April ”ill, ’lilZ Hie cariet and Black

editorial

Let’s Join ISPIRG

Last Sunday representatives from twelve Iowa colleges and uni-
versities met at Drake University to form the core of the Iowa
Student Public Interest Research Group (ISPIRG), Eight state
officers, including a fivevmember executive council and a
chairwoman, were elected; articles of incorporation were
filed with the Iowa Secretary of State sometime this week. Grin
students did not send a representative to the meeting.

The organization is similar to the one made famous by Ralph
Nader, ISPIRG will seek to “represent broad areas of public con-
cern in the public decision-making processes.” Ateam of lawyers,
scientists and other appropriate experts will be hired to investigate
and take action on “areas of student concern and problems which
students agree to be deserving of attention.”

Students at participating schools will elect local boards of directors
to coordinate activities at their schools. Each school will send at
least one representative to the state board of directors; large
schools would be entitled to one representative for each five thour
sand students. In the future, the executive council will be chosen
from members of the state board; it will work closely with the
ISPIRG professional staff on a dayrto-day basis and keep members
of the state board informed between their monthly meetings.
The state board of directors will choose the areas in which the
ISPIRG professional staff will involve itself. The professional
staff will then follow a course of action designed to accomplish the
board’s goals. Much of the preliminary research on a given issue
would be done by students within participating colleges or by other
interested organizations.

An organization of this kind would be worthwhile. The full-time
professional staff would no doubt be able to act much more effec-
tively in areas of public concern than a group of students, and stun
dents wouldrultimately dominate in the choice of issues and goals.

Students at participating colleges and universities will be asked
to make a three-dollar per year contribution to ISPIRG. Local
groups will keep $400 plus one per cent of the money collected at
their campuses to pay the expenses of local boards, and the rest
of the money would go to the state organization. Students who do not
wish to spend three dollars on ISPIRG would not be forced to
contribute under any of the three schemes that have been proposed
for collecting the money, but we think one of the schemes would not
be completely fair.

Under this scheme, a student would automatically be billed by his
college for the three dollars per year; if he did not wish to support
ISPIRG, he would have to go to the trouble of getting a refund. The
other two methods are “check-off’ methods. lfthe “positive check
off” method were used, the student would check a box on his state-
ment from the college if he wished to support ISPIRG and add three
dollars to the bill. If the “negative check off" were used, he would
check a box if he did not wish to support ISPIRG, and deduct three
dollars from the bill. In either case, an individual would be able
to decide before paying the money whether he wished to support
the program.

Grinnell students should have been more actively involved in the
formation of ISPIRG. Shelley Floyd told us that SGA made an effort
to get someone to organize student support. She found a lot of
people who were interested in ISPIRG but no one who was willing
to do any work to organize it here. To become affiliated with
ISPIRG students here would have to obtain the approval of 50% of
the student body on a referendum.

We think ISPIRG is a program that deserves the active support of
students here, and hope that someone will make an effort to hold
the referendum this year. In return fora small financial contribu-
tion, students could become more actively and, we think, effectively
involved with the concerns of students throughout the state; through
ISPIRG they could make use of statewide support and talent in
dealing with these issues. And if the program turns out to be any-
thing like what its supposed to be, we could make it possible for
students to make important contributions to society while they are
still in school. If Grinnell students are really concerned about the
well-being of society, we think they shouldjoin ISPIRG. Otherwise,
they will be passing up an opportunity to be a constructive force in
something other than college politics.

Inconsistency

At last week’s college evaluative meeting, President Leggett
gave his offerepeated plea for “a system of controlling our educa—
tional movements.” We need to find a way out, he said, of “our
present ad hoc, shortrrange method of deciding what we are going
to add to our educational program and what we are not.”

We agree; who could disagree? But the President also called for
devising more “structures and procedures" through campus-wide
discussions. If President Leggett wishes a longsrahge plan for
educational programs, more committee structures and thus more
descentralized decision making will work against this; similarly,
a plan predicting and plotting out the academic direction of the
college will necessarily conflict with the many structures and
procedures we already have, to say nothing of any more.

Though there is no easy solution to this contradiction, the institu-
tion of an office of research, devoted, as Mr. Leggett suggests,
“to studies of the results of what we are doing, or where our
students come from and go” could be a good first step. It would
bring the decision making of the college closer to the real needs
of the people here, and satisfy the President in that respect, while
it would maintain the de-centralized decision making which students
and faculty seem to desire.

Correct Corps
‘Misimpressions’

To the Editors:

This letter is being written to cor-
rect any mislmpressions caused by
previous Scarlet and Black articles
on John Keeble and Les Corps Ex—
quisite GLS 402. These past artiv
Cles have not only been riddled with
inaccuracies, but have concentrated
on personalities and gossip rather
than the courses’ intentions. when
the Corps Exquisite applied to son
for necessary funding, the conse»
quences of misunderstanding be»
came apparent. Some of the house
presidents saw the Corp's end pro-
duct as a popular publication, like
The Cyclone, or conversely as the
personal plaything of an elite of
self-styled artists and writers. Fore
tunately, the more intelligent house
presidents realized that it was nei-
ther—-but something greater--and
voted the appropriation.

The Corps Exquisite is directed
jointly by Mr. ll. Klein and Mr, J.
Keeble. Mr. Klein works primarily
with the artists, Mr. Keeble with
the writers. The last article in
the 3&3 on Mr. Keeble implied that
the whole proiect had a simple,
automatic, thematic. organization;
with an implicit bias towards writ
ing. This is clearly not the case.
On the contrary, the course is
structured around the dialectical
resolution of two conflicting artistic
ideologies. The artists and the wrie
ters are seeking to build anew whole
synthesizing the unique expressive
potentiality of each medium withina
symbolic commonality. Part of this
effort involves the use of symbolic
structures. The 55:13 reporter man-
aged to garble these symbols and
strip them of significance.

The writers, including those who
have most recently distinguished
themselves under Mr. Keeble's lute-
lage, are struggling to comprehend
the physical realities of graphic
media; while the artists in turn are
attempting to make use of literary
imput.

This is not an ordinary publication
”but an unique creative effort to
enrich and expand the Grinnell ex-
perience, and it deserves support,
understanding, and sympathy. We
hope that this letter has Corrected

letters

some of the misunderstandings, and
that the Corps Exquisite will receive
better reporting in the future.

The Artists of the

“Corps Exquisite"

Students like
Modern Russia

To the Editors:

We would like to raise certain 0b-
jections about the article on the 12-
credit Modern Russian Society
course in the March 315i issue of
the 5518. We feel that the article did
not represent the class members
true feelings about the Course. While
its conclusions were vaguely posi-
tive, the evidence used to support
these conclusions were unrepresen—
tative and superficial.

Negative aspects of the course were
made evident but we feel they were
overstressed and, in some cases,
created false impressions.

For example: The organizational
problems inherent in an experimenv
tal course were implied to be tre-
mendously awkward and almost in-
surmountable. To the contrary, the
rewarding process of developing the
course has made for greater
student»faculty cooperation, which
is in itself a learning aid.

Also, the day the SKzB’s reporter
attended our Class we were discus-
sing a spring vacation reading list.
The reporter perceived the class’
understandably unenthusiastic re-
action to such an idea as indicative
of our attitude throughout the semes-
ter. Actually, the reading load, while
heavy, has not been oppressive.
Stress is laid on class discussion
and reading rather than written
work. Ample opportunity exists for

How To Make Bannock

by Bill Thomas

Grinnell students don’t get enough
good food to eat. One of the things
conspicuously absent from most of
our diets is good bread. SAGA,
which has taken a few correct steps
in the area of nutrition, still serves
us mainly good old washed-out
white bread (there is an interesting
account of the ruinatlon of bread by
the malignant forces of internation-
al teChnocratic capitalism is Siege
fried Giedion’s mechanization
Takes Command). Besides SAGA,
we must also consider that period
from roughly nine pm. to one am,
in which a large proportion of the
local food intake passes down those
greedy Grinnell gullets. An abunr
dance of good bread would enrich
those hours with proteins and vitae
rnins that just aren't available in
Forum french fries or local pizza
pies.

Unfortunately, most Grinnell stu-
dents don‘t have the lime, or the
skill, to whip up batches of bread.
However, there is something almost
as good, and which takes just about
the right amount of time to make
n long enough for a good study
break.

Over spring break, I was camping
down in the Ozarks with my young
or brother. Both oI us enioy Cooks
ing over a lire, and we always show
each other new things that we have
picked up in the way of camp cooks
ery. My brother showed me how
to make it camp bread called ban—
nock, which we subsequently had at
least once a day. There are sea
veral good things about it: it is
quick and simple to make; it can
be made very nutritious; it can be
varied by mixing in different things,
and it tastes good.

The ingredients are stilt, baking
powder, and flour, plus whatever

else you want to add. The flour is
the most important since it is just
about all of the bannock, so it is
important to use good flour. Whole
grain organic is best. it is also
easy to get now that Van's Health
Foods has moved into town, down
whele the old East End Grocery
used to be. Whole rye and whole
wheat flours are suitable to most
people's taste buds.

To make the bannock, you first
heat and grease a skillet. Then,
you mix together 1/4 teaspoon salt,
1 teaspoon baking powder, and a cup
of flour. This is the basic mix,
to which you add enough water to
make it about the consistency of
bread dough, sort of non-sticky.
However, you can add milk and an
egg, instead of water, and you can
add all kinds of tasty extra ingrev
dients. Honey is good with Whole
wheat. So far, over at Music House,
we’ve tried adding also onions,
raisins, and bean sprouts. I’m
sure that we’ll try many more things,
like nuts, cheese, fruits, and so
forth.

Once you’ve mixed the ingredients
together, dust or grease your hands
and shape the dough into sort of
a patty, which you dump inlo the
skillet. At this point, down in the
Ozarks, we stuck the skillet over
the fire, but at Grinnell, you put
it on the burner. Let it cook until
the bottom is well browned (it should
be rising). when this happened,
we propped the skillet up at an
angle in front of the fire, and let
it bake until done. Grinnellians
will have to make do with putting
it in the oven, perhaps on ”broil".
It’s not as good as regular yeast
bread, but it comes in mighty tasty
of a late night, (I hate to say it
but) It’s good and good for you.

students to venture into individual
areas of interest.

The lz-credit course offers the
chance to concentrate intensively on
Russian society in the twentieth cenr
tury. As a result, we are obtaining
an extensive knowledge of the Rus-
sian people and their history.

One of the most positive aspects
of the course is that in addition to
studying required readings, students
concentrate on topics about which
they are curious and share their

‘findings with the rest of the class.

Tied in with this method is the ad-
vantage of having three professors
from different disciplines involved
with our study.

Our mid»semester and final exams
are oral and are an attempt to make
testing more flexible. This proce—
dure encourages students to develop
and organize their impresssions of
Russia and communicate them to
others. This form of examination
allows students to go beyond the conv
fines of the standard written exam
and is a method of pinpointing their
strengths and weaknesses.

While there are a few kinks to be
worked out, students and faculty
are enthusiastic about the course.
Most of the students in the class be-
lieve (and ifthey don’t, they are class
enemies) that the interdisciplinary
IZ-credit approach would be very
valuable in any academic pursuit.

Long live the Socialist Revolution!

We clasp your hand,

Jim Jacobs
Vic Hoenig
Laurie Malis
John McDonald

Expectations
Called Naive

To the Editors:

I am responding to a comment
attributed to Russ McGregor in the
April 7 son. Not only from Russ,
but from many other sources on
campus, have come considerable
question and criticism regarding the
career services program. There
seem to be numerous misconcep—
tions, both by students and faculty,
regarding the possibility of pro—
viding, in Russ’ words, “that upon
graduation a thousand doors will
open with unlimited opportunity.”
Several factors limit the opportun-
ity of college graduates today, and
Grinnell graduates are as suscep-
tible as others. The widespread cut-
back in hiring at all levels is not a
myth. When Ph, D’s in chemistry,
engineers with 20 years of exper-
ience, and college professors face
unemployment, the AB graduate
must realize that he cannot expect
a fate less complex, or disappoint-
ing,‘ than theirs, A second factor is
that Grinnell (and other) college
graduates are not, by and large,
interested in the areas which do
offer (limited) employment: busi—
ness, industry, government service,
A frequent complaint is that we do
not have enough recruiters on cam»
pus; the fact is that a recruiter com-
ing to Grinnell can be pleased if one
or two students make an appointment
to see him. with few exceptions, the
employers who can afford to recruit
are in the “unacceptable” areas-e
business, the military, etc. We also
hear it suggested that the college
hire a “professional” placement
counselor. Do students realize that
such "professionals” are mostoften
retired military and business per,
sonnel men whose interest and ex‘
pertise lie primarily in the fields
that many Grinnell students are una
willing to consider?

The impression I get from the criti—
cism l have heard and the studentsl
have seen, is that graduates want to
find a way to prolong their present
lifestyle and value commitments, in
an adequately paid capacity. These
goals are admirable, but will not be
achieved through an “improved”
career services program; only the
dramatic restructuring of society
will bring about such results. lSup-
port the need for an expanded and
improved career services program,
but I feel that the present expecta-
tions or many are at the best naive
and at worst, destructive scape-
goating.

Pam Wrightman
RA in Career Services

 

