Special Campus Memo: Task Force on Student Financial Support and Success
Mar 8, 2019
Dear Grinnellians,
Grinnell College's commitment to provide support to meet the full demonstrated financial need for all enrolled students is a distinctive aspect of our educational community. Periodically, it is crucial to comprehensively assess that financial support from multiple perspectives to determine if it is truly adequate to make Grinnell accessible and to foster student success.
With the approval of the Executive Committee of the Grinnell College Board of Trustees, I have appointed a Board Task Force on Student Financial Support and Success to assess these issues and have requested that President Raynard S. Kington appoint a supporting advisory committee of students, faculty, staff, and alumni.
Led by Board member Angela Onwuachi-Willig '94, the task force will consider Grinnell's financial support from both institutional and student perspectives. Trustees David Maxwell '66 and Tobi Klein Marcus '87 will serve on the task force. Some of the topics that the task force might consider are outlined in the charge to the task force on the Task Force on Student Financial Support and Success website, which will serve as an ongoing information resource as the task force's work proceeds.
The role of the advisory committee will be to suggest additional topics for consideration, as well as resources for the task force members to explore such as speakers and consultants, written reports and articles, best practices among peers nationally, and comparative and historical institutional data. The task force is expected to present an initial report to the Board of Trustees at its October 2019 meeting and to complete its work by February 2020.
On behalf of the trustees, my sincere thanks to the task force members and to those who will serve on the advisory committee for undertaking this important role. The work that you do and the focus you help our academic community bring to these matters will advance the College's commitment to and achievement in increasing access and student success.
Sincerely,
Patricia Jipp Finkelman '80
Chair, Board of Trustees