What will Calvin be like in 2030? This is the question that faculty, staff, and students have been discussing and pondering on campus this academic year. The visioning process for 2030 started with 10 bold questions that President Michael Le Roy posed at a gathering of faculty and staff in the fall. It has since been narrowed to four questions and yet again to three. Should Calvin become a comprehensive liberal arts university? How can Calvin become a global trusted source for scholarly content and learning? How do we maintain Reformed excellence in all that we do? Those questions have spurred deep discussion about what we want Calvin to look like at the end of the next decade.
In Calvin’s 140-year history, our mission has remained firm: Calvin equips students to think deeply, act justly, and live wholeheartedly as Christ’s agents of renewal in the world. Yet how we see ourselves and deliver on that mission have evolved. Starting in the 1880s as a small seminary that educated a Dutch immigrant population, Calvin became a seminary and college on the Franklin campus in the 1920s that served students who were mostly Dutch-Americans. In the 1960s, Calvin moved to our Knollcrest campus and grew into a larger, residential-based liberal arts college and Reformed seminary.
In this new century, our student population is becoming increasingly diverse and more international. Kim has replaced DeVries as the most common surname on campus, and students from more than 60 countries are living and learning together on our campus. How can Calvin position itself to best serve this increasingly diverse global population of students?
The visioning team has been wrestling with these big questions and working on a draft statement of our desired future state to present to the Calvin College Board of Trustees in May. With a new vision set, we will want your feedback on strategies and tactics we can use to achieve our vision.
Our alumni are an incredible resource. You know who we should partner with, new audiences we can reach, and potential students who would benefit from embracing Calvin’s mission. In the coming months, we will offer opportunities for you to engage with our strategic planning process. Be on the lookout for them and be prepared to offer what ideas and feedback you have.
We’re excited about the path on which God is leading this institution, and we’re grateful for the alumni who have gone before and led us to where we are today.
To find out more about our visioning process, visit calvin.edu/vision-2030.
