in the application process include house cumulative GPA, extracurricular involvement, median age of the group, and personal faculty recommendations. Houses are then rewarded to applying groups who exemplify high academic, moral, and volunteer efforts, based on objective and subjective review. Goshen College students have also lived in local housing not associated with the college. Satellite facilities Goshen College maintains Merry Lea Environmental Center in Indiana, and the J.N. Roth Marine Biology Station in Layton, Florida. Other properties maintained by Goshen College include: Brunk's Cabin, a retreat property complete with a sledding hill in Cass County, Michigan, Witmer Woods, a arboretum with over 100 native Indiana species, and the adjacent property College Cabin (Reservoir Place), used for special events, along the Elkhart River and millrace. Controversy National anthem 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. This decision led to numerous complaints from students, faculty and alumni. College art professor, John Blosser, was quoted saying, “It’s obviously about a battle. It’s rather violent. It’s about using violence to conquer and that would be something that many people here would have problems with.” In response, Goshen's Board of Directors reversed the President's Council decision on June 6, 2011, after seeking extensive input from the college community. The incident thrust Goshen College into the national limelight that June when several reports on Fox News publicized the fact that the college refused to play the national anthem, "The Star-Spangled Banner," at its athletic events. Two Goshen city councilmen publicly criticized the college, with one referring to the decision as "anti-American" and stating that "instead of living here in Goshen, they should go down and live in Cuba or Iran, then have them come back and see if their attitude has changed." The college, loosely 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." 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. Same-sex marriage Goshen, along with sister school Eastern Mennonite