Faculty outlines ideal presidential traits

by Trena Cleland

In anticipation ol their upcoming
involvement in the search for a
replacement for resigning
President A. Richard Turner,
faculty members have begun to
articulate their various concepts of
the ideal Grinnell president.

Their composite profile is of a
person who would have to he. says
facility Chairman Ronald Kurtz, a
“paragon of virtue” to meet all the
qualifications suggested,

FACULTY MEMBERS who
were questioned agreed the new

president should have a “strong
academic background,” though
not all believed experience
teaching or administrating at a
school similar to Grinnell is
crucial. Kurtz, however, feels a
person who has had such exposure
would be “preferable to one
comingfroma university setting
. . an initial empathy with the
problems of a small liberal arts
college would be a real asset.”
Another possiblity, Kurtz said,
would be to search out an official
who has had administrative ex

perience, though not necessarily in
education.

“It’s not unreasonable to think of
a president who hasn’t had his or
her career specifically involved in
the academic enterprise. We might
consider Someone who’d have
gotten an extensive education, but
perhaps who went on to get a law
degree, or headed up a public
agency, or did foundation work .
in effect, someone who has built-in,
external ties to either the govern
ment or a major foundation, an
intellectual with external, praCr

tical experience That would not be
an unattractive package to me,"
he Said.

A summon president, in
Kurtz’s eyes, would be “a public
figure, able to carry on an external
role effectively, and yet be in
ternally politically savvy, able to
read situations here well, and
effective in working with students,
faculty, and staf .”

English professor James
Kissane echoed Kurtz’s desire for a

who is vigourous and hopeful,
inspiring, and pleasant to work
with.

"ACADEMIC DISTINCTION
and achievement ofa distinguished
sort are to be sought after, not
because they look good, but
because they indicate that the
person has spent some of his life
closely involved in education, is
self-confident, and is sensitive to
the needs and aspirations of a
school like this," Kissane Said.

“successful and experienced

administrator and educator . . . iwnlinued 0" triage 3!

 

The Grinnell

Scarlet 8 Black $th

2/2/79 _
Grinnell College
Grinnellglowa
Vol. 87, No. 16

 

“Crystal-iced" pine cones add delicate beauty to the tundra
time to enjoy this sight, since some are predicting that there

perature will rise above freezing.(y|wm by Karl Dukstein.)

recast

rlike scenes of Winter. You'll have plenty of
won‘t be a day this month Where the lem»

Skip Day resolution passed

by Missy Bowen

Joint Board passed Wednesday
night a resolution calling on the
faculty to defeat at their next
meeting a motion which would
abolish Skip Day.

The Joint Board resolution,
introduced by VicePresident Lynn
Boughey, passed unanimously.
The faculty will Consider their
motion at their next regular
faculty meeting, tentatively
scheduled for Feb. 19.

Earlier Wednesday, the SGA
cabinet rejected a compromise
proposal worked out that day by
SGA President Gregg Youtz, Fac-
ulty Chairman Ron Kurt: and
Dean of the College Waldo Walker.
The compromise called for prior
notiﬁcation by Walker of the week
in which Skip Day is to be held and

a the naming of an alternate week in

case of inclement weather.
The cabinet rejected the comr

promise, Youtz said. because it'

would destroy the spirit of Skip
Day.

“It would eliminate the spon-
taneity of Skip Day,” he said. If it
was prerplanned, we would lose the
beneﬁt of it."

Kurtz said the Cabinet's decision
was “a bad scene," adding ”there
should be some way of accounting
for it so it won't be so unexpected.”

Kurtz said he recognized the
spontaneity of Skip Day might be
reduced by the compromise
proposal but felt uiis is not an
important concern. “It's not really
spontaneous anyway," he said,
“Everyone’s expecting it around
the same time,”

Skip Day has come in for
criticism from science professors
who feel it disrupts lab schedules.
Biology professor John Martinek
said Skip Day also plays havoc

i with the‘shorter biology units. The
yunit classes, he said, “can't take
advanta e of the - 'n-

offered on Buffer Day."

Martinek also objects to
the fact students use skip Day as a
study day.

“That makes it a rather limited
utility,” he said. “With all the
break time we have, it's un-
necessary."

skip Day, however, has support
lin other faculty quarters. French
i professor Victor Verrette said it is
only a minor interruption.

“Adjustments can be made,” he
said. “The Students are Willing to
imake them, and they don’t com-
lplain.”

when Skip Day was officially
sanctioned in 1974, the resolution
was passed by approximately 75
per cent of the faculty. Since then,
it has often been criticized by
various faculty members, But
Kurtz is confident Skip Day will
survive. . . -

"I don’t think Skip Day will die,”

Profs support
' grade Changes

by Bob Mitchell

Almost all faculty members who have responded to a survey con-
ducted by Dean of the College Waldo Walker indicated they support
some kind of change in the grading system.

Sixtyrseven of the 73 faculty members responding to the survey
indicated support for a change in the grading system, while one op~
posed change and five had no opinion.

WALKER SAID THIS week the Committee on Academic Standing,
which he chairs, will probably be asked to come up with an alternative
to the current system within the next three weeks. The proposal would
then be sent to the Curriculum Committee before going to the faculty
for approval.

In a oneand-a-half page memo accompanying the survey, Walker
stopped short of offering any official proposals for changing the
gradmg system but said he preferred two grading systems to the one
used now by the college,

ONE SYSTEM, WHICH the college used until 197273. parallels the
current grading system except that a failing gradegan “F” worth
no grade points, is atthe bottom of the grade scale insteadofa D.

In the other system, a Scale which would use plus and minus grades
from A (4.0) down to D (1.3) and~an F (0.7) would be used.

THE COLLEGE CURRENTLY uses a scale with a minus grades
between A and B» (2.5), a C and D.

Grinnell used a failing grade up until the 1972-72 academic year,
with the exception of the spring semester of 1969-70, when the school

rl b use of 9. Kent State " Us. The D was also
glﬁiﬁdeiuﬁnﬁgmg bill weaaﬁéﬁ‘ikﬁiym

ALTHOUGH HE DID not offer any formal proposals in the memo
for changing the system, Walker did explain his unhappiness with the
present system. ,

Walker suggested in the memo the college abandon the “erase"
option, which allows students to drop a course before the end of a
semester without receiving any marks on their transcript.

“I REALIZE THAT the students may object strongly to any
suggestion that we move away from the erase component of the
current system, but I believe that it is this component of the current
system that causes me major problems,” he said,

Walker said many students withdraw from classes in order to avoid
receiving D‘s and Cs on their transcripts, and “there is even some
evidence that some Withdraw to avoid receiving a B."

IN ADDITION, HE said , the current system encourages students to
measure their academic progress in terms of gradepoint average and
not in terms of accumulated credits, Consequently, Walker added,
many students have a distorted idea of how well they are doing
academically.

“I believe that the ‘erase’ option has had an insidiously negative
effecton the student’s impression of how successful she or he actually
is," Walker said.

THE ADDITION 017 the D grade last year also was criticized by
Walker in the memo.

”The net result of the addition of the D to our current system is that
students believe that it is more beneficial to receive an erase than to
receive the passing grade of D," he said.

THE FACULTY'S SUPPORT for a change in the grading structure
does not mean it supports the two options outlined by Walker, said Ron
Kurtz, chairman of the faculty. But many faculty members feel the
,erase option allows students to avoid uieir responsibilities when they
register for a class, he said.

Roger Koester, Assistant to the Dean, said last semester the number
of students who dropped a class late in the semester “seemed quite

, high,” The number of students who have dropped courses has risen
steadily during the last few years, he said.

l KURTZ SAID HE expects a change in the grading system, and that
,a time limit should be established on when students could wiuldraw

 

