Bethany University bought by alumni investors

June 6, 2011, was dubbed “Miracle Monday” at Bethany University — and rightly so. An investment group has agreed to buy the struggling Christian university and will provide funding to remain open for the long haul.
The university has faced unnamed financial difficulties over the past several years, and an emergency call to arms among alumni and supporters raised $600,000 in immediate cash pledges in April to keep the university open. However, the long-term future was still at stake.
On Monday, the executive committee of the Bethany board of trustees gave unanimous approval to a proposal from a group of investors for the Bethany Foundation to purchase the school and underwrite the operation of the university, according to a letter from James Braddy, chairman of the board, and Lewis Shelton, university president.
On Tuesday, the full board of trustees voted unanimously to accept the proposal.
“Bethany’s future looks brighter than ever,” Shelton wrote in a separate letter to students and alumni. “The infusion of monies provided by the investment group will literally transform the university, broaden its capabilities, enhance its presence in the ‘marketplace’ and ensure its viability and sustainability for many years to come.”
Changes are afoot in the university’s administration, too. Shelton will resign as university president on July 7 to be replaced on an interim basis by associate dean Dr. Sharon Anderson.
Shelton was called out of retirement to be president in summer 2008 after Max Rossi’s resignation.
Financial details of the purchase have not been made public; however, the Bethany Foundation by way of the investors will take ownership of the university. As part of the deal, the Northern California-Nevada branch of the Assemblies of God has agreed to relinquish all governance of the school.
The Bethany Foundation will take ownership of assets and liabilities.
According to tax documentation, in 2009, the university’s campus was valued at more than $9 million, and its total assets were $21.19 million.
However, documentation showed that the school lost $277,000 in the 2008-09 fiscal year.
According to Shelton’s letter, the new group plans to broaden the scope of its educational offerings to appeal to a broader portion of the evangelical church world. In the past, Bethany has relied on recruiting students from the Assemblies of God denomination.
The school was founded in San Francisco in 1919 before moving to its Scotts Valley campus in 1950.
More than 500 students attended the university last year, though some varsity athletics programs were cut and construction stopped on the school’s cafeteria as funding dried up, following a fire that burned down the old building.