This year, a number of large-scale academic initiatives moved beyond the planning stage to become a reality. For example, the College has long offered a wide range of activities and programs with an international focus, but their combined impact has been less visible due to being scattered across the campus. With support from the Fund for Excellence, our new Center for International Studies is ready to promote, extend, and coordinate such elements as off-campus study, international elements in our curriculum, guest speakers of many nationalities, and faculty and student research on global topics.
As another example, the Center for Prairie Studies marked its first year as a presence at the College, offering courses, speakers, research support, and co-curricular learning opportunities (see http://www.grinnell.edu/CPS/). As with International Studies, careful planning and preparation by a group of dedicated faculty members has come to life as a flourishing academic center-and one that takes advantage of our geographical location. The Mentored Advanced Project (MAP) Program, established under the "capstone" rubric in Spring 1999, has also been in place for a full year, offering more than a hundred upper-level students across all disciplines the chance to carry out advanced and integrative work (see http://www.grinnell.edu/Dean/Capstone/CapstoneTest2.html).
Planning is underway for a revival of the Grinnell-in-Washington D.C. program, with a new focus on public policy, to run as a pilot program in Fall 2001. Extension of the Grinnell-in-London program to include an internship-based component in the spring semester will be tested in Academic Year 2001-2002. I am thrilled to see the College experiment with these new and exciting programs. They represent what makes Grinnell College distinctive, and I believe that this spirit of innovation and achievement will help keep us at the forefront among liberal arts colleges.
Summary of Changes and Developments
I. FACULTY:
II. ACADEMIC PROGRAMS:
III. ACADEMIC SUPPORT SERVICES:
IV. FACULTY SUPPORT AND ORGANIZATION:
I. Faculty
This year brought an unusually large number of faculty appointments and reviews. The Personnel Committee conducted reviews of 41 faculty members. Departments conducted searches that resulted in the appointment of 31 new faculty members.
Tenure, Promotion, and Recontracting
The Faculty Personnel Committee considered eight faculty members for tenure and promotion to Associate Professor, one for promotion to Associate Professor without tenure, and three for promotion to Professor. In addition, we conducted 12 complete reviews and 17 interim reviews for contract renewal. This represented an unusually large number of reviews, and I was impressed with the thoroughness, fairness, and efficiency with which the Committee conducted them. In two cases, faculty members resigned during the process of the review. In all completed reviews, the President accepted the positive recommendation of the Committee and the Board of Trustees accepted that recommendation.
During the summer of 1999, we worked hard to revise and clarify the guidelines for preparation of materials for reviews. The Dean's Office took on the responsibility of gathering information that previously needed to be laboriously and separately obtained by each department chair. One process, the "Dean's letter" soliciting comments from former students about the teaching of faculty under review, was substantially revised. Previously, all students who had taken a class from the faculty member in the previous three years were surveyed (including both alumni and students still enrolled at the College), but typically fewer than 20% responded, and the committee worried about bias in the sample. A committee of Jim Swartz, Bruce Voyles (representing the Executive Council), Kent McClelland (representing the Personnel Committee), and Scott Baumler (Assistant Director of Institutional Research) worked on completely reengineering this process. A sampling procedure was developed so that 72 students and alumni chosen from a stratified (according to course level) random sample were solicited. The letter to these students from the Dean, as well as the questionnaire itself, were both rewritten based upon what we learned about survey research. The whole process was automated by using an ACCESS database that chooses the students, generates surveys and letters, and serves as a repository for the text and numeric answers to the surveys.
The results were dramatic. We averaged return rates of over 50% and received much more useful answers from students. Moreover, these data can be displayed in a variety of reports, so that the individual who has been reviewed may see the aggregate results without attributing them to specific students, while the Personnel Committee can track comments of individual (though still anonymous) students.
The faculty members tenured and promoted to Associate Professor were:
Pricilla Lowther, Physical Education, was promoted to Associate Professor without tenure.
The faculty members promoted to Professor were:
New Faculty Appointments
This year we conducted a large number of searches. All but one resulted in appointments to the faculty. We successfully filled ten tenure-track positions.
Below is a list of faculty members who have accepted tenure-track positions.
In the case of Chinese, after many years of instability in personnel, we attempted a search for a faculty appointment at the Associate Professor or Professor level. This was a difficult search, as the assignment involves a substantial amount of teaching of language, and it is typical that tenured faculty members at universities and many larger institutions do not teach the language. There are not very many smaller, undergraduate institutions that offer a program in Chinese. Therefore, we knew that the pool was going to be small. From this group of applicants, the search committee did identify one top candidate. Unfortunately, that individual had to withdraw from the search for personal reasons before coming to campus. At this point, we suspended the search. Next year we will re-advertise the position, but the Executive Council recommended leaving the rank open, in order to solicit a broader pool of applicants from which we can make an appointment either at the Assistant or Associate rank.
We successfully filled 15 term positions.
We successfully conducted searches for four Mellon postdoctoral positions. This is a new type of position for us and we did not know what to expect in the quality of the applicant pools. In fact, we were overwhelmed with highly impressive applicants. In all, nearly 700 persons applied. Several departments commented that the applicant pools contained candidates who were at least as strong as those in tenure-track searches. All four accepted our offers.
Finally, we conducted searches for two individuals to fill fellowship positions from the Consortium for a Stronger Minority Presence (CSMP). This year, we appointed our two top choices, both African American. This is the first year in memory that we have been able to attract our top two choices. Moreover, in both of the past two years, despite multiple interviews and offers, Grinnell College has been able to fill only one of its two fellowship positions. Our success this year is an encouraging and propitious change.
Faculty Diversity
Appointing and retaining a more diverse group of faculty has long been a goal at Grinnell College. During the past twenty years we have dramatically increased the fraction of women on the faculty, yet in recent years we began to see some slippage, with more new appointments of men than of women. This year we managed to reverse that trend, with women representing seven out of ten new tenure-track appointments. (When all appointments are counted, we have a net increase of six women on the faculty this year.) On the side of ethnic diversity, we were less successful. Of the ten tenure-track appointments, two are faculty of color, but we also lost two faculty of color due to resignations. In term positions, though, we appointed four faculty of color while losing only two faculty of color whose appointments expired. This is a substantial net gain. As indicated above, we were also successful in appointing two African Americans to CSMP positions. One of the Mellon Postdoctoral fellows is a person of color as well, so Grinnell College will have four more faculty of color in 2000-01 than we had in 1999-2000. Nonetheless, we have not reached the goals that many of us would have liked to achieve. Faculty diversity is a priority that calls for new energy and attention, as well as creative strategies. I have hopes that with ongoing effort and commitment, we can achieve greater success in this important area.
Resignations, Retirements, and Transitions to Senior Faculty Status (SFS)
This year the following tenured or tenure-track faculty members resigned.
Moving from active teaching to Senior Faculty Status were three faculty members:
James Kissane, Professor of English, completed his term in Senior Faculty Status and is now Professor Emeritus.
Grants and Awards
Elaine Marzluff, Assistant Professor of Chemistry, received a major grant from the American Society of Mass Spectrometry to support her research into protein and peptide structure and interactions using the mass spectrometer. Her research grant will also support two summer research students each year of the grant.
Mark Levandoski, Assistant Professor of Chemistry, received an equipment grant from the Grass Foundation to further enable his research in the molecular properties of neuronal receptors.
Don Smith, Professor of History, was named L. F. Parker Professor in History. He was first appointed as associate professor of history in 1970 and became professor of history in 1975. He served the College as department chair and as a member of the Executive Council at different times throughout his tenure and as chair of the faculty from 1986-88.
Charles Duke, Professor of Physics, was named S.S. Williston Professor in Physics. He was first appointed as assistant professor in 1969 and became professor of physics in 1979. He has served the College as department chair, chair of the faculty, dean of the faculty, dean of the college, vice-president for academic affairs, and interim president.
Doug Caulkins, Professor of Anthropology, was named Earl D. Strong Professor in Social Studies. He was first appointed as instructor in 1970 and became professor of anthropology in 1989. He has served the College as department chair, and as associate dean of the faculty from 1980-83. He was also a co-founder of the Grinnell-in-London Program.
James Swartz, Professor of Chemistry, Dean of the College, and Vice-President for Academic Affairs, received the Alumnus of the Year 2000 award from California State University, Stanislaus, which recognizes demonstrated commitment to lifelong learning, values and standards and qualities of leadership and citizenship. The award cited his positions at Grinnell College and his service on the Advisory Panel to the National Science Foundation, the Iowa Energy Center Advisory Council, and the North Central Association Commission on Institutions of Higher Education.
II. Academic Programs
General Comments
This year the College Curriculum Committee spent much of its time coordinating a campus-wide discussion of the Capstone experiments. The outcome of this discussion is reported below in the "Capstone" section of this Report. The Curriculum Committee also discussed independent study and internship offerings. They recommended changing the deadline of application for independent study to the end of the semester before the independent study. This step encourages students to think ahead and consider how independent study fits into their academic program. Committee members also noted that under the previous system, students often spent the first two weeks of the semester planning and applying for the independent study course, and were then left with less time to actually carry it out.
The Committee recommended changes that will give them more information on the academic content of proposed internships. They observed that a dramatic increase in the number of summer internships has created a number of problems. First, the Committee did not have good oversight over the internships, as it never saw the applications. Second, students often had difficulty in finding a faculty member available to sponsor an internship during the summer, and our policies were such that funding for internships was not available unless the students receive credit. Thus, faculty who lacked enough time or did not have the appropriate expertise sometimes felt pressured to supervise internships. To support increased summer internship activity, while decreasing the burden for faculty, the Committee recommended that summer internships should normally not carry academic credit, although students and faculty may choose to petition for credit if there is an appropriate academic component.
Beginning in January 2000, students have been required to submit an academic plan along with their declaration of an academic major. Although it is early to assess results, we are pleased that the process seemed to go smoothly, and the students that I worked with and others reported to me that they found it a worthwhile experience.
Several departments are in the midst of making major changes to their curricula. The History Department offered its new introductory course, "Cultural Encounters," developed over the past several years. I anticipate that this course will be regularized during the 2000-01 academic year. The Biology Department also offered sections of a new introductory course, "Introduction to Biological Inquiry," which will become the standard introductory course beginning 2000-01. This new course focuses on methods of investigation rather than on specific content. The rest of the department's curriculum will be revised over the next several years. The faculty in Religious Studies, nearly all of whom have been appointed in the past five years, are hard at work on a major reorganization of their curriculum, reflecting national changes in their academic field over the past decade. To support development of their new curriculum, the Department of Religious Studies submitted major grant proposals to both the National Endowment for Humanities and the Grinnell College Fund for Excellence.
This spring, a major faculty initiative on international studies was awarded support from the Fund for Excellence after more than a year of initial planning which involved faculty members from all three divisions. In response to their vision, Grinell's Center for International Studies has been established in Fell House. Led by faculty director Doug Caulkins, Earl D. Strong Professor of Social Studies, the Center for International Studies will build on our current strengths in this area while taking further steps to expand and consolidate our curricular and co-curricular offerings emphasizing Grinnell's commitment to our students' development of a strong international perspective.
Capstone Experiment
The Grinnell College faculty took an important step this year when it claimed ownership of the "capstone" program initiated through a Fund for Excellence award in early 1999. The Curriculum Committee engaged for most of the year in structured discussions with the faculty of each academic division. They also held an open discussion for students and cultivated their liaison with the Student Curriculum Council. Meanwhile, the Faculty Executive Council hosted a series of discussions within the faculty, and reported the results to the Curriculum Committee. Based on this campus-wide discussion, the Curriculum Committee drafted a statement of academic direction that was endorsed by Executive Council and, in late April, by the faculty as a whole.
The College's new direction for the "capstone" initiative gives clearer focus and broader support to the program. It defines and separates the MAP, or Mentored Advanced Project (which may be carried out either as Independent Study or within a course or seminar) from a variety of other worthwhile curricular innovations to be separately reviewed and funded. With a new and clearer definition of MAP endorsed by the faculty, this program can now go forward experimentally with Fund for Excellence support until its review in 2003-2004 leads to the important decision of whether to make the MAP an established part of the Grinnell College curriculum.
During AY 1999-2000 forty-nine members of the Grinnell College faculty, representing 15 (of 25) academic departments, directed one or more capstone projects (now re-named MAPs). All three divisions participated, with 29 of the faculty members coming from the science division, 11 from social studies, and 9 from departments in the humanities. This level of participation is commendable and encouraging for the first year of a new academic initiative. During this period, close to 120 capstone projects reached completion, including 93 independent projects and 26 students enrolled in the three capstone seminars (in French, Psychology, and Philosophy/Religious Studies) offered in Spring 2000. Academic departments that have not offered a MAP are beginning to include this prospect in their curricular discussions and planning. I strongly encourage their efforts and look forward to the continuing evolution of this program.
Meanwhile, dissemination of MAP and capstone research results is wide-ranging and impressive. Students have had their capstone work accepted for presentation at eight national and international professional conferences including the meetings of the American Chemical Society, the American Academy of Religions, the Ecological Society of America, the American Psychological Society, the EdMedia 2000 World Conference on Educational Multimedia and Hypermedia, and meetings of the Society for Neuroscience, the Society for Conservation Biology, and the Society for Cross-Cultural Research. Music composed by two students for a capstone project is slated for performance at the 2001 International Haiku Convention in Boston. Several major undergraduate conferences also selected our capstone projects for public presentation.
An even larger number of students presented their capstone results in a regional forum. Many of these, along with others who did not give an external presentation, also had the experience of presenting their capstone results to a campus audience, either at the Eighth Annual Science Student Research Poster Session during Family Weekend, the Third Annual Africana Studies Symposium, the first Social Science Student Research Conference sponsored by the College, the Nietzsche Capstone Symposium, or a departmental seminar series.
Several peer-reviewed publications have already come out of the MAP program. A paper co-authored by a student and a faculty member was recently accepted by The Mathematical Intelligencer, and a similarly co-authored paper will appear in the journal Cross-Cultural Research. Abstracts of MAP research are posted on the web sites of several professional associations or published in their conference proceedings, and many more students and faculty are currently preparing their work for submission to professional and undergraduate journals in the coming year. Other capstones contributed toward ongoing faculty research, including assistance on monographs in progress by Grinnell faculty members in economics, history, and sociology. Further reports of capstone/MAP acceptances and accomplishments continue to arrive in the Associate Deans' Office. These early results comprise a wonderful validation by external reviewers of the quality of academic work done by our students and faculty.
Off-Campus Study
The Off-Campus Study Board completed its review of off-campus study programs this year. A survey of departments and concentrations was conducted to determine which of the existing programs are appropriate to their respective academic goals for off-campus study. The results of the survey justified a further reduction in the total number of programs by eliminating those that do not appear to be directly serving specific academic objectives. As a result of the review, the approved list dropped from 107 to 70 programs the majority of which are supported through consortial arrangements.
During the 1999-2000 academic year, 202 students (53% of the junior-year class) studied abroad in 32 countries. Thirty-four of these students studied in our Grinnell-in-London Program during the fall semester. Plans are well underway to expand our program in London to include a spring semester internship program. This expansion, funded by the FFE, will begin with a pilot program for ten students in the spring of 2001.
The FFE is also funding an off-campus study pilot program in Washington, D.C. scheduled for Fall of 2001. This new Grinnell-in-Washington Internship Program will include an on-site internship experience and three courses - a required course in public policy, an internship seminar, and a variable content course.
American Studies
After considerable discussion and thought, this spring the tenured members of the American Studies Department submitted a series of plans to convert the American Studies major to a concentration and to dissolve the department. The department has usually included four faculty members, each holding a half-time appointment in American Studies and a half-time position in another department. Two resignations several years ago left American Studies with only two faculty members. In the case of one department, Anthropology, the person who left was replaced with a full-time appointment in Anthropology (plus providing some support in a concentration). The American Studies Department faculty members struggled with issues of structure and how to best fill these voids. The American Studies major is actually quite similar to that of our concentrations, having an introductory course and a senior seminar and mid-level methods course, and most of the rest of the courses from other departments. The plan submitted is to leave the courses intact and to create a concentration with much the same structure as the current major. The outline of this plan was endorsed by both the Curriculum Committee and the Executive Council, and a more detailed version will be reviewed at the division level before going to the Curriculum Committee and full faculty for action this fall.
Courses Taught by Visiting Scholars
The new Grinnell College Program of Visiting Artists and Writers, made possible by a three-year grant from the Cowles Foundation, sponsored residencies (including short courses) by emerging playwright Annie Bien and the internationally renowned writer Fatima Gallaire. Also visiting under the auspices of the Cowles Program, musicians Anna Krueger and Thalia Moore offered master classes, consultation, and instruction in musical technique and performance.
The Grinnell College Minority Scholars in
Residence (MSIR) Program, created in 1986, sponsored three short
courses last year. "Chicano Cultural Citizenship" was
offered in the Department of Art by Judith Huacuja Pearson; a
course in American Studies entitled "Ghosts in America:
The Spectral Landscape of American Fiction" was taught by
novelist Susan Power, author of The Grass Dancer; and Dawn
Norfleet offered a course in the Department of Music on "Black
Music and the Spoken Word."
Supported by a grant from the Fund for Excellence, Victoria Rovine
offered the first in a series of full-semester courses on African
art. Award-winning poet Marvin Bell taught a short course in
the English department on "Reading and Writing Poetry."
In spring 2000, Noyce Professor Richard Guy offered two special-topics
courses, on Number Theory and Combinatorial Games. Also in the
spring semester, Heath Visiting Professor Herbert Hausmaninger
collaborated with President Osgood to teach an introductory-level
special topics course on the history of Western legal systems.
III. Academic Support Services
Computing
During the 1999-2000 academic year we examined our services and organization and developed what we hope will be a better organizational plan for computing. In the early summer of 2000 we announced formation of a new unit, Information Technology Services (ITS), which we hope will provide better technology service to the entire campus community. ITS combines what was previously in Computer Services (including telephones) plus printing and audiovisual services into an integrated unit. The Department of Computer Services was previously organized into hardware and software, but we determined that more effective service could be provided if we organized around a user-based approach. Thus our units are now two teams (blue and green) with each assigned some academic and administrative units, an administrative data unit (supporting our database), networking, and an internal support and telephone unit. The campus has received this reorganization well, though it will be a while before we know if it provides the level of service that we desire.
Between summer of 1998 and summer of 1999, we installed new servers and replaced a substantial amount of our network hardware. As a result, this year the network functioned substantially more smoothly and reliably. We also converted all of our email and World Wide Web services to the new NT based servers (replacing the VAX functions). Other functions have also been removed from our VAX cluster so that one was retired in the summer of 1999 and the other in the summer of 2000. This step eliminates machines that have required substantial staff time and funds to maintain.
In Academic Year 1999-2000 we negotiated a campus agreement with Microsoft, which brings to campus the entire MS Office Suite for use by employees both at work and at home and to all student machines. This agreement replaces a variety of packages, which required cumbersome support and licensing agreements. We also continued our accelerated replacement of desktop computers, so that we now have few units that are over three years old. This summer we substantially expanded our connections to the outside world by converting from a single T1 line to three T1 lines, with some redundant connections so that cut lines do not cause us to be as vulnerable as in the past. We completed the installation of new multimedia equipment into nine existing classrooms on campus. The College now has a total of approximately 20 classrooms with some multi-media capability. We completed our residential network. Over 500 students were connected to the campus network from their dorm rooms. We expect that over 700 (of the roughly 1100 on-campus) students will be connected next academic year.
With support from the Mellon Foundation and Culpeper grants, and the expertise of the Instructional Multimedia Technology Specialists, we have seen a huge increase in curricular development projects that incorporate technology into teaching. This effect has required substantial development support for the IMTS, purchases of hardware and software to support curricular development, and installation of computing and display equipment into classrooms. It has been a challenge to provide this coordinated support, but we have managed well, and many of the new ways in which faculty members are using technology to assist student learning are quite spectacularly effective.
Library
One of our major acquisitions this year was the personal library of Yu-shih Chen, Professor of Chinese at the University of Minnesota. Professor Chen's collection, which includes books in both English and Chinese, numbers between 5000 and 6000 volumes and is particularly rich in twentieth-century Chinese literature. The acquisition of these books was negotiated in principle in 1997, but the final transfer of the collection to Grinnell occurred during 1999-2000. The East Asian Library will be further enriched by a substantial and significant gift of Chinese-language books from David Anthony Arends, received through the efforts of Doctor Robert Carney and Professor Andrew Hsieh.
In December 1999, thanks to a grant from the Fund for Excellence, Grinnell College was able to purchase the collection of books, periodicals, maps, and postcards relating to the history of Iowa which had been assembled by the late Fleming C. Fraker, Jr. Acquisition of material to document Grinnell College's setting in the state of Iowa has been the focus of active purchasing for the libraries' special collections for the past thirty years. With the acquisition of the Fraker Collection, by one purchase, the libraries have tripled the number of holdings in this area: we are likely to incorporate nearly 600 Fraker volumes into our holdings. This collection provides an important resource for the college's Prairie Studies program. The Archives also received the papers this year of two late faculty members, John Kleinschmidt and Charles Cleaver, whose papers document the development of the curriculum and history of the College over the past half-century.
A new focus section within Burling Library, the Latino Collection, was established during 1999-2000 at the request of SOL and through the joint efforts of SOL and the libraries' collection development staff. Books in the Latino Collection document various facets in the life and culture of Americans of Hispanic ethnicity.
The Grinnell College Libraries' upgrade of our library automation system to Innovative Interfaces' new Millennium product (an upgrade made possible by a grant from the Fund for Excellence) was in the second year of a four-year trajectory during Academic Year 1999-2000. Two recent enhancements are notable for their direct benefit to users. First, it is now possible for members of the campus community to access a wide variety of library-sponsored databases-for example WorldCat and the other First Search databases-from off-campus computers. Second, the addition to the electronic bibliographic record in INNOPAC of tables of contents for books published since 1992 means that specific information embedded in these tables of contents will automatically be retrieved when author, title, and subject searches are conducted.
Another initiative of the year was the libraries' increased role in purchasing and housing videos for a variety of campus constituencies. Under this reorganized system, over 600 videos were added to the libraries' holdings in 1999-2000, in contrast to approximately 200 that were added in 1998-99.
And finally, the 1999-2000 academic year saw the conclusion of the first round of a major effort by the Libraries to insure that our serial holdings respond as effectively as possible to faculty and student needs. During the previous academic year faculty members were asked, individually and as departments, to list those journals that they considered the most important in their disciplines and their own special areas of scholarly competence. As a result of the survey and consultation with the faculty, some journal subscriptions have been discontinued and others, identified as high priority, are being added. This process is seen as an ongoing one, to insure that the significant resources allocated for journal subscriptions-approximately one-third of the libraries' non-salary budget-is being used to meet current academic needs.
Corporate, Foundation and Government Relations
The Office of Corporate, Foundation, and Government Relations provided a full range of support services to individual and faculty groups developing proposals to advance their scholarship (9) and procure academic equipment to further their classroom teaching (6). They worked with faculty and other administrators to develop new opportunities for faculty-student research and for student scholarship opportunity (9). There were also proposals that provided for funding initiatives to benefit the larger college community, departmental curricular initiatives, and faculty leadership to national disciplinary associations (5). This office took the lead in identifying grant programs and developing proposals for funding in areas that match the highest institutional priorities, as expressed by the Board of Trustees and the President-principally through decisions taken in relation to the Fund for Excellence (5).
During 1999-2000, proposals were submitted to three national government agencies, one foreign government funded foundation, seven private foundations, four professional societies, and one private national research institute. These institutions include many of major national stature including the National Science Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the U.S. Department of Education, the Hewlett Foundation, Arthur Vining Davis Trusts, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Camille and Henry Dreyfus Foundation, and the Research Corporation. Over the next fiscal year this office plans to present requests for support for the highest academic priorities of the College to the W. M. Keck Foundation, the Henry Luce Foundation, the Clare Booth Luce Program, and the National Science Foundation, among others. Of the proposals submitted this year, seven grants have been received and six are pending.
The Science Division was awarded a highly coveted award from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute in the amount of $900,000 to support major new curricular initiatives (and assessment of these initiatives) over the next four years. The grant will facilitate curriculum development emphasizing interdisciplinary, research-based, investigative learning in biology, chemistry, biological chemistry (new major), and neuroscience through the provision of equipment, new study opportunities for faculty at specialized laboratories around the country, and expanded student summer research. The grant will also assist the College in establishing a new annual regional student research symposium, and it will provide the means to develop and implement a local science outreach program.
Athletics
Our athletic teams and individual student-athletes continue their record of positive performance. This year we won three Midwest Conference championships (men's cross-country, women's soccer, and women's swimming), and had four runner-up finishes. Grinnell continues to maintain strong programs across the entire venue of its 20 sports. Seventeen of our teams finished in the top half of the Midwest Conference, which is up from 14 during the 1998-99 campaign.
A couple of first-time accomplishments should be noted. After winning its sixth conference title of the 90's, our women's soccer team advanced to the NCAA Division III regional tournament. Our baseball team won its first-ever south division title of the league and hosted the four-team conference championship tournament.
About 40 percent of Grinnell students compete in varsity athletics. As can be imagined, some of the institution's finest students are mainstays on our squads. Our academic strength is highlighted by the fact that we led the conference in academic all-conference citations, with over 150 being named to that honor. Four of our teams, both men and women's cross country and women's and men's swim teams, were named academic All-America squads by their coaches' association.
Perhaps the best indicator of the success of our overall athletic program is the conference's all-sports race. Each finish in all sports is given a point value, which is totaled at the end of the year. Since the inception of this race in the 1980's, Grinnell has never finished lower than third-place in either men's or women's sports. This year our women placed third out of the 10-team league, maintaining the position we held last year. Our men finished second, just 2 and 1/2 points behind Ripon, in the all-sports award.
To highlight the athletic program's success, the most descriptive evaluation we can make is to note how well both our women's and men's programs fared against our conference opponents. Grinnell College has the best two combined programs compared to any other school in the league, outscoring the second-place finisher 134-129 when all sports, both men's and women's, are considered.
IV. Faculty Support and Organization
Support for Faculty Scholarship
This year a new committee, the Committee for the Support of Faculty Scholarship (CSFS), consolidated a set of tasks previously done by other committees and also instituted new programs. The goal of reorganizing this committee was to provide unified oversight of a broad range of opportunities for supporting faculty scholarship, and to develop consistent guidelines and criteria for granting this support. In its successful first year, CSFS effectively allocated substantial additional support for scholarly work.
This Committee continued the work of the previous "All-Divisions Grant Board" by reviewing and making recommendations on Harris Leave proposals and grants to support faculty scholarship. Further, CSFS took on the review of sabbatical leave and research leave proposals, formerly reviewed by the Division chairs. New programs initiated by CSFS included developing the Study Leave program and devising a system to support faculty travel beyond the expenses of attending a single annual professional meeting.
Leaves for Scholarly Work: CSFS recommended 16 sabbatical leaves, seven for a full year and nine for a single semester. As they reviewed proposals, Committee members noted that there are no guidelines for writing a sabbatical proposal, and they decided that it would be helpful to the faculty to develop such guidelines.
CSFS also reviewed seven Harris proposals and sent its recommendations to the Personnel Committee for final recommendation. Two faculty members received Harris leaves: Jenny Anger, for her proposal "Redressing Ornament: Modernism, Postmodernism, and Paul Klee," and Jonathan (Jackie) Brown, for his proposal "Sexual Selection and the Radiation of Native Hawaiian Fruit Flies." Jackie Brown has delayed his leave until 2001-02 to accommodate curricular needs in the Biology Department.
CSFS reviewed and recommended a research leave to one untenured faculty member.
Finally, CSFS developed guidelines for an experimental leave program for Associate Professors and Professors, using support from the Fund for Excellence. The goal of this new program is to allow faculty members to enhance their scholarly productivity. The program will be reviewed after several years to evaluate whether it is effective in achieving this goal. Four faculty members were awarded Study Leaves: Victoria Brown, for completion of a monograph on the early life of Jane Addams, The Education of Jane Addams; Susan Ireland, for "Immigrant Natives in Contemporary France"; Dan Kaiser, for "Family Life in Early Modern Russia"; and Alan Schrift, for completion of an anthology that surveys the major statements in twentieth-century French philosophy.
Grants to Support Scholarly Projects: The Committee awarded 35 grants to 31 faculty members during the academic year and 44 grants to 44 faculty members for summer work. Funding for these grants included $117,279.75 from the base budget plus $10,097.00 from the Shepard foreign travel fund and $117,791.00 from Noyce science funds. In making funding recommendations, CSFS studied the proposals and also the previous scholarly record of faculty members submitting proposals. The Committee found a generally high level of quality in the submitted proposals.
Faculty Travel: CSFS reviewed the guidelines for travel support for 'first' trips to professional meetings and established guidelines for applications and funding of proposals for additional professional meetings. CSFS also decided that, in making awards for additional meetings, they favored providing funding to more faculty members at a somewhat lower level of support rather than funding a smaller number of faculty members at full support. Thus, most faculty members receiving funding for additional meetings now have some out-of-pocket expenses. Some additional faculty travel support was allocated to the newly-formed Instructional Support Committee to award in support of curricular or pedagogical development and projects.
Support for Teaching and Curricular
Development
This year a new group, the Instructional Support Committee (ISC),
consolidated the roles of the Faculty Development Committee, the
Library and Bookstore Committee, the Academic Computing Committee,
and several other computing-related committees. This new committee
is charged with encouraging teaching initiatives and ensuring
the auxiliary support necessary for the successful completion
of pedagogical objectives.
The Instructional Support Committee provides
oversight for the allocation of funds granted to faculty for curricular
development. This year the ISC streamlined the process by which
faculty members apply for curricular development support from
a variety of sources. As part of this streamlining, the Committee
designed a centralized system for announcing the availability
of curricular development funds and for the application process.
ISC reviewed the faculty reports submitted to each of the committees
that received funding. The Committee endorsed continuing funding
for individual or collaborative curricular development projects
that add diversity to the curriculum, promote interdisciplinary
connections, or use new pedagogy or technology to enhance student
learning. Curricular development stipends were granted to 25
faculty, allocating a total of $26,700 from the base budget.
Additional stipends were awarded to sixteen faculty for the integration
of technology into teaching; these funds came from the College's
Mellon and Culpeper grants.
In addition to working on individual or collaborative curricular
development projects, faculty engaged in a number of other faculty
development activities:
Programs for New Faculty
This year the Deans' Office organized a mentoring program for new faculty. This began with a day-long New Faculty Orientation before the start of classes. New faculty members were given the opportunity to discuss teaching at Grinnell College with three panels of faculty members: a panel of seasoned faculty members who talked about their teaching experiences throughout their careers; a panel of second- and third-year faculty members who talked about their own early experiences of teaching at Grinnell; and a panel of faculty and student affairs staff who talked about diversity issues, especially in the classroom. This orientation was followed by a series of lunches organized for new faculty throughout the academic year to provide information and discussion on a variety of topics. In addition, each new faculty member was assigned an informal faculty mentor who met several times each semester with our new colleagues.
V. The Dean's Office
During the past year, we have had considerable turnover in our office staff. Carolyn Gustafson retired after ten years of valued service. Lorna Pollock resigned to accept a position with the new phone company, Iowa Telecom. Karla Niehus left to accept the position of Education Curator in the Faulconer Gallery, and her replacement did not stay through the academic year. During this time of transitions, we have done a considerable amount of switching around tasks in order to make our work more efficient and effective. I believe that we are close to having an excellent team assembled and that we are on track to function effectively. For example, we have recently reorganized our World Wide Web page to make it more informative and convenient for faculty and other users.
Last summer, Angie Story-Johnson assumed the position of Coordinator of Faculty Academic Support Assistants, releasing a number of faculty members from the duties of supervising the academic support offices. Angie has worked hard and effectively to provide enhanced office support to the faculty through a team-based approach, as well as strengthening technical support and training opportunities. Her initial efforts have been very successful, as indicated by the faculty members who report to me that they appreciate the substantially improved level of support in this area.