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This is the fourth part of a four-part series on the faculty requirements, focusing on the requirement that says professors must send their children to Christian schools. Previous articles have looked at the history of the requirement and where the requirement stands today; this article is about the future of the requirement and models for change Calvin could possibly follow.

Change is hard enough as it is, but when an issue involves as many factors and viewpoints as the faculty requirements, it seems almost impossible.

“The issue isn’t the faculty requirement [to provide Christian schooling for their children] — the issue is how to remain a vibrant confessional Reformed college,” said Dean for Instruction Steve Timmermans.

“The requirement is a means to this end, and the question now is, whether [the requirement] is the best means,” he said. “I believe [the requirements] are not reliable indicators for what we are trying to get after and we have to find something better.” What is that something better? Timmermans doesn’t know.

“There is a simplicity about the current requirement,” he said. “Whatever will replace it will be a lot more complex.”

Economics Professor George Monsma sees four alternatives to the current requirement. The college could drop the requirement altogether, a move that Monsma calls “unlikely.” It could replace it with a statement that all faculty support Christian education, but also recognize that parents are the proper people to choose the school of their children.

The third alternative is requiring that faculty provide a statement to the community about why they chose to send their children to the schools they do, said Monsma.

Another choice would be to “keep the requirement, but broaden the exemption policy by allowing children to attend non-CSI religious schools or giving people a longer time to comply to the policy,” said Monsma.

Calvin student Joe Lapp has a creative alternative. He suggests that Calvin form a support group for parents and children who attend public schools.

“Parents could get together and teach kids how to respond to non-Christian ideas that may be taught in the public school system.” Modeled after support groups for home schoolers, the support group could be a “resource for redeeming the world in a public school system.”

While Lapp admits that this proposal would still put education of children in the sphere of the employer, not the family, he thinks it is a “more attractive alternative” than the current policy. “I think it’s an option that people could get excited about.”

Philosophy professor Kelly Clark recommends replacing the Christian schooling requirement with a Christian School Initiative. “This would be an endowed fund which would provide 50 percent tuition to every child,” he explained.

Advantages of this model include Calvin demonstrating its commitment to Christian schools by encouragement not force, lessening the financial burden (and in turn making Calvin more competitive salary-wise), and returning the school choice to the parent sphere, according to Clark.

“I know this would cost a lot of money. However, if Calvin really believes that this is a crucial requirement, it should be willing to help faculty meet the needs,” Clark said. “I have every confidence in President Byker and the development office that, if the college were to commit itself to this program, they could raise the funds,” he said.

Biology Chair Uko Zylstra supports a voucher system. “Because I firmly believe that parents have the primary responsibility for educating their children, I also firmly believe that a voucher plan for educational funding is a more just way to finance education,” he said. “I believe that a voucher plan will give the poor the best opportunity to provide the kind of education for their children that they desire.”

But several hoops must be jumped through in order for any change in the Calvin policy to take place.

“In order for the policy to be revised, it must be approved by the faculty and the Board of Trustees,” Monsma said.

A proposal could be brought before Faculty Senate through a number of means, according to Monsma. The proposal could be brought to Faculty Senate by a group of seven professors, Student Senate or an informal group of students. From there, Faculty Senate would probably refer the issue to be considered by a committee, like it was in 1993. If Faculty Senate passed the recommendation of the committee, the BOT would review it and respond.

Chair of the Board of Trustees Sheri Haan said that “board members are aware of the fact that [the requirement] seems to be an ongoing issue.”

The board has reaffirmed the policy twice in the last five years. Haan said that the reasons for the affirmation of the policy are “the same reason it was passed originally.”

She said: “When parents have their children baptized, they should raise their children and teach them in a [Christian] environment … The [Christian Reformed Church] itself has not changed its commitment … and the college believes that Christian education is an ongoing thing. It starts at the home and then though college.”

Haan also points out that the requirement is not flexible. “I do think it’s important to note that there are exceptions to that policy. While indeed the language still says ‘requirement,’ exceptions are noted.

The Professional Status Committee is currently working on a project about the requirement. The project, which is not a proposal, is slated to be finished and presented to the Board in the fall. Sociology Professor Peter DeJong is chair of the Multicultural Affairs Committee which recommended that the Professional Status committee review the policy. “We wanted to see it openly discussed,” he said.

Timmermans, the dean for instruction, agrees that there must be rational dialogue about the issue. “There has to be a better way. We need to put aside the flash anger and talk about it as people of good will.”

Timmermans said: “We need to have a system that is workable. We don’t have a clear alternative, and I’m not ready to get rid of the old until we do.”