CAMPUS NEWS
Michael Le Roy will serve as Calvin’s president through the 2021-2022 academic year.
PRESIDENT LE ROY ANNOUNCES HIS FINAL SEASON AT CALVIN Michael Le Roy announced that the 2021–2022 academic year, his 10th at Calvin, will be he and his wife Andrea’s last. He cited a pull to return to the Northwest to be closer to their young adult children and aging parents. “The center of gravity for our family is now firmly rooted more than 2,000 miles away,” wrote Le Roy, Calvin’s 10th president. “During the pandemic, this distance only seemed greater to us. Having now emerged from this long crisis, we long to give greater emphasis to the family commitments in our lives.” Le Roy led the transition from a college to a university and expanded the populations the university serves, including adding to the university’s graduate-level programming. During his tenure, Calvin also began offering bachelor’s degrees to inmates at the Handlon Correctional Facility through the Calvin Prison Initiative, a first of its kind program in the state and one of very few nationwide. Le Roy will fulfill his role as president through the 2021–2022 academic year. A national search for Le Roy’s successor is underway and the search committee is led by Mary Tuuk Kuras ’86, vice chair of the board of trustees. 6
Professor Kumar Sinniah’s students said that he goes above and beyond.
KUMAR SINNIAH RECEIVES HIGHEST TEACHING HONOR Professor of chemistry Kumar Sinniah is the 2021 recipient of the Presidential Award for Exemplary Teaching, the highest teaching honor at Calvin University. Sinniah joined Calvin’s chemistry faculty in 1995—and his courses and research projects have been raved about by students ever since. Sinniah’s department co-chairs, professors Carolyn Anderson and Doug Vander Griend, describe him as the “total package” when it comes to being a faculty member at Calvin. Sinniah received the university’s Student-Faculty Research Award in 2012 and Advising and Mentoring Award in 2016, and he has published 30 peer-reviewed papers since starting at Calvin, often co-authored with stu-
dents. His work has brought a number of National Science Foundation grants for Calvin, funding his research projects and scientific instruments for the university. Anderson and Vander Griend also note Sinniah’s wide-ranging contributions to the university at large including his annual medical interim course in Nepal, multiple stints on the Professional Status Committee, and involvement in the university’s academic program review and prioritization processes. Sinniah also serves regularly as a reviewer for proposals submitted to the M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust, the National Science Foundation, and the Fulbright Scholar Program.
