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This article is about the Tennessee college. For other institutions named Bethel College, see
Bethel College.
Bethel College is a Cumberland Presbyterian college in McKenzie, Tennessee. It was founded in 1842 in McLemoresville, Tennessee as Bethel Seminary, becoming Bethel College in 1850, and given a state charter in 1847, making it one of the oldest colleges to use the name "Bethel College."[citation needed] There was a brief time during the American Civil War that the college was closed but it was reopened as a co-educational institution in 1865 under the leadership of Dr. Benjamin Wilburn McDonnold. The college relocated in 1872 to its current campus in McKenzie. In 1906 when the Union (a church governing body) closed all ten Cumberland Presbyterian colleges, only Bethel reopened, becoming, as it remains, the only Cumberland Presbyterian college. Bachelors and Masters degrees are available through Bethel College. The sports teams are nicknamed the Wildcats and the Lady Wildcats. They participate in the NAIA's TranSouth and Mid-South Conferences. The school also maintains a center in Nashville known as the "Success Program", aimed at the "non-traditional" student (employed adults aged over 24).
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