Friday. October l8. I763

SCARLET AND BLACK

Page NlllC

PieSideni leggeii’DiscusseS'Student Role’on thlpuS * h ,, "”‘Poverfy’ In'GrinneII“ " I

By GLENN LEGGETT

Justice Abe Fortas begins his
final chapter to his Concerning
Dlssent and Civil Disobedience
with the following sentence:
The story of man is the his-
tory, first, of the acceptance
and imposition of restraints
necessary to permit commu-
nal life; and, second, of the
emancipation of the individ-
ual within that system of nec-
essary restraints.

it is not an original observa-

tion certainly, but it is an es
pecially important one now,
when the concepts of individual
liberty and communal order are
getting so polarized that ra-
tional consideration cl differ-
ent points of view is extraordi-
narily difficult. Justice Forias
is telling us with a nice matter—
oHaCt precision that the issue
is not personal rights or com-
munal rights but rather per
sonal rights and communal
rights, not either-or but both-
and.
g I wish we could make Justice
Fortas‘ statement our text. for
the perennial debate in our
academic community over who
is violating whose rights, who
is misusing whose powers or
not using them properly, and
who is counting the votes in
whose participatory democracy.
it we could use the statement
as a text, we might be able to
recognize that our academic
community is really a plural-
ism of communities made up
of different kinds of people.
Most of them would like to dis<
charge both their obligations to
themselves and to others gra-
ciously enough to allow us to
say that we have at Grinnell at
least the spirit of a single com-
munity,

Why not? Chiefly, I suppose,
because all 1400 of us students,
faculty. and staff live so close-
ly together here that at times

we appear to deal with each
other with our nerveendings
rather than our best and most
communicative Voices. Speak-
ing for myself, I think my
chief obligation is to preserve
and enhance the reputation of
.the College as an institution
worthy of support and affection,
not only from students and fac-
ulty but from alumni and
friends to what goes on on
campus. Students and faculty
have different responses, and
I respect them. asking only
that they respect mine.

At this moment we appear
to have a plethora of problems.
Any college does. A college like
Grinnell with a superior student
body and faculty, each operat<
ing on the other's sensibilities,
is going to have more than
most. We need to remember
that a revolution in many
things is underway, every-
where, and as Martin Luther
King Jr. suggested here last
year, we aren't going to be
able to sleep through it at Grin-
nell. But I know too that, as a
community of students and fac-
ulty, we have the wit and con-
cern to make things work out
Well. Indeed, We can follow the
lead of what a good many stu-
dents and faculty are already
trying to do: to set up both
formal and informal procedures
for listening and talking, for
objecting and resolving, for pro«
posing and studying and recom<
mending. In general, we can
create structures that are both
definite and viable enough to
let us consider proposals for di<
rection and change with the
liberal disposition that a col-
lege like ours is supposed to
be creating in all of us.

The student-laculty Commit-
tea on Student Aflairs is a
structure of such procedures.
50 is the Judicial Council and
the revised Committee on Stu-

dent Publication! and Radio.
So will be the impending reor-
ganlmtioli of several faculty
committees to include student
representation. So too. hope-
fully, will be the newly insti-
tuted student advisory system
and the expanded resident ad-
viser program. Though some
difficult matters Such as the
change in women’s hours and
the residence hall system have
already been instituted, none
at the structures is secure
enough or experienced enough
at this moment to warrant an
easy optimism, and none of
them will make the place as
perfectly reasonable as each
one of us might ideally WlSl’l.
But we are at least started.
and the job now is to lessen
the gap between the problems
that keep appearing and our
procedures [or dealing With
them intelligently.

We will have some agonles
but I thlnk we can do it. We
have to. To reter to Justice
Forlas again and to paraphrase
him:

The survival of our society as
a free, open, democratic coni-
muiiity will be determined by
the procedures — the rules of
conduct, the methods, the
practices a which survive
the confrontations. For pro<
secure is the bone structure
oi a democratic society; and.
the quality of procedural
standards which meet general
acceptance a the quality of
what is tolerable and per
missable and acceptable con-
duct —— determines the dur-
ability of the society and the
survival possibilities of free«
dom within the society.

For ourselves here at Grin-
nell that kind of society is es<
sential; and we might remema
her, as the man says, that
such a good society, like Char-
ity, begins at home.

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Campus Events:

Homecoming, Love’s Labor's Losl'
By ALLAN HART

Aside from the usual enter-
talnment of the typical Grin-
nell weekend, the Homecoming
Weekend that is now upon us at-
fortls all sorts of new thrills. For
example, there will be a con-
glomeratlon oi parents mingling
around the campus, and along
with the alums, they will go
through the traditional period of
shock at the degeneration of
Grinnell students. To counteract
this moral indignation, there
will he concerts and theatrical
productions performed by those

students who have not yet fallen
under the influence at the less
upright students.

Accordingly, the first major
event of Homecoming is the col-
lege production of “Love's La-
bol's Lost” by William Shake-
speare. It is directed by Robert
Ingam, and the leads will he
played by William Saylor, Bren-
da Thomas, Elizabeth Wich-
matiu, and Fritz Schwallor. It
begins at s p.m. on Friday, in
Roberts Theatre. A: the ama

time on Saturday the play will
be given again.

Then at 8:30, both Friday and
Saturday, the Grinnell College
Choir and Chamber Orchestra
will perform in Herrick Chapel.

There will be two movies on
Friday night. The first will be
the regular ARI-l film at 9:30,
which this week will be “Key
Largo." At 10:30 in the Forum
South Lounge, “Days of Dylan
Thomas" and “A Child's Christ-
mas in Wales” will be shown.

On Saturday there will be
many activities to deepen the
numbness of the previous gem
eration. After a 9:30 a,m. coilea
hour in the residence halls,
there will be an informal sym-
posia with various representa-
tives of the administration and
students, starting at 10:30 in
the dorms. Between 11 am. and
12:30 pm. a buffet luncheon
will be served in both
the Quad and in Cowlcs
Hall. Alter the afternoon sport
events, we will be revived dra<
matlcally by a charcoal steak
dinner in the Quad and in
Cowles. Following this them
will be the alorementioned thear
. .i . .

i'ii mu

tre and choral performances.
Then the big dance will titillate
our minds and bodies. Featuring
the Pizaht Brothers Orchestra,
the Homewmilig dance will also
bring tears of nostalgia to many
guests. Of course the women will
be bedeckcd with ﬂowers dis<
tributed by enterprising, bush
ness-nlillded men for the local
florists.

That finishes the activities at ‘

Homecoming, not to mention the
adults' visiting during that time.

On Sunday, things get back to
some old degenerate scene, ex-
emplified by the Open Darius;
doubtless students will have sent
their parents home before then.
At 8:00 the Forum movie at Fri-
day night will be reshown, and
so will the ARl-l movie (9:30).

The regular Monday night
Bridge lessons will again be
held at 7:30 in the dining area
of the Forum.

Finally on Wednesday a jam
session will he held in the Forum
North Lounge, at 10:30 p.m.

With all these swell things
going on, who will think of fall-
ing to the usual depths of de-
gradation?

..u .
i I V t‘ ' 7

By KATHERINE NEWKIRK

It is an easily accepted fact that in the town of Grinnell, and
throughout lowa, there live a number of families of “poor folk."
However, it is not commonly known that families here living below
the poverty level number one in tour, a ratio comparing unfavor-
ably to the national average of one in five. Thus we see that the
pleasant rural community and the college are not, in fact, far
distant from the poverty problem, and from the war on poverty.

0n the state level, the problem is being attached by the office
at Economic Opportunity (CEO). Dr. C. Edwin Gilmur, instructor
at Political Science at Grinnell, served as the ﬁrst director of the
program beginning in June 1965. Under his year-long administration
each county was organized, and local programs were started. Grin-
uell is included in a four county program including Poweshiek.
Benton, Tama, and iowa counties. The center is at Belle Plaine.
it is the duty of the Regional organization to identify the problems
of this particular area, to identity resources available to mobilize
them, and to establish a system of priorities to determine how
resources shall be used. Programs begun by the regional commit-
tee include a year-round Head Start program, a medical services
center, and a regional multipurpose center.

According to Mr. Gilmour, the “guts" of the poverty program
is the Community Action Program (CAP), which is centered in

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A house on Griimell‘s south side.

each community. One important goal of CAP is to turn the pro-
grams back to the target group to carry out. Efiorts are made to
employ the underprivileged, and to help them organize them-
selves. The feeling expressed by Mr. Gilmour is that programs
administered by disaffected people are “demanding and dehuman-
izing" to the people at whom they are directed.

The 0E0 and CAP programs are both products of the current
“War on Poverty." Being new, they have encountered several
problems in trying to add their elforts to already existing church,
private, and educational efforts. They found the "olrlrlineH agencies
were resentful of the new programs. Many feel that the new pro—
grams have failed to do as they promised and that they have not
eliminated the Waste and red tape that were found in the earlier
decentralized system.

Mr. Gilmour expressed discouragement over the present trend
oi the poverty program for several reasons. He feels that the CEO
could be “the most promising new look in this century,” but that
the program is not understood and that in practice it has adopted
many of the characteristics of the old line agencies. Gllmcur ad-
vocates organizing the poor people so that they may become their
own representatives, He feels that they may become a powerful
political force, but until they do so, they will continue to be looked
down upon and catered to, and kept in their places as “second
class citizens.”

Other programs are underway to combat poverty in the area.
The four - county region is served by a total of 10 VISTA workers.
one living in the Grinnell community. it is the goal of these work-
ers to live in the area, among the people, and to give them as-
sistance in a personal way.

Miss Rita Zollner, the 20~year<0ld Grinnell VISTA volunteer
explained that her time is spent helping the entire community,
not only those in the lower income brackets. She gives as her
services tutoring, helping with the Uncle Sam's Club, advising the
Neighborhood Youth Corps, and working at the regional multi-
purpose center iu Malcolm, She is currently involved in organizing
a club lor mothers who receive assistance under the Aid to De-
pendent Children program. having been here 2 months, she ex-
plained that her progress has begun slowly because she wants to
learn to know the people and to have them trust her.

The Grinnell League of women Voters is also interested In
the poverty problem, and particularly in housing problems. They
are in tile process of organizing a survey to determine just what
housing conditions are in Griniiell and what may be done about
them.

College students interested in helping in the various battles
ol the war against poverty in Griniiell may do so by giving time
to the Uncle Sam's Club, by assisting teachers of the Head Start
program, or by providing aid in the League Survey For details
on available opportunities, place requests in the son mailbox. .

iii, .t..i.r....., .

‘ among

 

