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Sludonl Newspaper of Grinnell College
Grinnell, low.

An lndependcut newspaper published weekly.
except during holidays and exnmlnatlon periods, by
[he Grinnell Commute: on sniuen: Publicallons.
Subscription rate .5000 per school year.

A New Government

Out of the turmoil of the past
few weeks, there have arisen some
good signs. Students have shown an
interest in the community, and despite
the excessiveness of their concern for
the open visitation issue, in many
cases they have seriously worked to
understand the problems involved,
and they have tried to create a live-
able situation in the dorms. One of the
areas which most captured their in-
terest and stimulated their imagina-
tions, and, perhaps, one of the most
educational benefits derived from the
experience was the formulating of
rules and regulations the hall would
accept, and the creation of judicial
councils to handle disputes.

Students have shown a genuine
interest in the procedures and
methods of government. The sit-
uation of Grinnell is perfect for en-
couraging these interests. We live in
a small community. We have here an
opportunity for experimentation in
governmental forms that we will nev-
er have again.

There are many kinds of govern-
ment. There are even many kinds in
which there can be popular elections
and degrees of freedom. The number
of students at Grinnell is small enough
so that there is no real need for a stu-
dent senate — for the many to be rep-
resented by a few. There is no reason
why there cannot be general assem-
blies in the gymnasium of all the
students. In ancient Greece, or in the
town meetings of New England this
kind of direct democracy worked well.
In this way more students could be-
come involved in the workings of stu-
dent government. Also, 5 t u d e n t 5
would not be able to complain that
they were not represented; they
would represent themselves.

Why stop here, though? We
ought to be bold innovators and
should not shy away from loftier ex»
periments and nobler constructions
than this one, A student comes to
Grinnell College for four years. Why
not experiment with four different
kinds of government? No student
would have to live under the same
system twice, and if the issues were to
become boring, at least the diversity
would be amusing, We might have a
‘direct democracy one year, an oligar-
chy the next year, a republican form
of government one year, and then per-
haps a monarchy or tyranny,

Under Jesse Macy, Grinnell Col-
lege became the first in the country

SCARLET AND BLACK

JAMES ALEXANDER Alum-r
Eduardo-Chief
KATHERINE NEWKIRK
Managing Editor
won STOAKLEY
Spam Editor
JOHN GARDNER
Anaemia Eill'for
MIMI ANDERSON
Art Editor
BRUCE sTRoM
Business Manager

poucins EARL
Circulation Manager

Jeffrey Corzatt, chiroru rrchhch, John Gordley,
Sicuhgn Grow, Alon Hart, Mcllssa Hays, Jonalhan
Jcnlnns, Mark Sablcluan,

Selmers.

lmsll Sclllnlrf, Lynne

Royal for x

to have a political science department.
Let us be the first college in the coun~
try to institute this rotating system of
government.

The college has already had ex-
perience in the shifting forms of stu—
dent government. The number of
members of the student senate seldom
remains the same for more than a
year. But this flux is only a small in-
dication of Grinnell’s great potential
for variation and modifications. Let
us combine the best qualities of a
stern rigidity and a permissive flexi-
bility. We could have a strong and
established form of government each
year, but that form could change from
year to year. Let us cast off the chains
of dull monotony; let us be free to
learn.

Students on Committees

This college is one of the most ad-
vanced in the country in providing a
curricular stability. The faculty has
been engaged in putting students on
faculty committees for a long time.
Now that the faculty has approved the
plan at their meeting, students will
soon help to establish policy on mat-
ters of curriculum. By giving students
partial responsibility for their curric-
ulum the college is protecting itself
from the disorders that have occurred
at such places as Berkeley, when stu-
dents insisted they be given credit for
courses w h o s e significance was
doubted by college administrators.

There is a pattern to the disorders
caused by the demands of students.
First they ask for social freedom, as
they have done here at Grinnell; then
they move into other areas, such as
curriculum, By putting students on
the educational policy committees,
Grinnell will likely be spared those
disorders known to Berkeley. While
attending meetings of these commit-
tees students will feel that they are
actually influencing the curriculum.
Of course, things will not change
much, for students will easily be
persuaded to the professors’ point
of View, and besides, we will proba‘
bly choose only the most responsible
students to go on the committees, and
everybody knows that responsible
people are those with the fewest in-
novative or imaginative ideas.

More good than had will result
from the college’s new policy. Stu-
dents may not do much good for the
curriculum, but it will keep them off
the streets, and when students are
doing committee work, they cannot be
having illegal open dorms.

letters to the Editor

Rolhsteln Reveal:

2nd Stump Abortion

To the Editor:

After having read only the
first four paragraphs of Mr.
Stump’s latest intellectual abor-
tlon, l have again been moved
to write in protest. Normally,
I would not become involved
whh the question of opens, but
since our journalistic Diogenes
has resorted in his tactic of
Calling in [he “universals,” I
feel that the larger issues are
worth commenting upon. Slump
makes three basic assumplions
ln llls first four paragraphs, all
of which I find questionable, to
say the least.

First, he assumes that given
freedom, the students will mis-
use it. (“How can giving cul-
prits something widely desired
by students be anything but an
Incentive to break the rules?”)
Aside from the fact that I re
sent being considered a culprit.
I find Stump’s assumption of
basic evil as the prime compo
nent of students’ souls some
what amusing, After all, is not
he a student also? One can only
lnfer that Mr. Stump knows
that he would misuse what he
considers a privilege. Perhaps
he should be sent back for four-
more years of high school un-
tll he ls adult enough to handla
responsibility.

Second, Stump assumes that
If the dorms were allowed to
establish their own degree of
opens, students will naturally
differentiate among them In
terms of “sophistication.” It
then follows that those students
who just don’t care to live in
dorms with relatively large
amounts of time for opens will
still feel pressured socially into
living in them, Two obvious
points will refute this. On the
one hand, there is presently no
mass exodus to off-campus
apartments, which are in es-
sentially the same position as
dorms with 24 hour opens. on
the other hand, limitations on
vacancies will create a perfect-
1y plausible excuse for not be-
ing in one of these dorms —
there just wasn't enough room
for everyone. Should it lhen be
argued that these people will
nevertheless feel forced to es-
tablish more dorms with more
opens? I ask, “Should the so-
cially responsible people on
campus be forced to live under
conditions imposed by such
gutless worms, people so im-
mature that they cannot even
stick by what they feel ls
right?”

”If Dr. Leggett does not
come up with a reason why
the principle holds for soclal
rules and not academic policies,
the faculty ought to ask for his
head. . .” It may surprise Ml'.
Stump that there do exist col~
19395 that do not have any
dorms. A college is not a domi-
oils for socially backward in-
fants, The halls are here be-
cause there Is no other housing
to accommodate the students
and because the Administra-
tlon had wanted to exercise
some control over students. Not
all colleges have accepted this
attitude as being inherent to
the institution. C.C.N.Y. has no
dorms; the University of
Hawaii has almost none; I

have been told that LeMoym
College, with which we have an
exchange program, has no
dorms elther. Columbia has
just done away with all limita-
tions on visitations.

In answer to Stump’s last
question, I feel that a society
in which all truth is absolute is
a society of automatons »—<
computerized carcasses that
can do nothing new because
everything is already pre~
scribed. Such narrowed living
is anathema to liberal educa-
tion, and vice versa. You who
are reading this letter might
well ponder whether you came
here for a liberal education or
just some more of that old
horsedung dogma that you are
incapable of reason and fit only
for some little cubicle in which
you will be protected from any
contamination that exists
“elsewhere" in society.

Andrew Rolhsteln

African Dancers Not

A Hollywood Show

To the Edllorl

Criticism of a enticlsm -
fn answer to Mr. Paul Roth-
mans’ reaction to Les Dnnseurs
AIrlcalns’ performance, I feel
he was expecting a sort of Ho!-
lywood type of performance on
the part of the people who were
involved. I am grateful that
these young and enthusiastic
amateurs were just what I ex-
pected even before reading the
informative programme. The
tribal dances they performed
were in existence long before
the word “Black Power" came
into being. Some of them prob-
ably go back as m as the
time the American Indian was
“the American,” period! The
audience must have felt the
same way this writer felt and
reacted to the endeavors of the
performers.

To look down one's nose at
this type of genuine and accu-
rate, it at times, not quite pro-
Iessional performance is not
necessarily a proof of being so<
phisficated or learned; it can
be a shortcoming, too.

Odette de Lecluse
(French)

Antlr ro Student Notes

Dancer Review Myths

Tn the Editor:

I was very amused and some-
what piqued that a while stu-
dent, apparently very misin-
formed and/or ignorant of
West African culture, could ele-
vate himself to the position of
African dance critic, We are
currently studying The Myih of
the Negro Past in Intercultural
House and Mr. Rothman's
judgments about Les Dameum
Africains are very similar to
those of numerous armchair
anthropologists who would con-
sign all Black culture to the
dungheap of vulgarity and in-
significance. Mr. Rothman evi-
dently has solid pie-conceptions
of What African dance should
be, and I can’t quite under-
stand where he derives his ab-
solute standard of comparison.
Is there an absolute of agility or
clumslness against which all

LETTERS ,
(Cont’d. on Page 5, Col. 1)