Jan Kauffman and Kristin Waltner received a message two weeks ago that came as a surprise: Duane and Karen Stoltzfus said that they needed to withdraw from their roles as Study-Service Term faculty leaders in Ecuador to focus on a personal health crisis. Kauffman, associate dean of student success, and Waltner, registrar, accepted the offer to lead the Ecuador SST for the 2026 trip. “I visited Ecuador over the summer and loved it — the people, culture, diverse landscape, and variety of activities. The country offers so much, and the people are so warm and open,” said Waltner. The two...

By May Boudreau • November 13, 2025 • News John Eash-Scott • November 13, 2025 • News

For most of the semester, Goshen College has been hosting Raj Biyani ’92, an investor and mentor who worked as a managing director for Microsoft IT. On Wednesday last week, Biyani spoke on the role artificial intelligence has been playing in industry at a luncheon hosted by the business department. Biyani said that he has spent his time in Goshen in three main areas: speaking to students, engaging with the community and presenting on artificial intelligence. Of his time here on campus, he said, “It’s been incredible. It’s been actually very, very energizing.” Jodi Beyeler, vice president for institutional advancement,...

By Josiah Miller • November 13, 2025 • News

Earlier this week, it was confirmed that there have been four people from the Michiana area who have been detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers. A local pastor, who requested anonymity for safety on behalf of herself and her community, said that one was deported, and the others are being held in Kentucky and Indianapolis. She said, “ICE is not ‘as active’ in the Michiana area as it is in other parts of the country, but they are active.”  Gilberto Pérez Jr, vice president for student life and Hispanic Serving Initiatives and the dean of students, said, “It...

By Kate Bodiker • October 30, 2025 • News Mackenzie P. Miller • October 30, 2025 • News

Goshen College has added a Master of Arts in teaching program as of the fall 2025 semester. 19 students are currently enrolled in the first class of the program, many of them already teachers who are working full time during the day and earning their degree online in the evening. The master’s degree, which is the sixth graduate program at GC, is designed for people who already have a bachelor’s degree and are pursuing their first teaching license in elementary or secondary education. “Although this program began this fall semester, I feel like I am in my second year. And...

By Junto Murata • October 10, 2025 • News

Less than three years after becoming a Hispanic-Serving Institution and two years after receiving its first federal grant for HSI development, Goshen College learned this month that the U.S. Department of Education is terminating the funding and other support for HSI schools. The federal government designated GC as a Hispanic-Serving Institution in January 2023, the fourth HSI school in Indiana at the time. The college qualified in part by having at least 25% of its undergraduate students identify as Hispanic/Latino.  In October of that year, the Department of Education awarded the college a highly competitive $3 million Title V grant...

By Mafe Aguilar Vargas • October 10, 2025 • News

Last week, the U.S. Department of  Education announced that it will be ending grant funding to certain minority-serving institutions. This includes Goshen College, which has had the designation of Hispanic-Serving Institution since 2023. This change represents a significant cut to grants nationally. According to the DOE’s press release, “Approximately $350 million in discretionary funds were expected to be allocated to support these programs in fiscal year 2025. These funds will be reprogrammed into programs that do not include discriminatory racial and ethnic quotas and that advance Administration priorities.” President Rebecca Stoltzfus said that this did not come as a total...

By Josiah Miller • September 18, 2025 • News

Though there aren’t any new faces within the Student Life team this year, there has been some departmental shakeup. With a promotion for Chandler Buchfeller, extended hours for Jen Shenk and yet another position for Chad Coleman, students are still likely to see some changes. For Buchfeller, now the associate dean of students, the transition from director of residence life and housing was one that he feels will play even better to his strengths. The new role is “giving me an opportunity to utilize my knowledge and skills to continue working at crafting the best student experience that we can...

By Kate Bodiker • September 4, 2025 • News

In an email to Goshen College employees on Aug. 19, President Rebecca Stoltzfus announced that Ben Bontrager, vice president for finance and operations and GC’s chief financial officer, will be departing from his role at as of Sept. 17. He has accepted a role at Everence as chief financial officer. Bontrager has been working in his role at Goshen College since 2022. In this role, he provides oversight to all of the financial functions of GC, especially when it comes to the behind the scenes of the college’s academics. Mindy Schlegel, director of ITS enterprise applications and innovation, works with...

By Mackenzie P. Miller • September 4, 2025 • News

Goshen College announced Dwight Gingerich as the new athletic director on Wednesday morning. Gingerich is currently the head of school and boy’s basketball head coach at Hillcrest Academy in Kalona, Iowa – formerly named Iowa Mennonite School. He will start his duties at GC on July 1.  Gingerich said in GC’s press release, “Our family loved our time at Goshen and I am very grateful to President Stoltzfus and the search committee for this opportunity to return. “I am excited to lean into the college’s core values of Christ-centeredness, passionate learning, servant leadership, compassionate peacemaking and global citizenship, as we...

By Tyson Miller • May 14, 2025 • News

At the beginning of this semester I decided to make a small change to the masthead. Next to the editorial, the masthead features the staff of The Record, as well as a few other bits of information.  I added the line “The Record is made without the use of A.I.” It felt important. We live in a world where A.I. is being used for more, and getting better every single day. Over the past 18 months, A.I. has hurtled forward at breakneck pace.  I remember first playing with A.I. as a first-year. I signed myself up for a beta version...

By Tyson Miller • April 3, 2025 • Features

Nine weeks into his second term, President Donald Trump has signed over 100 executive orders. Last Thursday, one of four executive orders signed included an order to start the process of dismantling the Department of Education. The Education Department was created through a congressional act in 1979, under former President Jimmy Carter. Ann Vendrely, vice president for academic affairs and academic dean, said, “The president’s executive order was expected and is not legally binding. Any changes to the function of the Department of Education require congressional action, so we will watch to see what action they agree to do.” Vendrely...

By Mackenzie P. Miller • March 27, 2025 • News

College students are no strangers to illness, and this winter is no exception, with reported instances of COVID-19, Influenza, RSV and cold symptoms, many missed classes and even rescheduled events.   This was the case for both Fatima Rhana, senior music and theater major, and Victor Vegas, senior music major, who were forced to reschedule their senior recitals. These recitals are a requirement of the music major, and thus essential to complete. Rhana said that it was a hard decision to reschedule, but a necessary one that the department was very understanding of.  “The department was so fast and super understanding....

By Kate Bodiker • February 13, 2025 • Features

Leaders for the Ecuador and Indonesia Study Service Terms in spring 2026 were announced recently by the Global Engagement Office. Global citizenship is one of GC’s core values, and one of the ways it is fulfilled is through semester-long SSTs which are led by a faculty director and a resident director.  For the Indonesia SST, Luke Beck Kreider will act as faculty director, and his spouse, Janie Beck Kreider, will act as resident director. In Ecuador, Duane Stoltzfus will act as faculty director, and his spouse, Karen Stoltzfus, will act as resident director.  Jerrell Ross Richer, professor of economics and...

By Annabelle Bartz • February 13, 2025 • News

In light of President Donald Trump’s recent executive orders and policies on immigration, Goshen College has begun establishing protocols for the possibility of Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers appearing on campus. Amidst feelings of fear and anxiety from students who may be affected by these changes to national policy, GC leaders are doing their best to provide reassurance. ICE is a branch of law enforcement that focuses on “criminal investigations and enforcing immigration laws,” according to the organization’s mission statement. Peter Claassen, a supervising attorney at the Goshen branch of the National Immigrant Justice Center, described the specific section of...

By Josiah Miller • February 13, 2025 • News

When Suzanne Ehst, associate academic dean, was writing her dissertation, she encountered documentation of some of the anxieties and implications of the pencil replacing the standard quill and ink:   “There were certain writers who were so scared that [the pencil] was going to change the quality of writing,” Ehst said. “[It] was going to change the rhythms of writing — it was going to make our writing dumber when we didn’t have those natural pauses to dip our quill and ink.” As artificial intelligence becomes more prominent and accessible academics are wrestling with these new tools — determining what is...

By Mackenzie P. Miller • January 16, 2025 • Features