Goshen College

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**Goshen College**

Motto	Culture For Service
Established	1894
Type	private coeducational liberal arts
Endowment	$95.8 million^[1]
President	Dr. James Brenneman
Faculty	70
Students	922
Location	Goshen, IN, USA
Campus	large town: 135 acres (0.5 km²) 1,150 acre Merry Lea Environmental Learning Center, Florida Keys Research Laboratory, Brunk's Cabin
Athletics	14 Division II NAIA teams, called Maple Leafs
Website	www.goshen.edu

Goshen College is a Mennonite liberal arts college in Goshen, Indiana with an enrollment of around 1,000 students. The college is accredited by North Central Association of Colleges and Schools and is a member of the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities. Goshen College is owned by Mennonite Church USA.

Goshen's Study Service Term (SST), probably its best-known program, takes students overseas for three months. Their time is split between the study of the nation's language and culture, and performing volunteer service. The program was pioneering when it was founded in 1968 before study abroad programs became widespread.

Home to the Mennonite Quarterly Review and the Mennonite Historical Library, a 68,000 volume library compiling the most comprehensive collection of Anabaptist material in the United States.

Goshen tends to maintain a fairly steady 55/45 ratio of women to men and of Mennonite to other affiliations.^[2] The campus radio station is WGCS, branded as 91.1 The Globe.

1 History
2 See also
3 Notes
4 Pictures
5 External links

[edit] History

Goshen College is the second^[3] oldest currently operational Mennonite school of higher education in North America. "Old" Mennonites had traditionally been suspicious of higher education, however by the late 19th century, opinion started to change. Decades earlier US mainline church denominations had started on a spree of founding colleges across America with hopes of developing well trained clergy for their congregations. As more "Old" Mennonites sent their children to other Christian colleges, they realized that without a college of their own, many of their youth would leave the church. Thus, prompted in part as a reaction to mainline Christianity, the "Old" Mennonites started the Elkhart Institute in Elkhart, Indiana in August 1894 to prepare Mennonite youth for college. Because of this vision, even though Goshen is today a liberal arts college, its historical relationship with the Mennonite Church has had a lasting impact which is still very visible today.

Goshen College in the early 1900s

H.A. Mumaw, a practicing physician, first conducted the small operation. In 1895, a group of 15 "Old" Mennonite ministers and laymen started a corporation which they named the Elkhart Institute association. The first diploma was handed out in 1898. Lured by businessmen to relocate several miles away to Goshen, Indiana, the Institute moved in September of 1903 and added a junior college course list, renaming itself Goshen College. By 1906, the Mennonite Board of Education took control of the college, dissolving the Elkhart Institute Association. A complete college course was established in 1908 and the first Bachelor of Arts degrees were conferred in 1910. The Academy program of Goshen College was discontinued in 1935, however after 1910, most of Goshen's students were enrolled in college courses.

The school closed down during the 1923-1924 school year due to many problems, but reopened the following year. One of many factors in closing the college was do to the larger liberalism and fundamentalist theology of the 1920s, which also affected Mennonite theology. In response to this crisis, many of the Goshen's faculty relocated to Bluffton College, now Bluffton University. When the institution was reopened, it was marked by the new leadership of Harold S. Bender, a man whose influence upon the "Old" Mennonites was significant for much of the 20th Century. Bender carefully piloted the stormy waters of theology by stating after Goshen College reopened that Mennonitism was not liberalism. Bender later went on to say that Fundamentalism also contributed to problems with theology, and created the The Anabaptist Vision, a "third way" which sought to spell out the direction for the future Mennonite Church. Throughout this time, Goshen remained the epicenter of "Old" Mennonite theology and higher education.

Several years ago, the college instituted five core values that would become the vision of the college. These five values: Christ-centered, Passionate learners, Global citizens, Compassionate peacemakers, and Servant leaders continue to define the college's future.

[edit] See also

List of Goshen College people

[edit] Notes

^ Mennonite College Endowments Substandard Mennonite Weekly Review. Retrieved on 2006-07-10.
^ Diversity at Goshen College. URL accessed on 2006-02-19
^ Bethel College is the oldest; incorporated in 1887 and opened at its present site in 1893. Goshen College was the first Mennonite college in North America to confer a four year degree.