May 12, 2021
This weekend will mark the start of the second farmers market held during the pandemic. Contributed photo from 2017.
By Ben Mikek
mikekben@grinnell.edu
Grinnell’s summer-long farmers market will be opening on May 13 with many of the same COVID-19 precautions as last year. Grinnell residents will be able to purchase everything from fresh fruits and vegetables to kettle corn twice a week in Central Park.
“The excitement for market seems to be the same every year for me: it’s just seeing all of our vendors again,” said Kendra Vincent, who organizes the market for the Grinnell Chamber of Commerce. “You really get to form a bond with all of our vendors, and we don’t really see them in the off season, … so we’re really excited to see them and have access to the products they sell.”
mikekben@grinnell.edu
Grinnell College received 10,513 applications for admissions for fall 2021, a more than 30 percent increase over last year, reflecting a
national trend towards more applications to higher education institutions in a year characterized by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The increase, both at Grinnell and elsewhere, has been driven by the removal of standardized testing requirements, said Sarah Fischer, Grinnell’s director of admission.
“We’ve heard from families … that students applied to more schools and a wider range of schools because they no longer saw a test score as a possible barrier to admission,” she said. “And I think Grinnell reaped the benefits of that.”
mikekben@grinnell.edu
The Grinnell College administration is separating the Division of Student Affairs (DSA) from the academic affairs division in an effort to allow for longer-term planning. It remains unclear, though, what concrete impact the changes will have, and students involved in disciplinary processes are wondering whether the new structure will do anything to fix the problems they have encountered.
The DSA, which includes Student Health and Wellness, Campus Safety, Center for Religion, Spirituality, and Social Justice, Intercultural Affairs, Residence Life and International Student Affairs, will now be independent of the dean, who oversees academic programs and faculty, the libraries, the registrar and other academic services. The change was announced by President Anne Harris in a March 8 email.
Business in Grinnell is returning to normal, but symptoms of the pandemic linger thesandb.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from thesandb.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
mikekben@grinnell.edu
Legislation to restrict the teaching about systemic racism in Iowa public schools died before it could reach the governor, but state lawmakers have since passed a new law that restricts early voting, and are pushing ahead during a busy session with legislation to loosen gun control and fund charter schools. Grinnell’s state Representative Dave Maxwell explained his role in the legislature and his views on controversial legislation at a virtual March 6 event hosted by Grinnell’s League of Women Voters.
Grinnell’s newly elected state Senator Dawn Driscoll did not attend the event because of a family emergency, according to Marta Miller of the League of Women Voters, who moderated the event. Driscoll and Maxwell were part of a wave of Republican victories last November which resulted in majorities in both the state House (59 of 100 seats) and state Senate (32 of 50 seats). Republicans also hold the governorship, meaning they have total control over Iowa’s