Some of the most significant work at Goshen College often goes unnoticed. Well groomed shrubs, mowed lawns and snowless sidewalks are perhaps some of the most noticeable (and this winter, helpful) elements of campus, but the work that goes into making that happen usually does not receive the appreciation it deserves. Grounds crew workers have come to work twenty days in a row due to heavy snow fall, according to the article published on the front page of this week’s issue. The clear sidewalks I walk on everyday are thanks their hard work. To the grounds crew on behalf of...

By Quinn Brenneke • February 12, 2014 • Features

Student environmental activists and EcoPAX club members have made it clear that it’s time for change. This week, The Record reports that a group of students want Goshen College to withdraw its endowment funds from investments in companies that use fossil fuels. Photographed in this week’s issue are some of those same students also protesting in downtown Goshen against the proposed bi-national Keystone XL pipeline project, making their point loud and clear that the natural environment matters. These voices come at the same time that John Kerry, U.S. secretary of state, pours over an 11-volumn report released by the State...

By Quinn Brenneke • February 5, 2014 • Features

“The ultimate test of a relationship is to disagree but to hold hands.” That is the advice my fortune cookie from Java Junction gave me this week. Tuesday’s snow day was the perfect opportunity to buy a latte in the Connector, and as my fortune told, to “hold hands.” Last week’s perspectives page left reverberations on campus. Two students shared differing opinions on GC Open Letter and consequently exemplified a respectful campus conversation regarding same-sex relationships. Ted Swartz, a Mennonite comedian, arrived on campus this week in the wake of those reverberations and performed a play that I am sure...

By Quinn Brenneke • January 29, 2014 • Features

In Indianapolis Wednesday, Indiana lawmakers on the House Elections and Apportionment Committee discussed House Joint Resolution 3, a measure to add an amendment to the state constitution that defines marriage as a union between one man and one woman, essentially banning gay marriage. HJR-3 needed the committee’s approval in order to move to the full House and then to the Senate, where it will need to earn approval in both places before appearing on Indiana ballots in November. Timothy Wesco, state representative of District 21 Mishawaka and a strong supporter of HJR-3, was sure that the committee would pass the...

By Quinn Brenneke • January 23, 2014 • Features

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...

By Quinn Brenneke • January 17, 2014 • Features

I must end with a love letter. As with any semester’s final weeks, I think most students would say they are ready for a break.  We live on coffee (or tea, in my case), spend hours in the library, forget what free time means, and think longingly of full sleep and home-cooked meals. Soon we will all depart for a month of blissful holiday, back to the dear places from which we came. When I first began my time as editor, when the thought of producing eight pages a week made me question my own sanity, I would think longingly...

By Kate Stoltzfus • December 7, 2013 • Features

It is probably no secret that I am an avid reader. I am one of those unfortunate people who reads six books at a time and often does so while walking. One downside to college is a serious reduction in pleasure reading time, but there are ways to get around this dilemma – the elliptical, for one. Because of my firm belief that readers should share the gems they discover, I decided I would take up my weekly column to share a short list of all-time favorite books. These are the ones I want to read again. Some of them...

By Kate Stoltzfus • November 14, 2013 • Features

Last week I made a mistake. More than one, actually, but the one I’m taking about specifically involves The Record. The wrong name was attached to an article. This phenomenon has happened before, unfortunately, and if we’re being completely honest, it will probably happen again in the future. If I turn on the wrong burner or rack up $10 in overdue library fines, those mistakes stay mostly in my world. But when you are putting out a newspaper, mistakes are much less forgiving; you affect more people than just yourself. In fact, in journalism, imperfect people attempt to put out,...

By Kate Stoltzfus • November 8, 2013 • Features

Here are some facts*: Every two minutes, someone in the U.S. is sexually assaulted. Eighty percent of those people are under the age of 30. Fifty-four percent of those assaults are never reported to the police. And two-thirds of them are committed by people known to the victim. I can remember clotheslines of t-shirts strung at Schrock Plaza in October since my freshman year at Goshen. That first year, I ignorantly thought it was just a really cool art project. But the shirts symbolize a lot more than pieces of artwork: they’re a part of Goshen’s annual Sexual Violence Awareness...

By Kate Stoltzfus • October 13, 2013 • Features

I will be a Goshen College graduate in less than two weeks. Woah. I know it’s a cliche, but it feels like just yesterday I was arriving at Goshen College as a nervous first-year student eager to embark on the four year journey that is college. And now here I am, preparing to graduate and wrapping up my last issue of The Record as editor-in-chief. Seriously, how did that happen so fast? Over the last four years I have grown to love this small Indiana community where the weather is cool and the students are cooler. From squirrels, to hymn...

By Ariel Ropp • April 17, 2013 • Features

Goshen is home to some fascinating people. I came to this conclusion as I read through “Goshen Portraits 4,” a delightful new collection of personality profiles written by Goshen College students. This book–the fourth of its kind–offers windows into the lives of 11 intriguing people who live or work in the Goshen community. Vera Hochstetler, for instance, is a mother, bowler, golfer and former bartender originally from England. Marvin Graber is a piano-tuner and musician who lost his eyesight at age 10. Evelyn Kreider is a spunky 98-year-old who volunteers and uses an iPad to send emails. There are even...

By Ariel Ropp • April 10, 2013 • Features

It’s that time of the semester again. In the flurry of assignments, tests, presentations and essays, I can’t decide which word describes this part of the year better: busy, frantic or ludicrous. And yet, there’s always time for distractions. Last week, just before everyone went home to dye eggs, eat chocolate bunnies and share Easter dinners, I came across a Facebook page in its infancy: Goshen Crushes. What an interesting idea: an anonymous way to tell the world–or Goshen College, anyway–about your secret crush.  It even turns out we’re not the only Mennonite college to have such a page, thanks...

By Logan Miller • April 3, 2013 • Features

The best way to get me to attend a lecture is to talk about food. For those who don’t know me well, I really, really like food. It was pure interest–not a class requirement–that drew me to Simran Sethi’s lecture on food, faith and the environment on Tuesday night. Sethi, a journalist, spoke about the intersections of food and faith and challenged the audience to consider where our food comes from and how it affects our bodies and souls. Eating is in and of itself an agricultural act, Sethi said. We are what we eat, and what we eat is...

By Ariel Ropp • March 20, 2013 • Features

Two nights ago I made brownies to give to The Record copy editors and layout staff as a token of my appreciation. The oven had other plans. When I pulled the brownies out of the oven, I was disappointed to find them lopsided and partially overcooked. This was not entirely my fault–my oven randomly heats up and cools down like it’s a Goshen weather forecast. That, and the oven racks are slanted. (Beware, future dwellers of Vita House!) Still, the brownies looked OK on the one side, and after trying a bite, I discovered that they tasted good, too. As...

By Ariel Ropp • March 13, 2013 • Features

First of all, welcome back from spring break. It’s with great sadness that we begin the second half of the spring term with news of a Goshen College student’s death. Millicent Morros, an adult GC student in the Organizational Leadership degree completion program, was tragically shot and killed on Monday morning in downtown Goshen. While I did not know Morros personally, I have heard wonderful things about Morros from her friends and classmates, who wrote a piece for The Record perspectives page commemorating her life. They describe her as someone who loved to drink Diet Coke, laughed a lot and told it...

By Ariel Ropp • March 7, 2013 • Features