Gianna Hayes
Chief News Editor
In an email sent on Thursday, August 28, 2025, Vice President of People, Culture & Talent Lin Hillis announced to the campus community that Reverend Jon Fancher ’78 would be serving as the College’s interim chaplain.
Students never received official notice of former Henry J. Copeland Interfaith Chaplain Erin Guzmán’s June 2025 departure from the College. Previously, Catholic Campus Minister AJ Hoy’s removal from campus in Jan. 2024 was also not announced to the campus community by Lin Hillis or other administrators.
In Hillis’ email, she shared that the search for a permanent campus chaplain would be underway in September. Now, after a six month search, Travis Webster will be stepping in as the new Henry J. Copeland Interfaith College Chaplain, beginning July 1.
Fancher’s role as interim chaplain has included offering one-on-one pastoral care to the campus community, while programming for Religious and Spiritual Life (RSL) has been overseen by Hillis and Hannah Reikowsky, program coordinator for Equity and Belonging, another office under the umbrella of the Center for Belonging and Intercultural Dialogue (CBID), with the support of RSL student interns. There are currently seven RSL interns and one intern studying abroad.
In an interview with the Voice last semester, Hillis stated she could not share information about Guzmán’s departure. “John [Fancher] is doing work that I can’t do,” Hillis said. “We need a confidential resource for our students. … Hannah [Reikowsky] and I are taking, kind of, the very tactical programming piece.” Fancher is available on Tuesday and Friday afternoons.
Despite recent developments in the College’s search for a Chaplain, questions about Guzmán’s departure have persisted. As the Henry J. Copeland Interfaith Chaplain and Director of RSL, Guzmán oversaw RSL programming and supported students one-on-one as needed. She also served as a confidential resource for students.
The Voice spoke with an employee of the College who wished to remain anonymous about Guzmán’s sudden and unannounced departure.
“Erin has made it very clear that her not being at the College was not her choice, and it wasn’t for monetary reasons,” the anonymous source said. “Hiring a chaplain will never ever be something that’s cut for budget reasons because that endowment will always exist.”
The position of interfaith chaplain at the College is an endowed position, and many of the funds that support RSL are also endowed.
Many students voiced concerns over the lack of communication about Guzmán’s leaving the College — particularly in the Voice’s approval ratings surveys from last fall. There were 12 comments total written in by students regarding Guzmán’s removal.
“I am very disappointed with the way RSL has handled the removal of Rev. Erin Guzmán and finding a replacement,” one commenter wrote. “I am most upset with … lack of transparency surrounding Rev. Guzman’s departure in RSL,” wrote another respondent.
“There was very very very little actual clarity from the administration about anything that happened,” the anonymous employee shared. “It was not at all a priority of [Lin Hillis] or of really anyone in the administration who had the power to make anything happen, to provide any sort of communication to the student body, first of all why Erin’s gone — because that’s not allowed, that makes sense, that’s like a breach of privacy — but the fact that she was gone at all, they wanted as few people to know as possible.”
Taylor Grant ’26, who formerly held a leadership position in the Wooster Coven, echoed these sentiments.
“Losing her was definitely scary, especially because I didn’t find out from her, I found out from one of my professors that she was gone,” Grant said. Guzmán supported the Wooster Coven, an unofficial nonchartered student organization, by helping fund and sponsor their events under the umbrella of RSL programming.
The Coven started around 2018 with initial help from Guzmán, according to Grant. “She was all for it, she was very respectful of the craft, she was just very interested by it and she really appreciated, like, having that space for people,” Grant said of Guzmán. She also shared that because of some members’ privacy concerns, they were not an official student organization, and as such, gaining new membership has been challenging. The Coven has since disbanded due to dwindling membership and lack of support.
“A lot of people loved Erin, she was really a beloved part of our campus community,” the anonymous source said. “She was always an ear who would listen whenever things came up, and she always was a shoulder to rest on, and she meant a ton to our student population.”
Guzman’s support for students reportedly went beyond pastoral care, according to the anonymous source.
“You have to think about the perspectives of people who are doing something for the first time and how hard that can be on top of their workload and everything else in their lives, and Erin thought like that,” the source said. “She realized that, yes, students can still get mental health care if they put in the extra effort, but how many students are going to be able to put in the extra effort when they’re already giving so much of themselves to school and to work and to whatever traumas are going on at home? She always was thinking like a student.”
