We’ve already covered a lot of ground

Key outcomes by the numbers

The graduation rate improved from 74% to 77% due to improved focus on student retention.

99.5% of graduates reported that they are employed or in graduate school six months after graduation.

86.5% of Calvin’s students participated in an internship prior to graduation.

The average graduate indebtedness ($29,768) is lower than it was in 2012.

Calvin’s total net assets grew from $290 million to more than $375 million.

Calvin’s long-term debt is below the plan goal of $80 million for the plan period, at $75.3 million.

Donors supported the college over the five-year plan period with more than $150 million raised.

The endowment grew from $123 million in 2014 to $167 million in 2019.

Key outcomes by category

Strengthen Calvin’s mission in education

To ask about the goals of education is also to ask how we should live. New developments enrich the Calvin education that prepares students for specific fields of academic study, professional work, and participation in the arts.

Educational Framework
Considering the enduring characteristics or qualities of thinking, doing, and being that mark a Calvin graduate, we crafted an educational framework centered around four main goals: learning, faith, citizenship, and vocation.
Center for Student Success
We established the Center for Student Success, with a coordinated student care model at its hub. Retention rates continue to move in the right direction, suggesting a correlation between the new efforts of the Center for Student Success and retention. The Center for Student Success also received a one million dollar gift to be used in the service of student success.
Calvin LifeWork
We developed and launched Calvin LifeWork, a comprehensive vocation and life skills program that now has over 1,200 first- and second-year student participants. Calvin LifeWork is a voluntary, incentivized, four-year, co-curricular program that provides an integrative approach to establishing a foundation for a student’s calling and career path from the point of initial contact with Calvin all the way to graduation. The program focuses on four main areas—vocation, career readiness, financial literacy and life skills, and leadership.
Prison Initiative
In partnership with Calvin Seminary, we launched the Calvin Prison Initiative at Handlon Correctional Facility to provide inmates an opportunity to join the Calvin community as remote campus students pursuing a degree in ministry leadership. The program is currently serving 75 students.
Rehabilitation Clinics
Bringing together an array of services (speech, occupational and physical therapy, audiology, social work) and hands-on training for graduate students, we launched Calvin College Rehabilitation Clinics in partnership with Western Michigan University.
Honors and Collegiate Scholars
We re-launched our longstanding honors program by offering two distinct programs that challenge students to embrace advanced academic options:
  • Honors Scholars desire to learn in community and seek an interdisciplinary academic experience.
  • Collegiate Scholars want to grow as leaders while pursuing their academic goals.
Co-Curricular Assessment
Our academic affairs and student life teams partnered to create a comprehensive program evaluation process for non-degree-granting programs, which includes a departmental self-study, an internal review, and an external review. This robust assessment plan helps ensure operational excellence and student learning outcomes achievement.
Additional Progress
  • We established a faculty development program to strengthen effective teaching.
  • A health sciences advisor was hired to better serve students interested in health-related fields.
  • We finalized curricular revisions and welcomed curricular additions: several new business majors, a new data science major, a new Master of Accounting program, and a restructured Master of Education program.
  • The new Dean’s Council for the Arts was mobilized, coordinating with various campus groups to promote and enrich the arts at Calvin.
  • A Division I ACHA men’s hockey team was added to our athletics teams, and women’s triathlon was approved as a new campus sport to begin in fall 2019.

Secure Calvin’s mission in scholarship

Calvin College has long been a leader in producing Christian scholarship and promoting the life of the mind among Christian scholars and lay people. Today, this calling is more vital than ever.

Summer Research Program
We have continued to expand Calvin’s summer research program for students. During the summer of 2018, the college supported student-researchers through various internal and external grants.

These included 114 Summer Science Division fellows (with 46 faculty involved), 19 McGregor fellows and 17 faculty mentors (arts, humanities, social sciences), 12 Honors Fellows (10 of whom are counted in other programs) with 13 faculty mentors, and 9 Center for Social Research interns. In addition to these current students, more than 10 recent graduates practiced on-campus research with funding from external agencies and Calvin’s centers and institutes.

Overall, this is an increase of about 25 summer research opportunities relative to 2017.
Civitas Lab
The new Civitas Lab of the Henry Institute provided 13 research opportunities for students working with 9 faculty mentors during the 2017–18 academic year.
Interdisciplinary Scholarly Projects
Three interdisciplinary scholarly projects were initiated by the provost’s office and funded for four years: Citizenship, Public Health, and Sustainability. The outcome of these in-depth projects will be shared with the Calvin community in 2019.

Support Calvin’s mission in community

We are developing a workplace culture that allows college employees to thrive and grow.

Compensation Study
We completed a compensation study in 2017, and recommendations were implemented in fall 2018.

Faculty position salaries are now within the target of 85%–115% of benchmark salaries from peer institutions. The goal of moving all full professors to at least 85% of benchmark salaries was nearly accomplished, and we will continue to pursue this goal over time.

Staff position salaries are now at 95% of benchmark salaries or higher. We will continue to pursue a goal of 100% of benchmark salaries over time.
Faculty and Staff Development
A faculty workload study is underway, with recommendations expected in 2018–2019. Over 95% of staff now receive performance reviews at least annually (compared to fewer than 60%). We are implementing a values based leadership development pilot this fall with plans for growing it in the 2019–20 academic year.
Benefits
We have implemented and improved the investment lineup for our retirement plan. We will also implement a new PTO and family care benefit in January 2019.
Safety and Health
In 2014 we implemented the safer spaces process. We have also implemented annual emergency planning exercises and now have an executive safety committee addressing safety planning.
Sustainability Initiatives
We have implemented STARS sustainability measures and tracking and have achieved a silver and bronze rating. President Le Roy has also signed the Second Nature climate commitment, a plan for carbon neutrality by 2057.
Institutional Performance
We have implemented an institutional performance metrics dashboard to regularly measure progress toward our goals. We have also created an office of institutional effectiveness and analytics to support the use of data and analytics broadly across campus.

Strengthen Calvin’s pursuit of diversity and inclusion

We continue to grow as an ethnically diverse community which recognizes that the Christian community transcends cultural and geographical boundaries and we live in a world community.

Staff and Faculty Diversity
AHANA (Asian, Hispanic/Latino, African, and Native American) and international employees now make up more than 13% (up from 9%) of the college’s employees, and 25% of our new hires in the 2017-18 school year are AHANA or international employees.

Cognitive error and implicit bias trainings are now required of all search committee members for open positions. The percentage of faculty and staff of color has increased each year during the strategic plan.

We have also implemented a mentoring program for new staff and faculty of color.
Student Diversity
Our AHANA student population increased from 523 (13%) to 620 (16.9%). Our international student population increased from 407 (10.1%) to 456 (12.2%). The percentages of students of color and international students are at their highest levels in college history.
Chief Diversity Officer
The original position of Executive Associate to the President for Diversity and Inclusion, now Chief Diversity Officer, was created and filled. The position is responsible for leading deep, meaningful, and pervasive changes in the way the college understands and practices diversity and inclusion.
Philosophy of Cultural Competence
A professional development statement detailing a philosophy of cultural competence was created and published, identifying expected learning outcomes for professional development in this area.

Foundational courses — Inclusive Excellence, Biblical Perspectives, Cultural Competence, Respectful Workplaces, and Anti-Racism — were created and are offered on a regular basis. Additionally, each year lectures, workshops, and celebrations are offered by various departments to enhance global awareness.

Performance appraisals for all staff, faculty, and administration members incorporate cultural competence measures as a dimension of performance.

Secure Calvin’s financial future

We are making progress toward a sustainable financial model and using both natural and financial resources to pursue our mission and positively impact our world.

Campus Master Plan
We implemented a comprehensive Campus Master Plan, which informed the following projects:
  • Renovating Commons Dining Hall
  • Classroom upgrades with enhanced pedagogical technology and spaces
  • Planning for a new campus union
  • Re-imagining the 200 level of the Hekman Library, including the installation of a Peet’s coffee shop
Campus Housing Evaluation
A team of consultants from Campus Advantage, an external firm with expertise in campus housing, visited campus to complete in-depth analysis and market assessment. Following the visit, the firm provided a list of recommendations aimed at increasing overall housing occupancy and identifying a long-range strategic plan for on-campus housing at Calvin.
Energy and Climate
President Le Roy signed the American College and University Presidents’ Climate Commitment. The college has been evaluating its energy use and implementing multiple projects in support of this commitment to lowering Calvin’s carbon footprint.
Increased Efficiency and System Consolidation
The following developments have increased institutional efficiencies within and across departments:
  • A new access control system for increased campus safety, security, and efficiency
  • Implementation of Salesforce to pursue further student success and retention
  • Implementation of SLATE to manage relationships with prospective students and their families
  • Implementation of a LEAN Team to create improved collaboration, efficiency, and workflow in a number of areas across the college

Support Calvin’s mission through external partnerships

As the demographics of our student body, alumni, and financial supporters continue to evolve, so do our opportunities to sustain historic partnerships while deepening and strengthening new ones, locally, nationally, and globally.

Hong Kong Extension
Leaders from Calvin College and Lumina College signed an agreement signaling an important step forward in Lumina College offering Calvin’s Masters of Education program in Hong Kong. The program is pending approval from the Higher Learning Commission in the United States and the Education Bureau in Hong Kong.
Coming Soon
Revisit this site in the coming months to read about new ways in which we are promoting the college’s mission by making and strengthening connections with communities and institutions.