Peg Two

'Edilorials . . .

Progress —

Progress is a term hard to define and harder to apply. Never»
theless, several events of the past week have pointed to the
evolution of a climate more hospitable to the often agonizinz pro-
cess of student maturation. Certainly the initiation of community
action toward bettering the Grinnell environment represents pro-
grass.

The impending establishment of a Grinnell branch of the
Newton Mental Health clinic; the Faculty Committee on Student
‘Affairs’ recommendation for the elimination ot women’s hours;
lthe ad hoc committee’s suggestion for improving the mens’ resi-
\‘dence hall environment through room drawings for freshmen; and
[fir-ally, President Leggett’s position-and-progress report to the
‘Student Senate and his stated willingness to appear periodically
before that body will, when actualized, go far toward improving
ithe tenor of college life and, subsequently, that of its students.

—S. G.

The Case Against The P.E. Complex—

The administration admits to having "moved rapidly” on pre-
paring its proposal to get a federal grant for new physical education
facilities at Grinnell.

The elaborate plans for the RE. facilities were drawn up quick-
ly and quietly in a presidentially-appointed committee.

The announcement of the proposal came as a surprise to the
college community. Many students and iaculty did not ltnow how to
tvaluute the proposal.

No one seriously questions the need for better facilities at
Grinnell; the women’s gym being the outstanding ease in point. No
one questions the popularity of sports among some students at Grin~
men (70 per cent of the men students participate during any one
season). No one really even questions President Glenn Leggett's
contention that Grinnell students, usually immersed in study, prob-
ably don't get enough physical exercise.

The issue must be raised, however, whether the proposal is the
most sensible and economical way of meeting building needs

It is difficult for a community to trust a decisron about its vital
concerns when it has been left so much in the dark. it is especially
diilicult when that decision appears so obviously extravagant.

President Leggett himself admitted that the new P.E. complex
is designed to be submerged below ground level so that it will not
appear out of proportion to the rest of the buildings on campus. But
one obviously cannot hide “33,463 gross square feet" of solid
masonry.

Now that it has been determined that the old Darby Gymna-
sium will probably continue to be used for recreation and physical
education, since other uses seem architecturally impractical, why
must new gym facilities be quite so extensive. For example, three
gyms are planned in the main rectangular structure (see floor
plans on next page). Wim the building of the new facilities there
will he a possible 6 basketball courts, 5 men's locker rooms, 10 ot-
fices, 3 “secretarial spaces,” and approximately 10 to 14 teaching
stations in the building (according to Mr. John Plitsch, Director of
Intercollegiate Athletics), These are all in addition to those facili-
ties already available in Darby.

The largest gym section in the proposed building will contain
facilities for basketball, volleyball, archery and badminton. It will
also have tennis courts, smooth falls for handball, and a “cage
suspended from the ceiling for use as a golf driving range.” But
another gym of almost comparable size in the building contains al-
most identical lacillties. Darby Gym could also be used in many
of the same ways.

Sauna baths and a swimming pool tour times as large as the
present one and with both olympic metric and standard American
lengths are also included.

Proponents of the proposal say that the new facilities are nec-
essary and swear to the fact that the new building does not indicate
an overemphasis on RE. The extra classrooms can be used by
other departments, they say, yet why are not these classrooms be-
ing built in, or near, nan,

Proponents also argue that the expenditure is not beyond
Grinnell’s means since the college may only be responSlble for 25
per cent of the 2 million. Yet there is a possibility that the school
may not receive the full grant. Future costs of upkeep must also be
considered.

As a college plans its total environment it must have in broad
vision to which it can continually refer. But is Grinnell planning for
the future with vision or is it acting piecemeal, haphazardly and he-
l‘iind closed doors?

How can the proper vision be created if vital student and fat;-
ulty concerns are represented only in closed and unknown com-
mittees. What kind of community is it that does not share decisionsr

The faculty is divided over the advisability of an elaborate RE.
complex. We would imagine that the faculty and students both have
doubts as to the emphasis this new building will assume over other
needs. None of the recent constructions on campus have been
valued so high financially. The RE. complex will cost $2 million
but the fine arts building (including Roberts Theater) cost $1,~
030,000; the library, $1,140,000; the Forum, $923,000.

The recent proposal could have been submitted for better

SCARLET AND LACK
Physically Complex

Hi it...“ I'm Mr. Fina. .nd
this nmiloii .wnewi you
in baht-you sub. peril
complex.

w. it... .o erinmil all it
"Fun coy." Thlr i. where you
home to run and rally.

How did It all begin you hilt?
Well once upon a t e we had
a now uniting amid-lit . ..

 

So all tho bigwigs gal lo-
pnhnr .nd looked for lamenting
uperlucular .inl innaomlln do

Sim an; athletic team! but
Inch poor records. th- natural
thing to do w” in mm thir

yon uy um quantity Isn't it.
lama .i quality7 Well, you my
b. right but what dim out

for the campus.

glorioul complex.

motisrii Enioy . . . have fun.

Rumblings . . . Student Revolt

By Dan Bucks

The sky fell again this week. Sleet and snow-
flakes spread across the Grinnell landscape.
Many of my fellow students greet such events
with joy. Despite the obstacles to human mobility
created by this white stuff, my friends get their
aesthetic ”kicks” from viewing the snowAladen
campus.

‘1, however, wish to dissent from any universal
declaration of joy over the falling of snow. True
enough, I find the fluffy white background a dis-
tinct improvement over Grinnell gray. But the
more the snow falls, the more ! long for sum-
mertime and for what I Wish to term the "Plea-
sures of the Plains."

It is my observation that those students who de-
light most in the snowfall are those whose aesthe-
tic sensitivities have been dulled by stark, cold,

and neonelit urban environments. They know not
ihe quiet joy to he experienced from planting a
kernel of corn, cultivating the tender green
plants, and watching the small sprouts grow to
heights of 10 to 12 feet. They know not the sense
of satisfaction (and power) from looking back on
the overturned tons of earth and saying, "I
plowed that furrow.” Hence, they do not share
the loneliness that agrarians feel in the winter.

Perhaps my plea for understanding will pm
voile, as a response from the campus, only a huge
yawn. My metropolitan contemporaries do not
share the spirit that rises from the soil. If Jef-
ferson's writings on the “noble farther" had been
included in the Historical Studies sequence, my
fellow students might have listened with greater
sympathy to agrarian rumblings. But alas, stu-
dents, given tbe present state f affairs, tail to
appreciate the virtues and qualities of this corn.

 

classroom fac

es, Classrooms need renovation and professors are

Letters . . .

asking for better seminar rooms. The library is already over-
crowded with both students and books. Money should be reserved
for improving these conditions.

Expenditures for expansion of the faculty and for experimental
programs — both on campus and off — should have top priority.

President Leggett, we are sure, does have plans in the making
for meeting all the college’s building needs eventually. His ten year
fund drive assures further development. But hopetully the admin-
istration will not act alone in determining building policies in the
future.

in the meantime the college community as a whole can still
have a voice about the acceptance of the PE. proposal. If the pro—
posal is accepted by the government, but Grinnell does not act
upon it, the proposal will be withdrawn in a specified period of
time.
The entire community should evaluate the proposal. Should
Grinnell plan and build such extravagant P.E. facilities, or should
they be significantly modified.

Other building plans are in the making. it is up to the entire
community to evaluate what the tenor of life on the Grinnell cam-
pus should be now and in the future.

-— K. N.

GRINNELL coupon
Grlnnell. lnwr

Scarlet and Blue

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EDITOR . . Krystyn- Net-man

BUSINESS MANAGER susnn win
znnnn Gelber

ASSOCIATE EDITOR

Lenin on Childishneso
To The Editor:

It may he of interest to the
self styled revolutionaries of
the recent manifesto that some
years after he published “What

is to be DoneY", Lenin wrote
another political tract entitled:

U ‘Left Wing’ Childisllness
and Petty Bourgeois Men-

laiity.”
H. A. Fletcher
(Political Science)

AWS Clarifies

To The Editor:

I sympathize with the 5&an
attempts to publicize informer
tion relating to student con-
cerns, but in the case of last
week’s article describing AWS
Board discussion or advisoro
several points need to be clari-
fled.

The Board is now and will
continue to discuss positive
prospects for residents on
South campus with the goal of
ioimulating a final recommem
nation by spring vacation re
garding expectations of the
system and possible roles tor

See LETTERS on page 6