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Saying goodbye: Some retiring professors and staff recall their years at Calvin

In a place called Rehoboth

During the 1969-70 school year, Calvin College was holding fast to its standard 10:00 p.m. curfew for female students living on-campus. Male students faced no such rule. In an unprecedented and unrefined rebellion, the women of Calvin’s dorms marched in unified protest against this regulation. Sporting bathrobes and slippers, they left their dorms at exactly 10:01 p.m. and circled the entire campus.

Nearly 30 years later, several of Calvin’s students are still strong supporters of feminist efforts, both on- and off-campus. Calvin Students for Christian Feminism, a student organization, attempts to raise awareness of gender issues and develop a community that can continue dialogue on those topics.

CSCF student leader Sara Jane Toering said, “As a people of faith, we have a responsibility to notice and act on the fact that there are countless women who are hurting, and that this pain is directly tied to their gender. As Christians, we’re called to hear their stories.”

During the past year, CSCF held regular meetings where topics such as women’s health and women in the arts were discussed. Members of CSCF also volunteered at YWCA’s Take Back the Night rally and Ramouth House, an area shelter for battered women and children. In addition, the group invited Rev. Marty Rienstra, the first ordained woman in the Christian Reformed Church, to speak and lead a chapel in March.

“The biggest challenge to being a feminist here is a misunderstanding of that whole term,” said Konyndyk.

Although many strides have been made in the area of gender equity, many would argue there are still needs at Calvin which must be addressed. A 1992 Broene Counseling Center survey reported that 11.2 percent of Calvin women had experienced rape. Physical Education Professor and self-defense instructor Nancy Van Noord said, “Unfortunately, we live in a fallen world, where violence perpetrated against women is not uncommon. Women, more often than men, are the victims of stranger rapes, acquaintance and date rapes, and domestic violence — including dating violence.”

Many of Calvin’s faculty share feminist sentiments. Helen Sterk, CAS professor and Spoelhof Chair, has been involved in bringing attention to issues of gender on campus. In addition to teaching a seminar course on gender and communication, Sterk has been instrumental in bringing several speakers with gender-oriented messages to campus, including Ivy George and most recently, Elaine Storkey.

Irene Konyndyk, professor of French and Interdisciplinary courses, has been involved with women in the CRC since 1970. Konyndyk now serves as chair for the Committee on Gender Equity at Calvin. The committee exists to monitor the climate in terms of gender for administrators, faculty, staff and students. The committee has also worked on developing a Gender Studies minor. The minor has been a consideration since its proposal in 1991, although it has not yet been officially approved.

While there have been definite advancements concerning gender issues, Konyndyk notes the struggles of feminism as well. “I feel the biggest challenge with being a feminist at Calvin is a misunderstanding of the term feminism,” she said. “If you define it as viewing women and men as created equally in the image of God and therefore of equal worth, probably 99 percent of this community would agree to being labeled feminists. But there are all kinds of negative connotations attached to the term which lead people to avoid using it to describe themselves. Because of that, I’m not certain that the term feminism can be reclaimed, but I believe that there is value in the notion of Christian feminism. The term is not an oxymoron.”

In the next school year, CSCF hopes to improve understanding about feminism and make it more accessible to members of the Calvin community. Student leader Katie Pierson described the group’s sentiments: “We don’t want to scare people. In fact, we would like to get the input of as many different perspectives as possible.”