Gaining seniority (#1289)

Topics/tags: Grinnell, data, pointless, end-notable

I started at Grinnell in the fall of 1997. If I count correctly, I’ve just completed my 27th year at the College. That’s a long time. Back when I started at Grinnell, the College published an annual Academic Catalog. In addition to listing College policies, courses and their descriptions, and requirements for the major, the Academic Catalog also included supplementary information, such as a list of all the faculty and when they started at the College. In recent years, we’ve published two-year catalogs. However, if I recall correctly, they’ve dropped the supplementary information [1,2]. I’m not even sure whether they plan to continue to publish physical catalogs. Future researchers will have a much more difficult time studying the College. It makes me sad.

Why is that relevant? Well, we had many faculty move to Senior Faculty Status or Emeritus Status this year, so I find myself wondering how many active faculty senior to me remain at the College. The Academic Catalog would have helped. Perhaps I can dig one out when I’m back on campus [3,6]. I’ll write what I can without them and then come back and revise later [7].

I started with a bunch of awesome folks, many of whom are still here: Elaine Marzluff in Chemistry, Marc Chamberland in Mathematics [8], Philippe Moisan in French [9], and Jenny Anger in Art History [10]. We’ve lost a few, too. Tyler Roberts, in Religious Studies, passed away unexpectedly. Kathleen Skerett left Grinnell for opportunities elsewhere. I’m pretty sure that Minna Mahlab, director of the Science Learning Center, also started in 1997 [11]. And Kathy and Peter Jacobson might have started then, but as visitors [12].

So, who’s left who is senior to me? As I said, I’ll check the catalog later. But let’s see who I can recall.

We’ll start with the Sciences. There are four Biologists who started before me: Clark Lindgren (1992), David Campbell (1990), Vince Eckhart (1996), and Liz Queathem (1996) [14]. No non-SFS Chemists started before me. I am the most senior Computer Scientist. No Faculty-Librarians [15] started before me [16]. One Mathematician started before me: Royce Wolf (1986). There are two Physicists senior to me: Paul Tjossem (1989) and Charles Cunningham (1993). There are two Psychologists who started before me: David Lopatto (1981) and Anne Ellis (1994). There are no Statisticians who started before 1997. So eight members of the Science Division are senior to me and the other faculty who started in 1997.

Moving on to the Social Studies. No current Anthropologists, Economists, Education Faculty, or Historians started before the fall of 1997. We have two slightly-more-senior Physical Education Faculty: Andy Hamilton (1995) [17] and Tim Hollibaugh (1994). We have one Political Scientist who started earlier: Barb Trish (1990). Also one Sociologist: Susan Ferguson (1993). So four members of the Social Studies Division are senior to me.

On to the Humanities. I prefer to segment the Humanities into three groups: Non-English languages, Arts, and other humanities. The three groups share an interest in the works of humanity but arguably have different approaches. Grinnell also classifies them differently in listing elements of a liberal education.

We’ll start with Languages. No one in Chinese and Japanese who started before 1997. Nor French and Arabic. Nor German Studies. Not even Spanish. But there’s one in Russian: Todd Armstrong (1993).

On to the Arts. Art History? Nope [20]. Studio Art? Nope. Theatre, Dance, and Performance Studies? Nope. Music? Yes! John Rommerreim (1988). That’s one.

Finally, the non-Arts, non-Language (except English) humanities. Classics: Joe Cummins (1984) and Monessa Cummins (1985) [21]. English: Paula Smith (1987). The rest of these departments? Philsophy: Nope (except for Joe Cummins). Religious Studies: Nope.

All the faculty in Gender, Womens’, and Sexuality Studies have a home in another department. And all of the faculty in our concentrations have a home in another department. I may have covered everyone.

Where do we stand? Eight in Science. Four in Social Studies. Five in the Humanities. There are seventeen faculty who started before 1997—if I count correctly.

How many tenure-line faculty do we have? Some random page on the Internet says that we have 112 tenured faculty and 37 tenure-line faculty. About 150. And not all of the seventeen who are more senior than I are tenure-line. Perhaps 10% of the regular faculty are more senior.

What’s left to do? Clearly, I need to rearrange the list of faculty and present them by year hired.

1981: David Lopatto (Psychology)

1984: Joe Cummins (Classics, Philosophy)

1985: Monessa Cummins (Classics)

1986: Royce Wolf (Mathematics)

1987: Paula Smith (English)

1988: John Rommerreim (Music)

1989: Paul Tjossem (Physics)

1990: David Campbell (Biology, Environmental Science), Barbara Trish (Political Science)

1992: Clark Lindren (Biology)

1993: Todd Armstrong (Russian), Susan Ferguson (Sociology)

1994: Anne Ellis (Psychology), Tim Hollibaugh (Physical Education)

1995: Andy Hamilton (Physical Education)

1996: Vince Eckhart (Biology), Minna Mahlab (Science Learning Center), Elizabeth Queathem (Biology)

1997: Jenny Anger (Art History), Marc Chamberland (Mathematics), Kathryn Jacobson (Biology), Elaine Marzluff (Chemistry), Philippe Moisan (French and Arabic), Samuel A. Rebelsky (Computer Science),

1998: Valérie Benoist (Spanish), Raquel Greene (Russian), Kelly Herold (Russian), Peter Jacobson (Biology), Dan Reynolds (German Studies), Henry Rietz (Religious Studies), Pablo Silva (History)

1999: Stephen Andrews (English), David Harrison (French and Arabic), Mark Levandoski (Chemistry and Biological Chemistry), T. Andrew Mobley (Chemistry), Nancy Rempel-Clower (Psychology)

2000: Yvette Aparicio (Spanish), Sarah Purcell (History), J. Montgomery Roper (Anthropology), Elizabeth Trimmer (Chemistry)

2001: Jin Feng (Chinese and Japanese), Vida Praitis (Biology), Erik Simpson (English), Maria Tapias (Anthropology), Carmen Valentín (Spanish)

2002: John Fennell (Philosophy), Shuchi Kapila (English)

2003: Brigittine French (Anthropology), Christopher French (Mathematics), Matthew Kluber (Studio Art), Shonda Kuper (Statistics), Eric McIntyre (Music), Joseph Neisser (Philosophy), Karen Shuman (Mathematics)

2004: Karla Erickson (Sociology), Gabriel Espinosa (Music) [22], Kathleen Hurley (Theatre, Dance, and Performance Studies) [23], Brian Jaworski (Physical Education), Phillip Jones (Library), Elizabeth Prevost (History)

2005: Keith Brouhle (Economics), Jennifer Williams Brown (Music), Timothy Dobe (Religious Studies), Tammy Nyden (Philosophy)

That’s enough listing for now. I’m intrigued that there seems to be a jump starting in 1996 from about one person left per year to three or more people left per year. I wonder what the list will look like a few years from now.

Thinking about the people who’ve moved to SFS or Emeritus or otherwise left the role of full-time regular faculty, I’m struck by how many of the firebrands have disappeared and, more importantly, how the proportion of firebrands seems to have dropped. Who are the Katya Gibels, the Bruce Voyleses, the Alan Schrifts of the new generation [24]? Or the Bob Greys, Chris Hunters, Leslie Gregg-Jollys, and Victoria Browns? Do we just have a different generation? Different kinds of firebrands? Or is Grinnell discouraging firebrands? Certainly, there are still some, including some that I don’t necessarily agree with [25,26].

On a related note, one which I may eventually explore in more depth, what happened to Jewish faculty at Grinnell [27]? When I started, there were more than a dozen other Jewish faculty. Now I count four. Why the drop-off? And does anyone care?

Is there anything else to reflect upon? I’ve become relatively senior. Lots of people I respect and learned from have moved on. I may have some responsibility to my younger colleagues; perhaps I’ve already met that responsibility. I’ve certainly provided one kind of model for a faculty member. And I’ll continue to do so. I’ll also try to keep advocating for change [28,29]. That seems like enough.

I wonder what I’ll feel like when (if) I hit thirty years.

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Postscript: This musing started with me trying to list the more senior faculty. It took longer to like than I would have liked. But it was a good distraction. What I observed in the antepenultimate paragraph frustrates me, but that’s an issue for another time. For now, I enjoyed looking through lists of faculty names.

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[1] When I started editing the musing, I looked at the online Academic Catalog. I found a list of faculty in the 2016–17 online Academic Catalog, but it may not appear in the current catalog. The old list was in the Directories section, and I don’t see such a section in the current catalog. It also appears in the 2021–22 Academic Catalog but not the 2022-23 Academic Catalog. I wonder why it was dropped.

[2] I dug up a recent printed Catalog. I’m wrong. They still have the supplementary material.

[3] Henry Walker and John Stone saved all their catalogs, so I have a set in my office. I wonder who I’ll pass those on to [4,5].

[4] Let me know if you’d like them.

[5] to whom I’ll pass them on.

[6] Or I can use an electronic version of the Academic Catalog.

[7] Done.

[8] Formerly Mathematics and Statistics. Even more formerly Mathematics and Computer Science.

[9] Now French and Arabic.

[10] Formerly Art and Art History.

[11] Nope. Minna officially started in 1996.

[12] It appears that Kathy started in 1997, and Peter started in 1998. I can’t recall whether Kathy started in a tenure-line position.

[14] Dr. Q spent far too many years under the College’s casual model for part-time faculty. I’m glad we now have Senior Lecturer positions.

[15] I had to look up what to call those folks. I’ve always used Library Faculty.

[16] Kevin Engel started the year before I did. But he just moved to SFS.

[17] Strange. The catalog says that he started in 1997.

[18] Is there another term for Person who does research on education? Educator is too broad.

[19] I thought Kelly Herold started before I did. But the Academic Catalog says 1998. My memory must be going. And did Kelly and Raquel really start in the same year?

[20] Does Art History belong in the Arts or in the other humanities? Given that Grinnell classifies History as a Social Scientific discipline, does it belong there?

[21] Monessa is another person who is difficult to classify. She’s been at Grinnell much longer than I have. However, due to the awkwardness of Grinnell, she didn’t start in a tenure-line position until after I started. In any case, I consider her senior to me.

[22] I don’t know if Gabriel is considered a regular faculty member, but he’s been here a long time and directs the Jazz Ensemble.

[23] Kathleen is listed as a Lecturer. By now, she should be a Senior Lecturer. I hope the College gets on the ball.

[24] At one point, I thought we should have a reality TV show in which we locked Katya, Bruce, and Alan in a room and had them determine where one new tenure-line position should go. (And yes, dear colleagues, that’s a compliment.)

[25] That’s fine. I’d rather that people be willing to state and argue a point, even if it’s not a point I agree with.

[26] I also count myself among current firebrands. I’m trying to step back.

[27] I call this a related note because, in my experience, Jews tend to be more on the explicitly argumentative side.

[28] Say, for example, trying to advocate for Senior Lecturer status for more faculty.

[29] Of course, administrators now generally ignore me, so I don’t know whether there’s a point to my advocacy.

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Version 1.1 of 2024-06-10.