Student walks through central campus during springtime

COVID-19: Meeting the Challenge

Questions?

In what will forever be a defining moment in each of our lives, Grinnellians rose to meet unprecedented challenges and changes together. It is now time to shift our focus to what is next.

Grinnell’s leadership, faculty, and staff are committed to providing the very best Grinnell educational opportunities possible for our students. Decisions about the coming academic year will require the creativity, compassion, and consideration for community that are the hallmarks of Grinnell College.

Many of the College's functions remain remote, including teaching and learning and most administrative work. We are assessing our community health conditions on an ongoing basis to determine how we can continue fulfilling our mission as safely as possible. Our campus activity level system provides overall guidance for life and work at Grinnell based on our community health conditions.

Current Activity Level: Yellow

Classes: Hybrid, primarily online, some in-person with appropriate PPE/safety precautions.
Meetings and Events: Primarily online, limited events/meetings in-person with appropriate PPE/safety precautions.
Athletics: No competition, limited training with PPE/safety precautions; buildings at reduced capacity.
Travel/Visitors: Faculty and staff travel restrictions in place with limited opportunities by permission. Limited visitors by reservation only; please check with department or office you intend to visit.
Dining: Take-out food available during business hours from the Marketplace Dining Hall for students and employees on meal plans.

Activity Levels and Definitions

Our testing program is a crucial component of our overall effort to maintain community health. We are proud of the job our students, staff, and faculty are doing to stay safe and healthy. The test program results below highlight these efforts.

Testing Clinic Results for the Week of Dec. 14 – 18, 2020

Number of Unique Students Tested With Conclusive Results	Negative	Positive	Percent Positive	Self-Reported Positive Results From Other Test Sites*
268	267	1	0.37%	2

Number of Unique Faculty/Staff Tested with Conclusive Results	Negative	Positive	Percent Positive	Self-Reported Positive Results From Other Test Sites*
274	272	4	0.73%	0

Total Since Testing Began (Aug. 24, 2020)

Number of Unique Students Tested with Conclusive Results	Negative	Positive	Percent Positive	Self-Reported Positive Results From Other Test Sites*
391	385	6	1.53%	5

Number of Unique Faculty/Staff Tested with Conclusive Results	Negative	Positive	Percent Positive	Self-Reported Positive Results From Other Test Sites*
349	320	29	8.31%	8

*The State’s testing program does not report results to the college. The number in this column reflects reports by students, faculty, or staff to SHAW and is not included in the positivity rate of the on-campus testing clinic.

Interactive Tools

See the latest COVID-19 data for Iowa and the Grinnell area or use an interactive risk calculator to help you determine how risky various activities and their combination of factors might be.

COVID-19 Dashboard

Risk Calculator

Weekly COVID-19 Testing Clinic Update: Dec. 21

For the week of Dec. 14, 2020, 268 unique students were tested with 267 being negative and 1 positive resulting in a 0.37% positivity rate. A total of 274 faculty and staff were tested with 272 being negative and 2 positives resulting in a 0.73% positivity rate.

Weekly COVID-19 Testing Clinic Update: Dec. 14

For the week of Dec. 7, 2020, 291 unique students were tested with 291 being negative and 0 positive resulting in a 0% positivity rate. A total of 286 faculty and staff were tested with 282 being negative and 4 positives resulting in a 1.40% positivity rate.

Weekly COVID-19 Testing Clinic Update: Dec. 7

For the week of Nov. 30, 2020, 293 unique students were tested with 293 being negative and 0 positive resulting in a 0% positivity rate. A total of 280 faculty and staff were tested with 277 being negative and 3 positives resulting in a 1.07% positivity rate.

Building Resilience and Virtual Community

Grinnell College President Anne Harris describes the unique opportunities that the 2020-21 academic year could offer students who actively engage in this historic moment.

Still image from web conference, Schvalla Rivera

The On-Campus Grinnell Experience: Living and Learning in a Low Density Community

Online panel about the on-campus student experience during the first term of fall 2020, recorded July 23, 2020

Still image from web conference, Anne Harris

The Online Grinnell Experience: Living and Learning in a Virtual Community

Online panel about the remote-learning student experience during the first term of fall 2020, recorded July 23, 2020