Scarlet- and Black GRINNELL COLLEGE Grinnell. lewd A weekly newspaper published each Friday or the col~ lege year by Lila Grinnell Committee on Student Publica- tions, Laird n. Barber. chairman. Represented for notional advertising by Nnrlonal Advertising Service, Inc, College Publishers Representative, is Ens: sum Street. New York 22. N.Y. Second class pouage paid at Grinnell, Iowa. Subscription me $4.50 per school year. . .mn I-lcrzog Conrad oauin Dave pref: smron .. . BUSINESS MANAGER MANAGlNG rmron NEWS EDITOR FEATURE EDITOR . strs EDITOR AssisrANr srom‘s EDITOR . CHIEF PHOTOGRAPHER . DIcI-IANGE EDITOR . BUSINEss ASSISTANTS CIRCULATION MANAo susscmch MANAGER . Len Cnlolllley 1. Eric Jacobson Tom nnrlman . . Jelf Knlillnun elten, Mlu Mnrshnll John Pojman . Larry Rinderknecht ,Grinnell's Future 1 Sunday’s Boar’s Head, 3 traditional Christmas dinner, lrupted into a two and one half hour display of foul language and foul manners, as the men of North Campus treated their faculty guests be an unceasing volley of four-letter words in the form of inappropriate toasts and uncalledvlor chants. ‘ The guests reacted quickly and strongly to the humorless display of crudity. At first the faculty members simply concen- trated on the failings of the men at that meal. Winston King (philosophy and religion) on Monday afternoon delivered an an- gry denunci Lion of me event. However, today the 18 faculty guests delivered a letter to students which goes far beyond the Boar’s Head incident, The faculty said, ”This (the Boar’s Head) is not an isolated incident.” It continued that the dinner was but a symptom of a greater problem, that the college “cannot have its character determined by individual and group lrresponsi» bility." “The alteration of rules has brought neither maturity nor satisfaction to the students. The faculty has seen the academic life it zealously guards seriously weakened by the communal problems that it has sought to avoid. We have, in short, reached .Ihe point in the lifeof Ihis college in whch there must be a sober reconsideration of internal operations if we are to remain effec- tive as an educational institution," me faculty members stated. The letter suggested a reevaluation of the hall system, of the role of the faculty in the social area, of the time and effort given by students to college government, and of “the proper re- atlonship of the two residential campuses to each other and to the total life of the College." The letter closed, “We hope that something positive and cons structivc will follow recent eVenIs that have troubled us. The residential college necessarily restricts a student’s freedom. (Those students who find the limitations inherent in such an in4 fiitution should seek other places for their education. We be- lieve, however, that there is a value in this kind of a college, and we are determined to preserve it. We express our willing- ness to participate in a program for the reconstruction of a united college community,” James Hr Stauss, Acting President of the college, followed that letter with a statement. In that statement he noted, “The college has liberal policies pertaining to the student culture. .Yet, insofar as these take the form of rules, there is widespread disrespect of them, More importantly, there is frequent viola» tion of the premises upon which the college has approached student affairs — namely, that individual standards and prac< titles will reflect individual selfrrestraint, responsibility, and common sense.” Preoccupation with college rules has not succeeded in imv proving either the rules or the college.” “Means must be found to achieve a ‘settling down’ to the main business of me college and to behavior appropriate to the ideals of the college." We find no argument with these statements, but can only agree with them and with Peter Cohan, Cofl-lP President; Jack Chapman, SGA President and Marie Martin, AWS Board Presi- dent; who said in a joint statement, ”The communty is ailing. it is time for all factions to forget about being opponents . . I .The community has now recognized and accepted the problem as its own and seems willing to act on it. This has the potential for being the first step toward a serious appraisal of our sys- tem, the society it supports and promotes and the mechanics of communication and intervactlon in that society," The statement concluded, “We would urge an honest and critical assessment of the community so that steps may be tak- In to help us regain our equilibrium as rapidly as possible.” Before us we have the statements of all three factions, all zfiering to cooperate. We can only add our agreement and our ope that if action follows, it will be jointlaction. SCARLET AND BLACK Friday, December l). I961 Olcl S&B's Throw Colcl Light On Past Christmas Seasons By Karen Adkinson Grinnell College has been an ongoing organization for over one hundred years, but rarely do students have a sense of this continuity. Some link with the past can be gained by thumb- ing through back issues of the 8&3 for the weeks around Christmas time. Here can be seen not only the great changes in the school, but also the con» tinuing concerns. December 31, 1919 "Grinnell College will hold classes as usual during New Year’s day according to the an- nouncement of the administra» tion this morning. . . ." This move was caused by a “fuel va- cation" when Grinnell ran out of coal to heat the buildings. Smith and Mears were kept heated during the fuel break by wood supplied by a crew of (student) wood cutters. December 15, 1937 "Roads about Grinnell and vicinity are at present impas» sable, according to a statement released today by the Iowa state highway commission.” December 16, 1936 Announcement of the results Not Boar's Head But Boar's Head Dear Dr. King, The men of'CLARK HALL would like to express their come plete agreement with your let- ter condemning the actions of the men of Grinnell College at the Boar‘s Head dinner. Many have stated that this was a “mild” affair in comparison with some dinners of past years and have thereby wrongly tried to pass it off and excuse their own poor taste. Although the men of CLARK can proudly say that not one of us allowed our sense of pro- portions to become unbalanced, We feel that because we were a part of the men of the cam- pus we must express our sin— cerest apologies for the disre- spect shown to you, to the o t h e r distinguished guests, and to the student body itself. CLARK HALL Ed. Note: This letter was sent both to Winston King (re- ligion) and the 5&3. Pursell to Visu School Dr. Lyle E. Pursell, associ- ate professor of mathematics at Grinnell College, will be a “visiting scientist” on Friday (Dec. 20) at the Story City Community Sc h 0 01 in Story City. As a participant in the pro- gram, Dr. Pursell will give demonstrations, hold informal discussions, speak to science and mathematics classes, and talk to interested students in- dividually at the high school. The program. now in its fourth year, is sponsored by the Iowa Academy of Science, the State University of Iowa, and the National Science Foun- dation. - . -‘ ' of the annual freshman eti~ quette test revealed Grinnell preps to have an average score of 108 out of 200 possible points. The women‘s average was a scant 10 points higher. December 16, 1933 letter to the editor "Athletics at Grinnell are un- derestimated, not overempha- sized. Successful teams are the financial backbone of th e school, and if Grinnell is to con- tinue in operation in the face of its mounting deficit, there must be more concentrated effort . . . to bring in good high school athletes." December [6, 1933 ” ‘Sex in Soviet Russia' will be the subject of Manuel Brown's talk at tomorrow night's meeting of the Satur- day Evening Club. . ." December 10, 1943 advertisement “Have a ‘Coke’ -- Swell Work Leatherneck Returning home with a cap tured Japanese sword, the husky Marine is greeted with ‘Have a Coke,’ It’s the kind of celebration he welcomes most. At home or abroad Coca-Cola stands for ‘the pause that re- freshes’ ~ has become a sym~ hol of the American way 01 life." December 15, 1937 "The dean of women’s office continues its campaign for de— cency. But we have small doubt that truth is great and will prevail and that one of these days an ingenuous young men is going to find out how to open the quaint devices on the light switches." Winston L. King Scorns Boar's Head, Says Student Courtesy ls lacking To Everybody at Grinnelli You took the words right out of my mouth: The amazing ma- turity of Grinnell students! I have been hearing those magic words from Grinnell student leaders for a long time. But now, after attending the Boar’s Head Dinner, I know what they mean! What a splendid spirits- filled demonstration of ma- ture masculinity it was! What COURTESY and CONSIDER- ATION to trustees and faculty dining with them — a con- tinual raucous yelling and booing which made it'impos- sible for any of the cere~ monial and most of the toasts to be heard, or Christmas carols to be sung — except when the animals were feed- ing! What VIGOR — whole tables full of GROWN-UP men chanting Obscenities at the tops of their voices] What IMAGINATION ,- a tremendous variety of at least two of those vigorous four- letter words straight off the walls of men‘s washrooms and grade-school prlvies, used over and over again in all sorts of fascinating com- binations! What COURAGE rising to shout insults at col- lege officials from the safe anonymity of a buzzing crowdl It does one’s heaIt good to see such a resounding demon- stration of those qualities which make Grinnell great and her students ready for adult FREEDOM. We must have at- tained to at least a ten, maybe even a twelveryear old level of conduct on that occasion. Fif- tee more years of development at this rate will surely result in some sort of super-maturity. And let’s wait for another Boar’s Head dinner that long, too! Winston L._ King (religion) P.S. We’re sorry that those really mature junior women who heard the “program" from under the HeadrTable plat; form, after “hiding" there for four hours, couldn’t have heard it all, but were just able to get out in time to have their pic- tures taken ‘vith the grown- ups. Adult Problem N To the editorl Both the, Boar's Head Din- ner and Winston King’s angry letter “to everybody at Grin- nell" manifest frustration over a situation which, despite much well meant conversation, has not found a workable solu- tion. The men of Grinnell want the right to govern dremselves as “grown ups", yet childishly (if amusingly) stuck out their tongues at those College lead- ers who must ultimately de- cide whether we are responsi» ble enough to behave without their supervision. Dr. King Wants mature Grin- nell students, yet can do no eeds Compromise our adolescent fannies. The students won’t behave until they're treated as adults, The administration Won't treat stu- dents like adults until they be- have. - This situation has been the topic for heated debates bee tween administration, faculty, and student leaders. but no workable compromise has emerged, or seems pending. A compromise is necessary. Now, instead of planning for the future and looking away from the very real ugliness of the Boar‘s Head and of Dr. King’s letter, let us face and work with the contemporary problem. everybody at Grin- nell. better than swat us angrily on Donne Hollinl