My time at Calvin has been chock full of change.
I started college as the nation was recovering from a pandemic. I remember wearing masks and social distancing one semester and having very few restrictions the next. I arrived at Calvin in the midst of the CRC’s passionate and emotionally intense debate about human sexuality. I’ll be leaving as a decision, unsatisfactory to many, has been made — though the ramifications of those decisions have yet to be determined.
I listened to one president speak at my convocation, and I will hear a different one speak at my graduation. I chose to come to a college with an imaginary, undefeated football team, and during my senior year, I will watch a game where — hopefully — our real football team will stay undefeated.
Change without stability tips an institution (and perhaps an individual) into disrepair.
In the midst of all this change, I have been searching for the things I can count on staying the same, no matter what happens. I have been searching for stability.
Change without stability tips an institution (and perhaps an individual) into disrepair. If a community changes too much, it loses institutional memory. It becomes something other than what was.
But stability without change often leads to stagnation. Organizations fall behind –– not because they are shrinking, but because of the pace at which everyone else is charging ahead.
For Calvin to grow, we must find a balance between the two. Calvin must stay the same in all the ways that matter and change in all the ways that make it better. As graduate programs expand, as football and tumbling take center stage, as the new business program fills out its new building, as an incoming class larger than we’ve seen in years enters our doors, some priorities have already been established. However, we still have the opportunity to create more.
Right now, on the cusp of transformation, we as students, as faculty, as administrators and as a community need to decide how Calvin can change, while still staying Calvin. What is the essence of our institution? Are we preserving it? Chimes is part of starting that dialogue, and I’m sure Chimes will see its conclusion.
No matter what people need to be informed about, the need to be informed never changes.
As I enter my final year here, I want to notice aspects of life I hope will keep the school growing steadily and sustainably, without collapsing under its own weight or becoming something totally other than what was.
I see stability in the faculty who invest in students over and over again. I see it in Bernie, Mary Ann and Theresa, the lovely ladies who greet me with a smile when they check me in for lunch every day. I see it in Friday chapel, where people who otherwise have so little in common worship Jesus together. And I see it in Chimes.
Through doing those things, we are building a culture that will help Calvin grow instead of simply change.
Maybe it’s a little bit ironic that a newspaper, which, by its very nature, is supposed to be concerned with newness, difference and change, has been a consistent, stable presence at Calvin, but I think it is true.
No matter what people need to be informed about, the need to be informed never changes. No matter who is making decisions, we’re looking for ways to hold them accountable. No matter who composes the community around us, we are looking to learn and engage in it. No matter who is on staff, Chimes is committed to journalistic excellence. We are committed to telling the truth. We are committed to starting conversations about hard topics. Through doing those things, we are building a culture that will help Calvin grow instead of simply change.
I hope you, as Chimes readers, will commit to that as well.