Bethel University on Wednesday announced a $20 million donation that will help launch a health sciences school, the first of four colleges the university is developing as part of a larger restructure.

The donation comes from Barbara and Rollie Anderson, longtime supporters of the Arden Hills university and namesakes of the Anderson Center, which houses the university’s graduate physician assistant and nurse-midwifery programs, among others.

Barbara is a university alum. Rollie previously served on Bethel’s board of trustees and is CEO of the St. Cloud-based Anderson Trucking Service.

“We have a lot of family members in the health care field. The work that’s done in health care is a natural fit for expressing care. I see this as a place where our family can extend that kind of care,” Barbara said in an interview. “It’s a great opportunity for us to make a difference in the future for patients who are in a very vulnerable situation in their lives.”

The Anderson Family College of Health Sciences will support the university’s nursing and health care programs and combine health care courses and departments from the College of Arts and Sciences — the university’s undergraduate college — and the College of Adult and Professional Studies and Bethel’s graduate school. That includes applied health sciences, counseling, nursing, social work, nurse-midwifery and premedical offerings, among others.

“This allows us to have synergy between different professional programs as we collaborate with health care systems to provide clinical training spaces,” Provost Robin Rylaarsdam said. “And it increases our ability to do inter-professional training, preparing our graduates better for their careers — they’ll practice in groups with different types of health care workers, all cooperating for the patient’s benefit.”

The donation will support the hiring of a health sciences dean, as well as new clinical spaces and financial support for students. It’s the start of a restructuring at Bethel that will result in the creation of four colleges.

For the health sciences college alone, the university hopes to raise $40 million.

“We are restructuring in a format that emphasizes the discipline or the specific area of expertise and training that we provide. So this case, it’s health sciences. And so we’re really excited to start with this one,” Allen said.

The three other colleges will focus on business, arts and sciences, and biblical theology and seminary, Allen said.

Health workers in demand

According to the Minnesota Hospital Association’s 2024 workforce report, the overall vacancy rate for health care workers was 12.9% in 2024, down from a peak of 16.2% in 2022 amid the coronavirus pandemic. That rate was just 4.7% in 2019.

Overall employment is expected to grow much faster than average for all health care occupations in the next decade, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Due to employment growth and worker turnover, the government projects around 1.9 million health care openings per year through 2033.

Research by the Minnesota Department of Health points to shortages in nearly every health profession in nearly every region of the state, according to department spokesman Garry Bowman. The number of health care providers planning to leave the profession due to burnout more than doubled from 2019 to 2022, and there aren’t enough new nurses to meet demand.

For example, Minnesota institutions graduated 3,770 registered nurses in 2022, about 550 shy of what researchers say was needed.

Nate Chau, a student in Bethel’s physician assistant program, said students will especially appreciate the financial aid created by the donation.

“I think anything that can be done to alleviate that stress for students will help prevent the burnouts that are pretty prevalent in the health care field today,” he said.

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