Mumaw, a practicing physician, first led the small operation with a group of 15 "Old" Mennonite ministers and laymen started a corporation named the Elkhart Institute Association.

[10] In response to this crisis, many of Goshen's faculty and dozens of students, frustrated with the Mennonite Board of Education's decision, relocated to Bluffton College.

Young women pacifists volunteered for unpaid Civilian Public Service jobs to demonstrate their patriotism; many worked in mental hospitals.

Goshen College's Study-Service Term (SST) is a program which approximately 80 percent of students participate in to complete their intercultural study requirement.

[20] The college has in the past also offered a domestic SST to immerse students in the Latino culture and community in northern Indiana.

[21] Goshen College has no official fraternities or sororities; however, many different types of clubs and organizations exist to help facilitate campus life.

With the addition of the Music Center to campus, the college has offered a Performing Arts Series of nationally renowned artists from across the country.

Previous guests include Garrison Keillor and A Prairie Home Companion, Indigo Girls, The Wailin' Jennys, Nickel Creek, Colm Wilkinson, Chanticleer, Canadian Brass, Tokyo String Quartet, Seraphic Fire, and Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis.

[citation needed] Although Goshen maintains that people of different faiths are welcome to the college, the school emphasizes Judeo-Christian values in regard to operation, justice, and teaching.

[29][30] Four-year residency was typical until the mid-1970s, when a growing student enrollment prompted school officials to forgo building new dormitories and allow upperclassmen to live off campus.

Several highlights are a central recording studio, MIDI labs, and Taylor and Boody Opus 41, a 1600-pipe tracker pipe organ, the first in the world with tempering based on alumnus Bradley Lehman's research of Johann Sebastian Bach's notation.

[citation needed] In 2008, Rieth Village at Merry Lea Environmental Learning Center of Goshen College became the first platinum-rated LEED building in Indiana.

An application board consisting of resident directors, spiritual life, and physical plant employees review all potential candidates in the spring for the next school year.

Each group must create a housing plan, division of responsibility, show examples of volunteerism, and a commitment to better the Goshen campus, as well as resolve conflict.

Other factors considered in the application process include house cumulative GPA, extracurricular involvement, median age of the group, and personal faculty recommendations.

[35] Houses are then rewarded to applying groups who exemplify high academic, moral, and volunteer efforts, based on objective and subjective review.

[citation needed] On January 21, 2010, The President's Council announced a change to Goshen's long-standing policy, and thus allowing an instrumental version of the national anthem to be played prior to some college sporting events.

It’s about using violence to conquer and that would be something that many people here would have problems with.”[41] In response, Goshen's Board of Directors reversed the President's Council decision after seeking extensive input from the college community.

"[41] The college, affiliated with Mennonite Church USA, which is traditionally a peace church, published an online fact sheet stating that "historically, playing the national anthem has not been among Goshen College's practices because of our Christ-centered core value of compassionate peacemaking seeming to be in conflict with the anthem’s militaristic language.

"[42][43][44] The college's then president, Dr. James E. Brenneman, announced on August 19, 2011, that as an alternative, "America the Beautiful" would be played before select athletic events.

[40][45] Goshen, along with sister school Eastern Mennonite University (EMU), created a stir within the Christian college community in July 2015, when the two became the first Council for Christian Colleges and Universities (CCCU) member schools to add "sexual orientation" to their anti-discrimination policy, clearing the way for the hiring of openly gay employees.