Campus Update: Academic Affairs

Dear Grinnellians,

As the still new Vice President for Academic Affairs and Dean of the College, I am honored to contribute my energies to the endeavors and excellence of Grinnell College. Our commitment to engage the academic distinction and intellectual inquiry of its renowned liberal arts education with contemporary and enduring questions is exciting and meaningful, and I have been inspired to see the College's mission lived fully by its constituents.

The College was fortunate to have had Michael Latham's insightful leadership for many years. As his successor, my transition into this role has been aided immeasurably by his legacy and by collaborating with colleagues throughout the institution; working together to foster all that Grinnell College brings to a global society.

Part of our promise to prospective Grinnell students is that their academic experience will include a liberal arts foundation, an individually advised curriculum, and creativity and innovation. We tell prospective students about our distinctive advising, centers and programs, and academic support. We share how those will enrich their years here and help prepare them to successfully navigate the world's complexities and contribute to the common good throughout their lives.

Strategic Priorities and Initiatives

As Vice President for Academic Affairs and Dean of the College, one of my most important charges is to ensure that faculty members are provided with what they need for their meaningful and transformative work. At times we apply our skills to address challenges and problems; at other times, we help advance ideas for positive change.

The following are among Academic Affairs' ongoing strategic efforts and initiatives to address challenges and advance change, so that we might fulfill our commitment to be the best Grinnell College possible to the many constituencies we strive to teach and inspire.

Mellon Grant for Humanistic Study

News that Grinnell received a $1 million grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation was shared and celebrated earlier this month. The grant is intended to highlight the vitality and importance of the humanities, the humanistic social sciences, and the arts in the public sphere. The implementation of the Mellon grant will provide an excellent opportunity to promote innovation in the curriculum, increase opportunities for engagement with the Center for Careers, Life, and Service, and build public-facing components for community-based learning and internships.

"The Humanities in Action: Curriculum, Communities, Careers" grant-funded project will support academic disciplines including ancient and modern languages, literature, history, education, philosophy, art history, anthropology, sociology, political science, gender women's and sexuality studies, religious studies, and the fine and performing arts. Grant funds will allow faculty members to design new gateway courses that help students understand a discipline, department, or form of humanistic inquiry early in their Grinnell careers. The grant also will help Grinnell develop new community-engaged courses that give students a clear sense of how the methods and ways of thinking from the humanities can be put to use in the broader world.

Student Retention and Degree Completion

Student retention and completion rates remain a significant area of focus. Beyond their clear relevance as an indicator of how well the College fulfills its mission, they also play a key role in the wider reputation of the College and factor directly into national rankings and data used by prospective students and their families.

The projected four-year graduation rates for the next four entering cohorts, based on data from April 2019, stand at 78-80%, yielding projected six-year rates of 82-85%. While better than the vast majority of graduation rates at U.S. universities and colleges, Grinnell's rates put the college in the bottom half of the group of 16 national liberal arts peers we benchmark against.

Factors that drive student attrition at Grinnell are distinct from those at many other institutions. Where academic preparation and financial insecurity are major forces elsewhere, Grinnell's students are typically very well prepared academically. Moreover, our generous financial support and appeals process means that comparatively few students are unable to continue for financial reasons. Our qualitative and survey research instead points to the impact that factors like student mental health and the lack of a sense of belonging have on the numbers of students who successfully complete a Grinnell degree.

To better support our remarkably talented, accomplished, and diverse students; fulfill our mission; and preserve the College's reputation, the staff in Academic Advising and Student Affairs have developed systematic interventions designed to help us better connect specific populations of students with resources and recourse. We need to pursue this effort in ways that are more integrated with existing faculty governance and faculty practices in the years ahead, and a proposed task force to address this priority will be an important and necessary step.

Student Affairs

Student Affairs plays a vital collaborative role within Academic Affairs by fostering and proactively promoting student learning and development within our residential liberal arts college community, especially related to student support and retention. Student Affairs staff members work to align curricular and co-curricular priorities related to student involvement; residence life; diversity, equity and inclusion; student success; international student support; health and wellness; religious life; and, campus safety.

Key among Student Affairs priorities this year is fostering a culture of belonging on campus, through several initiatives related to:

• retention
• First-Year Experience (FYE)
• diversity and inclusion
• integration of Student Health and Wellness (SHAW)
• expansion of student involvement structures, staffing, and orientation
• support of and services for students who identify with a religious faith
• support for first-generation and low income students
• support for international students, faculty, and staff
• expansion of emergency preparedness efforts

First-Year Experience Course

Implementation of the First-Year Experience (FYE) course is a major priority to strengthen the support for entering students and to improve their ability to successfully transition into the College, and as such it directly connects efforts of faculty and Student Affairs staff.

FYE content includes six sessions of 90 minutes each on topics including: wellness, sexual respect, identity exploration, living and thriving in a diverse community, and how to use various College resources. In addition to improved first-year student wellbeing, FYE aims to have a positive effect on retention rates by empowering students to co-create an inclusive environment where all can thrive. Administration of this two-year pilot should enable Grinnell to determine how best to staff the project and make it a rewarding educational experience.  

Second-Year Retreat

The recent Class of 2022 Second-Year Retreat, "Unpacking Grinnell: Passion, Purpose, and Pathways," was the result of a year-long collaboration involving constituencies across campus. The effort was informed by a campus-wide commitment to the liberal arts as a framework within which students can design a dynamic and fulfilling educational experience for themselves in collaboration with the many resources and support groups they need to know exist among the faculty, staff, and peers.

The retreat was designed to empower students, encourage them to reflect on their values, and relate those values to their educational goals, particularly in the context of the liberal arts. The retreat helped students define what success means to them personally and offered tools to translate aspirations into opportunities, at Grinnell and beyond.

The Second-Year Retreat would not have been possible without the generous efforts of student peer leaders, academic support staff, and the staff, faculty, and administration on the Second-Year Retreat Working Group.

The Humanities and Social Studies Center

The vision for the Humanities and Social Studies Center (HSSC) was to be a place that located humanities and social studies departments together in one building to support students, faculty, and staff in the creation of a more interdisciplinary curriculum and exchange of ideas, and to provide the space, facilities, and adjacencies for faculty and students to engage in collaborative, issue-based research with access to powerful technological tools.

We are just now beginning to realize the audacity of that vision and the incredible success with which it is not just fulfilling but exceeding our intent both in terms of student use and in terms of interdisciplinary partnerships. Over time, we will be able explore opportunities for this space to shape, and in turn be shaped by, initiatives such as the Mellon grant. This remarkable building is well on its way to becoming a national model for globally-connected humanistic learning.  

Centers and Programs

Center for the Humanities

The Center for the Humanities cosponsors events across campus, supports community organizations, and puts on a slate of programming each year around an annual theme. This year's theme is Dis/Unity and Difference. Difference is a reality of community life - as is disagreement about how to negotiate diverse experiences in and of the lives we share together. Throughout the academic year, the Center for the Humanities will host and support a variety of guests who will demonstrate the power of humanistic inquiry to explore, celebrate, navigate, and engage difference in meaningful ways as we seek to live in equitable community.

Peace and Conflict Studies

This past week, Grinnell's Peace and Conflict Studies Program hosted Srdja Popovic who spoke on "How to Topple a Dictator." Popovic was one of the founding members and organizers of the Serbian nonviolent resistance group that help remove Serbian Milosovic from power in 2000. The Peace and Conflict Studies Program also recently celebrated International Day of Peace, and hosted presentations by past Davis Projects for Peace grantees and Leonard M. Kurz '75 Student Peace Prize recipients.

Rosenfield Program

With at least a dozen events scheduled for the coming academic year, the Rosenfield Program actively connects the Grinnell community to broader social and political issues that define the world beyond campus. In early September, the Program kicked off its year with an informal discussion of Iowa caucus politics, followed days later by a Tyranny of Data symposium, which featured six experts discussing the ways in which power is embedded in our data-infused world including facial recognition software and the surveillance state, algorithmic bias, human trafficking, the U.S. Census, and other topics. The Rosenfield Program funds student internships and sponsors study tours. Earlier this month, 12 students who recently wrapped up their Rosenfield-sponsored summer internships spoke about their experiences and how they connect to the College's tradition of social responsibility.

Wilson Center

The Wilson Center organizes programs to inspire students and develop their knowledge and skills in leadership and innovation. The goal is to connect students with professionals, particularly alumni, who are leaders and innovators in their fields. The Center kicked off its event schedule in September with the Pioneer Weekend Entrepreneurship Pitch Competition, a start-up challenge where students prototype an innovation. Beginning in October, the SPARK Social Innovation Challenge will encourage students to work with community partners to develop solutions to social problems. This year's theme is Campus Sustainability: Towards a Carbon Neutral Campus.

Writers @ Grinnell

This English department reading series is diverse and inclusive in every sense of the word. It brings writers of all kinds to campus to share their work, inspire students, and lead exercises and discussions. This year's Writers @ Grinnell lineup features writers who work across disciplinary boundaries investigating issues of gender, sexuality, disability, religion, race, politics, environmental science, addiction, music, film, pop culture, international relations, and American history. Kicking off the series in September were authors Danez Smith, Keah Brown, Lyz Lenz, Charles Baxter, and Kaveh Akbar. Several more diverse and dynamic speakers are scheduled to appear over the academic year and more will be announced in the weeks to come.

The Grinnell College Museum of Art

This summer the name of the Faulconer Gallery was changed to the Grinnell College Museum of Art to better reflect the scope of work, the size of the space and the collection, and the role the museum plays on campus. The space has long functioned as a fully realized museum with exhibition space, outreach programs, and a growing collection that now exceeds 5,400 objects.

The museum's inaugural exhibition, For Campus and Community: The Collection of the Grinnell College Museum of Art, runs through Dec. 14. The exhibition highlights the College's diverse and ever-growing collection of works of art spanning both the centuries and the globe. The name Faulconer Gallery will be retained for the exhibition space, which honors the intentions of the donors, the late Vernon Faulconer '61 and his wife, Amy Hamamoto Faulconer '59.

New Faculty and Faculty Accomplishments

As President Raynard Kington noted in his "Welcome to the New Academic Year" campus update shared earlier this month, more than 20 new faculty members, both term and tenure track, joined our distinguished faculty ranks this fall. Their expertise and energy are wonderful additions to a truly remarkable group of Grinnell faculty.

Evidence of our faculty's scholarship, acumen, and commitment to teaching and mentoring is only partially captured by a look at recent faculty accomplishments:

• Grinnell faculty submitted more than 70 proposals for external grants and fellowships.
• Twelve books, more than 80 articles, and 30 chapter contributions by Grinnell faculty were published.
• Faculty members gave 70 presentations and invited talks.
• Major faculty creative works, ranging from programming and conducting full orchestral performances, to original musical compositions, to solo art exhibitions, were shared to public acclaim.
• Numerous honors recognizing exceptional scholarship, teaching, and service, were awarded to faculty. These included faculty recognition at the national and regional level:
  • Sarah Purcell was selected as the inaugural recipient of the Council for Undergraduate Research's Excellence in Mentoring Undergraduate Research in the Social Sciences Award;
  • Leslie Gregg-Jolly was honored by the Iowa Chapter of the American Association of University Women with their Distinguished Faculty Member Award. She was selected for her efforts in working for educational equity for women and underrepresented groups in higher education.

Even this quick summary of highlights demonstrates that our faculty's scholarly achievements are truly an embarrassment of riches.

Thank You

I hope this update provides a sense of the breadth and depth of the work going on in Academic Affairs. I hope it helps demonstrate that the faculty and staff working within the Academic Affairs division are unconditionally dedicated to fulfilling our promises to our students. Lastly, I hope it makes evident my sincere admiration and gratitude for the dedication of all Grinnellians who strive to live out the College's mission and values. It is an honor to be with you all.

All the best,

Anne Harris

Vice President for Academic Affairs and Dean of the College