college when he started going there.” As a moth-er, Brenda relishes the chance to see her sons work together every Saturday.

“In a game this year, Landon pulled up a divot in his face mask and he was blinded on one side. There was a pause in the game and we saw Seth go over and clean Landon’s helmet for him,” Brenda said. “That’s what its about. He nurtures and takes care of his little brother and we’re really proud of that.”

MARQUARDTMothers of college football

players often have some under-standing of the sport so that

she can converse with her son. Marcy Marquardt, mother of junior Brandon and freshman Bryce Marquardt, is a genuine football junkie. Brandon is the starting running back and Bryce gets reps at wide receiver as well as being an effective utility play-er on special teams. She’s be-come a connoisseur through the years of watching her boys play, and it pays off now as both of her sons are on the field together.

“Its a little more challenging with both of them on the field to-gether,” Marcy said. “I go home and re-watch the game and watch them both individually. I never know who to watch when they’re both doing something,” she laughed. While Marcy jokes about the difficulties of watching both of her boys, she said that she loves seeing them have suc-cess on the same team.

“Its just amazing to see them out there,” Marcy said. “They’re on kick return together and it’s a rush for me as their mother. I’m always on the edge of my seat.”

According to Marcy, the Mar-quardts have always bonded over athletics. Four years sepa-rate Brandon and Bryce so they often played and ran in different circles growing up. However, the brothers were always supportive of one another as Bryce cheered Brandon on ever since high school and Brandon returned the favor.

“They help each other too,” Marcy said. “Brandon has been helpful to Bryce, teaching him the game and practicing with him. I think that playing together has really brought them closer.”

Brandon and Bryce both bring speed and sure hands to the Bethel offense, but Marcy is the first to say that the similari-ties extend far beyond the ath-letic field.

“They’re driven and always strive for the best,” Marcy said,

“and they love their relation-ships on the team more than anything. If one is in a pile, it’s the other that’s always yanking people off the pile. You can tell they’re protective and they’re always watching out for each other.”

MEHLHORNMatt Mehlhorn is a sopho-

more and has had the oppor-tunity this season to start in the secondary next to his older brother J.D., a senior safety. Ac-cording to their mother Cindy, J.D. and Matt have always been competitive with one another, but they’ve used it to better themselves and didn’t lead to conflict.

“Being younger, Matt has al-ways tried to match J.D.’s accom-plisments as much as he could,” Cindy said. “To this day, Matt knows all the scores and where J.D. stands athletically and aca-demically and he keeps that in the back of his mind.” Cindy notes that Matt has always been trying to make his own mark as a result of J.D's. athletic and academic success, and he’s im-proved because of it.

On the same line, J.D. moni-tors the progress of his younger brother and uses it as a type of

motivation.“JD wants Matt to do well,

but he wants to do better,” Cindy said lightheartedly. “When’s he’s gone, then Matt can do better.” All competition aside, Cindy said that her sons are one another’s biggest supporters.

“J.D. looks out for Matt even though it’s not something he does on purpose,” Cindy said. “He’s not out there promoting or defending his brother but behind the scenes, he’s always looking out for him.”

She said that the boys share similarities in terms of their God-given gifts, both on the field and in the classroom, but one of their differences lie in the way they present themselves.

“Matt is all about style,” Cindy laughed. “If he looks good, he feels good. If he feels good, he plays good. As opposed to J.D., who couldn’t care less what he wears or what he looks like.”

Cindy has appreciated seeing J.D. and Matt line up in the sec-ondary together, saying that this has been a dream come true for her.

“At the beginning of the sea-son, I remember thinking I would love for them to be on the field together for just one play, it’s a mom thing,” Cindy said. “Being able to see them play together has been so much fun, I just love it.” One particular moment earli-er this season stands out to Mrs. Mehlhorn.

“When Matt ran the inter-ception 100 yards for the touch-down, my favorite part was seeing J.D. pat him on the back in the end zone, saying good job,” Cindy said. “[My husband and I] are so proud and grateful for our boys.”

Photos for the Clarion courtesy of the families and Sports Information

NOVEMBER 14, 2013 • THE CLARION • 2020 • THE CLARION • NOVEMBER 14, 2013 MAY 9, 2013 • THE CLARION • 20

The Clarionion - Bethel's own slice of "The Onion"

Bethel welcomes new sheriff to campus Lou TennanT for The ClariOnion

When he wakes up, he pours himself a cup of coffee in his Bethel coffee mug that gleefully proclaims “Bethel University Dad” since the campus store was out of other mugs. After finishing the last sip, he goes to his exercise room and starts doing sit-ups, lifting himself up toward a poster of Jay Barnes. He’s exercising for another day pro-tecting Bethel from the dangers of the world and the schemes of bored students campus wide. He is Sheriff Alex.

When he’s not sleeping in class or checking the tire pressure on the security Prius, he can usually be found patrolling Fountain Terrace, manning the front gate or doing night patrols. He’s only been doing this job for a little over a year, but he puts forth so much attention that it drives his co-workers crazy.

“I don’t know why he insists on calling himself sheriff, there’s no such thing here at Bethel,” said

one security member who wished to remain anonymous. Overall, there seemed to be praise from other members who called him funny, helpful, although somewhat annoying, speaking in a Southern accent from time to time for no apparent reason. As a cunning re-porter for the ClariOnion, I decided to tag along with the sheriff for an overnight shift.

The Prius pulled up to the cor-ner of Lissner. The early autumn breeze was shifting toward win-ter, and the moon was high in the sky. I opened the passenger door to the eco-friendly vehicle and in-side was the sunglass clad Sheriff Alex, chewing on what was left of a toothpick. “You that reporter from the ClariOnion?” I replied with a stammering yes. “Good,” he spat outside the window. “I’ve got some stories for you.”

The drive was quiet for a little while. The conversation opened with Sheriff Alex describing his dream car chase. “I imagine some-one fleeing campus after driv-

ing down the path near Soho and Freshmen Hill. I’m hot on their trail in the Prius with the pedal to the metal. They take a sharp right head-ing toward the steps near the BC. They tear up the stairs, explosions everywhere for some reason. Even-tually we drive through the glass and tear it up through Commons. In the end, we end up in Kresge and they crash into the side of the RC portables. I then hand swift justice to those covenant breakers.”

I sat in silence to take in every-thing I just heard, shocked at the vivid nature of it.“Did that actually happen?”

“No, not all of it. Catching someone driving down the Soho path though…. that actually did happen. This past summer, I caught three lawbreakers driving down the path not once, but twice. I couldn’t believe it. Prior to them driving down the path, we witnessed them try to drive up the steps in the sem-inary parking lot. They used their keycards to try and get into Lissner so we knew their names.”

The night wasn’t completely uneventful though. A group of stu-dents in Arden Village decided it would be cool and edgy to form a nudist colony and storm Kresge Courtyard yelling KONY 2012 over and over again. Sheriff Alex round-ed up the suspects and called for the security mini-van to take them to Bethel Jail. It was fairly quiet apart from the occasional parking violation, DTRs gone too far, and Axe aerosol deodorant cans taped down and thrown into a Getsch RA’s room. All in all, it was a fairly enlightening evening. I learned quite a bit about Sheriff Alex and how he treats his job.

“I live to protect Jay Barnes, and I can do that in multiple ways. I even went as far as bringing the ideals of Jay and the students here at Bethel all the way to San Diego, where I worked this summer as a patrol guard at the San Diego cam-pus. I mean, they have Ferraris in-stead of Priuses and jet skis instead of minivans, but what can you do? Another time, I kicked the door in

Jay’s office down to give him my solution to the budget cuts. That’s how much I care about the stu-dents and the university… dedicat-ed enough to have my own security team escort me out of the building and having Jay file a restraining order against me.”

Around 6 a.m., Sheriff Alex dropped me off at Lissner once again. The sun was just barely peeking out over the highway, but I didn’t mind. I got to spend the wee hours of the morning with a true Bethel legend, a man dedi-cated to upholding the covenant and stopping kids from driving down sidewalks. As I walked back, I heard the tires peel out on the Prius as Alex started doing donuts in the small lot. He sped off into the rising sun with another day of protecting Bethel ahead of him.

You can follow Sheriff Alex on Twitter @SheriffAlexB.

Student eagerly awaits package from parents anne T. CipaTion for The ClariOnion

Stephen Smith is anxious for the post office to open Monday morning because he will receive a birthday present from his parents.

“I’m from Florida, so they can’t really drive here to give it to me,” he said. “But it’s great just to know that they remembered my birth-day, and they even called to tell me that they got me the present I had asked for. Now all I have to do is wait for the post office to open so I can get it.”

The package had arrived on Thursday afternoon, but Smith did not check his mail until 5 p.m. on Friday, after the post office had closed down.

When asked about how he feels about waiting, Smith replied, “I know some people want to get their presents right away, but I kind of like the waiting. It really helps me to get excited about the present, and I think that the an-ticipation makes me appreciate it more.”

It’s a good thing that Smith likes the wait because according to

Bethel staff, there’s no way around it.

“We can’t just open up the post office every time someone wants to get their package. We have a set of rules to follow just like every-body else. If we make an exception for one student, we would have to make exceptions for everyone and keep it open 24/7, which would be a huge drain on our resources. Our hours are clearly labeled for a rea-son; if students want their pack-ages, they need to check their mail while the post office is open.”

Smith says he’s used some of

the waiting time to ponder names for his present.

“I was thinking I might call him Spot or Fido, just because those are such classic names. But Ches-ter might also be a good name. I’m glad I still have time to think about it. But no matter what name I choose, I’m always going to be grateful to my parents for my present. For years, I told them that I wanted a puppy, but they always said that it was a responsibility I wasn’t ready for.”

“We think that now that Ste-phen is in college, he’s proven him-

self to be a mature and responsible young man. It seemed like the per-fect time to get him that puppy,” Smith’s parents stated. “We went down to the pound last week, found a nice and cuddly cocker spaniel, and after we spent a few days with him to make sure he was trained, we put him in a box with priority shipping.”

I’m sure that when Smith and his dog finally meet Monday morning, they’ll make an instant connection. I see a lot of surprises in store for Smith in caring for his new pet.

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Bethel Clarion Issue 6 - November 14, 2013