Calvin Board Wraps Fall Meeting

October 20, 2007 == MEDIA ADVISORY

The 31-member Calvin College Board of Trustees (BOT) wrapped up its fall meetings on Saturday, October 20, concluding two-plus days of business that included both plenary sessions and committee meetings and reports.

This was the first meeting of the Calvin Board for the 2007-2008 school year (the Board meets annually in October, February and May) and thus the first meeting for a quartet of new Board members. The four are: Ralph Luimes, president and CEO of Hal-Nor Community Credit Union in Caledonia, Ontario; Terry Vander Aa, founding chairman of Chicago-area Providence Bank who hails from Hinsdale, Illinois; Thelma Venema, a Crown Point, Indiana, resident and CEO of two family-owned businesses in the Midwest; and Jin So Yoo, senior pastor of All Nations Church in Lake View Terrace, California.

Among the business of the Board for the October 2007 meeting were a number of personnel matters, including faculty appointments and reappointments, changes in rank and more. The Board ratified promotions to full professor for Marjorie Gunnoe, psychology; Donald Tellinghuisen, psychology; and John Witvliet, music. It also endorsed tenure track faculty appointments for Adejoke Ayoola, nursing; David Noe, classical languages; and Pennylyn Dykstra-Pruim, German. In addition it endorsed nine term appointments, ranging from one year to five years, and endorsed a trio of leaves of absences.

The Board also ratified seven administrative reappointments: Janel Curry as dean for research and scholarship; Kathi Groenendyk as co-director of the writing program; William Katerberg as director of the Mellema Program in Western Studies; Lissa Schwander as coordinator of the Cross Cultural Engagement program; David Smith as director of the Kuyers Institute for Christian Teaching and Learning; Keith VanderLinden as coordinator of the Foundations in Technology program; and Uko Zylstra as academic dean for the contextual disciplines and for natural sciences and mathematics.

The Board also approved the 2007-2008 budget, heard about preliminary plans for a possible residence hall addition, discussed the strategic plan for the college and looked at its own Board self-evaluation process.

Much of the Board's business work over the two days was spent in committees. There are six standing BOT committees: Academic Affairs, Administration and Finance and Information Services, Advancement, Enrollment and External Programs, Student Life, Trusteeship. There also is an Executive Committee, composed of members of the six committees. Each of the six committees essentially mirrors an academic or administrative divisions at Calvin. Each committee also has a Calvin administrator who serves as an adviser.

-end-
Received on Sat Oct 20 19:43:01 2007