Elkhart Institute

Goshen College

The Seal of Goshen College
Motto	Culture for Service
Type	Private liberal arts college
Established	September 21, 1894
Affiliation	Mennonite Church USA
Endowment	$100,965,000 (2016)
President	Rebecca Stoltzfus
Academic staff	71
Students	839
Undergraduates	773
Postgraduates	66
Location	Goshen, Indiana, USA 41°33′49″N 85°49′38″W / 41.5637°N 85.8272°W / 41.5637; -85.8272Coordinates: 41°33′49″N 85°49′38″W / 41.5637°N 85.8272°W / 41.5637; -85.8272
Campus	Large town: 135 acres (0.5 km²), 1,189 acre natural sanctuary Merry Lea
Colors	Purple and White
Athletics	NAIA Division II - Crossroads League
Nickname	Maple Leafs
Sports	14 varsity sports teams
Mascot	Maple Leaf
Website	www.goshen.edu

Goshen College is a private liberal arts college in Goshen, Indiana. The institution was founded in 1894 as the Elkhart Institute of Science, Industry and the Arts, and is affiliated with Mennonite Church USA. The college is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission. U.S. News and World Reports ranks Goshen as a top-tier regional college in the Midwestern United States.

Goshen has an enrollment of 839 students. While Goshen maintains a distinctive liberal Mennonite worldview, it admits students of all religions. Its percentage of Mennonite students to other religious affiliations is 43/57.

Goshen College is home to The Mennonite Quarterly Review and the Mennonite Historical Library, a research library compiling one of the world's most comprehensive collection of Anabaptist and Mennonite primary source material.

The history of Goshen College (or Goshen, as it is commonly known) is intertwined with that of the history of Mennonites in America, and so Goshen's history is best told in the context of this broader history. "Old" Mennonites had traditionally been suspicious of higher education, but by the late 19th century, opinion started to change. Decades earlier, mainline Protestant church denominations had begun to found colleges across America, with the hope 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. Today, Goshen is open to everyone, but this earlier vision and its historical relationship with the Mennonite Church remains visible: it is home to The Mennonite Quarterly Review, Mennonite Historical Library, Mennonite Church USA Archives, including Mennonite Central Committee archives, offices of "The Mennonite", and it has numerous alumni connections with the broader Mennonite Church.