he. Two

lCAR-LlT’ AND ILACK

PaulRoberis
Roberts Rules Of Disorder

College, as admissions oﬂicers are fond of
saying at college night dinners, is a search. My ed-
ucation. too, is a search. My search is for a T-
equare, a right angle. i needed to be ahle to draw
it straight line at right angles to a piece at paper
to plan the current issue of the 553. We generally

‘ have printed forms for that purpose — terms that
we import trim a world where right angles and
straight lines are not alien.

"John," I said to my editor. “John. where is
the T-square?”

“T-square7" he said lncredlllously. “We don’t
have a T~square. What do you need a T—square for?"

"For page layout,"

“Oh, my God, are we cut or those printed terms
that we import trom a world where right angles
and straight lines are not alien?" Anyway, he
directed me to the art building.

I found one of the art professors standing bliss-
tully in north light carefully studying a painting
he was working on. It looked for all the world
like therapy for a manic depressive. Seeing me,
he shouted, "Quick, over here. i need your hand."

Well, of course I rushed forward, hand extend-
ed.

“on, those bony lingers, the deathlike appear—
ance or them. Pei-loot.” I was flattered. “Here,
put your hand here and then move it slowly down
the canvas to about here.” i tried.

“You boob, you stupid. muddlehended, in-
sensitive moron. Look What you did, you moved it
too far to the lett." l was busy wiping my paint-
covered hand on a piece of scrap canvas and didn’t
catch the next series of names he called me. Fi~
nally, when he had calmed to the quiet stammering
stage I managed to squeeze in . . .

“Do you hsve a T-sqllare, a right angle?"

He looked really hurt. "A T-square, a right
angle? You jerk. The Grinnell art department doesn't
use T—squares or right angles. Those are tor straight
lines and earners and nothing like that appears
here."

As I left, disappomted, he was lovingly studying
the scrap or canvas 1 had wiped my hands on.

My next stop was the science buildingr “Sure,"
said ll friendly, acid-stained met, “We have lots
of Trsquares, Follow me." I followed him through a
labyrinth of rooms tilled with test tubes, wires,
scales and pale, hungry looking students.

“What are those pale, hungry-looking students?”
I risked. /

“Oh those,” he laughed. "Some chem students
of mine who’ve been trying to find unknowns in
distilled water for three weeks." He laughed hideous-
ly. “Here they are. Now you can borrow this one
. . . wait, that only has an error or 9.7% at srp.
This one is a little better, 6.5%, but that’s still not

 

Scarlet and Black

GIINNELL COLLEGE
Grlnoell. I-wl

‘@ good. This one . . . that‘s not good
enough. I know we have a good
one here somewhere r . . this one,
no, maybe this one . .

“Wait. why cant i just take one
of those with the DOESO‘EOOd ac-
curacy?"

A weekly newspaper published each Friday or the col-
lege year by the Grit-inch committee on Student Yubllcar
irons. Represented [in national advertising by Nationil Ad-
vertising service, InC., College publishers Reprcslnullve,
ls hist 50th Street, New York 22, in. Second ciiss nost-
axe pnid st Grinnell, iowu. subscription rate $5.110 per
school year. isoo pald subscriptions

. John wort

numiu ruson

bob iiodicnie, Sue with
Steve c-sey

Tom H-nman

sir. Jay

, W, Chlndler Mohnm
Bunny Hunt

KIM Adkinson

Axelrod, Janice B-nl.

EDUOR ..
uusiNcss MANAGER
ASSOCIATE Eon-0x5
scours EDITOR .
rim) PHOTOGRAPHER
xxcnwcs EDIIOR .
CIRCULA'HON MANAGER r
SPECIAL con ASSISTANT
SPL‘UAL ASSISTANT m m
”mittens

1 non ,
ulen Arbitron,
sue lnrqulsl, chk chtdy, Pun cl-y,
Lynn nenxier, Amie rurrer, .Ilﬂl llermz.
sue Johnson, Ted Lem-ire, Kris lell,
cunnle Simon, wmie Sunxel, Don Winney
John rhilllpi, Steve shender, Henry Wilhelm
Ken Clymcr, Don iruriscii, Nick Nonls,
Jlrn nsmsey. Shlro’l Sheumlk PIlII mpg
Curll ougin, neien nolsclnw, Cnrol Jensen,
Amy kossmnn. xuren suinnier, Ellen Wernlck
Minn Mid a. Susi-n will

PHOTOGRAPHERS
scours REPORTERS ..

COPY s'mrr
nuslNrss srA r

“Because they don’t draw right
angles. We couldn’t let those out
of the building. We have our rep-
utation. I’m sorry, we don't have
one you can use." He laughed
again, much like Boris Karloff
did in The Man Who Wouldn't Died

My next stop, a mistake tram
the start, was the bookstore. I
pllt all my books on the shelves,
checked to see I had my own
check book, and round out they
could order 8 "Esquare but they
hate to order less than a gross.
They put my name on a waiting
list and it 143 people more want
T-squares, then I've got it made.

So if the lines in the 5&1? look a

 

little crooked and not square this
week, you know why. There are
no Trsquares, no right angles on
Grinnell campus.

Editor Gets leiier
Oil 883 Criticism

To the Editor:

It has come to my attention lllul
the ssh upset some or its readers
last week by running the headline
“God Squad" above a story about
the election or new oiiiccrs by the
Board of Religion.

1 am constantly amazed that
people are able to search out and
comment on the least important
items found in the 5&3. The paper
can advocate student irrcsponsi
hiiity. use dirty words, or pull
sundry blatant maneuvers and
cause less concern than the latest
student Placement Bulletin,

not put something in the use
per that people don’t have to
think nhout belol'c concluding it
is sacrilcgious, and the paper re
ccivcs just what might be ex-
pccted -— a bunch ot thoughtless
criticism.

Jolill Wolt

rs. l have lust learned that
laSl week’s Ski] also aroused
the sensitivities or the second
most holy group on campus. Ihe
athletes. And so the 5&3 escitcs
llle intellect with another nionieii»
tous problcin.

God,
sort had lower hits last week
than the basebnil teunii

 

is it possible that the'

r day.Apl-ll!0. ms.

Pass-Fail

We would like to suggest that the faculty, admini-
stration, and students of Grinnell College do something
original and work toward establishment of a wide«
ranging pass~fail grading system.

The system is self explanatory; a student would be
given one of two grades — pass or fail. This would be
the penultimate in grading plans and would supplant
the many varieties of number and letter systems. The
final step, of course, would be no grades, but it seems
that you just don’t get your $2,600 worth if you don’t
get a card with some grade notation on it.

Carleton has recently extended a pass-fail system
to “courses for which the conventional grading system
might be deemed inappropriate.” This would include
courses like creative writing, studio art, and advanced
seminars.

Earlier, Carleton had given (and still gives) its
students the option of taking one course per semester
on the pass-fail plan. This system is designed to allow
students to take courses outside their majors without
fear of hurting their grade-point averages.

When Carleton instituted the pass-fail system,
concerned people there saw growing out of the normal
letter grading system, a “social estrangement which
. resulted from the excessive competition for grades
in course work," One faculty member felt that the
new system was potentially of special benefit to “a
small, somewhat geographically isolated, residential
college like Carleton (which can‘t be more isolated
than Grinnell) in relieving that “social estrangementr”

While it may be argued that Grinnell needn’t fol-
low Carleton in every step it takes, it is not pleasant
that a school which purports to be a leading liberal
arts college in the country generally waits for other
schools to do the experimenting in matters of higher
import than liberal arts examinations for juniors.

Carleton is not the only school experimenting
with pass-fail, Washington University in St. Louis is
studying the possibilities of such a plan San Jose State
in California offers its freshmen a modified rio-grade
tutorial system. The California Institute of Technology
has established a pass-fail system for freshmen to ease
freshman transition into college life.

We would like to suggest that the established sys-
tem of grade-giving is proving a big drawback in every
area except, perhaps, in a student’s major. Retention of
the standard grading system for studentsY areas of coil-
centration should satisfy those who argue that the new
system might endanger admission into graduate school,
since a student’s major grades are presumably the most
important part of his transcript.

It has been mentioned, too, that a pass-fail system
might lessen motivation, Unfortunately, the present
system stresses motivation for grade-grabbing rather
than for learning a subject well because it is a subject
the students want to learn,

As a Carleton professor noted, with the establish-
ment of a pass-fail grading system, “the pressure to
obtain the reward of a better grade might well be re-
placed by the challenge of an opportunity to master or
to sample as much of the knowable as one is able, while
probing, as a genuine community of scholars, more
.dceply and more widely into unknown areas. This
would be a refreshing environment in which to live,"

The drawbacks of the present system become more
apparent as mounting enrollments throughout the coun»
try cause increased competition that may not be ap—
parent to administrators in their lofty positions or to
l the students who have no choice but ’to accept the com-
petition cr lose the status that their hard-fought-for
700 plus board scores gave them.

Our proposal, then, would be for Grinnell to set up
a pass-fail grading system for all subjects except those
in a student's major. We understand that informal di
cussion among faculty members on the matter of grad-
ing systems is perennial; we would urge formal dis—
icussions by faculty, administration, and students.

It is time to work out a realistic means of imple-
;menting a pass-fail grading system, and there is no
reason why Grinnell shouldn’t. be a leader in this area.

' 1W.

 

 

