Campus News

Grinnell College has collected wellness data from students every three years since 2012. The data collection is part of a national effort, the American College Health Association’s National College Health Assessment.

The survey asks dozens of questions about student health and mental health as well as behaviors related to alcohol and other drug use. Grinnell students have consistently surpassed the national average survey participation rate of 21 percent. In 2018, Grinnell students’ participation rate was 51.6 percent. 

Jen Jacobsen ’95, assistant dean of students and director of wellness and prevention, shares the aggregate Grinnell results with staff and students across campus to help inform programming. She shares safety data with Campus Safety, sense of belonging data with the Office of Intercultural Affairs, alcohol and other drug use data with the Harm Reduction Committee, and sexual health data with the Sexual Health Information Center, a student-run organization. She also uses it for student training, including peer educators who focus on wellness, student leaders, and students who host overnight prospective students.

Data even finds its way into pub quizzes. “We find ways to gamify it,” Jacobsen says.

One piece of the student well-being puzzle that Jacobsen finds particularly fascinating is students’ perceptions of the behavior that’s happening around them. Students tend to assume, for example, that more fellow students are drinking, and drinking more, than they actually are. 

“The perception of norms is almost always wrong,” Jacobsen says. 

Since 2012 the survey data show a positive trend downward, 10 percent, in both the perception and the reality of the number of drinks students are consuming. Even more importantly, fewer students are self-reporting experiencing blackouts or alcohol-related injuries. Additionally, fewer students report having their sleep or studying disrupted by other students’ alcohol use.

Part of the explanation for this change, Jacobsen says, is the messaging that’s been going on about social norms. For example, the term “sober sex” has been used intentionally by the wellness office. In 2015, 51 percent of Grinnell students thought the typical student wanted to be intoxicated for sexual contact, and in 2018, 24 percent think so. 

“Perception is getting closer to reality,” Jacobsen says. “Grinnell students are critical thinkers inside the classroom. Discussing norms and their potential misperceptions is a way to extend this critical thinking outside the classroom to their everyday decision-making.”

Construction of the Humanities and Social Studies Center (HSSC) has changed the look of central campus. Two new pavilions, one directly east of Carnegie Hall and one northeast of Alumni Recitation Hall (ARH), will be ready for occupancy in early 2019. Faculty and students will be able to take advantage of state-of-the-art teaching and learning spaces while ARH and Carnegie are renovated.

Soon to come are cove-type outdoor learning spaces to the east of the HSSC’s south pavilion. A large plaza extending to the Robert N. Noyce ’49 Science Center will serve as the main entrance to the HSSC atrium, a new glass-walled structure linking the north and south pavilions to the historic ARH and Carnegie buildings.  

Across Park Street from ARH, the Admission and Financial Aid Center retains a residential feel to welcome visitors. It opens this fall.

Jaci A. Thiede started her new position as Grinnell’s vice president for development and alumni relations (DAR) July 31. She takes the helm as the College prepares for the public launch of its first comprehensive fundraising campaign in 20 years. 

Thiede came to Grinnell from Butler University in Indianapolis, Indiana, where she served as vice president for university advancement. She brings extensive advancement, development, campaign, and alumni relations experience to her new role, with nearly 25 years in higher education advancement and campaign consulting.

Prior to her leadership role at Butler, Thiede was associate dean for alumni relations and development at Northwestern University’s Pritzker School of Law in Chicago, and before that she served as a senior member of the Indiana University Foundation’s development division for 10 years.

While at Butler, Thiede led efforts that resulted in recording the first and third highest fundraising totals in the university’s history. She helped develop cultivation, solicitation, and stewardship strategies that resulted in the largest individual gift in Butler’s history, and increased overall annual giving by 24 percent over two years.

Thiede will play a central role in enhancing the visibility and fundraising capabilities of the College, ensuring Grinnell’s position at the forefront of liberal arts education. 

The Grinnell College Board of Trustees recently elected five new members to four-year terms: G. Barry Huff  ’73, Kimberly Kuncl ’87, Stephen G. Moyer ’79, Angela Onwuachi-Willig ’94, and Saumil Parikh ’99.

In addition, John “Fritz” Schwaller ’69 has been elected Alumni Council president for 2018-19 and will serve as an ex-officio trustee during his term.

The board also voted to re-elect six trustees to new terms: Trish Fitzgibbons Anderson ’80, David Braman ’75; Sylvia Kwan, Tobi Klein Marcus ’87, George E. Moose ’66, and Connie Wimer.

The role of trustees is to assure the “great and lasting good” of Grinnell College. For bios of the new members, see trustees’ full biographical profiles.

Born and raised in the Midwest, Keith Archer already feels comfortable in Grinnell. “It’s a really good fit,” he says. 

Archer, Grinnell’s new vice president for finance and treasurer, began work July 2. He oversees the College’s financial operations, human resources, facilities management, risk management, and auxiliary services. He came from Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois, where he served as vice president for finance and administrative services for three years.

Archer’s 35 years of professional experience is diverse. “It helps me to understand my different areas of responsibility,” he says. 

He started his career in retail management at Walmart and later worked in real estate management, manufacturing compliance, and public accounting before moving into higher education in 2005. At DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana, he was executive director of finance and controller. He is a certified public accountant.

Archer was a first-generation college student who earned an associate’s degree in chemistry and math and later a bachelor’s degree in accounting from Maryville University in St. Louis. While working on his bachelor’s, he also worked full time and was raising two children with his wife Melissa Archer. 

The liberal arts and being a lifelong learner are things he appreciates. “I saw good things going on here,” he says, “things I wanted to be a part of and support.” 

"Whatever path you take, or goals you pursue, please use your knowledge and skills well--to fight for the things you care about, knowing that even one person can make a difference." We couldn't put it better than today's Commencement speaker, Celina Karp Biniaz '52.

Congratulations to the Grinnell College class of 2018! You can view the full 2018 Commencement ceremony online now.

As part of the April 5 Scarlet & Give Back Day, Grinnell’s annual 24-hour giving challenge, alumni classes competed against each other for the honor of having an office named after their class in the new Humanities and Social Studies Center. The class of 2012 will receive this recognition, thanks to the 19 percent of class members who made gifts that day. 

April 5 was also National Burrito Day. This coincidence inspired a student-giving challenge. Nearly 20 percent of first-year students made a gift, winning free Chipotle burritos for everyone in the class of 2021.

During the 24-hour period, 2,482 donors made a gift, unlocking a series of challenges. When the number of donors reached 2,018, that clinched a matching gift of $275,000 from an anonymous Grinnell graduate. In total, $503,289 was raised.

The Humanities and Social Studies Center (HSSC) is still under construction, but it has already transformed the look of campus. We asked a few faculty members what they're anticipating about it. Here's one perspective.

Catherine Hackett Renner joined Grinnell College in early April as associate vice president for analytic support and institutional research. She comes to Grinnell with a strong background in research and planning, and more than 25 years of professional experience in higher education administration, teaching, and health care. 

In her new role, Renner will build upon Grinnell’s strategic emphasis on data-informed decision-making through support of administrative program analyses, teaching and learning outcomes assessment, and enrollment management data research. She will also provide administrative leadership to the staff members in the Office of Analytic Support and Institutional Research (OASIR).

Renner succeeds Randy Stiles as he transitions from his OASIR leadership role to the role of special adviser to the president. Stiles’s primary focus in that capacity will be on the upcoming Higher Learning Commission regional reaccreditation process. 

Prior to her position at Grinnell, Renner served as director of research for UnityPoint Health-Des Moines, assistant vice president for institutional research and planning at Mansfield University in Pennsylvania, and director of institutional research at the State University of New York-Geneseo, the liberal arts college of the New York public system.

Sarah Moschenross, dean of students at Grinnell College since 2015, is being promoted to associate vice president for student affairs at the College this summer. 

Moschenross will oversee all aspects of student affairs including the dean of students, campus safety, international student affairs, intercultural affairs, religious life, residence life, student activities, student assistance, wellness, and student health and counseling services. 

“I am excited to continue my work within our vibrant community to advance the co-curricular experience for Grinnell College students,” says Moschenross. “To do this work alongside a strong team of student affairs educators and engaged student leaders will be especially rewarding.”

Moschenross succeeds Andrea Conner, who will leave Grinnell in June to become vice president and dean of students at Lake Forest College in Lake Forest, Illinois. Conner has served Grinnell since 2009, demonstrating exceptional leadership in enhancing intercultural affairs, campus safety, and student health and counseling. 

Before coming to Grinnell, Moschenross was director of the Ronald E. McNair Postbaccalaureate Achievement Program at Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois. In that role, she mentored, advised, advocated for, and counseled underrepresented, low-income, and first-generation college students.