Campus Safety
February 12, 2014
Grounds Crew Plows a Record Number of Days
Imagine going to work 22 days in a row. This is a reality for the Kennard Martin, Willie Deegan and Craig Johnson, whose jobs have become a round-the-clock responsibility. Martin, Deegan and Johnson are the three members of the Goshen College grounds department, and are responsible in the winter for keeping campus sidewalks clear of snow and ice. Due to continuous amounts of heavy snow and ice, the department has worked a record number of 22 days straight since the beginning of the semester. “We get called in about 3:30 in the morning,” said Johnson, department supervisor. “We’re supposed to...
February 12, 2014
When Snow Falls Late, Some Wake Up Early
“When most students think of an on-campus job, they don’t think of waking up at 5:30 in the morning, when it’s below zero outside, and working,” said Craig Johnson, the new supervisor of the snow shoveling crew for Goshen College campus. Every time a heavy snow hits, a group of between four and nine students gets up early to clear the sidewalks and entries around campus buildings. This year, they have worked through “probably the most difficult winter I can remember,” said Johnson. A typical snow morning would look something like this: Mr. Johnson calls his list of nine students...
January 29, 2014
Temperature drop causes third snow day in campus history
Goshen College doesn’t shut down campus very often. The last time this happened was February 2, 2011, and before that during the Great Blizzard of 1978. This 2014 winter has proven exceptionally bitter on more than one occasion. For the first week of classes this semester, GC students struggled to get to Goshen while temperatures were around negative 40 with wind-chill, and some places were piled with three feet of snow from the wind and drift. On January 27, the Elkhart County commissioners declared a “State of Emergency” at 7:30 a.m., which expired at 10 p.m. Tuesday morning. All over...
January 15, 2014
We’ll Get There in “Snow Time”: Extreme Weather Hinders Student Returns
With a storm adding 9.3 inches of snow, extreme sub-zero temperatures, as well as a “state of emergency” declared in Elkhart County, the spring semester at Goshen College began with an interesting twist. On January 5 an email from Bill Born, vice president of student life, informed students of a “state of emergency,” preventing people from driving on the roads. Born recommended that students “plan to arrive sometime during the day on Tuesday.” With campus closed on Monday and a strong recommendation to stay off of the roads, GC students needed to plan their return to campus around the weather. Ammon...
September 25, 2013
A rude awakening
For three of the four weekends KMY students have been on campus, they have been awakened by fire alarms, forcing sleepers out of their beds and outside in the wee hours of Sunday morning. Although the alarms have gone off a few times in other buildings on campus, the alarms in the KMY dorms have been consistently set off early in the morning and without identification of the person who pulled the alarm. Katie Dwyer-Zeman and Neil Friesen, current RLD's of the KMY dorms, are just two of the many people that have to respond each time the alarm is...
September 25, 2013
Even locked, bike owners suffer
Kara Hostetter, a sophomore, locked her new bicycle under the awning at the Recreation Fitness Center to keep it out of the rain, but when she returned a few days later on Sunday, Sept. 6 to retrieve it, the bike was gone. “I had it locked up on that rack,” she said. “I don’t know if it was cut, but I assume so.” Hostetter is one of the four victims of reported bicycle thefts that have taken place on campus since classes began in early September. According to Al Mackowiak, director of campus safety and security, two of the other...
November 9, 2012
Campus security still strong under swipe system
It has been about one year since Goshen College restructured campus security. The major changes brought on by the restructuring were the implementation of the entry card system and creating an “in-house” security team instead of contracting with a security firm. The entry card system in use around campus was launched last year but the system was not without downfalls. “It’s great to have in place, but anytime you implement things of that magnitude there are going to be issues that you address throughout the year,” said Bill Born, vice president for student life. One of the most notable changes...
April 11, 2012
Glad to be alive: Goshen College Security Officer Tells Her Story
“Three minutes hon!” she warns the last student in the Leaf Raker at 8:57 on a Thursday night. Her keys, 14 on a single key ring, jiggle as she walks around in her Goshen College Security uniform (grey shirt and black pants). Anderson’s lock-up routine begins at 8:45 every night. She starts off at the Leaf Raker and fills up her orange water bottle with diet Pepsi, saddened that the soda machines on campus don’t offer diet Coke, her favorite drink. She then continues to the Science Building, the Administration Building, and the cafeteria. When she is done locking up...
March 28, 2012
Goshen College in good company with colleges turning to underpasses
Goshen College isn’t the only college where train whistles interrupt professors mid-sentence. Trains cross more than 25 college campuses, according to a forum posted on the website for Trains Magazine. At Grinnell College, a private liberal arts college in Iowa, a railroad divides the residential campus from the academic campus. A railroad separates the sports complex from the main campus at Messiah College in Pennsylvania, also a private liberal arts university. A freight train runs through the center of James Madison University in Virginia. At the University of Louisville in Kentucky, a train track even separates the two buildings...
January 19, 2012
Campus security moves to Rec Center
This semester campus security has a new home base in the Recreation-Fitness Center. Located directly behind the R.F.C. ticket booth, the new office is considered to be an improvement over campus security’s previous location in the Union Building. An increase in space and visibility were cited as the primary reasons for the move. “The Union location was dated and not very professional,” said Bill Born, vice president for student affairs. “It was also far removed from much campus visibility and campus traffic between 4 p.m. and 8 a.m., the routine weekday shifts.” Al Mackowiak, director of campus safety and security...
November 9, 2011
Campus alcohol policy, revisited
About five percent of the nation's four-year college students are involved with the police or campus security as a result of their drinking, according to the government website collegedrinkingprevention.gov. Bill Born, Vice President of Student Life and dean of students, explains the simplicity of Goshen College’s alcohol policy: “Alcohol policy on campus is most simply stated as the fact that we are an alcohol-free campus, so any presence of alcohol on campus is a problem, in addition to drunkenness and behavior associated with intoxication.” Traditionally, consuming alcohol off-campus has been an option for older students. Born said that “anytime you move...
October 12, 2011
Goshen detective to lead in-house security team
Goshen College will resume direct management of its security force this fall under the direction of a long-time Goshen Police Department detective. In August, Goshen College hired Al Mackowiak, a veteran of Goshen’s police force, to head up the security restructuring as director of campus safety and security. Mackowiak, a South Bend native, sees this position as a natural extension of his commitment to safety in the city of Goshen. “I’ve always enjoyed Goshen’s campus,” he said. “I often jog through here or attend ball games. So when the opportunity arose, I took advantage of it.” During Mackowiak’s 35 years...
September 7, 2011
Changes in campus security signal start of new era
Students returning to Goshen College will have noticed some changes in campus security that are the first steps in an overall shake-up of the college's security. The changes are being implemented on recommendations made by a campus safety and security task force that was formed two years ago. The task force suggested some changes in security to better serve students and faculty. The changes suggested by the task force included the addition of swipe-card security systems and the gradual shift in campus security from a service that was traditionally outsourced by the college to a new in-house security service. Currently...
March 23, 2011
Dormitory doors unlocked after two-month lockdown
The Kratz, Miller, Yoder resident directors announced on Wednesday, March 23, that the dormitories will no longer be locked 24/7, as they have been since the reported abduction and assault on Jan. 18. Starting today, Thursday, March 24, the doors will be unlocked from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m., with opposite-sex visitation hours remaining from noon to 11 p.m. on weekdays and from noon to midnight on weekends. After Elkhart County investigators found conflicting evidence last Monday, March 14, proving the reported January abduction and assault to be false, Student Life and students engaged in conversation to reevaluate the locked...
March 23, 2011
Lightning strikes student apartments
What began as a theatrical thunderstorm on Sunday evening soon became a serious ordeal for students living in the student apartments. The apartments experienced a lightning strike at 10:45 p.m. during a storm that hit the Goshen area. Though no students were injured in the strike, the building’s system endured immediate damage. At least 16 apartments lost heat control, and the fire alarm system and automatic doors stopped working. In addition, several ITS data machines experienced damage, causing a loss of internet connection. Student residents also felt effects from the strike. Mary Bachman and David Jost, both juniors, could smell...