Sexual assault
February 20, 2025
Cupid’s Chokehold
On Friday, Feb. 14, students gathered in Newcomer 19 for a workshop titled “Cupid’s Chokehold: The Realities of Sexual Asphyxiation.” Hosted by Leah Kurz, a member of the Family Justice Center of St. Joseph County, the meeting aimed to educate students on the risks associated with the topic. Emily Hahn, program director of interpersonal violence prevention, education and advocacy, was the event organizer. She spoke about the importance of bringing such discussions to the college’s environment. “It’s so important for the general safety standpoint, there’s so much not known about this topic and it’s important that our students are informed...
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...
February 23, 2023
Hahn steps into new director position
Emily Hahn stepped into a new position on Jan. 3 at Goshen College: She is now the program director of sexual assault prevention, education and advocacy. Hahn was previously the full-time Residence Director (RD) of Kratz Residence Hall and Kulp Residence Hall, but she has been splitting her time between the two jobs this semester. The new position has been created and funded by a three-year grant that GC received in October 2022 from the Office on Violence Against Women, a branch of the U.S. Department of Justice. The grant is intended to improve an institution’s ability to handle the...
March 29, 2019
Clothesline and Bandana Project combine for the first time
Walking through Schrock Plaza this week, one won't be able to ignore the T-shirts and bandanas strung across the square. The Clothesline Project, which began at Goshen College in 2004, is a part of Sexual Assault Awareness Week and is hosted by the Goshen Student Women’s Association (GSWA). Past members of the Goshen community wrote on and/or decorated T-shirts which are then hung on clotheslines surrounding Schrock Plaza each year. The T-shirts are filled with the stories, emotions and responses of those who have been affected by sexual assault. This year, for the first time, GSWA collaborated with...
March 29, 2019
Nicoletti-Martinez invites ‘everybody to the table’ in sexual assault prevention
A presentation on Tuesday evening given by Kimber Nicoletti-Martinez, MSW, LCSW and director of the Multicultural Efforts to End Sexual Assault (MESA) program at Purdue University, marked the beginning of events and workshops held at Goshen College for Sexual Assault Awareness Month. The presentation entitled “Inviting Everyone to the Table in Sexual Prevention Work” was held in the Umber Center. The event was sponsored by PIN, GSWA, Student Senate and Student Life. For over 20 years, Nicoletti-Martinez has been an advocate of social justice for migrant farm workers, Latinx immigrant communities and other marginalized populations. As the founder...
October 24, 2018
Title IX Committee to release sexual misconduct reports
In 2017, three counts of forcible sexual offenses were documented on the Goshen College campus, according to the Annual Campus Safety Report. In 2016, four counts of the same offense were documented in the report. But according to Beth Martin Birky, special assistant to the provost for Title IX, those seven offenses are only the incidents that occurred between January 2016 and December 2017 that fit the narrow definitions of crime specified by the Clery law and do not represent the total number of sexual misconduct reports on the Goshen College campus within the past two years. In fact, Birky...
April 5, 2018
#MeToo informs about sexual violence on campus
Students gathered in the church-chapel for convocation last Wednesday to discuss the impact of sexual violence on Goshen College’s campus. The convocation was inspired by the #MeToo campaign — a movement started originally by civil rights activist Tarana Burke in 2006, but popularized by actress Alyssa Milano following the sexual violence accusations against Harvey Weinstein during the fall of 2017. Many women posted the hashtag #MeToo on social media, often with an added story of sexual violence they experienced. Beth Martin Birky, Title IX deputy coordinator and professor of English, made it clear that while the #MeToo campaign was often...
November 16, 2017
Title IX committee roles shift
As stated in an announcement from the Provost’s office last week, there have been some changes to the Title IX committee. This committee guides the process of sexual assault and misconduct reporting on campus. Effective November 10, the roles of two long-time faculty members and sexual violence advocates will be shifting: Beth Martin Birky, professor of English and director of women’s and gender studies, will become a member of the committee as a deputy coordinator. Regina Shands Stoltzfus, professor of peace, justice, and conflict studies, will move into Birky’s previous role as faculty advocate. The Title IX committee consists of...
October 12, 2017
Annual report records on-campus sexual offenses
The 2017 Annual Campus Safety Report and Crime Statistics document showed Goshen College as reporting four accounts of “forcible sex offenses.” While some may see it as regression for GC, others see it as the campus progressing. Goshen College President Ken Newbold said: “Through the work with students, we enhanced our website... and added some functionality for reporting sexual misconduct, as well as racial misconduct. With that, we have better information and with better information we can report with greater accuracy and I think that was the biggest change this year. We’ve had more reports, which is good because then...
September 29, 2016
Take Back the Night Preview
This Friday, students will move in procession across campus with candles in hand to support survivors of sexual violence. Goshen Student Women’s Association (GSWA) will be hosting Take Back the Night – an event that hopes to help the women of Goshen College reclaim their position on campus and demand safety from sexual violence for all students. “It’s about saying that as women, we are here on campus,” said Mimi Salvador, one of the many leaders of GSWA. “And we recognize that women here come from many different cultural backgrounds. We want to acknowledge all women for who they are,...
September 29, 2016
GC works towards awareness
This week is Sexual Violence Awareness Week (SVAW) on the Goshen College campus. Led by different members of Goshen Student Women’s Association (GSWA), an event has been held each day of the week to raise awareness, spark conversation and show solidarity in regards to sexual violence. On Monday night, students worked to set up the Clothesline Project in Schrock Plaza. This project, which has been set up in years past on GC’s campus, allows students to “air out their dirty laundry.” Originally started in 1990 to address the issue of violence against women, the project provides a space for women...
September 29, 2016
Women’s Work: The Clothesline Project
“Hear my prayer, O Lord. Let my cry for help come to you.” “I am tired of being afraid.” “We will not be silent.” “Where was god that night?” “She no longer hangs her head in silence – her chin is up. She no longer hides her missing teeth – her beautiful smile shines. Her confidence will rise.” “I am stronger than vengeance. I am stronger than hatred. I am not allowing what you did to define who I am. I am strong enough to forgive you.” These are the stories of our mothers, our sisters, our friends, our peers,...
September 22, 2016
PIN program expands
Laura Miller, Sarah Hofkamp and Zach Zimmerman, all seniors, are determined to make Goshen College a safe community for everyone – no exceptions. This summer, as Maple Scholars, Miller, Hofkamp and Zimmerman teamed up with Beth Martin Birky, a professor of English and women and gender studies, and Kendra Yoder, a professor of social work, to improve Goshen’s Prevention Intervention Network. PIN is a student group that aims to empower bystanders to intervene and stop sexual assault, harassment and rape. “[PIN] wants to expand,” said Yoder, the faculty advisor of PIN. “We want to have a 100 percent trained student...
January 21, 2016
Student Safety Team makes Title IX demands
Goshen College’s Functional Immediate Response Student Safety Team (FIRSST) has submitted a list of demands to the college’s Title IX Committee concerning the school’s policies regarding sexual violence and assault. According to Association of Title IX Administrators (ATIXA) from 2015, while in college, one in five college women experience physical sexual violence or assault and 43 percent experience some type of “violent or abusive dating behaviors.” More than 40 percent of LBGTQIA+ or non-binary college students say they have “experienced intimate partner violence” and the website Know Your IX reports 1 in 20 college men will be physically sexually assaulted...
September 17, 2015
Panel discusses gender realities
As a part of Sexual Violence Awareness week, a panel of four students and a graduate of Goshen College discussed their own gender realities and how they have grown, changed and developed during their time on campus. Led by Natalie Thorne, a junior, and Erin Bergen, a sophomore, Tuesday’s panel produced discussion of a range of themes, including both male and female sexual violence, gender fluidity and the roles that women and men are expected to play in other countries, as well as many others. Jacob Putnam, a senior, discussed the struggles of growing up with locker-room talk and how...