Grinnell College

camsBlA

Oldest College Newspaper West at the Mississippi

Special Edition Stresses “Actionabiiity”
"rm ecstatic.“ was the way President Glenn heggett expressed his

organiled. The incnlty and ad
Using a term he has rise
need to become “actionable.” “Do it; norrt hesitate,” he said.
This special issue or the sol; includes a lengthy report by the Eu-

opiniou oi the loss Encampment. lie had high praise tor what he called
the “constructivelless” oi the Encampment committees. “But," he told
the closing session of the Encampment, “You’ve got to get yourselves
ministration can’t do this ior you."

d often in the past Leggett stressed the

cainpineilt Committee as well as Stabenlenls from each member of the
executive cabinet 01' the SGA. These statements point to many ways

 

Vol. LXXlV

Grinnell, lows, Tuesday, October ll, I965

in which the ideas exiinessed iii: Encampment can be made “actionable."

 

Extra

 

: Encampment Offers Intensive Consideration

o

 

President of the SGA

Reevaluation of Norms

By STEVE KENT

Why have encampments? Why bother?
Ailcr all, we have things pretty good
here. Why spend hours evaluating the
Grinnell community when we could be
spending them in acquiring an educa-
lion? Well. partly because Grinnell
exists in a dynamic, changing world and
because Grinnell itself is a dynamic and
changing society in miniature, To remain
true to its original ideals and intentions,
the college can never cease making ad-
justments. Partly, it is because basic to
the Gl'innell tradition is the belief that
improvement can always be made, But,
above all, it is because the spirit which
makes its question the ends and means
oi our community is the real essence oi
a crninell education The critical spirit
cannot be compartmentally applied, The

Weber thesis and the Grinneli commun~
ity are equally worthy objects or its at-
tention.

Grinnell's primary tnsk is to produce
liberally educated men and women —
individuals capable of looking at their
world in totality, critically yet con-
structively. Reason and common sense,
we are taught, guide us in our judg-
merits oi the world. Yet reason and
common sense are not always ode
oustely applied in our oonslderations
of our own society.

Tunes ot dritt inevitably occur when
the critical spirit grows mute and pur-
poses become coniused, Accustonied to
dealing with superiicialities and to ace
ing in terms of petty political ends, col-

sca~
(Continued on Page 2)

AWS Board President

Unrestricted Hours

By KAREN LAUTERBACH

An alteration at attitude in the Grin-
ncil student culture cannot be success-
iully effected until all segments of tha
community come to challenge the basic
disparity between what’s expected in the
academic sphere and what’s expected in
the stoma] sphere of student life. The
time is now, while the whole community
is in a period of transition. to express a
conviction in the importance of all that
happens to a potential scholar in the
total learning process.

Students are presently diverted from
sxercising trecdom or choice or per-
sonal judgment in individual soclol
strains by n distracting rule structure.
Boih men and women have comple-
cently accepted a highly restrictive

system of women’s hours as a major

rector hampering individunl action Ind

the growth oi personal responsibility

This uncritical reliance on artificial
standards appears in a broader context
as non-participation in the classroom and
extra-Curricular affairs as well.

What must be accomplished is a com-
plete and consistent redefinition oi the
student role in the aiiairs of the college
to involve positive participation and per-
sonal independence in all phases or com-
munity lite. But a reiormation of attitude
must occur simultaneously with the
structural changes necessary to allow its
expressmn. This suggests a radical de-
parture from the present protective
philosophy and structure to formulate a
new, positive liviilg program on campus

AWS—
(Continued on Page 2)

Speaker of the Senate

Quest for Community

liy DAN oucxs

The quest. for community is a basic
human motive underlying man's efforts
to make the world a more human place
in which to live. We at Grinnell are
driven by this motive to create a special
type oi community — an intellectual
one in which people are draWn together
by a desire to understand the world of
man and the world of nature,

We seek a community in which ideas
{low and interact in a dynamic learning
process. We hope, by this process, to
coniront questions of values so that we
can relate our knowledge and ideas to
ineauiugiul purposes.

Intellectual Community

Have we created an intellectual corn<
[nullity at Grinnell? Academic life is
mechanically geared to a pace at dead—

lines antl examinations. Students are re-
quired to pass courses in a subject in-
stead ot being re ' ed to learn a sub-
ject. Campus act as are tied to no
ethic of tradition in which the routine
is preferred to the innovative. These
forces combine to stifle a commitment
to learning, a desire to communicate
ideas. and a critical awareness of values.
Hence, our search tor community goes
uul'ewslrded.

Fortunately, students have the re-
sources to build the foundation for an
inspired intellectual process. We need
not wait for the decision - makers at
this college to adjust the curriculum
or establish new lecture programs, By
asserting a degree oi intellectuull in-

SENATE—
(Continued on Page 3),

By KATHY JAGOW

More than a marathon trampoline ses-
sion, Encampment was an opportunity
for the different groups on campus to
meet together for an intensive considera-
tion oi Grinnell as a total entity.

Stiucturally, the titty students and
twentyeiive faculty and administrators
who attended were organized into six
discussion groups. Each group spent
three sessions discussing, respectively,
academic program, relation oi the col<
lege to the outside world and the total
college environment. Reports room each
of the group leaders were presented at
a final Combined session of all the Eu-
campment partitipaitls,

What came out or this year’s En-
campmeni? People looking tor a co-
herent plan of reiorm will probably be
disappointed; the general nature or the
discussions was not conducive to such
a simple tormiila. The aims and goals
or a liberal arts education, and the
means or achieving these goals, are
our easily agreed upon. You can’t. get

a formula answer to the question
“What is Grinnell?”

Look to the Philosophy

So what did happen that weekend? in
rormal contact between laculry and stu-
dents, some violent discussions, some
hard thinking, a better view of Grinneli
within and beyond the campus. Both
leaders and just ordinary students (as
one participant described herself) looked
beyond the details of our present system
to the philosophy, the reasons, the ration-
ale Oi Grillnell and of liberal education
in general, In the end, if the thinking b3-
giin at Encampment will continue on
campus, we should have a set oi cri-
teria, specuic goals that we wish to
achieve, and an effective means oi get-
ting there,

By attempting to answer some of these
general questions belore us, we lialurah
iy came up with a wide variety of an-
swers, This report will attempt to be as
objective as possible in presenting dire
terent sides of the various questions.

ENCAMPMENT—
(Continued on Page 2)

C of HP President

Open Dorms Extension.

By ROBERT FOOTE

The question is not whether we should
extend visiting hours in the residence
halls but Whether, or to what extent, WI
should have restrictions. The burden of
prool in the open dorms question rests not
with those who request greater freedom
Di movement but with those who would
restrict it.

Discussion oi open rooms usually be-
gins wlih the assumption that restriction
against any visitation is normal. Open
rooms have been considered as times of
exception to this assumption. It is time
now in question the basic assumption.
and perhaps to begin anew.

Entrenclled in the Victorian morality
is an unreasonable suspicion of sex. Peo-
ple (eel frank and meaningful and discus-
Slon of sex should be suppressed. People

have assumed that situation: conducive
to the commission oi the sex not should
be avoided at all costs.

Hence they think pregnancies will be
averted and virginity preserved.

The unfortunate thing is that it doesn't
work that way, The Victorian morality
is clearly inadequate in contemporary
society. It serves merely to obscure is-
sues and lo pervert any attempt to de-
Velop a rational and sensible morality.

A new rationale. rooted not in tho
open dorms question, rooted not in tho
Victorian conception or restriction, but
in the modem conception oi freedom
with consideration. Freedom with con-
sideration eiitalls not merely individual
development in isolation. it also implies

c oi HP—
(Continued on Page 3)

Social Coordinator

Urban Social Program

By BOB JOHNSTON

Grinnell College is isolated in n
rural area but its social program is
urban. easy to get to, and tree. Grin.
nell students must now develop on
attitude to match the program. They
must break out oi a social shell that
relies on dates and droughts.

it is unfortunate that on a run at the
mill Saturday night the average dorm
may contain up to 80 per cent of its
occupants while another unknown pel'e
ccntage are availing themselves of tho
Rex or Longhorn, Students must bn
willing to expose their ideas, opinions
and tastes to something llew a some
thing controversial - something oit‘beat,
A free access to challenging events is

worthless it the majority at students
tail to take advantage of them.

Explore the variety: Leilox Quartet,
Jeiicrson Aiiplane, Woman in tho
Duties, The Goldovsky Opera. 8%. Car-
oline Stanioi-d, The White Devil, Case.
blauca, The Three Souls, The i. Shaped

SOCIAL—
(Continued on Page 3)

_____________

ADDRESS HEREl

xog aﬁe'noa
“WHERE Qilqnd

 

