VirginiaHuguenot
Puritanboard Librarian
From the Detroit News, April 22, 2006:
Reformed Bible College renamed for Dutch theologian
GRAND RAPIDS TOWNSHIP -- Students who attended Reformed Bible College on Thursday found themselves enrolled at Kuyper College on Friday.
The tiny, Christian ministry-focused school with about 275 students officially got a new name during a gala held Thursday evening.
The idea of a name change had been discussed for years, said Jill Heyboer, a spokeswoman for the college. The board of trustees voted in October to rename it after Abraham Kuyper, a Dutch Calvinist theologian, philosopher, professor and politician who died in 1920.
Board Chairman Lloyd Vander Kwaak said in a statement released by the school that "for the college to be more effective, relevant and accepted by our audiences, prospective students and the world we're trying to reach, our name had to change."
It becomes the third college in the Grand Rapids area to so honor a Christian theologian. The others are Calvin College, named for John Calvin, and Aquinas College, named after St. Thomas Aquinas.
Kuyper is in Kent County's Grand Rapids Township, just northeast of the city. It was founded in 1939 as the Reformed Bible Institute with a three-year curriculum for students planning to do foreign or domestic missionary work.
In 1970, the Michigan Department of Education authorized the school to confer four-year bachelor degrees.
The college offers 17 undergraduate programs and 16 study-abroad opportunities. All graduates have both a Bible major and a major in a professional area.
On the Net:
Kuyper College: http://www.kuyper.edu/
