GRINNELL COLLEGE

SCARLET 8c

THE STUDENT
NEWSPAPER

 

.LXXVi

Grinnell, Iowa, Friday. February i4 [969

No. IA

 

Ghscenty ovesi'

The State of Iowa's Attorney General,
the City of Grinnell's police force, and
Grinnell College’s administration have
made separate moves concerning the
“Playboy” demonstration of Feb. 5, and
Pterodactyl, the underground newspaper.

A four-man team from the State
Capitol, headed by Assistant Attorney
General, Lawrence seekington, and in-
cludhig Grinnell graduate Jim Hughes,
arrived in Grinnell at approximately
2:00 PM. on Tues, Feb. 11. All mem<
bers of the team are under 25 years
of age. Local Chief of Police Peters
and the college administration both
stated that they had no previous knowl-
edge of the arrival or these men.
one or the group paid a short visit
to President Leggett at approximately
2-30 informing the president of their
’ l and intentions to investigate.
They rapidly made contact with St
dents and gathered inIormation con-

cerning the demonstration and Pteru-
dactyl. ’

Upon discovering the investigator’s
presence upon campus, S.G.A. members,
including Student Coordinator Tom Trip-
lett and SGA President Tom Thomas,
distributed a mimeo to inform students
of the situation. KDlC, the college radio
station, also kept the students informed.
At this time the Attorney General’s men
had made no requests to the college for
information. Tuesday night, members of
the team were seen in the Forum,
dressed in casual clothes. Later that
night, one member of the group at-
tempted to get into the East Street Gal-
lery to see Henry Wilhelm. He was re»
fused entrance.

Wednesday, the men informed the
Dean or Students, Alice Low, that her
iiles Were to be subpoenaed, when she
initially declined to give them any in-
tonnation The group reinsed any in-

"a or the radio

station, saying they would have to wait

 

Dedn Siouss Retires

Innovator Steps Down

At a special taculty meeting last Fri-
day, Dr. James H. Stauss, dean of the
college and provost since 1960, an<
nounced his resignation effective at the
end of this academic year. His an-
nouncement came at the end of a Come
prehensivo report on educational mat-
ters, which included recommendations
ror important academic changes.

Dr. Stauss told the faculty: “Ten
years of deaning are a long time. My
reason for ending it should be clear:
that is, ten years are enough. This is
the case not only from my own stand-

oiut, but also from the college’s need
or the freshness of ideas and energy
that aging after ten years in the office
cannot adequately supply. I look for-
ward to burning the candle at one end
Ditty."

President Leggett told the Scarlet and
Black that he will appoint a successor
to Mr. Stauss from either inside or out<
side the college, although he would pre-
hr to fill it with someone who is well
acquainted with the working of the col.
lege. He has asked both iaculty and
ntudents to give him recommendations.
Speculation for Mr. Stauss’ successor as
dean currently centers around Mr. Jar
peph Wall, chairman ot the faculty, Mr.
Waldo Walker, chairman of the Science
Division, and Mr. Alan Jones, chairman
of the History Department, although al-
most any faculty member, as well as
someone with the college could become
dean. It is also possible that the positions
of dean of the college and of provost
may not be held by the same person,
dependent on who is selected as dean.

in his last report to the faculty on
academic matters Dean Stauss gave a
history of the academic changes that
have occurred in his tenure, and pre-
sented some recommendations for some
far reaching academic changes. He is
known to have recommended that Inde-
pendent Study 397-398 include only actual
library or laboratory research, and that
Independent Study 187-198 and 297-298

be created to cover other activities, such
as choir and orchestra and innovative
courses. He recommended that Social
Studies be made into a two semester
“great contemporary problems" course.
Mr. Stauss also urged a review of ott
campus study, perhaps leading to a half-
ycar “work semester.” One of Mr.
Stauss’ major recommendations was a
complete revamping of admissions pol-
icy regarding black students.

As dean and provost, Mr. Slauss has
wide responsibilities over academic mat-
ters, particularly the content of the aca-
demic program and the deaning of the
faculty. His responsibilities cover the
recruiting and rehiring of faculty, over-
all supervision of faculty standing com-
mittees, supervision over the Registrar,

srauss—
(Continued Page 4, Column 3)

“one or two days." However, a phone
conversation with Mr. Seckington and a
short interview with one of his men
who came to campus Wednesday, re-
vealed that they expect to complete the
tirii stage of their investigation by the
end of the week, when they will turn
their intormati'on over to the proper
authorities. They di t care to com-
ment on the possib es oi prosecu-
tion, the range or their probe, or the
reasons for it.

, Douglas Carlson, Assistant At-
torney General said Thursday that
the Dean of Students, Alice Low,
would be subpoenaed early next
week for information related to
their investigation. Mrs. Low de-
clined to comment on the nature
of the information requested by
the investigators, but said, “l felt
. it was Confidential and I should
not release it ‘L it a subpoena.”
The College is cooperating with
the investigators as much as possi-
ble,, but as Mrs. Low explained,
“Professionally i cannot give out
information and would not do so
without 8 court order." The Col-
lege cannot stop a law eniorcement
agency from investigating a legal
matter but can control how much
they feel free to disclose until legal
action demands more information.

Thursday, the group attempted to con<
tact the alleged demonstrators, as well
as Henry Wilhelm, and Neil Fisher.
Fisher and his Nominate Greg Schmidt
agreed to talk to them while the demon-
strators refused their “official request”
to discuss the incident. The students in-
volved are arranging for legal consul-
tation.

Also on Thursday, the Aitomey Gen—
eral‘s men released a press statement.
The only stated goal of their investiga-
tion was the Playboy protest.
The release also denied reports that
their investigation was politically in-
spired. Their only goal is to discover
it the law has been violated.

The police asked several students to

 

Implications of Demonstration

By DAVID BRYAN

Events of the past week have tended
to place the focus of the February 5
demonstration against Playboy Maga-

zine into one of two fictionalized worlds
— the overly-simpiilieo world of the cov-
erage given by the media, or the limited,
legalistic world of certain concerned
Iowa legislators and Iowa Attorney
General, Richard "turner. However, if
the demonstration’s worth is to be real-
ized on campus, the intentions of the
demonstrators and reactions of the rest
of the college community need to be
known, and, most important, the impli-
cations ot the demonstration must be
kept alive.

Participants in the demonstration have
issued two statements in all attempt to
clarify the rationale of their protest. on-
ginally, when it was learned that a re
presentative of Playboy would be on
Campus to speak, members of the We
men’s Liberation Movement and Guerril-

la Theater groups on campus discussed
action which could be taken to show
opposition to the values espoused in
Playboy. It was hoped that the question-
ing of Playboy 5 values would raise much
broader issues, however. Kit Leder, a
participant, explained the need she felt
“to defend the idea or what is supposed
to be behind a liberal arts education. We
were trying to follow the values our edu-
cation has led us to. We didn't feel antag—
onistic toward the institution, but were
dealing with issues as individuals which
are broader than the institution."

Another participant, Molly Malcolm,
expressed concern for the feeling on
campus that “any news going out is
going to be a label for Griimell.” Miss
Malcolm was interviewed and answered
phone questions on Whoradio in Des
Moines shortly roiiowing the demon-
slratlon, and was pleased with the num-

IMPLICATIIONS—
(Continued Page 4, Column l)_

Mason debits drone

come to the station to talk. All but one
declined the invitation. firedericka Nel-
son. a senior from Brooklyn, lowa was
contacted by the police at roughly 4:00 on
Monday alternoon. They would not tell.
her the reason for the Call so She went
directly to the station. A plalnclothea
man, who was in the office with the
Chief, informed her of her rights. She
had had no counsel at this time, and de-
cided at first to remain silent. Chief
Peters would not tell her “what he
wanted" until she signed a waiver of
her rights. She elected to cooperate, and
signed the waiver. Chief Peters wrote
out a confession about disrobing, asking
her to Write in certain names in her own
handwriting, which she did. After finish-
ing the contession, Chief Peters informed
Miss Nelson that he had received no
complaints, but that he would take the
confession to some attorneys to see it
there was any possibility of prosecution.
Although he refused an interview with
the 53d} on this subject, he did say that
he was merely interested if} "C ,,
the law."

The Office of the Dean of Students
contacted all students known by them
to be participants in the disrobing in
Gates Lounge by means or a letter,
copies of which were also sent to the stu-
dents’ parents. The alleged participant]
were not informed of this action until
the letters had been sent. The letter
stated, in part, that “. . . the incident
has done harm to the college's educa-
tional effort by damaging its public ro<
putation. , .your action will finally have
less impact on the problems you describe
than it will in confirming many in their
belief that appearances do count, that

INVESTIGATION—
(Continued Paga 4, Column 4)

HEFFNER AMUSED

In response to the Grinnell demonstra-
tion of February 5, Anson Mount, Public
Affairs Manager for Playboy Magazine,
has stated “that although Heffner only
reacted with mild amusement, I person<
ally found the incident hilarious. it re«
minded me of my own college days when
we used to pull parity raids." Mount then
went on to state that he was surprised
students would demonstrate against Play-
boy since Playboy is the only national
magazine that has constantly supported
the student's right to dissent. He then
asked what the demonstration was actual-
ly about. When familiarized with the stuv
dents objections to dehumanization of the
female, and exploitation of the sexual
act, Mount agreed with the dissenters and
said that the demonstration was naive
and Childish, since Playboy also has the
same objections.

“We attempt to present the personality
as well as the body of a girl. We never
print just a picture without an article.
We believe that the human body is a
beautiful rather than an obscene thing,
but that does not mean that we lorget the
person behind the body. or course we
present a man's viewpoint because we
are a man's magazine. it’s just like the
Ladies Home Journal is for women.” He
finished his remarks by saying that it
might be fun to place a copy of last
week's Pterodactyi in the State Attorney
General’s mailborn