Climate Change
December 8, 2016
GC group attends ‘Greening the Statehouse’ conference
Ellen Conrad, Kayla Gray and Morgan Short, all seniors, and Phil Mason, executive director of graduate and continuing studies, joined over 500 participants at the “Greening the Statehouse” conference to discuss environmental injustices in Indiana on Nov. 19. The seniors, all passionate environmentalists, heard about the conference through an email from Goshen College club, EcoPAX, just a few days before the event took place. Gray, an environmental science and sustainability major, has finished taking all of the classes required for her major and missed learning about the environment. “Last year, I did the sustainability leadership semester at Merry Lea,” Gray...
November 3, 2016
GC group protests at Standing Rock
For four days over fall break, a group of Goshen College students travelled to Standing Rock Sioux Reservation. Seniors Sarah Hofkamp, and Anya Slabaugh, juniors Chelsea Risser, Kenan Bitikofer, Benjamin Wiebe, Deeksha Pagar, and Hannah Yoder, and sophomore Christi Sessa were able to make the trip with the sponsorship of GC’s Social Reform Club and additional funding from Student Senate. Since early April, thousands of Native Americans and allies have set up camp along the Missouri River in Cannon Ball, North Dakota to protest the Dakota Access Pipeline, or DAPL. The pipeline route will cross underneath the Missouri River just...
September 29, 2016
Mark Campanale to speak on institutional divestment
On Sunday, Oct. 2 at 7:30 p.m., Mark Campanale will be presenting the lecture “Climate at the Crossroads: The Investor Role in Achieving a Low-Carbon Future” in the Goshen College Church-Chapel. The event is sponsored by Goshen College, Everence, and the Mennonite Education Association. While this event is not part of any lecture series, it is relevant to recent conversations about divestment at Goshen College. Campanale could be called an expert in the relationship between economics and sustainability. He received his B.A. in politics and economic history and his M.Sc. in agricultural economies. Campanale is the founder and executive director...
September 22, 2016
Spilling the divestment conversation
In an effort to end Goshen College’s investment in oil companies, Hannah Yoder, a junior, and Cecilia Lapp-Stoltzfus, a senior, conducted research over the summer regarding Goshen’s divestment progress. Lapp-Stoltzfus and Yoder wrote an extensive literature review as an educational resource and consolidation of GC Divest ideas. This review was done for Goshen College and the Mennonite Education Agency’s (MEA) Investment Fund Committee. Ken Newbold, provost, and Glenn Gilbert, Goshen’s sustainability coordinator, consulted the two throughout the project. Three years ago, conversations began within GC Divest, a student-led group committed to ending Goshen’s investment in fossil fuels. As Lapp-Stoltzfus and...
October 15, 2015
Students work for climate justice
Two weeks ago, Mike Tidwell roused GC students to step out of complacency about the impending climate crisis and instead, to get involved in local climate action efforts. He lauded the work of two Goshen College student groups who are already hard at work on this issue: EcoPAX and GC Divest, two groups working to create both grassroots and policy-level change. Tidwell’s message was energetic, but not everyone agreed with the entirety of his speech. The week after his Yoder Public Affairs lecture, Hannah Barg, a senior and leader of EcoPAX, noted that Tidwell “missed the huge component of social...
October 1, 2015
Tidwell calls for rally to climate action
Author, filmmaker and climate activist Mike Tidwell challenged Goshen College to fight for climate justice in three public lectures this week. Tidwell’s appeal to the GC community centered on the idea that a solution to the climate crisis is possible and while it “can’t happen overnight, it has to happen soon.” Tidwell called students in particular to action, stating boldly that “We need a mass movement to overcome the very very powerful fossil fuel industry.” Young people, Tidwell pointed out, have a unique influence in the realm of advocacy, from changing college policies to national laws. “[Authority figures] don’t look...
September 24, 2015
Mike Tidwell at GC
Mike Tidwell, the founder and director of the Chesapeake Climate Action Network, will deliver two lectures next week on climate change. Tidwell is Goshen College’s 2015 Yoder Public Affairs Lecturer, a role which in the past has been filled by prestigious speakers like novelist and memoirist Reyna Grande, journalist and educator Simran Sethi, and David Cortright, director of policy studies at the the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies at the University of Notre Dame. Tidwell is a filmmaker and an author, and is known for his 2003 book “Bayou Farewell: The Rich Life and Tragic Death of Louisiana’s Cajun...
November 19, 2014
Interdisciplinary Panel Calls For Cooperative Climate Action
The annual interdisciplinary coffee hour left students and staff with individual and collective calls-to-action in regards to climate change. Ryan Sensenig, associate professor of biological and environmental sciences, tapped a few shoulders of the students who marched in New York earlier this semester, but the details of the event and the arranging of the panel was left to the students. Cecilia Lapp Stoltzfus, a sophomore and event organizer, said, “We wanted to have ecology, economics, policy, community and international interests represented in this interdisciplinary discussion.” Members of the panel were the aforementioned Sensenig; Phil Metzler, author at Transition Goshen; Noemi...
October 1, 2014
Climate March Turns Into Climate Bike Ride
Two students came back from the People’s Climate March on Monday, seven days after it had ended, with quite a story to tell. A week after the People’s Climate March, four young men—two Goshen College students, one former student and a friend—finally returned to Goshen after traveling by car and bicycle from New York. Roberto Ortiz and Miguel Rodriguez, both first-years, along with Nathan Overbey, an Elkhart resident, traveled to participate in the largest gathering for climate action to date separately from the Goshen College bus group. Alejandro Rodriguez, former GC student, came with the bus, but on Sunday opted...
September 24, 2014
Goshen Students Join National Climate March
Goshen College students joined the People’s Climate March to advocate for climate action on Sunday. Students and Goshen community members, 23 in all, departed from campus on Friday at 12:30 p.m. and returned Tuesday at 10:00 a.m. During their time in New York, students joined the marchers for climate action, who passed through Goshen on Sept. 15, in participating in the People’s Climate March on Sunday and the Flood Wall Street movement Monday. Isaiah Friesen, a sophomore, found comfort standing with the many that were making their voices heard. He felt reassured by those “who recognize that there's no such...
September 17, 2014
College Welcomes Climate Action Marchers
It’s been 200 days since the members of One Earth Village set out on their 3,000-mile journey across the country to advocate and educate about climate change. On Sept. 15, over 40 members of the mobile community arrived at the Goshen College campus for the night. Beginning in Los Angeles on March 1, 2014, members of the One Earth Village community have been marching an average of 15-20 miles a day. On Nov. 1 of this year, they will reach their final destination—Washington D.C. The march was founded by the current program director, Ed Fallon, an Iowa native formerly involved in the state’s House of...
April 17, 2014
Planning for Carbon Neutrality
When Jim Brenneman, president, signed the American College and University Presidents’ Climate Commitment, Goshen College joined 175 other academic institutions in an effort to reduce their carbon emissions. This year, Goshen College intends to uphold its commitment by reevaluating its climate action plan, which was established in 2009. Part of the agreement involved the establishment of the ecological stewardship committee on campus, which would develop plans for long-term campus sustainability. The committee has four sub-groups: advancement, audit, analysis and awareness. Each group covers a different side of their mission. The committee is comprised of students, faculty, administrators and staff from...
February 5, 2014
Divestment: Students Lead Movement for Discussion
Recycling a can or milk jug here or there, using re-usable water bottles, and taking shorter showers are common habits at Goshen College, especially among those who consider themselves “green people.” But when it comes to the eco-friendliness of Goshen College’s investments, students and faculty alike are mostly in the dark. Karina Kreider and Carina Zehr, seniors, along with Cecilia Lapp Stoltzfus, Noemi Salvador and Jacob Penner, first-years, are taking the lead on campus in hopes of shedding some light on the subject. Divestment from fossil fuel companies is a relatively new topic being discussed on many college campuses across...
March 27, 2013
Earth Week creates environmental awareness
EcoPax, Goshen’s environmental awareness club, and PRSSA, Goshen’s chapter of the Public Relations Student Society of America, worked collaboratively on Earth Week, which turned out to be a not-so-sloppy first for either organization. Hosted during the week of March 18, Earth Week consisted of a variety of events pertaining to environmental awareness and activism. The week kick-started at the break of dawn on Monday, when a group of students met for communion at the Millrace Dam at 7 a.m. The communion left a genuine impression upon Hannah Eberly, a senior leader in EcoPax. “The combination of spirituality and environment is important...
November 9, 2011
Peter Illyn to present at convo
Peter Illyn is an evangelical pastor, avid hiker, specialist in social media, environmental activist and leader in bringing Christian faith and environmental stewardship together. His success in reaching the church community with a message of environmental stewardship has been featured on CBS Evening News, CNN, Outside Magazine, Charisma and Christianity Today, among others. On Monday, Illyn will present “Why Modern Christianity has Abandoned Kinship with Nature in a Mechanistic World” in convocation. Illyn, who grew up in South Carolina as a Russian Orthodox, graduated from Rhema Bible College as an evangelical minister. He worked in Portland, Ore. and Yakima, Wash....