SCARLET AND BLACK Friday, September is. i9o2 Scarlei and Black GRINNELL COLLEGE Grinnelli Iowa a weekly newspaper published each )mr in the ciuiiicii Coiumiitee on student Piitili Ailtlrizw hicu , iuiii. ileiiiesontod tor uitiiiuil adie'rlisiiiu by N ioiial Aih' rnc Cnl riibiishci itch ieseii no. .1 Madison ;\\e., New 'roi i’l‘d as smalld cl. s er at the Post at at c iiiiiei under the ac: oi ll ich a. tow. Subscription iaie slam per school isine saiilre. liairicld iiiick sei Jim George iiiy sin riiiilyii ithaiii tihlciiieier .i , hidimiii , one hhu: - . Le'ii C‘ilndncy Jim llei Ste B. leebe li Liieiiluii iiie rsooue. non 'l'uiue .liulv T oer limb eiiiie siic luluilce Ass .iiit iiiliiaiiu D'eillliie Editor ., Soot-ls isdii » Copy Editoi Assisiait t'oi moor Editors . c uiaiioii Min lau'oul. cit-i nice i di‘lti. Manager . . . ct mil haunt, has ess Assistants .. Uslie brush-lieu Transition-end in sight? A good academic challenge." “Lite". October 3. 1960 “a Grilmell education is ii good education.m 1959 Admissions brochuie . a spirit oi iiee inquiry, a student culture that respects learning and is concerned about values . . . a lively spiiit oi discussion , These aie the elements that dif- iercntiate great colleges iroiii indiiierent ones" 1952 President Howard B. Bowel-l, Pall, Poi as long as we can remember Griunell has been ’ill transi— ton," ti ing to deiiue itselt in that intangible. limbo between good” and great." We have been growing up at a college. which also is painiully leaving adolescence The campus. once blemished with monstrous Victor in buildings, has been made handsome annually with tons or Clear _ l cement, while the academic curriculum has done this. lops around us. But the larger Gl'lnnell, the Gi-innell we know when we arc to! conducting tours ior prospective Meais freshmen or sitting ii historical i udies. is still cozilv and saielv ”good." ' We are bigger, smarter. richer but still “good” And the sense hilt Griimell is exciting or stimulating comes like intermittent rumbling irom a complacency so seldom disturbed. in his Convocation address President Bowen states . iiics and p‘nctlcal proposals for completing our long transitio He describes a “great" college, but this is not your college or mine— at least not yet. . Ii Grinnell is to revitalize the liberal arts pictics so cinptiiy chanted. in America academia, oui college must change And the realities oi this change demand a diiierciit sort oi Griiiuell irom ilie one we e known, The wca nesses oi American higher education which Presir nt Bowen outlines—narrow admissions critera. frenzied‘college ie, Lad examnation procedures and grade—boundingeare not wholly the fault at the colleges themselves The national environment makes demands on higher educae iion. and Prr. dent Bowen's goals oi “contemplative study" and ‘fruittul discussion" olten lose in the pinch, Wc tyrannize through numbers because men are too otten judged in quantitative terms, Students play the glade-houndjllg game because it satiatcs oui compulsive ambition The Presidents ‘scholurlv leisiiie implies o mature sense oi balance whilc most oi Ainciican “10“ mg up i: a iienized quest for concrete. evidence at secuiizti President Bowen’s “blend oi American and European edl! , cation" is is irom the iamiliar res ohsc colleges make to am societys motives. Under the Piesidciit's blucpiiiit Gr'lllell would stand as a oi oi society and, should this blueprint be implemented Glimiell will attrnc't the kind oi student making a similar turn away ironi majority values. The college as critic also impiics the student as critic. and true scholarship demands students who want to lca.u loi the pleasure oi tla act itseli. it will take a lot oi boot stiap pulling ‘ior press at G mnelliaus to handle the challenges oi the new Grilmcll. This ycai's resurgence oi pl'epping's playiul banality ls'hal‘dly conductive to "d student cultul'P that respect? 1? ing and earned about values. and i wonder it the uppercla lt‘lml'who cllnfi i-o hall spirit and gioupishuess would not thalic at a Glmnell defined in telms 01' Pl i We might have ieaiiy olitstandlnu athletic teams at the aim! 1311- out- of- trail tlon but only lll'lybe. Small atl‘ilpti‘s might even get the same iusli ii om admissions as eve. bodv else. Can we be as cheiitable about losing games with aih .tr. who come bv Coins cidence as we are eager to win with those who are lieie now through piecise calculation The admiiiistiation and iacultv must assume uupieccdented leadership in implementing the Piesidents stated goals Some poor . e may get hurt. The realities oi change are hard. The Presidcn s ploposals reach into the Silallf’f‘ chemistl'v that form: a ColleEC’a atmosphere Will this college. into which we hare nil pouied so much oi ouisclve . iinallv ieiiitc or will we slip into .i lessei iole as most distinguished member oi the lowa Piotccliie League toi- Spherieal Students? Only through etl‘ort at this crucial moment will Grinnell accomplish the transition irom “good" to “great." “Gl‘il‘mell: by Larry Snlucker 5&8 Managing: Editor Editors note—This is the i st in a series oi columns to be authored by members oi the Social Coordinating Committee and which will deal uith social activities on campus. it has been hard toi us to keep irom noticing the active par— t’ ipation bv studcnts in all ' the social as well as academic activities that have been held sin . our semester began. Roberts Theatci has been packed ior almost every movie shown. Bar-her Plaza was extremely crowded tor a New Student Days square dance and tor the iieshman mixer. These aie only a tow instances oi the many times so in that we have had a social success We are not putting ouisrlves on our back. The activitics pioe vided have not ditiered irom tli e ot the previous years. What we are proud oi is that apparently more students have taken time out iroiii their necessary studying to enjuy themselves at a social iniictioii. The purpose oi our committee is to piovide the tum-turns and attempt to build up cntiiiisiasm ior them. They do, however. :v hope that you will continue your record. that , :aking time to take time off. depend upon your participation We sincere— u “'lll persist in Social Coorilinalillg Cammillee .- . To the iiditor We're dow in the about lllc 0b ’DLIS but unsltllc (SIC) fur-fetched l -Ielchbtl theme oi Quad Opens; tiicreioic, We. The Women oi Loose 13rd hcrchy declare that it is ion to l'evollicild we are revoltinsl Rs perceptive college student. v,c arc aware at certain pi-coc cupations which prcy upon the minds (mid bodicsl oi thosc inst emerging ii-om puberty: consequently, in order to till the demands oi the students on this campus. we wish to announce that we will provide the dirtiest theme oi the evening l'or Quad Opeussl and we most cordially invite you to come and visit us. H00 HAAi s All The Women of Loose 3rd (lumps To the Editor Last Saturday we watched one of the water rights which have plagucd North campus each weekend this tall We were ini tially disturbed .by the noise and vulgarity oi these, but were even more surprised at their character A FEW YEARS back a water fight arose spontaneously and usually occurred only two or three times in the spring at the year. Many people were annoys ed then, as now, but is was [3057 sible to rationalize this behavior as the “college boys’” release t'i-oni pressures of a long winter at Grinncll. Then a large number oi the men on North campus either participated or at least crawled out oi the sack to watch. Now these displays involve from one to two dozen men while the rest oi North campus turns an- grily in bed and mutters: “1:30 and they're still at it ” There are several perspectives irem which these weekly events may be viewed. One is the irri— tation to those in slumber both in and out of the college com. munity. The ioreboding sounds oi mcn from one hall discuss» ing perspicuously the diet oi anothcr loi'ewarnssa tired com» munity oi several hours oi riot mg. This is iollowed by a wasle~ basket pop band and a crowd oi niaie cheerleaders demonstrating their command tor lock or Com— mand) oi llle vernacular. Even more distu hing in these recent outbursts is the evi- dcnrc oi a malady which seems to afflict. Grinnell. For— this was limited to k g and loggia love but now this sum compulsiveiiess seems to be apparent in this type oi “hall Spirit." None oi these men seemed to derive much enjoyment irom their game last Saturday, much as one drinks not ior the taste oi the liouo- or the quiet re. laxatioii derived irom it but to become completely incbriated in as short a time as possible, The sport or the water-fight has disappeared. While other resideiiccs of North campus have expended their Saturday energy and learned that they m'llst wait. patiently ior Sunday, this group moves ohtuseiy into their mes chanical game. They fill their buckets with water. group down the loggia until they find another group with the same aimless anxiety, and both line up ior the first heave, Then tiicv return to the same line again and again to heave wa- ter at each other. . As they trot bacli ior ienlls. beating on their tin cans. you hear such remarks a . "i can be unsophis cated ii i uanti" and "Won't it be great7 all all have double pneunioi a in the morning." Scorn ior this activity ma not be d"et‘ted at "imma— ture ii-cshineii. ior this crew is composed oi both the shin soph— oniores and "Sophisticated scu— io First ' Roundtab/e ' did Convocation tall! Too often a college newspaper ti‘eills of everv incident of undorgruduatc tile as a kind oi Laotian crisis by squeezing the in. iormulity oi college into a traditional news format. conceived by the Scarlet and Black as a device tor cs iniormaiiy and as a sounding board ior table" w' ~ reporting pertinent ' studentsfaculty opinion. thistory), Peter Cohan, Cha rl es Bruce ”The Round- Alan Jones Nadia Cleaver Porter, (English). Larry siuucker, Ramzy and Ruth Gruenewald were participants this week. Jim Hatfield acted as siblc tor recording. llatrield: rll simply begin by thioiviiig out the general qucse Lion' en‘s address relate to the iuture Grinucil? Sniuckeri in tact, I’d like to know whether Grinnell has been in transition the past iour years or just me, Jones The President's speech recogn . lots at rapid change in the past years, and rd real— ly hoped that he might tell us its lime to relax and Settle down a bit . . just settle down and read our book Cleaver; It’s a real pleasure to me that he might well have said that and didn‘t, i was be. ginning to fear the college would think it had it made. Hatiield: Do you think the students at Grinnell can accept the idea oi scholarship ior scholarship’s sake without the weekly reminder oi grades? Cleaver: Re man talks about the counterv iling role oi edur cation in society. It there is an undesirable trend, the educa~ iional system should buck it There is no wav to gauge the readiness of our students ior these ideas except by trying them name We have to be some. what pactical Will Grinnell cease to attract the many good students who conceive oi educzls tion, at least partly. in terms oi practical educalloil? Cleaver: Practical education” rm not so sure I understand that, ' Ramz moderator. i mean. will the pro- poscd Gr uell approach got its students into graduate schools. law schools and so on - Porter: Griiiiiell's reputation as a solid educational institution would insure success on that score. I helicvc President Bow- en spoketo this point in his address. Jones. Is this such a revolu- tionary “new system" at all? There scenis to be the develops ment in the President's speech oi certain tendencies that are here already The really com— plicated suggestion is the 96 hour graduation requirement and this. paradoxically, is a kind oi numbers game itseli. Hatfield: Do you think the iaculty is happy with the type oi student that is coming to Grinnelll move as a _ i There is a Latin proverb that : says. “Liber non est qui noii allqunlldo iiihil agit." (He is not irec who does not do nothing once in a while.) The siglitfie cancc ot these ueekend octiiilies is that they are not “doing nothing" as one might say oi earlier riots. Craig Henderson iieward Dunn and Mike Hol‘OWitz was how doe: President. Bow- . , leSI30n~ The Editor Cleave i speak im only one "iaculty; but by and large, yes . But i wish there were more mavericks . . . interesting people people who weren‘t willing to accept passively all the rules of the dorm and all the rules of evel thing. Gruenewnlfl: In this connec- tion I see a feat need to re- vamp the admissions policy, to have detailed interviews with every applicant The admissions counselors must be sensitive to the values implicit in the con- vocation address. Hatfield: Many of us have wondered what President Bow- en’s address implies for prep— ping. .lones: Part ot prepping prob- lems are a result of many none preppel-s moving out of the halls. Smucker: What about the a - ministration? I’ve seen very 1 tie leadership in four years on this very issue. Gruenewaid: You can't pass the problem to a higher author- ity Jones: The problem of the ad» ministration is that they have allowed gieat student responsi— bility in the hopes that what? that iesnonsihi ty would mature one. And th. hasn't happened. apparently. Most oi the faculty would say, away \ Hi the tlaninable thing! Ci 'Ive. Any orientation pro» Fran} implies a situation where ireshuien are not peel-s . , . bul‘ somehow still little ds who have to be treated diiierently from the rest oi mankind. Pei“ sonally. i find it pretty darn hard to talk academics to a per son wearine a prep hat. harm. The maiority seem to want it s. . Porte Or will accept it. Coho Could there be a cor- relation between Grinnell's gen- erally prohibitive rules. which keep the student in a basically adolescent situation, and prep» pins as an' adolescent venture. Cleaver: Actually, these pubs erty rites, like prepping. are relevant to the President’s speech. We can't go on to a system that presupposes matur- ity as long as the other remains. i think ,this pseudosfralernity system is far [r m the original intent of the Grinnell residence arrangement. PETER COHON AND LARRY SlVlUCKER watch and listen 215 Allan Jones (history) becomes expansive about the President‘s addres‘