On Sept. 5, anxiety fell upon many in the Goshen community as President Donald Trump ordered the end of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. Since its conception in 2012, approximately 800,000 young people have benefited from DACA, including a handful of Goshen College students. The policy allowed young adults who were brought into the United States at a young age the opportunity to work and study in the US legally without fear of immediate deportation. Now, according to the New York Times, officials said that DACA recipients could become eligible for deportation as early as March 2018....

By Abby King • September 14, 2017 • News

Community members and college students sat together at tables on Sunday, Feb. 12 for a huddle, raising their concerns for the future and thinking of practical solutions. The huddle was organized by Joelle Friesen and Morgan Short, both seniors, and was an action following the Women’s March on Washington D.C. and the sister marches that happened in January. “The huddle was inspired by and based off of the second action proposed by the Women’s March Movement for their ‘10 Actions in 100 Days’ campaign,” said Friesen. “We saw the huddle as a way to build further connections and provide a...

By Elsa Lantz • February 16, 2017 • News

“Hoping and praying for the best, but planning for the worst.” That’s what Richard Aguirre, director of corporate and foundation relations, is doing in the days before Donald Trump is inaugurated. Aguirre and Jose Chiquito, a first-year, were invited to speak at a press conference in South Bend with the Community Coalition for Immigration Reform and St. Joe Valley Jobs with Justice. On Jan. 14, Chiquito and Aguirre spoke in support of DACA, the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program that Trump plans on repealing. “It was an honor to be able to speak at a gathering that was part...

By Jordan Waidelich • January 19, 2017 • News

This coming Saturday, Jan. 21, people across the United States will be participating in the Women’s March on Washington. This march is planned to take place in major cities all around the U.S., the day after President-elect Donald Trump is set to be sworn into office. The goal of the Women’s March on Washington is to make heard the voices of those threatened by the rhetoric of the winning candidate of this past election cycle: women, Muslims, members of the LGBTQ+ community and many more. “It is also a statement that equality matters to more than just ‘feminists,’” said Beth...

By Josh Stoltzfus • January 19, 2017 • News

In support of undocumented immigrant students, President Brenneman has signed a statement that calls for the continuation of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. Along with 424 other college presidents, Brenneman wanted to show his support for students with DACA status. He also wanted to make a public statement on behalf of Goshen College. “We want to be especially alert and advocate for the continuation of the program,” he said. In the next few days, Brenneman plans to share a public letter to the campus community regarding the college’s commitment to all students, especially those that are vulnerable....

By Jordan Waidelich • December 1, 2016 • News

Tears and frustration filled the Church-Chapel on Wednesday as students and faculty gathered to discuss the results of the presidential election. Provost Ken Newbold opened the convocation, saying that he hoped words of healing and reconciliation would come from the panelists: Jordan Waidelich and Alma Rosa, both seniors, and Ben Wiebe, a third-year student. “[We are here to] find a way to unify and find a way to come together and provide a place for conversation,” Newbold said. Waidelich began the discussion, pointing out the anger that has consumed this election. “We can’t ignore all of the pain and anger...

By Abby King • November 10, 2016 • News

Believe it or not, most Republicans are not pious, nor are most Democrats godless. Well at least not according to Ryan Claassen, a Kent State University professor and Goshen College alum who delivered the Yoder Public Affairs Lecture on Tuesday night. The lecture, titled “Godless Democrats and Pious Republicans? Party Activists, Party Capture and the ‘God Gap,’” is a condensed version of Claassen’s book, which reviews past views of the Republican and Democratic parties and analyzes the idea that frequent church visits can influence one to identify with more Republican ideals, otherwise known as the “God Gap.” The lecture hoped...

By Abby King • September 15, 2016 • News

The first of the 2016 presidential Democratic debates took place last night, featuring Secretary of State Hillary Clinton; Senator Bernie Sanders; Martin O’Malley, governor of Maryland; Jim Webb, former secretary of the Navy; and Senator Lincoln Chafee. The candidates debated current hot political issues including gun control, immigration, the Keystone XL, involvement in Syria, the Black Lives Matter movement, social security, and much more. Many of these same topics were covered in previous GOP primary debates in August and September, which focused on foreign policy and immigration among other subjects. Although there’s often a sense of disillusionment among today’s college...

By Grace Weaver • October 15, 2015 • Features

Multilingual Ukrainian custodian joins community of local Europeans Svitlana Meyta works as a custodian at Goshen College but she could just as well be an interpreter. She can speak both Russian and Ukrainian. Every morning she vacuums the floors of Good Library, the Science building, Wyse Hall and other buildings on the Goshen College campus. But when she talks to her custodial colleague Valentyna Naumchuk, English is scarcely heard. Instead the conversation flows in Russian from Meyta to Naumchuk, who responds back in Ukrainian. Whereas Meyta arrived in the U.S. from Charkov, a city in eastern Ukraine where the Russian...

By Michaela Krydova • March 19, 2014 • Features

Daniel Philpott, associate professor of political science and peace studies at the Kroc Institute for Peace Studies at University of Notre Dame, will be visiting campus for his lecture “Reconciliation in Politics? On the Meaning of Justice in the Wake of Massive Injustice” on Tuesday, Feb. 5, at 7:30 p.m. in Reith Recital Hall as a guest of the Yoder Public Affairs Lecture Series. The event is free and open to the public. Philpott will be visiting Joe Liechty’s Reconciliation course on Tuesday from 3:30 to 5 p.m. to discuss his book “Just and Unjust Peace: An Ethic of Reconciliation,”...

By Liz Core • January 30, 2013 • News

Puerto Rico could become the 51st state if politics don’t get in the way. On Nov. 6 Puerto Ricans voted in a non-binding referendum to change their status as a commonwealth of the United States. The most popular alternative was statehood, but local complications, as well as a split Congress, could prevent any changes to the current status for the time being. Were Puerto Rico to become a state it would receive two senators and five or six representatives in the House of Representatives. The number of representatives is capped at 435, which means other states will lose representatives in order...

By Jeffrey Moore • November 15, 2012 • Features

On Tuesday evening, a federal appeals court in California declared that Proposition 8, which outlawed same-sex marriage, was unconstitutional. The court ruled that the ballot measure violated the 14th Amendment by discriminating against a set group of people, the gay and lesbian community. I wouldn’t be surprised if this case is eventually presented to the United States Supreme Court, as the issue of homosexuality is one that tears apart churches, homes, relationships and unsatisfactory marriages. In the end, I don’t see this latest decision on Proposition 8 being overturned by the Supreme Court, for a variety of reasons. Homosexuality is...

By Matthew Amstutz • February 9, 2012 • Features

Newt Gingrich is going to the moon. At least, if he becomes the Republican Candidate, and gets elected president … twice. Then, after all that, we’ve got a lunar party, baby! Earlier this week, Gingrich promised that “by the end of my second term we will have the first permanent base on the moon.” Gingrich hopes that, in 2020, the lunar base will have become a colony and perhaps even have enough inhabitants to apply as the 51st state of the union. First of all, this sounds straight up fantastic. I absolutely love science fiction and would be ecstatic if...

By Matthew Amstutz • February 2, 2012 • Features

  A yellow piece of cloth and a red poster don’t usually say much about a person, but in the case of Ryan Troyer and Garrett Cannizzo, they certainly do. On the wall of the men’s apartment living room hangs a yellow Revolutionary War flag with a snake in the middle and a line of text underneath which reads “Don’t tread on me.” Across from the yellow flag is a TV, on which the film “For the Love of the Game” plays, and a huge red poster from Rawlings—a sports equipment company that specializes in baseball gear. Although they might...

By Bojana Jankova • November 30, 2011 • Features

Allan Kauffman, the Democratic incumbent, defeated the Republican challenger, Don Riegsecker, in a race for an unprecedented fourth term as mayor of Goshen. Kauffman pledged to serve the four-year term and then retire. Kauffman received 3,700 votes, compared with 2,523 for Riegsecker. For City Council, the Republican Party maintained a 4-3 majority. Republicans Jim McKee won District 1; Edward A. Ahlersmeyer II, District II; Dixie A. Robinson, District 3; and Brett F. Weddell, District 5. Democratic incumbent Julia Gautsche led the race for District 4 and Everett Thomas took District 5. At 6 a.m. on Tuesday morning, the Goshen community...

By Liz Core • November 9, 2011 • News