4 AUGUST 25'l972 wheéturirt lino Titania

sen QEoiturt’aI

College As Business

Grades are supposed to be a taboo subject around here.
Despite the fact that they remain for many a student the basic
object of his education, we would rather believe that they are
not. Have we not developed a liberal program of creditefail
grading in recent years ?And did we not adopt a grade»erase
system last Spring which promises to de-emphasize the whole
grading system ?The trend is toward grade abolishment, and
students, faculty, and administrators alike tend to wax philo»
sophical when holding forth on the matter.

But the fact remains that if grades are important to the em-
ployer or to the grad school, they are important to the stu-
dent. And as every student who cares the least about them
knows, when Grinnell gets around to the task of reporting
his marks at semester’s end, the process can be painfully
slow.

Grade reports from first semester of last year came out
in February, seven weeks after the end of finals. For the second
semester the Registrar’s office was a bit faster: we got them
at the' end of June, only five weeks after the last exam. Uni-
versities more than ten times our size get the job done in two
weeks or less.

The matter, of course, lacks great importance. The varie
ous secretarial and computer»oriented delays are surely ex-
plainable, particularly to those with liberal imaginations.
Nonetheless, small bother that it is, the delayed reporting
of our grades does point up a troublesome conceptual con—
flict within this college and many others aswell: is the college
primarily a business, or is it primarily an educational ins
stitution ?The two seem, puzzlingly, to have become opposed.

Imagine yourselfa faculty member or administrator ofa small,
upper-middle-class, liberal arts college in the Midwest. Your
business is not to train the future cogs of society’s economy,
it is rather to help young minds to develop, to learn, to grasp
the concepts of intellectual importance in a society and to
learn to manipulate them so as to create a philosophy, 3 way
of living. This is no simple business These matters are
humanitarian--education is above the whims of mere economic
factors. These are no commodities»they are people, budding
intellectual beings.

Now consider another view :The college is a production
machine. It takes in a stream of young minds, presents them
with a body of information and gives them access to certain
tools with which to manipulate that information, evaluates
the performance and, if the product passes inspection, pins
on it a diploma certifying approval and deposits it at the other
end of the assembly line,

Both' views are extreme, but here we find that although the
second would rarely be expoused by any liberal and humanie
tarian educator or administrator, the first has great popular
appeal. Perhaps we need to, as the saying goes, reeevaluate
our priorities: the college should begin thinking about its
responsibilities as a business as well as its obligations to
the ivory tower. There should be no reason why the two could
not be successfully combined; financialtroubles in recent years
have jolted many colleges into economic reality already. We
need to continually pursue, of course, our intellectual respon-
sibilities--but that does not mean we should be allowed to
forget that, like every other societal institution, the wheels

NASSER. KLEIN, THORNTON

Three Profs Resign Late

Several members of the Grinnell joined Nasser and Department

faculty resigned during the early
weeks of the summer after the school
had adjourned. Because of the econ
nomic situation and the late Search
for faculty by many schools, Presir
dent Leggett said, several of Grinr
hell’s instructors had to turn in their
resignations after the unoffiClal
deadline" of May 1,

Alan Nasser, controversial ins
structor in the Department of Phil—
osophy, gave the college his resig-
,nation during the second Week of
June. In an undated letter to the
PreSident, he said that he had
accepted at that time a position
at another institution and would not
be returning to Grinnell.

Nasser had earlier in the Spring
been given a one-year terminal cone
tract by the college and was seeking
employment elsewhere during the
last few months of school. Three
members of the student EPC who

Chairman John Worley at a conven-
tion of philosophy instructors in st,
Louis the weekend of May 476 had
interviewed prospective candidates

and made a list of preferred appli—
cants. Upon receiving word of
Nasser’s resignation, Worley im-
mediately contacted the top four canv
didates on the EPC list and found
that only one was Still available,
Thomas D Davis of the University
of Michigan He was hired as Lin
instructor,

Several members of the college
community have told the $78 that
Nasser will be teaching at St. Mary’s
College, an adjunct of the Univer-
sity of Notre Dame in South Bend,
Indiana, although the 8-H has re-
ceived no positive confirmation.

Virginius E .Thornton, Assistant
Professor of History and American
Studies, Submitted to the college a
brief letter stating his resignation

upon which we run are economic, A good starting place, per—
haps, would be to begin building an interest in administrative
efficiency like, for example, getting the grades outa bit earlier
next time.

A Beginning

The time has come, the Walrus said,
To talk of many things :

Of shoes and ships and sealingewax,
0f cabbages and kings——

And why the sea is boiling hot,

And whether pigs have wings.

Lewis Carroll wrote that verse an even quarter century after

a small group of Congregational ministers gathered together
in central Iowa to draw up the articles of incorporation for
little Iowa College, Carroll probably never heard of Grinneil,
or even of Iowa, but through the years his words have come to
occupy a special place in the hearts of those of us who have
heard the countless lectures, symposia, and discussions, and
have read many mailboxes full of campus blurbs. Surely no
one who has seen past issues of this newspaper can deny
that Carroll‘s verse, one hundred years after it was written,
has startling relevence to today’s Scarlet and Black. ‘
The S&B has long held a special place in the college commun-
ity. It was on the afternoon of September 12, 1894 that some
lonely Grinnell student (whose name has since been lost in
the annals of history) opened his mailbox and became the first
Grinnellian to discover a copy of the Scarletand Black thereinl
His reaction to that first issue was not recorded, but ever
since the 58:13 has every Friday afternoon provided an entere
taining thirty or forty minutes of reading material for the
entire college community.

You will find, however, that its uses are not limited to the
purpose for which it is intended. inhabitants of leaky dormie
tory rooms have long reported to us its excellence for the
purpose of plugging up cracks in the walls. Those with unruly
roommates have found it effective for smothering same during
the night, and when rolled up tightly it can, of course, be
used to great advantage as a fly swatter. The President’s
office receives twenty-five copies weekly for use as doormats.
On a more sober note, its letter page has provided an ex-
cellent forum for frequent praises of the fine quality of SAGA
food and columnists find it extremely handy for the purpose
of providing free publicity for themselves and their friends.

On occasion, however, we do attempt to provide the college
with a service of which it has genuine need a fair and objec-
tive weekly record of its life. We try to report the news,
to provide an open forum for comment, and to publicize those
small and often largely-unnoticed incidents of interest which
give the life of Grinnell the fascinating diversity that it has.
Throughout the next school year this will be your student news
paper, nothing more and nothing less. We hope that you will
give us every week a few moments of your attention, and that
you will help us to be the kind of newspaper you would like
your school to have, for the 5&8 is a voice of the students
and it relies on the students to provide it with life.

Therefore, to old and new students alike: Welcome to Grinnell!
May this be the beginning of a grand and successful year. You
can be sure that we’re delighted to be sharing it with you.

The 5&3 welcomes letters
from any member of the cam-
pus community, All letters
should be typed or neatly
printed Those longer than 300
words may be subject to editing
should available space be
limited, and all letters should be
signed although names will be
Withheld upon request.

The ShB encourages members
of the community to speak out
on all issues of concern to
Grinnell.

on July l, saying that lie was plan-
ning to devote his time to complet-
ing his doctoral dissertation Alter
a quick search the college was able
to [ind no replacement, and his
position remains as the only vacant
spot on the faculty as the new seine
ester hegins.

Henry F .Klein 0f the Art depart
ment resigned on May 31, shortly
after the end of the second semese
ter. The college has hired Grafton
L Boehner of the University otlown
to fill the position.

The College also received oilicial
word during the summer that James
Magee, Professor oi Political
Science, and Neal Milner, Associate
Professor of Political Science,
would be leaving the college to llccept
positions elsewhere. Their resignﬁs
tions although not official, had been
known by the college community has
fore the end (lithe semester.

all)? @i'lliilllll
§tfirlti nub ﬂintk

CRINNELLCOLLEGE

in ninth Scarlet ind “ink is nu )ll'lltill
msahir it in tin tint». i punish-ii thin
with in n s in assign iii iiicihniu
thin with. «ism-n inniunim .ni
lillllll i, . nit minds with .iinsahnt n.

.i hi hi nunn uni urnllt n,
m. n dininu mute

til-H in

stand i he tutti. i din tannin low «on:

,_,

KDlC FM radio (88.5 mhz) ,the
Grinnell student radio Station, will
begin broadcasting at noon on Sat
urday, August 26, and remain on
a noon-toemidnight schedule during
the first ten days or two weeks of
the school year. Members of the
station’s Executive Board and far
turning students who have DJ ex~
perience will staff the station unr
til a permanent schedule of DJ's
and special programming can be
completed
The station when operating on its
normal schedule will he on the air
for twenty hours each day. KDIC,
founded by members of the Grinnell
student body tive years ago, features
classical music as well as rock,
and also broadcasts special pro-
gramming during particular periods
of the day. As a primarily educa—
tional and non-commercial station

STATION

KDIC

OPENS
NEW YEAR

KDlC features a great deal of pub-
lic affairs programming, Such as
interviews and commentaries, as
well as conducts a tape exchange
service with other progressive star
tions in major markets around the
country, such as Seattle, St, Louis,
and New York.

Since the station is completely stur
dentroperated and studentrdirected,
new students will find many oppor-
tunities to get into the operation
whether or not they have had pre»
vious radio experience. Staff posi-
tions, station Manager John Seeley
told the 5-3, are open in all phases
of the station's Operation news and
engineering as well as onrthe-air
work.

The Executive Board of KDIC cone
sists of Station Manager Seeley,
Chief Engineer Bob Sparks, and Pro-
gram Director Mike Stern. The three
plan to conduct an open house at the
station on Monday evening from
seven o’clock until midnight for new
students who might be interested in
production, engineering, or on—the
-air work with the station. KDIC
is located in several rooms near the
rafters of Darby Gymnasium in the
northwest corner. The entranceway
is at the top of a flight of stairs
on the north end of Darby.

An organizational meeting for those
interested in participating in the
station’s operation will be hetd durv
ing the second week of the school
year. The time and date will be
announced.

Because of the large number ofair
personnel who are no longer at
Grinnell, Seeley said, there should
be many opportunities for new stu-
dents. The station will this yearplan
to emphasize local news and and
ience participation shows more titan
it has in the past.

The latter will be made possible by
new onvthe-air telephone equipment
being installed by the station’s ens
gineering staff. Various call-in for-
mats are in the planning stages.
Other new equipment added over the
summer months promises to me
prove the quality of the station’s
broadcasts. The record library at
the station has also been expanded
considerably, and featured album
lists will be prepared at regular
intervals in the near future.

KDIC schedules will appear regu—
larly in the see throughout the year.

‘_’

till tint
\iAAAGhn iiiiton
rum riiiuiu

iii-sine unmiit
Aiitt‘ttl’tshn nmniw
than is

roi t um i

iiri iiwinn in. ii

ieiiniiisi,
in.n with."
uni win

up Am M
mm an:
out Corn-ii

s on u an

it. in.”

spit,

human
vivnimns iii vim.»
innit. tinnitus iimntiuit, hum.
iiini. radium. pun inn Ltiluli iiini
unit. which, uni. iii. unmii mint
iiiv lion innit m. \inniii uniiiriin
itininrii, simiiininpt iiiiwriidi uni
anoint“ mi sinus on tinhnsii \in-i
unlit mi wait

 

