Calvin announced the discontinuation of its public health and recreational therapy programs as part of a series of budget cuts aimed at stabilizing the institution’s finances that occurred in May according to a letter by Provost Toly.  

Administrators say the decision followed a task force review of academic offerings and their financial viability, with recommendations presented to the board of trustees in April. In a May 2025 letter to students, Provost Noah Toly, Dean Adejoke Ayoola, and public health Chair Julie Yonker acknowledged the disappointment the decision would cause but emphasized that “students in discontinued programs will have access to a teach-out program that reasonably accommodates completion of their degree.”

The public health department, despite being founded in the fall of 2024, will not admit new students following the cuts. Freshman Madeline Trumbull, who is double-majoring in public health and history, said she learned of the cut only after committing to Calvin. “They emailed me in April, after I’d already committed, saying the program was being cut.” Despite this, she remains the only freshman in the program and is taking accelerated coursework to finish before classes are phased out. 

Talking to Chimes about her major, Trumbull said, “If you get your public health degree … you can go and do research … get involved in policy … or be an educator. … It’s been a degree that’s really focused on being the agents of renewal that Calvin always talks about by bringing about healthier communities and making sure everyone has equal access to care and the opportunity to live healthy lives.”

Yonker, who directs the program, said the closure halted progress just as it was gaining traction. “We had new faculty, we had redesigned the curriculum, we had community partnerships — and then it just felt like hitting a wall.” She added that the nature of public health makes it easy to overlook. “The challenge with public health is if we’re doing our job right and well, you don’t know us … sometimes, for students to know about public health, they have to discover it later on through experience.” Following the department’s closure, Yonker will leave the university for retirement. 

Recreational Therapy

The recreational therapy program, though small, has been described by students as uniquely hands-on. Ruby Klooster, a student in the program, said every class required 10 hours of community volunteering. “We help the community while learning, and the community helps us. That’s not something you find in many programs,” she said. Klooster credited Professor Youngkill Lee with shaping the program’s culture. “Professor Youngkill Lee is potentially the sweetest man I have ever met … he knows each of us by name and is so interested in our personal lives as students but also as future recreational therapists.”

Lee, who has led the recreational therapy program for years, responded to Chimes in an email in regards to the news of its closure. “After much prayer and reflection, I do not wish to engage in a detailed discussion regarding the decision-making process behind the closure of the Therapeutic Recreation Program. I have not seen the specific data related to this decision, but I have come to discern this moment as God’s timing. I believe that the same God who led me to Calvin University also knows the right time for me to step away. With that conviction, I have received this decision in faith and peace.” Abby Nada, the only freshman in the recreational therapy program, said she was admitted by exception after the program had already been slated for closure. It’s “a little terrifying,” she said of being the only first-year. “I have to get all my major-specific classes done this year [and] next year. And then it’s done. […] I wanted a degree I could work with right away, not just something that required grad school. Recreational therapy gave me that.”

Students across both programs expressed concern that the cuts signal a shift away from Calvin’s liberal arts identity. Ian Hawthorne, a sophomore passionate about cross-disciplinary studies, said, “I think the danger is Calvin becoming more of a trade school. If you cut programs that are interdisciplinary, like public health or rec therapy, just because they don’t make money, then what’s the point of Calvin being a liberal arts school?”

In a May 2025 letter to students, Toly,  Ayoola and Yonker wrote that they believe the cuts are necessary to address “significant enrollment pressures and the approaching ‘demographic cliff.’” But students and faculty point to the broader impact: the loss of programs that directly serve the community and embody Calvin’s stated mission. Yonker said that other universities can learn from Calvin, “you have to be financially responsible….You can’t just keep adding programs without thinking about sustainability, or you’ll end up in the same place.” 

As the two programs wind down, the atmosphere among students is subdued. “When we recognize the program is ending it gets somber,” Klooster said. “But this does not take away from our ability to learn as much as we can.”