Apathy Editorial

"I think that we've witnessed on this campus, and nationally,
a phenomenon that is difficult to analyze. Students have been
turning inward. Few students participate inelections or campus
activities and fewer are getting intoacademics."Sosaid Chan?
cellor Loewi to the trustees, echoinga sentiment that has been
expressed time and again across the Grinnell campus.

Some have compared the stmosphere on campus to the fifties
(you'll be happy to know thata Universityof Hartford couple set
a record for the longest kiss, anda Minnesota fraternity set a
distance record for beer keg rolling), and another student said
that the campus reminds him of an oldtage hOl'HE"af[6r an
active life of protest and involvement, we're sitting back be
cause we‘ve demonstrated that our effort is futile,

The list of what students aren't doing this semester is end
lessr-they're not campaigning, demonstrating, protesting, oc-
cupying buildings, presenting demands in short, nothing poli-
tical. This year's social atmosphere also seems much worse
than last year‘s; people seem more withdrawn, less friendly,
less active, less happy. The obvious answer to all this lack of
activity is that students have resorted to their books as good
students should, but there are few who seriously contend that
such is the case here.

Many national commentators say that Nixonhas preempted the
war as an issue, causingthe drop‘offinstudent political action.
Even if one accepts thatexcuse,why the complete lack of inter
est in local campus issues? There wasa brief flurry of protest
over grades, but that quickly died out; proposals for course
evaluation have lain idle; proposals for group independents
have not gained really vocal support. The faculty has not set
the best example of excitement in dealingwithacademic reform;
the eleven weeks of debate on the requirements issue may have
effectively preempted discussion of other academic issues.

Many have other reasons for blaming the faculty for the
campusrwide apathy. Loewi told the trusteeSthathe feels many
students are turned off by their classes betause they do not
appeal to student interests. He and many others are encourage
ing a revamping of the curriculum to raise student interest and
involvement in their courses--group independents, Studentr
initiated courses might be some of the routes to those goals.
Robert F. Voertman, professor in economics, is interested in
adapting pedagogy to take better advantage of students inter-
ests and class sizes. I hope there will be more discussion of
these issues, both on campus and in the ShE.

The problems with campus social life appear to be very real,
and I’m told that many freshmen have been particularly beset
with problems in this area. Probably one of the major causes
of this problem is thatweare ina transitionary period in social
mores. Many guys appear to be afraid to ask girls out for fear
of being considered male chauvinists, but no alternative dating
style has been worked out. Consequently, many students are
sitting home weekends, since they don't seem to have overcome
the embarrassment of being dateless on a Saturday night.
Answers to this problem are also solicited' -especially' from a
few of the Womens Lib people on campus.

Others would place the blame for the declining social life on
the social Coordinator's office, drugs and the drug culture. or
the hall system. I’d like to spenda few sentences on that last
subject. It seems fairly obvious that the new hall system has
many serious defects. Halls used to be the center of campus
lifewespecially the social life. Now the halls->1 believe Loose
is currently the only exception--are considered primarily
places to sleep and take showers. A first approach might be to
increase the number of coed halls-slast year's room draw
proved fairly conclusively that there is a tremendous demand
for the coed halls. ijortunities should be created for group
room draws and project floors. More emphasis should be
placed on dorm activities-discussion groups, informal meet-
ings with profs, parties, informal activities.

Q16 last paragraph—please bear with me. It continues to
amaze me that there is such a lack of informal intellectual
activity on campusfithe good ol' bull session. Also the failure
of Free University to attract more interest surprises me. It
seems like the lounges should be used for some semirplanned,
informal discussion groups almost every evening of the week.

I understand that SGA has sponsored some informal dinners
in an effort to spark some movement to overcome the apathy;
and Ric MacDowell appears to be interested in the problem as
well. The Grinnell Experience you save may be your own.

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November 20, 1970
Orchestra
Will Play

Three Works

The Grinnell College Orth
estra will be presenting its
second concert at 8p.m. Wed-
nesday in Roberts Theater.
David Wooldridge will conduct
the following three works: Ow
erture to a Roman Carnival
by Berlioz, Mozart's Piano
Concerto in Bb K 595 (Rich
ard Howe, soloist), and Tch-
aikowsky‘s Symphony #5 in
E minor.

He chose the music largely
to give the orchestra an op-
portunity to perfect various
areas of their technique: the
Eerlioz for tone quality in the
first part and brilliance in the
second; the Mozart to develop
subtlety and refinement ofde-
tail (he made it clear that
"although Mozart has a repu-
tation of being easy, he is not.
I want the orchestra to see
that his music is worth doing
well"); and the Tchaikowsky
as a change, and “to test the
orchestra's stamina."

Academic Counseling Studied

by Marilyn McKenna

(second in a series concern-
ing developments in various
areas of counseling at Grin-
nell)

What one word character?
zes the academic advising
system at Grinnell directed
by Mr. Raymond Obermiller
and Mr. Charles Sellers? Fle-
xibility. The two men work
together and with all the other
counseling resources to shape
a flexible program capable of
meeting the varied needs of
Grinnell students as individ-
uals. Realizing that academic
problems are often just symp-
toms of more complex diffi-
culties, the academic advis-
ors do not attempt to narrow-
ly define their concern toaca-
demic problems alone, but
with a student’s total exper-
ience at Grinnell. Because the
necessity is seen for continur
ing evaluation and improve-
ment of the program, espec-
ially with the decrease or
complete abolition of acade-
mic requirements, proposals
are now under consideration
which may significantly affect
the quality of academicadvis-
ing in the future.

Mr. Raymond Obermiller, in
his fifth year at Grinnell as
Director of Academic Advisr
ing after eleven years as head
of counseling in a Sioux City,
Iowa high school, is deeply

Fun at Grinnell, or Was Enoch Too Smoky?

ing could be donearound here.

by J. c. Labowitz

Greg Butcher, the Perry
White of Grinnell journalism,
called me in this week to dis-
cuss my contribution to this
issue of the Oldest College
Newspaper West of the Mis-
issippi River, that is to say,
the Scarlet and Black. He
asked me to write a penetrar
ting analysis of the social sitr
uation (if any) at Grinnell,and
of the contribution (if any) of
the Social Coordinator to such
a situation.

I toiled long and tediously,
and even attempted to dosome
basic, hardrcore journalism
by checking on some facts.
I found that there is l) a sort
of underground social life at
Grinnell College, such as Mike
Daley'c oldies parties, 2) an
awful lot of social coordinat-

3) Enoch Smoky is not somuch
talented as it (he) (she) is loud
(How much can we be paying
them to allow them to afford
such a massive amount of
sound equipment?) and 4) it
is pretty difficult to write a
straight column without mis-
representing something or
someone. I do have a modest
example here, both of tedious
labor and probable misreprer
sentation.

The performance of Enoch
Smoky here Saturday night
came as something ofa sur~
prise to a number of Grinnell
College students since they
were under the impression
that the social activities pro—
vided around here consisted
of foetball games, Florence
behind the grill at the Forum,
and faculty and Student Sen-

ate meetings. ’l‘hus evidence
that some of the $47 each one
of us contributes to the social
fund was being used for some-
thing tangible like a ”rock
dance" mme as a shock.
This semester has been den
finitely lacking in the good,
clean, healthy entertainment
we have enjoyed in the past.
Che could argue the relative
merits of the performances
of a Cecil Taylor or the Pin
sant Brothers (where are they
now when we need them?), but
at leaSt they were here for
our consumption. I was struck
by the fact that KDIC is re-
broadcaSting a number ofcon-
certs of very high quality, all
of which took place lastyear -
a. E. King, Pete Seeger, Doc
Watson. Enoch Smoky won't

exactly inspire rebroadcast-
(continued to page 7)

involved in the effort to im,
prove the faculty-advising
system, which he considers
central to academic advising
as a whole. He feels that the
first weeks of the freshmen
year are crucial in theadjust-
rnent of the student and that
the faculty advisor shouldbe
an initial source of informa»
tion during that period. How-
ever, he encourages to seek
out help from other resour-
ces available such as profs
essors, Other counselors,etc.
in order to get many opinions
to consider when making a
decision.

CHARLES SE LLE RS

A change took place in the
facultyradvising system this
year as new faculty were uti-
lized as faculty advisors for
the first time, reducing the
advisee load for all advisers
from 10-15 each to 678 each.
Hopefully, this will facilitate
a greater amount of help on
an individual basis.

There are severalideas cur-
rently under consideration to
change the faculty~advising
system in the future, but all
hinge on the action taken con-
cerning the Freshmen Tutor-
ial program. Under the Tutr
orial program, the advisor
would not be in the field of
interest indicatedby freshmen
on the pre-registration form
filled out in the summer as
is the case now. Instead, the
advisor would be the instruc-
tor of the required Tutorial
group which would be made up
of 10712 freshmen students.
This would possibly help the
advisor maintains closercon-
tact with the student than un*
der the current system where
an advisor often does not have
the student for class.

It has been proposed that the
faculty advisor be assisted by
an upperclass studentwho woA
uld also be responsible for
aiding the freshmen advisees
who were assignedtothatpalr’
ticular advisor. This would
provide a more specific form
of help in academicareas than
is currently provided by the
SA. program.

Mr. Kintner has proposeda
program in which a student
could meet together with his
professors, advisor, and pos-
sibly the Committee on Aci'
demic Sanding to discuss pro-
blems or plans for the future.
This type of meeting could be
held by request of the stud»
ent, a professor, or the fac-
ulty advisor. This had been
done in isolated insmnces al-
ready but could be useful on a
much wider scale in assisting
a student in evaluatinghisaca-
demic program as a whole.

Academic advising is cer-
tainly not confined to freshman
year, but is a continuing pro-
gram. Efforts are now being
made to provide students with
a wider variety ofinformation
concerning graduate schools
and job opportunities. At re
quest, Mr. Obermiller distri-
butes strong interest tests to
students and canprovide many
other forms of career guid-
ance as well.

Mr. Sellers, at Grinnell
since 1966 and Registrar since
the summer of 1970, specif-
ically handles questions con?
cerning leaves of absence,
dropping courses, and related
questions as well as general
academic advising while also
serving as counselor to for?

(continued to page 6)

Th Sarlolllllcl Student Newspaper or
Grinnell Col|=§e
Grinnell, Iowa Sell?

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