Since arriving on campus I have been collecting a list of questions I am frequently asked. In addition to responding to the individuals who have asked them, I am posting answers here. I will continue to add questions and answers to this list as time goes on, and will continue to discuss issues of campus-wide interest in periodic town hall meetings and on my blog.

My goal in this FAQ section is not only to answer specific questions you ask, but also to share links to additional information. I will also include, whenever possible, ways to contact the various College offices, divisions, and groups who are working on these issues.

Your questions are most helpful — both to me as president and to the College. Some have resulted in considerable discovery on my part; others have suggested subjects that we can and should further investigate together.

I thank the many members of this campus community, including students, staff, faculty, and others too numerous to mention, who have helped me engage and respond to these questions.

I continue to welcome your questions at contactkington@grinnell.edu. Thank you again for being such an inquisitive and engaging community. I greatly enjoy our exchanges.

—Raynard Kington

What is being done to improve the College website?

First, we all agree that our Web site is not at the level that it should be. We are currently completing a Web audit that includes focus groups and a broad survey of our users. The results of this should be available by late August. Though we...

How does the College balance fiscal restraint with funding new initiatives?

In this coming academic year, the Grinnell community will engage in a strategic planning process. The goal of the process is to focus our collective attention on developing strategies that address key issues facing the college. These framing...

What facilities does the College have for videotaping guest lecturers?

The Audiovisual Center loans camcorders, digital cameras and recorders to faculty and students for who desire to document a lecture or class. This is quite commonly done. We do not have...

What has the College done to improve counseling of students?

A great deal. After an extensive internal and external review, the College added counseling services to its student health services. Now called Student Health and Counseling Services, the department makes mental health services more accessible to...

How is the College working to attract and retain diverse faculty?

In two ways. First, we strive to hire faculty of color. We implemented a Grinnell College Diversity Policy in 2006 that included a...

What are we doing regarding sustainability?

A lot is being done on the sustainability front. For the most updated information, we created an environment and sustainability webpage. I recently...

Whatever happened to the campus climate survey?

It is very much alive. Shortly after arriving on campus, I asked Steve Andrews, English/executive council, to convene and chair an ad hoc committee of students, staff, faculty, and an administrator to find out:

  • what has already been...
How can we better prepare students for careers?

On April 1, 2011, Mark Peltz will join the Grinnell staff as the director of the Career Development Office (CDO). He will work to expand the CDO’s existing programs including providing more...

How can we better communicate, both internally and externally?

I have taken some steps to improve internal communication through town meetings, my blog, and this FAQ section. However, I recognize the need for appropriate...

Do you envision changes to Grinnell’s alcohol policy?

We are reviewing our policies and those of our peers to determine how we compare. We also need to quantitatively assess the alcohol–related behavior on our campus. Our first step was to have the Harm Reduction Committee review the...

What is the College’s relationship with the Grinnell Police Department?

The College and the Grinnell Police Department (GPD) have a cooperative relationship. Steve Briscoe, campus safety and security director, is in regular contact with the Grinnell police chief...

How are mock trial, debate, and model UN administered?

As of summer 2010 mock trial, debating union, and model United Nations are all coordinated by the Office of Student Activities. Before that, mock trial had been housed...

Where do we stand with the Expanding Knowledge Initiative?

In 2005 Grinnell launched its Expanding Knowledge Initiative (EKI) to enhance interdisciplinary learning. Since then, the College has appointed specialists in eight interdisciplinary areas of...

What is the College doing to help spouses and partners of College job applicants find work in the area?

A dual-career job search can be complex, and the College wants to help. For this reason, we have a long-standing partnership with the University of...

What new information technology infrastructure improvements do you envision?

A faster network. Information Technology Services will expand our network’s bandwidth by 50 percent to ensure good performance and will continually monitor use and expand bandwidth accordingly to...

What have we done to increase the level of desktop support?

In the past year we made three improvements:

  • We hired a full-time person <helpdesk@grinnell.edu> to attend solely to classroom technology issues.
  • We...