Reviving the summer research kickoff picnic (#1412)

Topics/tags: Grinnell, Overcommitment

Back when I was a young faculty member and first started supervising summer research projects, I was happy to learn that Grinnell’s Science Division began each summer with a potluck picnic. The Division paid for the burgers, brats, and buns, and the summer faculty, staff, and students provided the rest. Some chemists who lived down the street from Merrill Park often cooked [1]. Faculty and staff often brought their kids. Students played on the jungle gym, tossed a flying disc, or played other games. I think someone regularly brought bocce. We tried to take a group photo. A good time was had by all, or at least by most.

Picnics continued for many years. Back when I was division chair [2], it was the Science division’s chair’s responsibility to arrange and run the picnic. Lots of people helped, such as the aforementioned nearby faculty who cooked.

Fast forward to 2020. We had a pandemic. We had no on-campus summer research students. We had no picnic. In summer 2021, we didn’t have a picnic, either. I recall we were still encouraging some social distancing then. I didn’t take students in summer 2023 or 2024.

When I resumed working with summer research students in summer 2025, I asked our Academic Assistants about the summer research picnic. They knew nothing. I asked our division chair. They said, We haven’t had that in a few years. I asked the Associate Dean in charge of summer research. They said, We can look into funding. Unfortunately, we never ended up with a summer picnic.

As most of my students and colleagues know, I care about creating and supporting community. Hence, the summer research kickoff picnic, or the summer science picnic, or whatever you want to call it, falls within my list of traditions that are important to maintain. Among the many things I’ve learned over the years is that if you want something done, sometimes you have to be the one to do it.

So I started pestering the Associate Dean. Can we have money for the summer research kickoff picnic? Amazingly, if you’re enough of a pest, people may eventually say Yes, particularly if it’s a sensible request. This was. At least I think it was.

I planned to put together a committee of people to run it. But the first few people I asked said, No, I’m done with running picnics. I can understand the sentiment. One suggested that we give up cooking burgers (beef and veggie) and brats/hot dogs; they’d had a good experience buying large amounts of pulled pork for the meat eaters and Indian food for the vegetarians and people who don’t eat pork.

In any case, I failed to assemble a committee. I could have tried harder, but I got distracted by something. What? I don’t know; I had many spring activities, including teaching a class I didn’t expect to teach.

At the start of summer research, I said to myself, Screw it. I don’t need a committee. I just need myself, my son, and my research students. I picked a day. I made surveys. I distributed them. I got people to volunteer to help. (Thank you!) The day of the picnic, Eldest Son and I went to Costco to buy supplies.

I think it went well. Many people thanked me for putting it together. Honestly, other than remembering to bother the Associate Dean, it wasn’t all that much effort. I don’t mind shopping. I don’t mind bossing my research students around. Cut that fruit. Wash that table. And it was clearly worth the effort. We had more than half of the 150 summer research students. We had a bunch of faculty (and their kids and spouses). People played on the jungle gym and threw flying discs. A few students played kubb. A good time was had by most.

As I said, it was worth the effort.

Thank you to everyone who helped set up, clean up, cook, and keep things running! Thank you to the nearby faculty member who brought food to their house to cook. Thank you to everyone who brought food and drink. And thank you to everyone who joined in. Thank you also to those who originated this tradition and maintained it over the years!

Thank you especially to my son, my research students, and our AA, all of whom worked particularly hard to make it a success.

Postscript

The Associate Dean seems willing to support it again. Perhaps the Science Division Chair will resume hosting it, even though it includes students and faculty from across campus. Or maybe I’ll end up helping out. In any case, I’m taking a few notes to remember for next time.

• Buying food the day of the picnic was a good strategy. That way, I didn’t have to figure out where to store everything. It also meant that I got a somewhat more accurate count.
• I had originally asked people to respond by Friday (for a Tuesday picnic). Since I ended up deciding to buy food the day of the picnic, I extended that to Monday night. I nearly doubled the number of respondents by doing so.
• We went through about 20% more hot dogs than people indicated they would eat.
• We went through about 20% more veggie burgers than people indicated they would eat.
• We went through about the right number of beef burgers. However, see below for one issue that may have affected how many were eaten.
• Throwing cans of fizzy water in a cooler full of ice went well.
• We had too much food. Perhaps we always have too much food.
• Merrill Park East has a tiny grill [3]. It is essential to bring more grills. Even with an extra grill, as well as a helpful neighbor who brought food to their house to grill, we spent more than an hour cooking burgers. And by we, I mean the volunteer cooks. So it’s also worthwhile to remember to start cooking early. There’s also a rumor that the College owns a portable grill.
• Bring dish soap, sponges, and towels to clean the tables in advance.
• Set up a clear place to put recycling.
• Bring aluminum trays. They ended up being useful for transporting food, for serving food, and more.
• Although I ended up ignoring anything on the surveys other than the amount of food people indicated they’d eat, it’s useful to gather additional information, such as what jobs the faculty and staff are willing to do. I included set up, cook, clean up, and keep things running.

Also …

• It’s worth holding a summer picnic!
• Keep bugging the Associate Dean until they agree to fund it.
• Invite all the Science Division, not just those doing summer research.
• Invite all the summer research folk, not just those in the Science Division.

I’m sure I’ll think of other things later.

[1] Or pre-cooked, boiling the brats in beer.

[2] Sam checks his notes. I was division chair from August 2006 to August 2008. Wow! That was two decades ago. I’m old.

[3] I still think Merrill Park East is better than Merrill Park West, even though Merril Park West has a bigger grill and a cool jungle gym. In particular, Merrill Park East has many more tables as well as seating along the edges.

Version 1.0 of 2026-06-10.