Celebrating Five Years of Momentum
On July 10, 2019, as part of Calvin University’s Vision 2030 plan, the institution changed from being a college to becoming a university. While Calvin has always pushed to widen its doors, integrate the Christian faith and learning, and partner well, the switch to becoming a university has helped it do this work more effectively amid a rapidly changing higher education landscape.
While the name change was the most tangible and noticeable alteration early on, today it’s apparent that this signaled significant momentum for changes in the years ahead.
This summer, as Calvin celebrates its first five years as a university, ten significant moments stand out as taking shape since July 10, 2019.
Note: This list is representative and in no way exhaustive.
June 2019 – Launching the de Vries Institute
In an effort to deepen and strengthen the university’s commitment to the integration of the Christian faith and learning, a transformative $11 million grant was given to Calvin to launch the de Vries Institute for Global Faculty Development, designed to assure that Calvin remains a leader in providing the finest Reformed Christian education available. The institute serves faculty around the world through its resources at Reflecting Faith.
July 2020 – Setting Fundraising Records
During the fiscal year in which Calvin changed from a college to a university, it set a record with $64.3 million in gifts and new pledges. Two years later the institution had its second-best fundraising year on record.
March 2021 – Establishing New Schools
Calvin broke ground on the School of Business building following the receipt of the largest single donation in the school’s history. The new building opened for classes in fall 2022. A few months after the groundbreaking, the second largest gift in Calvin’s history came in to establish a new School of Health.The School of Education, School of HASS (Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences), and School of STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) have also been created as a result of the new university structure.
August 2021 – Expanding Graduate-Level Offerings
When Calvin was a college, it offered just three master’s programs. Since 2019 the university has quadrupled its graduate-level offerings to 12, including the launch of four online programs in fall 2021 alone. The expansion of graduate-level programming is one of many tangible outcomes resulting from the Global Campus that Calvin has begun developing. From prison halls to corporate boardrooms and from high schools to environments for learners with intellectual disabilities, Calvin has been creating additional pathways to extend its mission to more learners around the world and in every stage of life.
October 2022 – Adding Varsity Sports
As part of the university’s athletics strategic plan, men’s football, women’s acrobatics and tumbling, and men’s volleyball have been added to Calvin’s portfolio of NCAA Division III offerings. The university now offers 25 varsity sports.
May 2022 - Awarding Bachelor’s Degrees Behind Bars
Students in the Calvin Prison Initiative (CPI) program participated in a commencement ceremony inside the fences of Handlon Correctional Facility in Ionia, Mich. The event, honoring the classes of 2020, 2021, and 2022, marked the first time in the state of Michigan that bachelor’s degrees were awarded behind bars. To date, five cohorts of students, 71 graduates in all, have earned bachelor’s degrees through the CPI program, which is offered via a partnership between Calvin University, Calvin Theological Seminary, and the Michigan Department of Corrections.
June 2023 – Adding and Upgrading Athletic and Community Gathering Spaces
Construction projects aimed at enhancing the student experience have included a significant reimagination of the first three floors of Hekman Library, the creation of new outdoor athletic facilities (track, turf field, soccer stadium, and football building), and enhancements in the new School of Health (including a new cadaver lab, simulation lab, and expanded speech pathology and audiology clinic). Many of the renovations will be ready for fall 2024.
September 2023 – Record-Setting Demand
Students from more than 90 countries submitted their applications to Calvin in 2023. The interest, which represents nearly half of the countries in the world, has been record-setting.
In 2024, international interest continued to climb with a record 20 percent of Calvin’s students coming from outside the United States. This is crucial, given that one of the key reasons Calvin changed to university status was so that international students would better understand Calvin’s educational offerings within the higher education landscape.
February 2024 – Reinvesting in Theater and Music Education
In February, Calvin decided to reinstate a theater minor and a music education major beginning in fall 2024. The decision resulted from several factors, such as the music and theater departments’ reorganization under the umbrella of the School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences in 2021; an increase in enrollment for consecutive years; and the university’s longstanding belief that “you can’t have liberal arts without the arts.”
June 2024 - Wayfinder Program
As part of the 49507 Initiative, Calvin launched the Wayfinder Program, the state of Michigan’s first Clemente Course in the Humanities, a transformative educational experience for adults facing economic and social barriers to higher education. The program is being offered off-campus in a neighboring ZIP code to the university in direct partnership with several community organizations.
