Recently ousted Calvin University president Wiebe Boer and his wife Joanna are suing Calvin. The complaint reads like a soap opera.

Some of you who read this blog know that we have been keeping track of this story. See our coverage here and here.

Here is the latest from MLIVE:

GRAND RAPIDS, MI – The Calvin University president who stepped down in February amid accusations he sent inappropriate messages to a woman on campus is disputing the claims in federal court.

Wiebe Boer and his wife Joanna filed an April 12 lawsuit in U.S. District Court that accuses the private Christian college of breach of contract, discrimination and defamation.

While both Boer and the university agreed the messages to a non-student member of the university were not sexual, Boer accused the university of making misleading statements that paint the messages as “serious misconduct.”

“Calvin officials made intentional misstatements and misleading intimations in the Statements in order to accomplish what Calvin’s officials saw as a benefit to Calvin: to attempt to boost public opinion for its decision and to attempt to limit questions about why it constructively discharged Dr. Boer – all to the great detriment and damage to Dr. Boer,” according to Boer’s complaint.

The university’s Board of Trustees conducted a “careful and thorough review” that resulted in a unanimous decision to recommend Boer resign, according to a statement from the university.

“The Board remains confident that Dr. Boer’s decision to resign, and the Board’s decision to accept his resignation, are in the best interests of all involved,” the university said in the statement, adding that it looks forward to “correcting the record.”

Boer is not alleged of physical contact or communicating in a sexually explicit manner, the board stated in a Feb. 26 message, but the “conduct is concerning and inappropriate.”

“The Board of Trustees of Calvin University is committed to fostering a workplace and educational environment that emphasizes the worth of every member of our community,” according to the February announcement. “This includes taking seriously all reports of inappropriate conduct.”

Read the rest here.

After reading the complaint filed before the US District Court for the Western District of Michigan Southern Division, it appears the Boers are holding nothing back in their attempt to expose Calvin. The complaint, of course, only tells one side of the story but it includes a power-hungry provost (Noah Toly), a clearly narcissistic president (Boer), and a university first lady who believes she experienced racism, gender discrimination, and something akin to sexual harassment.

Here are the highlights:

1. The word “Michigan” is misspelled (“Michgian”) in the title of the complaint.

2. Very early in the document, the Boers go after Provost Noah Toly. It is worth noting that Toly, a former Wheaton College professor, became Calvin’s provost during the previous president’s administration and stayed in the position after Boer arrived. According to Boer, Toly also applied for president and was passed-over for Boer. The complaint reads:

At the time of Dr. Boer’s hire, Calvin had also interviewed its Provost, Noah Toly, for the President position, even though Toly submitted his application materials past the deadline. Toly engineered the inclusion of his cousin on the selection committee for the President’s role to increase Toly’s chances of the committee voting to pick him. In addition, Toly obtained a copy of the complete application packet of every candidate prior to when he submitted his application–a leg-up in the process which no other candidate had. When the board ultimately chose Dr. Boer, Toly was extremely upset about being passed over and made his displeasure known to Calvin officials.

Again, there are two sides to every story. We will see if Toly responds to these allegations. Frankly, I am not sure how this attack on Toly fits with the Boers’ larger complaint, but perhaps I am missing something.

3. Joanna Boer was a paid employee of Calvin University. Her role was “First Lady” of the university.

4. According to Wiebe Boer’s agreement with Calvin, university board members “were required” to “make introductions for Dr. Boer to the local corporate community.” Here’s more: “Dr. Boer felt that this was crucial to success in his role as Calvin’s new President, and he also knew that he would want to serve on corporate boards later in his Presidency and into his eventual retirement. However, despite Dr. Boer’s polite reminders about these introductions to Board members, they failed to make efforts to facilitate these connections as specified in the Agreement.”

5. Here is Wiebe Boer’s description (or at least his lawyer’s description) of his early days at Calvin: “Dr. Boer dove into the role of Calvin’s President with what many described as great energy and vision, the likes of which Calvin had not seen in quite some time.” Wow! Who describes themselves this way?

6. The Boers see a race angle at work:

Both Boers made it a focus during their time at Calvin to provide greater support and inclusion for students, staff, and faculty of color on campus. Like Dr. Boer, Ms. Boer had also attended Calvin as an undergraduate student. As a woman of color who had immigrated to the United States, Ms. Boer often felt marginalized when she was a Calvin undergraduate and not like an equal part of the Calvin and West Michigan community. Dr. and Ms. Boer were determined to lead Calvin to a place of greater diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging, better in line with the Christian values that Calvin claims to espouse…Some community leaders told Dr. Boer to ‘watch his back’ because they said there were those who would greatly dislike Dr. Boer paying attention to communities which included higher concentrations of people of color and had been traditionally ignored by Calvin.

7. Wiebe Boer is clearly the hero of his own story. Toly is the villain:

Another challenge for Dr. Boer was the state of Calvin campus morale when he took the helm. A ‘Best Christian Workplaces’ survey done in spring 2022 shortly before Dr. Boer’s revival showed faculty and staff morale so low that the ratings were below the charts. This was both a concern generalized to multiple areas of campus operation but also included various complaints about Provost Toly’s heavy-handed style of leading faculty. Dr. Boer later learned that multiple female members of [the] the faculty (past and present) accused Provost Toly of unlawful sexism in a wide variety of resource and other decisions falling within Toly’s extensive power and purview as the Provost. Dr. Boer was troubled by the complaints when he reviewed the evidence, and he considered initiating a formal discipline process and possible termination of Toly’s employment. But a handful of faculty and Board members supported Provost Toly and convinced Dr. Boer to keep him in the role, and work with him on improvement, since Toly had a great deal more experiences with academic bureaucracy than Dr. Boer did. So Dr. Boer engaged two different executive coaches for the Provost.

In other words, the president ousted for inappropriate texts with a female employee was giving advice to a Provost who was also allegedly acting in a sexist fashion.

8. Boer claims he was “stunned” by the allegations against him that ultimately led to his resignation. He also claims that “most of the Board of Trustees have not actually seen the text messages in question.” Part of Boer’s defamation suit has to do with Calvin accusing him of “sexual misconduct” leading to “significant speculation and harmful false conclusions about Dr. Boer.” This is all spelled out in the document. I encourage you to consult if you want to learn more.

9. After asking the Boers to leave the president’s home on campus, Boer claims that “Calvin officials” were “monitoring them on the security cameras on the Property, and they could see that various faculty and staff had come by to visit and check on the Boers. Calvin officials stated that they felt that the Boers were ‘whipping up’ support.” Boer claims that while he and his family were on vacation earlier this month (April 2024), “Calvin officials” changed the locks on the door “so the Boers would not be able to reenter and live in their home when they returned.”

10. Some Calvin faculty, according to Boer, “have felt that their continued relationship with the Boers may threaten their job security.”

11. And now onto the sex and race discrimination charges (a violation of the Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act) filed by Joanna Boer, Wiebe Boer’s wife.

12. Joanna Boer claims that in her role as First Lady “key members of Calvin’s administration frequently undermined her, belittled her, and unduly challenged her.” She adds that “some individuals pushed back on any consideration of race in culture and community at the University.” The complaint also notes that “Ms. Boer was Calvin’s first woman of color to serve as the ‘First Lady.””

13. According to the complaint, when the Boer’s arrived on campus ‘many faculty and staff on campus asked Ms. Boer how she was doing since moving to campus” and “one faculty member warned Ms. Boer that people would think less of Dr. Boer’s ability to lead because he was married to a woman of color.”

14. Joanna Boer has had multiple run-ins with the university’s Chief Financial Officer, Dirk Pruis, over her desire to redecorate the president’s house on campus. Allegedly, Pruis would not approve funds for Joanna Boer’s redecoration projects. Boer claims that Pruis would never contact her directly, but often spoke through his assistant, Sharolyn Christians. According to Boer, she “was not seen as valid enough to be addressed directly,” adding: “Pruis would not even greet or acknowledge Ms. Boer” while attending events in the Boers’ home. This led Wiebe Boer to “express frustration” to the Calvin Board of Trustees “about how his wife was being treated at Calvin.” The complaint notes that “Christians was very short and abrasive with Ms. Boer, and frequently admonished Ms. Boer that she had to approve all expenditures. She micromanaged Ms. Boer’s efforts as Pruis’ delegate and seemed to resent Ms. Boer.”

15. Back to race:

In or about September 2023…Pruis informed Ms. Boer that he found a University reception for two faculty of color who recently married that she planned to be ‘incredibly inappropriate.’ The reception was a gathering of staff and faculty on Wednesday afternoon. It was held to celebrate the love that two members of Calvin faculty had found and also to improve morale on campus. To Ms. Boer’s knowledge, there had never been faculty of color who married while employed at Calvin. She felt this should be celebrated in addition to the general joy of marriage. Typically, professor and faculty of color at Calvin have reported feeling on the margins of the community. Ms. Boer planned the event in the same spirit as the monthly faculty luncheons, and it cost less than one of the monthly luncheons, with more people included, because there was no sit-down meal. Pruis asked Ms. Boer, ‘Are you going to give a reception like this for every pair of faculty members who marry?’ Ms. Boer replied that of course she would. As Pruis continued to push back about the cost and the optics of the event, Ms. Boer asked him, ‘what about Christianity?’ Pruis responded, ‘What about justice?” Pruis, now becoming very frustrated, told Ms. Boer, ‘This is where I will get very mean.’ In an attempt to limit the aggressive nature of Pruis’ discussion, Ms. Boer said, ‘I think we will just need to agree to disagree. When Pruis left the Boers’ home that day, he told Ms. Boer, ‘I want to give you a piece of advice. While you are here, you really should just focus on your kids.” Ms. Boer could not believe that Pruis spoke to her in this condescending and discriminatory way. Ms. Boer also did not think Pruis would have spoken to her in that manner if her husband was present.

16: Joanna Boer’s accusations against Dirk Pruis do not stop there:

In or around October 2023, Ms. Boer was at a business event with Pruis and the other members of the President’s cabinet. Ms. Boer and Pruis were walking to the library for the next event. Pruis came behind Ms. Boer and put his hand on the small of her back. Pruis said, ‘Wow, you look so glamorous with your big sunglasses.’ Ms. Boer was taken aback by Pruis’ intimate contact and comments on her appearance. Again, Ms. Boer did not think that Pruis would talk to her or touch her this way if her husband was around. Dr. Boer went to Calvin’s Chief Diversity Officer (‘CDO”), Nygil Likely, with his concerns about how Mr. Boer was being treated, but did not identify Pruis and Christians. Likely then guessed that Pruis and Christans were who Dr. Boer was speaking to him about, without Dr. Boer disclosing that fact. Dr. Boer recommended that Pruis and Christians each undergo diversity training…Feeling like she was being heard for the first by Calvin, Ms. Boer felt relieved. When asked if she wanted Pruis and Christians to undergo diversity training, Ms. Boer declined. She did not want to upset the balance of the cabinet or create resentment toward her and Dr. Boer.

What a mess. This whole affair is almost on par with the stuff we report about Liberty University. Sounds like Calvin University has some real leadership problems.

Read the entire complaint here and you decide.