At some point last fall, it struck me that the Bethel College of the late Seventies and early Eighties was home to a remarkable list of women who studied and/or worked at Bethel before going on to distinguished careers in higher education leadership. All were kind enough to answer some questions by email last fall or this winter.
I’m sure I’ll come back to those interviews as I keep working on this project. But for now I thought I’d edit together excerpts from each interview into a single blog post that captures some of the complexity of women’s experiences in that era of Bethel history.
Our Interviewees
Lynn Baker-Dooley ’77: after graduating from Bethel, went to seminary in Massachusetts and was ordained to ministry as an American Baptist minister; later served as First Lady of the University of Rhode Island (2009-2021).
Jo Beld ’78: after finishing her doctorate at Yale, became the first woman to teach political science at her alma mater (1983-84); after that year back at Bethel, moved to St. Olaf College, where she is now Vice President for Mission.
Janel Curry ’77: returned to Bethel to teach geography while finishing her doctorate at the University of Minnesota; after teaching at Calvin College, became the first woman provost of Gordon College (2012-2020); currently president of the American Scientific Affiliation.
Shirley Mullen: worked as Director of Residence Life (1977-1979) and taught history courses (1979, 1982-1983) at Bethel while completing her doctorate at the University of Minnesota; after serving as a history professor and provost at Westmont College, became the first woman president of her alma mater, Houghton College (2006-2021).
What stands out in your undergraduate memories of Bethel?
Curry: I quickly found people who were driven by similar questions as I was—issues of justice, materialism, pacifism. This might have been because I was already into major classes [as a transfer student]. The history, political science, linguistics, anthropology, sociology, social work corner became my home. I entered a community of learning in which faculty invited me to be co-learners with them.
Beld: My strongest memories have to do with the caring, talented, and invested faculty members who taught and mentored me both inside and outside the classroom. Professor G.W. Carlson taught me that faithful Christians can read the same Bible and come to very different conclusions about politics and social issues. Dr. John Piper introduced me to the scholarly study of the Bible and opened whole new worlds of understanding to me that I still draw upon. Dr. Dave Lee was my debate coach and invested countless hours in honing my ability to conduct research, think on my feet, and speak well. Dr. Wayne Hensley pushed me hard in my public speaking and rhetorical analysis courses. Dr. John Lawyer introduced me to international relations (I still remember his “Law of the Sea” diplomacy simulation!), and Dr. Bill Johnson was a steady, caring, always-prepared instructor, thoughtful advisor, and wonderful listener.
Many of these faculty members shared stories of their family lives, their community engagement, and their faith, as well as teaching their subject matter. These positive experiences did so much to shape my own path as a teacher-scholar when I decided to pursue graduate school and head for the classroom myself. Though I wouldn’t have had the words for it then, looking back I can say that I was privileged to be educated as a whole person by educators who were themselves whole people.
Curry: They also became good friends—Ken Gowdy, GW Carlson—so it went beyond just professors. I got to know their families and our friendships extended way beyond my time there. And I made friends who were part of this extended community.
Beld: Bethel also offered “high impact practice” experiences long before the term was coined. Because it was at that time a baccalaureate-only institution, I had the opportunity to serve as a T.A., which I know contributed to my interest in making a career in higher education. I also did an independent study with two faculty members, one in speech-communication and one in political science, doing content analysis of media accounts of the transition period for the incoming administration of President Jimmy Carter, which eventually became an academic journal article….
Bethel gave me the opportunity to try out both teaching and scholarship before starting graduate school – truly formative experiences for me.
What brought you to Bethel (or back to Bethel) to work?
Mullen: I came to Bethel in the fall of 1977 to serve, along with Tim Hermann, as the first full time Directors of Residence Life under Dean of Women Marilyn Starr…. I was assigned to the Snelling or “old” campus. Bethel had recently located to Arden Hills but there were still two women’s residences and one men’s residence on the old campus. I was resident director of Bodien with programming and coordinating responsibilities for the other two residences.
Beld: Although I was not a native Minnesotan, my then-husband was. In the spring of [my last year at Yale], we learned that his mom had cancer and was unlikely to live long. We decided to limit our job searches to Minnesota, mainly so we could be available to support his dad. Coincidentally, my former advisor, Bill Johnson, was scheduled to be on sabbatical during the year we had hoped to return to Minnesota, so I was hired as a one-year sabbatical replacement.
Curry: I did a term of service for the Mennonite Central Committee and then came back to go to graduate school at the University of Minnesota in geography. I believe that Bill Johnson, in poli sci, reached out to me about teaching the 1 or 2 geography courses Bethel offered. So I did this for a few years.
Beld: It was so helpful to have my first job in a familiar environment with kind people who wished me well. One of my course assignments was a team-taught course in American Political Rhetoric with one of my former faculty members, so that was a great mentoring opportunity.
Were there any Bethel women who served as role models or mentors for you?
Baker-Dooley: My female friends were very supportive and G.W. Carlson and Doc Dalton were supportive. That was about it. There was a visiting chapel speaker once that had a small group discussion for women wanting to enter ministry that was encouraging. It may have been David Scholer from North Park [Theological Seminary].
Curry: The short answer is that there were no women who could be mentors or role models. My aunt, Ruth Ludeman, was a professor at that time but died a few months after I graduated. I was close to her. And I knew about Alvera Mickelsen. I can’t think of any female professor. I don’t think I had any at Bethel. I cannot think of any female administrators who I could identify with.
Mullen: [Tim Herrmann and I] both agreed that Bethel had changed the trajectory of our careers, largely through the mentoring of Marilyn Starr. She took a chance on two very young people, gave us lots of freedom, trusted us, but also set a high standard for performance in that she wanted the students served well.
Beld: This was actually a significant limitation of my Bethel experience – but it was also a limitation of my experience at Yale as well. I did not have a single instructor during either my college or my graduate school experience who was a woman. I think that’s more a testimony to that time in higher education, since it was just as true at Yale as it was at Bethel.
Mullen: I was welcomed immediately into a rich and varied network of faculty, staff, and administrative women. (My sense was that the women were less hierarchical and readily associated with each other across faculty/staff lines…) In the late 1970’s the Bethel women were unapologetically interested in the growing women’s movement among Christian women. The dialogue was serious but always somewhat light hearted, and never angry. Alvera and Berkeley Mickelsen were involved in the Daughters of Sarah project and other dialogues that would eventually become Christians for Biblical Equality. Lorraine Eitel and Jeannine Bohlmeyer, both from English, Tricia Brownlee, who had recently taken a position in academic administration, and Joyce Johanesson, the admin in Dr. Brushaber’s office were central to these discussions.
These were the days when John Piper and Wayne Grudem were in the Bible department and the women knew that their discussions on Biblical feminism were definitely controversial, but again, there was a combination of intentionality and lightness of spirit that I have rarely seen on such topics.
Was it ever difficult to be a woman at Bethel?
Beld: Again, Bethel proved to be a great environment for where I was at the time. Looking back at my 21-year-old self, I think I would describe myself as having been an “equal opportunity” feminist, believing that women in general had the same talents and capacities as men, and expecting that hard work would be rewarded and excellence would be recognized irrespective of one’s gender identity. And I believe that I was pretty consistently treated that way by my professors.
Baker-Dooley: I took Koine Greek as an undergrad my junior year because it was a prerequisite for admission to the seminary. I was one of 2 women and 90 men in the Pre-Seminarians club. (The other woman, Susan Hager, a Methodist, was a year behind me.) It was tough and we were pretty much ignored. As you might guess, John Piper was not the most supportive Greek prof and the only other woman in that class was a classics major who intended to teach, not enter the pastorate. Piper liked her!
Curry: Of course it was difficult! I had to listen to John Piper and others so it was painful in spite of the support from people like G.W. Carlson. You had to always be justifying yourself and fighting theological and cultural battles internal to yourself and externally, doing more work than those that conformed had to do. I decided to seek out jobs outside the evangelical circle after graduate school because of it.
Beld: I didn’t feel that my options were limited or that my work was evaluated differently than the work of my male peers, or that I was subtly being directed toward majors or professions more “suitable” to women. That said, I don’t think I ever had a course that explicitly treated feminist thinking or explored the ways in which gender structures opportunity and perceptions. But again, I attribute that to the late ‘70s, not to Bethel uniquely.
Baker-Dooley: I also got called into the Dean of Women because I was dating a black guy at Hamline and that didn’t sit well. She could only advise me against it. Guess I was just a rebel! We had gone to community college together and he transferred when I did, so the relationship predated Bethel and must have been reported by my houseparents in the dorm. We broke up right before I graduated.
Curry: I remember my dorm floor Bible study where the other students told me I was limited in what I could do because I was a woman. This was the first time I had ever heard this. So among the students in particular this was the culture which was very difficult and so I didn’t fit into this mold.
Baker-Dooley: The biggest slam was Elisabeth Elliot Leitsch speaking at my graduation and telling the women to take their degrees to the home and be good wives and mothers. We wore ERA buttons and a few courageous faculty with tenure walked out in protest.
Mullen: I found Bethel to be further along in allowing women to be involved in the life of the institution than many of their sister CCCU institutions. I was more aware of the need to prove the validity of our work as student life staff than as women. Again, I credit Marilyn and Tricia—and the ease with which they moved across boundaries with making way for other women. I would guess that the recently enacted Title IX had helped promote a sense of equity or the need for equity within the areas of athletics and physical education.
Beld: Among the surprises of my year as an instructor at Bethel is that I spent most of it pregnant – definitely not something I had anticipated when I accepted the offer of a one-year sabbatical replacement position! I don’t know what provision there might have been for parenting leaves at the time – I don’t recall even asking, thinking that whatever policies there might have been, they wouldn’t have applied to a term faculty member. I was due in mid-April, so I just planned out how the students could continue working while I was out for a couple of weeks.
Curry: It is difficult to teach and gain authority as a young female faculty member. I just remember seeing my students relieved when I got engaged to be married. Somehow I became a more normal person then. GW would say to me, Remember, you were not the “normal” student, which, of course, is why I went with MCC and then to grad school.
Beld: Fortunately, both baby Tom and I were healthy, so I just brought my little guy back to campus with me to finish out the semester. I can still see him in his little bucket car seat sitting through a class session in one of the AC building classrooms! My colleagues were kind and supportive about the whole unorthodox arrangement, and so far as I’m aware, none of the students complained. And who knows, maybe the way I navigated the unexpected collision of work and family life was illuminating for some of them!
One goal of this blog is to help involve members of the Bethel community in doing the history of Bethel, so comments are always welcome! Just know that if you leave a comment at the project blog, I’ll take that as expressing your permission to quote it in the project.
The Women of Bethel 