I have been reading Chimes for a few years now, and I have noticed a trend that confuses and concerns me: front cover headline articles that have very little or nothing to do with Calvin. This week’s article on Nepal is a fascinating piece, but as the student newspaper of Calvin College, shouldn’t the headline article be relevant to Calvin specifically? The piece about Calvin as a “college” or “university” would have been appropriate.

Another great headline piece could have been about Calvin hosting the NCAA DIII volleyball national championship. This is a national event that will attract thousands of athletes, coaches, prospective students and fans to campus. I was extremely disappointed to see that this event was not even mentioned in Chimes. Our volleyball team works very hard, is currently ranked #2 in the nation, qualified for the national quarterfinals on campus (which finished past press time Thursday, but still should have been mentioned in Chimes, especially in case we won—which we did), and could potentially have played for the national championship on our home court that Saturday. This is worthy of a front cover piece. Not having an article about it at all baffles and infuriates me.

In addition, there was little to no mention about our men’s soccer team’s slate of games this weekend. The men were undefeated and ranked #1 in the nation. They had the potential to advance to the national semi-finals for the third year in a row (an incredible feat) if they had won both games that weekend. The article on the games the previous weekend was good, but something also looking ahead would have been great.

In addition, there was no mention of Dance Guild’s performance coming up that weekend. Hundreds of students put in hours and hours of work throughout the semester to put on a great show that attracted over a thousand people, and there was no preview or heads up in Chimes.

Finally, our men’s and women’s cross country teams both qualified for the NCAA DIII national championship meet this past weekend in Illinois. The men’s team won the Great Lakes Region title, and the women qualified as the runner-up. Both teams are also nationally ranked and were looking for strong showings that weekend, but were also not mentioned at all in the last issue.

I believe that Chimes is an important part of student life at Calvin, and I think these changes would improve its quality and better inform its readers. Thank you for your time.

Devin Schweigert