Grinnell College

Grinnell College

Latin: Collegium Grinnellense
Motto	Veritas et Humanitas (Latin)
Motto in English	Truth and Humanity
Type	Private
Established	1846
Affiliation	none (historically related to United Church of Christ)
Endowment	$1.83 billion (2014)
President	Raynard S. Kington
Academic staff	164 full-time, 41 part-time
Students	1,734 (Fall 2014)
Location	Grinnell , Iowa , USA
Campus	Rural, 120 acres (48.6 ha)
Newspaper	Scarlet & Black
Colors	Scarlet and Black
Nickname	Pioneers
Affiliations	Midwest Conference
Website	grinnell.edu

Grinnell College is a private liberal arts college in Grinnell, Iowa, U.S. known for its rigorous academics and tradition of social responsibility. It was founded in 1846, when a group of New England Congregationalists established the Trustees of Iowa College.

In its 2014 edition of "America's Best Colleges", U.S. News & World Report ranked Grinnell 17th among all liberal arts colleges in the United States, and third highest for economic diversity as measured by low-income students receiving federal Pell Grants. Grinnell had an acceptance rate of 24.6 percent in 2015.

History

See also: List of presidents of Grinnell College

Josiah Bushnell Grinnell: founder of Grinnell, Iowa and benefactor of Grinnell College.

In 1843, eleven Congregational ministers, all of whom trained at Andover Theological Seminary in Massachusetts, set out to proselytize on the frontier. Each man pledged to gather a church and together the group or band would seek to establish a college. When the group arrived in Iowa later that year, each selected a different town in which to establish a congregation. In 1846, they collectively established Iowa College in Davenport. A few months later, Iowa joined the Union.

The first 25 years of Grinnell's history saw a change in name and location. Iowa College moved farther west from Davenport, Iowa, to the town of Grinnell and unofficially adopted the name of its benefactor: an abolitionist minister, Josiah Bushnell Grinnell, to whom journalist Horace Greeley supposedly wrote "Go West, young man, go West." However, Greeley vehemently denied ever saying this to Grinnell, or to anyone. The name of the corporation "The Trustees of Iowa College" remained, but in 1909 the name "Grinnell College" was adopted by the trustees for the institution.

In its early years, the College experienced setbacks. Although two students received bachelor of arts degrees in 1854 (the first to be granted by a college west of the Mississippi River), within 10 years the Civil War had claimed most of Grinnell's students and professors. In the decade following the war, growth resumed: women were officially admitted as candidates for degrees, and the curriculum was enlarged to include then-new areas of academic studies, such as natural sciences with laboratory work.

In 1882, Grinnell College was struck by a tornado — then called a cyclone, after which the college yearbook was named. The storm devastated the campus and destroyed both College buildings. Rebuilding began immediately, and the determination to expand wasn't limited to architecture: the curriculum was again extended to include departments in political science (the first in the United States) and modern languages.

Blair Hall: Constructed between 1882 and 1886 and razed in 1961.

Grinnell became known as the center of the Social Gospel reform movement, as Robert Handy writes, "The movement centered on the campus of Iowa (now Grinnell) College. Its leading figures were Professor George D. Herron and President George A. Gates". Other firsts pointed to the lighter side of college life: the first intercollegiate football and baseball games west of the Mississippi were played in Grinnell, and the home teams won.

As the 20th century began, Grinnell established a Phi Beta Kappa chapter, introduced the departmental "major" system of study, began Grinnell-in-China (an educational mission that lasted until the Japanese invasion and resumed in 1987), and built a women's residence hall system that became a national model. The social consciousness fostered at Grinnell during these years became evident during Franklin D. Roosevelt's presidency, when Grinnell graduates Harry Hopkins '12, Chester Davis '11, Paul Appleby '13, Hallie Flanagan '11, and Florence Kerr '12 became influential New Deal administrators.

Concern with social issues, educational innovation, and individual expression continue to shape Grinnell. As an example, the school’s "5th year travel-service program," preceded the establishment of the Peace Corps by many years. Other recent innovations include first-year tutorials, cooperative pre-professional programs, and programs in quantitative studies and the societal impacts of technology.

Campus

Grinnell College is located in the town of Grinnell, Iowa, about halfway between Des Moines and Iowa City. The main campus is bounded by 6th Avenue (which is also US Highway 6) on the south, 10th Avenue on the north, East Street on the east and Park Street on the west. The 120-acre (0.49 km²) campus contains sixty-three buildings ranging in style from Collegiate Gothic to Bauhaus.

East Campus dormitories connected by Grinnell's distinctive loggia.

The residential part of campus is divided into three sections: North Campus, East Campus, and South Campus. North and South Campus' dormitories are modeled explicitly after the residential colleges of Oxford and Cambridge. The East Campus dormitories were designed by William Rawn Associates and feature a modern design. Upon completion East Campus was awarded LEED certification. The four East Campus dorms are made out of Iowa limestone which helped in securing the LEED certification. All three campuses feature dormitory buildings that are connected by a loggia, an architectural signature of the college. The loggia on South Campus is the only entirely closed loggia, featuring walls on all sides, while the loggias on East and North campus are only partially closed. From the time that the first dorm opened in 1915 until the fall of 1968, the nine north campus dorms were exclusively for male students, and the six south campus dorms were reserved for female students. The dorms are much smaller than those seen in many schools, ranging from the smallest, Rawson Hall, which houses 34 students, to the largest, Younker Hall, which houses 113.

Most academic buildings are located on the southwestern quarter of campus. The athletic facilities are mostly located on the northeastern quarter, and some facilities are located north of 10th Avenue.

In addition to the main campus, the college owns much of the adjacent property. Many administrative offices are located in converted houses across Park Street near the older academic buildings, and several residences are used for college-owned off-campus student housing.

The college maintains a 365-acre (1.48 km²) environmental research area called the Conard Environmental Research Area (CERA). The U.S. Green Building Council awarded CERA's Environmental Education Center a gold certification. The building is the first in Iowa to receive the designation.

Many building projects have been undertaken in recent years at the College including a new athletics center, the Bucksbaum Center for the Arts, the renovation of the Robert Noyce '49 Science Center and the Joe Rosenfield '25 Student Center. Noted architect César Pelli designed the athletics center, the Joe Rosenfield '25 Student Center, and the Bucksbaum Center for the Arts.

Academics

Reputation

John H. T. Main Residence Hall

Grinnell College is nationally recognized as a leading undergraduate institution. In July 2006, The New York Times included Grinnell in its profile of the 20 colleges and universities of "established or rising scholarship" which are fast becoming viable alternatives to Ivy League institutions, and is considered one of the 30 Hidden Ivies.

Kiplinger's Personal Finance places Grinnell at 10th in its 2014 ranking of "best value" liberal arts colleges in the United States. The 2014 annual ranking of U.S. News & World Report rates it tied for the 17th best liberal arts college in the nation. The College has been consistently ranked in the top 25 liberal arts colleges in the nation since the publication began in 1983. Grinnell was ranked 20th in the 2012 Washington Monthly rankings, which focus on key outputs such as research, dollar value of scientific grants won, the number of graduates going on to earn Ph.D. degrees, and certain types of public service. In Forbes magazine's 2013 rankings of academic institutions, "America's Top Colleges" (which uses a non-traditional ranking system based on RateMyProfessors.com evaluations, notable alumni, student debt, percentage of students graduating in four years, and the number of students or faculty receiving prestigious awards), Grinnell College was ranked 53rd amongst all private colleges, and 9th in the Midwest. Forbes also ranked Grinnell College 53rd out of 100 of the most financially fit colleges.

Data analyzed in 2006 place Grinnell at number eight among all U.S. undergraduate institutions in the proportion of graduates who go on to earn Ph.D. degrees and 15th for graduating female Ph.D. earners. Grinnell College graduates enjoy a high acceptance rate to law school; over 46% of all applications submitted by students have been accepted by law schools. Indeed, Grinnell ranked 44th in a 2004 Wall Street Journal survey of the top "feeder schools" to the fifteen most prestigious business, law, and medical schools in the country. Unigo.com's 2010 college rankings place Grinnell College in the "Top 10 Colleges Where the Pursuit of Knowledge Goes Outside the Classroom".

Faculty

Grinnell has 150 voting faculty, 95% of whom possess a doctorate or the terminal degree in their field. At the end of each semester, students fill out course surveys which play a large role in determining faculty tenure decisions and merit raises.

Academic program

Alumni Recitation Hall

Grinnell's open curriculum encourages students to take initiative and to assume responsibility for their own courses of study. The sole core, or general education, requirement is the completion of the First-Year Tutorial, a one-semester, four-credit special topics seminar that stresses methods of inquiry, critical analysis, and writing skills. All other classes are chosen, with the direct guidance of a faculty member in the student's major department, by the student.

The academic program at Grinnell College emphasizes active learning and one-on-one interactions between faculty members and students. There are few large lecture classes. In sharp contrast to all public universities and many private universities in the United States, no classes, labs or other courses are taught by graduate students.

Grinnell College expects all students to possess significant academic achievements. For example, the math department does not offer any basic-level classes such as college algebra, trigonometry, or pre-calculus, and remedial classes are not offered in any subject. However, several independent, non-credit programs assist students who need help in a specific subject. Among these programs are the Library Lab, Math Lab, Reading Lab, Science Learning Center, and the Writing Lab. While private tutors can be hired, participation in these programs is free for any enrolled student.

Grinnell has twenty-six major departments and ten interdisciplinary concentrations. Popular majors include Psychology, Economics, Biology, History, English, and Political Science. The minimum requirements in a major area of study are typically limited to 32 credits in a single department, with some departments additionally requiring a small number of classes in related fields that are deemed critical for all students in that field. For example, the biology program requires 32 credits in the biology department plus two classes in chemistry and one in math. Many students exceed the minimum requirements.

To graduate, students are normally expected to complete at least 32 credits in a major field and a total of 124 credits of academic work. To encourage students to explore courses outside of their primary interest area, no more than 48 credits in one department and no more than 92 credits in one division are counted towards this requirement.

Bucksbaum Rotunda

Grinnell’s commitment to the importance of off-campus study reflects the school’s emphasis on social and political awareness and the international nature of its campus. Approximately 60 percent of all Grinnell students participate in at least one of more than seventy off-campus programs, including the Grinnell-in-London program and study tours of China, France, Greece, and Russia. These study programs in Europe (including Russia), Africa, the Near East, and Asia, as well as nine programs in Central and South America, provide the opportunity for research in many disciplines, from archaeology to education to mathematics. In addition to off-campus programs, Grinnell offers internship programs in such areas as urban studies, art, and marine biology for students interested in field-based learning and experience in professional settings. Second- and third-year students may apply for summer internship grants and receive credit for the experience. Semester programs in the United States include those at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Newberry Library, National Theatre Institute, and Grinnell-in-Washington, D.C.

Grinnell also has invested in several interdisciplinary programs: the Center for Prairie Studies, Center for the Humanities, Center for International Studies, Noun Program in Women's Studies, Peace Studies Program, Rosenfield Public Affairs Program, and the Donald L. Wilson Program in Enterprise and Leadership.

Despite the growing trend of U.S. students taking five or more years to finish an undergraduate degree, Grinnell College is strongly oriented towards students being enrolled full-time in exactly eight consecutive semesters at the college, although exceptions are available for medical issues and other emergencies. To avoid being suspended from the college, students must make "normal progress towards graduation." This generally means that the student must pass at least 12 credits of classes in each individual semester, with grades C or higher, and have accumulated enough credits to make graduation possible at the end of four years, which requires an average of 15.5 credits each semester. A student who is not making normal progress towards graduation is placed on academic probation and may be dismissed from the college.

Admission

Fall Admission Statistics

	2015	2014	2013	2012
Applicants	6,414	6,058	3,979	4,021
Admits	1,585	1,697	1,395	1,456
Admit rate	24.7%	28.0%	35.1%	36.3%
Enrolled	N/A	435	423	444
SAT Math + Reading range	N/A	1290-1500	1250-1500	1280-1500
ACT range	N/A	30-33	28-32	29-33

Grinnell College MacEachron Field

U.S. News & World Report classifies Grinnell's selectivity as "most selective." In terms of class rank, 81.3% of enrolled freshmen reporting rank were in the top 10% of their high school classes. The middle 50% range of SAT scores for the enrolled freshmen was 630-740 for critical reading and 660-760 for math, while the ACT Composite range was 30–33.

Grinnell College's admission selectivity rating, according to The Princeton Review in 2008, is a 95 out of 99. This rating is determined by several institutionally reported factors, including: the class rank, average standardized test scores, and average high school GPA of entering freshmen; the percentage of students who hail from out-of-state; and the percentage of applicants accepted.

The primary factor in evaluating applicants is the quality of the education they have received, as shown by their transcript. Additional factors include standardized test scores, student writing skills, recommendations, and extracurricular activities.

Early decision rounds are offered to students in the fall; most students apply in January of their final year in high school. Admission decisions are released by April 1 of each year. All students begin classes in August.

The students' expectation of needing financial assistance does not affect the admission process.

Tuition and financial aid

Robert Noyce Science Center

Grinnell's combined tuition, room, board, and fees for the 2013–2014 academic year is $53,654. Tuition and fees are $43,656 and room and board are $9,998. Grinnell offers a significant amount of need-based and merit-based aid in comparison with peer institutions. About 90% of students receive some form of financial aid. In 2011, 23% of students enrolled at Grinnell College were receiving federal Pell Grants, which are generally reserved for students from low-income families. The average financial aid package is over $26,000.

Grinnell College is one of a few dozen US colleges that maintain need-blind admissions and meets the full demonstrated financial need of all U.S. residents who are admitted to the college.

With the first-year students enrolled in the 2006–2007 school year, Grinnell has ended its need-blind admissions policy for international applicants. Under the old policy, students from countries outside the U.S. were admitted without any consideration of their ability to afford four years of study at the college. However, financial aid offers to these students were limited to half the cost of tuition. International students frequently carried very high workloads in an effort to pay the bills, and their academic performance often suffered. Under the new "need-sensitive" or "need-aware" policy, international students whose demonstrated financial needs can be met are given a slight admissions edge over applicants who can't. The twin hopes are that the enrolled international students will be able to dedicate more energy to their schoolwork, and also that this will ultimately allow the college to provide higher tuition grants to international students.

Additionally, several extremely competitive "special scholarships" were set up to meet the full demonstrated financial needs for students from the following countries or regions: Africa, Eastern and Central Europe, Latin America, Middle East and Asia, Nepal, the People's Republic of China, as well as for native speakers of Russian regardless of citizenship, available every other year.

Athletics

Main article: Grinnell Pioneers

Grinnell Athletics "Honor G"

The school's varsity sports teams are named the Pioneers. They participate in eighteen intercollegiate sports at the NCAA Division III level and in the Midwest Conference. In addition, Grinnell has several club sports teams that compete in non-varsity sports such as volleyball, sailing, water polo, ultimate and rugby union.

Nearly one-third of recent Grinnell graduates participated in at least one of varsity sports while attending the college and the college has led the Midwest Conference in the total number of Academic All-Conference honorees in last six years.

The men's water polo team, known as the Wild Turkeys, were runners-up in the 2007 College Water Polo Association (CWPA) Division III Collegiate National Club Championships hosted by Lindenwood University in St. Peters, Missouri. They also qualified for the tournament in 2008, 2009, 2011, 2013, and 2014. The Men's Ultimate team, nicknamed the Grinnellephants, qualified in 2008 for its first Division III National Championship in Versailles, Ohio. The Women's Ultimate team, nicknamed The Sticky Tongue Frogs, tied for third place in the 2010 Division III National Championship in Appleton, Wisconsin. The success was repeated in 2011 when the men's team placed third in 2011 Division III National Championship in Buffalo.

In February 2005, Grinnell became the first Division III school featured in a regular season basketball game by the ESPN network family in 30 years when it faced off against the Beloit Buccaneers on ESPN2. Grinnell lost 86-85. Grinnell College's basketball team attracted ESPN due to the team's run and gun style of playing basketball, known in Grinnell simply as "The System." Coach Dave Arseneault originated the Grinnell System that incorporates a continual full-court press, a fast-paced offense, an emphasis on offensive rebounding, a barrage of three-point shots and substitutions of five players at a time every 35 to 40 seconds. This allows a higher average playing time for more players than the "starters" and suits the Division III goals of scholar-athletes. "The System" has been criticized for not teaching the principles of defense. However, under "The System," Grinnell has won three conference championships over the past ten years and have regularly placed in the top half of the conference. Coach Arseneault's teams have set numerous NCAA scoring records and several individuals on the Grinnell team have led the nation in scoring or assists.

On November 19, 2011 Grinnell player Griffin Lentsch set a new Division III individual scoring record in a game against Principia College. The 6-foot 4-inch guard scored 89 points, besting the old record of 77, also set by a Pioneers player – Jeff Clement – in 1998. Lentsch made 27 of his 55 shots, including 15 three-pointers as Grinnell won the high-scoring game 145 to 97. On November 20, 2012 Grinnell's Jack Taylor broke Lentsch's scoring record, as well as the records for NCAA and collegiate scoring, in a 179-104 victory over Faith Baptist Bible. Taylor scored 138 points on 108 shots, along with 3 rebounds, 6 turnovers and 3 steals. Taylor went 27-71 from behind the arc. Taylor scored 109 points in a November 2013 game against Crossroads College to become the first player in NCAA history to have two 100-point games.

Social activities and organizations

Gates Tower and Rawson Hall

The organizational structure of the Student Government Association, wielding a yearly budget of over $360,000 and unusually strong administrative influence, covers almost all aspects of student activity and campus life.

Founded in November 2000, the student-run Student Endowment Investing Group (SEIG), actively invests over $100,000 of Grinnell College's endowment in the stock market. The group's mission is to provide interested students with valuable experience for future careers in finance.

Service organizations are popular. The Alternative Break ("AltBreak") program takes students to pursue service initiatives during school holidays, and as of 2005, Grinnell had more alumni per capita serving in the Peace Corps than any other college in the nation. The college also runs its own post-graduation service program known as Grinnell Corps in Grinnell, China, Namibia, New Orleans, and Thailand, and has previously operated programs in Greece, Lesotho, Macau, and Nepal.

The Scarlet and Black is the campus newspaper and KDIC (88.5 FM) is the student-run radio station. The school has a monthly satirical newspaper, "The B&S."

In April 2007, Grinnell college students founded the Social Entrepreneurs of Grinnell, a student operated microfinance lending institution. The group collects donations for the purpose of making small loans at zero interest to business owners and artisans around the world. It is affiliated with kiva.org.

Grinnell also has an entirely student-run textbook lending library on campus. Aimed at the economically disadvantaged yet open to all, it allows students to check out books for the semester for free, defraying the high cost of college textbooks. The library has no funding, relying solely on books donated. Since its founding in 2005, the collection has grown to thousands of books due to the generosity of the campus community. The library has expanded to include caps and gowns, which are lent out to graduating seniors every spring.

Grinnell hosts the Titular Head film festival.

Self-governance

Students at Grinnell adhere to an honor system known as "self-governance" wherein they are expected to govern their own choices and behavior with minimal direct intervention by the college administration. By cultivating a community based on freedom of choice, self-governance aims to encourage students to become responsible, respectful, and accountable members of the campus, town, and global community.

Endowment

Joe Rosenfield '25 Center

With an endowment of $1.83 billion, Grinnell College is among the wealthiest educational institutions of any size in North America. Under the stewardship of Warren Buffett and Joseph Rosenfield, the college adopted an opportunistic strategy in managing its assets. In 1976, Grinnell's capital fund acquired a TV station, WDTN in Dayton, Ohio, one of many investments that were unprecedented in their time for a college endowment. (Grinnell would sell the station in 1981.) Another move that significantly increased the endowment occurred when Rosenfield and the college contributed to the founding of Intel—an investment exceeding 10% of the venture capital raised to start the semiconductor company (Intel co-founder Robert Noyce was a Grinnell alumnus).

Warren Buffett played a significant role in growing the endowment at Grinnell, where he served as a trustee from 1968 until 2011, when he decided to step down from all boards not relating to Berkshire Hathaway.

Notable alumni

Main article: List of Grinnell College alumni

Many former students at Grinnell College have gone into politics, made important contributions to science, or become prominent entertainers. Some of the most prominent include:

• Katayama Sen, 1892, a founder of the Japanese Communist Party
• James Norman Hall, 1910, co-author of The Mutiny on the Bounty trilogy
• Harry Hopkins, 1912, senior advisor to Franklin Delano Roosevelt, principal architect of the New Deal, WPA administrator.
• Joseph Welch, 1914, Head attorney for the United States Army during the Army-McCarthy Hearings.
• Gary Cooper, 1922, Actor, best known for High Noon, received five Academy Award nominations for Best Actor, and won three
• Clair Patterson 1943, Caltech geochemist who developed lead-lead dating and used meteorites to estimate the current age of the Earth at 4.55 billion years and in the process discovered widespread and relatively recent lead contamination of the environment.
• Robert Noyce, 1949, nicknamed "Mayor of Silicon Valley", co-founder of Intel, co-inventor of the integrated circuit.
• Walter Koenig, 1958, actor, director, and writer. Known for his role as Pavel Chekov in Star Trek: TOS and its spin-off movies.
• Herbie Hancock, 1960, Jazz musician and composer who has won an Academy Award and multiple Grammy Awards, member of Miles Davis's "second great quintet".
• Peter Coyote, 1964, American actor, author, director, screenwriter and narrator of films, theatre, television and audiobooks
• John Garang, 1969, leader of the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Army, later vice president of Sudan. Founding Father and first President of South Sudan
• Thomas Cech, 1970, Co-winner of 1989 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the "discovery of catalytic properties of RNA", past president of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.
• James W. Gilchrist, 1987, Democratic Member, Maryland House of Delegates.
• Bernice King, lawyer, orator, community organizer, associate pastor, and the youngest child of Coretta Scott King and Martin Luther King

External links

• Official website
• Official athletics website