he. Two lCAR-LlT’ AND ILACK PaulRoberis Roberts Rules Of Disorder College, as admissions oflicers are fond of saying at college night dinners, is a search. My ed- ucation. too, is a search. My search is for a T- equare, a right angle. i needed to be ahle to draw it straight line at right angles to a piece at paper to plan the current issue of the 553. We generally ‘ have printed forms for that purpose — terms that we import trim a world where right angles and straight lines are not alien. "John," I said to my editor. “John. where is the T-square?” “T-square7" he said lncredlllously. “We don’t have a T~square. What do you need a T—square for?" "For page layout," “Oh, my God, are we cut or those printed terms that we import trom a world where right angles and straight lines are not alien?" Anyway, he directed me to the art building. I found one of the art professors standing bliss- tully in north light carefully studying a painting he was working on. It looked for all the world like therapy for a manic depressive. Seeing me, he shouted, "Quick, over here. i need your hand." Well, of course I rushed forward, hand extend- ed. “on, those bony lingers, the deathlike appear— ance or them. Pei-loot.” I was flattered. “Here, put your hand here and then move it slowly down the canvas to about here.” i tried. “You boob, you stupid. muddlehended, in- sensitive moron. Look What you did, you moved it too far to the lett." l was busy wiping my paint- covered hand on a piece of scrap canvas and didn’t catch the next series of names he called me. Fi~ nally, when he had calmed to the quiet stammering stage I managed to squeeze in . . . “Do you hsve a T-sqllare, a right angle?" He looked really hurt. "A T-square, a right angle? You jerk. The Grinnell art department doesn't use T—squares or right angles. Those are tor straight lines and earners and nothing like that appears here." As I left, disappomted, he was lovingly studying the scrap or canvas 1 had wiped my hands on. My next stop was the science buildingr “Sure," said ll friendly, acid-stained met, “We have lots of Trsquares, Follow me." I followed him through a labyrinth of rooms tilled with test tubes, wires, scales and pale, hungry looking students. “What are those pale, hungry-looking students?” I risked. / “Oh those,” he laughed. "Some chem students of mine who’ve been trying to find unknowns in distilled water for three weeks." He laughed hideous- ly. “Here they are. Now you can borrow this one . . . wait, that only has an error or 9.7% at srp. This one is a little better, 6.5%, but that’s still not Scarlet and Black GIINNELL COLLEGE Grlnoell. I-wl ‘@ good. This one . . . that‘s not good enough. I know we have a good one here somewhere r . . this one, no, maybe this one . . “Wait. why cant i just take one of those with the DOESO‘EOOd ac- curacy?" A weekly newspaper published each Friday or the col- lege year by the Grit-inch committee on Student Yubllcar irons. Represented [in national advertising by Nationil Ad- vertising service, InC., College publishers Reprcslnullve, ls hist 50th Street, New York 22, in. Second ciiss nost- axe pnid st Grinnell, iowu. subscription rate $5.110 per school year. isoo pald subscriptions . John wort numiu ruson bob iiodicnie, Sue with Steve c-sey Tom H-nman sir. Jay , W, Chlndler Mohnm Bunny Hunt KIM Adkinson Axelrod, Janice B-nl. EDUOR .. uusiNcss MANAGER ASSOCIATE Eon-0x5 scours EDITOR . rim) PHOTOGRAPHER xxcnwcs EDIIOR . CIRCULA'HON MANAGER r SPECIAL con ASSISTANT SPL‘UAL ASSISTANT m m ”mittens 1 non , ulen Arbitron, sue lnrqulsl, chk chtdy, Pun cl-y, Lynn nenxier, Amie rurrer, .Ilfll llermz. sue Johnson, Ted Lem-ire, Kris lell, cunnle Simon, wmie Sunxel, Don Winney John rhilllpi, Steve shender, Henry Wilhelm Ken Clymcr, Don iruriscii, Nick Nonls, Jlrn nsmsey. Shlro’l Sheumlk PIlII mpg Curll ougin, neien nolsclnw, Cnrol Jensen, Amy kossmnn. xuren suinnier, Ellen Wernlck Minn Mid a. Susi-n will PHOTOGRAPHERS scours REPORTERS .. COPY s'mrr nuslNrss srA r “Because they don’t draw right angles. We couldn’t let those out of the building. We have our rep- utation. I’m sorry, we don't have one you can use." He laughed again, much like Boris Karloff did in The Man Who Wouldn't Died My next stop, a mistake tram the start, was the bookstore. I pllt all my books on the shelves, checked to see I had my own check book, and round out they could order 8 "Esquare but they hate to order less than a gross. They put my name on a waiting list and it 143 people more want T-squares, then I've got it made. So if the lines in the 5&1? look a little crooked and not square this week, you know why. There are no Trsquares, no right angles on Grinnell campus. Editor Gets leiier Oil 883 Criticism To the Editor: It has come to my attention lllul the ssh upset some or its readers last week by running the headline “God Squad" above a story about the election or new oiiiccrs by the Board of Religion. 1 am constantly amazed that people are able to search out and comment on the least important items found in the 5&3. The paper can advocate student irrcsponsi hiiity. use dirty words, or pull sundry blatant maneuvers and cause less concern than the latest student Placement Bulletin, not put something in the use per that people don’t have to think nhout belol'c concluding it is sacrilcgious, and the paper re ccivcs just what might be ex- pccted -— a bunch ot thoughtless criticism. Jolill Wolt rs. l have lust learned that laSl week’s Ski] also aroused the sensitivities or the second most holy group on campus. Ihe athletes. And so the 5&3 escitcs llle intellect with another nionieii» tous problcin. God, sort had lower hits last week than the basebnil teunii is it possible that the' r day.Apl-ll!0. ms. Pass-Fail We would like to suggest that the faculty, admini- stration, and students of Grinnell College do something original and work toward establishment of a wide« ranging pass~fail grading system. The system is self explanatory; a student would be given one of two grades — pass or fail. This would be the penultimate in grading plans and would supplant the many varieties of number and letter systems. The final step, of course, would be no grades, but it seems that you just don’t get your $2,600 worth if you don’t get a card with some grade notation on it. Carleton has recently extended a pass-fail system to “courses for which the conventional grading system might be deemed inappropriate.” This would include courses like creative writing, studio art, and advanced seminars. Earlier, Carleton had given (and still gives) its students the option of taking one course per semester on the pass-fail plan. This system is designed to allow students to take courses outside their majors without fear of hurting their grade-point averages. When Carleton instituted the pass-fail system, concerned people there saw growing out of the normal letter grading system, a “social estrangement which . resulted from the excessive competition for grades in course work," One faculty member felt that the new system was potentially of special benefit to “a small, somewhat geographically isolated, residential college like Carleton (which can‘t be more isolated than Grinnell) in relieving that “social estrangementr” While it may be argued that Grinnell needn’t fol- low Carleton in every step it takes, it is not pleasant that a school which purports to be a leading liberal arts college in the country generally waits for other schools to do the experimenting in matters of higher import than liberal arts examinations for juniors. Carleton is not the only school experimenting with pass-fail, Washington University in St. Louis is studying the possibilities of such a plan San Jose State in California offers its freshmen a modified rio-grade tutorial system. The California Institute of Technology has established a pass-fail system for freshmen to ease freshman transition into college life. We would like to suggest that the established sys- tem of grade-giving is proving a big drawback in every area except, perhaps, in a student’s major. Retention of the standard grading system for studentsY areas of coil- centration should satisfy those who argue that the new system might endanger admission into graduate school, since a student’s major grades are presumably the most important part of his transcript. It has been mentioned, too, that a pass-fail system might lessen motivation, Unfortunately, the present system stresses motivation for grade-grabbing rather than for learning a subject well because it is a subject the students want to learn, As a Carleton professor noted, with the establish- ment of a pass-fail grading system, “the pressure to obtain the reward of a better grade might well be re- placed by the challenge of an opportunity to master or to sample as much of the knowable as one is able, while probing, as a genuine community of scholars, more .dceply and more widely into unknown areas. This would be a refreshing environment in which to live," The drawbacks of the present system become more apparent as mounting enrollments throughout the coun» try cause increased competition that may not be ap— parent to administrators in their lofty positions or to l the students who have no choice but ’to accept the com- petition cr lose the status that their hard-fought-for 700 plus board scores gave them. Our proposal, then, would be for Grinnell to set up a pass-fail grading system for all subjects except those in a student's major. We understand that informal di cussion among faculty members on the matter of grad- ing systems is perennial; we would urge formal dis— icussions by faculty, administration, and students. It is time to work out a realistic means of imple- ;menting a pass-fail grading system, and there is no reason why Grinnell shouldn’t. be a leader in this area. ' 1W.