Avril 13, 1971 The Scarlet and Black

Greg Has
A Good Idea

Dean Walker recently announced that, beginning next year, the
college will evaluate five academic departments each year, with
the help of outside consultants. The program would encourage and
aid departments to evaluate and improve their offerings.

Probably, most departments already evaluate their offerings
periodically, and some regularly seek the advice of students. Greg
Vranicar has suggested that all departments should make an effort
every year to collect the opinions of senior majors and of a few
recent graduates about the department’s offerings; we think this is
a good idea and should be begun this semester.

Students now complete evaluations of individual courses, but
there is no systematic way of gathering student opinions about the
over-all programs of a department. Seniors are in a good position,
since they have completed or nearly completed the major program,
to reflect on its strengths andweaknesses. Their individual reasons
for majoring in the department, their long-range goals, and their
perceptions of how well they were able to benefit from the major
program in view of their own expectations and goals ought to be
important to any department. Most of them have made plans for
next year, and their recent experiences with graduate schools or
potential employers could be used in helping departments design
their programs so students have good preparation for getting into
a good graduate school or getting a good Job,

Recent graduates, with a few years of experience in either gradu-
ate work or a career, would be in an even better position than
seniors to point out the strengths and weaknesses of their prepare
ation at Grinnell.

Personnel
Correct1ons

We feel obliged to try to clear up several questions of fact raised
by the second paragraph of Rab Ramer‘s “Personal Perspective”
article on last week’s front page. Many of the statements and impli-
cations of that paragraph are inaccurate or misleading, and clearly
insufficient research was done by the author into most of the per,
sonnel decisions to which he referred. We regret that such a piece
has appeared as an article in this year’s 8&8.

The paragraph contends that there is a "growmg list of arbitrary
firings” because students lack an "effective voice” in matters of
importance, The article mentions, as evidence, “Mr. Parzons, a
popular prof. (who) was forced out“ three years ago; Daly and
Liggett who “had their contracts terminated in the face of student
opposition” last year; and ”Mather, Nasser, and Will Wilson (the
Langan RA who was yust tired) getting the axe” this year

The facts, as we reconstruct them, belie Mr. Ramer's categoriza-
tion of several of the important cases--most blatently, the Daly
and Mather cases.

William Daly was hired by the Political Science Department as a
one year replacement for C, Edwin Gilmour, who was then on leave.
He was offered a contract for this year, when Neal Milner would be
on leave, but he realized that there would probably be no opening
after Milner returned in September, 1972 (as Milner was expected
to). Mr. Daly took an offer of a permanent job at another school,

. Lynn Mather was hired to fill Mr. Milner’s position in the Political
Science Department for this year, while Milner has been on leave.
Until very recently, Milner was expected to return, but when the
department received his resignation, Mrs. Mather was offered his
job. By this time she had already made plans for next year (at
Dartmouth). She told us that she would like to have stayed, that
she might well have stayed if the opportunity had arisen earlier,
but that she felt that uncontrollable circumstances, not the depart
ment could be blamed,

Ramer’s terminology~“forced out", “terminate”, and “getting
the axe”--is unfortunate, for it is wrong in several places as well
as carrying implications which go beyond the facts. in the cases of
Sheldon Parzen, Donald Liggitt, Gordon Mather, and Alan Nasser,
the individual’s contracts were up for renewal; theywere interested
in staying but the college decided not to renew their contracts, Only
the case of Will Wilson seems to differ from this pattern; though
he did not wish to be rehired for next year, he has been asked to
leave early this year.

These are only the corrections of the obvious errors connected
with the particular cases mentioned by Ramer. A fair appraisal
of other questions which the Ramer article raiseswul require more
research. We’re working on it. And we hope everyone else-Rob
Ramer, the four students whose letter we published last week, and
others-~will do and show the research necessary for presenting
a fair, factual (and persuasive) argument whenever they tackle the
important and emotional questions of personnel.

Invites Campus
To Participate

To the Editors:

Mnrtyr’s Weekend symbolizes
more than simply bringing in contror
vei'Sial speakers and liavmg a dance
in North Lounge. This is the time
which was set aside to give honor to
those Blocks who gave their lives
for the struggle. Some of those who
are remembered at this time are
Malcolm X, Maltin Luther King Jr
and the three children who were
killed in the bombing of that Ala—
bama Church We invite you to make
contributions to the Martin Luther
King Jr. Scholarship Fund to help
those disadvantaged Blacks who wish
to get :in education but because of
financial reasons are unable to.
We invite you to participate in our
weekend We hope that through this
experience you will gain some feel-
ing for those wtlo gave their lives
for the cause of justice and freedom
for the Blacks of this country. We
hope that through participation in
this weekend that you will rededi-
cute yourself to the dreams and
ideals those who died tried to con-
vey in their lifetimes

Washington Alston

Detends New
Guidelines

To the Editors:

The Executive Council’s action on
independent Study, as reported in
the April 18 Campus Memo, is a
response to the overwhelming re
quest of both students and faculty
for some type of guidelines regard-
ing the structure and function of
tllls form of study The new modified
System attempts to attack the two
major problems which have plagued
independent study: the tremendous
work overload on profs caused by a
lack of systematic registration, and
the inequalities in various depart-
ments on work required for 2 or 4
credits.

The second problem is obviously
the more difficult to deal with, The
requirement of evaluation of a pro-
ject by two faculty members, one
being the sponsor of the program,
was designed to encourage an ex»
change of information and regular-
izing the evaluations at least with-
in departments, The distinction be-
tween Zrcredlt guided reading and
a 4»cl'edit independent study is in
the amount and form of work done.

No faculty member will disregard
the value of reading and reflection
in the academic community. Such
study is excellent preparation for
a drcredit inrdepth analysis and
evaluation,

A project of some type is the
natural culmination of any serious
attempt at drawing some conclusmns
or creating a synthesis, The re-
qliiiemellts do not go beyond the
sfipululion of some prbyecf, ii is
up to the student to be creative in
the deveopment ol a final product,
and not resign himself to the trar
dltional 10715 page paper.

The only arguable objection to
the system as it now stands is the
liiilitution on the ten hours of in-
dependent study applied toward
graduation. There now exist ave-
nues to overcome this. Le the
traditional special topics, advanced
topics, etc. But this step in fhc
revision of independent study must
lie l'erevuluated.

Marilyn Mulligan

Rules Called
‘Restrictive’

To the Editors:

Once again the Executive Council
has taken action behind the backs of
the student body lain referring to
the lllost recent declaration of new
restrictions on Independent pro»
jccts This decision was reached
with little consultation of students,
mid lvlosl delinitely without the ad—
vance knowledge 01 the student body.
I resent the fact that the Executive
Council passed such in important
change in rules without getting the

input of student opinions from the
students as a whole.

Another problem here is the re—
strictions themselves. in the future,
all 397-398 4~credit Independents
must culminate in a “product”,
which will then be evaluated by two
faculty members other than the
director of the project. Although I've
heard it mentioned that the “prey
duct" could be a short summary of
the proiect; i'm sure that many profs
will interpret “product" to mean a
major paper.

of course, students will still have
an opportunity to do reading and dis-
cussion with a faculty member. Such
projects will be 297493 “Guided
Reading", for 2 credits. I think that
it is obvious what this separation of
Independent work implies. Ey make
ing “producing" Independents 4 cre-
dits (and numbered 393); while mak-
ing ”reading" independents 2 cre-
dits (and numbered 298): the Execu-
tive Council is proclaiming what they

feel to he the most valuable in terms;

of the educational process. The
emphasis is squarely placed on
learning through producing, Just as
Ford makes money by producing
cars, students learn by producing
papers, People who have done both
types of Independent work know that
every bit as much (if not more) can
be learned through reading than
through paper-writing.

Another disturbing new rule is that
of having two other faculty members
evaluate the “product". (A product
which may deal with only one small
area of the Independent topic.) From
this product, i gather the two are
supposed to somehow evaluate the
quality of work in.lhe independent.
Although the student may gain
through having additional comments
made on his work; there is great
doubt whether these other two evalu»
ators will be a position to evaluate
the work merely on the basis of one
product. Furthermore, this system
could be used to check up on profs
who are too “lenient" on Indepen-
dent work. All in all, this new sys»
tem is a bad way of running Indepen-
dent projects. It’s sad to see Grin~
hell getting restrictive in an area
that has always been one of its most
innovative methods of education.

Robert A. Huxtable

Dislikes S&B
Supplement

To the Editors

It is certainly gratifying to note
that your political page (“lowa Poli-
tics, Some Random Reports”) does
not subscribe to that “reactionary”
“open forum for varying ideas" tra»
ditiDn. Without the 38:8 notation,
the first page could easily be
mistaken for an lowa Democratic
Central Commitee publication, How»
ever, before the Views expressed by
those several gentlemen are accep-
ted as gospel, shouldn’t the total
picture of the state political scene
be viewed? i would urge the college
electorate to explore for themselves
exactly who is “best serving the
interests of the people”. Look atthe
records of Gov, Ray, Sen. Miller,
and Congressman Schwengel,in-

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stead of merely sucumbing to the
stereotype of collegiate voters at,
ways being best served expressly by
Democrats,

Tom Knapp

Weyl: Power
Of Freedom

To the Editors:

Acting as individuals, last week,
in regard to the Strike and with
business as usual now; we continue
the liberal traditions of freedom of
choice, press, speech etc We at
Gl‘innell thus continue to maintain
our primary (instead of a balanced)
preoccupation with selves regard—
less of what happens elsewhere or
to others,

Yet how much individual choice is
there for those in opposition to our
government or local regimes abroad
in South Korea, Spain, Greece, Bra-
111, or Portugal and its colonies?
How much freedom of choice exists
for peasant refugees north of
Danang? What freedom, for that
matter exists at all beyond those we
are born into, given our social and
historical situations? Perhaps free-
dom of choice is somewhat illusory?
Are and have we been concerned
with stopping the war this past week
or participating in personally sooth—
ing symbolic actions'7 if the latter
is the case then collective action
or solidarity does not matter, except
for rhetoric. If we place the stopping
of murder and napalming of inner
cent civilians ahead of our careers;
then solidarity is vital.

i believe a determined indefinite
general student strike would stop
the bombing or future bombings by
scaring President Nixon. Labor
has long known that solidarity and
collective actions are powerful. Real
powers move Machiavellian politir
clans long before morally symbolic
actions.

Lewin Weyl

Prols'Abdicated
Responsibility’

To the Editors:

I would like to express substantial
agreement with the Dagenais
editorial of April 21, and particular
1y with its conclusion that, ”Some-
thing, indeed, must be done. But
whatever it is that we must do. Walkr
ing but of the classroom is not the
answer.” I would, however, like to
correct a false impression left by
portions of that editorial.

Specifically, the editorial claimed
the free choice of stu ents to strike
or not, as their indi dual assess-
ments dictated: “We must always
be on guard against letting the emo-
tional enthusiasm of our convictions
trample those who see a different
view, and fortunately that trampling
is not taking place, this time
around.” Because a number of in-
structors joined students in striking
by cancelling their classes on short
notice last Friday, in many cases
nonstriking students were not, in
fact, allowed to exercise the free
choice implied by the editorial,

Despite my sympathy for the in-
structors‘ moral dilemma (I per—
formed some fairly painful soul-
searching myself), the fact remains
that teachers’ obligations do differ
from students’, Because last Fri»
day’s events were billed asa student
strike, and because teachers’ der
cisions to strike eliminated the free
choice of students not to, Ibelieve
that the striking teachers abdicated
their professional responsibility in
favor of identification with some -
but by no means all , of their
students.

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