Student Handbook – Making the Grade
Convocation and chapel
Convocation is held each Monday and Chapel is held each Friday, 10-10:30 a.m., usually in the Church-Chapel building, but occasionally in Umble Center or the Music Center. Schedules are prepared, posted and sent to all students two times a semester. The schedule can also be found on the online events calendar. Convocations and Chapels gather the campus community to focus on themes that connect with our personal lives and also to the world at and beyond Goshen College. Chapels are worship services. Convocations focus on the mission and core values of Goshen College.
Attendance requirement
Full-time students are required to attend about half of the convocation and chapel events of their choice as part of their General Education graduation requirement. Field trips and other occasional conflicts will not alter your attendance requirements. Exceptions cannot be made for work schedules. Because convocation or chapel attendance is a graduation requirement, deficiencies must be made up before graduation.
Attendance is taken by scanning students’ ID cards as they enter the church chapel sanctuary. Students can monitor their attendance progress through GC Online or at http://www.goshen.edu/chapel.
Exemptions
Students who are parents of children living at home are exempt from this requirement as are students who have completed eight full-time semesters. Contact the Registrar at the beginning of each school year if you are eligible for an exemption. Questions about attendance should be directed to the Registrar in AD06.
To make up attendance deficits
Convocation and chapel attendance is part of the graduation requirement at Goshen College, so diplomas and transcripts will not be issued unless this requirement is met. Students have several options to make up an attendance deficit.
- Attend additional events in subsequent semesters to reduce the deficit.
- If the deficit is too large to make up through extra attendance, meet with convocation coordinator Rebecca Horst to make alternative arrangements, such as a writing assignment or an extra class. If a student chooses to take an extra class to erase past convocation attendance deficits, it must be a class selected from the current list of General Education classes. The course may not be in the area of the student’s major or minor and must be taken for a letter grade.
