Page Two

The Scarlet & Black

Student- Newspaper of
Grinnall collage,
Grinnell, Iowa

An Indep cud-
em: newspaper pub-
llshod wzokly. ex-
cept during holl-
dzys and examina-
rlori periods. by the
Gnnnell Committee
on Student Publica-

lions. subscripflon rate 36.00 per
school year.

583 EDITOR/Al

Two and a half years ago, a student at this col-
lege wrote a letter to the editor of the Scarlet &
Black complaining about inconsistencies in the col-
lege's treatment of one of our most “relevant"
campus issues: inequality of the sexes, To this day,
the questions asked by that student remain unan-
swered. It would seem that Grinnell has a long way
to go before some glaring discrepancies are elimi-
nated.

The student was James A. Arieti, and he was
complaining about lack of equality in the require-
ments for men’s and women‘s physical education of
Grinnell. Though token changes have been made in
both programs, the gap remains to be filled between
the two Can male students rest while they are yet
so cruelly wronged?

To make matters worse, the disparity is even
being augmented. This semester a seminar in the
Department of American Studies is being offered
for women only. The subject of the course is wom-
en. No one could maintain that Grinnell males
would evince a lack of interest in such a course,
Nonetheless, males are not allowed. Is there no
justice?

Perhaps campus males should form a group
along the lines of the current Women’s Liberation
Front, Its own programs seem to be very effective,
if nowhere else, in bolstering the resolve of its
members, Arsenic dialectic and frenetic manipula—
tion of previously enslaved Grinnell womanhood
have produced a small but dedicated core of female
students freed from the apron strings of male
chauvinisml

There are some difficulties in such a program,
howeverl Even those of us in the current generation
of students and faculty who are too old to have had
the benefit of a modern high school course in sex
education are still able to tell the difference bew
tween a man and a woman. As one liberated woman
confessed to us on campus a few days ago, “Some of
our ideas just seem to run counter to my nature."
She was forced to admit either that her nature
could not be changed or that she should try to
change it. If the women on campus decide on the
latter course of action, we suggest that the Women's
Liberation Front give up their bourgeois bake-sale
money-making program and begin charging admis-
sion to weightlifting exhibitions.

Editors ., . Hurry mum-i,

Lloyd Carson

Business anger John Brody

Managing mlfor Steve Grvw

uymlt Edlwr . Barb sohuurmon

Spons Editor John Pepper

Reponers ., . caurv Nowiarlf,
Milk Sableman, Greg Butcher,
Reggie Graham. Kathryn Helnze.
Nada Mangioleul, Tom Greenfield,
Mike siezei, Phil stlch,

Ken Gordon

College Receives Liberated Women

Study Grant

Grinnell College has received

Begin Seminar

Women will be the subject of

a $4,000 grant from the National
Science Foundation. President
Leggetl has announced that the
grant will help finance Grinnell’s
program of undergraduate
summer research in the natural
sciences by providing ten weeks
of research for three chemistry
students this summer,

The students will work under
the supervision of Luther E.
Erickson and Gene G. Wubhels
oi the chemistry faculty.

Similar grants from the
National Science Foundation
have helped finance Students
research at Grinnell during
several recent summers.

a seminar this semester. A group
often women will discuss women
through reading a series of books
on such subjects as women‘s
struggles in history, women and
employment, etc.

The two»credit Course open to
all women is set up as an in-
dependent wiihin the Deparlmeni
of American Studies.

—

Carla Coiicy and Sherida
Lyman will prcsent a cello and
piano recital of works by com-
posers Bach, Kodaly, Mozart.
Brahms, and Bartok on Satur-
day, January 30. at 8:00 in
Roberts Theatre.

SCARLET AND BLACK

TO THE EDITORS:

You boys seem to have allowed
your newfound power to run
away with your sense, and
allowed irrational exuberance to
cloud your view of the iacls, 1
would like to correct a few
glaring errors in the discussion
of Grinnell's Student government
which appeared in last week’s
editorial.

You said that students desire
democracy f“. . .the principle oi
democracy ought to be operative.
. X’). a minor error in terr
minology with major results.

First, students have long
recognized that true democracy
is a system inherently corrupt.
Since its principle is the rule of
the majority over the minority,
it is merely a thinly disguised
form of that old evil, ”might
makes right": there ale more of
us, so our fraction is stronger and
will rule. Nothing could be less
just, especially in a country
capable oi electing the current
administration ‘and supporting
the current war. it is, after all,
the new working class which is
economically benefited by
munitions production, No,
whatever other errors our fellow
students make, they realize that
superiority in numbers, as in our
Superiority over North Vietnam,
is no Standard for determining
who should govern.

Second, thoughtful students
have come to realize the yicious
implications of so apparently
innocent a thing as “self
government ” As that sage of the
radical movement, Ambrose
Bierce, once so correctly ob-
served, there cannot be any such
thing as “self government.”
What can it mean to govern
yourself? Didn‘tilames Earl Ray
govern himself? Doesn't Richard
Millstone (SIC) Nixon govern
himself? What can governing
yourself mean except doing
whalrver you damn please?

Third, students will continue to

shrug off true democracy, and
illegitmate son, republicanism,
as long as they feel secure. When
rules were enforced by
sycophants of the establishment
( ask any senior what things were
like his freshman and sophomore
years), students had every
reason to fear the worst.
Student government becam.
active, and prevented uiose
traitors from having the ultimate
power they craved: the judicial
Council was formed. New
students know that they are safe
from enforcement, since they
themselves are doing the en-
forcing, is befits self govern-
ment. They know, further, that
if by some outrage a rule should
be enforced, the judicial council
will act in their behalf and refuse
to allow the injustice by claiming
interference in the case by the
deans. The fact that students now
feel secure is evidenced by the
relatively small number of
students, including myself, who
elected to move off campus this
year. .

No, as long as students are
secure at Grihnell, democracy is
doomed. I call your attention,
however, to our embattled
lacuily, who, fearing the ad.
ministration and desiring “5'
power. has organized into a true
democracy. Such exponents oi
powerrto-thespeople as Mr.
Nasser can tell you of the joys
of self government under lhose
circumstances.

May i suggest to the novice
editors that they could have
easily avoided their foolish error
by doing a little homework, For
instance, no onewould assert that
students want democracy and a
slrong student government ln a
college where the student
government is forced, as it was
last year, to call a referendum
lo determine whether it is even
going lo continue to cxisli

Laurence Sliick

Saturday, January 3|, mo

Dear Peter Bowman:
The Editors

You said you couldn’t “resist"
answering my letter in the sea
. .What you really couldn’t
resist was the male chauvinist’s
easyrway-out of a challenge: If
a female raises “serious”
questions just start talking about
the stereotype of female “consid-
el'able hysteria” and no one will
take her seriously.

But, are we to take you serious-
ly, Peter Bowman? Are we to
respect your noble “research" as
you quote the American Associa-
tion of University Professors (I
assume it is the A.A.U.P,, not
the ”A.A.P.”, as printed) 7 for
you quote them out oi full con-
text. And are your admitted “im-
prcssions“ of Pterodactyl’s
situation also part of your “re-
search"?

Why did you not include the
A.A.U,P. recommendation that
“Whenever possible the student
newspaper should be an inde-
pendent corporalion financially
and legally separate from the
college?" or, if you really did
your “research" you might write

ﬁ‘about a recent commission on
student publications made up oi,
among others, the presidents of
the American Society of News
paper Editors and of Sigma Delta
Chi, fhc professional journalism
fraternity 7 a commission which
also recommended independence
and “as for obsceniiies. rejected
ellher banning certain words or
ignoring the problem |n hope it
would go away.”

But not at Grinnell. At Grinnell
a student might attempt to report
on a parlicular revolution-orb
eliled group of young people, for
instance 7 a group viial to un-
derstanding the Leif political

Cont. on P. 3

 

