— comment
Flow with info

Improving information flow among different parts of the

campus community rises

from the cloud of murky

presidential and vice presidential campaign issues as the
major concern on people's minds. This issue should definitely'
not be another one of those that is merely re-hashed again
and again in lofty philosophical conversations and-or gripe

sessions.

The SGA cabinet should work at communicating among
itselfi Joint Board members should communicate among
themselves, Both groups should communicate with each
other. And each group should communicate with the student

body at large.

Though necessary, communication among students has
been harped on to the point that the need for other in-
formation channels has been overlooked. Communication
with the faculty seems to have been totally forgotten. In-
creased Communication between students and facultv on
EPCS and in committees would be especially welcome.

While making efforts to communicate with each other,
students must not forget the absolute necessity of at-
tempting to communicate with the administration Granted,
such attempts can often be tiring Struggles. However, in
order forstudents to have any say about decisions that affect
theirlife at Grinnell, such struggles must be undertaken.

One area in which students should have significant input
is in the administration's attempt at defining the long range
goals of the college. Next year, according to President A.
Richard Turner, the administration will be coordinating an
extensive, iii-depth analysis of the future goals of the college.
It is imperative that students become involved in such a
process. It is a prime opportunity for students to express
opinions about college priorities.

As students, we can’t afford to get bogged down in at»
tempts at communicating among ourselves. Energy must be
Conserved so that we are able to effectively express our views
about the quality oflife at Grinnell College to the faculty and

administration.

Reporter
apologizes

To the Editor:

Last week’s front page article in
the 5&8 by Ted Price was probably
the poorest job of reporting 1 have
ever seen.

Mr. Price failed to adequately
research his material and was
lackadaisical in his attempts to
obtain a balanced report. He failed
to talk to all the principals involved
and relied upon written statements
when he should have directly in
terviewed those individuals. Ad-
ditionally, he printed several
allegations and failed to reveal the
evidence, or lack thereof, that
produced those allegations. Such
sloppiness is inexcusable.

I find it rather ironical that he
accused the 5&3 editorial writers
of incompetent reporting and then
turned around and did the same
thing himself. It is my sincere hope
that it never happens again.

iTed Price

Reporter
commended

To the Editor:

Thank you for an accurate or
ticle regarding the investigation oi
olfscampus funds. I only regret
that some people may read con-
spiracy and embezzlement into it. I
could not say that such is the Case
nor do I intend to imply that any
planned misuse occurred, Neither
do I intend to implicate Bill Burke
and Al Frey in ii personal scheme
to divert funds, I only believe that
[he system was inequitable and
was in need of change. I did not
intend to question lhe integrity or
character of the personalities
involved. I was pleasantly sur-
prised wiih the accuracy of the
article and commend the reporter.

—|\lm‘k A. Nissan

Miller criticizes articles

To the Editor:

Investigative reporting at its
best, exemplified by Seymour
Hersh, is a service highly valuable
to those who read it. Investigative
reporting at its worst, exemplified
by Elaine Carey, Ted Price, and
the she, is vicious, libelous gossip
not worthy of the paper on which it
is printed.

First the readers of the Grinnell
Enquirer are treated to a three full
column front page expose by Ms,
Carey of the heinous
mismanagement of concert funds
by Dan Meltzer and Carlson
Smith~a mismanagement which
consisted of dinners for the guest
performers paid for out of concert
funds. This is hardly ITT, or even
Attorney General Turner and his
airplaneiyet a serious implication
of embezzlement is raised against
Meltzer and Smith lor a policy
which has apparently succeeded in
bringing the finest talent that this
place has had in years. This piece
of irresponsible iournalistic
garbage has the distinction of
being the first article I have cver
seen which required a response
from the four major people in-
volved~on both sides of the issue~
stating the complete inaccuracy of
said article. One notices In a far~off
corner or [he last issue oi the sols
that the whole problem is solved
with a simple resolution at a Joint
Board meeting is it really,

therefore, necessary to print three-

full columns of cheap. insinuating
“news" on ihe topic?

One might think [hat the Melizen
Smith affair rcpresenls ihe
journalistic nadir of the Stills
until, howevcr. one reads the ar-
licle in the last issue of [he 5in

concerning off-campus funds. This
article can be called nothing less
than a Character assassination of
Bill Burke and possibly Al Frey.
although I know less of his in-
volvement in the matter. (Lest
anyone be concerned as to my
involvement with the Mysterious
Mark Nissen Conspiracy, I am
neither offscampus nor a Grinnell-
ianondon person.) One might, in
the first place, suggest that there is
a big difference between the Verb
used in the headline to the Story.
“cited," and the verb “alleged.”
which is What the “misuse of
funds” was. If anyone at the 8&3
office is interested or cares, this is
the kind of semantic difference on
which libel suits are based. What
is, however, far more annoying
and dangerous is the shoddy
research employed by the writer of
the article, Ted Price—the same
person who in a letter to the editor
complains of shoddy research in
articles concerning himself. One
phone call or record check would
have shown that Bill Burke has
never appropriated funds for
himself or his roommates, that Bill
Burke has never refused anyone
else funds and that Alice Bernstein
was in fact not. complaining about
mishandling of funds by Bill
Burke, but by another office on.
lirely. Aside from [his exs
traordinary negligence on the part
of Mr Price, one is faced with this
statement in his article: “Nisscn
does not plan to lake judicial ac
tion, doubting that he has hard
enough evidence to win the case .
.” This being the case, then why
devote seven prevmus paragraphs
ti) admittedly unsubstantiated
grievances of Mr. Nissan, which

Mr. Price and the 5&1} imply
convict Messrs, Burke and Frey of
embezzlement? I should expect,
and were I more involved, would
demand some sort of retraction of
the insinuations concerning at
least Mr, Burke.

This article and the precedlng
one concerning concert iunds
simply represent journalism at its
worst, and I feel that a few
questions need to be asked oi the
sun and its function here. why
must readeis week after week put
up with front page paranoic
fulminations of SGA members?
Why have the Saga replacement
issue and its dangerous
ramifications, which affect many
more people far more seriously
than the alleged misdeeds of
Meltzer, Burke, et a1, been
shunted aside in favor of this
sensationalistic tripe? Why was
the Woody Allenscommencement
fiasco oilastsemester not reported
until this semester (in a grossly
inaccurate article)? And finally,
why is the only responsible in.
vestigative reporting being done
constantly confined to the back
pages (I speak particularly of
Dave Schecter’s article on Sandy
lloth)?

While I would be hard put to give
an exact definition of the functlon
of a credible newspaper, I do know
that such a newspaper should act
as a somewhat reliable, respon
sible source oi news and opinion,
and not as a petty slam sheet. The
vcrbal cxcrcment recently printed
indicates that the 5&1: wishes itself
to be Considered a member of the
latter category.

—Jcl'll'ey Miller

The Scarlet and Black. March 5. 1976—sp. 4

in

wow assaults on denotes

Winter blahs hit

by Sue Iicpp

Not much is happening around
the old cluster of lesser known
schools this month. The gossip
grapevine is nearly barren,
Something has affected the
vineyard, a well known disease.
This blight is Called midswinter
blahs,

Several years ago upon trans-
ferring from a wild and exciting
city college I protested that
Grinnell was the bleakest spot on
earth, I’d seen happier expressions
on Appalachian flood victims.
Social life consisted of joining the
afternoon Floppy Fan Club or .
boredom of all boredom: — going to
an SGA meeting for the fun of it.
My advisor, Al Jones, seeing my
panic, comforted me with the
words, “Don’t worry - this is the
January slump, everybody‘s
preoccupied.”

Livy-riot ﬁn£m®\)%

i, xiii." sows, a... Maseru-int it‘

I didn't question him any further
and stored this tidbit away.
January slump or midwinter blahs
became my first ACM lingo. The
folks back home in Cincinnati got a
letter about this private college
phenomenon. Anxious college
watchers scanned the campus
looking for traces of it to appear on
the home fronts, It never did.

It only attacks isolated colleges.
Theories are out stating that its a
virus that gets transmitted through
private water supply lines.
Symptoms are as telltale as the fin
epidemic. Bursts of erratic
behavior occur in campus dining
halls. Students start a throwing
behavior pattern. They either
throw their Saga dinner at the
student employees or go home and
throw it up privately.

Other less notable symptoms
accompany this behavior, People
get ugly. Yes, the faces oi all those
dormmates, roommates and
college profs become painful to
look at, Thousands of students

alleviate this problem by spending
the entire winier out 0! focus. One
student, Randy Wood, anticipating
this, left his glasses at home until
spring time, Those unable to use
this method are known to become
violent. studenls begin smashing‘v
one another's faces in. Just a wee
ago at St. olaf a female poured s
gallon of hot coffee over her ugly
breakfast companion, l-le repors
tedly did not press charges with the:
local police but did break off tho'r
wedding engagement until she bah
satisfactorily recovered. The lady
in question was unavailable for an
interview with 5&3 staffers. hp»
parently, she’s given up breakfast.
Yes, the whole A.C.M. and their
less prestigious neighbors have
been struck with this plague.
Gossip is dry as a result. One leak
did get through the barren
wasteland between campuses.

at

*3

Some clown at Maharishi
University in Fairfield got up
enough energy to drop me a line.
Didn't understand a word he was’
saying. It was something about a
child being the abstract of the
absolute. I forwarded the letter to
the college preschool ior decoding.
Results might get printed this
week,

Shorisnaps: _

Feb. 9th, 1976: the Coe Colle e
bookstore was burglanzed. 32%.
dollars worth of merchandise was
missing. Items taken include
pocket calculators and instamatic
cameras.

Cornell’s Task Force committob
on residence halls is considering
developing longsterm contracts for
college residence halls. Students
could lease their rooms for periods 4
of up to three years.

Five Grinnell College freshmen
were placed under constant ob-
servation in the college Health
Center last Sunday. The condition
is critical. They’ve contracted
ciinui.

 

