Refugees face persecution simply because of who they are or what they believe. In order to save their lives, they have had to flee their home country, leaving everything they know behind.
The...
All I learned at Calvin, I learned at Chimes.
Of course that’s not true. But Chimes was the place where learning became action and where theory became practice. After four years, 75+ articles, countless...
“It’s good to be back in the mother country,” Michigan native Sufjan Stevens quipped in the CFAC last Tuesday, performing at Calvin for the first time since 2007.
The Hope graduate shared with...
As you enter the Islamic Center of West Michigan, a paper sign instructs you to remove your shoes and silence your cell phones. After hours, the building is quiet and solemn.
The imam, or religious...
Last month, Calvin was accredited as a Level 2 partner with Partners for a Racism-Free Community (PRFC), a local organization that certifies the equity and inclusiveness of workplaces.
Level 2 is the...
_____, an unarmed black man, was shot and killed last week by _____, a white officer.
This was the headline last week when police officer Michael Slager shot Walter Scott eight times in the back. It...
“We believe that when Michigan welcomes immigrants, Michigan thrives,” reads Welcoming Michigan.org, a publication of the Michigan Office for New Americans (MONA).
This new office, which Governor...
Sometimes I wonder why I bring reusable bags to Meijer, why I bike to work, recycle cans or turn the shower off while I shampoo my hair.
In the face of corporations that inhale fossil fuels, belch out...
When she was a student at Calvin 15 years ago, working in student life was what made Sarah Visser feel most alive. She had no idea that her experiences in residence life and on orientation board would...
Last week Thursday, Calvin’s Student Life Committee unanimously approved a proposal to cut the number of student organizations from 84 to 65.
The proposal introduced a new system, called a matrix,...
“Our babies are dying,” read the handouts at the Micah Center’s latest panel discussion on the racial disparity in infant mortality in Grand Rapids.
Grand Rapids has one of the highest infant...
At a rate of $9,485 per year, Calvin’s room and board costs much more than it would cost to rent a local apartment and buy groceries from a local store. But administrators say this is the wrong way to...
Every time it snows, my heart sinks.
All summer and fall, I biked everywhere, taking buses when the route was too far. Now roads buried under snow and ice make biking almost impossible, and buses are...
By late 2014, nearly 9.5 million Syrians, 40 percent of the country’s population, had been displaced from their homes by ongoing violence and conflict in the region.
“It’s one of the toughest...
This past Wednesday, student senate hosted a town hall for students to ask questions about potential changes to core. Around two dozen students showed up to listen to a presentation given by members of...
This spring, Calvin looks to redefine their brand for a new decade, taking into account student and faculty perspectives to better represent Calvin’s values through marketing tools.
“We have a master...
The other day, in a moment of pause between assignments and conversations and responsibilities, a question popped into my head as perhaps it has popped into yours: “Am I happy?”
I was struck. I...
The director of the Peace Corps, the United States government’s international volunteer program, spoke last week to students and guests gathered for Calvin’s Faith and International Development Conference.
Carrie...
After 15 years of the current core and nearly two years of discussions around core revision, three new core proposals, one of which is to retain the current core, will be brought to the faculty this May....
“What began as a seemingly impossible idea by a Calvin senior is now days away from becoming a reality,” Chimes staff writer Nana Yaa Dodi wrote in 2006, the weekend of Calvin’s first Faith and International...
In a small room tucked in the back of North Hall, sophomore Emily Lawson and junior Gabe LePage stand in front of a whiteboard filled with notes, schedules and to-do lists. As the co-directors of this...
At the end of each semester, professors hand out paper evaluation forms and leave the room while students pencil in bubbles, ranking professors for their organization, approachability and rigor. While...
A group of people wait in the cold for the bus to arrive. When it does pull up, they push through snow banks to reach the door, feet sinking into snow up to their shins.
Winter in Kent County brings...
Students across campus are shutting off their lights, unplugging their room fridges and turning down meat in the dining halls. Events and Bible studies promote sustainable living, and even staff and professors...
A threatening letter containing an unidentified powdery substance, which the letter claimed to be anthrax, prompted the evacuation of the Mail and Printing Services building Wednesday morning. When notified,...
Last week, a group of 15 Calvin students came together to help move furniture into an apartment for a Bhutanese refugee family that had just arrived in the United States from Nepal. The service project...
Senior Kyle Luck doesn’t want you to buy anything this Christmas. Instead, this Friday, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., he and a group of friends will do something that runs contrary to the consumeristic season...
Last week, students in CAS 250, a film directing and editing class, posted “Calvin College News” online. Written, directed by and starring Calvin students, the satirical video received over a thousand...
At Calvin College, the word “leader” is applied to any student in a position related to residence life and anyone who heads a student org, but there is little room in this definition for students who...
Last weekend’s Board of Trustees meeting welcomed four new board members: Pedro Aviles of Berwyn, Illinois; William J. Boer of Grand Rapids, Michigan; David Cok of Rochester, New York and Ray VanderKooi...
Put down your phone. Put down the books. Go into your room and face the terrifying prospect of your own company. Ask yourself what you’re thinking about. Require yourself to answer.
We are altogether...
At a recent meeting for student organization leaders, John “JB” Britton, associate dean of campus involvement and leadership, announced plans to cut the number of student organizations, asking current...
Over 100 Calvin students have signed a petition in solidarity with Hong Kong protesters, and like the movement they support, their numbers are growing.
Last month, China announced that Hong Kong would...
It was another summer day walking home from my internship. I was sweating in my slacks and long-sleeved shirt, and the work-appropriate flats were decidedly less appropriate for the half-mile hike to...
If you ask someone how many people they’ve dated at Calvin, many will answer with how many boyfriends or girlfriends they’ve had altogether. We seem to jump all at once here from friendship into deep...
On Friday, after two sets of interviews and hours of deliberation, student senate appointed four first-year students to serve as student senators for the year. Anaiah Zainea, Devin Auld, Mallika David,...
I’ll admit: I rolled my eyes when the barrage of videos hit my Facebook feed. It seemed like so-called ‘slacktivism’ at its finest: something to be ‘liked’ and ‘shared’ and forgotten almost...
This summer, after six years of heart problems, Calvin alum and friend Stephen Okeyo passed away at the age of 26. Okeyo, who graduated from Calvin last May, survived seven major surgeries, including a...
Three years ago this week, I was an incoming first year student, and I was going to do it all. There was always something else I could add to my schedule, crammed between the full course load, two or three...
As a part of a broader plan to reduce its current operating deficit and outstanding debt, Calvin College paid down $13 million this August.
In addition to reducing long-term debt, this payment will also...
Three years ago this week, I was an incoming freshman, and I was going to do it all. There was always something else I could add to my schedule, crammed between the full course load, two or three jobs,...
It may not surprise Michiganders to learn that this winter was one of the coldest ever recorded for the region, with the year’s average temperature showing a record-breaking drop from the historical...
On Tuesday, members of the We Are Calvin [too] movement hosted a panel discussion to continue the conversation about race at Calvin.
Local pastor Razel Jones, manager of diversity and inclusion programs...
Two executive teams will campaign for student body president and executive vice president starting midnight on Thursday. Elections will open to the student body on April 17.
“At the executive level,...
Students asked hard-hitting questions about Calvin’s future at Wednesday night’s town hall meeting with President Michael Le Roy. Taking questions from both Twitter and the audience, President Le Roy...
Sometimes people try to shuffle past me, eyes downcast. Sometimes they mutter something in response to my “have a nice day.” Other times they take off running before I can finish an “excuse me.”...
Sebiha has already been up for three hours, but she still greets every student filing into the dining hall with a cheery “Happy Friday!” as she swipes their ID cards. Most smile back. “I don’t...
Deep in the mountains of rural Honduras, where there were more coffee plants and wandering cows than people, our bus sputtered and stopped. Its wheels spun helplessly, burying us deeper into the muddy...
If you’re like many students, you may wonder why it took 157 nominations, 28 applicants and over a year of searching for the provost search committee to recommend Cheryl Brandsen, currently the academic...
This year’s Faith and International Development Conference (FIDC) includes something different in addition to the usual panel of speakers and workshops. On Feb. 8, Christian Peacemaker Teams and the...
"Only 1 out of 14 children from a low-income community will ever graduate college," reads a quote from The Expectations Project's website. "Let's change that."
Tomorrow at the January Series, Nicole...
“Church” translated into Spanish is “iglesia,” a delicate word that makes me think of stained-glass windows. I can’t always translate everything, but when I’m at a service or mass here, at...
“The Israelites went seven times around Jericho, and that was after they felt defeated,” one woman said. “We think maybe this time we’re on our sixth turn.”
We sat in a small, hot office listening...
MGMT played a sold-out concert in the Hoogenboom Monday night, shattering stereotypes of what constitutes a “typical Calvin concert.”
“When I think of a typical Calvin concert, I think guitars and...
After the first year of a new approach to student governance, the governance committee at Calvin honored all student representatives with an end-of-the-year banquet.
Provost Claudia Beversluis commended...
For junior Maria-Renee Plona, this weekend was not just another performance – it was the culmination of an entire semester of work.
“Hours and hours of our hard work, heart and soul went into planning...
Calvin is expanding its accounting program to include a minor for the first time, as well as a third major, Bachelor of Science in Global Management Accounting (BSGMA), after a faculty senate vote Monday...
The purchase and installation of three picnic tables by Calvin’s student senate has sparked online debates, a change.org petition and a prank moving the tables to the center of commons lawn. However,...
Last year, 2,200 Calvin students contributed more than 55,000 hours of community service to the Calvin community. This participation, as well as a high emphasis on service-learning throughout Calvin’s...
For the second year in a row, power groups Black and Yellow and 4pm took home the first and second prizes at Calvin College’s Airband competition. Newcomers MTB (Move the Body) took third place, and...
“I feel like at these liberal arts schools we can be so closed-minded,” said Lindsay Stork, a senior at Bethel College in Indiana.
“We get into this ‘Bethel bubble’ or ‘Calvin bubble’ and...
Jeremy Courtney began Calvin's 26th annual January Series this morning, starting off the set of free lectures on various topics that Calvin provides for students and the community.
Courtney's message...
Two months ago, more than 800 students waited as long as seven hours to get tickets for Fun.’s concert at Calvin. And Wednesday night, those same students cheered and danced on the open floor of the...
“This music is 500 years old,” said Janka Nabay, formerly of Sierra Leone. “But nobody plays this music on electric instruments!”
Janka Nabay and the Bubu Gang played to close Africa week, throughout...
“Today is not a day you want to get wet,” said Calvin parent Rachel Kosters, looking out at the seminary pond on an overcast, 50-degree day.
Despite the cold, she and her daughter, senior Chloe...
Most choral concerts don’t include Justin Bieber covers.
Late Night with Capella wasn’t a typical choral concert. “Late Night with Capella is a completely student-led, student-run, and student-directed...
“We’re going to be singing about death,” opened David Gungor, lead singer for The Brilliance. The audience laughed nervously. But as the strings swelled and piano filled the auditorium, the audience...
What do engraved chopsticks, living algae, and a stuffed giraffe have in common?
All were objects to be found at the English department’s recent dinner and scavenger hunt.
English majors, minors...
“I am so eager to get started,” began Calvin’s newly-selected president, Michael Le Roy, in his address for convocation.
On Tuesday, students, faculty and alumni of Calvin College gathered for...
