Race
September 19, 2024
Year three for GC as an HSI
Goshen College is entering the third year of its Hispanic Serving Institution designation and with that experience comes a more developed sense of what it means to be an HSI. As far as change goes, much of what the college has been able to achieve is thanks to a Title V federal grant for Developing Hispanic Serving Institution (DSHI) programs. Gilberto Pérez Jr., vice president for student life and Hispanic serving initiatives, as well as dean of students, explained that GC received $3 million to serve Hispanic students, as well as others who have been historically underserved. Jan Kauffman, assistant...
January 18, 2024
Millsaps celebrates ‘sheroes’
This past weekend, Goshen College celebrated the life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. with a variety of events surrounding this year’s theme: “Black Housing and Unsung Sheroes, Champions of Change in Elkhart County.” Cyneatha Millsaps, executive director of the center for community engagement and keynote speaker for MLK day, hoped that the weekend sparked meaningful conversations around campus. “I think we only move if we create spaces for us to have the tough conversations in which we can hear truth and listen and debate even,” Millsaps said. “I often know the things that I say challenge people, it is...
March 25, 2022
ASL panel highlights Black interpreters
90% of American Sign Language (ASL) interpreters are white, according to a 2018 report from the Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf. Last Saturday, a panel hosted by the Black Student Union (BSU) sought to raise awareness about the lack of interpreters of color and the challenges that they face. Karen Horvath, an interpreting instructor at GC, said, “As a profession, there is a struggle to recruit and to grow the diversity of the interpreters who serve the Deaf community. There is simply a lack of numbers.” The panel, titled “Through Our Eyes,” included six Black interpreters, all of whom...
November 11, 2021
Shands Stoltzfus’s new book discusses antiracist spirituality
Regina Shands Stoltzfus hasn’t opened her new book yet. She’s eagerly waiting on her co-author and longtime friend, Tobin Miller Shearer, to receive his box of copies. “Then we’re gonna get on Zoom and we’re gonna to open them together, like the nerds we are,” she said. The new book, “Been in the Struggle: Pursuing an Antiracist Spirituality,” is co-authored by Shands Stoltzfus, professor of peace, justice and conflict studies, and Miller Shearer, professor of history and African American studies at the University of Montana. “Been in the Struggle” seeks to promote the idea that “there can be a spiritual...
October 28, 2021
City works to acknowledge Sundown Town history
An effort is currently underway to erect a plaque on the lawn of the Goshen City Hall in acknowledgement of Goshen’s history as a sundown town. The Goshen Community Relations Commission (CRC) is considering installing the historical marker as part of a commitment to creating a more inclusive city. The term “sundown town” is the name given to towns that practiced the exclusion of people of color from an area after sundown. The practices barred people of color from owning property, starting families and living in certain areas through means of intimidation. The city of Goshen officially recognized its history...
April 29, 2021
‘Fear, pain and lack of shock’
The trial of Derek Chauvin in connection with the death of George Floyd started on March 29, and it brought back so many memories from May 25 and the weeks afterwards. The fear, the pain and the lack of shock. I haven’t been able to bring myself to actually watch the trial live, but I follow it through news nuggets from a few different places. This trial has me thinking about the increased racism towards the Asian American and Pacific Islander community. I can’t help but think about the pain, fear and possible lack of shock many AAPI people are...
April 16, 2021
Learning from the Past: Reflecting on Bloody Sunday
Restricting voting hours, denying water to those in line to vote, arresting those who disagree with the aforementioned conditions. Is this history from the 1960s, or an issue presented today? Some people would argue that it’s both. These issues are bigger than what’s happening in Georgia. It’s a social justice dilemma in general. While Republicans in Georgia and other states advocating for changes in voting say they are only trying to ensure the integrity of elections, Democrats and many other civil rights advocates disagree. Dr. Regina Shands Stoltzfus, Professor of PJCS at Goshen College, said she fears that this “oppression...
April 16, 2021
Sadie Ethridge’s journey for civil rights
On Feb.1, 1960, four African American men attending North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University began a movement that led to social change in the United States. Ezell A. Blair, Franklin E. McCain, Joseph A. McNeil and David L. Richmond took seats at the “whites-only” Woolworth’s lunch counter in downtown Greensboro, N.C., and ordered coffee. Woolworth’s employees refused to serve them and asked the students — later known as the Greensboro Four — to leave. They refused and remained until the store closed, but their protest caught fire. Others joined their sit-in over the coming days, sparking similar protests throughout...
April 15, 2021
The illusion of a diverse campus
At the start of the 2020-21 school year, 45% of the Goshen College student body identified as non-white, and 76% of students identified as non-Mennonite. But a decline in the number of white, Mennonite students on campus – the majority demographic at GC for the last 117 years – is not mirrored by an increasingly diversified teaching faculty. Only seven percent of current full-time teaching faculty identify as non-white. In the past, Mennonite schools required that 85% of the teaching faculty have Mennonite affiliations. That has only changed in the last 20 years, said President Rebecca Stoltzfus. The 2020 statistics...
February 11, 2021
February is black history month
The shortest month of the year hosts a number of celebrations: Mardi Gras, Valentine’s Day, Presidents Day, even the Super Bowl is in February. Though my focus every year is on Black History Month. Black History Month dates back to 1970 when Black educators and students first celebrated it from Jan. 2 to Feb. 28 of that year. It would become a national holiday six years later when former President Gerald Ford recognized it in 1976. I cannot speak to what this month means to other people, but to me, it’s a time to remember Black people that we do...
October 15, 2020
Bias Matters webinar to focus on race
Goshen College’s office of diversity, equity and inclusion launched its first webinar in a four-part series titled “Bias Matters: a campus conversation in four weeks” last Wednesday, Oct. 7. The webinar seeks to provide space for those in the GC community to better understand bias and the implications of how it shows up in individual and community interactions. “The whole series kind of evolved as an answer to the question that we've heard over the summer, or when other issues of social injustice have arisen, whether they are nationally or locally,” said LaKendra Hardware, director of diversity, equity and inclusion....
October 8, 2020
Tackling anti-racism with Kendi : a book review
Sitting down to read a book about anti-racism might sound frightening and uncomfortable. Trust me, as a peace, justice and conflict studies major, I get it. This work is tough, but it’s necessary, and everyone has a role to play in challenging systems of oppression. I read How To Be An Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi during the long summer, as the country was reacting to the death of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and the many other Black Americans who have been harmed by police brutality. How To Be An Antiracist is a comprehensive yet accessible dive into race studies...
October 8, 2020
GC alumnus talks decolonizing service work
The Goshen College Alumni Council and Yoder Public Affairs Committee hosted Shashi Buluswar ‘91, last Thursday, Oct. 1 during Homecoming, as a part of the new series: GC Talks. Buluswar, CEO of the Institute for Transformative Technologies and a 2020 Culture for Service awardee, presented on the history of international service work and how it came to exist in the form most widely recognized today, which he says has included a shift away from reliance on foreign aid agencies. When Buluswar first arrived at Goshen College as a business and computer science major, the idea of culture for service was...
September 3, 2020
First-year clas s boasts historical non-white majority
At 198 full-time students, Goshen College’s incoming first-year class is significantly larger than last year’s 160, and is the first incoming class in Goshen College history with a student body that is not majority white. The make-up of the 2020 first-year class is as follows: 46% white, 32% Hispanic, 5% nonresident alien, 4% Black or African American, 3% Asian, 3% of two or more races, 1% American Indian or Alaska Native, and 6% of unknown race or ethnicity. “The fact that we have a student body that is more representative of the diversity in the community around Goshen is really...
September 3, 2020
Racial equality books chosen with ‘intentional focus’
The nonfiction section at the Good Library has always highlighted stories of our current times. This semester, the fight for racial equality will be at the forefront. After a grant from Indiana Humanities was awarded to Goshen College, Fritz Hartman, library director, began the hunt for 63 books, among a list of 300, to add to the library’s collection. The Advancing Racial Equity Collection Development grant from Indiana Humanities is a one- time $1,000 grant to help with purchasing books on racial equality and anti-racism. “It should be noted that the people who selected these materials were no slouches,” Hartman...