Twenty-six new full-time hires have joined Goshen College since June 1, totalling 227 full-time employees, compared to 228 last year.
Marlene Penner, director of human resources, said about the hiring process, “When hiring managers or directors have a position that they want to hire for … they have to go through a process in basically petitioning for that position.”After it is submitted, the position is reviewed by a finance committee, which decides whether it makes sense to post it for hiring.
In February of this year, Richard Brunson was terminated from his position as associate professor of music, and director of the GC Symphony Orchestra, after investigations for sexual harassment at a previous job were made public. GC was unaware of his history when they hired him.
Since the incident, Penner detailed the two main steps that have been added to the hiring process. “One of the things that we do in HR is, once a search committee has their final candidate that they are offering a position to, I reach out to their former employer and make sure that there [are] no Title IX cases against them or any kind of sexual harassment [claims], … and then any reasons that they were terminated.”
“Another thing I do is I look up in a database, there’s a sexual misconduct database for teaching faculty, and I look in that database to make sure those people are not listed there.”
Along with Brunson, Penner said that between June 2023 and June 2024 GC, there were 30 people who left, four of whom were let go. “A couple of them were because their positions were eliminated, and two were because of performance.”
A year ago, a different initiative, the search advocate program, was implemented. “With that we go through a process of, from the very beginning looking at our job posting and making sure that we list the skills that we’re looking for and strictly try to get rid of language or tendencies of search committees to go with people who ‘feel right,’” said Penner.
“From the very beginning, that process helps us to attract a diverse group of applicants. We have also made sure that we include our diversity statement in all of our postings so that people know that diversity is important here at Goshen College … That has actually helped … in having a more diverse group of people apply for positions.”
Justin Heinzekehr, director of institutional research and assessment, said, “Given the fact that the college has set a goal to increase its employee racial/ethnic diversity, I think it’s significant that 31% of new full-time employees identify as BIPOC, compared to 13% of returning full-time employees.”
While most of the new hires are filling vacancies, there are several new positions including enrollment marketing specialist, connections advisor and assistant professor of public health.
Penner said the new public health position, being filled by Amanda Borden, is due to an anticipated enrollment in the nursing department. The Westlawn renovation, which is housing the new nursing and public health departments, is expected to open in January 2025.
William Mathews, enrollment marketing specialist, is also the first to fill his role. Penner said, “We have had a big focus on our admissions team and really making sure that we have a good fit for those individuals … that we get good quality people in there because obviously we want to get our enrollment up and so those are important people.”
Penner said the academic success center is another place of focus and is able to create more support for students. Positions in the academic success center are supported by the Title V grant GC received last year after becoming a Hispanic Serving Institution, which Penner said “helps create … opportunity to support that area.” Areli Bautista, connections advisor, is filling one of the new positions in the academic success center.
