Men’s basketball falls twice

Last weekend, the men’s basketball team lost two games, bringing its overall record to 4-5 and 2-3 in Conference.

The Pioneers competed against St. Norbert College in De Pere, Wis. on Saturday. Despite Grinnell’s strong show of force early in the game, the Green Knights surged forward with a 12- run shortly after, bringing St. Norbert into halftime leading with a score of 51-44.

In the second half, the Pioneers struggled to close the gap. Although a three-pointer by Luke Yeager ’15 cut the lead to just four with 18:30 remaining, the Green Knights responded with a seven-point run and eventually ran away, ending the game with a score of 102-75.

Jack Taylor ’15 scored 26 points on Tuesday, Dec. 9 against . Photo by John Brady.

Head coach David Arseneault seemed unfazed by the loss, however. “What contributed most to our loss at St. Norbert was that they were a better team,” Arseneault wrote in an email to The S&B. “That’s not to say we can’t beat them. But it would take an extraordinary performance on our behalf for that to occur.”

On Tuesday afternoon, the Pioneers travelled to Oskaloosa, Iowa to challenge William Penn University for a non-Conference matchup. The Pioneers had a great start with a triad of 3- pointer shots made by Yeager that put Grinnell ahead 9-5. However, William Penn remained persistent, and by halftime the Statesmen took the lead with 70-64..

They kept tight control of the ball from that point onwards and ended the match with a score of 151-134 in Penn’s favor. After Tuesday’s loss, Grinnell’s overall record is 4-5.

On an individual basis, the Pioneers performed well. Yeager scored career high 50 points, which included eight three- pointers. Jack Taylor ’15 made 26 points, Tague Zachary ’15 landed 15 and Julian Marx ’17 made 11. Braedon Bayer ’18 distributed six assists while James Page ’17 grabbed six rebounds.

“We shot the ball pretty well and had good defensive effort for most of the game, but the guards for William were able to handle our pressure,” said Gus King ’18. “We knew going in that the game was going to be a shootout, but we couldn’t get enough easy baskets and get over the hump.”

Despite the loss, King believes their game will improve.

“I think right now, with so many first-years on the team, we just need to get comfortable with the style of play and playing with each other,” King said. “As the season goes on, I think we’ll come together for a strong finish.”

Women’s basketball rebounds from loss

Picking up a victory last week, women’s basketball tied last year’s win total of three. Although the women’s basketball team lost to nationally ranked St. Norbert College last Saturday, Grinnell rebounded with a 77-64 victory against AIB College of Business on Monday.

The St. Norbert game was a tough competition from the beginning. Early in the first half, St. Norbert’s 14-0 run left little room for Grinnell to catch up. The Green Knights eventually ran away with a 58-38 victory.

“A team like that, if you let them get a little confidence, it’s going to go a long way,” said Lydia Stariha ’17. “They just started scoring and we couldn’t come up with anything which is definitely tough when you rely on your offense to carry you.”

Alex Neckopulos ’17 grabbed 27 rebounds in two games last week. Photo by John Brady. However the tables turned around on Monday when the team played against their non-Conference foe. Grinnell displayed a balanced scoring attack and by the end of the first half, the Pioneers were leading the game 30-25.

“We were able to dictate the tempo of the game and play Grinnell team basketball,” said Sophia Gatton ’17. “Everyone just seemed relaxed and confident on offense, which put us in great positions to score.”

The team’s effort to focus on finding the open person and moving the ball up the court allowed for easy buckets, resulting in a satisfying score of 77-64 by the end of the match. Alissa Hirsh ’16 led the offense with 21 points, while Gatton contributed 16, Kayla Morrissey ’18 added 15 and Stariha dropped 10.

With last Monday’s triumph, the women’s team equaled last season’s win total of three. The squad attributes this accomplishment to experience gained from last year. With the first half of the season wrapped up, the Pioneers hope to notch more wins.

“The team has gained a lot through last year’s experience,” said head coach Dana Harrold. “Many of them put in time in the weight room, gym [and] track in the offseason to ensure that they were much improved this year. We are happy with our progress, but not satisfied by any means.”

In the remaining schedule, all of Grinnell’s opponents, except one team, are in the same as the Pioneers. With the future schedule in mind, the team will use winter break to recharge and refine its skills.

“I think the nice thing about winter break and the week leading up to winter break is that we really get to figure out individual skills,” Stariha said. “Just polishing up these individual skills to make the team a whole lot better.” Roger Bauman delivers in the Bear

While some students are frantically finishing their research papers and cramming for tests at dawn, equipment room supervisor Roger Bauman unlocks the equipment room and begins his busy day. At the very top of his long to-do list is making waffles for student-workers who clock in at 6 a.m.

“I usually get here close to 5:30,” Bauman said. “I will prepare waffles for the student workers in the morning just to show my appreciation of them coming in that early.”

After providing them with breakfast, along with blueberries and whatever topping is available, Bauman examines his agenda and performs duties he has been executing since 1985.

“Basically what we do is order athletic equipment, order uniforms [and] repair equipment that I can,” he said. “I set up for events. I set up for class, launder the practice clothes, launder the game uniforms [and] I pack the uniforms and issue them out for away events and home events.”

Roger Bauman has been working in the equipment room since 1985. Photo by Jeffrey Li.

Bauman has been working behind the spotlight silently, usually unnoticed, yet diligently—behind Jack Taylor’s record-breaking 138-point game, the swimming and diving teams’ domination of the Midwest Conference and 1:15 p.m. Beginning Tennis class.

“I’ll go out and make sure the tennis nets are up and the curtains are down so they can have a tennis class or making sure taking back down for another class coming in after that,” he said. “If there’s a lot going on, I’ll stay until the work’s done. I don’t pay attention to the clock. Whenever the work’s done, I’m done.” While Bauman may not always get recognition for his hard work, athletes, coaches and those who work in the Bear appreciate his role.

“He’s going to meetings with the athletic department and he does a lot of ordering for the teams and does inventory and make sure everyone’s uniforms are out there,” said former softball player and a student manager in the Cage, Jen Fulton ’15. “While he doesn’t always do everything personally himself, it’s shocking how much he does by himself.”

To fellow equipment manager Ron Cooper, this isn’t a surprising fact, as he considers Bauman a “good Iowan.”

“He’s willing to help people,” Cooper said. “He’s friendly. He helps everybody out.”

For someone whose early life was far from athletics, Bauman has spent almost his entire adult life in the athletic center. Hailing from Malcom, Iowa and playing little league baseball, the supervisor also farmed as a child.

“I played little league baseball, but I grew up in an era where all the kids worked,” Bauman said. “I went out and worked on the farm and I didn’t get dramatically involved with competition sports.”

He continued to farm after getting married a year after graduating from high school. When the farming crisis struck in the 1980s, he needed another source of income and discovered an opening at the Athletic Center.

“I had a friend that worked here and he was going to quit and he asked me if I’d be interested and that’s back in the farm crisis of the ’80s,” he said. “The income on the farm wasn’t very good, so I need an extra income, so I started working here.”

Since taking the job, Bauman hasn’t missed many days of work, allowing him to excel at his position.

“I’m sure it’s just like students. You do your study promptly every day and it’s real easy for you to do them every day, right?” Bauman said. “It’s just I know what the job is and I know what to do and when to do it. The students help tremendously and I have a great bunch of supervisors who help, too. It’s a combination of everything that makes it easy.”

Though he completes his tasks with ease and dexterity, Bauman continues to evaluate his performance.

“When I’m at an event, I’m critiquing my work,” he said. “I probably see things I didn’t do properly before I see the things I did well because I always want to improve at what I do. I always want everything to be done for people to the best that I can do it. I’m probably critiquing myself more than I am admiring at work.”

What has pushed Bauman to improve at his job and continue to work in the Cage is his interaction with the students.

“I just like being around the students. They’re great people,” he said. “They’re very courteous and kind. I’ll like hearing stories about where they’re from and their home life and just being around the students is what’s kept me here.”

He added, “The best memories are when students have graduated and they come back and then we’ll get to reminisce about different things and that’s what’s the most fun.”

According to Bauman, considering his relatively good health, he hopes to continue to work until he turns 70 years old, making waffles for the early birds, laundering clothes and being a pal to the students.

“I would like to think that they look at me as that old grandpa away from home—somebody they can talk to, somebody they can talk to and just a friend.” SGA Pres. reviews achievements, spring plans

On Tuesday evening in Lyle’s Pub, SGA President Opeyemi Awe ’15 gave the second State of the College address of the school year. In her address, Awe emphasized the collective responsibilities of self-governance and the need for students to turn ideas into actions.

Awe began by having SGA cabinet members, all of whom were in attendance, introduce themselves. Awe then reminded the crowd of SGA’s 2014 motto: “Engaged Self-Governance,” which emphasizes that the rights and responsibilities of self-gov must be balanced.

“This motto is a opportunity to remind us that the community that we want to create doesn’t magically happen, but we have to take part in creating it,” Awe said.

Attendee Shaquall Brown ’15 felt that SGA needs to do a better job of explaining what self-gov is.

“Although I am a senior, I still don’t really know what self- gov is and I don’t think we have had campus discussion where we really fully talked about what it means to be a self [governing] society,” Brown said.

This reflected a concern raised by Hameed Weaver ’17, who felt the motto helps to make it clear that the community has to be actively participating in the creation of self-gov, something many students may not realize.

Awe then thanked the various committees and cabinet members for their work this semester. Treasurer Gargi Magar ’16 and Assistant Treasurer Ham Serunjogi ’16 were praised for their strategic and thoughtful allocation of funds, which has created a surplus that Awe urged students to use.

“A couple of years ago we didn’t have money, last year we stopped spending money and this year Ham and Gargi held down the fort and we got money,” she said.

Awe then discussed next semester, stating that SGA needs to engage the community in a conversation about students’ ability to make change.

“I have had many conversations lately about how smart Grinnell students are and how we have great ideas to change the world, but how do we translate those ideas into actual tangible things?” Awe asked. “We need to break down this idea, that it’s beyond our ability to make the change we want to see.”

Throughout her address, Awe stopped and asked the audience to discuss concerns.

“Overall it went pretty well I think,” said Corey Simmonds ’17. “I expected a bit more involvement with the people listening but I guess that’s a sign of things going well, when you don’t have that information going against what was being told.”

On the other hand, attendee Dan Davis ’16 expressed concern that SGA did not do enough with the National Week of Action.

“I think the National Week of Action could have been much better. I think there has been a lot of stuff that was kind of pushed over, and I think that sexual assault needs to be something that is talked about more,” David said.

Additionally, Davis liked the informal atmosphere of Lyle’s Pub, but took issue with the fact that there was a $200 tab.

“There shouldn’t have to be a tab to make students wonder what’s going on at their college. I think it’s a little upsetting that we have to use a tab to get people out there,” Davis said.

After the event, which Awe described as successful, she emphasized SGA’s role in being better connected to the student body, a concern raised by members in the audience.

“We’ve tried doing office hours, but they were not really effective, so maybe implementing new ideas like [online] videos might help,” Awe said.

Athletes return to campus for fifth year

After graduating in last spring, two student-athletes returned to Grinnell this fall to spend their fifth year on campus. Both alumnae now work at the College to continue what they had left off as students at Grinnell.

Jordan Young ’14 played goalkeeper for the women’s soccer team for four years and Sarah Burnell ’14 ran for the women’s track and field and cross country teams.

Young now works as an assistant coach for the soccer team while pursuing a master’s degree in biology at University of Northern Iowa. Although she has to manage a busy schedule, Young experienced a smooth transition to becoming an assistant coach.

Jordan Young ’14 works as an assistant coach for the women’s soccer team . Photo contributed.

“The school/work balance has been great. With my schedule at [University of Northern Iowa], I am able to come down for at least one practice a week and make all of our games,” Young said. “The transition from student to staff has been very smooth for me. What surprised me the most is how easy it was to switch gears and go from being a member of the team and a captain to being the assistant coach.” For Burnell, who works as coordinator of commencement and conferences and assistant coach for the cross country and track and field teams, the transition was harder.

“My hardest challenge is making that transition between how to balance this change in role while everything else about me is basically the same,” Burnell said.

Although Burnell and Young had to readjust their schedules and evaluate previous work relationships, they enjoy their positions on campus.

“It never feels like work,” Young said. “Driving back and forth to Grinnell from Cedar Falls is tough when I have to do it in the same day, but the time I get to spend coaching makes it worth it.”

Burnell added, “It’s social time. It’s time for me to hang out and go on runs and talk about silly things. I love that I’m still here at Grinnell and able to partake in that and the fact that they let me tag along and serve as a reference [for athletes] if they have questions or concerns, I try to help the best I can.”

There are also perks of being alumnae faculty members. A major advantage is that their previous time in Grinnell helps them establish personal relationships with their co-workers and athletes.

“I think knowing all of the players on the team, either through playing with them or helping recruit them, has made the experience that much better,” Young said. “A critical part of coaching is knowing who your players are as people.”

Viewing and treating the students as people before athletes also helped Burnell gain a better understanding of her job.

“I don’t ask [the student workers] to do anything I wouldn’t do,” Burnell said. “I see it more as teamwork, not as if I’m someone’s boss. We’re all working towards the same goal.”

Sarah Burnell ’14 works for the Conference Operations and Events. Photo by Shadman Asif.

Looking back at the decision to take a position at Grinnell, Burnell confessed that she had a difficult time choosing Grinnell as her next step after the graduation. The decision to stay was hard for her particularly because she spent the majority of her childhood in Grinnell.

“I was a little nervous,” Burnell said. “But, of all the options that I had available to be at the time, this was by far the best and the community both in the College and the town are so great and I love spending my time here doing something I enjoy instead of trying to ‘fight the world’ somewhere else.”

Young also believed that taking the offer at Grinnell as an assistant soccer coach was an excellent decision.

“Being a part of [the soccer team] during my four years at Grinnell helped make my experience what it was,” Young said. “Coaching provided an opportunity to stay involved with the program and to do everything I can to help the women on the team get that incredible experience.” Reflecting on the favorable year that she has had so far with her new job, Burnell said that she had a change in perspective toward job seeking.

“I’m starting to realize that people ‘fall into their jobs,’” Burnell said. “They never plan to be at that position or that job or company, but it just kind of happens to you. So I’m just taking a step now. Hopefully this one step will lead me to another step and so on.”

Swimming and diving dominates Pioneer Classic

Both the men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams dominated last weekend’s Pioneer Classic, with each team clinching first place. The men claimed first place with 1178 points while the women compiled 1506.5 points.

“I feel that we went into the meet and we attacked every session,” said Ian Dixon-Anderson ’17. “We tried really hard in each section. Each session we tried to swim as fast as possible, so by not slacking off in any one session, we pulled through.”

Dixon-Anderson led charge on the men’s side in the two-day event. On Friday, he won the 500-yard freestyle race with a time of 4:50.65. He continued his strong performance the next day and took the first place honor in the 400-yard individual medley. He also took second in the 200 butterfly.

Jenny Dong ’17 swims butterfly at last weekend’s Pioneer Classic. Photo by John Brady.

Also on Saturday, Bennett claimed first in the 200 freestyle, while Joshua Cottle ’18 and Ben Weideman ’15 took first in the 1650 freestyle and 200 backstroke, respectively. The quartet of Tim Sherwood ’16, Thomas Robinson ’16, Nick Roberson ’18 and Bennett recorded first place in the 800 freestyle relay.

“What we were trying to do is figure out who is going to swim probably for conference depending on training and what’s going on,” Dixon-Anderson said. “This is probably the first big meet where we haven’t really been rested for it. With all this pressure, people performed really well and it’s really good to see what’s going on with the team.”

On the women’s side, the team took an early lead thanks to a meet record in the 400-yard medley relay by Maria Venneri ’18, Maddy Pesch ’16, Beth Gillig ’15 and Beth Tsuha ’17.

“Our coach just took who she thought would at this point in the season be most beneficial to that relay based on who was training the best in those certain strokes,” Venneri said. “And so we all warmed up and we just got ready for the relay and you get there and you do it and it’s just a great feeling in the end.”

Tsuha won the 500 freestyle on the same day. Venneri then broke the school record she set earlier this year on the following day. In the 200 backstroke, she finished the race in 2:09.83.

“I train a lot of backstroke during practice because it’s my best stroke,” she said. “I’ve been working on improving my starts and my turns and I went into it thinking I want to get a good time and just hopefully get first and then it just ended up that I got the school record.”

Venneri also championed in the 100 backstroke. Tsuha took the top honors three times, this time in the 200, 800 relay and 1650 freestyle races. The 800 relay team members also consisted of Gillig, Josie Bircher ’16 and Ana Karin Kozjek ’17. Hayley Levin ’16 also claimed first in her 400 individual medley while Pesch won the 200 breaststroke to help seal the victory.

With the semester nearing the end, the two teams will make their annual Florida trip during winter break. “I’m really excited. I’ve heard some really great things about it,” Venneri said. “It’s just going to bring us closer as a team, and I’m hoping that when we come back, we’ll be ready to compete and have a really good Conference.”

True Grinnellian: Sandy Moffett

Professor Sandy Moffett poses for a photo in front of a stage. Professor, bluegrass performer and local government representative, Moffettt embodies all of the community. Photo by Sarah Ruiz.

As an active member of both the College and town communities in Grinnell, Professor Emeritus Sandy Moffett, Theatre and Dance, has truly come to know and appreciate what makes Grinnell unique. After moving to Iowa from North Carolina in 1971, Moffett immediately began to realize how much his experience in the community would mean to him, in both his professional and personal life.

So far, Moffett has made the most of his time in Grinnell, participating in many aspects of the community, both within and beyond the College. Moffett has directed numerous plays, and served as department and division head for theater and the arts, respectively. For those who don’t know him as a member of the theater community, they will recognize him as the announcer for the College’s football team. Additionally, Moffett is involved in the Grinnell community as a member of local government. In the end, he will tell you that he feels a great amount of affection and pride for Grinnell. “I really felt like when I got here there was no up, that this was gonna be it,” he said.

Moffett says that his love for the College was immediately apparent after arriving in 1971, and that his increasing appreciation of the Iowa landscape led to a desire to be involved with the town of Grinnell and Poweshiek County. Moffett has taken an active role in local government, running for and eventually being elected as county board officer in 2002. He described this experience as “a crash dive into both the county and town.”

Being a part of the local government also led Moffett to become a part of prairie restoration efforts, having restored about 200 acres of his own farmland outside town. For Moffett, the prairie truly exemplifies the beauty and landscape of Iowa, something he calls a “hidden treasure.”

Because of his enthusiasm for both the town and college communities, Moffett has always tried to use his position as a theater professor to try and bridge the gap between the two. Moffett has been involved for most of his time in Grinnell with the Grinnell Community Theater and the Grinnell Area Arts Council, two organizations committed to supporting arts and culture within the area.

Moffett noted that his role as a theater professor allowed him to try and get the town more involved with College events. “I was always trying to work with the high school, with the community theatre organization, and always trying to get people in the community interested in what we were doing here on campus,” he said.

Beyond his public service work, Moffett plays in a bluegrass band made up of faculty from across many departments of Grinnell College. He can’t recall how the band came to be or where their music originated from. “We don’t consider ourselves a band, we just consider ourselves people who really love to play,” he explained.

Beginning as a Thursday night jam session, the group eventually began to play in Saints Rest, Mayflower Community and Windsor Manor, donating the proceeds from any paid show to the Heifer International Foundation. “I have a warm spot in my heart for Saints Rest,” Moffett said. According to Moffett, Saints Rest provides a venue for the group’s performances, allowing students and Grinnell community members alike to take part in the music.

Moffett described the band as “a wonderful happening, for me I think and for all the people who are in it.” Members include Moffett’s wife Betty, the former director of the Writing Lab, Professor Mark Schneider, Physics and Professor Sig Barber, German.

Moffett has truly managed to do it all in Grinnell, becoming an integral part of the campus and town communities. Speaking to his time as a professor at the College, Moffett said, “I’m a big supporter of Grinnell College and community, I can’t imagine a place where I could have had a better career.”

Christmas Carol rendition to be performed by Grinnell Community Theatre

From Thursday, Dec. 18 to Sunday, Dec. 21, the Grinnell Community Theatre will be performing “A Dickens’ Christmas Carol: A Traveling Travesty in Two Tumultuous Acts.” The play, written by Mark Landon Smith, deviates from the traditional characters of the holiday production; rather, the performance is a play within a play, depicting the story of the Styckes Upon Thump Repertory Company as they attempt to put on their 15th annual farewell performance of the Dicken’s classic.

In this adaptation, the Styckes Upon Thump Repertory Company struggles to put together its last annual performance of “A Christmas Carol.” When the star of the show feigns illness in the hopes that the production will be canceled, she is shocked to find out that the show has gone on without her. The Smith play is a comedy, with the community actors playing the actors of a clueless British repertoire company.

This Christmas Carol production marks the directorial debut of Professor Sig Barber, German, though he has performed in various plays on campus and around town.

“When you mention to people that you’re doing ‘A Christmas Carol,’ they say, ‘Oh no not again another performance of “A Christmas Carol,”’” Barber said. “So when I was looking at scripts, I wanted something very different. I had not intended to do a comedy.”

Barber also kept an eye toward cast size when choosing a script, remaining cognizant that he wanted to include actors in the community but did not want to overwhelm the theater space.

Tom Lacina, who plays the company’s Sir Selsdon Piddock who plays the role of Ebenezer Scrooge, originally planned to help out with the play backstage until Barber told Lacina he needed more help onstage. “[Playing Scrooge] just kind of flows naturally. I’m a character actor so I just embrace the character,” Lacina said. “It’s a comedy, very physical with a lot of physical humor and strange things happening, so it isn’t like I’m doing ‘Death of a Salesman.’”

Lacina is no stranger to the stage. Before practicing law in Grinnell under Charnetski, Olson & Lacina LLP, Lacina was a music major in college with a minor in theater. He even considered pursuing a graduate degree in music composition.

“I think law requires an ability to look at an audience, which I think the jury is to some extent. Making sure they’re intrigued and interested in the case and whether they find you to be genuine. But I don’t think I was trying to do a smokescreen anyway. I tend to be pretty straightforward in my approach,” Lacina said.

Barber similarly finds overlap in his work as a German language and literature professor at Grinnell and his work in the community theater. When studying literature, he tries to incorporate dramatic literature. Next semester, Barber will teach at the prison program and incorporate “The Arsonist,” which the Grinnell Community Theatre will perform next semester, into his syllabus. The theater troop will visit the prison to perform the play when the students reach that point in the syllabus.

Barber acknowledged that putting on a community play in a small town has a very different process than putting together a play in a large city.

“I think in a big city, you have a lot more people who try out so you might be able to be a bit more choosy, Barber said. “Although I think I have the best cast … no matter what. It’s a very talented group of people.”

Interested attendees can purchase tickets at Grinnell Arts Center, Brown’s Shoe Fit and McNally’s for $15 (adults) and $5 (students).

Students hold Walkout/Die-in Photo by Parker Van Nostrand.

As part of a series of protests in solidarity with movements surrounding the deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Garner, students staged a Walk Out/Die-in on Monday, Dec. 8. RISE Grinnell is the student group that organized the Walk Out. The group considers these protests to be a necessary effort to continue the dialogue regarding recent police killings and cases of systemic racism. The Walk Out was scheduled at 9:30 a.m. so that many students could make a statement by physically walking out or skipping class to participate in the Die-in. Students met outside Noyce Science Center and laid down around the sundial. Some students held signs criticizing the way in which Brown and Garner’s cases were handled and calling for change, as the failure to indict could set a dangerous precedent. The previous protest, which took place in the JRC lobby, had originally been scheduled to take place outside but was moved due to cold temperatures. However, organizers decided that this protest would take place outside regardless and encouraged students to dress accordingly. Additionally, the organizers created a list of suggestions for how they believed the administration should handle racial justice, which was distributed to protesters in attendance. The protest lasted for approximately 20 minutes.​ Grinnell experiences spike in crime

Punctuated by a series of shattered windows, stolen bikes and an incident of arson on campus, Grinnell College has experienced a sharp uptick in the number of on-campus incidents being reported over the past semester, compared with reports from previous years.

The spike in reported vandalism and thefts has caused concern among campus residents and has prompted Campus Security staff members to encourage Grinnellians to be more aware and conscious of common crime-deterrent tactics, and to them in creating a safer space on the College campus.

Director of Security Stephen Briscoe noted in a Campus Memo sent out on Tuesday, Dec. 2 that there have been 10 incidents of theft and vandalism since Tuesday, Nov. 18—a significant increase in comparison with the same period in the fall of 2013. Briscoe added that over the past weekend, there was a spate of windows and doors being broken on North campus and car windows and loggia windows being smashed on South campus. He stated that such incidents are worrisome because they make community members feel unsafe.

“These incidents do impact the way that people feel—people take it very personally,” Briscoe said. “It does impact them when it makes them feel unsafe. When these kinds of incidents happen, we want to do all we can to make sure that students, faculty and staff feel safe here and deter these kinds of crimes that are going on.”

A broken loggia window in South campus was part of a series of property vandalism incidents this week. Photo by Sydney Steinle.

Briscoe added that Campus Security relies on student security members and encourage students to help prevent further incidents and to deter crime and theft. He mentioned that bicycle theft is also a common occurrence and typically occurs when bikes are unlocked or locked with flimsy chain locks. Similarly, thieves often take advantage of unlocked rooms and facilitated access into residence halls.

“We’re not in a bubble. People still come through here who are not students, and I’m not saying these crimes are committed by non-students, but we’re in a public area where the public comes through, and it could be people who come here looking for crimes of opportunity,” he said. “Usually when people are stealing things out of the residence halls, they’re taking stuff from unlocked rooms.”

Briscoe urged students to continue to lock their rooms, which he said is a significant deterrent to theft. He also asked students to report people conducting suspicious activity to Campus Security right away, particularly in light of the recent incident of arson reported on East campus. Briscoe stated that such situations, especially those involving fire, can be incredibly dangerous, even if they seem harmless.

“You just don’t want to play around with that fire. That’s very dangerous stuff,” he said. “If we find out it’s someone within our College who may have done it, we try to get them some help so they don’t commit stuff like that.”

For alleged arson incidents similar to the one reported early Wednesday morning, Briscoe stated that Campus Security will communicate with the fire department through Poweshiek County, and that members of the police force will arrive as well to conduct an independent investigation. Further, Briscoe explained the process through which a Grinnell student may be charged, in both the criminal and College judicial systems.

“If there’s reason for a criminal arrest, the police will file charges, and we file campus conduct charges on behalf of the College through the College judicial program,” he said.

Several students spoke to security and are in the process of filing witness reports with the police about incidents of vandalism that affected them over the past weekend. “I woke up, this was Sunday morning that I found it, and … my back driver’s window is the one that they had basically knocked out entirely, then my wallet was taken,” said Emily Hackman ’16, who lives on East Street.

Hackman reported the incident to Security and is in the process of making time to go to the Grinnell Police Department to file a witness statement. Jack Dunnington ’16’s car was also broken into, though nothing was stolen. Dunnington also filed a police report and spoke to Campus Security, who had already arrived on the scene when Dunnington saw his car.

Neither Dunnington nor Hackman think there is evidence to suggest that the perpetrator is definitively a Grinnell student or a townsperson, though Hackman said that her wallet was visible from outside the car and was likely the motivation for the break-in.

Hackman and Dunnington also do not think this should be taken as a violation of self-governance.

“This is so large scale,” Dunnington said. “Self-gov has been shown a lot this past weekend in the reactions of people who were not part of it at all, people offering help, offering advice, both material and just emotional support.”

Over the past weekend, vandals broke multiple windows in cars belonging to students living off-campus, and in other campus residential buildings. Photo by Parker Van Nostrand.

#Grinwell comes to a close

This semester, the President’s Office launched a campaign known as the President’s Wellness Challenge to encourage students to live healthier lifestyles, as part of a larger wellness campaign called GrinWell. The challenge, which began Monday, Sept. 29 and will end on Friday, Dec. 19, was structured as a smartphone app that allows students to track their wellness through daily goals.

The goal of the challenge was to create awareness of wellness on campus and lead to the development of positive, healthy habits.

“It’s about changing behavior at the individual level and changing culture at a community level,” said President Raynard Kington.

Wellness Director Jen Jacobsen ’95 noted that at Grinnell, it is easy to ignore wellness in lieu of other, seemingly more pressing matters such as academic work for students.

“It’s easy to put off self-care until later,” she said.

Kington spearheaded the movement and announced during a convocation in September that he would be tweeting and posting his progress on the app throughout the 12-week challenge. However, Kington’s most recent tweet from his Twitter account, @GrinPres13, came in October.

“I just couldn’t get into the tweeting thing,” Kington said. “The tweeting thing and the app. The combination, I couldn’t quite get it. It just didn’t work for me.”

Jacobsen pointed out the importance of thinking about wellness now, as those who live healthy lifestyles in their college-age years are more likely to continue that pattern after graduation. However, Jacobsen said that Grinnell’s culture often does not promote healthy living.

“If you are not well, if you are not taking care of yourself, if you don’t feel like you have permission to take care of yourself, which sometimes I feel like Grinnell culture doesn’t give us permission, then it’s hard to engage well,” she said. “If you’re just moving from paper to paper trying to make it from class to class, you’re missing out on a lot of the experience here.”

Iulia Iordache ’15, SGA Vice President for Student Affairs and a member of the Wellness Committee, praised the movement for promoting awareness on campus, but also noted that the campaign could have been more successful if it were managed differently.

“I think that for an initiative like this to succeed, it would have needed more student input and it would have had to be more student-driven,” she said.

Jacobsen expressed a similar sentiment, stressing that student input was vital for a movement like this one to be successful.

“I’m also really hopeful that students who have a response to this, who have an idea, will feel comfortable emailing me,” Jacobsen said. She can be reached at [wellness].

The President’s Wellness Challenge app was download by over 200 students, although many did not stay up-to-date on completing their goals as the semester wore on. In the future, Jacobsen has ideas for how to make wellness more open-minded. She said she is curious to see if wellness can be thought about on a broader scale, focusing on community rather than individual goals.

Iordache also stressed the idea of less-specified goals.

“Now we’re pondering what we should do about the busy culture at Grinnell. Instead of telling people how to be well, allowing every individual to discover what wellness is for themselves,” she said. “We’re trying to think about how to allow people, instead of imposing standards.”

Kington agreed that approaching wellness from an individual perspective may have been more conducive to wider changes at a community level overall.

“It’s about changing behavior at the individual level and changing culture at a community level,” he said.

Kington also noted how small changes could lead to large results, such as the suggestion that campus events provide more vegetables and fruit and less pizza and cookies.

In the near future, Kington expects to meet again with the Wellness Committee, which is evenly comprised of students and staff, to create a more productive plan for healthy living at Grinnell.

“I’m going to try to sit down again with the Wellness Committee and our health people and say, ‘What did we learn and what can we do better?’ We’re not going to stop. We’re going to keep trying to get better and get it right.” Inside Grinnell: International students, endowment

On Tuesday, Dec. 9 and Thursday, Dec. 11 at noon, members from various offices of Grinnell College hosted two Inside Grinnell sessions, focused on international students and the utilities of the College’s endowment, respectively. Both sessions were well attended as presenters outlined the challenges and achievements they’ve encountered in their respective fields.

Regarding the Grinnell experience for international students, Karen Edwards, Associate Dean and Director of International Student Affairs, surveyed the various aspects of coming to Grinnell from another country. She noted the significant increase in the number of students from countries such as China and Vietnam, the College’s efforts to celebrate religious, cultural and regional identities and the challenges that students often face being so far from home.

Kate Walker highlighted some achievements and challenges associated with Grinnell’s endowment. Photo by Sarah Ruiz.

“We want to welcome and celebrate the national and regional identities of our international students, which can vary much more than people often realize,” Edwards said. “We focus on recognizing diversity within a group that can appear homogenous on the surface.”

Edwards noted that although adjusting from big cities to a small Iowa town has been very hard for some students, international students overall reported similar if not slightly higher rates of satisfaction with their time spent at Grinnell compared with domestic students, as measured through the Noel Levitz Student Satisfaction Inventory.

Edwards also covered the socioeconomic status (as determined by expected family contributions) of the international student body, which are admitted on a need-aware basis at a given target rate. She explained how the College’s International Pre-Orientation Program (IPOP) helps students learn about their immigration status, meet others with similar transition experiences and get in contact with their host families and IPOP leaders.

“It’s always exciting to hear their stories about interacting with their host families,” Edwards said.

The presentation ended with a montage of international students participating at different events while clearly enjoying themselves.

“I filled my last slides with faces. This is what makes my work meaningful, this is what brings joy into our lives,” Edwards said.

During the second Inside Grinnell session, Chief Investment Officer Scott Wilson and Vice President for Finance and Treasurer of the College Kate Walker reviewed the current status of Grinnell College’s endowment and subsequent financial plans moving forward.

Wilson began by outlining the growth that the College’s endowment has experienced. He noted that when he first came to Grinnell in 1994, the endowment was only $400 million, and now sits at approximately $1.8 billion. He attributed Grinnell’s investment success largely to the careful management of the endowment under Joe Rosenfield ’25, who oversaw the growth of the endowment for decades until his death and was quoted by former trustee Gardiner Dutton as saying, “Our job is to make this institution financially impregnable.”

“Joe’s philosophy was always be patient and invest for a reason,” Wilson noted.

Wilson also highlighted Rosenfield’s famous investment in Intel and the purchase of an Ohio radio station as suggested by famed former trustee Warren Buffett as keys to expanding Grinnell’s sizeable endowment. He proceeded to explain how the Office of Investments has diversified its investment portfolio and has focused on procuring a socially responsible investment profile, as stated in the Grinnell College Investment Policy.

“Our mission statement reads: ‘The Investment Committee recognizes the importance of socially responsible decisions to the long-term financial performance of business enterprises, and it selects investments and investment managers whose conduct is consistent with the core values of the College,’ and we strive to fulfill those goals,” Wilson said.

After an overview of the endowment’s asset allocation, Wilson explained that the endowment is invested to ensure long-term growth with the hope that there will be inter-generational equity and the opportunity to preserve or enhance the endowment’s real purchasing power.

“We’re very value-centric or price-centric investors,” Wilson said.

He added that Grinnell’s endowment has had some of the highest returns among colleges around the country, often leading the industry average by significant margins. However, Wilson cautioned that spending of this financial success must be managed carefully, given the significant percentage of the operating budget to which the endowment contributes. He noted that Grinnell’s net tuition is much lower than the average of peer institutions and that the College’s gift rate is at a lower percentage as well.

“Our spending policy is four percent of the trailing 12- quarter moving average [of our endowment], which is there to smooth out ebbs and flows,” he said.

Walker pointed out that the full four percent cannot be used in the operating budget, and that revenue from the endowment represents 55 percent of Grinnell’s revenue profile—approximately $110 million this academic year—which is very high compared to similar schools. Walker added that Grinnell College might have been the first college in the country to have an AAA credit rating, the highest rating, which is often used as a measure of financial health. As a result of this rating, the College has the ability to borrow with relatively low interest rates, which will be utilized for significant amounts of upcoming construction and other projects.

“We will also take on new debt for ARH and Carnegie interest payments,” Walker said. “As far as institutional infrastructure goes, a lot of old buildings need a lot of work, and we don’t have this reserve right now. We need a 25 to 30 million-dollar reserve for this purpose.”

As mentioned during a previous listening session with President Raynard Kington, Grinnell is seeking to build philanthropic report through investment and economic development in the town, which will be classified under the community infrastructure budget.

“This is something we can do, and something we can do very well. Hopefully, we will set a standard for the industry,” Walker said.

Photo by Jeff Li.