A Message from President Anne F. Harris

Dear students, faculty, and staff,

Together, we are making progress on the goals outlined in Knowledge into Action: A Strategic Plan for Grinnell College. Thank you to the working groups and to everyone who has provided input, feedback, and ideas to advance the seven initiatives that we identified for implementation this semester.

I invite you to read about, learn from, and engage with the work so far. You are welcome to reach out to the working group leaders or the strategic plan steering committee with comments, questions, and ideas.

I look forward to sharing the four initiatives and detailed charges identified by the Strategic Planning Steering Committee, that will be implemented by working groups in the 2024-25 academic year at our first campus-wide convocation in the fall.

Warmly,

Anne

Strategic Plan Steering Committee members

Anne F. Harris, President of the College
Joe Bagnoli, Vice President of Enrollment, Dean of Admission and Financial Aid
Monica Chavez-Silva, VP of Community Engagement and Strategic Planning
Ellen de Graffenreid, Vice President of Communications and Marketing
Bernadine Douglas, Vice President of Development and Alumni Relations
Germaine Gross, Vice President of Finance and Treasurer of the College
Myrna Hernández, Chief of Staff and Vice President of Administration
Beronda Montgomery, Vice President of Academic Affairs and Dean of the College
Marc Reed, VP of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion and Chief Diversity Officer
Brad Lindberg, Associate VP of Institutional Initiatives and Enrollment
Ben Newhouse, Associate VP of Student Affairs and Dean of Students
Graham Miller, Director of Strategic Research
Clark Lindgren, Chair of the Faculty
Alexis Steele, Chair (past) of Staff Council
Gabby Hernandez, President of Student Government Association

Anne F. Harris

President

Catalyst For Educational Excellence

ACTION: Research ways to integrate High-Impact Practices (HIPs) with College-wide learning outcomes to assist with student developmental planning, advising, and institutional accountability for equity.

HIPs are teaching and learning practices that have produced evidence of significant educational benefits for students who participate in them – including and especially those from demographic groups historically underserved by higher education.

Led by Graham Miller, the working group will map HIPs of global study, research, internships, and community engagement in terms of available resources and demographic participation for each of the four categories to provide a recommendation for increasing access to HIPs for students.

ACTION: Focus on the Higher Learning Commission Quality Initiative for advising as a first step in evaluating our institutional understanding of academic advising.

Led by Beronda Montgomery, Joyce Stern, and Andrea Tracy, the working group's initial focus is on a comprehensive evaluation of academic advising that examines the roles played by faculty and staff. In time, this will lead to specific recommendations to improve the quality of academic advising campus-wide (launched Nov. 2023).

Approach and Milestones

The Advising Mapping Group (Joyce Stern, Andrea Tracy, Timothy Arner, Catherine Ashton, Belinda Backous, Mark Peltz), with significant contributions from Jiahao Deng and Anna Gjoleka, has analyzed and created multiple visualizations of data collected from interactive sessions with students, faculty, and staff.

The group presented data at an all-campus session on April 29, as well as with Academic Affairs leadership and SGA leaders, to gather reactions to the data sets and make meaning.

Grinnell has joined the Excellence in Academic Advising program through NACADA, the Global Community for Academic Advising and participation will begin on July 1. The Advising Mapping Group is preparing for this collaboration.

The group is grateful for the help and enthusiasm of many people across campus, including those who turned out for the program launch, participated in data gathering, and attended the Community Friday session. Additional feedback and reflections may be submitted via a Qualtrics Form.

ACTION: Move forward with the College’s response to the Supreme Court decision on affirmative action with the goal of recruiting and retaining a diverse, well-qualified student body.

Led by Sarah Fischer, the working group seeks to develop a framework for mitigating losses in student diversity while observing the SCOTUS decision to limit the use of race in the college admission process.

Approach and Milestones

Patty Amador-Lacson has been promoted into the role of Senior Associate Director of Admission & Coordinator of Strategic Partnerships.

The Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion has posted the Director of Intercultural Affairs position, created from reallocation of existing positions.

Enrollment has submitted the position description for the Assistant Director of Admissions, reallocated from existing positions.

Initial program timelines have been developed for Admissions Pathways, the Laurel Scholars expansion, and launching the national scholarship.

The Enrollment Planning Group is working on options for spring transfer admission and potential partnerships.

Belonging and Connection

Students sitting at and standing beside a table covered with a variety of supplies for printmaking.

ACTION: Reinvent a residential experience and student programming that provide tools and opportunities to build community, develop self-understanding, and establish collaborative relationships across difference.

Led by JC Lopez and Mfon Nwabuoku, in collaboration with the SGA president, this working group is undertaking analysis of the residential curriculum proposal combined with inventory of actions already or soon to be in motion, as analyzed by the Student Experiences group of Senior Leadership.

Approach and Milestones

The residential curriculum implementation manual is 50% complete.

Residential curriculum learning goals and outcomes are now mapped to strategic goals and initiatives, as well as college-wide learning outcomes.

The learning goals have also been mapped to Civic Education and Innovation (CEI) Learning Goals, a foundation for implementing the Residential Curriculum in Renfrow Hall and creating links to CEI in the residential experience.

Work has started to create a week-by-week plan of implementation for the residential curriculum for the 2024-25 academic year.

The team is currently discussing an assessment plan that will align with the residential curriculum and manual.

Collective Equity

ACTION: The Reduce Endowment Dependency (RED) initiative to identify long-term ways to reduce Grinnell's dependence on the endowment to fund the operating budget.

More than 60% of Grinnell's operating budget is funded by the endowment, making it one of the most endowment-dependent institutions in the U.S. Recognizing that over-dependence on any one source of revenue is not financially prudent, RED is seeking $5 million in annual operational budget space (through either cost-savings or new revenue) by FY29. Led by Germaine Gross, RED is an opportunity to re-engineer operations, explore ways to increase revenue, and identify where new investments are needed.

ACTION: Build a shared understanding among campus constituents and leadership regarding compatibility of data and cybersecurity and the academic mission of the College.

Led by Myrna Hernández and Jonathan Colby, the objective of this working group is represented by the name they selected: the Information Technology and Academic Mission Alignment Group. The group was charged with identifying and guiding the work of an external partner to assist in developing an understanding of our current landscape around the areas of service delivery, policy, governance, data sharing, and relationships. The group has selected and is working with MOR Associates, who bring expertise in IT and higher education to the conversation and have spent significant time in on-campus and virtual focus groups with a broad range of constituents to understand structures, processes, and culture at Grinnell. Simultaneously, working group members have conducted interviews with peer institutions (Williams, Macalester, Davidson, Colgate, St. Olaf, Vassar, and Rollins) that are experiencing a coordination of academic mission and information technology. Based on the collective data gathered from external and internal sources, and in consultation with Executive Council, Staff Council, and, when needed, SGA, the group will provide the president with a set of recommendations in the spring of 2024.

Approach and Milestones

MOR Associates and the working group are on track to deliver a comprehensive report with actionable recommendations in May.

ITS is catching up on lifecycle computer replacement and planning audiovisual upgrades in collaboration with the Dean's office.

ITS continues to bring down the overall backlog of work at the Technology Services Desk.

Upgrades to the ServiceNow platform are in process to improve self-service options, email notifications, and improving the service portal. Information is being migrated from the ITS Sharepoint site to help.grinnell.edu.

Shared Goals and Common Ground

A crane and a lift are in view as workers finish the exterior of Renfrow Hall

ACTION: Support community-building programs and community dialogue, with Renfrow Hall as a focus and inspiration, and the Civic Innovation Pavilion as a place to gather.

Led by Monica Chavez-Silva, JC Lopez, and Mark Peltz, the working group will analyze Renfrow Hall recommendations to establish residence guidelines for engagement and define the use of the Civic Innovation Pavilion starting in fall of 2024.

Approach and Milestones

Planning efforts continue as we prepare for the fall opening of Renfrow Hall and the Weingart Civic Innovation Pavilion.

170 applications were received for 110 places in Renfrow Hall. They were reviewed by a cross-divisional team representing the Division of Student Affairs, the Center for Careers, Life, and Service, and Community Partnerships, Planning, and Research.

A campus celebration for the first group of Renfrow Hall Residents was held on April 30, 2024.

Residence Hall staffing is actively underway and the working group continues to discuss and develop Renfrow Hall residence hall guidelines / policies for residents.

For the Civic Innovation Pavilion, guidelines are under development and will be presented on an expanded website that can serve on- and off-campus stakeholders.

Measuring Progress

Strategic Research is currently developing project management and updating reporting infrastructure. This will include dashboards on project progress and performance on both College-wide metrics as well as project-specific metrics, to be introduced in the fall.

Strategic Research and Communications will continue to update the campus community twice a semester during the 2024-25 academic year.

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