During the annual spring meeting of the Board of Trustees, administration provided Board members with updates on the work to explore the potential to selectively expand the student dining union by including a limited number of additional student positions. The briefing for the Board included a summary of discussions to date with representatives of the Union of Grinnell Student Dining Workers (UGSDW). After thorough discussion, the Board determined that given the complexity of the issues, it needed more time to deliberate the implications of student union expansion. Consequently, the Board unanimously voted on a motion that directed the administration to suspend talks over voluntary selective expansion of the UGSDW bargaining unit pending further discussion by the Board at its October 2019 meeting. Future updates related to student dining union expansion matters will be noted in weekly campus memos and posted on the Student Unionization website, as appropriate.

The Faulconer Gallery is changing its name this summer to the Grinnell College Museum of Art.

"For many years now, we have functioned as a museum," says  Lesley Wright, director of the gallery and of the museum. "We have a growing collection. We have exhibitions. We have a deep set of programs. But people don't think of us as a museum."  For some, a gallery means a smaller space or a space only for exhibitions; for others, it's a commercial place to buy artwork. Resolving that confusion was one reason for the name change, Wright says.  The name change also celebrates Faulconer's 20th anniversary. 

The name Faulconer Gallery will be retained for the exhibition space, which honors the intentions of Vernon '61 and Amy Hamamoto '59 Faulconer when they named it.  The Grinnell College Museum of Art name will also be added to the Print and Drawing Study Room, located in Burling Library. The print room, which was opened in 1983 and houses the College's collection of works on paper, has been a part of Faulconer Gallery since 1999.  The Faulconer Gallery logo will be retired this summer. New signs, print materials, and a website will celebrate the new name and look.

Episode 12 of All Things Grinnell is available now. Ben Binversie '17 talks with scholars of native studies about important issues facing Indigenous people throughout the United States, from the effect of oil booms on people and land to misrepresentation in literature. Sebastian Braun, director of the American Indian studies program at Iowa State University, discusses the Bakken oil boom and the impact it's had on native and non-native people and the environment based on his time at the Fort Berthold Reservation in North Dakota. Gina Caison, assistant professor of English at Georgia State University, talks with Ben about the often overlooked role of indigenous people in the South and how focusing on that history impacts contemporary native peoples. In case you missed the concert, check out the short story on Noura Mint Seymali, the Mauritanian musical emissary who performed in Herrick Chapel on April 3. You can listen and download the podcast on iTunes , Spotify , and  Google Play , or wherever you listen to podcasts.