KANSAS CITY, Mo. - The Goshen College Athletics Department was among those recognized by the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) as a 2011-12 Champions of Character Award winner this week.

The Champions of Character Scorecard measures each institution's commitment to the NAIA Champions of Character program. Points are earned in five key areas: character training, conduct in competition, academic focus, character recognition and character promotion.  Institutions earned points based on exceptional student-athlete grade point averages and by obtaining zero ejections during competition throughout the course of the academic year.

Goshen has been recognized as an Institution of Character every year since the inception of the program in 2004-05.

This year 221 NAIA institutions were named Champions of Character Five-Star Institutions and six NAIA conferences had all of their members earn the Five-Star designation. Those conferences with 100-percemt of their membership winning the recognition are: Appalachian Athletic Conference, Frontier Conference, Kansas Collegiate Athletic Conference, Midwest Collegiate Conference, The Sun Conference and the TranSouth Athletic Conference.