The Gilrmell REPORTER

 

Page Two
..

Editorials . . .

Does the penaltysolve the problem?

The Interim Court’s recommendation of expulsion for James
“The Brow”) Stewart and ”social expulsion” for James (“Flush”)
rasdo, Ken Adelman and Barry Nemmers is, we think, much too
severe and does little to remedy the unfortunate social situation in
Cowles and some of the other men’s halls.

. A better penalty would have been that recommended by Dave
Dillion fl giving all the offenders “conduct probation.” We hope
the Faculty Committee on Student Affairs will intercede and enable
James Stewart to finish up his last three weeks and graduate from
Gl‘innell.

The problem raised by this case and by “Spring Riot" are
much deeper than Cowles “Zoo” and “The Brow;" making ex-

amples of and removing some of the most spectular Symptons won‘t
solve them.

Doing our iolo -

College newspaper staffs deal with a difficult group of readers.
If you work for a college paper, old journalistic “pros” will tell
you, “If you are not making them mad, you’re not doing your job."
Sometimes anger is the least of the reader’s sentiment against you;
more likely, the outside world conceives of you alternately as
children playing games or dangerous villans plotting dark deeds.
We take our role quite seriously though i a fact amusing to some
» and have a definite idea of what we are trying to do. We
"cover” the news at Grinnell College, yes. But we believe that real
news at Grinnell deserves a great deal more than mere cataloguing
of facts. The usual calendar of events belongs on a calendar or bul<
letin board, in mail boxes or, in the future perhaps, broadcast over
a college radio station. A college readership and students writing
for the paper demand something meatier anyway. Why take time,
space (always at a premium) and effort away from significant and
interesting topics.

At The Reporter, we consider one of our main functions to be
the story-behind-the-story. For this reason we kept asking questions
until we exposed the fire hazard of the locks on the women’s dorms,
until we had analyzed other college’s tuition plans alongside Grin-
nell’s own and until we had evaluated the future of the theatre
department here.

In a close community such as ours a readership is apt to be
very sensitive about what we print. But lest the readily defensive
reader forget, the good "digging” reporter will have access to in-
formation not available to the public’at-large and, therefore, a
greater basis for evaluating and interpreting such information.
Good "news analysis" is not taking “journalistic license” but rath-
er places issues in meaningful perspective. Isolated “facts" are
often misleading when read out of their context. The better news
papers of today 7 i.e. The New York Times, The Washington Post
and The Christian Science Monitor — all make extensive use of
analysis and interpretation of news.

The student press must also raise relevant issues and assume
a “watchdog" stance toward other segments of the college com-
munity. The paper is one of the few voices of student opinion in
a college like Grinnell where students have only very limited
power. One way The Reporter attempts to raise issuses is by making
space available for student, faculty and, hopefully, administration
views on various significant topics confronting the college. We
normally print all serious letters to the editor. Our coverage, edi-
torials, and “letters to the editor” concerning “Spring Riot” have
materially helped to bring certain aspects of campus life out in
the open so they can be meaningfully discussed. Social rules, aca-
demic regulations and curriculum; the basic questions of what are
we doing with our education here, and why, are of great concern
to us. No, we don‘t think Grinnell is perfect as it stands now, but
we are trying to help it improve by stimulating discussion and
controversy.

But we don’t think campus issues should totally consume
student interest either; bringing news and opinions from other
campuses and student concerns is specially important in an isolat-
ed community like Grinnell College. The student newspaper has
unique resources and unique access to exploration of “the college
scene” and national issues of student concern. Whenever possible
We believe we must try to relate directly to Grinnell the crucial
issues confronting the U.S. and the world today.

 

The Grinnell Reporter

(formerly the Scarlet & Elack)

Grinnell College

Grinnell, lawn SMIZ

A weekly newspaper published each Friday of
ihe college Year by me Grinnell Committee on Stu-
dull Publicauons. Represented In: national adver-
using by National Advenlslng Service, inc, College
Publishers Representative, is Ensi sum Street, New
York 22, NY, second class postage paid in orlnncll,
Iowa, Subscription rule 35m per school year. lino
bald subscriptions.

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EDITORIAL STAFF

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Harold ruson, Phyllis Murray,
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To the Editor:

In the light of widespread student
dissatisfaction with last week's Cirill‘
ncll Reporter, we, as members of the
Counnil of [louse Presidents, would
like to indicate some shortcomings of
the issue, and to suggest possible ave
nues for improvement.

In its posiu'pn as an official college
publication The Reporter should recog-
nize and assume a responsibilty for ac-
curate presentation of facts wiihin the
context of a virtually unrestricted —
and indispensable — press freedom,
Since The Reporter has the power to
influence attitudes and action of memr
hers of the college community, its staff
should recognize an obligation to use
this power constructively in promoting
rational discussion oi college issues.

Sensationalism, as evidenced by the
coverage of this year’s “Spring Riot
Night," is hardly conducive to ration-
.l discussion. Such extensive editorial»
izing within news articles themselves
contributes in no way to “objective”
reporting and only hampers productive
debate by clouding the issues and en-
couraging overly emotional reactions
and arguments.

Overemphasis on the lack of selfrre~
straint and individual responsibility in
this incident communicates the impres<
sion 7 and, we feel, ii is an erroneous
ans 7 that our student body is unable
to regulate its affairs and conduct. We
suggest that in many such cases of re-
porting there is involved a distortion
of the magnitude of the situation which
encourages damaging and incorrect im-
pressions of actual situations.

We feel that there is definite merit
in the philosophy that a school news
paper might lead, rallier than merely
reflect, student opinion. At the same
nme, we feel that editorial commentary
should be expressed in a refined and
appropriate manner, and that the first
responsibility of any leader of opinion
is to present all sides and facts of any
issue with objectivity and taste.

A second area of possible gcpual
improvement concerns the actual con<

tent at The Reporter. We recognize and
appreciate the value of dealing with
such topics oi student interest as the
Vietnam war, protest nciiviibes, and lhe
character and problems of other college
campuses. However, it is our opinion
that in allocating space and emphasis
to the coverage oi these external issue:
and events, The Reporter has some-
times failed to maintain an adequate
and balanced coverage of local affairs
and areas of more directly Grinnell
oriented student concern.

Although these aforementioned sub-
jeots may be of worthwhile interest
and thus rate inclusion in The Reporter,
we think that Grinnell news and col-
legerrelated feature stories deserve
more attention and depth than have
been accorded them in recent issues or
The Reporter, Possible stories about the
radio station, the soccer team, and an
announcement by Dean Winters were
neglected in the last issue; moreover,
student opinion might well have been
solicited on signiiicani matters at hand:
e. , Spring Riot Night, extensions of
op n dorms privileges, the reactions to
elimination of women’s hours, etc.

We do not favor any form of news-
paper censorship and we realize that n
great deal of lime and genuine effort is
put into each issue of The Reporter.
We have found regrettable, however, a
lack at certain overseeing judgment
necessary lo the best determination of
story priorities and to the general ic-
porting of evens and issues. We would
very much like to see these suggestions
considered and realized in the form of
a more respected Grinnell Reporter.

Paul Tice hill Shani

Bill Fligeltaub Harry Ruth

Mel Thompson Tom Russell

Steve McDowell Ron Cogswell

Jolm Wiles Roy Walker

Rich Weeks

Ed. Note:

The New York Peace March and nth»
er non-Grinnell activities were given
134 column inchs in the last issue as
compared to 380 inches of "Grinnell
news". Since this was a special 12 page
edition, it contained almost 100 inches
more "Grinnell news" than the total

See LETTERS on Page 4