Iaiur'day, September 27. W69

SCARLET AND BLACK

 

 

 

 

 

 

iETTERS IO THE EDITOR

 

Doubts " super Channels"

To the Ediml’:

When mil-litmus facully coin-
mittees were opened to Students
last year, I applauded the action
as a positive sicp toward grant~
iug sludc r a meaningful voice
in the (1 ns which affect
them. Howey a year's experi-
ence as a v
the Science D
tloilal Policy Committee (EPC)
his led me In) believe that slu-
dcilt illL‘lu"l0'l on selected {ocul-
ty commi lens may ho a my
hollow chrLUl".

My sen . oi discouragement
does not stem from the work of
the EPC icself, In fact, this
committee who a perfect model
0f just how Constructive and
fruitful studentriaculty com-
mittees can be. We carefully
consider numerous education is-
sues, and our voting by no
means pitted faculty against Stu.-
dents. The committee members,
eager to pursue a substantial
ogcndu we set for ourselves, cir-
culated poshon papers, motions,
and amendments. We nlet prac-
tically every week, and we kept
in'contact with the faculty and
student constituents whom we
represented.

Much of the EPC’s time was
dcvoied to considering compre-
hensive examinations, The elk
max of our work was a vote on
this iollowmg student-initiated
motion:

“The EPC proposes that com-
prehensive examinations for sen—
iors should be eliminated as a
general college requirement.
Since the Spemfie ideals of calm
pi'chensive learning will vary
with the department, the deci-
sion as to the existence and
nature of an examination (scmi-
liar or project) to accomplish
these ideals. should be_left to
the dcpur'cillcnt and should be
decided with student participa-
tion and some thought to the
students' lnrlh’ldual needs."

The committee unanimously
approved iln, motion (alrhouuh
two faculty members were ab-
sclit). [is simple and uniiiiߤl<
noiirc as inDtioll may ap-
pear. ii. nc1.<ihelcss represcnb

   

   
 

 

 

 

 

ed many weeks of thought on
the issue and was, we felt, the
only realistic solution to the
problcln oi what to do with
coinprcncnsivc exams,

The rest of the story is dis
couragin; and has led me to
question the worth of student—
faculty committees, Our dc '-
sion on comprehensive or his
(the study of iiliieli hall been res
quested of us by the executive
council) and a few of our other
recommendations were submit-
ted to the executive council for
consideration, According to Dr.
Joseph D. Danioi’th, last year’s
chairman of the Science EFC,
sonic effort was necessary to
urge the executive council even
to acknowledge receipt of our
recommendations. Nevertheless,
the minutcs of one of last year's
council meeting formally show
receipt of our proposals. How-
ever, the executive council ap-
parently never even looked at
what we suggested, Our efforts
died in the executive council,

1 am told that the council was
swamped with work, and i do
not doubt that they were. But
I will not accept that as an ex-
cusc for ignoring our commit-
tee's recommendations. This was
not any committee: it was a
studentrfaculty committee. If
the college truly Wanted to
show that students could have
a meaningful voice in school
decisions, it could have found
time to consider the EPC’s pro-
posals.

This year 1 am again a dele-
gate to the Science EPC. This
committee has again been i
structed to study comprehen.
sive exams. So again we will go
through the long deliberations
about the issue, (or ihc ten peo<
pic on the commiiocc, only two
were members last year and are
therefore aware at what trans.
pii-cd then). i wonder wheth-
cr this is just a game we are
playing. Docs our committee
really have any purpose?

Maybe this time our recoln<
mend‘dtioiis will he considered,
13th ior this year's comm-s, many
ol whom (at least in ihc Scicnco
Division) were led to believe

 

that changes in comprehensive
exams were imminent, there is
very little time loit.

Andy Cooper no

Coed onus College

To the Editor:

50 we all sat lhere last year
listening to Jerry Rubin tellulg
each other what shmucks we
were ior staying in college. Al.
icr all what good was a BA
going to do us anyway. We don’t
want to spend our lives living

the Way Of Me that we con-
demn at college s but What else

'Eu‘e we going to do now. We’ve

got a chalice to take it easy for
four years and get our heads to.
gether fl maybe when we gcc
out we’ll do something —— start
a commune, Change things ma)“
he. sin-o — but maybe not,
There's all those other things
we can do with a BA — like go
to graduate school.

Jerry Rubin graduated from
college. So did Abbie Hoffman.
When Jerry Rubin came here I
asked him what he’d do now if
hc were in college, He said he
didn’t know —— that the lerP‘
out community wasn’t really de-
veloped enough to take care of
people who want to leave school
and live some kind of alternl
tive life style.

I don’t think anything will
change if we go on staying in
college calling ourselves
shmucks. Some people really
like college and really want to
live the kind of lile this college
is supposed to prepare them for.
It's taken me awhile to decide
—~ but I‘m not the kind of per-
son who should be in college. I
could probably talk myself into
believing that I am. I could pos-
sibly even manage to stay here
until I get my certificate, tool
But by then I'd be so used to
compromising that I’d be un-
able to live my own lite. I’m
really scared at the prospect of
leaving the shelter of Grinnell,
but I have Lo.

Freiln Sccuo Tepfer
(Freda Tcplcr rriiirdrcw irciu
Griiuicll this week-Ell.)

Page Tin-u

EDITORIAL

Student (all For
A Vietnam Moratorium

(The Vietnam Moratorium, n series at national, escniuflnt
antiwar actions, will begin October 15. Students at more than 54»
colleges are already committed to spending the day in ma com-
munity with door-ioduor campaigns. teach-ins, rallies and vlgilI.,

Accompanying the campus-based actions will be organized at-
Iorts by businessmen, clergymen, community groups and lubim
All activities are directed against United state: action in Vietnam.

The Moratorium has the endorsement oi the National Ameri-
cans for Democratic Action, the Natlonal Student Association, the
New Mobilization Committee, and tho National Democratic Coali-
tlon.

The bellowing “Student call” has been signed by some 50!
college student body presidents and campus newspaper editors.
A faculty call is being written. The Grlnnell student senate err
dorsed the Vietnam Moratorium last Tuesday and allocated fluids
in a Moratorium committee oi the senate and the Grinnell Slu-
deut Movement.)

Ending the war in Vietnam Is the most important task racing
the American nation. Over the last few years, millions of Ameri-
cans have campaigned, protested. and demonstrated against the
war. Few now defend the war, yet it continues. Death and des-
truction are unabated; bombs and fire continue to devastate
South Vietnam. Billions 01 dollars are spent on war while the ur-
gent domestic problems of this country remain unattended. More-
over, the war has liad a corrupting influence on every aspect of
American life, and much of the national discontent can be
traced to It! influence.

The discredited policies of the past which have brought about
this American tragedy have not been changed, We Iollovv the
same military advice which has created a futile and bloody con-
flict while we cling to tho same policies which have caused the
Paris negotiations to Taller. The token displacement of 25,000
troops over a three month period simply is not the substantial
change in policy that is so desperately needed.

Thus it is necessary for all those who desire peace to be-
come active again and help bring pressure to bear on the present
administration.

We call for a periodic moratorium on "business as usual” in
order that students, faculty members and concerned citizens can
dcvolc time and energy to the important work of taking me issue
of peace in Vietnam to the larger community.

If the war continues this fall and there is no firm commit-
menl [0 American Withdrawal or a negotiated settlement on OCLO‘
ber ls, participating members of the academic community will
spend the entire day organizing against the war and working in
thecommu .uy to get others lo join us in an enlarged and length»
ened moratorium in November. This process \Vill continue until
there is American withdrawal or a negotiated settlement.

We call upon all membem oi the university community to
Support the moratorium, and we commil ourselves to organize
this ciiori on our campus and in the larger communiiy. We ask
others to join us.

Michael 1. Brandon
Thomas J. Thomas

WWW
Prof Rakes Bookstore Plan

To the Editor:
Numerous complaints about

basement would leak. The roofs
on Burling and Fine Arts al-
ready leak, and in some of our
basements (as, in Steiner) we

il:.“;25iid:ik..“lr. hill: a harem
year, both formally and in- m a heavy "m' Water “1 I

book store is more than an or.

formally most of them seeming
to boil down :o the cramped
quarters and lack of room for
books with which patrons of
the Book Store are certainly
familiar, Committees have met
to discuss the matter, letters
have appeared in the 5&3 and
plans actually seem to be going
forward to allow the Book Store
more room in which to work.

I am concerned that some of
the actions recently mentioned
as being under consideration
may not turn out well, though
I would assign a high priority
to securing better quarters as
rapidly as possible. The plan I
have heard most of late, how—
ever, is one of spending several
tells of thousands oi dollars to
expand physically the basement
oi Carnegie on the east side.

I am dubious about this for
the following reasons:

(I) I think this sort of ex-
pansion is bound to be ugly. i
can think of nothing which
could be done to the outside of
an expanded basement which
would conceal the fact that the
bzisclneilL bulged out [rain the
rest of tllc uld library sinclisl

(2) I suspect, given the sort
of ccniracoug ihc College has
gotten in recent years, that the

dinary problem: it is catastro.
phic.

LE'ITERS—

Continued on Pg. 5, Col. l

The Scarlet & Black

Sfudeni Newspaper oi
GriunelL csiisgs.
Grinnell, Iowa

independent

An
995““W nswsorpcr o u i-
. hushed weekly. ex-
3 cent during “0117
.— days no examinar
El _ 45 non prnods, by

"WW ilh.‘:“::“‘si§.°.“.,
SEW my school year.

Editor , , Michael J, “Ylnflfln

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