 

SCARLET 8 BLACK

Student Newspaper of Grinnell College

1202 Perk Street Grinnell College
Grinnell, Iowa son:

A weekly newspaper published each rridny of
the coliegc year by tho GlilIItL-ll coinnnttec on sni-
usni riioiiciiiions, Represenicd on national raver-
tlsing by Nailollni Educational Advertising scivicrs.
soo chlllgtoll Ave, New York, New York lﬂol’lt
second cirss postage paid it Grinnell, lows. sutr
script. ate 55.00 per school year. woo paid
subscripilons.

OPS

Member of tho
Collegiate
Press Scrvlco

corral:

MANAGING enrrok
nusmrss MANAGER
CIRCULATION MANAGER
srnrr worsens

Barry Anconn
. Neil riscnci
Stephen warsn
. nruce sironi

Marine Berkcy, cordon Christensen,

Snsrn Edwards, Anne stirrer, Debbie Gcniry,
Jack cochenouer, Andy rsurcs, orvid lrrurinnn,
Adrienne Lemmons, Molly McGuire. sire Miller, Paul Nncninnn,
Jo" Sci-comer, Gerald swunsnn, Ann rrirel, Anne rnylor.

PHOTOGRAPHERS .c Alan semi-rat, Don neclicr,
Leigh smiths. melt rreuinoiui

Editorials . . .

MORE OPENS TALK

Discussion oi open dorms reached a new level of absurdity
this week with the adoption of the Rawson Proposal by the Senate.
Passage of the proposal demonstrated that President Leggett’s
speech two weeks ago missed the ears of those people to whom
it was olficlally directed.

The president has made it clear that extensions of open dorms
will come, at the earliest, after many other major changes are
made in the structure of student living. We must agree that there
are other areas of student life equally in need of improvement, and
that if all improvements other than increased opens were made,
Grinnell would not be such a bad place after all.

Continued pressure for open dorms can only disturb the faculty
and administration, to say nothing of the students who would like
to see energy devoted to improvements that will be made

As for tho advocation of revolution, let us remember that we
are a small, private, isolated school, and that the only result of
a student uprising is likely to be a lot of exstudehts.

The 5&5 is in favor of an extension of open dorms to 24 hours
every day. But given the unyielding attitude in Hurling Basement,
we must he content, temporarily, to work on Grinnell's other prob—
‘9is

And bear in mind, fellow hypocrites, that the ﬁght is not for
open dorms — it is for legal open dorms.

ENCAMPMENT AND THE REPORT

it is unfortunate that the report of the Faculty Committee on
Academic Life will not be ready for Encampment. The weekend
retreat would have provided the ideal time for students, faculty,
and administrators to discuss the report and exchange ideas.

Serious Encampment discussion of academic life (and that
seems to be an all inclusive term) will be limited by the fact that
the report, although not here yet, is coming soon. And when it does
finally reach the students, it looks like it will be almost the end
of the semester, is time when the strain of academic life precludes
discussion of it.

 

STATEMENT or owwnnsmr. Mnmamem AND cracuumort

orinneil Colitis scarlet and Black, lzoz Park Street, Gnnnell. roweihiek,
Town soliz

ruuiisned every Friday of the school year by the committee on Student,
Publications, Grinnell colleen. Grinnell, lowa soilz.

EDITOR: Barry Ancona

, MANAGlNG solron: Nell riscner
i Averlge No. Copies single issur
Elﬁn isiue During Nearest io
rrrceoiiig i2 Months riiinr pair
Total No. copies printed mm moo
cuinpns Distribution . , LZDO 1,3917
Mall suhsciiriions , soo in
Total Yald Cltculatinn new has
me Distritniiion iun 1W
Total Distribution . Loon L525
otiiee Use snd Leftover . liio 475
row/ii. , , mm: more

Suhmiiteu or required hy Section 4359 Title so of the Untied Slﬂlﬂ code
on the 28111 day of srpieinoer Ninetecnrhundrsd and sixly~sevem

srsrncN L, WAFSH, Business Msnﬁxcr

 

The Super Sonics

Get With Fashion’s Newest Rage.
These Hondkniis Fly Off Your
Fingers With Supersonic Speed

RGtJ

905 MAIN

SCARLET AND BLACK

IlllUllllllllillUllllllllllllllllillllllllHillllllllllllllllllllillilillllii

LETTERS TO
THE EDITOR

s‘iliilHlililHllillHtilllHitlilHimiHimlllilHlliilHliiliiilillilltlilllllﬁ

NOlSE AT
MAIN DOOR
To the Editor:

On a campus where matters
of importance to the academic
and social structure of the COL-
lege community are being ier—
vently discussed and debated,
I wonder if I am justified in
mentioning a subject such as
"courtesy” To be blunt. people
returning through Main door
from midnight on 'till three
cm. are noisy and boisterous
to the degree at which sleep
for a typical resident of Main
hall has become an impossibil-
ity.

With the institution of tho
rio—hours policy, it is, of course,
natural and expected for people
to be using Main door trorn
midnight on. And any person
would agree that conversation
at Main door is no oddity, but
rather a normal thing. The
point that i want to make is
that when such conversation
reaches an intensity at which
the residents of Main cannot
get to sleep, even after closing
the windows, a problem defi-
nitely exists.

I would like to request that
individuals e i i h o I conclude
their laughing, singing, and
talking a iew hundred feet
away from Main door, or that
they substantially decrease
their volume upon approaching
Main door.

Carol A. HollOn

PENZNER
ON CROSSETT

To the Editor: ’

it was truly disconcerting Io
read the letter by Professor
John Crossett in tile last issue
of the sour To find that a man
with a Ph.D. would adopt the
role of Grinnell's Joe Fyne is
certainly had for the image of
Grinnell as on intellectual and
rational college. Mr. Crossett at-
tacks the GSM on the basis of
its grammar and syntax rather
than its ideasr

Perhaps even more discorh
certing than his attempt to dis-
credit GSM was his approach
to argument in general. His re-
search of the GSM would he
analogous to a dissertation about
the llllad using Monarch Notes
as one’s only source. Mrs Cros<
settl has not appeared at any of
the meetings of the GSM. All
were publicly announced Mr.
Crosseit has failed to contact
any GSM member as to his own
personal feelings

However, before falling into
the same pitialls as Mr. CmS<
sett, let me enlarge upon the
“out of context" quotations re
fered to by him. it has become
apparent that the opens issue
had become a closed issue due
to the attitudes of the admire
istration. President Leggett, in
an interview with B GSM mem-
ber, had stated, as he reiterated
the following Sunday, that there
was to be no extension oi open
dorms, It therefore became evi-
dent to the GSM opens commit-
tee that the only avenue for

Friday, ociohsi 6, [91:7

didliddi. dhhddlddh

By Neil Fischer

American campus creative writing usually has two outlets —
collegersponsored workshops and lavatory walls.

But at Grinnell conscientious B846 sanitation engineers wipe
the slick walls of Forum privies clean of the day’s poetics late
each night. And every year students await a long-anticipated cre-
olive writing course which never seems to materialize.

And while the “History of Grinnell College” lecture perennially
bills this place as “a continuation of the New England tradition of
small liberal arts colleges,” it is an entertaining footnote to (his
history of hired education that all New England Colleges and uni<
versities now offer one or more classes in creative writing.

Smith College has five creative writing courses and seminars;
Amherst has four; the University of Massachusetts has nine};
MiTJ'. even has one,

For that matter We never heard of a college — save Grinnell
— that doesn’t offer some sort oi creditable work in written cra-
ativity.

But the Howard oi Poweshlelr County, I guess, doesn't see the
med for nary a wriﬁng course.

I wonder why Parsons has t .

We, of course, have our wri ng labs and our one journalism
professor and — believe it or not — one course in our catalogue
which might — incorrectly — be imputed as a writing course.

And so irate professors who read the fine print in our fine bul-
letin will, i suppose, write in correcting me: '

“Well, Mr. Fischer, I’m surprised at you. We have Expository
and Narrative Writing — that is to say, English 204 — and how
dare you print that, anyhow?"

But before you correct me, Mr. Crossett, I might tell you that
English 204 this year has been mutated into a class in Formal
Rhetoric with little or no creativity required or even encouraged.

While Jaundice — my erstwhile muse of joumalism — and I
were planning this syndicated outrage, Joe Krausman pounced on
us with the same — all too valid — complaint.

“it’s a crime. It’s an insult. Tt‘s shockingly incredible that a
college of this caliber doesn’t have a course in creative writing . t .
And I think the reason is that English professors are usually
pedants,” quoth he,

Krausman tells me that English departments generally have
two objections to teaching creative w "ng: (l_) they think good
writing is God-given (Hello, again, Mr. C) ahd (2) all of the profes-
sure "would raihei- criticize great writing than help students pro-
duce good wri ng"; in other words, nobody will teach it.

Great writing may be God-given, but as John Ciardi mused in
a recent Saturday Review, “t . . even a shmoo might recognize
that writers, whatever their divine condition, learn from one an-
otherr”

And re somebody to teach the course, 1 guess while we dish
out a million dollars plus for a PE. complex (which most people
justify because “we can always use it") it takes a poverty-stricken
resident advisor (Krausman) and a Russian professor (George
Young) to organize and finance an oifrcampus writers workshop.

Again, I emphasize that this isn’t my problem. My creative
outlet is this column, and that — believe me — is a problem.

But for the students flocking to the writer's workshop on Sun-
day afternoon and to Paul Jones’ poetry workshop because there’s
no creativity on campus, it is a problem.

And I suppose when the Haveman manifesto comes out pro
claiming a new academic environment at Grinnell, the lltemry
artists have to go back to the Forum johns and suifer and hope
that at least E&G will read their poems before they scour them
away

 

change left open was that of
revolution I now believe even
more strongly that this is true,
It. was also our opinion that be-
fore the student body would
take this truly unpleasant road
they would have to be informed
of the President’s position it
seemed to us that the sooner
the problem was solved the bet-
ter all of us — administration,
faculty and students — would
i'eel. A value judgement had to
be made. How important is stu-
dent social seltreguiation? it
is a question all of us must an-
swer helore engaging in revolu-
tion, I do not relish revolution,
but it is the only choice pre-
sently confronting students,

l would ask tlhen, that Mr.
Crossett direct his remarks to
the issues as drawn by Eric
Thor and Ron Steinhorn in past
issues of the Nil 1 would hope
that he does not continue to be-
come involved in out of context
quotations, poorly worded head-
lines, and wall posters He has

an open invitation to meet with

any of us or in come to any of

our discussions and meetings.
Michael Pens/er

LOST 8i FOUND

Students have requested that
a centralized campus lost-and<
found agency he established to
eliminate the extra steps and
confusion associated with the
multiple, informal lost- and-
found agencies which now exist.

The College Book Store has
been designated to act as the
campus lostrand-found agency.

Now and in the. future, all
articles in informal lost-and-
found agencies and articles
which appear to be lost and
whose owners cannot be iden-
tified, should be promptly
turned over to the College Book
Store

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