Page Two

SCARLET AND BLACK

Thursday May 29, I969

 

EDITORIALS

Preface to the Last Edition

This week’s 5&3 is not Intended to be a newspaper. The content is not news as
I oh, but a presentation of student problems, concerns, values, and attitudes. The
primary function of this publication is to help clarify and establish the meaning and
Implications of commencement for the student, to those who are not intimately ln<
yolved in the college situation.

People were invited to write what they wished concerning their Grinnell expe-
rience or particularly important aspects of their lives in order to convey the “char-
acter” of Grinnell students (this does not imply one character). Thus there are only
two news stories, one concerning the faculty’s latest acions concerning ROTC, and
the trial of those involved in the Playboy demonstration. These are included not
only for their news-worthiness, but because they are indicative of the concerns und
behavior of the college student.

The next few days' events will mark the turning point in many people's lives.
Hopefully some of the questions asked in this paper will help students and visitors
to better understand the meaning of theSE days, and the behavior of the senior class.

Whose Needs—Will You Fulfill?

To many receiving diplomas Friday, commencement will he a very disappoint-
ing affair. They have realized that the liberal arts education has only fulfilled half
of the function it has been assigned in its libemting educational endeavor. Many feel
that the college has been unable to thoroughly adapt to the students’ new anticipa-
tions.

The college has duties to consider in relationship to both its students and the
society. Each group has its views and expectations of a college education which
educational policy makers consider in their planning. These expectations are hecom~
log more and more distant, as the student develops a new orientation toward the so~
ciety. How does the institution accommodate its policies to both elements when the
two elements are becoming so different? It is apparent that the institution has not
been able to properly adapt to these demands.

The educated individual joins a class and has an expected role in the society.
determined by the societal norms. The completion of college marks a level of
achievement qualifying him for a position in the system. Thus the society views the
institution of higher learning as a source for manpower to prime its system. The
liberal arts college as well as the more career oriented technical schools are equal-
ly valuable sources of supply. The student in the liberal arts institution for some
time saw participan‘on in the society as the logical way of employing what he gained
from his liberal education. Thus the student's view of the function of his education
was the same as the society’s.

The liberal arts student body has less of a desire to join the society and finds
that his liberal arts education is not necessarily compatible with the societal norm.

For example, a business administration major, frat member. at a large univer-
sity is indootrinated to the class and mores of a society he wishes to join. Also ho
is taught the skills best enabling him to “fit in.” The liberal arts student is given
neither these Skills nor desires by his education. His open mind and individualistic
values often make his self-concept radically different from his technically oriented
counterpart. Four years or investigating new vistas, and accepting new points of
view, make him less suited for participation in the society in the way that is tradi-
tionally expected of college graduates.

The liberal arts process some how produces “liberal” students (radicals too) who
nre less able or willing to ilt into or participate in the society in the way tradition-
nlly expected by the society. Those who determine the educational policy of the in-
stitution, however, continued functioning as if students were oriented to societal par-
ticipation and gear their policy to those expectations of education envisioned by the
society. This is exhibited in two ways: first in the immediate technical politics of
grading, comprehensives, requirements, and majors. These are expected forms that
education should take in the eyes or society, but are less accepted by the student.
Policy makers. however, refuse to innovate, evaluate and structure education with
the same orientation that students have.

The more tar reaching policies are really in need of change to become consist»
out with student’s point of View. The institution's greatest failure is that it
liberates and allenates students from social participation, without providing alter—
native modes of relating to society. Change is the immediate concern but the educa
tion gives little or no orientation toward such activities. The education is irrelevant
because it fails to provide for the student's needs. The Student wants his education
to give him tools to deal with his new values about his relationship to the society,
while the institution continues to provide an educational policy which is intended to
connnue tunneling students into the system.

Students are interested in affecting change and leading the values of society.
in order for this to occur, however, the college institution must recognize this new
goal and gear its policies accordingly. This will demand that the institution itselr
become a leader of new values in society, by allowing for an education that re-
sponds to the student’s needs not to the society’s expectations. The educational ln<
stitution has a role of educating students as well as society. It’s time to take on
this much needed role as leader of society.

W

> Gui" human body “good and beautiful," Miss

Y Malcolm denied having been lewd or
obscene and sharply on cised Playboy.
“lt's prostitution on paper." she said.

Miss Nelson struggled to hold back
tears while on the witness Stand as she
spoke the words of a song the protes—
tors had sung while undressed at the
lecture: “You've got to walk that lone-
some valley; You've got to walk it by
yourself.”

Enich asked Garman. “You
think disrobing was obscene or
gar?”

The youth replied: “No, l was born
naked.”

(Continue mun Page 12)

“lacing us in so tightly on what was
indecent and obscene."

Eye-witnesses to the dismbing inci-
dent testified Monday and identified the
defendants as those who had taken off
their clothes. However, upon cross-ex-
amination by Johnston, every eye-wit-
mess testified that he had seen nothing
obscene or lewd about the nudity.

On Tuesday all eight detendants took
the stand to explain their reasons for
participating in the protest. Calling tho

don't
vul—

talk of the town

By FREDRICKA NELSON
drugs: a message from phoebe snow.

the fact is: most children (?) smoke
pot today. this harmless weed is con-
sumed by young people who want to
take the time to perceive their world in
a slowed down, more impersonal way.
they enjoy the rituals of pot-smoking and
are collectors of elaborate material and
verbal artifacts that bespeak the plea-
sures oi drug use. In contrast to the pun
suit of sane and quiet pleasure, theirs
is a place of strange contrasts. the
young are called adolescent when they're
not, and inexperienced which they aren't.
they’re measured against something that
shouldn't exist to be sent to good schools
where they can leam to entertain them-
selves in the face of these paradoxes.
they're expected to meet people who
don’t exist and fraternize with ideas
that never are the reality they see.

before the mass media latched onto the
hippie movement, the drug cultures on
campus were small and quite exclusive.
to those select few who used drugs tho
vast majority of the campus was obli-
vious — pursuing its own academic thing
and using alcohol as its frantic escape.
only a. few of us remember the “drug-
gies" oi past glory. those individuals
usually had the guts to leave the col-
lege in one way or another. otherwise,
they were a very silent, though none-the-
less visible minority, who were of inter-
est only to a few underclass, sincert
freaks. when the rex and the longhorn
enjoyed their golden era — two or
three years ago -— the druggies were
meetable, but just barely, and the whole
scene was too cool to be cracked. you
ask about the sudden mushrooming or
drugs and we answer with a polite que-

E:

L TTERS

Torr Feathered

T0 the Editor:

Curtis Tarr goes to work for the mili-
taristic machine, undoubtedly knowing
for what he will be working at this
late date in history, and Grinnell Col-
lege gives him an Honorary Doctor of
Humane Letters Degree. In so doing this
institution prostitutes Whatever lofty
ideals it now or has Ever had.

The reason for the granting of the
honorary degree is Tarr's work for the
ACM tor the last row years: his future
line of work was known when he was
chosen to be honored. but those choosing
either did not care about his future
occupation, or they felt that a man’s
hie can be separated into parts, some
parts being honored and others not.
Either of these reasons is appalling. A
disregard for his future occupation is
worthy of nothing bllt contempt. And a
belief that a man is not the same man
six months ago as he is now seems In-
credible. An attempt to overlook the
future work of 3 man and instead con-
centrate on his past shows a woeful lack
of knowledge and reason, not to mention
some blindness.

Wake up, Grinnell. Look at your
world and come to your senses.

Friday’s Commencement activities pro-
vide a real opportunity for Grinnell col-
lege students, faculty, administration
and parents to see both institutionalized
complicity (in the War) and the moral
blindness of this college at one and the
same time, This year the college, in
the name of the entire college community
and its friends, is granting an honorary
degree to a man who Wlll soon be work—
ing as an Assistant secretary of Man-
power for the United States Air Force.

TED GLICK

rie: who blew the traditional scene? who
cracked that small, cool society and
spread it from coast to coast across this
formidable nation? don’t ask students,
since their answers aren’t expressive of
the problem or the solution, the des
moines register and the news magazines
like time have had a much greater ef-
feet on the "market” than the under:
ground press. mass circulation, that
stimulated mass curiosity and experi.
mentatlon, is the scapegoat and its caus-
ers are the capitalist muckrakers who
feed the public’s desires for the differ~
cut, the eccentric, the dramatic and the
young. what could be more interesting
and revealing than the stories of subur-
ban debs and their amphetamine — bad
trip — love affairs with death and other
social killers called euphoria and smack.
who loved the saga of the rise and fall ol
the drug town, san francisco, irom its
quaint beginning to its condition after
two years? and all that marijuana in
the high schools? heaven forbid, Said
the reading public, who bought their true
news just the same.

how else could a minority of such little
mention as the drug culture have gotten
so many ardent curiosity seekers to her
door. curiosity is the first step to ex.
pefimentation, and where the seientiiic
View of knowledge and education pres
valis, one can expect ardent research
into every dimension of a problem(?).
to “know” one needs experience — try to
get a. secretarial or construction ion —-
which even a child of twelve can find by
iollowing up a basic social truth. pot is
ancient and highly respected by many
cultures . . . americo is unprecedented

.are the delicate circles

weddings. .
that we make to surround ourselves in

custom. . .they are that certain tone or
voice projected by two people to their
witnesses. . .tones that penetrate tradi-
tion and speak for the art of love.

they are the formalities that the publio
demands before it can reconcile itself [0
the fact of love. .and to love’s children.
weddings are occasions that make a way
or life tangible to our elders.

The Scarlet & Black

Studeni Newspaper of
Grinnell College,

Grinnell, Iowa

An independent news

Enilm Fiver published weekly.
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Editor
Business Manager
Associate Editor .. nAvli) swan.
blunnzing Editor em. RAFFEIITY
Newxidltor .. MICHAEL BRANDON

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