Iliursiiay May 29, mo

SCARLET AND BLACK

Page Five

 

Make Waves, Not Slaves

RANCE '

Must sc s have probably spent the
last couple or weeks irantically finish-
ing term papers and RE. requirements,
or being bored and getting drunk, but
some, at least, have been thinking about
what it‘s going to mean to get that
diploma on Friday. For a lot at us, our
Grinneil education has meant four
damn frustrating years trying to learn
some things. and trying to teach others
some things. and accomplishing neither
satisfactorily,

The faculty Is all very responsive
when you go to them and say, "Teach
men" —- that's their career ambition.
after .11, to teach you. of course,
filey'n not penect — they’re still
people end they like to play their little
ego-games by impressing their students
with their intellectual snobbery, and they
like to assert their superiority by sit-
ting apart in the Cafe del Faculty over
in the Forum, and they like to ignore
you outside the classroom whenever
they can. But they’re not so bad as
teachers, [guess i mean, We learned
something while I've been here, and
since I plan to be a college teacher, too,
I can't think they’re all bad.

it was in trying to leach others that
the fruslralions really came, because,
my God, nobody who‘s not a student
thinks he has anything to learn, and
most students don’t think anybody can
teach them except those exalted tar.
ulty members. We won control of
student government to try to use that
as a pulpit. But the students wouldn’t
listen because we hadn’t solicited
their non-opinions tirst, and the high
enups wouldn't listen because they
were higher up. To occupy our time
they gave us representation on token
faculty committees, but we soon
found out that we couldn’t teach the
raculry anything that way; they
were the ones who taught us, only
this time we learned how closed-
minded they were. We tried to point
out some or the obvious nicongruities
on (humus — Porter woods’ doml«
natiol or Roberts Theater, the abom-
inable uuallty of Saga food, the shame
or minty acquiescence to that monu-
ment to sport that now nobody wants,
contradictory social restrictions (“if
you can‘t obey residence hall rules

you must move 'off campus, but we

won’t extend the off-campus living

option“).

Given the response to these issues —
bureaucratic entanglement at best, but
most usually ilat reiusals to consider
problems — it was rutile to hnpe that
this community would direct its alteri-
tion to larger issues, like, yes, the war,
and the militaryindustrinl conspiracy.
and poverty (student initiative sure
bagged the faculty intellectuals on that
one), We‘d gotten used to student np<
othy, but maybe the reason they hadn’t
been motivated In even is minimum
level 01 activity was because the faculty
had been so damned apathetic them-
selves.

We asked the college to take a cor-
porate stand on some of the evils of
the day, but no, they would plead
“Academic Freedom.” Even the lady at
JD's will tell you, our freedoms are
killing us, What they really meant by
academic freedom was that they
couldn't risk involving their life-giving
alumni in making a value judgment
by saying what must be said. “Aca<
demic freedom” had nothing to do with
it. So the faculty and administration
were slaves to the alumni, all along,
and as long as they turned out well-
mannered, intelligent, disciplined boys
and girls, the alumni would continue to
pay their salaries.

So the world goes In hell, but we're
sitting pretty in this cornfield and
why make waves? And that’s what
makes Grinnell College the sick place
it has been these four years. Nobody
will make waves; nobody will stand
up and say that there are some se-
rious problems and why doesn’t the
college get off its alumni-licking
bottom and start training people to
contront them (the alumni probably
are the military-industrial complex),
and confront them itself?

I would like to quote the Amherst
statement here. in which Amhersi‘s
president, Calvin Plimptnn, has quite
adequately redeemed himself for his be-

havior at Convocation last year.

“. . . We have also as a college ems
braced a new sense of urgency of an-
other kind. We believe ihal. we must
speak out to make clear that much of
the turmoil among young people and

among those who are dedicated to
humane and reasonable changes will con<
tinue.

“it will continue until you (President
Nixon) and the other political leaders of
our country address more effectively,
massively. and persistently the major
social and foreign problems of our so-
ciety, Part or this turmoil in univer-
sities derives from the distance sepa-
rating the American dream from the
American reality.

“institutions dedicated to the nurture,
husbanding, and growth of cn'ticnl in-
telligence, and to inquiry into basic
problems cannot but open people's eyes
in the shoddiness of many aspects 0!
our society,

“. . l The pervasive and insistent dis-
quiet on many campuses throughout the
nation indicates that unrest results, not
from A conspiracy by A few, but from
a shared sense that the nation has no
adequate plans for meeting the crises
oi our society. To name only one issue
of special concern to the studenu: since
the Kcrner Commission’s report, there
has been no decisive response to its
recommendations

“We do not say that all the problems
faced by colleges and universities are
a reflection of the malaise of the larger
society. This is not true. But we do say
that until political leadership addresses
itself to the major problems of our so
ciety —— the huge expenditure of national
resources for military purposes, the in<
equities practiced by the present draft
system, the critical needs of America's
23,000.01» poor, the unequal division or
our life on racial issues — until this
happens, the concern and energy of
those who know the need for change
will seek outlets for their frustration.

”We realize that in writing this letter
we have taken the unusual step or
speaking publicly for our community on
pressing issues of the moment. We do
this out of an urgent concern to ques-
tion the widely held view that univer-
sity unrest is merely an internal prob-
lem, or at most fomented by an outside
influence.

“More, we beiieva that if political
leaders act on this mistaken assump-
tion, their actions will serve only to
widen the separations within the univer-
sity and between the universities and
society at large."

Pllmpton is right, you see, and un-
tu the corporate Grinnell college coin-

 

PiIIs, Pills, Pills

NOW THAT WE HAVE YOUR UNDIVIDED
ATTENTION. {he only Pill we don't handle is a
Success Pill. bur

BEST WISHES ANYWAY
MATHEWS DRUGS

munity realizes that and acts accord-
ingly, this college will remain the

same stagnant hole that it has been
since i‘ve known it, turning out the

same gray nun-thinking graduates
spewing the pre-programmed liber
ism and logic that was instilled in
then. during their four gray years
here.

Well, l'm glad to get out, because I‘m
really tired of this place. I'm too tired
to burn my diploma or disrupt Com<
mencement to show how i feel, or
maybe I would, Bu! ! got so tired from
beating my head against the intransi-
gence of taculty and administration. it
will probably be worse when I go out
into the Big World, because all those
people out there aio really Grinneil
alumni who have such I vlcctlike grip
over this college and others, it seems.
I’ll have A Grinnell B.A.. but I'm not
too proud or that. Guess I'll just have
to live with it, though, and hope that
some day soon my' disgusting Alma
Mater will shape up.

Rah! Rah! Sis Boom

BLAH!

By DIANE POMERANCE

Members of the senior class of Grin-
nell, 1969, welcome, welcome, welcome
to the Alumni Association. You are now
lifelong members of this wonderful 0r-
ganization which will help reiresh your
fond memories of college days when
those happy recollections are growing
dim (and when your will to contribute
is fading, too).

But let me clear up a Jew mistaken
impressions — the Alumili Association
is not out for your money. No, thank
goodness—our sole purpose in life is to
keep the Grinnell mmily united, in spirit
at least, so that your Grinnell experience
will never die.

Here are some of the exciting things
that happen to you when you become a
member Hf the Alumni Association:
first of all, a big 'census card’ is filled
out, which contains all kinds of useful
information about you: when and why
you were suspended for a semester.
your major, your many (Grinneli stu-
dents are such activists) student ao-
tivities such as Circle K and Theta
Kappa iota Mu (no room on the card
(or SDS or Guerilla Theater), your race
and religion. There are many blank
spaces on the cards for us at the Alum-
ni Office to acid your occupation, further
schooling, and civic activities like Jun:
ior Chamber of Commerce and P.E,0.
— that's far when all you ’69ers finally
make it in the world. We like to keep
our records up to date (so we know
how much money you are able to give),
so do keep in touch, won't you?

But in retum for [his small amount
of luiormatiori that you give us, here
is the wealth of service you, the Grin-
nell alumnus, Will receive:

The Grinnell Magazine, that timely
journal that will keep you posted on
What's up at Grinnell. A special feature
that you will surely enjoy is the People
You Know column. Compiled from per-
sonal notes, press clippings, and the
watchful eyes and ears of the Bureau
of Criminal Investigation, PYK will till
you in on all the gossip.

You, the members of the Class of
1969. will also receive quarterly Class
Letters. Although these letters are pre«
pared by your Class Agent, they are
written by YOUllll You will write your
class agent and tell him or her all the
good things that happen in your lifel
like the down-payment on your first

BLAH
(Canllnued Page 1., Column lJ