around the green – campus

Bethel, local Mennonite conference cooperate to “take musical national”

Packed-out Mennonite churches across south central Kansas and audiences begging for “just one more performance” helped spur Bethel College to cooperate with Western District Conference of Mennonite Church USA to take The Upside-Down King national.

To the national MC USA convention, that is, held June 30-July 5 in Columbus, Ohio, where the musical had a July 3 performance as part of the joint adult-youth worship service, which typically draws one of the largest crowds of the week.

The Upside-Down King is “a rock-and-roots musical in the tradition of Godspell and Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat,” says Doug Krehbiel ’79, Newton, who wrote the music with his wife, Jude. Its subject is “the life and ministry of Jesus, as seen through the eyes of the disciples who walked with him.”

When Donald Kraybill’s classic book on Christian discipleship, The Upside-Down Kingdom, came out in 1978, the Krehbiels – who perform and record as Road Less Travelled – were so taken with it, they wrote a song called “The Kingdom that’s Upside Down,” which they later recorded. The song was the seed for what almost 30 years later became the musical.

About three years ago, Krehbiel connected with Carol Duerksen, a freelance writer and book publisher from the Goessel area, to write the script. An all-volunteer cast and band – most of them Bethel alumni – put the musical together and scheduled it for six performances in January 2008 in churches in Kansas, Nebraska, Oklahoma and Texas. Because of overwhelmingly positive response, they scheduled a seventh at Hesston Mennonite Church.

The Upside-Down King played to more than 1,500 people, raising more than $10,000 for youth ministry in Western District and South Central Conferences (Krehbiel is part-time youth minister for WDC and SCC in addition to being youth pastor at Tabor Mennonite Church in rural Newton). Audiences asked for more. But the players and musicians needed to get on with the rest of their lives and regretfully had to say “No.”

Then Krehbiel began talking with people in the music and theater departments and Church Relations staff at Bethel College about the possibility of producing the musical on campus. For a number of reasons, that proved unworkable. However, when discussion began about Bethel’s presence at the MC USA convention in Columbus, someone asked, “Could this musical work?”

The answer to that question, once there was a partnership developed between Western District and the college, was “Yes.” Professor of Music William Eash came on as musical director and producer and John McCabe-Juhnke ’78, professor of communication arts, as stage director. Eash developed a budget and McCabe-Juhnke held auditions for the parts of Jesus and the Followers. They also secured the services of Annette Thornton, assistant professor and director of musical theater at Central Michigan University, Mount Pleasant, as movement coach and choreographer.

For the Columbus performance, two original cast members, Bethany Amstutz ’05 and Bridget Kratzer ’06, reprised their roles as Followers, with Bethel students Clinton Harris, junior from Manhattan, Joshua Powell, junior from Basehor, and Kelly Reed, senior from Edinburg, Texas, as the other Followers. Austin McCabe-Juhnke, senior from North Newton, played Jesus.

The original band came back in its entirety: Doug Krehbiel on guitars and banjo; Jude Krehbiel on bass guitar and penny whistle; Ted Krehbiel ’89 on drums; and Jason Peters ’00 on keyboard.

Before cast and band hit the road for Columbus, they gave three local performances of The Upside-Down King, all in Krehbiel Auditorium, with freewill offerings taken to help defray expenses for sending The Upside-Down King to Columbus.

“Those who see the show will understand the compelling message of the Gospel,” said John McCabe-Juhnke, “and also the quality of Bethel College students and alumni.”

Melanie Zuercher

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Fall Festival

A day-long Science, Technology, pre-Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) Symposium that honored chemistry at Bethel with Mark Ediger ’79 as keynote speaker along with presentations by Tina Huang ’90 and Warren Poag ’97, and the Saturday “fair” on and around the Green drew thousands to the Bethel campus for Fall Festival Oct. 2-3.

Through the 125th anniversary year in 2012, Fall Festival will feature events that honor Bethel’s history in various ways. This year, an exhibit of antique cars belonging to members of the Wichita Horseless Carriage Club included a restored 1921 Ford Model T that the late Norman ’59 and Ethel ’67 Abrahams bought in 1954 and which Ethel donated to Bethel earlier this year. Also, in an auction that began at 11:57 a.m., the first three in a series of numbered, limited-edition miniature threshing stones (see page 20) raised more than $1,000 for the college.

Kauffman Museum staff put together a special exhibit, “Images of BC Residence Life,” featuring photos and scrapbooks lent by alumni, and Professor Emeritus of Peace Studies Robert Kreider gave an audiovisual presentation entitled “1935 – When Bethel was Young.”

A mild, sunny Saturday brought people out to enjoy vocal and instrumental music by Bethel and local high school students, the Newton Community Children’s choir with several bell choirs, and others; both traditional Mexican and Irish dance performances; the ever-popular verenike and New Year’s cookies; and lots of sitting around on the Green visiting.

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First campus ministries house becomes reality

While most students were away for the summer, one building on the Bethel College campus was given a new mission meant to enhance their experience when they returned.

The small, formerly brown residence known for many years as Richert House, just south of the Fine Arts Center, has become Bethel’s first campus ministries house. Students have named it Agape House.

Dale Schrag ’69, director of church relations and new campus pastor, got the idea from The Chaplain’s Handbook, whose author suggested, “If you can have a house week for Bible study groups in their campus apartment. Their leaving left open the question of where such gatherings could continue.

So Schrag approached Ruth Harder ’01, associate pastor of Bethel College Mennonite Church (just across the street from the house), with his idea, hoping BCMC would be interested in helping with the endeavor.

The church had been looking for ways to strengthen its connection with the college and serve students more effectively, and Harder quickly jumped on board. The church promised about $5,000 in memorial money as well as manual labor to help make the dream a reality. A number of church members worked this summer to clean, scrape and paint inside and out, as well as furnish the house and do landscaping, with Darlene Dick ’69 and Ted Mueller ’58 taking particularly active roles.

Chad Childs ’99, vice president for student life, says the goal is “a home-away-from-home feel,” with a functional kitchen as well as a living room and dining room.

In addition, there is office space for any pastors from churches in the community who would like to hold office hours there.

“The purpose of the campus ministries house is to establish a higher profile for Christian fellowship and worship on the Bethel College campus by creating a designated location for campus ministry efforts and collaboration with community churches,” explains Childs.

He adds that this space is different from a church because it “hasn’t been used [before] for any specified religious activity. It’s open, and it provides room for student-led, worshipful experiences.”

Schrag agrees. “It’s a very different space from any other [on campus].”

The house was originally the home of Bethel’s legendary math professor, David H. “Uncle Davy” Richert, who taught at Bethel from 1906-56. It has served as faculty housing, briefly hosted the Kansas Institute for Peace and Conflict Resolution and most recently provided offices for retired faculty.

Not many regional colleges have this type of campus ministries building that offers students a separate space. To have it has meant sacrifice on the part of some departments, Schrag says, but the college wanted to take “a bold step to see if something like this fit the need of students and the mission of Bethel.”

Childs and his wife, Jody ’99, have taken over leadership of the Bible study group that previously met in the Wisdoms’ apartment and now takes place at Agape House. There is also a Friday morning prayer time, a women’s spirituality group led by Bethel senior Mayeken Kehr and other activities throughout the week.

Melanie Zuercher

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Behind the scenes work yields campus energy savings and stewardship

The open space in the center of campus isn’t the only “green” at Bethel College these days.

It’s just more visible than the efforts of three Bethel staff, which over the past several years have reduced water and energy consumption, increased responsible use of both financial and natural resources and now begun to pay significant dividends.

Sometimes the solution to a large problem like an institution’s energy consumption is “to be aggressive in targeting small [things],” says Bethel maintenance worker Roger Reimer ’78. Since he began his position at Bethel about 18 months ago, he has spent the bulk of his time doing just that, along with maintenance coworker Adam Akers ’03 and Les Goerzen ’76, director of Bethel’s physical plant.

“Small things” include converting all regular incandescent bulb lighting to compact fluorescent bulbs and, in the Memorial Hall and Thresher gyms, HID lamps to high-efficiency, high-output T5 fixtures; putting in occupancy sensors for several areas on campus, such as the library’s basement stacks, to keep lights turned off when no one is present; and installing hardware – and sometimes thousands of feet of wiring – to bring more of the campus buildings online with a computerized energy management system first deployed in 1985.

“It’s like having a computer at home,” Akers pointed out. “As time goes on, you begin to figure out how to use more and more of its capabilities.”

Sandifer Engineering of Wichita – which also services such clients as the new downtown Intrust Arena and Wichita State University – originally put the I/NET energy management system into place and continues to provide technical support.

“They treat us exactly the same as their large clients,” Akers says. “They’re very supportive of our ‘DIY’ [do-it-yourself] efforts.”

The library, for example, required some of that custom design. Because of the particular kind of light switches in the stacks, there was no commercial product available to put them on an occupancy sensor – so Reimer and Akers built it themselves. They also developed a mechanism for shutting off the water in Goering Hall, home of the athletics department, where the sump pump was consistently and inexplicably turning off, causing much water waste and several floods in the basement.

“If the sump pump quits working, even for a second, the water to the whole building shuts off for 24 hours,” Akers says. “That way, we know something happened and we can check it out. I don’t think there’s another building in Newton with that capability.”

“We [also] had to get creative in Mem Hall,” Reimer adds. Saturday afternoons in winter, the basketball coaches, whose offices are in Mem Hall, would need to come in ahead of games on Saturday evening, which meant firing up the boiler in the heat plant just for two or three offices. “We installed electric baseboard heaters. It’s an expensive way to heat but a lot cheaper than heating the whole building.”

Another example is Voth Hall – designed without a separate utilities system for the resident director’s apartment, which required, during school breaks, heating/cooling and providing hot water to an entire building for 1,000 square feet of living space. This summer, Bethel maintenance staff installed a separate system for the Voth Hall apartment and electricity costs dropped from $4,067 in July 2008 to $1,400 in July 2009, a reduction of nearly two-thirds.

Twelve of the 15 campus buildings are on the energy management system, which means anyone with the computer software – whether in a maintenance office computer, Goerzen’s home computer or Akers’ BlackBerry® – can monitor energy usage, spot problems and even do at least an emergency fix remotely, 24 hours a day.

Even here, Voth Hall is requiring additional internal creativity. “Its original [student room heating and cooling] system isn’t compatible with the energy management system, so we’re developing the hardware to integrate it,” Akers says.

The system establishes “set points” for the heating and cooling systems in the buildings, which is particularly important in the residence halls. The thermostats can only be altered by about 2.5 degrees up or down from the set point, and the energy management system identifies areas that are too hot or too cold, along with the reason for the problem.

“In a lot of places [on campus], it’s a matter of making things idiotproof,” Akers says. “You give people comfort and control without the ability to get extreme. It’s also been about creating awareness” of energy usage and how individuals and groups can conserve – for example, a mod deciding to shut off their air conditioning and open their windows on a cool day – he adds.

“The problem is how to reduce [consumption of] energy through the lighting and the heating/cooling systems,” Reimer says. “The simple solution is: Turn it off. But when you’re dealing with public spaces, the challenge is how to accomplish that. So we’re coming up with solutions that use the [energy management system] and its capabilities to solve the problem.”

“We’re saving energy, we’re saving money and we’re going to get more years of service out of our equipment” because of reduced usage, says Goerzen. “Comparing the ’07-’08 and ’08-’09 fiscal years, we used 19 percent fewer natural gas units and 15 percent fewer electricity units. For just this past June, we had a 27 percent reduction in electricity units used compared to June 2008, and in July it was 40 percent less than July 2008.

“We had an 18.7 percent reduction [in] the actual cost of our utilities. Our cost of total energy used works out to about $.90 per square foot of total building square footage. Some institutions use this [ratio] to determine where they are in comparison to others. A good number is $1 and it is good to see that we are well below that.

“Our energy saving measures, with help from lower natural gas rates, meant we lowered our utility spending by $100,000 for the ’08-’09 fiscal year.”

Another “green” feature in Bethel buildings, in place for a number of years, is low-volume flush toilets. Voth, the newest Bethel residence hall, included them from the beginning and Haury and Warkentin Court have had them installed. A project for the near future will be to change out the Goering Hall toilets – as well as well as making some energy-saving adjustments at Thresher Stadium; developing a time management plan to schedule use of buildings and classrooms for better energy efficiency; getting the last three buildings on the energy management system; and continuing to fine-tune that system.

“We picked the big targets first,” says Reimer. “As we progress, we go to smaller and smaller spaces” – such as individual rooms rather than whole buildings. However, “every little piece adds up,” Akers says.

Melanie Zuercher

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Adventure course construction begins on campus

Implementing adventure education at Bethel College was a high priority for its former head of student life, and his successor is seeing that dream to reality.

For several years before he left Bethel to take an assignment with Mennonite Central Committee, Aaron Chappell-Deckert ’96 was working to establish an “adventure course” on campus. New Vice President for Student Life Chad Childs ’99 gladly took on that task.

In cooperation with Next Element Consulting LLC, a Newton leadership training group, and with the contracted services of Tom Leahy of Leahy & Associates, Lafayette, Colo., Bethel will begin this fall and winter to construct its own adventure course adjacent to Sand Creek Trail in the northeast corner of the campus.

Most immediately, Childs says, “We’re looking for volunteer labor to help our maintenance staff clear brush, tree limbs and rocks” in the area where the course will be built – along a hedgerow that skirts the trail near the Memorial Grove trailhead. Members of the football teams and men’s and women’s soccer teams got started with this job over the fall break.

Adventure education is based on experiential learning and can take place inside or outside the classroom, but often happens by means of an adventure course, which may also be called a challenge course or ropes course.

All three terms refer to a collection of obstacles, or elements, built among trees, from poles or indoors. These courses allow participants to engage in activities that challenge them physically, socially, emotionally and intellectually. “Low” activities are close to or on the ground, with “high” activities above the ground.

The adventure course elements challenge participants to come together and work as a team to develop and implement solutions. Each element emphasizes different group characteristics such as self-confidence, communication, cooperation and trust. As teams work through the elements of the adventure course, they learn about themselves and their relationships to others and develop leadership and problem-solving skills.

In many adventure courses, including the one planned for Bethel, a trained and certified course facilitator will guide each group through the course and providing time and space for participants to discuss and reflect on their experiences.

Bethel’s course initially will focus on low elements (the highest structure planned at this point is a 14-foot wall, which teams must figure out how to get all members over), including some that are accessible to older adults and participants with physical disabilities.

“We’re talking to Cindy Combs ’84, who teaches adapted physical education in the Newton schools,” Childs says. Combs may do some grant-writing, and if plans are successful, Bethel could have the only accessible adventure course in Kansas, certainly in the region.

Although an adventure course is a relatively low-cost addition to Bethel’s infrastructure, it does involve some expense. Having as much volunteer labor as possible will help defray the costs. A bulk of the funds will come from Bethel’s 10-year contract with Pepsi that includes regular contributions to athletics and student activities.

The cooperation between Bethel and Next Element initially will involve facilitator training. Nate Regier ’90 and Jamie Rensberg of Next Element have already worked with Bethel’s residence life staff in team-building and leadership development. The idea is for Next Element personnel to train Bethel facilitators for the adventure course, in return for being able to schedule it for use with Next Element’s own clients.

One long-term goal includes working with Next Element to develop an experiential learning curriculum using the adventure course, Childs says.

The adventure course to start with will be intended largely for the use of Bethel College students, faculty and staff, particularly athletic teams and residence life staff. Childs also envisions it being attractive to hall groups and mods. An adventure course facilitates “communication, trust, accountability and responsibility,” he says. “We could start out each school year working with [those concepts] through the adventure course and then use it to reinforce [learnings] when issues come up during the year.”

Other hopes for the adventure course down the road are to have enough facilitators (perhaps sharing facilitators with Next Element) that Bethel can bring in sports teams and other groups from area schools and other colleges – not only a bridgebuilder but also a possible revenue source for the college – and to make it relevant to the academic disciplines. Brian Epperson in the business department and Doug Siemens in education are already thinking of ways to incorporate it into their curriculum, Childs says.

Childs notes that no other Kansas private four-year college currently has an adventure course. “This will help with accreditation and review, when measuring the effectiveness of cocurricular activities,” he says.

Most of all, though, the adventure course is for students and the broader Bethel community, he says. “The adventure course can develop skills, through experiential learning, in how to trust, communicate and work with others. It will add value to a Bethel education. It can help residence life and student activities intersect with athletics and academics.

“For a relatively low start-up cost,” he says, “there are a lot of benefits in terms of recruitment, retention and revenue.”

During fall break, members of the football, men’s soccer and women’s soccer teams did cleanup work in the hedgerow next to Sand Creek Trail in preparation for building an adventure course. Pictured above, from left: soccer players David Gaeddert, freshman from Lenexa, Kevin Calton, junior from Lawrence, and Greg Shelly, senior from Lenexa.

Melanie Zuercher

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Fall Festival drama becomes a family affair

Take two American families, add elements of everyday life and find the eternal. Bethel College’s Fall Festival performance of Thornton Wilder’s Our Town sought to do exactly that, while using four pairs of acting sisters.

“[Our Town is] about recognizing life for what it is,” said cast member Aimee Siebert, senior from Topeka, “very transitory but exceptionally beautiful in its simplicity.”

Wilder’s American standard debuted in 1938. Bethel first presented the drama in 1950.

“I do think the central theme of the play is very life-affirming,” said director John McCabe-Juhnke ’78. “It asks us to value the everyday relationships in which we engage and to understand the gift that it is to be alive on this earth and to be connected to a community.”

The large cast allowed McCabe-Juhnke to showcase the talents of 19 Bethel individuals, several of whom had multiple and cross-gender roles. Appropriately for a play about families, of the 19 Bethel actors, eight were siblings.

Alongside Aimee Siebert, who played Mrs. Myrtle Webb, was her sister Megan, freshman from Topeka, appearing as milkman Howie Newsome and a baseball player. Although the Siebert sisters have danced in ballets together, they have not collaborated on a drama since high school.

Audra and Julia Miller, freshmen from Hesston, performed together in many different shows throughout their years at Hesston High School. Audra, who played Simon Stimson, the drunken choir director, in Our Town, said she enjoyed her role and the opportunity to act with her sister.

The only challenge of having a sibling on stage, agreed the Miller sisters, is avoiding laughter. “It’s funny when you’re on stage and you can’t stop cracking up,” said Julia, who played Rebecca Gibbs. “At one point in the play, we are both dead and Audra sits right in front of me. Actors walk by and we are supposed to show no facial expression, but sometimes she’ll start laughing. When I see her shoulders begin to shake, I start laughing and then we both break character.”

“She probably gets mad at me,” said Audra. “I break character more often and it makes her laugh.”

Both Millers cited the “simplicity” of Our Town as part of strength of the drama. The sisters anticipate sharing the stage in future Bethel productions.

“We all like drama and I guess we’re pretty good at standing each other,” said Julia when asked about the dynamics of so many siblings onstage for Our Town.

For Amy and Sara Volweider, junior and sophomore, respectively, from Haven, Our Town was the second time they shared the Bethel stage. Both had roles in the Fall Festival 2008 production of Protection Program and do many things together. In Our Town, Sara played Mrs. Soames and Amy appeared as Wally Webb and Si Crowell.

“We are both social work and art majors, and many have mistaken us for twins,” said Amy. “Since we are so busy this year, we don’t see each other much so the play [was] one way to get to hang out.”

The Volweiders were intentional about attending the same college. “I pretty much begged her to come to Bethel. [Sara] is my best friend and I wanted to be able to share the college experience with her,” Amy said.

In addition to the Sieberts, Millers and Volweiders, Kelsey Ortman, who played Emily Webb Gibbs, shared the stage with older sister Lindsey Ortman, senior from Marion, S.D. Lindsey joined the cast late for the purpose of being onstage with her sister.

Our Town resonated with the familial closeness of the cast. “The theme is live life to the fullest,” said Amy Volweider. “Try to live in the moment and do what you can to live the life you want. You shouldn’t take your family for granted and [you should] spend what time you can with them.”

The cast also included juniors Clint Harris, Manhattan, Joshua Powell, Basehor, and Linda Srader, Newton; sophomores Seth Dunn, Fresno, Calif., April Kabagambe, Newton, Emily Kliewer, Aurora, Neb., and Sarah Pohl, Moundridge; and freshmen Ryan Cummins, Joshua, Texas, Laura Dueckman, Abbotsford, British Columbia, Janae Janzen, Newton, and Kyle Wise, Wichita.

Mayeken Kehr

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Quality of incoming class sets Bethel apart from competitors

Bethel’s overall enrollment for fall 2009 is 437, which represents a decrease in 100 students over the past two years. Ninety-two new students on campus this fall are first-time freshmen and 49 are transfers.

“While the overall numbers are disappointing, the quality of the class academically is as strong as any at Bethel in the last decade, maybe ever,” said Todd Moore, who began as vice president for admissions Sept. 14. Moore replaced Lori Livengood, who stepped into the admissions office in an interim role from March to September while continuing to serve as vice president for marketing and communications.

“The 25 average ACT [score] has to be one of the highest in the state,” Moore added. “More than a third were in the top 10 percent of their high school class. I doubt there’s another school that could say that.”

Bethel’s class of 2013 includes 15 valedictorians and two salutatorians. “We’re excited to inherit a strong class,” Moore said. “We’re getting quality students [academically] – we just need more of them.”

Other characteristics of Bethel’s fall 2009 student body include: first-time freshmen come from 13 states (Arkansas, California, Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Michigan, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Dakota and Texas, plus Kansas) and four countries in addition to the United States (Canada, China, Denmark and Nepal); first-time freshmen represent 34 different Kansas high schools; and 50 first-time freshmen are legacy students, meaning a parent, grandparent or sibling has previously attended Bethel.

Melanie Zuercher

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