Faculty Senate voted to approve changes to the Faculty Handbook on April 21 to bring Calvin’s hiring practices into alignment with commitments made at Synod 2025. The changes, as recommended by the Professional Status Committee (PSC), will, among other things, require faculty to affirm that their interpretations of the confessional creeds and interpretations as such are in alignment with Synod. These changes will now be submitted to the Board of Trustees (BOT) for consideration during their April 29 meeting, where the board has final approval.

Provost Noah Toly explained that “the changes are largely due to two things: they implement commitments outlined in the Board of Trustees’ 2025 response to Synod regarding confessional alignment, and they make practical updates to keep the faculty handbook current.”

Expounding on this, Toly shared that “on confessional commitments, the revisions strengthen clarity, mentoring and accountability through annual reaffirmation, a developmental process for new faculty, and clearer pathways for addressing confessional questions. Other changes are administrative updates — reflecting current academic structures, simplifying handbook language and updating procedures so the handbook remains accurate and adaptable.”

These changes come as a result of the BOT’s report to Synod 2025, which stated on page 34 that “Calvin has taken and still takes the position that the denomination’s confessional standards and synodical interpretations of those confessional standards are the standards and interpretations of the university as an institution. All employees and trustees are expected to support the university’s commitment to those standards and interpretations.” 

Also in the report, the BOT stated on page 36 that “to the end of promoting a deep understanding of the university’s identity and commitments, as well as aligned conduct, the university will: enhance faculty and staff onboarding processes focused on the university’s Reformed Christian identity and mission, ensuring robust and consistent attention to all three strands of the tradition and commending each strand to all employees as enriching the university context and supporting Calvin’s mission; ensure that the university’s positions are transparently and consistently presented in public-facing communications and processes; review, revise, and disseminate relevant policy documents to trustees and employees.”

The changes approved by Faculty Senate on April 21 bring Calvin into alignment with its commitment to Synod 2025, and will allow the university to return to Synod in June having followed through. According to Toly, “Bringing them forward now allows the university to show the work of implementation is underway and that those commitments are being codified in policy and put into practice.”

Materially, these changes will change the hiring process for new faculty as well as the reappointment process for tenured employees and tenure-track employees. New faculty will “affirm the historic ecumenical creeds and then engage in deeper formation in the Reformed tradition leading up to their first reappointment,” Toly explained. 

Faculty in tenure-track positions or seeking reappointment will be required to reaffirm their alignment with the synodical interpretation of the creeds on an annual basis. 

Faculty who do not find themselves in alignment have the opportunity to submit a confessional difficulty gravamen to the BOT, where, by recommendation from PSC, they can either be disqualified for continued employment or entered into a two to three year discernment process, which Toly calls “a structured process of mentoring, discernment and theological reflection.” In this process, “The emphasis is on clarity, support and alignment with the university’s mission,” said Toly. 

According to draft documents submitted to Faculty Senate, faculty who undertake the mentoring process may either move into alignment, disagree and leave the university, or disagree and submit a confessional exception gravamen to the BOT, where it may be approved as an indefinite exception or denied, resulting in the faculty member being disqualified for continued employment.

This is a developing story; follow our website and social media pages for updates for Synod 2026.