Grinnell College President Anne Harris sits in her office Oct. 8, 2021, during an interview with the Associated Press. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)
Iowa’s prestigious Grinnell College this fall has seen a rash of racist and white supremacist graffiti on campus signs and vehicles, with community members also reporting slurs shouted from moving vehicles, prompting the campus and city to issue statements, increase security and call on the public for help.
“Anti-Black speech and actions cause harm to Black students, faculty, and staff, and directly challenge Grinnell College’s values,” according to a statement last week from Grinnell President Anne Harris and Interim Vice President for Diversity and Inclusion Marc Reed. “They spread division, fear, and hate and damage the culture we strive to create on campus, one that supports, includes, and fosters a feeling of safety and belonging.”
Although the college hasn’t publicly detailed the acts of racism and harassment, some community members have posted photos on social media depicting racial slurs written on campus property.
The Scarlet & Black — Grinnell’s student newspaper — covered a Black Student Union call to action Oct. 13, at which students listed demands, including: more cameras on campus; legal accountability for hate crimes; self-defense training for Black students; mental health and wellness resources; recovery days for those who’ve experienced racial trauma; and paid time off for Black student workers after racist attacks.
‘One of its most diverse’
The 176-year-old, highly-selective, top-ranked private liberal arts college boasts about 1,700 students in the town of Grinnell, which reported a population of about 9,000 in 2020. In U.S. News & World Report’s 2022-23 best college rankings, Grinnell tied for No. 15 among national liberal arts colleges and No. 6 for “best undergraduate teaching.” That was down from 2019, when Grinnell tied for No. 11 among national liberal arts college and No. 2 for best undergraduate teaching.
In August, the college announced it was welcoming “one of its most diverse, highly-qualified classes in history.”
“Grinnell’s commitment to recruiting highly qualified students from populations that have been historically underrepresented in higher education has led to increased enrollment of BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) students,” according to a fall enrollment news release.
Among the first-year class of 441 new students, 29 percent identified as “domestic BIPOC students, including the largest proportion of Latinx students of any entering class in Grinnell’s history,” according to Grinnell. BIPOC stands for (Black, Indigenous and people of color. Looking at its total student population, 19 percent identify as international students and 24 identify as people of color, according to Grinnell.
‘We call on the citizens of Grinnell’
In the statement denouncing recent acts of racism, Harris and Reed said, “Black students, faculty and staff are justifiably feeling and expressing anger, outrage, frustration, emotional exhaustion, disappointment, fear, and sadness. Many are concerned about their personal safety. Others face daily challenges in the form of surveillance and microaggressions.”
Harris and Reed announced steps the campus and community are taking including a neighborhood watch; transportation and escorts; installed cameras; and more outdoor lighting.
“The college is working to immediately install additional temporary lighting in locations where many of these incidents have occurred,” according to the message.
The next day, the student newspaper reported, “14 vehicles vandalized among a series of other recent racist incidents at Grinnell.”
Three weeks earlier, on Sept. 22, the Grinnell Police Department reported participating in a “community partners meeting” with Grinnell College involving a “discussion on race-based student harassment on and off campus.”
With incidents continuing, Mayor Dan Agnew on Oct. 16 issued a joint statement with Harris “about racist harassment in Grinnell.”
“We call on the citizens of Grinnell to mobilize against the acts of racist harassment that continue to happen in the city of Grinnell and the campus of Grinnell College,” according to the joint statement. “Black citizens, students, and community members are being harassed, and we need your help; we need our community to step up and make this harassment stop.”
They announced the college is working with local law enforcement to “hold those responsible accountable.” And they provided actionable steps community members can take to help, including calling police and photographing the license plates of offenders.
“There is more, longer-term work to be done,” according to the message. “To make a difference, we must all act together. We ask you to think of what motivates you — human dignity, neighborliness, what it means to live in Grinnell — and to act on that for the good of this community and its citizens.:
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