Goshen College - Traditions

Traditions

  • Goshen's motto, "Culture for Service," was coined by president Noah E. Byers in 1903.
  • Goshen's school colors, purple and white, were modeled after Northwestern University, where President Byers attended and after which he wanted to model Goshen.
  • One of the college's many traditions is "sampling" sap from the city of Goshen's official Maple Tree, located on campus, and "testing" how many more weeks of winter there will be. Professors from the science department bring out their equipment with much fanfare to determine the official length of winter. In 2006, the maple tree was removed because of disease rotting the hardwood and was replaced by a new tree, now the official maple tree of Goshen. In 2007, new president Jim Brenneman replaced this tradition (which probably resulted in the early death of the maple) with "Weather or Not Day"; a day celebrating Northern Indiana's fickle weather.
  • Early (1925) advertisements for the college were refreshingly direct. One said “Goshen not the best college in the United States. But it is better than the rest for Mennonite young people.”

Read more about this topic:  Goshen College

Famous quotes containing the word traditions:

    And all the great traditions of the Past
    They saw reflected in the coming time.

    And thus forever with reverted look
    The mystic volume of the world they read,
    Spelling it backward, like a Hebrew book,
    Till life became a Legend of the Dead.
    Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1809–1882)

    I think a Person who is thus terrifyed [sic] with the Imagination of Ghosts and Spectres much more reasonable, than one who contrary to the Reports of all Historians sacred and profane, ancient and modern, and to the Traditions of all Nations, thinks the Appearance of Spirits fabulous and groundless.
    Joseph Addison (1672–1719)