Campus Safety
March 17, 2011
Prosecutor charges female with felony obstruction
Elkhart County Prosecutor Curtis Hill announced on Monday that he will file felony obstruction charges on the former Goshen College student, age 19, of Elkhart, who reported that she was abducted from the college campus and sexually assaulted at Shanklin Park on Jan. 18. "During the course of the investigation, detectives became suspicious of the veracity of the reported attack due to contradictory information developed through the investigation," said Hill in a video on eTruth.com. According to an article in the Elkhart Truth, detectives found evidence that the former student was socializing with a friend in a neighboring county during the time...
March 10, 2011
Coffman robbed amidst heightened security
At exactly 6:02 am on Tuesday, Mar. 1, Lucas Nafziger woke to a peculiar noise coming from the 4th floor of Coffman Suites above him. It sounded as if people were moving objects around, suspicious for both the time of day and the lack of present residents due to Spring Break. Disturbed but not thinking much of it, Nafziger rolled over and went back to sleep. It was only later that morning when walking by the empty spot where his television once stood that he realized something was truly amiss: the apartment had been robbed. An unknown person or several...
February 10, 2011
Bomb squad removes World War I ordnance from Archives
The Goshen Police Department bomb squad removed two large caliber shells, one hand grenade and one small bomb from Goshen’s campus just after 9 a.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 8. Colleen McFarland, a new archivist at the Mennonite Church USA Historical Committee Archives (located on campus next to Newcomer Center) found the World War I ordnance artifacts in a box a week earlier as she was going through the Archives. As the Goshen Police removed the ordnance, Newcomer Center was evacuated for 90 minutes. Later that day, the police found the items to be inert. No one was injured in the...
February 5, 2011
Vandal destroys three light poles on campus
After two instances of light pole vandalism last semester, three other poles were destroyed on Saturday night or early Sunday morning. This year there has been more expensive vandalism than there has been in the past, though not necessarily more vandalism in general. Each pole costs around $220 to replace or repair. “Ultimately, these costs have to come from somewhere,” said Chad Coleman, resident director, “and it's unfortunate that other areas of the college's interests are impacted by these unaccounted hits on the overall budget.” One of the poles knocked down was between Newcomer and the Union, one between the...
February 5, 2011
Women on campus Take Back the Night after last week’s assault
The assault of a student almost two weeks ago has left the GC campus community feeling a bit different. There has been little progress on finding a suspect and students and staff may be feeling unsafe. In order to deal with the changing dynamics, new policies have been put in place, leaving students with mixed emotions. In Kratz, Miller, Yoder, Kulp, and Coffman, floor doors are remaining locked at all times. This hassle has been deemed necessary by Student Life due to the open nature of the Goshen College campus. Student Life has strongly discouraged students from walking alone, especially...
January 20, 2011
Campus responds after student assault
The recent sexual assault of a Goshen College student has forced the college to reconsider security measures on campus. The college initially responded to the attack the college requested that the Goshen Police provide extra patrols on and nearby campus. It is unknown at this point if the police patrol will be permanent, said Bill Born, vice president of Student Life. The security staff also increased and will be available to provide safety escorts at night to locations on campus. The college is still deciding about the permanence of these added security measures. “The campus isn’t forced to think about...
November 17, 2010
Fall semester marks increase in student violations
The number of student violations so far this year is significantly higher compared to the number at this time last year. As of Nov. 17 there have been a total of 17 alcohol violations, 10 of which occurring on campus and seven of which involving police arrests. In addition, there have been five violations related to illegal drugs. By Nov, 17, 2009, there were nine alcohol violations, no arrests and no drug-related violations. According to Bill Born, vice president of student life, there have been no changes in GC's disciplinary policy or approaches by student life to more strictly enforce...
October 14, 2010
Annual crime report updated
The Goshen College annual crime report was recently updated to include crimes that took place during 2009 and GC students and employees were notified on Tuesday. The crime report covers categories of crime required by federal law, including criminal offenses, arrests and fires. The report introduction states that the college also experiences larceny—thefts, vandalism or presence of suspicious persons on campus—on an annual basis, although these statistics are not included in the crime report required by law. According to Launa Rohrer, associate dean of students, larceny statistics are available in the crime log located in the student life office. “We...
September 30, 2010
Textbook theft – laptops aren’t the only thing you should lock up
Goshen College already experienced its first reported case of textbook theft this fall, proving that, like every other school, it is not immune to this type of crime. Linda Schlabach Miller, bookstore manager, said these thefts started getting reported last spring, but doesn't know whether there were unreported crimes before that. There were about six cases last spring, with only one so far this year. In this fall's incident, the books were recovered and the culprit was identified, although this is not always the case. “Once a book is stolen, it's really hard to recover it,” said Schlabach Miller. The likelihood...
September 15, 2010
Goshen Police to begin patrolling Witmer Woods, College Cabin
The Goshen Police Department will begin patrolling Witmer Woods and the College Cabin starting this weekend. According to Bill Born, vice president for student life, the idea began when Student Life discussed broader security issues with the Goshen Police Department about three weeks ago. Assistant Operations Chief Kyle Priem offered to add Witmer Woods and the College Cabin to the list of Goshen areas that police officers patrol at night. “It’s really no different than our requests that (Goshen Police) patrol our parking lots, which we’re grateful for,” said Born. “In that regard it’s not a new thing, but it...
October 7, 2009
GC responds to off-campus house break-in: campus security heightened
Goshen College is increasing campus security in light of an unidentified man who entered an off-campus house shortly after midnight on Tuesday, Sept. 29. The incident is under investigation by the Goshen Police Department, which has not released a sketch or description of the man. “We’ve increased patrols in the area,” said Captain Jere Bigler, a detective on the police force. After being called to the scene on the night of the intrusion, Bigler said they were not able to collect any forensic evidence leading to a suspect. Chad Coleman, a resident director for the college, has asked police to...