The centerpiece story this week is not the cheery “welcome back” that students deserve after returning from winter break.

So happy to see you again! How were the holidays? Oh, by the way, budget deficit.

This is not the first time The Record published a budget deficit story, though. The front page of volume 87, issue 23, published March 31, 1978, contained the headline, “Budget contains deficit; enrollment is key factor.”

The story was written by Duane Stoltzfus, a 1981 graduate, news editor at the time and current faculty advisor for this paper (also, the father of Kate Stoltzfus, current news editor and author of this week’s budget deficit story).

The 1978 story reports that GC’s projected budget for the 1978-79 school year contained an $80,000 deficit. J. Robert Kreider, business manager at the time, was quoted to say that the situation was “not terribly alarming. But we’ll have to work at it.”

Sound similar?

Jodi Beyler, interim director of communications and marketing, gets at the same idea in her quote this week: in the long term, GC is financially “very strong.” But administrators are working to be financially responsible in the short term. That means cuts.

I suspect that administrators will make more tough decisions in the coming months and the results will likely leave the GC community feeling uneasy.

However, the light at the end of the tunnel is that GC is still here today. After the budget scare in 1978, GC pulled through.

I am optimistic enough to say we will do it again.

The times to come will undoubtedly be rough for some and we will see uncomfortable changes. Sadly, we will have to say a few goodbyes.

Hopefully, though, we will say hello – to a fresh, large class of first-year students. (According to the enrollment story published this week things are looking up!)

As for the rest of us who aren’t in decision-making positions, keep on keepin’ on, as the cliché goes.

Social Reform Club members, keep visiting the jail. NAIA Scholar Athletes, keep studying. Keep supporting art exhibits and playing in the snow and calling Inside/Outside voices.

Among all the doubts and questions that come from financial issues, one thing is certain: this place is better when people do what they love and do it well.

You can be sure that The Record will report the stories of Goshennites doing just that.