From: Phil deHaan (dehp@calvin.edu)
Date: Tue May 27 2003 - 09:46:33 EDT
May 26, 2003 == FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
The 31-member Calvin College Board of Trustees concluded its spring meetings
May 24 on the school's campus in Grand Rapids, Michigan. The spring meeting is
one of three annual sessions for the Calvin Board. The Board also meets
annually in October and February. The May meeting coincides each year with
Calvin's Commencement ceremonies.
The Board participates in Commencement and this year was part of a ceremony
that included the presentation of bachelor's degrees to about 900 graduates,
the 83rd such conferring of four-year degrees in Calvin's 125-year history. In
fact, Calvin awarded its first bachelor's degrees in 1921 to a senior class of
eight men.
In business prior to Commencement the Board celebrated the careers of Calvin
retirees and others at a special dinner and conferred upon four retiring
professors the titles of professor emeritus. Together the four - Edward Ericson
(26 years), Sanford Leestma (35 years), James Timmer (33 years) and Lambert Van
Poolen (35 years) - served Calvin for a combined 129 years! The Board also
interviewed professor of music Pearl Shangkuan and professor of computer
science Keith Vander Linden and approved their faculty reappointments with
tenure. And it approved the reappointment of Tom McWhertor as vice president
for enrollment and external relations.
The Board heard about and ratified nine Calvin Research Fellowship Summer
Awards, including such projects as assistant professor of sociology Kevin
Dougherty's work on studying the shaping of American congregations and
associate professor of biology Dave Warner's botanical inventory of local sites
and native plant restoration projects.
The Board bid farewell to eight of its own members who have completed their
terms of service and also elected its officers for 2003-2004. Milt Kuyers, a
Milwaukee area businessman, will stay on as Board chair; Charles DeRidder, a
CRC pastor from South Dakota, will remain vice chair; and Cindi Veenstra,
director of the EXODUS Real Estate Network in Kalamazoo will become secretary,
taking over for Ed Blankespoor, a Grand Rapids pastor, who completed his term
on the Board. Others completing their service on the Board are: Vern Boerman,
Orin Gelderloos, Cecilia Mereness, Walter Neutel, Chuck Pasma, Jack Postma and
Maurice Williams.
At Commencement the Board witnessed the presentation of Calvin's highest
alumni honor - The Distinguished Alumni Awards - to Robert Swierenga and Paul
VandenBout. Calvin College has presented its Distinguished Alumni Awards --
intended to honor those who have made significant contributions in their field
of endeavor -- annually since 1966. Swierenga, A.C. Van Raalte Research Fellow
at Hope College and a professor of history emeritus at Kent State University,
is the "dean of scholars" concerning Dutch-American studies in the 19th and
20th centuries. VandenBout, director emeritus of the National Radio Astronomy
Observatory in Charlottesville, Va., is a pioneer in the field of radio
astronomy.
The 2003 Commencement speaker was John M. Perkins, a sharecropper's son who
grew up in Mississippi amidst dire poverty, but went on to become a leader in
the civil rights movement. He now is an international speaker and teacher on
issues of racial reconciliation, leadership and community development. For more
on Perkins and the John M. Perkins Foundation, see http://www.jmpf.org
NOTE: A separate release will be sent later this month or early next month
highlighting the new members of the Calvin Board of Trustees.
-end-
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