Mission Statement

Calvin College provides this program as a public service to the community and our constituents. We hope that by exploring how people guide themselves through ethical decisions, we promote a belief in the absolutes of right and wrong, the use of the conscience, and the openness to challenge one another on ethical judgments.

Brief History

In 1983, Rev. William D. Buursma, a minister in the Christian Reformed Church and a graduate of Calvin College and Seminary, began a weekly ecumenical talk show on public access cable TV in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Bill hosted Markings until his retirement from active ministry in 1990. When he moved to Grand Rapids, Bill approached Calvin College with the idea of starting a similar show through Calvin.

Regular production of Calvin Forum began in the 91-92 school year. The show aired on Grand Rapids Higher Education Television Access (The College Channel) and on public access cable systems in Holland and Kalamazoo. After a few years of producing the show, Steven Koster began training student producers to work under his guidance.

In the Fall of 1998 Jazmyne Fuentes, a recent transplant from Boston's public television station WGBH-TV, was hired to produce the show on a more consistent basis than students could do. After a year, local PAX-TV station rep Jim De Windt called. His national headquarters was requesting an additional hour of public affairs programming for all stations, and De Windt wanted Calvin Forum for his slot. Soon their Detroit affiliate came on board as well, allowing Calvin Forum to reach UHF and cable channels throughout lower Michigan at 6:30 a.m. on Sunday mornings.

In an effort to find a better time slot and wider audience, Fuentes and Van Denend approached the Grand Rapids-Kalamazoo PBS station WGVU-TV in the summer of 2000 to inquire about airing Calvin Forum under a new name. The managers at WGVU liked what they saw, and were happy to add Inner Compass to their lineup. The show began airing on October 7, 2000 Saturdays at 5:00 p.m.

In its seventh season, Inner Compass now airs Sundays at 1 p.m. The program is taped in the new state-of-the-art TV studio and control room of the DeVos Communication Center building with the help of its Chief Engineer Jake Bosmeijer.

Inner Compass is now podcasting due to the efforts of our new director, Steven Niedzielski, who joined our team in August 2005. He was formerly the Vice President of Operations at Macatawa Area Community Media Center in Michigan, where he produced several shows including the series West Michigan Today and the award-winning West Michigan Biography.