Grinnell’s campus life enjoys an intense vitality, with students, faculty, staff, and local residents contributing to the rich diversity of activities one finds here. Indeed, “campus life” reaches well beyond the campus, as illustrated by the new Liberal Arts in Prison program, in which students and faculty offer classes to inmates in two of Iowa’s prisons. Similarly, numerous public lectures sponsored by the centers and programs, events held at the Grant O. Gale Observatory, art exhibitions at the Faulconer Gallery, and concerts sponsored by the Public Events committee – all free of charge – draw their audiences from neighboring communities, residential and academic alike. The College reports over 900 free public events in an academic year.

There are over 100 student groups, 20 NCAA Division III varsity sports, and 16 intramural sports, in addition to hundreds of concerts, readings, workshops, performances, speakers, and symposia. One-third of the student body participates in at least one varsity sport, and another third participates in one or more intramural sports. An equally impressive number of students pursue their passions in music, theatre, dance, or the fine arts, many under the direction of Grinnell’s arts faculty, its alumni, or distinguished visiting artists, with even more in student-directed ensembles and performances.

Campus life is varied in its diversions, and Grinnell students invest as much energy in their commitments to service as they do in leisure pursuits. While students enjoy on-campus dances and parties and spring-break getaways, Grinnellians also choose to participate in volunteer work sponsored by the popular Alternative Break program. Established in 1988, the Community Service Center assists over 350 students annually in finding a role in over 20 volunteer programs both on and off campus. Students, faculty, and staff alike also relish the opportunity to advocate for social and political causes. Every four years, the entire Grinnell community enjoys its unique access to national politics and its most prominent figures, taking advantage of Iowa’s front-row seat in the theater of the nation’s political cycle. Campus and town citizens join forces to invigorate national debate in the participatory democracy of Iowa’s caucuses as they define issues of common interest.

“Self governance,” a concept that informs the relationship between faculty and administration at Grinnell, also structures student life, giving 18- to 22-year-olds the right and responsibility to use large budgets for student organizations, to serve on important committees within the governance structures of the College, and above all to govern their own behavior in residence life. Naturally, this climate of self-governance leads to lively discussion and dissent on a campus that is used to speaking its mind. Self-governance grows directly from the College’s traditional understanding that all who are engaged in a liberal arts education create a community based on freedom of choice informed by a sense of responsibility to others. This learning “for the various duties of life” complements the intellectual learning that takes place in the classroom, the studio, the performance space, the laboratory, and in the surrounding community.