Last night, on Feb. 19, Goshen students, faculty, staff and community members, welcomed writer, civil rights advocate and professor Michelle Alexander.  Alexander, best known for her 2010 book “The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness,” presented at the Atlee and Winifred Beechy Peace, Justice and Reconciliation Lecture, in Sauder Concert Hall.  Alexander took to the stage and was immediately welcomed with a standing ovation from the audience.  Regina Shands Stoltzfus, associate professor of peace, justice and conflict studies, began the event by asking a question relating to The New Jim Crow - the book that spent...

By Megan Bower • February 24, 2020 • News

Friends, family and colleagues of the late J.R. Burkholder gathered on Saturday to celebrate the life of the Goshen College professor emeritus, ethicist and peace activist. Burkholder passed away on Dec. 20, 2019, one day after his 91st birthday.  Burkholder is remembered at Goshen College for his 22 years as a professor, his role in founding what is now the Peace, Justice and Conflict Studies program and his influence as a thinker in the broader Mennonite Church, helping move the Mennonite peacemaking tradition from its history of nonresistance toward one of active, nonviolent resistance.  “Among all of the 20th-century Anabaptist...

By Gabe Miller • January 31, 2020 • News

A group of almost 40 protesters, including Goshen College students and faculty, gathered in front of the Elkhart County Courthouse on Saturday to hold a vigil for peace amongst rising tensions between the governments of Iran and the U.S.  “We wanted to do some sort of action that gave people hope that there was something they could do about the situation to increase the chances of peace between the two countries,” Said  Bruce Bishop, a local activist and Goshen College graduate of the class of 1980, who organized the vigil along with Susan Mark Landis, a former Mennonite minister. Keith...

By Emily Bennett • January 31, 2020 • News

The legal status of approximately 700,000 Dreamers in the United States lies in limbo. On Nov. 12, the U.S. Supreme Court held a hearing to hear the case brought against Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) by the Trump administration. The challenge against DACA is based on the claim that President Obama did not have the authority to create such a program. Halfway across the country, students at Goshen College gathered to show solidarity for “Dreamers.” Latino Student Union (LSU) and the Elkhart County Hope Network sponsored the event in the Union Commons, where over 70 people, young and old,...

By Greta Lapp Klassen • November 13, 2019 • News

Across 150 different countries, more than 4,600 protests took place and millions participated in strikes on Friday Sept. 20. This was all in order to demand urgent action from politicians and big businesses regarding climate change.  A group of 12 students from Goshen College participated Friday morning in South Bend. Some skipped class to attend.  The protest was organized by the South Bend chapter of the Sunrise Movement, a national group of young people organizing to stop climate change. Featured were speakers from many different walks of life, and participants across multiple generations were present.  Ben Zimmerman, sophomore sustainability management...

By Greta Lapp Klassen • September 25, 2019 • News

Umble Center was filled on Sunday night for the presentation of the sixth annual Goshen College Monologues. Monologues is a space created for women and non-binary students and faculty of GC to share stories and experiences.   During the fall semester, women and non-binary people submitted a monologue to the steering committee, who then reviewed the stories and assigned them to cast members during the spring semester. People’s stories are shared anonymously.   This year, there were stories about identity, relationships, sexual assault, mental health, body image and friendship. Including the committee members, 25 people made up the cast.  ...

By Mary O’Connell • April 4, 2019 • News

Goshen College social work students who are enrolled in senior seminar traveled to South Bend on Sunday Jan. 20 as the Michiana Social Justice Coalition presented “The People’s Inauguration II: No Hate IN Our State.” The event was held at the Islamic Society of Michiana.   The purpose of this event was to educate and gather support from the community to influence policy on hate crimes in Indiana. 17 local social justice organizations were present at the event, including La Casa de Amistad, Moms Demand Action, The LGBTQ Center and the Jewish Federation of St Joseph Valley.   The event...

By Mary O’Connell • January 26, 2019 • News

Together they stand in black, one by one taking the stage to recite a story written by another.   This sets the scene for the annual Goshen Monologues, a night where women and non-binary people perform a selection of stories, monologues and poems created anonymously by other non-male identifying people of the Goshen College community.   The Goshen Monologues, born out of a desire to create an event similar to Eve Ensler’s 1996 play The Vagina Monologues, first took place in 2013. Because the event has grown in popularity over the years, the number of participants has grown to around...

By Olivia Smucker • January 24, 2019 • Features

Indiana residents hoping for progress on hate crime legislation will have to wait until next year for results. Despite Governor Eric Holcomb’s support of such legislation, Indiana lawmakers could not agree on the wording of Senate Bill 418 earlier this year, which would have given judges the option to impose longer sentences for crimes motivated by hate towards marginalized groups. This is not the first time a hate crimes bill has been proposed and subsequently cut. This summer, Goshen College President Rebecca Stoltzfus signed a letter supporting hate crimes legislation in Indiana, which is one of only five states that...

By Admin • October 24, 2018 • News

Indiana residents hoping for progress on hate crime legislation will have to wait until next year for results. Despite Governor Eric Holcomb’s support of such legislation, Indiana lawmakers could not agree on the wording of Senate Bill 418 earlier this year, which would have given judges the option to impose longer sentences for crimes motivated by hate towards marginalized groups. This is not the first time a hate crimes bill has been proposed and subsequently cut. This summer, Goshen College President Rebecca Stoltzfus signed a letter supporting hate crimes legislation in Indiana, which is one of only five states that...

By Admin • October 24, 2018 • News

Students gathered in the church-chapel for convocation last Wednesday to discuss the impact of sexual violence on Goshen College’s campus. The convocation was inspired by the #MeToo campaign — a movement started originally by civil rights activist Tarana Burke in 2006, but popularized by actress Alyssa Milano following the sexual violence accusations against Harvey Weinstein during the fall of 2017. Many women posted the hashtag #MeToo on social media, often with an added story of sexual violence they experienced. Beth Martin Birky, Title IX deputy coordinator and professor of English, made it clear that while the #MeToo campaign was often...

By Abby King • April 5, 2018 • News

Millions of people marched together to advocate for tighter gun regulation this past Saturday. These marches came as a response to the recent school shootings in the United States, spurred particularly by the shooting that took place in Parkland, Florida, which took the lives of 17 people. A variety of marches took place on March 24. The main march took place in Washington D.C. with featured speakers such as singer Miley Cyrus, Parkland shooting survivor Emma Gonzalez, and Martin Luther King’s granddaughter Yolanda Renee King. Sister marches took place in Chicago and Goshen. Jace Longenecker, Student Senate treasurer, was approached...

By Nathan Pauls • March 29, 2018 • News

Students got the Goshen College administration’s attention when they marched out of chapel to demand changes regarding racism on campus on Wednesday, March 21. As students left the chapel, a tunnel formed to guide people toward the Adelphian Fountain. There, members of the Intercultural Coalition of Goshen College (ICGC) read anonymously submitted stories of racism on campus. The mission statement of the coalition and a summary of the resolutions being presented to the president were also read. Four leaders from ICGC walked up to President Stoltzfus’s office to give her the resolutions as well as a T-shirt and button that...

By Elsa Lantz • March 22, 2018 • News

Goshen College celebrated International Women’s Day with two events on Wednesday, March 7: a special chapel held in the morning and a celebration in the evening. Campus Pastor Reverend LaKendra Hardware preached the message for the International Women’s Day chapel. She began by reading select pieces of the Biblical creation story from Genesis 1:27-28 and 31, which describe the creation of man and woman. She called them “words of encouragement and a reminder” of two things: firstly, that man and woman were created as equals, and secondly, that humanity was created in God’s own image. She continued to reference these...

By Admin • March 15, 2018 • News

Goshen College students, faculty and staff showed their support for the 17 victims of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas high school shooting and protested against the lack of gun control in the United States by participating in the national walkout on Wednesday morning. The walkout wasn’t necessarily a walkout, as it took place at 10 a.m. when no classes are scheduled on the GC campus. Instead, students gathered around the peace pole across from the Union building. Campus Pastor Gwen Gustafson-Zook began the walkout by reading Deuteronomy 30:19: “I have set before you life and death, therefore choose life, that you...

By Abby King • March 15, 2018 • News