Bethany College, last year its 125th academic year, celebrated with 16-months of world-class events. Our anniversary theme, "From the Plains to the World," referred to Bethany's greatest gift to society: alumni who go into the world, sensitive to its hurts and equipped to make a difference.

Appropriately, Bethany brought the world to Lindsborg for the party:

• U.N. General Assembly President Jan Eliasson spoke on campus in March 2005.

• An exhibition: "125 Years of Art, Bethany College Art Collection," featured works by Bethany students, faculty and alumni and works from the Bethany College permanent collection. Exhibition catalog funded by the Greater Salina Community Foundation. 

• International jazz vocalists The Real Group dazzled more than 1,500 on Founders Day, October 2005, in Presser Hall.
• Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev spoke on campus as part of the Chess for Peace initiative in October 2005.
• A one-of-a-kind Swedish/American symposium hosted by Bethany brought scholars from both coasts and several countries to campus to consider our shared future.
• Seven Bethany friends and alumni with worldly vocations shared insights with students during a January semester speaker series, “Around the World in 18 Days.”
• The 125th Messiah Festival with international opera star Håkan Hagegård
• ELCA Presiding Bishop Mark Hanson visited campus in September
• More than 500 alumni returned to campus in October for the 125th anniversary Homecoming and Founders Day
• More than 1,800 packed Presser Hall for Garrison Keillor, the 2006 Johnson Lecture Series speaker

The celebration closed Dec. 4 with Bethany's annual Jultide at Bethany Christmas concert.

Alumni and friends of the college have, in honor of the college's anniversary, created the Campus Green as a special gift to the college and its students.