47% of students have considered withdrawal from the College

By Zach Spindler-Krage spindler@grinnell.edu

Amid recent College-administered surveys that reveal nearly half of Grinnell College students have considered leaving the institution, including a disproportionate number of students of color, some faculty and administrators have expressed intentions to address contributing factors, including academic workload and social isolation.

During the April 3, 2023 Grinnell College faculty meeting, faculty discussed potential academic changes targeted at raising the College’s retention and graduation rates. According to the graphs presented in the meeting, the percentage of fall 2021 entrants retained to fall 2022 was 93%, which is comparable to the College’s 16 peer institutions. The percentage of 2016 entrants graduating in 6 years was 88%, which is consistently between 2 and 6 percentage-points lower than the peer average. The 6-year graduation rate for Black students was roughly 7 percentage-points lower than that of white students in 2022.

At the meeting, Graham Miller, associate director of strategic research, presented spring 2022 survey data that indicates that out of 407 current student respondents, 26% had “seriously considered leaving,” 18% had “thought about leaving, but only a passing consideration,” and 3% had “considered leaving but didn’t know the magnitude.”

According to the April 17 summary of the April 3 faculty meeting, faculty members had “expressed their frustration that multiple studies indicated a culture of overwork, and yet, a lack of action and change prevailed.” Faculty proposed alternative grading methods, changes to curriculum and a student survey aimed at determining reasonable workload expectations. According to the summary, studies and survey data indicated that feeling overworked was disproportionately felt by students of color and low-income students.

Tashanna Johnson, a Black student who transferred to the University of Kansas after completing her second year at Grinnell in the spring 2021 semester, suggested that the graduation rate may be disproportionate because the College falsely presents itself to students of color.

“The College always talks about diversity and inclusion, but a lot of it is falsely advertised,” Johnson said. “Most of the diversity comes from international students. It’s great to have them, but they don’t make up for having domestic Black students.”

Johnson said that she experienced countless incidents of racism and microaggressions both on and off campus in Grinnell, yet nothing was done even after she followed the formal reporting process. Johnson said that these incidents affected her mental health and that the College offered inadequate resources to help her.

Johnson also cited a lack of fi-

In 1971, the Concerned Black Students (CBS) chained the doors to Burling Library and presented 10 demands to make life on campus better for Black students. One of the demands was to create a Black studies major, which was realized in 1972 but quickly ended in 1979 due to a lack of student interest. Variations on the Black studies major have evolved throughout Grinnell’s history, though none lasted as long as the Africana studies concentration implemented in 1996.

Created and chaired by Katya

Eventually, the faculty leading the concentration, including Mevorach, decided it was time to end it. “I stepped down because I thought that a program should succeed based on the program and not the person,” Mevorach said. Once she stepped down as chair, the program dwindled and eventually merged into American studies. Mevorach said part of the reason it dwindled

By Oliver Wolfe wolfeoli@grinnell.edu

“Daisy’s Tale” is a new “mostly true” children’s story written and self-published by Liz Hansen, program coordinator for collective impact in the Office of Community Partnerships, Planning, and Research, and illustrated by one of her former students, Makaella Mitchell.

The project began seven years ago during Hansen’s time as a teacher at Grinnell High School. Hansen started teaching a 12-week “capstone” class required for high-school seniors, in which the students were given the freedom to choose a topic that they were passionate about, conduct research and then present their findings.

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