Bethel relocated to the new campus in Arden Hills in 1972, but began putting the old campus on Snelling Avenue up for sale in 1967. Snelling old campus was Bethel’s first campus that had student housing, libraries and classes. It was located right across from the Minnesota State Fair grounds, and was surrounded by residential housing.

In 1977 the Clarion reported about sale rumors that Bethel had agreed to a lower price from the government than what they had asked for in sale of the Snelling campus. They had asked for $1.95 million, but the article written by Pioneer Press had mentioned that they had sold the land for $1.65 million, a total that was $300,000 short from what was originally asked. The offer from the was said by “Bethel officials as a slap in the face”, and that the offer felt like they were going to be giving it away instead of actually selling it if they had agreed to that price. The government had plans to create a job corporation training center that would house around “400 young people between the ages of 16-21”.

The Clarion also reported about the feelings of the neighbors in the residential areas beside Bethel’s Snelling avenue campus, and identified that people were uncomfortable with the “federally subsidized employment center for juveniles” being placed there if bought from the government. Thus stirring up more controversy over the old campus site on Snelling avenue.

In 1978, a year after the controversy of the rumors that were reported by the Pioneer Press about the Snelling land. The Clarion wrote an article about the fact that Bethel was losing money from the old campus and the lease conditions that they had made. This identifies that the sale did not only go through, but the Snelling campus was on the market for another year, and that it was harming Bethel to keep it. They were losing around $8,000 a semester to keep the lease going with the government. The conditions of the lease meant that Bethel had to “pay for all utilities including water, sewage, electricity, oil and gas.” While they were paying for the lease and all the utilities, Bethel also had to maintain “the security and maintenance of the entire campus, which involves snow removal and upkeep of the lawn and parking areas.”

The Clarion identifies that if every room is occupied by a student in their housing, then they would receive $109,560 for the semester, but the cost of maintaining the campus for Bethel would be about $118,363. Because of issues with trying to find different housing for the students, Bethel was able to have their lease extended for just enough amount of time to get the students moved in on the new campus.

The “First Dorms to Be Done by Thanksgiving” article on the top identifies that the housing that was being built would most likely go to the students that are stuck in the limbo of housing from the old campus. These new dorms made the transition from Snelling to the new campus easier. In the next years to follow Bethel would rent out the dorms to incoming freshmen.

So to believe that the transition from Snelling to the new campus came easy would be a misjudgment. Bethel was able to buy new land and build more housing on the new campus, but it came at a cost of losing money from the old campus because of lease agreements.