Current Students

John Stoessinger '50 first heard of Grinnell College from a young American serviceman whose shoes he was shining.

"He had said the magic word--America," Stoessinger remembers. "And I began to tremble."

It was so hard to narrow down my favorite Titular Head films to a list of 10, and even harder to rank them. (As my friend Allison put it, "It's like having to chose your favorite child!")

1846 -- Trustee James J. Hill created the College's endowment with a single silver dollar on the table.    

1882 -- After a cyclone ravaged the campus just before Commencement in 1882, the College rallied, with the help of local leader J.B. Grinnell, to raise the funds to completely rebuild the campus.

1910s -- President John H.T. Main's "Campaigns of Progress" raised enough money to begin his building plan, which would culminate in the Quad and the North Campus residence halls.

Joanna Harris arrived in Grinnell in 1855 at the age of 11, and did not venture much farther until her death at the age of 87 in 1931. She graduated in 1865 as the first female graduate of Grinnell College and one of the first women to graduate from a college west of the Mississippi.

I knew Jim from the time that he was a senior at Grinnell College and I was on the admission staff. He and Judge Dale Mossey '68 and I started at the University Law School together in the fall of 1968, an incredible year of presidential resignation, two assassinations, exploding Democratic convention, a close race for the presidency, and the war in Vietnam. The demand for soldiers caused both Jim and Dale to be drafted after one semester, to return to the law school class of 1973.

Seeking to maximize the benefits of the decennial accreditation process for formative reflection and conversation, the College requested and received permission from the Higher Learning Commission to engage in a Special Emphasis self study focused on an issue critical to improving our ability to achieve our mission: reinvigorating our traditional commitment to train leaders in public service and social justice as we enter the 21st century. The College's mission reads, in part:

Issue: 

 Fall 2009

Bonnie Tinker, a lifelong equal rights and peace activist, was killed recently in a bike accident in Blacksburg, Va. A Portland, Ore., resident, Bonnie was attending a national Quaker meeting where she had been presenting her "Opening Hearts and Minds" workshop devoted to nonviolent change.

Issue:  Summer 2009

Author:  Claire Reeder '11

The church and, I hasten to add, many other institutions in our society, have trouble with uppity women. This probably explains the bumper sticker, "Uppity Women Unite." Since the church has trouble with uppity women, it obviously has a great deal of trouble with the story told in Mark 7:24-30, and a slightly different version in Matthew 15:21-28. Why? Because one is perplexed, even embarrassed, by the portrayal of Jesus in that story. It's indeed shocking to contemplate that out of Jesus' mouth could come words that smack of racism and sexism.