Daystar University’s Nairobi and Athi River campuses are home to many students, but recent problems on the campuses have caused some students to look for exchange opportunities.

One student won’t pay a single dollar to Calvin next year. Instead, under the terms of an agreement signed this Wednesday, whoever it is will pay in schillings, and that money will go to Daystar University, a school of about 2,700 full-time students in Nairobi, Kenya.

Small groups of Calvin students have attended Daystar since 1998, under a program coordinated by the Christian College Consortium (CCC). Calvin is not part of the CCC, but has nevertheless taken part in the program.

“Now what we’re trying to do is what some of the other colleges [in the CCC] have been doing – for every two or three of our students that go over there, we will bring a student over here,” said Director of Off-Campus Programs Frank Roberts.

“We pay for the cost of bringing the students over here by some of the surplus that’s generated by some of our students going over there,” he continued, “Students going there pay Calvin room, board and tuition, and that generates more funds for us because the actual billing we get from Daystar is less than that.”

The agreement, as it was signed by Daystar Vice Chancellor Stephen Talitwala and Calvin President Gaylen Byker, calls for Calvin to take one Daystar student a year for the next three years.

After that, Calvin will establish a ratio: for instance, if it takes two Calvin students studying in Nairobi to pay for one Daystar student to come to Calvin, then Calvin will accept one Daystar student for every two Calvin students that go to Kenya.

The Daystar student, who will be chosen by a representative of the CCC, must sign a binding agreement to return to Daystar the semester following his or her studies at Calvin. According to the agreement, “Furthermore, if I seek to return to Calvin College as a student, I will not do so until I have completed my course of study at Daystar University.”

“I think it is a very good idea,” said George Monsma, the economics and business professor who coordinates the Calvin students who attend Daystar. “Calvin students benefit a great deal from the opportunity to study at Daystar, both those that go there, and others who learn from them after they return. It is appropriate that we give some African students from Daystar an opportunity to study at Calvin in return.”

“Having foreign students on Calvin’s campus is enriching for North American Calvin students, most of whom have had no opportunity to have substantial contacts with people from other parts of the world,” he added.

Although in the past, four to five Calvin students attended Daystar every year, so far only two have enrolled for next year. Part of that change may be because of the new off-campus program financial aid policy enacted by Calvin for next year.

Under the new policy, students who attend Daystar are eligible to receive half of the financial aid they would if they attended Calvin; in years past, they have been eligible for the full amount.

“They want to say that they like Daystar, although last year they cut funding for students that go to Daystar,” said CAS Professor Mark Fackler. “You’re not exactly building strong bridges – saying you can go but it’s at your own expense. That was a blow, I thought, against Daystar, not for it.”

But Monsma said the two changes were unrelated. “We’ve been working on establishing the exchange for some time. It was part of the original idea when we started sending students to Daystar. The arrangements were just completed recently.”

“However, since we give less financial aid to Calvin students going to Daystar, the net amount available to support Daystar students per Calvin student who go to Daystar is higher (because our net revenues minus direct expenses are greater, the lower the financial aid given to the Calvin students),” he said.

Calvin will be a big change for the Daystar student who is chosen to attend here. The main campus for Daystar is located about an hour outside of Nairobi, near a town called Athi River. Zebras, antelope and giraffes can be seen running just off-campus, and students must be careful to walk in pairs to scare off larger animals of prey.

The campus and everything about it are African – it is run and taught be Africans, and the professorial staff is paid a third of what the average African CRWRC worker is paid.

A water pipeline brought out to the campus has since been illegally tapped in numerous places by politicians who use the water for irrigation. The college has been left with just a trickle of water, but can do nothing about it, since the people stealing the water are the same ones who issue the permits to allow the school to operate.

The student body is a diverse group of people from places as far removed as Côte d’Ivoire, Sudan and South Africa. Some of the students are so poor they must take paper from garbage bins to use for essays they need to hand in.

The library is stocked with 20-30 year-old books which have been pawned off by academics who no longer have a use for them; the college can’t afford to purchase new texts.

But despite the poverty, the school has a full lineup of programs: Daystar is a liberal arts school with majors in everything from community development, business, communications, religion, philosophy, psychology, sociology, music, even computer science (students often practice typing on a piece of cardboard with the letters sketched on it).

And the dramatic difference in culture is something that can’t be quantified.

“Calvin students who go to Daystar have the opportunity to live with Christians from a different culture in that culture, and thus can learn more about it, and about Christianity, themselves, and their own country,” said Monsma.

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