By promoting a close working relationship between the instructor and the student and by combining the roles of instructor and academic adviser, the College provides every student with an academic adviser who knows the student’s needs and abilities. A tutorial (4 credits) is required of all students who enter Grinnell as first-year students and of all transfer students below third-year student standing whose previous work does not qualify them for an exemption. A student must complete the tutorial with a grade of C or higher to meet the tutorial graduation requirement and to be eligible to enroll in a “Plus-2” or independent project.

Tutorials are offered only in the first semester.

The following tutorials are offered in 2007–08:

• Our Town: The World at our Doorstep, Andelson—Anthropology
• The Aesthetics of Home, Anger—Art
• African American Autobiography, Barlow—English
• Environmental Conflict, Brouhle—Economics
• The Grace of Sleep or the Ineptitude of All-Nighters, Cabeza—Biology
• Humanities I: The Ancient Greek World, M. Cummins—Classics
• More than Ourselves: An Exploration of Self-Improvement, Drwal—Psychology
• Environmental Messages and Messengers: Silent Spring and An Inconvenient Truth, Eckhart—Biology
• Climate Change Policy: A Social Science Perspective, B. Ferguson—Economics
• Don Quixote and the Modern World, Fernández—Spanish
• Speaking Truth and Telling Lies, B. French—Anthropology
• African American Literary Ties to Russian Intellectual Thought in the 19th and 20th Century, Greene—Russian
• Religion and Politics Across the World, Grey—Political Science
• Literature, Intertextuality, and Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials, Herold— Russian
• Word and Image, K. Ho—English
• The Teller and the Tale, Ireland—French
• Storied Landscapes: American Indian Identities through Place and Displacement, Ketter—Education
• Letters: Narratives of the Self, Lobban-Viravong—English
• Climate Change Policy: A Scientific Perspective, Marzluff—Chemistry
• The Social Politics of Having Children, Kent McClelland—Sociology
• Weird Music, E. McIntyre—Music
• Narrative and Identity, Meehan—Philosophy
• Science for the General Public, E. Moore—Mathematics and Statistics
• Freedom and Authority on the Internet: Conflict, Community, and Control, Rebelsky—Computer Science
• Coexistence, Rommereim—Music
• The Aesthetics of Home, Running—Art
• Dis Lit: Illness, Disability, and Contemporary American Life Writing, Savarese—English
• Black Men in Higher Education, K. Scott—Sociology
• Will the Lights Go Out Forever? Is There a Solution to Our Energy Needs? Sharpe—Chemistry
• Equality and Inequality, Silva—History
• Health Care Reform, C. Sullivan—Biology
• Music in the Balance of Power, R. Vetter—Music
• The Growth and Convergence of Scientific Knowledge, Wickramasekara—Physics
• Development as Freedom, E. Willis—Political Science
• Icelandic Sagas, R. Wolf—Mathematics and Statistics
• Artist as Citizen, Artist as Activist, Womack—Theatre