h a Four SCARLET AND BLACK Fr s onuary , 96! doings: Motivation or Punishment } sr. Stole (Continued from Page 1) we expect and identity at Gnnnell as typical. San Francisco State is a com- muter college, and the average age of its students is 25 years. Many are marr ried and have been working and going to school for over the normal ioiirryear period. Unlike must of us, they control and define their daily lives While not Ill class, biit are as yet unable to determine in any way the education they know they need. San Francisco State differs from where student unrest has occurred. it is not re- oognized as a “prestige school” (like Berkeley or Columbia), and as acting president Hayakawa admits, “it should- n't be.” In a speech before the allrwhite Commonwealth Club in San Francisco last Friday, Hayakawa stated that, “San Francisco State was closer to the people and is the thing that makes possible the social mobility that makes the American dream possible.” It is the dichotomy in understanding between minority group students and Hayakawa about what it means to “be close to the people" that is an issue, with minority group students asking tor the responsibility of educating their own. While the strike has not yet shut down classes completely, class attendance ranges irom 20% to 45% depending upon the day. For instance, January 14 sta. tistics from the Campus Communications Center show that of a total of 115 classes scheduled, 43 were held — 37% — and all those were below 50% in attendance. Career—oriented business students Show highest attendance rates, while lifeor- iented drama, art and philosophy Stu- dents show the lowest according to the San Francisco Chronicle. Support from community leaders is also given to the strike and pictures of picketers in the San Francisco papers oiten reveal placards identitying such groups, but they’re rarely mentioned in news articles or analysis by reporters. Support is especially high in minority group communities such as the Mission District, a primarily Spanish-speaking and Black district. Members of these communities, pirs some parents or stu- dents and many white students were a~ mong those arrested at State on the 23rd, The arrest came when students held an un~campus rally to protest Hayaka— wa‘s ban forbidding assemblies on the campus grounds. As Hayakawa stated. “Specifically, rallies, parades, be-ins, hootenaunies, hoedowus, shivarees and all other public events likely to disturb the studious in their reading and reflec- tion are hereby forbidden on the central campus.” Unauthorized persons are also forbidden on the Campus and person with legitimate business (defined by Kaye- kawa and the police) are “expected to mnve directly to their appointed places." Plcketing is limited to the outskirts of the campus, and as nayakawa puts it, "we’ve moved them from inside the classrooms, air the campus, and out to the streets.” That's where the Strikers, student and faculty, stand as of now. and as final exams and a new semester begins, the future of San anoisco State and the kind of education it provides will be determined. By ROGER KOENKER Senior comprehensives make good business sense; the Longhorn ran dry lthe day Grinnell seniors finished the Graduate Record Exams. The thirst for knowledge and oblivion are only a iew blocks apart here. But the college does more than fill the pockets of local busi- ness, and comprehensives are more than an excuse to drink. What they do ac— complish anti what they are designed to accomplish are more problematic. Are comprehensives a vestigial institution that will follow the Junior Libeial Arts Exam to pasture? Do compreliellsives do more than place another caliper on the already cluttered skulls oi Grinneli stu- dents? The answer “no” to these ques- tions requires a good deal more thought than our “community" seems willing to devote to the subject. There are at least five aims of the test in the eyes of faculty. They may be divided into two groups as suggested by the Haveman Committee reportt 1. Evaluation (A) The test serves as a minimum standard of competence in the ma- jor field. (B) The test serves as a summary In- dicator of the level of accomplish ment of all students within a dis- cipllne. (C) The test serves as an index of departmental effectiveness and curricular success. Il. Motivation (D) The test compels students to re View and synthesize basic theory and methodology In each discl- pllne. (E) The test coerce: students to do independent work In their major field and demonstrate the ability to work with the theory and meth- ods of the discipline. By college regulation, senior compre— hensives must be divided into three parts, two of which must be written tests. This tri-partite scheme allows some flex- ibility 0i aim between sections of the test. The content, standards and admin- istration of the test is the closely guarded domain of the separate depart- ments. So for example, part I of the history comprehensives, a written exam- ination designed to test students' abili- ly to Work with selected historical docu- ments, seems to be primarily an attempt to evaluate methodological expertise (aim B). The first written exams in economics, math, psychology, physics, biology. and others, are designed to in- sure minimum student competence in the discipline. These are departments where the tests are a recognized obstacle to graduation and poor performance is punished by retesting. While there are other elements in the tests, they are constructed to be most effective at the margin of failure and may tell little or nothing about student ability above that margin. The May portion of the comprehensive is the most variable portion of the exami- nation. History comprehensivcs will re quire answers to two takeehome ques- lbions over independent reading and re- search, placing primary emphasis on study and learning outside the course structure. in biology, an oral test will be administered in the spring on indepen- dent research conduoted by majors (lure ing the second semester. The direction of the spring test seems to be toward an oral examination encouraging lndepem dent work in the field. The ambivalance of purpose inherent in die tests is the primary iactor respon‘s Sible for their failure to achieve an, stated objective. The resolution or those sometimes conflicting objectives is a necessary prerequisite for making corn. prehensives a more vital and useful part of education. As a possible solution, may 1 suggest the following general revisions: the rhy’. [hm of Grinnell education could be Shiit- ed from two years of general requires ments followed by two years or disciplit nary specialization (the present situaA tion) to one year ol general require) ments, two years of specialization an a final year of seminar and independent work in interdisciplinary areas. Seniov comprohensrves would be taken at th end of the junior year or the beginning of the senior year. For student ovaluao tinn, this timing would have two advann tages. Every student would have a bets ter opportunity to work intensively dur- ing the senior year in areas that a peared weak in the examination T; comprehensives were given before ret' Commendations were written by faculty members, presumably better, more im for-med letter could be written. Both advantages have certain obvionl motivational analogues that would makd the test more eiieotive in the sense thag it would demand more strongly soii review and synthetic understandind of the major field. Rather than trying: . to use comprehensives as a lever to: . academic change by encouraging o requiring independent study, the 172.1 scheme would place the natural emphap sis on broad-scaled independent worl during the senior year. As our exams collect dust and tho routine of the semester wears on, one might hope that next year's exams are more than one night’s good business for the Longhorn. __—.—fi THE SENATE AS SEEN BY . . . THE ADMINISTRATION } Senate (Conllnued from Page 1) represent. The result of these discussion: was that: the Senate decided that the va- cant seats should be filled by a general election or the student body. 0n the surface it might appear that the senators suddenly felt an obligation to the students they represent and thus decided that the student Indy should vote Yes! ""5 True! Wu Do have Service on I’ll promixu. To Allow you w. nnjoy your pretenco we ottm SPAGHETI’I DINNER with Salad. Garlic lucid And Coffee .. Jun ‘1035 WEDNESDAY NITE FROM I 'TIL 9 PAGLIAI'S f The Pizza People SENKI' E MmUTES THE STUDENTS to elect their own senators. In reality, this is a fallacy. The senators motives are far from noble. They have an elitist theory of government that certainly has not changed, but only has been over- ridden by their teeiings of alienation hum the student body. The elitist sona- tors still believe that they can and should elect a senator, one who they feel would be more responsible and representative to the student body. They have a strong fear of who the students might eleot. Although it may be partially "the prin- ciple of the thing," the far greater rea- son for the general election is to generate student interest. The Senate believes that the Interest created by an election is more important than who is actually eleaed. This is especially reinforced by (the fact aha/t the two newly elected sena- bors will only serve until spring vaca- tion. The rest of the senators believe that who new members can do little harm in only a month's time. The style of the Senate meeting seems representative of the senators‘ general beiieis about student government. The meeting makes an obvious farce of par- liamentary- procedum. The senators do THEMSELVES what they want, when they want to, and they don't want to have to answer to any- one about the methods they utilize. They cleverly work within the rules oi par- llamentary procedure no give an appear- ance in the minutes of representative decisions. This is not [0 say that the Grinnell Senate is made up of anarchiss and peo< p12 who just don't care about the stu< dent body. it is rather to say, that hero is a group of students, titled the Senate. who run Grimell’s student govemment and who are having somewhat of an identity crisis as an organization. Tho senators are placed in the confusing po- sitinn of representing students who are obviously apathetic. They are coming to the conclusion that the responsi i nice, purposes, and goals of student govern- ment must be their own personal ones. And thus student government is being run by a very small and special segment of the student body. Unless there is 50m. type of meaningiul change in the rela- tionship between the Senate and the stu- dent, Student government at Grinnell will continue to be an elitist government un- der the false guise of representation.