Ice rink symbolizes stewardship issue
A theological conversation about conservation
Story by Maddy Simpson
Sidebar by Sarah Langerlund
Photos and video by Rachel Gmach
The promise was plastered in every hallway of Bethel University, part of the election campaign of students Zoe Vermeer and Taji Onesirosan as they vied for the coveted titles: President and Vice President of the student body. “Ice rink on campus!” The idea permeated the student body.
As dreams of broomball filled about half of students, other students and faculty were concerned about the proposed location, a plot of land between the Lissner Residence Hall and the Chalberg Hall.
The proposed location sits behind a parking lot, and is seen from the road but largely ignored. The forested area is lined with animal paths and overgrown with greenery, providing an oasis for anyone willing to venture into the brush. As the trees become thicker, the sounds of the campus fade away and are overpowered by the sounds of birds chirping and wind blowing through the trees. The area is used by many science classes for research and projects.
Bethani Glander stopped eating beef at age 10 because of the way cattle were treated. The senior environmental studies major recently cut her intake of meat to three times per week, consuming no more than she needs to stay healthy. She does this for the environment, because she supports “the way the earth was before we started pouring chemicals into it. Just the natural creation the way things were intended to be.” Glander was against the ice rink issue.
“The forest area is really important ecologically,” Glander said. “A lot of places don’t have the opportunity to have these nature areas. The big open spaces are really important in the community, and I don’t think we should be cutting them down for something we don’t need.”
The ice rink proposal was advertised with the student body presidential campaign, and it became a widely conversed topic on campus. Staff and administration, however, did not know about the proposal until a week before the planned voting session, student Jasmine Nabhan said.
Nabhan, a biology major and sophomore student senator, saw drawbacks to the proposal that others, specifically the authors of the bill, did not.
“I think it was a little shocking for the authors,” Nabhan said. “They didn’t think, ‘Oh we are cutting down some trees and there might be some students, majors and faculties that are not going to be okay with that.’ The environmental issue was never in their minds.”
Installing an on-campus ice rink has both monetary and environmental costs. The monetary costs would be covered by a Student Senate-mandated Legacy Fund, created five years ago in order to fund large projects that benefitted the student body as a whole. The $80,000 that had accumulated in the fund since its creation would be put towards the ice rink.
“We got numerous emails (on the day we voted) that changed the location of the ice rink,” sophomore senator David Crane said. Senate eventually decided to set the location on the bill as “to be determined.”
“We will never satisfy the whole student body with the use of the legacy fund,” Crane said. “But a lot of people have worked hard, both for and against this bill.”
The bill, formally named “The authorization of Legacy funds for on campus ice rink” needed a two thirds majority to pass. The final vote was 9–9. Though Bethel is not getting an ice rink this year, the bill raised a question to how much Bethel students know and care about stewardship.
Each year near Earth Day, there is a day in the Dining Center with no trays to save on water, sometimes a chapel sermon dedicated to stewardship. But stewardship is not discussed widely on campus, according to biology professor Sara Wyse.
“It’s something as Christians that we often overlook because we associate taking care of creation with tree-hugging,” she said, “and that’s kinda anti-Christian. But we were called (to go) above and beyond the general population who haven’t come into contact with Christ yet, to be an example of what it means to love and care for God’s creation.”
In Bethel’s Covenant, one phrase outlines how we as Christians should be caring for our Earth: “We believe all human and natural resources are a trust from God. We value work, creative expression, and wise use of time, ability, and money. We believe in wise use of natural resources. We will use them to do God’s work and to benefit God’s creation.”
God tasks man in Genesis 2:15 with tending and caring for creation. Wyse sees this as “the heart of who we are as Christians.”
Wyse acknowledges that we could be doing some things better, but we are taking steps towards a healthier environment.
“I think we have done a good job over the course of time learning how to manage them,” Wyse said. “We certainly have a long ways to go, but I look at the overall health and quality of Lake Valentine for example. We have made significant progress there.”
Cattails fill the water around the edges of Lake Valentine, their sandy tan color contrasting with the deep blue of the lakewater. These cattails are sometimes viewed as a nuisance, but they are vital to the ecosystem. They naturally filter pollutants out of runoff water, essentially cleaning the water before it goes into the lake.
“We have to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength, and we also need to love our neighbor as yourself,” Wyse said. “It becomes really hard for us to love our neighbor both locally and globally both in present circumstances and future circumstances if we are not taking care of the environment…When I stand in front of my Creator, I want to be able to say, ‘I loved you, here’s the evidence that I loved you with all of my heart soul mind and strength. I took care of your creation as you called me to, and I loved my neighbors.”
