The

t“

&

Scarlet

& Black

 

Health Service
cuts examined

by Debbie Weiner

Last year, the Health Service
budget was cut by $8,500: Nurse
Irma Hall and the Health Service
sub-committee, after recovering
from the shock of the drastic cut,
have learned to live with the
change. But what has happened to
the quality oi the Service? Ac-
cording to Hall, “We’re doing the
best we can under this given set of
circumstances . , I think it's
pretty damn good.”

With a supplies budget of around
53,500, the remaining portion or the

tal budget, personnel, was the
only area that could be cut. This
led to a reduction in operating
hours. Last year nurses were
present around the clock, while
his year three nurses are on duty a
total of 65 daylight hours per week.
Student clerks are on duty the rest
of the time.

“This is just the way it‘s going to
be, and we have to become ac-
customed to it,” Hall Commented.
At first, however, she wasn’t too
happy about the cu

Neither was committee member
Gary Doernhoefer. “It should not
have been Cut that drastically,” he
asserted. He believes there should

Have been more discussion before
the budget cut was made. “If we
can show that there is significant
student concern , , . maybe we can
do something ab t the budget,”

as added,

“I used to be angry about the

The initial months of the Jimmy Carter Administration were discussed last Monday in a public South

 

whole goddamn mess,” said
committee member Jo l.ooye, The
situation has worked out better
than she expected, however. She
still believes, as do Doernhoefer
and Hall, that Grinnell’s health
service compares favorably with
health services at ,other small
colleges. However, most com-
mittee members agree that there
is room for improvement.

The new hours have given the
RAs more responsibility, but,
according to Kate Waldo, it hasn't
been “a terrible burden.” At the
beginning at the year there were
some problems, but, she said, “I
feel pretty comfortable with the
system as it is now.” The RAs have
had a little health training but they
“are not really prepared to ad-
minister ﬁrst aid," Waldo ex-
plained. ‘lt’s uniortunate. but it
basically means that the students
must take more responsibility lor
their own health care,”

Many students have complained
about the reduced Services, and
there is some confusion about what
the Health Center can and cannot
do.

The Service’s main function is to
serve as a screening agent by
helping students decide whether or
not to see a doctor. The nurses
make referrals to Various doctors
in town, and they can obtain ap
pointrnents within 24 hours. much

(continued on page 3i

Lounge discussion entitled “Jimmy Cnrter’s Report Card."

Grinnell College
Grinnell, Iowa

4/15/77 Vol. 85, No. 23

Grinnell hosts Spender

Literaryrminded students at
Grinnell College this spring will
have the unique opportunity of
hearing Stephen Spender, the
reknowned poet and critic.
Spender \vlll be at Grinnell for the
remainder of the semester under
the Heath Visiting Prolessorship.
In addition to teaching a class on
“Poetry of the Thirties," Spender
\vlll deliver a number of lectures to
the college at large during the
upcoming weeks.

Spender, Who has written over 30
books of poetry, criticism. and
iiction, is perhaps best known for
his membership in the literary
coterie which included W,H.
Auden, Cecil Day Lewis, Louis
MacNeice, and Christopher
lsherwood, among others. Spender
has been credited with helping to
create a new style and cone
sciousness in English poetry.

Stephen Spender was born in
London in 1909, the son oi a jourr
nallst father and a mother who
\l'rote part-time. Alter “a quite
ordinary" education at various
private schools. Spender attended
Uni‘v croity College at Oxford. Alter
Oxiord, Spender made his living as
a tree-lance journalist, splitting his
time between London and Berlin
In Berlin he spent a great deal of
time with Isherwood, whose
famous book I Am A Camera
portrays Berlin society prior to
World War II. Spender remembers
Berlin as an “impoverished, but

,iriendly” place, where “it was

President Carter's perlormance in the areas at foreign. domestic. and economic policy was assessed by
(leit to right)l?rolcssors Alan Jones (history and American studies), Wayne Moyer (political science), Walter-
Stone tpoliticnl sclencet, and Patricia Brenner (economics).

While the consensus was [or giving Carter an overall “incomplete" due to the short time he has been in 0'-
iiee, he did receive preliminary high marks from Moyer [or is “strong initiative" in the areas or SALT and
human rights. Jones praised his campaign for human r' hts, noting that it was “a question that has not been
raised in U.S. foreign policy in thirty years." but cri cized the President {or a “lack of in ive in the
domestic sector." Stone noted that up to now ”Carter's presidency has been highly symbol He also gave
Carter the only “no credit“ of the evening [or his poor relations with Congress. Brenner gave Carter high
marks {or his choice oi economic advlsorsl

, About 250 people attended the discussion, which was sponsored by SGA. °"°‘° m “‘0’“ “WW9

by Peter Jarolf

possible to live on very little."

Much has been made at the
political involvement or literary
ligures during the ‘30‘5, especially
in relerence to the Spanish Civil
War. But Spender finds this notion
”a bit exaggerated." Spender
believes that antttascism, rather
than any particular ideology,.
lorced writers into the political
arena.

Spender himself was a member
of the British Communist party for
exactly one week during this
period. Out of that disillusioning
experience came Spender's essay
in the book The God that Failed, a
compilation of writings by various
authors including Arthur Koestler
and the ltalian novelist lgnazo
Silone. Since that time, Spender
has not belonged to any political
party, although he confesses that
he remains “rather interested in
politics."

Because oi the close ties between
Spender, Auden, MacNeice and
company, the poets have

i sometimes been referred to as the
“Oxford Group." Spender disowns
the tag, saying it was “invented"
lor the group by reviewers and
literary journals. “It is misleading
to Call it a movement,” he cons
tinues. However, the collective
impact at the group on twentieth-
century poetry cannot be denied,
Throughout the years, Spender and
his colleagues kept in close cone
tact.

After World War II, the
responsibilities of family life
(Spender married in 1941) led the
poet to concentrate his energy on
tull-time, “proiessionalj’ poetry
jand criticism. His iiist job aiter
the war was in the United States, a
one-year teaching stint at Sarah
Lawrence College. Spender has
been a frequent visitor to the U.S.,
teaching or lecturing in many
colleges and universities, including
Northwestern, Berkeley, Florida,
Connecticut, and most recently,
Cornell College this past fall.

During his visits to American
cities and campuses, Spender has
arrived at several impressions
concerning Americans and their
literature: In' his most recent book

of criticism, Love-Hate Relations,
Spender claims that America now
enjoy the “immense advantage”
that England used to hold in the
iield of letters. Says Spender.
“England in the nineteenth cen-
tury was the top industrial nation,
with masses of material, masses of
intormation, very alive and very
exciting. Today, England has

retired. America really
corresponds to nineteenth century
England, where you get enour-
mous novels by Pynchon about
American life, rather like Dickens
wrote enormous novels about
English life.”

In addition, American poets get
better treatment generally than do
poets in England. “They expect
more." says Spender. “and they
get more, although without
realizing it.” Whereas both
societies probably view poetry's
importance as only marglnal, “it’s
a under margin" in the U.S., states
Spender,

In comparing American and
English college students, Spender
has found that a “great number" of
American students turn up at
college “without the faintest idea“
why they are there On the other
hand, the best American studenm,
Spender believes, “are far more
creatlve” than their English
counterparts when it comes to
writing. American students have
“a life outside of school" that
English students do not share.

Spender has been kept “very
busy” since his arrival on campus
late last week. On Tuesday night he
addressed about 200 [acuity and
students on the topic of “What is a
Romantic?" Spender has two
more lectures scheduled this
month, and on top of preparing for
classes, he is also presently at
work on a play about Nazi Ger-
many.

The John R. Heath Visiting
Lectureship, under which
Spender was brought to Grinnell,
was established in 1959. Arnold
Toynbee and Denis Brogan have
been invited to the campus in past
years under this program.

 

 

