Dr. Steven D. Bennion, president of Snow College, a junior college in Ephraim, Utah, will become president of Ricks College on July 1.
Bennion, 47, will succeed Elder Joe J. Christensen, recently called to the First Quorum of the Seventy. Announcement of Bennion's appointment was made in Rexburg April 28 by Harold Western, associate commissioner of education for the Church and secretary of the Ricks College Board of Trustees."We're in a state of miserable joy," Bennion joked. "We have loved it at Snow College, and we will love it at Ricks."
Both colleges were founded 100 years ago as Church academies. The Church retained its ownership of Ricks, but Snow became part of the Utah school system. Snow's enrollment and campus are much smaller than Ricks'.
"It's a wonderful opportunity," Bennion said.
He said the assignment intrigues him for three major reasons:
"One is the personalized learning climate of small classes," he explained. "The teachers know their students, and the students know their teachers.
"Second is an excellent extra-curricular program, which includes student leadership, student government, cultural arts programs, recreation and athletics. In my own education, classes were vital and so was the extra-curricular activities.
"The third dimension which I think is the critical part of Ricks' mission is the spiritual growth that comes through service in the college's wards and stakes," he continued. "I think that's a vital dimension of the growth of our young people."
Bennion comes to Ricks after serving seven years as president of Snow College. Before that time, he worked as associate commissioner for planning in the Utah System of Higher Education.
A Utah native, Bennion spent 10 years working in educational and budget planning for the University of Wisconsin System of Higher Education. As director of a complex statewide master-planning study of nursing education in Wisconsin, Bennion produced a report recognized nationally as a model of its kind.
He also served two years as manager of program development and marketing services (training) in the Welfare Services Department of the Church.
Bennion received his bachelor's degree in political science from the University of Utah, his master's degree in public administration from Cornell University and his Ph.D in education from the University of Wisconsin. He was a Fulbright Scholar to the Pacific Islands in the summer of 1987.
He served on a statewide task force on foreign language requirements in Utah and on the Utah vocational educational master plan task force.
Bennion married Marjorie Hopkins of Vernal, Utah, in 1963. They are the parents of three sons and a daughter.
