On Aug. 11–12, tiki-torch wielding white supremacists, outfitted in khaki pants and white polo shirts, carrying shields and saluting Sieg Heil, descended upon Charlottesville, Virginia. They swarmed a church, overwhelmed the University of Virginia campus, rushed a group of nonviolent clergy and murdered Heather Heyer.

Five days later, on Thursday, Aug. 17, Calvin students received an email sent on behalf of college president Michael Le Roy titled “Together We Serve a Vital Mission.” Inside was a 250-word message welcoming students back to campus, reminding them of the college’s mission to “to think deeply, to act justly and to live wholeheartedly,” and a reinforcement of Calvin’s model of academic community: one “that meets arrogance with humility, hatred with love, bluster with wisdom, falsehood with truth, injustice with justice, ignorance with learning.”

The letter also included a brief statement regarding the white supremacist terrorist actions in Charlottesville:

“One of the core values that is linked to our mission is the belief that every person on this earth is fearfully and wonderfully made and is an image bearer of God. Given this shared belief, our community can only understand the ideology of white supremacy as an evil distortion of God’s vision for human community and we oppose it in all its manifestations.”

That it took five days for this short statement to be released is perplexing. Five days is a long time. Long enough for several students — myself included — to become uncomfortable with the silence from Calvin’s administration. During those five days, we came forth with our concern, repeatedly urging the administration to release a statement. The delay — and the apparent silence — became even more significant when other similar organizations, including the Christian Reformed Church in North America and Calvin Theological Seminary, publicly released strong statements before the Calvin administration had written one.

When we consider Calvin’s institutional commitments regarding racial justice, the slow response and weak nature of the final statement become even more troubling. Pages 28–29 of “From Every Nation,” the document that guides Calvin’s approach to matters of race, ethnicity, diversity and inclusion, reads, “an effective strategy to promote racial justice requires addressing … structures and practices that implant notions of superiority in the hearts and minds of white people.”

Calvin is not unaware of its historic failures to meet this model. In section IV, “Diversity & Inclusion,” of “Strategic Plan: Calvin 2019,” the administration affirms that “the College has not always succeeded in its efforts [as detailed in ‘From Every Nation’], but it remains committed to examining the ‘deeper structures’ of the College, holding itself accountable to ‘communities of color.’”

The strategic plan was written about a year before an incident in November 2015 in which unidentified students drew a swastika and wrote “White Power” in snow on a windshield in a campus parking lot. A number of prayer and campus unity events followed the incident, but students never learned who the perpetrators were or if they remained on campus.

With this context in mind — the institutional commitments of the college and the particular white supremacist violence that is still a cause of fear and concern for many students — the official statement from Calvin College in response to the violence of Charlottesville rings hollow.

The statement, released four days too late, dedicates less than a paragraph to the matter at hand: unilaterally and unflinching denouncing white supremacy, white nationalism and all its manifestations.

I imagine the Calvin administration expects a pat on the back for saying white supremacy is evil. I know many Calvin constituents saw this statement as just soft enough and just firm enough to maintain the status quo, to allow everyone to resume their lives with an illusion of reconciliation.

Yet to constituents of color, the statement offers no protection, no guidance, no comfort that Calvin College is or will be a place of refuge, a place that fights for them. And to white supremacist constituents, the message is clear: Calvin College will wag a finger at you, then carry on as if nothing happened.

That is why this statement is so sinister. In its delay, in its dancing around the matter at hand, in its cushioning a soft rebuke with brand-centric language, the Calvin administration did nothing but posture itself as the white moderate, ultimately unconcerned with the fates and feelings of those not privy to its privileges. The administration shows absolutely no courage in facing off against white supremacy. Like the rest of the white moderate, who prioritize nothing but their own comfort and security, the Calvin administration outs itself as a pillar upholding white supremacy.

Calvin College claims a commitment to diversity, inclusion and racial reconciliation, but when called upon to stand against something so clearly denounced in policies and plans, it utterly fails. This statement is all but a de facto rejection of the principles called for in Calvin’s Strategic Plan and “From Every Nation.”

If the administration cannot produce a stronger statement — one that takes the mandates of those documents seriously—it should be honest about what Calvin College is and dispose of the Diversity & Inclusion section of the strategic plan, as well as the Anti-Racism, Reconciliation and Restoration sections of “From Every Nation.”

It should never be difficult to denounce white supremacy. Unless you are dedicated to upholding it.