As the municipal election day gets closer, candidates and their political parties are entering into the last phase of their campaigns. On Monday and Tuesday, the Republican party of Goshen ran an advertisement in The Goshen News that asked “Do you think it’s a little spooky that most of the Democratic candidates are directly associated with Goshen College? Just askin’.” A list of Democratic candidates and their graduation dates or, in one case, children’s graduation dates, were included in the ad. To support the message of the print ad, the Republican party posted a video on their YouTube channel that...

By Sara Alvarez • November 2, 2011 • Features

Awareness weeks are important. Even though it may seem like they happen often, these weeks shine a spotlight on a social problem and gives people a chance to educate each other about it. If it wasn’t for weeks like Domestic and Sexual Violence Awareness Week, most of us might never think about the pain that this violence causes, leaving those dealing with the pain to suffer alone. This week puts the social disease of domestic and sexual violence to the forefront of people’s minds and forces them to acknowledge a reality of the world and stand in solidarity with their...

By Sara Alvarez • October 26, 2011 • Features

In the process of writing an article that tries to convey who Jim Miller was, I felt sad that I could never know this man. I don’t presume that I know Miller after all the interviews, or even that my article comprehensively represents who Miller was. Every individual has vast amounts of interests and nuances in his or her personality, but I hope that my article can honor this special person’s memory. As I gathered interviews, it became apparent that Miller was someone who tried hard to maintain relationships with the people he encountered. He made students feel cared for....

By Sara Alvarez • October 12, 2011 • Features

As the leaves change this month to orange, yellow or red, you may notice another color bursting onto the scene: pink. October is Breast Cancer Awareness month, which is dedicated to raising awareness about the disease, promoting mammography and raising money for breast cancer research. Sadly, this very real and devastating disease, which will claim the lives of an estimated 39,520 women and 450 men this year (according to komen.org), is being capitalized on by businesses hoping to make bank off the new trend to be “Passionately Pink for the Cure.” This month in particular you can find anything from...

By Kaeli Evans • October 5, 2011 • Features

As I wrote  about the new general education program, I kept thinking how I wished I could come to Goshen College again and take the interdisciplinary courses. Maybe it’s just me, but the prospect of classes that examine current events from an academic framework seems great. I’m guessing that most Goshen students would also appreciate a well-rounded education, otherwise they wouldn’t be at a liberal arts school. Since taking these courses won’t be a possibility for any current students, I started to think about ways to try interdisciplinary learning on our own. Real-world issues are complex and require knowledge of...

By Sara Alvarez • September 28, 2011 • Features

A news story that has been on my radar for the past few months is that of seven Mississippi teens who allegedly beat up and killed a man, a stranger, because he was African-American. After a night of drinking in late June, the teens drove across town with the goal of “messing with” an African-American. Once they found a victim,  James Craig Anderson, they beat him up and one of the teens, Deryl Paul Dedmon, ran over Anderson with a pickup truck, killing him. According to CNN, Desmon laughed with friends afterwards, proud of running the man over. When I...

By Sara Alvarez • September 21, 2011 • Features

Listening is something we do every day, but how many of us are good at it? At both of Anna Deavere Smith’s presentations on Tuesday, she encouraged the audience to listen–really listen–to people. This act of intentional listening allows us to engage each other in meaningful conversations. Smith creates her art from interviews where she asks simple questions and allows a person to talk and express their feelings without interruption. Her interactions with interviewees go beyond the superficial and enable her to see the world from another’s point of view. Using Smith’s example, we can get past our routine conversations and...

By Sara Alvarez • September 14, 2011 • Features

Welcome (back) to Goshen College. After a few months of emptiness, the life-giving energy of students has returned to the campus. For the 117th year, students are meeting new friends and creating new routines in this land where the leafy maples grow. As the Record editor for the fall semester, I hope to reflect campus life as authentically as possible and highlight issues or events that might not have caught the eye of students busy with their classes. The Record will be a place where students read-up about what the rest of our Goshen College community are up to. But...

By Sara Alvarez • September 6, 2011 • Features

Between a lightning strike, a campus bomb scare, a blizzard canceling classes for the first time since ’78 and a reported sexual assault, this semester has been one of breaking news. The most influential of these, though, was the reported on campus abduction and off campus sexual assault of a then-GC student.  Immediately, along with questions about the girls’ safety, came questions about on campus security.  Security staff increased, the dormitory doors were locked 24/7 and the overall attitude about campus safety changed. Though investigators later found conflicting evidence, making the report untrue, the issue of security on campus continued...

By Alysha Landis • April 21, 2011 • Features

I’m a complainer. I like to complain. Befitting my grumbling personality, I joined a large portion of the student body last year in protesting the national anthem. This year, when I found out that Aurora, Avon and Hymnal houses were going to close next year, violations increased, tuition raised, and small group houses announced, I united with my fellow students and complained some more. Although I do enjoy whining about certain aspects of Goshen College, I’ve got to affirm its most recent decision regarding international education requirements and Study-Service Term (S.S.T.). Incoming first-years are now required to participate in either...

By Matthew Amstutz • April 14, 2011 • Features

Only a few weeks from graduating, I am beginning to panic—about finishing all my schoolwork, about getting a job for the summer, about finding something to do next year. I’ve realized that until this point in my life, I’ve completely taken for granted the assumption that I will have a place to be in the next years—a place that needs and wants me. It’s an odd realization, that I have to find a space in which I can be. Being is supposed to be the simplest state of existence, and yet it is a point of such intense anxiety in...

By Sarah Rich • April 7, 2011 • Features

Last Monday, Residence Life announced the results for next year’s Resident Assistant and Ministry Leader positions in the dorms. That same afternoon, upperclassmen applying for small group housing received word of which groups were accepted into campus houses. And this week, dorm and junior and senior apartments residents drew lottery numbers to pick rooms for next year. To say the least, the last two weeks of anticipating these results have been nerve-racking. Standing in the Union waiting to hear the results of my own living situation felt like standing beneath the tree on Christmas morning as a little girl, wondering...

By Becca Kraybill • March 31, 2011 • Features

How often do you leave your room without turning off the lights, or walk by an empty room with the lights on?  It’s easy to disregard how much energy we use, especially if you’re living on campus and aren’t directly seeing or paying the electric bill. This Saturday, March 26, the College, along with hundreds of millions of people around the world, will spend an hour in the dark (or almost dark) during Earth Hour from 8:30 to 9:30 p.m.  Like Glenn Gilbert, utilities manager and sustainability coordinator, said, while conserving energy for just one hour doesn’t really save that...

By Alysha Landis • March 23, 2011 • Features

Two very worried looking people speaking on their cell phones bisected the path in front me this afternoon as I walked to the library. I would have usually not taken notice of the event had it not been for the strangely similar facial expressions and tones of voice the two shared. Both looked concerned, speaking in a troubled, hurried tone that rolled at a pace irregular to normal sidewalk cell-phone speak. I listened for content to compare, and gathered that the speakers were engaging in the same conversation that many students, I later found out, were engaging in all over campus...

By Liz Core • March 14, 2011 • Features

The big story this week is the building of a wall across campus, something to raise awareness of the situation in Palestine-Israel. While I may not have personally been involved, I am glad to see the wall go up, because I like walls that are meant to divide. For me the usual image that comes with walls is that of privacy, especially in man-made walls, the feeling that someone wants to keep others away from something that they guard, whether it be a holy land, or just the lawn in their back yard. While that’s not the happiest thought, what...

By Jair Hernandez • March 10, 2011 • Features