April 13, lm

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Exploring Grinnell:
A Time For Whimsy

Now that We are able once again to emerge from dorms
and apartments with delight instead of with dread (perhaps),
a call for the exploration of this little hole—insthe-cornfields
seems most apropos. The wonders of Broadway or Times
Square it’ll never have, but the offerings of Grinnelll are no

less fascinating and varied.

For the benefit of the novice, or the unawakened, an intro~

duction~~ For the gourmet:

-raisin pie at the Model Cafe (hours variable at the caprice

of the owner)

—Dusty Miller sundaes topped with real whipped cream at
Cunningham’s, accompanied by the world’s best nickel cup of

coffee

For the scavenger or amateur interior decorator:
~the junkyard (follow the E/W tracks about_2 miles east of
town) bedsprings, basins, pitchforks and pots, there for the

dragging
For the historian '

»the Grinnell Historical Society, run by Mrs. Stoopes, open
Friday and Saturday afternoons. J.B. Grinnell‘s desk is a

wonder in itself.

»the Underground Railroad tunnel (although its authenticity
is somewhat doubtful, due to its remarkable semblance to

a sewage culvert)
For the erotic:

-the American primitive on the boards over a window well
in the alley west of the frozen food locker (The artist’s
school is doubtful, but his motive‘ is not.)

-the back room at the Varsity (Women can read for tree,

but for men, it’s 50c an hour.)

For the natural-toods-addict:

vwild asparagus for the stalking on the highway east of town
-dandelions (sprouting soon), for salads, soups or wtne

For the adventurous:

-the top of the water tower (only at night)

—the Amy Blaine house—two houses north of Bates florist
-The story goes that Amy and her mother lived there alone
until old Mrs. Blaine dies. Amy let no one know of the death
for quite some time and when it was discovered, simply
left the whole house, never to return. Grinnell’s nod to Haw-

thorne?

Surely among all the avenues open, there is something for
everyone. As a source of the joys of vanishing Americana, the
town is rich. Small thrills? Of course. But in days dedicated
to large crises, even more delightful,

There are undoubtedly countless others that have been missed,
personal tidbits of interest throughout the area. Webster de-
fines whimsy as “a sudden turn or fancy of the mind” -- and
that is the essence of the small joys oflGrinneil. So listen

to your own whim, and explore.

-mew

David: Demand For Fair Housing'

To the Editors:

For the past three years at Grins
nell College i have tried to make a
“valuable and responsible contri»
button" to the college community
within every means the “system
and/or administration” allows and
supports. 1 have been on SGA, a
house president, partiCipated in in
tercollegiate athletics, been on El
departmental EPC, maintained a
“Dean’s ListH GPA, etc. The pur»
pose oi this letter is not to feed
my own ego, but merely to point
out, that as a normal, reasonable
student at Grinnell, lhave reached
my limit of tolerance and patience,

I speak in point to the housing
proposal for next year. i) The
housing assignments (l 2., which
dorms are going to be coed and
how they are to be arranged) was
brought as a proposal to the Joint
Boards and railroaded through by
the Dean of Students Office, A sugs
gcstlon was then accepted that the
blocking of individual rooms (for
S,A.’s, House Presidents, ireshmen,
etc.) be done with the advice of
house presidents, so that the most
convenient arrangements would be
made by a person who had lived
in the hall and knew its structural
iloor plan. 1 know, as a house preSr
ident myself, that i was not consulr
ted for any advice, and I know that
this is the case in inanyotherdornis,
if not in all dorms.

2) The Black housing proposition was

also railroaded through JointBoards
because the original proposal was
not presented for consideration until
one week before number draw. The
compromise finally reached was not
a compromise, it was ii clear con~
cesslon to the demands of a group
oi students who pay no more room
and board money than I do It also
seems to be illegal-mousing diss
crimlnation cannot be made on the
basis of race or creed

The result of these two actions is
clear, I will be a senior next year,
and although I have taken my Chan»
ces on room draw every year (yes,
I have lived in a pit {ind in Cowles
Hall), I find that I have Very few
choices of “nice” rooms to live ill
The freshmen, S.A,'s, or blacks
dominate a large number oi singles
on the first through third floors of
many halls, ltnd I tear thatlanides-
lined to live in Cowles or some pit
again. i think i spook ior many
upper classmen wIlo are tired of
Just being “stuck” or inted to live
in whichever room is left over.
Black upperclasslnen can draw
rooms like everyone else, and black
li-cshmen can then be assigned to
the blocked rooms within the dorm,
l rim tired of having my equal
rights and opportunities suppressed
I am speaking up! lask that people
listen, and those who agree, support
the efforts to demand what is as
rightfully ours as anyone else’s,

I“ ““5"“- Laiirn David

Golden: Need Responsibility, Not Campus Police

To the Editors:

1 would like to express my grave
concern over two related items up»
pcaring in last Friday’s issue, an
article dealing with thefts on cam-
pus which portrayed the Grinnell
Police as being totally disinterested
in the preceding Saturday’s burgr
lary, and two letters to the editor
calling ior security measures. By
way oi beginning, 1 would like to
state that the Police did everything
they could, given the circumstances,
and that the reason that there are
no repressive security incasui-csor
security police on the campus is that
the students did not, in the past,
want them.

To elaborate: I am taking Wood-
worth's “Police Function” course,
and part of y final paper research
involves ri ing on patrol with the
town police. The lollcwing is ex-
tracted from my tield notes.

At 1 lo we received a radio call
to go to Dibble Annex to investls
gate a reported breaking-mulchin-
ing into a studcnt robin Involvingtlle
then oi a complete stereo system
We responded promptly. We iound in
the dormitory corridor tuo neighr
bors oi the robbed girls who begun
to till us in on what hail happened
pending the arrival oi lhe victims
Possmle suspects were described
as ‘four big, black guys' wcnriiig
hnircuts that were neither short nor
yet ‘afros,’ and dark-colorednoss
ibly leather, jackets One ortwohad
a beard and a mustache. None biiho
suspects were recognized by any
oi the witnesses, all ol whom seem-
ed to feel that none oi the suspects
were students. when one oi the vies
tims had demanded ii the suspects
were involved in the melt, one had
covered his nice, the others denied
the charge, and all left hurriedly.
They were observed walking north
on Park street in the direction
oi the Black Cultural Center.

Note, please, that the police Scr-
geant who answered the call took
all this inlormaticn. To continue:

The sgt took .1 iairly complete
description of the missing items,
including their model numbers. and
requested that their serial numbers
he supplied as quickly as possible
(for purposes or identification)"
He also took the complaint at a vis-
iting student lrom the Univ. olWisc.
at Madison, who had lost ri jacket
containing contact lenses, checks,
nuio keys, etc, One oi the girls ass
ked about fingerprints, and the Sgt.
explained that due to the great
number oi people enteringihe room,
iingernrints would be of little value.
He explained to me later that the
surfaces were not particularly cons
oucive to the lining oi fingerprints,
and that ii the lingerprints oi the
suspects were not nlreudy on re
cord, recent court decisions would
make it rather diiiicult to secure
samples for comparison, Leaving
lhe dormitory, he put a description
oi ine missing items and the sus-
pects over the radio and asked the
station to notiiy Oskaloosa po, Os-
kaloosa being the base at a gang
which stole 10»speed bikes irom
Grinncll at aboul this time last
year.

He also gave a description at sus-
peel vehicles to other nearby pat-
rol cars, ran wanted checks on 52.
county cars parked nearlhe College,
and gave chase down the interstate
to a suspicious-looking vehicle, wh-
ich he searched carefully. in point
oi iaci, then, Sunday morning‘s
meeting with the police was not as
fruitless as it may, on the sur-
iace, have seemed: and l, [or one,
wish that people would be less hasty
with their accusations oiinolticiency
.ind disinterest.

As for the letters to the editor,
the first one is captioned “Police
Hands Off Policy Gone Too Far.”
1 would like to take this opportun—
ity to dispel a widely-held belief
that the police can not or will not
come on campus Without first ask
ing the permission oiPresident Legs
gett, or whatever highrranking ad»
ministrator one happens to look up
to as the touchstone of Fourth Ain-
endmeilt rights it simply is not
true, and Chief Peters will be the
very first to tell you so. The se-

||I|||l||||||||l|||l|lllllll|lllllll||l||Illlltl|ll||I|||lllllllllllllllllllllill

Letters to the editor should
be submitted to the sails bee
fore 700 p in. Wednesday eve
enillg in order to be included
in the Friday paper Correse
poudents are requested to keep
their comments to 300 words
or less it possible,

llll|IlllllllIlllIll||Ill||ll||Ill|Ill|lll|||||llll|ll||IllIlllllllllllllllllllll

cond is captioned “Responsibility,”
and that, i think, is the crux of the
issue,

What, precisely, are the ladies
asking for? Would they like to see
the campus patrolled by rent-n-cop
guards? i hope not, but let us at
least examine the objections to the
matter. First oi all, as one of the
Deans has pointed out, it’s going
to be very tough to hire a security
man - or men 7 for the College
because nobody wants either to work
nights or ior only '7 months out of
the year. The alternative is to go to
an agency oi some kind which would
supply men — for a price 7 and
then there would possibly be imposed
regulations oi student movement to
provide for the unhindered operation
of security. Second, even if student
movement is not snperwsed, consi-
der the following excerpt from an
article entitled "The Dossier in
Colleges and Universities,”hy Burr
ton R Clark»

The tendency toward a frontrooms
backroom division oi files comes
irom conilicting requirements and
demands .. honest assessmenlvers
sus flattery that maintains goodwill,
a private smear versus an accepta-
ble public position .7 and the splitr
the can olten enhance one’s cap-
duty to serve two masters Tile
campus security oiiicer, considered -
below in greater detail, is a center
oi tension ..As the job is currently
defined by many incumbents, one
gathers inloi-mation about subverr
sive sludenls and drug-users on
campus, among other duties, and
shares this inlormation with local,
state, and national police organiza-
tlons. But the incumbent is also
typically under heavy pressure irom
students and professors not to gat-
her, let alone share, such inforr
mutton. He sometimes even comes
under direct order irom superiors

not to keep ”subversive" iiles

.. commands that violate the norms
of the security establishment .,The
situation invites a host oi adjust-
ments in which files lace in difr
fereht directions and in which a
ironlrroom puts on a public lor
the other. One can even physically
tear up the oilicial frantroom tiles
that excite students and taculiy and
are forbidden by one’s superiors,
while at the same time maintain»
ing notes for one’s personal enlight—
enment and trunsmiiiiug one's noted
impressions, by telephone and con-
versltion, to files on the outside.

Third, to take the issue out of
the realm of the theoretical, I spent
two years at an institution where
security guards were employed full-
time. The guards had uniforms, bad-
ges, guns, and Chemical Mace, rode
around in red cars with blue blink—
ing lights, etc. Student movements
were sharply curtailed after 10:00
PM And lying in bed at night, one
could sometimes hear the various
cars as they communicated with
each other across campus by means
of loudspeaker...Expense and‘a
multiplicity of overt and clandestine
disconveniences to students are both
pretty convincing arguments against
a campus security iorce,

The other option is one expressed
in the caption to the second letter:
Responsibility. There is no question
that the nature of the campus has
changed in the past iew years. Sens
iors and Deans can remember when
one left one’s door unlocked, even
it there was money or Jewelry ly-
ing on the desk or dresser. That
the “rip-oil ethic” (as It has been

called) has supplanted the honesty '

of Grinnell students does not, how»
ever, imply that students cannot
take responsibility lor policing (to
use a word wtth unfortunate con-
notations) their owu dormitories.
No one is suggesting that vigilante
groups take to patrolling the came
pus with baseball bats...l hope.
but I wonder if Grinnell students
are too bashiul or too irresponsible
to ask a stranger on the iloor
who he is looking ior or what she
is doing This need not come as a

all): ®rlllilt1l
$tdrlii duh afﬁliltli

Thi- Crtnnell Scarlttl .nu aim u in. student um,
pim at cnnndi Cullrp published mih while
in. cell!“ it in man. by the bomb College
Commltlu ii. Sludenl Fnhltulwns and mom in.
lnrill inmisni do in. niuiiaivlv ranari Inc vim
of in. menu burly. nanny, nr .uniniiiunnn d!
Cnimell can.“ Mllerul from the scrim and
one. uni-oi be reproduced (or punllnlmn wilhnul
the upress (mini ol the ions:

Sunnd rlnx PUMA" min, cumin. loin iiiiz
Enl'mn

MANAGING Eni’i‘on
Col’v EDITOR

non Dllrnals
him was."
John tour

9 8c
letters

brusque demand, but rather as the
inquiry of someone who is trying
to give aid to a stranger. li one’s
aid is turned away sharply, one
might then become suspicious -
obviously so. The deterrent effect
oi a curious and possibly hostile
onlooker (read “witness”) is atleast
as great as thatoia uniformed guard
on the other side of the campus.
“Rape? Murder7?” Hardly, ladies.
And crimes oi the type thatoccurred
in Dibble Annex are rare enough.
in any case, all the guards in the
world will not stopadetermiued burs
glar: they may make him choose
his moment with greater care, and if
they are lucky their criminalintelli»
gence units might apprehend the
burglar after the iact. But this came
pus does not need security police;
it only lacks responsibility.

Gregg H is. Golden

Brown: Now It's
Black Unity

To the Editors:

The only adequate response Ican
apply to the editorial which appear-
ed in last week’s 5&8 is that it’s
A New Day! All that artificial rhe—
toric about Civil Rights and every
man being judged by his merits
instead of by the color of his skin
is all void now, and: aS'far as I
am concerned always was. Let's
face the facts, that frame of refer-
ence died out five years ago with
Martin Luther King, Jr.

It’s nice for you soft-hearted libv
erals to dream, and Grihnell is far
enough ayiay irom reality for you to
do that, but black students can’t af-
ford to do this. For the reasons
which blacks are being exploited
in the HOutside world” are reason
enough for blacks here to preserve
all at their sanity, being, andaware-
ness as much as possible. We feel,
we can do this best through black
unity. That’s the main criterion
for the black cluster system.

White racism has always found the
cause and the means to keep blacks
oppressed and the minute any foot-
age is gained on the part at blacks
(no matter how trivial it is), whites
have to exert their oppressive power
in protest at this. Now you want
to deprive us oi our self-perserva—
tion by banning the black cluster
system, Aren't you already oppreSr
SiVe enough on this campus and in
the world, or Is it that you really
don’t understand the situation and
fail to comprehend it?

Roxane Brown

(~,

ATTENTION SENIORS: Those
seniors who as oi yet have not
had their yearbook portraits
taken should report to the Cy—
clone office in the Forum base—
ment on Saturday, April to,
at 12:00 This is the absolute
final call.

o—i‘

BUSlNESS MANACLF
ADVERTISING MANAGER
cincucnion MANAGER
svom nonoh Dav: Cilvrli
CoLuMNiS'iS ., um All Mike
Bvccd rm cuiiir. amt niiinir, nix non,
mii, Scott Mason

viiorocniriirivs
Ran Hummer. um i Drren, iuuc Dunn, Bill
Glaser, cuig nupaxntrybimiii JulmRivlm,
Bob Snarkx, x... winovur

irrisr.

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rcronirns

cirny, Ann omit Miviiiic Caddy, David cure.
I!!! Dink, itui Clix“, Curl comii, Many ikcc
Eounlc xinnev. sniiiivn con, Maxine Low, Ron
Median, cm. Murphy, hm Nicolai, SlevnNunn.
om rain, Bollnm Rebuilt, BrenlSvliondelml‘yer.
Mmh: \uckrr, Krn winaiui, rmy won

. Tam citinanin;
Roxane amn
Yul sniminn

John niniiii.

Mirlam uursinn
Nanny osuiin .
Milly Bloom, clinic

 

