Goshen College President to Step Down
(Image Courtesy: Goshen College)
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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowGoshen College President Jim Brenneman says he will step down at the end of the 2016-2017 academic year. He will have led the school for more than 11 years at that point. Goshen College board member Faith Penner will chair a committee to search for Brenneman’s successor.
Brenneman says he believes the time is right to allow new leadership to advance the school, saying he believes "the best days of Goshen College are still to come."
Highlights of his tenure include the launch of the Center for Intercultural and International Education in 2006 and the Institute for the Study of Global Anabaptism, the Institute for Ecological Regeneration and the Institute for Intercultural Leadership in 2011. The international focus paid off, as the total percent of international and intercultural students at Goshen College grew from 18 percent in 2006-2007 to 33 percent in 2015-2016.
He also led the overhaul of the Goshen Core, which is the school’s general education program. The redesign focused on intercultural, international, interdisciplinary and integrated learning. Under Brenneman’s leadership, the school also added online classes and its first master’s degree programs in areas including nursing, environmental education, intercultural leadership and business.
Brenneman graduated from Goshen College in 1977, attended Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary in Elkhart and completed a Master of Divinity at Fuller Theological Seminary in California.
The school is also touting fundraising success under Brenneman, saying it received contributions of nearly $70 million during his tenure.
The Goshen College board will work with the College and Mennonite Education Agency to search for a successor.