Campus Safety
February 13, 2025
Working in winter weather
Powdery white snow sprinkles from the clouds, following the trail the icy wind has created for it before it takes its place amongst the flakes collecting on the frozen ground. As winter hits its peak, Goshen College’s students walk to and from their classes, cold bursts of air burning their faces as they continue on toward their destinations. There has not been a shortage of snow and ice this winter, and with it comes significant responsibility for the groundskeeping team on campus. In the event of snowfall or ice formation, the team prepares by shoveling walkways and spreading salt...
November 21, 2024
GC reassures despite sex offender proximity
An email from Campus Safety was sent out on Monday afternoon, notifying students that a registered sex offender had moved into a home adjacent to Goshen College. The email was intended to provide information to students rather than cause any alarm. Also, in an effort to ensure that students felt safe and valued, campus representatives from human resources and student life held a listening session in Newcomer 17 on Monday evening to ensure that students had a space to be heard. The email was released adhering to GC’s official policy on sex offenders, stating that when Campus Safety is notified...
October 10, 2024
Letter to the Editor: The New ID Card Policy Isn’t That Bad
I’m a senior this year, and I’ve lived on campus with the original ID card policy for the last four years. I’ve also worked as a resident assistant for three of those years, and I’m happy with the new ID card policy. During my time as an RA on Yoder 1, all throughout the day, people would cut through the floor to get across campus. To me, my floor felt more like a glorified hallway than an actual residential space. This led to a number of really awkward and uncomfortable situations. When I would take a shower, I would walk...
September 19, 2024
PIN implements new ICC curriculum
Goshen College’s Prevention Intervention Network is a program that seeks to equip bystanders with tools to prevent and intervene in the context of sexual violence. PIN was created in 2014 by a driven group of students and associate professor of sociology Kendra Yoder, current co-advisor. Each year, PIN members collaborate to present sexual violence preventative training for first-years in their Identity, Culture, and Community classes. This year, PIN implemented a new curriculum for their bystander training. PIN co-advisor, Emily Hahn, who also serves as program director for interpersonal violence prevention, education and advocacy, created this new curriculum over the course...
September 12, 2024
GC focuses on safety this September
September is National Campus Safety Awareness Month and the campus safety staff at Goshen College are using the opportunity to promote student safety with various tips and activities. Chad Coleman, director of campus safety, explained that September was designated as Campus Safety Awareness Month by Congress back in 2008, but that this is the first year GC is using the designation in their promotions. Coleman said, “[f]or me every month is Campus Safety Awareness Month — but this year we decided to recognize [it] as part of some greater program and awareness initiatives. It seemed timely and apt.” Kris Polega,...
September 5, 2024
ID cards lose access
The beginning of a new school year has brought a significant change to how student ID cards work around campus. This change comes in the form of access; now students can only get on the floor or in the building that they live in. Previously, ID cards would allow access to any residence hall before 11 p.m. on weekdays and 1 a.m. on weekends. This change seeks to improve campus security, however, it poses potential problems for students trying to meet friends who live in a different building or floor. This change means that someone with a stolen ID card,...
April 4, 2024
A night with campus safety
I met Doug Crum at the campus safety desk at 11:56 p.m. on Saturday night. He was clocking in for an eight-hour shift, and was taking me along for the ride. Zeke Kingsbury was the safety office on duty that evening, so he gave Crum the rundown from his shift earlier that evening: “Not much to report,” he said. “Goshen Health called, they had reports of someone acting strange in their parking lot, black hoodie, red hat. They said he was headed our way but I never saw him.” As Crum settled into his shift, he turned to me. Crum...
February 2, 2023
Unknown man spotted in Kratz women’s bathroom
An unidentified man was sighted leaving the women’s bathroom on the second floor of Kratz Hall last week on Jan. 25. In the week since, rumors have circulated on campus about his identity and method of entry, and campus safety has been working with Res Life to get to the bottom of it. The man, described in a campus safety alert as “white with blonde hair” and “approximately 6 feet, 2 inches” remains unidentified. “[We] responded to the call to learn more details about this sighting,” said Chad Coleman, director of campus safety. “After taking a report from the RA,...
September 9, 2022
Mast joins Westlawn remodeling project
Goshen College is continuing Westlawn renovations this semester with a new director of facilities at the helm. Brian Mast will be overseeing the project alongside Cynthia Good Kaufmann, director of planning and events, and Ben Bontrager, vice president for operations. Last year, this project was headed by Bontrager and Good Kaufmann, the latter of whom served as interim facilities director. “When I was in that role, I was called director of everything because I also was director of events,” she said. Over the summer, the interim facilities director was split into the director of facilities position and the director of...
March 31, 2022
Campus safety officer a master of divinity and taekwondo
The Goshen College campus safety team can be seen monitoring campus, responding to calls, making rounds when campus buildings close and providing rides to those walking after dark. One officer, Kris Polega, has unique qualifications: a Master of Divinity and a black belt in taekwondo. In her second year in the position, Polega is a GC and Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary (AMBS) graduate. Polega grew up in Goshen and moved back to finish her college degree as a single mother with two children. “I came back to Goshen, which is where I grew up and where my mom was, so...
October 14, 2021
Bike thefts go unsolved
At least three bicycles were stolen from the Goshen College campus in the past month. Campus security and the Goshen City Police have yet to succeed at retrieving them. For years, bikes have been stolen from racks around campus, with incidences increasing in the fall months. While some students and community members suspect they know who is behind many of the thefts, campus safety and the police say there isn’t enough evidence to make accusations and instead tell bike owners to be more careful with their property. David Lopez, a junior sports management major, found the lock to his bike...
September 16, 2021
ResLife reinforces dry-campus policies
Residential students received an email about recent violations of GC’s dry campus rules from Residence Director Emily Hahn on Sept. 10. The email primarily focused on student’s alcohol consumption and stated that alcohol use “on campus and/or while underage is a violation of our community standards.” The message encouraged students to review the standards and think about the impact and consequences of their actions. According to Hahn, the motivation behind the email was twofold. It was partially due to increased reports of alcohol consumption on campus. “There were a lot of conversations,” she said, “a lot of people talking...
September 9, 2021
Diary of a missing bike
After biking over 3000 miles through thirteen states across the U.S. this summer, my bike was stolen on Saturday night. Although my bike is basically just a fancy piece of steel with bits of plastic and rubber, it feels strangely like a living, breathing creature. It creaks and groans when it’s tired, it whirs when it’s uncomfortable, and it squeaks when it’s wet. It has lots of character, thanks to dents and scratches, chipped paint, stickers and new parts that were added after a hard crash in Nebraska. My bike wasn’t just a handy mode of transportation, it was a...
March 18, 2021
Vandals strike campus for a second time
In another episode of vandalism, the underpass, Recreation-Fitness Center and Music Center were graffitied with obscenities, just weeks after the first incident. This time, though, Goshen College’s motion-sensored cameras were tripped, providing much more information about the vandals than the first time. Chad Coleman, director of student life operations, ran through the footage and filed a police report. He found that, at around 11:10 p.m. on Sunday, March 14, the same two individuals believed to have committed the first vandalism struck again. Video evidence solidifies previous assumptions that the two individuals are between 14 and 17 years old, male, of...
March 12, 2021
Recent vandalism on campus
Three weekends ago, the Goshen College campus was hit with what campus safety director Chad Coleman said was probably the “most blatant” and “biggest swath” of graffiti on campus that he has seen in his eighteen years here. Patrolling campus safety officers first noticed on March 20 that the underpass tunnel had been tagged, and later saw that other campus signs, Music Center walls, road signs along the bike path and sidewalks had also been graffitied. Coleman described the content of the graffiti as pretty “juvenile,” and not something he would expect anyone in the GC community to be a...