From: Darrell128@aol.com Date: Mon, 19 Feb 1996 02:57:09 -0500 NR #1996-017: Pew Charitable Trusts Director Named to Calvin College's Second Highest Post of Provost Dr. Joel Carpenter, a director with the Pew Charitable Trusts in Philadelphia, will be the next provost of Calvin College, filling the post being vacated at the conclusion of the 1995-96 school year by Dr. Gordon Van Harn, who is retiring. Carpenter, an Allegan, Michigan, native and a 1974 Calvin graduate, was appointed to Calvin's second-highest post by first-year president Dr. Gaylen Byker after a lengthy and extensive search process. "The take out there is that Calvin has extraordinary resources, extraordinary people, extraordinary levels of achievement, but that it's kind of hidden its light under a bushel. I think Calvin needs to let its light shine a bit more broadly," said Carpenter. NR #1996-017: For Immediate Release Pew Charitable Trusts Director Named to Calvin College's Second Highest Post of Provost by Phil De Haan Director of Media Relations, Calvin College Distributed by United Reformed News Service GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (February 10, 1996) URNS - Dr. Joel Carpenter, a director with the Pew Charitable Trusts in Philadelphia, will be the next provost of Calvin College, filling the post being vacated at the conclusion of the 1995-96 school year by Dr. Gordon Van Harn, who is retiring. Carpenter, an Allegan, Michigan, native and a 1974 Calvin graduate, was appointed earlier this week by first-year president Dr. Gaylen Byker after a lengthy and extensive search process. On Saturday, February 10, Carpenter met with the school's Professional Status Committee (a faculty committee which approves faculty tenure appointments) and the 31-member Board of Trustees. Both groups unanimously approved the appointment of Carpenter to Calvin's second-highest post. Carpenter has high hopes for his alma mater, saying he wants "to encourage and enable faculty to do extraordinary work." He also wants to increase the school's profile nationally. "The take out there is that Calvin has extraordinary resources, extraordinary people, extraordinary levels of achievement, but that it's kind of hidden its light under a bushel. I think Calvin needs to let its light shine a bit more broadly," said Carpenter. He also hopes to encourage Calvin faculty to be different from their counterparts at many American universities. "The standards for scholarly production ought to be different here," he said of Calvin. "There are too many books and scholarly articles published in academic America, many of them simply covering the same territory. It's the publish or perish syndrome. I would rather see somebody labor for a decade on a tour de force piece of work. A liberal arts setting such as Calvin can be a great place for a scholar to do such work - to work in breadth." Although he wants to encourage Calvin to not adopt "the production pace of a major university," Carpenter does want Calvin faculty to be engaged and making a difference in their field of expertise. "Faculty need to demonstrate," he said, "that they are making some kind of contribution to their profession." Byker is excited about the most significant appointment a Calvin president can make. "We see Joel as a Calvin graduate who has been into the world and put into practice the mission and philosophy of a Christian, liberal arts education," said Byker. "We're delighted to have him back." Carpenter has had a wide range of experiences since leaving West Michigan 20 years ago. Following his graduation from Calvin with a bachelor's degree in history, he earned his master's and Ph.D. degrees from The Johns Hopkins University, both in history. He was a visiting instructor in history at Calvin in 1976-77 and then spent a year at Johns Hopkins as a research fellow for an NEH project before five years as an assistant professor at Trinity College and six years as an associate professor and director of the Institute for the Study of American Evangelicals at Wheaton College. Since 1989, Carpenter has been director of the grantmaking program in religion at The Pew Charitable Trusts in Philadelphia. The program annually supports religious scholarship, urban and Hispanic ministry, and global Christianity and has a yearly budget of $11.5 million. Carpenter's many responsibilities include developing 30 to 40 grants per year, monitoring and evaluating a portfolio of 120 funded projects in North America, Europe and Africa, leading staff in programmatic research and development and creating, with other program directors, a variety of interdisciplinary initiatives. Among the major initiatives co-produced by the religion program staff are several with which Calvin is well familiar, including the Faculty Seminars for Christian Scholarship (held at Calvin), the Pew Evangelical Scholars and Younger Scholars Programs (held at Notre Dame) and the Pew Program in Religion and American History (held at Yale). Carpenter also has found time in the midst of his myriad of activities to publish, co-editing three books and publishing a number of scholarly papers and book chapters, as well as popular pieces. He also has a book forthcoming on American fundamentalism through Oxford Press. Carpenter is married to the former Janis Rhoads. The couple has two children: Rebecca, 13, and Andrew, 11. Cross-References to Related Articles: #1995-008: Calvin College Announces Texan Finalist in Presidential Search #1995-065: Two "B's" for Calvin: Synod Ratifies Appointments of Byker and Bekker as College President, Seminary Academic Dean Contact List: Dr. Gaylen Byker, President, Calvin College 3201 Burton St. SE, Grand Rapids, MI 49546 * O: (616) 957-6100 Dr. Joel Carpenter, Director, Pew Charitable Trusts 2005 Market St., Philadelphia, PA 19144 * O: (215) 575-4730 Phil de Haan, Director of Media Relations, Calvin College 3201 Burton St. SE, Grand Rapids, MI 49546 O: (616) 957-6475 * H: (6160 241-4061 * F: (616) 957-8551 * Pager: (616) 680-1958 * E-Mail: DEHP@Calvin.edu Rev. Morris Greidanus, Member, Calvin College Board of Trustees 1349 Alexander SE, Grand Rapids, MI 49506 * H: (616) 243-9549 * O: (616) 452-3590 ------------------------------------------------ file: /pub/resources/text/reformed: nr96-017.txt .