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The student meeting was held in the chapel on Thursday.

Calvin’s cabinet held a gathering for students in the chapel to introduce Interim President Gregory Elzinga and reassure the student body of Calvin’s future on Thursday, Feb. 29.

La’Leatha Spillers, vice president of marketing and communications, opened the meeting by asking students to gather together towards the center of the chapel. Spillers asked non-student attendees to leave; a previous informational meeting for faculty and staff had been held on Tuesday. 

University Pastor Mary Hulst prayed over the meeting.

Board of Trustees member Gene Miyamoto spoke on behalf of the board and emphasized that  “Calvin will be OK. You will be OK.” 

Miyamoto then reiterated information about former president Wiebe Boer’s resignation previously shared by the Board of Trustees in an email to the Calvin community on Monday afternoon, Feb. 26. 

Miyamoto acknowledged that the transition “feels quick” but said that the Board “carefully” followed the appropriate process.

Once Boer offered his resignation, according to Miyamoto, the Board’s main decision “became a matter of accepting his resignation.” Deciding whether to accept that resignation, according to Miyamoto, “didn’t require a long time.”  

Miyamoto responded to questions he said he has heard from Calvin community members — including a concern about replacing Boer’s “energy and enthusiasm” — with an emphasis on Calvin’s institutional identity that is “bigger than one person.”

Elzinga, who spoke after Miyamoto, told the audience, “What has allowed Calvin to flourish for the past 148 years has never been tied to one person, ever. ” He also encouraged students and faculty to lift each other up in the wake of Monday’s news and come together as a unified “One Calvin” community.   

Hulst then asked students who were willing to do so to lay hands on and pray over Elzinga.

After the prayer, students filed back to their seats to hear from Sarah Visser, executive vice president for student experience and strategy, who spoke about holding on to the tension of the moment. 

“We take comfort in the fact that God can do something none of us can do. He can hear and hold all of our emotions and questions and prayers at once,” Visser said.

Following the meeting, students generally expressed frustration, due to the lack of new information from the meeting.

“It was all about the future and looking forward, and had a lot of fluff talking about being good to each other. I wish that they recognized what happened more,” Noah Millen, a senior who was at the talk, said. 

However, Millen was impressed with Interim President Elzinga. “I think he will be a good leader, and that gives me hope that Calvin will continue its forward trajectory,” Millen told Chimes.

No opportunity for questions was provided at the meeting. 

As students left the chapel, at least one reporter from local news station MLive was waiting along the pathway to interview willing students.