Dear Editors:

I am writing in response to an article which was written in The Outlook reviewing the new Calvin College governance policies adopted by synod. As chairman of the Governance Committee and also a member of the calvin College Board of Trustees, I feel I must respond to the inaccuracies and the anti-Calvin slanted journalism of the article. Your article states, and I quote: “This policy no longer requires that board members be members of a Christian Reformed Church.” This statement is blatantly false. The facts are that sixteen of the thirty one trustees must be Christian Reformed, chosen by classis, on a regional basis. This carefully thought out policy provides that there will always be a majority of trustees who are Christian Reformed and chosen by classis. Twelve of the remaining fifteen members are chosen at large, and they are all Christian Reformed. Three of the trustees are alumni representatives and presently twenty nine out of thirty one trustees are Christian Reformed. The other policy that your article conveniently failed to mention was that all trustees must be approved by synod to further safeguard the Calvin College-Christian Reformed Church relationship.

The other statement that I must take issue with is, and I quote: “Thus, this synod followed the precedent of recent synods which have introduced radical and far-reaching changes in the way Calvin College relates to the denomination, effectively removing it from significant control by and accountability to denominational link that remained intact is the quota system.” The present sixteen trustees, chosen by classis, are still responsible to report to the classis from the region they represent. Nothing has changed as far as control or accountability except that the system has been streamlined to make the board function more efficiently and effectively than before. The quota system has remained intact even though only seven percent of Calvin College’s budget is supported by the quota. It would also be interesting for your readers to know that this entire quota amount is used as financial aid to reduce the tuition only of all Christian Reformed students without regard as to whether their church is withholding or paying only partial quota support. Christian Reformed students pay a lesser tuition amount that non-Christian Reformed students because of the quota system.

Sincerely yours,

Jay Morren