Page Six

SCARLET AND BLACK

 

Trend To “Dis-Credit" ROTC

' Recently, a number of univer-
Iities, including Harvard, Yale.
Princeton, and Stanford, have
discontinued the granting of
academic credit for ROTC
programs. Waning interest in
ROTC programs has been evi-
dent across the nation. A 10%
drop in enrollment has been
noted for fiscal year 1969 alone.

Declining to follow the na—
tiooal trend, the Grinnell ROTC
enrollment has increased 15%
(mm {our years ago, reports
Capt. Purdon'l, commanding of-
ﬁcer of Grinnell AFROTC. In an
interview. Purdom expressed
the view that while the
suspension of the ROTC pro-
gram is “probably" a trend, it
is not one that will “sweep the
country.” in tact, AFROTC
alone is planning to add 15 more
detachments in the next year,
he said

Capt. Purdom reacted to
the questioning of the program
by stating that it is periectly
compatible with the aims and
goals of liberal arts education.
Purdom stated that the U.S.
defense establishment n e e d S
"articulate and intelligent" men
to understand all the problems
ol politics and the world, in»
cluding the needs of human be-
ings. He cites the college bulle-
tin as stating that Grinnell is
concerned with “exact habits of
investigation, c o m m u n i c a-
tion, intellectual integrity. and
a clear understanding oi the re-
lationship between thought and
decision, between action and
consequence." Pllrdom explain-

ed that these are the mutually
supportive goals at both the col-
lege and AFROTC heret

Purdom was opposed to both
In a kin g AFROTC mandatory
and to cutting academic credit
from the ROTC program. A
mandatory program would put
"road blocks" to the high qual<
ity oi the courses and give
course loads too large to in—
terested students. Remov-
ing academic credit would put
the ROTC on an extracurricular
level which would make it di-
rectly competitive with sports.
newspaper, and theatre activi-
ties.

Objections to the AFROTC
program's present status in»
clude the argument that “the
force of ideals” is the key
phrase in the college bulletin.
ideals are antagonistic to the
Iorce or weapons, iollows the
argument. David Lindblom, a
junior who opposes ROTC,
stated that the military is a
force which allows the U.S. to
exploit people all over the
World. Grinnell College involve-
ment with ROTC means com-
plicity with exploitation and
murder, he feels.

Having taken an introductory
ROTC course, Lindblom de-
scribed lt as “incredibly simple
minded” and limiting in its
viewpoint. Lindblom questioned
whether the limited and unques-
tioning nature or the program
could be considered in sym-
pathy with the standards at the
college and the goals or a lib~
eral arts institution.

Friday. March 7. l9".

Cidget Goes To The Grinnell Sweatshirt Shop

By GARY GTDDINS

i know that rm not the only
student who, on arriving as a
ireshman here, was completely
grossed out by what passes as
the Grinnell College Book Store.
After two and a halt years at
discussing that anti-intellectual.
antireducationol hole in the
basement of Carnegie, and after
two and a halt years oi hitching
to Iowa City or Des Moines to
get a book or magazine, several
students including myself have
decided that there has been
enough talk and that something
should be done. Briefly then.
here are eight suggestions ior
rectiiying a major problem in
the “Grinnell Experience.” I!
we can't, at the very least. proA
voke an immediate discussion
between Mr. Wassan and sev-
eral {acuity and student repre-
sentatives, then we recommend
that you thumb through your
old SErB‘s and reread Susan
Kaeser’s manual on taking over
college buildings.

L All texts and hard cover
books should be sold at 20%
below the publisher’s price. IT
Bookmaster’s, etc. can stay in
business selling at a discount
then an allegedly non-proﬁt
book store should be able to.

2. Magazines or intellectual
merit should be stacked. Varsity
is line if you like “Busty" or
“Plump Knees" but where the
hell in Grinnell can you get,
without subscribing, copies of
the Paris Review, the New
York Review, the Swanee Re-
view, Saturday Review. and

New Yorker, Evergeen, the
Realist, I. r. Stone‘s Weekly
etc. I’m sure that at the very
least, live copies of each could
be sold regularly.

3. The bookstore should stock
a tow copies of books or popu-
lar and/or scholarly interest
that are published currently.
For example, this year alone,
there were new publications or
new translations of such impor-
tant writers as Bellow. Malraux,
ilesse, Kosinski, Barth, Berry-

.man, Arendt, etc. it the First

Circle and Wellmr Culture
weren't being used as texts,
they wouldn’t have been ordered
either,

Lin order to expand the
stock it would probably be nec-
essary to expand space or at
least redeem-ate the store. Pos<
sibilities: use part of the stor-
age room; get rid of the over-
priced cosmetics; use a class-
room in ARH. There are other
possibilities which need to be
discussed.

5. Let students work in the
store on the same salary set up
that the library works under.
The book store should be {or the
students and the students can
use the jobs. (For examples at
how this and some of the other
ideas in this list might work,
check the Antioch book store.)

6. There should be a commit—
tee consisting oi one proi and
one student from each depart-
ment to discuss what books
should he ordered that are re-
lated to course texts, but aren't
assigned. For instance, in a

 

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course on American Literature
there will be many importaui
authors that can’t be tit into
the course but that the prof
could still suggest, knowing
that they are available
in the book store. The sami
thing goes tor reference mate-
rial.

7. It would be nice it channels
were set up to sell and order
records of major interest such
as the Caedmnn series.

5. Students should be able to
order any books from the book
store.

Of less importance, it those
damn price stickers have to
mar expensive texts that the
few bookropheliacs among us
might want to keep and look at
with love and devotion, couldn’t
they please be placed on the
rust blank page?

if you agree with the gist or
this list >—- and if you don’t you
should be in Monmouth -_ get
angry, sign the petitions that
will be sent around, speak to
your professors and iind out it
they agree too.

4-lelier Words
Slall CBS Paper

The printer of The Brother-
hood, the Concerned Black Stu-
dents’ newspaper. balked about
printing the last issue of the
paper, but ﬁnally yielded to
pressure by several ces mem-
bers and printed it.

The manager of Grinnell 01'.
iice Supply, Robert Anderson,
said that he has had no qualms
about printing past issues or
The Brotherhood, but that he
objected to the use at “tour-
letter words" in the 11105! re-
cent issue.

"I told them I would preler
not to print it,” Anderson told
the SGtB. “I don’t use those
words myseli, and that’s the
same reason I wouldn’t run an
ad in Plerndactyl.”

Anderson said that he finally
agreed to print the mimeo—
graphed paper after Editor Roy
Walker and other Black Stu-
dents talked to him “Tor an hour
and twenty minutes and
wouldn't give in."

According to Walker, CBS had
bought printing supplies irom
Grinnell cilice Supply as part
at an agreement that the firm
would print The Brotherhood.

Anderson said that he had
agreed to print the paper. but
that he was unaware that four-
letter words would be used. He
said he told the Black students
they could return the supplies
they had bought and he would
relund their money, ii they
wished.

Walker was not satisfied with
Anderson's reason for not want-
ing to print The Brotherhood.
“We’ve used the word 'nigger'
in past issues, and he’s never
objected,” he said. "His reasons
weren't concrete."

Anderson said that his person-
al dislike of {ourvletter words
is the only reason he didn't
want to print the Black stu-
dents’ paper. "They tried to
bring color into it, but l’m not
discriminating at allr I told
them i was more on their side
than on any other," he told the
58:3.

 

