Campus News

$59,541

Amount awarded to Nicole Eikmeier, assistant professor of computer science, and two colleagues from Bard College in a National Science Foundation grant for their research on COVID-19. The trio will build upon existing models to understand the complexity of social spread within the population. It is the first grant that Grinnell has received as part of the NSF’s Rapid Response Research program, which is designed for urgent research needs.

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Students who received a laptop, mobile hot spot, or both to support their distance learning during spring semester as part of the Supporting Our Students Fund.

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Faculty members awarded tenure at the Board of Trustees meeting in May. They are: Dean Bakopoulos, philosophy; Leif Brottem, global development studies; Charlotte Christensen, physics; Christopher Jones, special collections; Kirsten Koester, physical education; Mark Laver, music; and Eric Ohrn ’07, economics.

On March 30, Grinnellians across the globe started a new chapter in their undergraduate experience: distance learning. Even under these challenging conditions, Grinnellians and their families found a way to stay connected.

What started as an idea in a Facebook group became an outpouring of support for students. With “remote campus” locations popping up across the country and around the world, Grinnellians were able to find a way to be a community no matter where they were.

Reunion Updates

For updates and details on rescheduled 2020 Reunion events, please visit Reunion.

On July 14, the Board of Trustees announced their unanimous decision that Anne F. Harris would be the 14th president of Grinnell College. Her appointment comes after an extensive and rigorous national search which, despite the challenges of the pandemic, yielded expressions of interest from sitting presidents, provosts and deans at peer institutions, and resulted in more than 30 multi-round interviews.

Harris, who joined Grinnell in 2019 as vice president for academic affairs and dean of the College, has been an important member of the president’s senior team during recent challenging months. Her career in higher education includes more than 20 years in various leadership positions as a faculty member and eventually as vice president for academic affairs at DePauw University, where she was a respected art history scholar, teacher, and mentor.

David Maxwell ’66, chair of Grinnell’s Board of Trustees, notes that Harris brings an inclusive, consensus-building leadership style to her new role. “She has demonstrated not only outstanding leadership, but also a nuanced understanding of and passion for the College’s mission and core values.”

Grinnell Magazine will include more coverage of President Harris in future issues.

When it became clear that personal protective equipment (PPE) would likely be in short supply in Grinnell, students, their families, and alumni from China stepped up. “As part of the Grinnell community, we feel like we have a responsibility to help people in Grinnell who need medical care,” says Zhenzhong “Jack” Xing ’23, who along with Xinya Yang ’20 spearheaded an effort to donate PPE to the College and community. “In China, we have the ability to buy this kind of protective equipment; we are obliged to do this.”

As of mid-April, Xing, Yang, and 150 others had come together to donate more than 13,000 pieces of PPE. They had also raised more than $10,000 to purchase PPE items.

Sarah Smith, the project lead and the College’s director of outreach programs and events, says the effort has highlighted Grinnellians’ desire to take care of others in need. “It’s been really well received by everyone in the community,” she says. “We are very thankful for the donations.”

To read the full story, visit “Alumni and families from China send thousands of face masks to Grinnell.”

Caesar. Isaiah. Emerson. Darwin. Shakespeare. Dante. Homer. Plato. Michelangelo. Goethe. Galileo.

For 115 years, these names have stood alone in the limestone of Carnegie Library, inscribed as examples of great thinkers who represented the values, aspirations, and identity of a young Grinnell College.

“I remember walking past that building and thinking that it was interesting that these names were so homogenous,” says President Raynard S. Kington. “But I also remember thinking, wouldn’t it be interesting if we could add some names?”

As the Humanities and Social Studies Center was being constructed, Kington seized the opportunity to inscribe a new name on Carnegie’s walls, one that would better and more fully represent the diversity of opinion, thought, and action of the Grinnell community as the College enters a new era.

To Kington, novelist, essayist, book editor, and college professor Toni Morrison was the obvious choice. “She was an intellectual who was grounded in real life and could make this link between real life and very deep thoughts,” says Kington. “I think that that is an important message — that you do not have to think of intellectual pursuits as being somehow separate from life.”

A system for nominating additional honorees is in development so that students, staff, faculty, and alumni may select those whose lives and works represent the values of the Grinnell community.

For more information on Toni Morrison and the inscription project, listen to the All Things Grinnell podcast “Written in Stone: Toni Morrison.”

In October, Grinnell College withdrew its football team from competitive play, forfeiting the rest of the season, to protect the health and safety of the student-athletes.

For several years, President Raynard S. Kington and Andy Hamilton ’85, director of athletics and recreation, have been actively evaluating the team’s health and following national trends related to football safety. The decision last fall came as a result of a great deal of scrutiny, including an epidemiological report on team members’ injuries, Hamilton says.

While discussions were happening in the administration, the team was having its own discussions. After the third game of the season, the student-athletes held a team meeting and voted not to finish the season. Too many players were injured. It wouldn’t be safe to continue.

When Hamilton took over the director’s position in 2016, he recognized that Grinnell’s approach to football staffing wouldn’t allow the team to have enough players and have a competitive football program. Within his first year, the administration moved to enhance staffing; another round of enhancements occurred in 2019, both supported by alumni giving.

“We made significant changes again to our staffing in fall 2019 after canceling the season,” Hamilton says. “These changes will allow us to have a larger squad and a safer opportunity for football at Grinnell.” Both the president and Anne Harris, dean of the College, support the changes.

At the end of December, Hamilton announced the hiring of a new head coach, Brent Barnes. “He has experience that touches on most every area of football coaching, which is unusual,” Hamilton says. “He’s very professional, very bright. He showed an ability to relate to a wide variety of people in our department and on campus. He’ll be a good ambassador.”

Barnes started work on recruiting new players the day he signed his paperwork.

April 3–July 31

What happens when an artist doesn’t just represent the natural world, but makes it anew through a creative lens?

Five alumni artists work with animals, plants, and environments, crafting them into personal expression and commentary on the human impulse to alter the world around us.

The exhibition will include painting, printmaking, sculpture, and drawing by artists Fay Hazelcorn Stanford ’72, Pamela Greenblatt Crockett ’76, Aaron Rothman ’96, Regan Golden ’00, and John Martin Bell ’08.

Alumni recipients of the 2019 Joseph F. Wall ’41 Alumni Service Awards have ambitious plans for their $35,000 awards.

Juan Carlos Pérez Borja ’11, who founded Enseña Ecuador (Teach for Ecuador) in 2013, is developing a training program for local teachers.

Juan Castaño ’00, co-founder and executive director of Calpulli Mexican Dance Company in New York City, will use his award to present Monarcas: Stories of Inspired Immigrants, a full-length, professional dance and music performance that will debut in Queens during spring 2021.

Zoé Strecker ’88, an associate professor of art at Transylvania University in Kentucky, has focused on a long-term, social change project called Lavish! The project is a multi-media, sculptural installation on Pine Mountain that invites a deep look into biodiverse, old-growth, temperate-zone forests.

For more information about the winners’ work, see Wall Award Winners 2019.

With a new utility-scale solar installation expected to be complete by the end of May (see no. 1 below), readers may wonder what other sustainability efforts the College employs. Many are in plain sight while others are literally buried, including four geothermal well fields. This map shows where most efforts take place.

1. Utility-Scale Solar Installation
   The College will purchase renewable electricity from Iowa-based Trusted Energy, which is building a 4-megawatt solar installation on 18 acres of farmland adjacent to campus. It’s expected to supply 30% of campus electricity and reduce the College’s carbon footprint by 18%.
2. Athletic Field Prairies
   Native prairie plantings are used for wildlife and runoff filtration.
3. Football Field Irrigation
   Rainwater and HVAC condensation is collected from the Field House and used to irrigate the football field.
4. Geothermal Well Field
   One of four well fields, this one services the Bear Center natatorium and supplies heating and cooling.
5. Boiler Plant
   Efficient practices include monitoring exhaust to ensure most efficient combustion and a reverse osmosis machine that removes minerals from city water before entering the steam system.
6. Residence Hall Renovations (one per summer)
   Renovations typically include all LED lighting, updating control system to set temperature restrictions, water fountains with water bottle fillers, and new windows.
7. Geothermal Well Field
   The well field beneath Mac Field provides heating and cooling to the Humanities and Social Studies Center and the Admission and Student Financial Services building.
8. Joe Rosenfield ’25 Center
   Energy practices include CFL and LED lighting, daylight controls, white reflective roof, and a heat recovery system that recovers exhausted heat from HVAC, refrigerators, and coolers and also heats incoming fresh air during the winter. Food waste from the dining hall is collected, processed, and delivered to a local farm.
9. East Campus Residence Halls
   Built from Iowa limestone, these residence halls were the first to be added to a centralized building automation system, which allows for setting permissible temperature ranges. Window sensors turn off heating and cooling to rooms when windows are open.
10. Electric Car Charging Station
11. Solar Photovoltaic and Car Charging Station
    This 17-kilowatt solar array provides power to the electric car charging station and supplies 100% of the electricity for the student house at 1128 East St.
12. Campus Garden
    The garden provides locally sourced food as a demonstration of self-reliance.
13. Noyce Science Center
    Energy-saving technologies include heat reclamation, a white reflective roof, and variable frequency sash hoods with occupancy sensors. A rainwater collection system provides irrigation water for the greenhouse.
14. Humanities and Social Studies Center
    A geothermal system heats and cools the center. All lighting is LED. Extensive occupancy sensors are tied to lighting, heating, and cooling. Rainwater is collected for flushing toilets and irrigation. Excess stormwater is addressed via a bioswale system. A green roof will be installed on a portion of the building.
15. Admission and Student Financial Services
    A geothermal system heats and cools the building. Most lighting is LED. Bioswales, permeable parking, and a small green roof address stormwater. Visitors can use an electric vehicle charging station.
16. Zipcar
    This self-service car-sharing is available to students, faculty, staff, and the local community.

The College has several other buildings that are not pictured on the map, such as the Grinnell College Preschool and the Conard Environmental Research Area, which have geothermal well fields and other green attributes.

Many of these enhancements were made possible by the campus Green Fund, which was established in 2015. In discussions related to the Class of 1966’s 50th reunion in 2016, David Imes ’66 suggested a gift go partly toward solar panels. Inspired by that idea, David Miller ’66 encouraged his class to make the Green Fund a priority. An anonymous donor helped fully endow the fund. In part, the money allows Facilities Management staff to respond to students’ sustainability and green suggestions.

More than half of U.S. residents say their feelings towards President Donald Trump have become “more unfavorable” since he took office, according to the newest edition of the Grinnell College National Poll, released Oct. 29, 2019.

The poll, a partnership between Grinnell College and nationally renowned pollster J. Ann Selzer of Selzer & Company, showed that 56% felt more negatively about Trump, compared to 39% that feel more favorable about him since January 2017.

Do you approve or disapprove of the job Donald Trump is doing?