Lack of COVID safety policy causes some students to feel unsafe in class

privileged position to have all three or four vaccines, but that’s just simply not the case.”

The current COVID policy states that “high risk individuals should mask as appropriate and can use the accommodation process if needed.”

“The disingenuous part about that is that masking works best when everyone does it. We can’t ‘respect each other’s choices’ because other people’s choices could very well lead to the death of other people,” said Lavan. “Many people are having to out themselves as compromised in a deeply ableist world.”

By Oliver Palmer palmerol@grinnell.edu

In the absence of a mask mandate at Grinnell College, English Professor Makeba Lavan was worried about her safety. After getting documentation from her doctor and going through the Office of Accessibility and Disability Resources, she was able to get accommodations to use a hybrid in-person and online approach to her classes.

Measures such as mandatory masking and regular testing are no longer in place at the College. With the reduction in COVID-related safety measures, The S&B interviewed professors and students who are concerned for their health, along with that of the campus community.

The Grinnell College COVID dashboard, which tracked positive cases on campus and in the town of Grinnell, is no longer available. Instead, the COVID case count is now tracked in the weekly campus memo, according to Director of Emergency Management and Risk Mitigation Heather Cox. In addition,

Cox said students are self-testing and self-reporting when they are COVID positive.

“The absence of surveillance testing and the prevalence of at-home testing makes it difficult to accurately track positivity rates as opposed to case counts alone,” said Cox.

Lu Johnston `24 said they used the COVID dashboard to gauge how safe they felt in different situations, and with its removal, they are not able to make as informed decisions.

“I would use the College’s numbers to kind of judge how safe I felt in different situations,” said Johnston, “how willing I was to go to the dining hall and eat there with a friend and stuff like that.”

Factors like high vaccination rates and fewer cases of COVID or any other respiratory illnesses on campus were considered when making the decision to make masks optional, said Cox.

According to Phil Tyne `24, “[the current policy] is a way to not upset anyone without accomplishing anything substantial. And so we just assume that everyone is in the

“I think that the hybrid approach gives us the community that everyone craves, but also the safety that makes it possible,” said Lavan. For the first two weeks of the semester, and the two after spring break, her classes will meet virtually. After the two weeks, classes will be held in person.

Professors can’t require masks be worn in class, but they can encourage their students to take a community health approach to masking in the classroom, according to Cox.

“I believe that the responsibility of our college community to each other begs us to proceed with caution and care for the whole community, even when it’s a little inconvenient or uncomfortable for those not immediately affected,” said Professor Jen Shook, theatre, dance and performance studies.

As of now, there are no plans to make a change to the current COVID policy, said Cox. “If vaccines continue to remain accessible and highly effective at protecting against serious health outcomes, I do not foresee any significant changes. As always, we will watch the trends and adjust based on the most current data available.” graduate school applications, which were due at around the same time as the history seminar’s final.

While this reason for an Incomplete is not listed under the appropriate reasons for Incomplete included in the new guidance from CAS, Sun said he thinks access to Incompletes in general is very valuable.

Joyce

“I know more people are seeking out jobs and internships during the school year than before, so there are just a lot of factors to consider,” Sun said.

While the CAS issues guidance and directs policy, individual faculty have full discretion in granting Incompletes to students, Stern said.

Clark Lindgren, professor of neuroscience and 2022-23 chair of the faculty, did not respond to a request for comment about faculty perspectives on the new guidance.

Campus safety updates

Safety updates— Continued from Front Page

“If the cameras are gonna be there for us to actually have some valid proof … of stuff that we face on this campus, then I fully support it.” said Anderson. “But, if the cameras will be there just to monitor us and surveil everything we do, I don’t think they should be a thing. So, it really just depends on the intention.”

Personal Safety Trainings

The personal safety training classes open to students in February were planned in direct response to the BSU demands, according to Heather Cox. The classes are being taught by alumna Anne Stein `84 and Otis Velma of Zendou Martial Arts, based out of Illinois.

Sessions will be held during the evenings of Monday, Feb. 20 through Thursday, Feb. 23 in the Charles Benson Bear `39 Recreation and Athletic Center multipurpose dance studio. The sessions are open to students, but anyone can attend and observe.

Two ALICE active threat sessions were held on Feb. 16 in HSSC S1325, and a third session will be held on Monday, Feb. 27 at 5 p.m. in the Humanities and Social Studies Center room S1325. Future session dates will be announced in the campus memo, according to Heather Cox, director of emergency management and risk mitigation.

ALICE stands for “Alert, Lockdown, Inform, Counter and Evacuate — the components of a proactive, options-based strategy for active threat response,” per Grinnell College Emergency Management in an email sent in February. Sergeant Benjamin Smith, a member of the Grinnell Police Department, was the instructor for the sessions.

“The ALICE trainings are not in response to the racist incidents on campus or the BSU demands, but rather the culmination of a long-term effort to provide active threat training, which was fast-tracked by the recent false ‘active intruder’ alarm in the HSSC,” Cox said in an email to the S&B, referencing the alarm that was triggered in November 2022.

Lighting

The campus lighting committee has ordered new light poles for Park Street which will arrive in spring 2024, according to Harris. Additional lighting needs are under review.

Three temporary light poles were installed at the intersection of Park and 10th St., East and 8th St. and in the parking lot across from Main Hall following the racist vandalism in 2022, where they are still located.

“While we did say it’s dark around here, we did not mean one big light at the corner,” said Anderson. “We meant the campus. The campus is still pretty dark. We don’t get light until we get down there at the dorm, you know? The lights are performative,” said Anderson.

InformaCast App

In an email sent on Nov. 17, 2022, Grinnell College Emergency Management announced the avail- ability of InformaCast, a mobile app that features a campus alert button. When the button is pressed, Campus Safety can view a user’s location and attempt to call or text you to gather more information. The user can then choose one of three follow-up responses — a need for medical assistance, feeling unsafe and needing help or to report harassment or vandalism occurring. If the button is pressed off campus or out of town, Campus Safety will attempt to contact the user, and if there is no response, will notify the authorities near their location.

“The alert button can immediately notify a Campus Safety dispatcher of the need for assistance or other issues of concern. The alert button does not replace or supplement 911 and will not notify the police when activated,” Harris wrote in the email sent on Jan. 23, 2023.

Mental Health Resources

Mental health resources at the College specific to minority students are not yet available in-person or on campus.

“SHAW and ODEI continue to seek out mental health resources tailored to the needs with minoritized identities,” Harris wrote. “The ideas generated by this workshop [Nov. 29 community dialogue] are being compiled, and next steps will be communicated in the spring [of 2023].”

BSU Demands Unanswered

In Oct. 2022, the BSU released 10 demands to Grinnell College. Seven of these demands — legal accountability for hate crimes, required recovery days, paid time off for Black student workers, required emergency town hall meetings with Grinnell residents after incidents of racist harassment or abuse, mentorship resources and a Know Your Rights training camp — have not been addressed by the College.

Kenn Anderson `24

“I won’t speak for the whole BSU, but I feel as if we are being heard, but nothing is being done about it,” Anderson said. “I just think they have this very big lack of urgency, and that bothers me because I’m Black, and it’s scary to walk back to my dorm from the JRC, and that’s the problem.”

Maure Smith-Benanti, assistant vice president of student affairs and dean of inclusive initiatives, did not respond to a request for comment.

Ashley Adams, associate director of student involvement, redirected The S&B to Ellen de Graffenreid, vice president of communications and marketing, who then referred the newspaper to Cox.

She drafted pieces of the land acknowledgement as a part of her role as the interim chief diversity officer.

At that time, starting campus events with land acknowledgements became more frequent, but the College did not have an official one.

Land acknowledgements tend to follow the oftentimes short formula of first recognizing the Indigenous tribes who previously lived on typically an institution’s land and ending with an action step.

Gregg-Jolly said that she had done extensive research and consulted many professors, the Committee of Diversity and Inclusion (CDI) and land acknowledgements from peer institutions due to a desire to be careful when drafting the statement.

“I think doing harm is why we were playing so slow,” she said.

While they had the intent to reach out to tribe members, she said they did not get around to doing this during her service as interim chief diversity officer. She left her role before they concluded what to write for the action step and the initial publishing of the statement.

“When you do a land acknowledgement, it is a statement about ownership,” Snow said. “And, it is a statement about pushing someone out that was historically there ... to push those people out and make a state out of it.”

Following her realization of the current statement’s historical inaccuracies, Snow pointed them out to

President Anne Harris, to which Harris followed up with her to learn more.

According to Harris in an email to the S&B, the College is now working on correcting the current land acknowledgement and “go[ing] beyond it to acknowledge and deepen the partnerships between the College and the Nation.”

Snow’s partner Troy Brave Heart said that land acknowledgements are a “fad” belonging to academia.

“It’s easy to get on a microphone or email signature and say something, but then what? What are you doing?” he asked. “And, if the answer is nothing, then why bother?”

The College’s stated respect for Indigenous groups contrasts with the low number of enrolled self-identified Indigenous students. According to the IPEDS for 1990 to 2022, from 2017 to 2021, the College enrolled zero self-identified Native students, who were categorized under “American Indian/Alaska Native.” In 2022, for the first time in five years, two students enrolled identifying as Native.

When Snow attended the College over 20 years ago, she said she was one of the only Native students on campus and is unaware of any other Meskwaki people who have graduated from the College besides her aunt, who graduated in 1974.

Ellen de Graffenreid, vice president of communications and marketing, wrote over email that the office of admissions recruits Meskwaki students similarly to other students, including creating opportunities to connect with Grinnell and extending generous financial aid policies. She said the College “regularly [reaches] out to the Meskwaki Nation.”

She also noted that Meskwaki students have the option of attending a tribal college, which allows people from federally recognized tribes to pursue higher education at a lower cost.

Nevertheless, Snow’s son is a sophomore in high school at the Settlement School, and he is interested in attending Grinnell. He said that many students are not aware of the College.

“You’re so close to this college, and you’re so close to the settlement,” he said. “There’s not really much going on.”

Clyde Tarrence, who has been principal of the Settlement School for the past five years, said that he does not recall any outreach from the office of admissions.

In the spring of 2016, the College decided to officially break ties with the Posse Foundation by fall 2017. The Posse Foundation connected underrepresented students from urban areas with colleges paid for with a Posse Scholarship, bringing down the cost of college dramatically. Snow, who worked for the College as interim assistant director of intercultural affairs around this time, said that she thinks a scholarship like the Posse Scholarship for Native students, specifically, would be beneficial.

One appeal of Posse scholars is that they come in cohorts each fall semester, allowing a sense of community to form among the group.

De Graffenreid wrote that according to Brad Lindberg, associate vice president of institutional initiatives and enrollment, a donor would usually initiate the creation of an endowed scholarship program for attracting and retaining underrepresented students. Donors indicate their preference for which groups they would like their donation to benefit.

Snow also noted a distinction between the students and faculty of the College and the administration. Alongside some professors at the College, Snow has engaged in three talking circles surrounding the topic of indigeneity and said they are looking to host another one before this year’s spring graduation.

Brave Heart added, “They, the powers that be, the institution, are disconnected from what is really happening.”

During discussions over the drafting of the original land acknowledgement, the College consulted the CDI, which is composed of students and faculty.

“They were really into action items — not just lip service,” said Gregg-Jolly.

She also said that while the idea of recruiting more Indigenous students was brought up, many members of the CDI were more interested in what they could do to support the community.

In 2019, a group of students from the College expressed interest in working with the Settlement School. Ultimately, this plan did not come to fruition due to extensive background checks that come with working with Native children, according to the principal of the Settlement School.

With the identification of histori-