Sixty-nine students dropped out of Goshen College after last semester, the most to leave at midyear out of the last 12 years.
Registrar Stan Miller said that while this number is higher than usual, more students also joined before for semester and that the students who left did so for a variety of reasons, including health issues, .
Launa Rohrer, associate dean of students, and Miller agree that there wasn’t one overall reason for why students withdrew from classes.
“Very few were unhappy with their experience at Goshen College,” Rohrer said. “Most students left because of more personal issues—with family, more financial issues, stress…”
Rohrer also noted that several students said they plan to return to Goshen in the future, but things had come up that complicated attending this year.
“It’s just the reality of life,” Rohrer said about uncontrollable experiences can just come up.
According to Miller, Goshen College began in the fall with a total of 856 full time students. After the midyear loses, Goshen still has more students now than when the 08-09 school year began.
“I still wouldn’t want to trade where we were a year ago, but we still weren’t able to maintain the gains that we saw last fall,” said Miller.
Goshen did increase their enrollment in some areas, however. The number of students enrolled part-time increased from last semester by 16, while the number of graduate students was also up.
