April is a weird month of the school year. The final weeks of the school year fly by, and it can feel like there’s hardly time to push for anything new. Some things, though, are worth fighting for anyway. 

Over the course of this year, Chimes has been having conversations about how to create a more open and inclusive staff environment for all Calvin students. With the many ways that diversity, equity and inclusion have come into the spotlight recently, those conversations have only gotten more urgent. 

There have been times where we’ve done a good job at reflecting the diversity of campus, and times where we’ve struggled. Journalism in the U.S. remains an overwhelmingly white profession, and that dynamic is unfortunately replicated on Chimes staff. 

In every edition, we print a condensed version of our mission statement, taken from Calvin’s Mission and Vision for Student Publications document. It reads: “Chimes reports the news and opinion of the Calvin community while fostering dialogue, promoting accountability, and providing practical learning experiences.”

If we want to report the news and opinions of the Calvin community, that should extend to all parts of the Calvin community. Not only is this a matter of justice, but fostering a more diverse Chimes staff will increase the quality of our reporting too. 

Sometimes, there’s a toxic narrative that efforts to amplify diverse voices don’t take merit into account. I can’t stress strongly enough that this isn’t the case. All Calvin students are welcome to write for Chimes. Everyone has blind spots and areas where their perspective gives them a unique advantage. Blending these perspectives will boost the comprehensiveness and depth of Chimes coverage. 

Chimes staff has recently had the chance to hear from the CISD on this issue, and it’s one of my deep hopes for the paper that these conversations will continue after my time as editor-in-chief is over. We’ve heard from CISD Director Josh Samarco that some students of color don’t feel comfortable engaging with Chimes. We heard that, in the past, we sometimes haven’t been careful enough with language when telling sensitive stories. We heard that there’s a gap to bridge. 

To anyone who’s felt misrepresented or ignored in Chimes coverage, we’re listening. We want Chimes to be a platform where everyone is comfortable sharing their story. 

Throughout this process, Chimes’ faculty advisor has had what I think is a really useful metaphor. He compared institutions like Chimes to a fully loaded container ship. Institutions aren’t very agile, and momentum tends to carry them in the same direction. Today, we’re turning the wheel a few degrees toward a better destination.