Calvin BOT Wraps Spring 2006 Meetings

May 21, 2006 == MEDIA ADVISORY

The 31-member Calvin College Board of Trustees concluded its spring meetings
May 20 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, which were held this year on May 20 in the
Calvin Fieldhouse.

Commencement 2006 was one highlight for the Calvin Board of the spring
meetings. This was the 86th annual conferring of four-year degrees (Calvin was
founded in 1876 but granted its first four-year degrees in 1921), a ceremony
that was marked by a stirring Commencement address by former Calvin and Yale
professor Nicholas Wolterstorff.

Board secretary Cindi Veenstra says annually Calvin's Commencement is an
extremely moving ceremony for the Board, culminating, as it does, a four-year
journey at Calvin for almost 900 graduates. In fact, one of the Board's time
for devotions during their meetings focused on the journey of the graduates as
represented in part by the distinctiveness of their feet and shoes as they walk
across the front of the stage at Commencement to gather their diplomas. While
their garb - robes and mortarboards - is the same, their feet are clad in a
variety of distinct shoes, a symbolic representation of the common foundation
shared by the grads even as they bring their own distinct gifts to their hopes
and dreams for the future!

The Board also witnessed the presentation of Calvin's highest alumni honor -
the Distinguished Alumni Awards - to Gerald Gabrielse, a 1973 Calvin graduate
who is the George Vasmer Leverett professor of physics at Harvard University,
and an internationally known atomic physicist, and Charles Spoelhof, a 1951
Calvin graduate and a retired engineer from the Eastman Kodak Company who
during the height of the Cold War was part of a small group of experts that
helped develop the highly sophisticated camera technology used in spy
satellites, and later served on the blue ribbon commission to fix the Hubble
Space Telescope.

In academic business prior to Commencement the Board interviewed and approvd
two faculty reappointmentapprovedtenure: Adel Abadeer in economics and
business and Margaret Goetz in communication arts and sciences.

It also ratified administratve reappointments: Service administrativeer
director Jeffrey Bouman, curator of the archives Richard Harms, director of
community engagement Gail Heffner, vice president of student life Shirley V.
Hoogstra, co-directors of Christian formation for campus life Cherith Nordling
and Robert Nordling, electronic services librarian Steven Putt, director of the
Hekman Library Glenn Remelts, director of the Henry Institute for the Study of
Christianity and Politics Corwin Smidt and Broene Center counselor Daniel
Vandersteen.

And it endorsed three new administrative appointments: Ronald Blankespoor as
Brummel Chair in Organic Chemistry, Joel Carpenter as director of academic
conferences (Carpenter also serves the college as director of the new Nagel
Institute for the Study of World Christianity and is just concluding a 10-year
tenure as Calvin's provost, a role for which he received kudos from the Board)
and Jennifer Holberg as associate director of the college's honors program.

The Board also endorsed a variety of new courses at Calvin (everything from
world music to global health) and heard about and endorsed 29 Calvin Research
Fellowships for the summer of 2006 in an expanse of areas, including such
projects as genetically modified foods, foreign languages and learning
disabilities, coastal dune management in Michigan and viral replication in HIV
patients.

At a special dinner it celebrated the careers of Calvin retirees and of this
year's Distinguished Alumni award winners. A number of Calvin professors, plus
two administrators, moved from Calvin into retirement. On the administrative
side, Joy De Boer Anema is leaving Calvin after a long career in student life
and the registrar's office, while Barbara Omolade is leaving a post as dean for
multicultural affairs.

On the faculty side Barbara Carvill, Robert De Vries, George Monsma, Jr., Arden
Post, Yvonne Van Ee, Ronald Wells and Charles Young III are retiring. Those
seven retirees have a combined 200 years of service to Calvin, led by 37-year
tenures for Monsma and Wells, followed closely by 35 years for DeVries and 29
for Carvill.

Finally the Board bid farewell to some of its own members who have completed
their terms of service and also elected its officers for 2006-2007.

The Board chair next year will be Bastian Knoppers, a vice president with
Illinois-based Metavante Corporation (he continues on as chair). Continuing as
vice chair will be Jack Harkema, a professor at Michigan State University,
while Cindi Veenstra, a Kalamazoo realtor, will remain as secretary.

Retiring from the Board were: Robert DeBruin of Mt. Pleasant and Kenneth
Olthoff of Spring Lake. Olthoff, in his final remarks to the Board, noted that
the three annual meetings were for him "like a spiritual retreat that
reinvigorates." Olthoff served nine years on the Board, while DeBruin served
for six years.

NOTE: A separate release will be sent this summer highlighting the new members
of the Calvin Board of Trustees.

-end-
Received on Sun May 21 17:17:53 2006