Alicia Maldonado-Zahra is a scholar-activist fellow working for Goshen College and the Coalition to Dismantle the Doctrine of Discovery. She teaches courses in the peace, justice and conflict studies department, and works with student protest groups to ensure their voices are heard. She also has gained a reputation within the college as having strong opinions on AI. Through Maldonado-Zahra’s work with the coalition, she has read through research on the environmental impacts of AI data centers. While the coalition is a Christian group, its practices are also rooted in Native American cosmology.  “Mennonites and Native Americans have a lot in...

By John Eash-Scott • October 1, 2026 • Features

On Sept. 22, The Record sent out a survey to understand and analyze data on AI use across campus. During the seven-day open period, 70 students, 31 faculty members and 16 staff members responded to the survey.  Overall, students are more abstinent than faculty and staff. 43% of students said they never use AI, against 19% of faculty and 13% of staff. Only 20% of students use AI somewhat often or frequently, versus 45% of faculty and 50% of staff.  Out of the 70 students who responded, 30 of them claimed to never use AI. The predominance of the “never”...

By Igor Sapucaia • October 1, 2026 • News Josiah Miller • October 1, 2026 • News

President Rebecca Stoltzfus launched the AI Task Force 10 months ago, with the prospect of obtaining a grant from the Lilly Endowment Artificial Intelligence in Higher Education Initiative. She hoped this would lead to further discussions on various ways Goshen College can approach AI.  During these AI Task Force meetings, topics such as having a Statement of Ethics and an AI Policy site for GC came up, among other AI-related conversations.  In a process which started in February, the AI Ethics Workgroup led by Philipp Gollner, professor of history, met multiple times throughout the spring with other faculty members to...

By Hannah Smith • October 1, 2026 • News

The IT department used artificial intelligence to make changes to 95 pages in this first phase of the project, which was completed. The first phase of the project took about three months and was finalized mid September. The refresh included collaboration between the IT department, faculty and students and its objectives were to better showcase what GC has to offer and make the website more interactive for online visitors. “We wanted to make sure that the voice that was being portrayed in each page for different departments was unique,” said Isabel Massud ’26, a part of the project’s team. AI...

By Elena Oborocea • October 1, 2026 • News

Connected Cause, Goshen College’s five-year comprehensive fundraising campaign, concluded at the end of June 2026. The campaign raised $76.8 million, surpassing its goal of $68 million. The campaign was part of GC’s “Where Everything Connects” strategic plan from 2021-2027. As a part of this plan, Connected Cause had five major aspirations: integrated academic excellence, thriving students, mission-driven employees, a growing student body and a hallmark learning environment.  $27.8 million from Connected Cause has gone towards a variety of renovation projects, the most notable being the Westlawn Dining Hall and the Center for Nursing and Public Health. Other projects under the...

By Anton Alstrom-Brookhyser • October 1, 2026 • News

Kaitlyn Muns, an image and video aesthetics tutor at SpaceXAI, formerly known as xAI, visited campus on Monday.  Muns spoke in a career planning class taught by Patrick Farran, a professor of business. She then had an informal chat with students. Muns worked in luxury fashion, and was a wardrobe and prop stylist for TV when SpaceXAI reached out to her via LinkedIn. “‘Never miss an opportunity’ is my motto,” she said. Muns encouraged anybody with a passion, like her, to channel that passion into AI. Interests mentioned during the event included animation and photography. “Do the things that make...

By John Eash-Scott • October 1, 2026 • News

On May 15, Pope Leo XIV signed “Magnifica Humanitas,” or “Magnificent Humanity,” his first encyclical, focused on protecting human dignity in the age of artificial intelligence. The Vatican released it on May 25.  In the 42,000-word document, the Pope asked: “Where are we going? Toward what goal do we wish to orient ourselves? What direction should we choose as people and as a human community?” Those questions are becoming more relevant as AI enters personal areas of life, including faith.  Sheri Hostetler, pastor at First Mennonite Church of San Francisco said, “It was becoming increasingly apparent that this technology was...

By Ana Alves Machado • October 1, 2026 • Features

AI has been integrated into every part of daily life, and it felt crucial to mark this moment — a time when it seems each decision has the potential to set our course for at the very least the rest of my lifetime.  The decision to do this issue homecoming weekend was intentional. I want alumni to know what AI looks like at Goshen College, without the filter of the corporate institution. This is the historical record that people will reference when they want to know what GC really looked like as AI first started to boom — the questions...

By Mackenzie P. Miller • October 1, 2026 • Features

Raj Biyani ’92, after volunteering his time at Goshen College for the newly-created AI Task Force, was hired as GC’s first Chief Innovation Officer, a role which he began on April 1. Biyani has already progressed GC towards the next goal of submitting a grant proposal to the Lilly Endowment Artificial Intelligence in Higher Education Initiative, due by May 1.  GC, which already received $125,000 from the Lilly Endowment after an initial proposal was accepted, is closing in on the finalization of the proposal to receive $5 million in funding. “We’re down to the tweaking stage,” President Rebecca Stoltzfus said....

By Griffin Eash • April 16, 2026 • News

I do not believe that generative AI belongs on a Mennonite college campus. There are many reasons for this, but I do feel the need to first clarify that I do mean generative AI, the type of chatbot that would have you believe it knows how to write better than you, that it gives good advice, that it is a knowledge machine — not a repository of all correct and incorrect information out on the internet. The sacredness of the human mind and communal effort has been at the forefront of the Mennonite movement for 500 years. It is not...

By Kate Bodiker • April 2, 2026 • Features

Goshen College’s Merry Lea Environmental Learning Center is unexpectedly starting the spring 2026 semester without Ryan Sensenig, their interim executive director. A search for a new executive director started on Jan. 30, and the center announced the opening via Instagram on Feb. 2. In the meantime, Ann Vendrely, vice president of academic affairs and academic dean at GC, is acting as the interim executive director. Sensenig resigned from his position in early December. He was appointed to the temporary position in August, after the resignation of Jason Martin in late July, following the college’s sudden decision to put Martin on...

By John Eash-Scott • February 12, 2026 • News

Goshen College has announced that a Study-Service Term cohort will return to Tanzania in the spring semester of 2027. This will mark the eighth occasion that the college has sent students to the nation.  This unit will be led by Phil Allman, associate professor of marine biology, and Tim Pinion, a retired National Park Service employee, who served in various roles between 2015 and 2023. Jerrell Ross Richer, co-director of global engagement, explained that this SST unit is similar to every other cohort, in that the students will spend six weeks doing their study before transitioning to service for the...

By Liam Shaw • January 29, 2026 • News

President Rebecca Stoltzfus announced the establishment of the Goshen College Artificial Intelligence Task Force on Nov. 28. This task force will lead the implementation of GC’s Lilly grant planning period. According to its charge, the AI task force will “provide broad thinking and compelling ideas for GC’s in Higher Education Phase 2 Implementation and/or Collaborative Grants.” The task force will be led by Stoltzfus alongside Raj Biyani ’92, who will serve as AI strategy advisor and co-chair. Biyani is currently leading a seminar series that was opened up to GC staff in December. Biyani says that his goal for the...

By Liam Shaw • January 15, 2026 • News

John Sauer, the U.S. solicitor general, on July 25, 2025 made a determination based on the due process clause of the Fifth Amendment that it was unconstitutional to provide government mandated initiatives to give funding for Hispanic-Serving Institutions. This was startling news to not only Goshen College, but to the Goshen community as well.  GC was designated an HSI in 2023 by the U.S. Department of Education, after the percentage of students identifying as Hispanic grew from just 2% in 2007 to 30% when the designation was given.  GC was primarily using the funding from the initiative to provide the...

By Griffin Eash • January 15, 2026 • News

Just before Thanksgiving, President Rebecca Stoltzfus announced that Goshen College has been chosen to receive a grant for just under $5 million from Lilly Endowment Inc., an organization based in Indianapolis. In a campus-wide announcement, President Stoltzfus said, “More than 1,100 organizations from across the country applied, and only 48 were selected. We are deeply honored to be among them!” According to Lilly’s grant list, the program, entitled “National Storytelling Initiative on Christian Faith and Life,” aims to “seek out and share stories that illuminate the vitality of Christian faith and life.” GC will be putting the funding toward five...

By Josiah Miller • December 4, 2025 • News