Goshen College released its Annual Security and Fire Safety Report on Oct. 1. Under the Clery Act, all colleges and universities participating in federal student financial aid programs are required to disclose campus crime statistics and safety policies. This year, the report was compiled solely by Kris RappAfoose, director of campus safety and security.
On page 53 of the report, under the “Disciplinary Referrals” section, 114 liquor law violations and 20 drug law violations were reported in 2025. In 2024, 13 liquor law and one drug law violation were reported. Despite this drastic increase, not all 114 violations occurred in 2025. Twelve occurred in 2023, 37 occurred in 2024 and 65 occurred in 2025. A violation must be reported in the year it was discovered. Almost all of these violations occurred in student residential facilities. In Indiana, it is a Class C misdemeanor to possess alcohol if you are under the age of 21.This increase comes after an investigation conducted by Chandler Buchfeller, associate dean of students. RappAfoose said that “a student went to Chandler in 2025 and told him about there being an under-reporting in liquor law violations.”
Buchfeller was surprised by the findings. “I wasn’t previously aware of it, that’s why that number shows up after last year,” Buchfeller said. “Yes, I was surprised to find what we did find.”
In an attempt to reduce the number of violations, GC’s resident life staff underwent additional training before the school year got underway. “We added in a couple of additional roleplay-based or scenario-based training, so that was a bit of an adjustment there,” Buchfeller said.
Alongside this, the reporting system has been altered for this school year. The conduct reporting form has been opened up to the student body. In the student section of the MyGC website, there is now a “Care and Conduct Reporting” link. From here, students are redirected to Maxient, the conduct and behavior records management software used by GC.
On Maxient, students can choose to refer a student to the campus care team or report a violation in student conduct standards, an accident or injury that happened on campus, academic dishonesty, discrimination and harassment, or sexual harassment, assault or gender discrimination.
“Actually, it was a part of Leaf Launch for all of our first year students,” Buchfeller said. “We kind of walked through and showed them, ‘Hey, this is how you submit any kind of incident report form, whether it’s student conduct or otherwise’ because we want to make sure that it’s available and easily accessible to students.”
While the reporting process has become more accessible and has changed, the disciplinary process has remained the same. Students who are believed to have committed a violation receive an email from Maxient which directs them to a letter that states the policies that they are deemed to have violated. From here, a student will meet with a residential director or Buchfeller which, in some cases, is followed by a formal investigation. All disciplinary matters are communicated via Maxient and not Buchfeller or another member of GC staff.
“I always want to make sure that students know exactly what they’re walking into with a meeting with us,” Buchfeller said. “That way I also try to ensure that if it’s a conduct meeting that students are walking into, it’s coming from the Maxient system.”
Buchfeller also explained that one of the most common sanctions for those who are deemed to have committed a liquor law violation is an alcohol education module. “It’s an online learning module that covers things like: what’s in a typical drink, how long it takes to become inebriated, how long does it take to sober up. Those basics of how to keep yourself safe if you’re going to engage in this.”
On the findings of the report, Buchfeller said, “I hope that this provides an opportunity for moving forward as a campus and moving into things that we’ve committed to doing and not doing the things that we’ve committed to not doing, for the sake of building a healthy, hospitable community together.”
