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Bethel University President's Office collection, 1956-2008

 Collection
Identifier: MSS-BU-6-2013

Scope and Contents

The collection spans the work of two Bethel presidential administrations, Carl H. Lundquist and George K. Brushaber.

The President's Administrative Advisory Council series covers the 1980s and 1990s. Many of the documents are meeting agendas, meeting minutes, memoranda to Bethel personnel, budget considerations, and policy drafts.

The Building Projects series covers four buildings on the Arden Hills campus and spans the 1980s and the 2000s. The Sports and Recreation Center folders contain financial and space planning for the original building and the building expansion. The Student Life Center was later renamed the Brushaber Commons. These folders span the late 1990s to the early 2000s. The Community Life Center folder contains planning documents for the building's innauguration in the 1990s. It also holds programs of events held in the Great Hall. The St. Paul Seminary Remodeling folder dates to the early 2000s and revolves around different plans to expand the building or renovate parts of it. The folder conains a Seminary Library Study from 2001 and a blueprint of Bethel College and Seminary.

The Seminary Maste Plan folder is labeled "Long-Range Planning-Misc." and contains subfolders for the seminary gym, the seminary building, and expansion and remodeling. It also contains the Master Plan for Bethel Seminary-San Diego from 1998.

The Productivity Initiative folder spans the years 2002 to 2005. This folder contains a floppy disc titled "Productivity Initiative College Data". The folder also contains comparative data with other schools. Included are meeting minutes to develop productive strategies around campus.

The Soulforce folders contain information about the Souldforce Equality Ride organization on the subject of homosexuality that visited Bethel in 2006. The folders include articles on the subject. One folder contains the correspondence between Bethel University and Bethel community members about the visit.

The Affirmative Action Plan spans the years of 1989 to 2006. The report was put together to comply with legal requirements and for institutional knowledge.

The Presidential Multicultural Commission folders are primarily from 1996 to 1998. The group was tasked with increasing diversity at Bethel and gaining understanding of multicultural community.

The Bethel University Bylaws folder includes several years worth of bylaws for Bethel and their modifications. They mostly fall around the dates circa 2000.

The Strategic Planning series contains minutes from the Strategic Planning Task Force and the Strategic Planning Advisory Council, memoranda, reports from the Working Group, Bethel community responses to the strategic planning initiatives, and budget reports. The content of the Strategic Planning Resource Book from 2001 is included.

The Study of the Future Educational Needs of the Baptist General Conference folder contains the report prepared by Ivan Fahs in 1979.

The Vision Grows Campaign was a five-year fundraising effort to help build the Community Life Center and expand the San Diego Seminary. This folder details the promotions of the campaign, the funding documentation, and correspondence between campaign leadership members.

The Administrative Organization and Policies (College and Seminary Library) folder contains a report put together by the faculty library committee.

The President's Leadership Team folders hold the meeting minutes of the organization between 2002 and 2008. Also included are university statistics to provide leadership with information to for decisions.

The Campaign for Bethel University was a fundraising initiative under President Brushaber. The folder contains printed slides explaining the campaign and promoting Bethel.

The College/Seminary Relations folder contains materials from the task force that studied the subject in the 1990s. The goal was towards greater cooperation between the two facets of the university. The folder contains correspondence and meeting minutes.

The University Structure/Governance folder involves discussions about restructuring the institution. The documents span the 1990s and 2000s.

The Board of Regents subseries and the President's Associates folder include meeting minutes, studies, and reports involving decisions made between the 1970s and the 2000s.

The Master Plan series involves the projections of campus expansion in Arden Hills. Most of the reports compiled in this series are from Sasaki Associates, Inc.

Dates

  • Majority of material found within 1956 - 2008

Creator

Conditions Governing Access

This collection is open for researcher access. Some folders were marked confidential by previous presidential administration, but since then that confidentiality has diminished. Employee names on salary recommendations were redacted.

Extent

7.5 Cubic Feet

Language of Materials

English

Arrangement

The collection is divided into three series based on date the folders were donated to the History Center. The folders' original order is unknown. The document order inside the folders reflects the original order in which they were kept in the President's Office.

Custodial History

These files were transferred from the President's Office at Bethel University to the History Center in three batches, one in 2013 and one in 2014, both during the Jay Barnes presidential administration. The other transfer occurred in July 2020, when Ross Allen became president. The first two series of files were first added to the archives' vertical files, identified as transfers from the President's Office in a spreadsheet, but were separated out in 2022 and reassembled together in a single collection to retain their provenance.

Related Materials

Two related collections are the Carl H. Ludquist papers and George K. Brushaber papers.

Author
Rebekah Bain
Date
July 2022
Description rules
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language of description
English
Script of description
Latin

Repository Details

Part of the The History Center: Archives of Bethel University and Converge Repository

Contact:
3900 Bethel Drive
Arden Hills MINNESOTA 55112 United States