InDepthA collection of our most-followed stories. From immigration to administration, we cover it all.
A collection of our most-followed stories. From immigration to administration, we cover it all.
March 10, 2011
Students and administrators discuss tuition increases
The overall cost of tuition, room and board at Goshen will increase by 4.7 percent next year. Administrators argue that this increase is a matter-of-fact trend that is a yearly inevitability, but some students object to the continual inflation rate of their education. This year, the total for tuition plus room and board on campus racked up to $32,800; next year, this figure will jump to $34,350. This rise of 4.7 percent is a relatively normal pace of inflation in terms of how much tuition has increased at Goshen in...
February 17, 2011
Students to travel to Palestine
This summer nine Goshen College students will journey to Bethlehem, bearing not frankincense and myrrh, but a keen curiosity to learn about Palestinian culture. These eight students, who have never been to the Middle East before, will stay with Marcelle Zoughbi, a sophomore at Goshen, and her family, in several apartments at the top of a mountain overlooking Bethlehem. Zoughbi and her friend Krista Kaufman, a junior, had the idea for this trip one night when they stayed up talking until 2 in the morning. They e-mailed a bunch of friends to see if anyone else would be interested in...
February 10, 2011
SST alternate courses alone no longer fulfill international education requirements
Students who choose not to do a traditional SST will now be required to do the Latino Studies SST instead. Faculty voted recently to eliminate the previous alternative to SST, which was to take SST alternate courses on campus. Now students will have just two options: they can either do a traditional SST in another country, or they can do the Latino Studies SST in Goshen. This change in requirements will apply to the incoming class of first-years in the fall of 2011. The Latino Studies program, which ran for the first time this past summer, will also undergo revisions....
February 5, 2011
Jan Emswiler’s journey to Goshen
Goshen College’s newest nursing professor might have a few words of advice for Ryan Sensenig and the Tanzania SST group. Jan Emswiler has only spent a year and a half in the United States since 1998—she spent the other 11 years in Tanzania. It all started between her sophomore and junior year of college, when she participated in Mennonite Central Committee’s SALT (Serving And Learning Together) program. SALT sent her to Tanzania for the first time. After graduating from Eastern Mennonite University in 1998, Emswiler heard that M.C.C. was looking for a nurse to go to Tanzania, so she volunteered....
January 20, 2011
Goshen students say goodbye to friends, hello to Tanzania, Peru
It was the middle of the night, but a few overhead lights illuminated smiles, tears and frantically waving hands as dozens of friends, roommates and family members bid adieu to spring SST students. A bus carried the 23 Tanzania-bound students from the Union shortly after 1 a.m. last Wednesday, Jan. 12. The spring 2011 Peru group also left the Union at around 6:30 the same morning. For many, the occasion was bittersweet. Laurel Woodward, a sophomore, acknowledged the challenging aspects of saying goodbye to close friends who left for SST. “It was harder than expected,” said Woodward, “because you form...
December 2, 2010
Changes in general education to integrate SST experiences
Goshen College is in the process of developing a new model for general education requirements. Most colleges reassess and improve their curriculum every 10 to 12 years. The current program has been in place at Goshen since 1998 and is now undergoing analysis and revision. The current ongoing revision began in the 2008-09 school year under the title, “Foundations of Excellence,” and was an assessment of the first year experience. Since then, the Gen-Ed Task Force has been working backwards, beginning by establishing outcomes for the program to deliver to students, and then designing a program that will achieve these...
December 2, 2010
Peru, Egypt and Jamaica SST students arrive home safely
The size of Goshen’s on-campus student body ballooned overnight as 32 students returned safely home last evening from their fall semester of Study Service Term (SST). Around 5 p.m. on Wednesday afternoon, 14 students returned from the Egypt SST unit and nine students arrived from the fall Peru unit; six students stayed behind to travel in neighboring countries. Early Thursday morning, nine students arrived home from the American Sign Language unit in Jamaica. Friends and family greeted the SSTers with excitement as they arrived on campus after spending more than three months abroad. "Coming home is surreal but I was...
October 27, 2010
Hawkins anticipates second trip to visit SST host family
Like many Goshen College students, fifth-year senior Alli Hawkins completed her Study-Service Term in Nicaragua the summer before her junior year. Unlike many students, however, since leaving the country just over two years ago, Hawkins has already returned once and will return yet again on November 17th for the wedding of her host sister, Rosaly. Lead by Professor of Chemistry Doug Schirch and his wife Maria, Hawkins’ SST in the summer of 2008 lasted 12 weeks. Following the general SST format, Hawkins spent the first six weeks studying in a city called Jinotepe and the last six weeks on service in...
October 27, 2010
Second stage of budget adjustments complete
The academic faculty recently finished an academic review process, completing the second stage of the college's overall institutional budget adjustment process. The first stage included the elimination of 29 positions (affecting mostly the administrative offices), which took place last May in anticipation for the '10-'11 school year. The second stage, which began last spring and was lead by Anita Stalter, academic dean, focused on the academic programs area. According to Jim Histand, vice president for finance, "[The process] identified a number of efficiencies and consolidations that will be implemented for the next academic year, and allows us to keep all...
October 6, 2010
Making Peace with Diversity: GC recieves cultural audit report
The last names Yoder, Friesen, and Klaasen are not prerequisites for being Mennonite at Goshen College. After a campus-wide cultural audit by Salter McNeil & Associates last fall, a final report was revealed last week which included a commitment from GC administration to prioritize ethnic and cultural diversity on campus. According to the report, “Living out this mandate in day-to-day personal interactions, however, remains an ongoing challenge.” Fifty-five percent of the GC student body claims Mennonite faith. According to the cultural audit report, cultural norms found in North American Mennonite circles often exclude and hurt others who don’t fit the...
September 15, 2010
Drawing people in with Swahili
The conversations start with Jambo! Habań yako, but the fall Swahili class at Goshen College doesn’t end there. Students are gearing up for their Study-Service Term experience in Tanzania this spring by learning the Swahili language, Tanzanian culture, history and geography. The young professor duo, Theo and Agnes Odhianmbo, from Musoma, Tanzania, are teaching the basics. Students meet four days a week, in addition to small group and one-on-one conversations. With only a semester’s experience, students will not be fluent when they step off the plane in Tanzania. Yet according to Theo Odhianmbo, they will know enough to draw people...
September 9, 2010
Financial deficit forces changes on campus
As a response to the nationwide financial crisis, the college has formed a teaching faculty task force to review and streamline the academic programs for the fall of 2011. This committee will be processing information from all the departments along with non-classroom expenses in order to maintain Goshen's standards while operating more efficiently. Vice President for Academic Affairs Anita Stalter said, “We anticipate this process will result in a likely reduction in teaching faculty positions.” Last May, 29 positions were eliminated in anticipation of the current school year which saved $1.1 million. Most affected positions were in the administrative offices. ...
September 9, 2010
Making it their own: Peru and Jamaica SST depart
Peru and Jamaica SST groups left early last Thursday morning—at 2:28 a.m. Peru’s 11 member group and Jamaica’s nine member group both arrived safely. Study-Service Term has been an integral part of the Goshen College academic experience for years. Yet excitement still filled the humid air as students anticipated the arrival in their respective destinations. “I’ve heard a lot about Peru,” said Erin Bontrager, a sophomore at Goshen. Many of Bontrager’s friends, including her brother, Jesse, a senior, have participated in Peru SST. Sitting beside her two bags, with Peruvian soles already in hand, Bontrager said, “I’m ready to experience...
September 9, 2010
Egypt SST: Making History
Thursday morning, September 2, Goshen College’s first Egypt Study Service Term of 19 students departed for Cairo, Egypt. They arrived on time with no problems. Egypt SST embarked on an adventure that will take them from the Nile River through the desert and to the Red Sea. But members in the group won’t be wandering in the desert, thanks to Tom Meyers’ leadership. Trips include the city of Alexandria, known as the Pearl of the Mediterranean, and a Christian-Egyptian retreat center in the middle of the desert. “There are spectacular things to see on all these trips,” said Meyers....
April 8, 2010
SST groups return to a rainy Goshen
After over three months of living in huge cities, small villages, coastal towns, jungles, the Andes Mountains and beside the Mekong River, students on Study-Service Term (SST) from Cambodia and Peru returned to a gray and rainy Goshen on Wednesday. This was the second Goshen trip to Cambodia and the eleventh to Peru. While the Cambodia group arrived at 2:30 p.m., the Peru group’s flight was late in Lima and didn’t arrive in Goshen until much later in the day because of the missed connections that followed. Kevin Koch, assistant in the international education department, noted that the returning groups...