Commentemam ‘73

Parting Shots:

by Duane Taylor

As a senior in his last few days of

Grinnell life, I have had a few oppor
tunities to reflect on the past [our years,
and more importantly, the recent occurr-
ences on this campus.

The topic that seemed to prevail in the
Letters to the Editor of the 81:3 during
the last weeks of School was the Black/
White problem on this campus. I have
attended several other schools prior to
Grinnell and I have visited a number of
other colleges during my four years here
and I have found that most of them have
faced similar problems, but with two very
important differences: i) the Black Come
munity actively and realistically worked
toward a solution of the’problems and z)
the immature ‘game-playing’ and ‘attitudes’
which people developed in High School were
set 'aside as useless by the end of Fres ,
man Year -- they interfere with any si .
cere attempt to solve serious problems.

It is long since past the time for all
Grinnellians to stop hating, mistrusting
and ignoring all the members ofa differ
ent race based solely on the actions of
dividuals. if you’ve got a gripe against
Joe X talk it out with him -- don’t generals
ize his actions over all of his race Hating
a ‘category’ is the height of siupi ty and
futility

It is also time for Blacks on this campus
to realize that selfrimposed segregation

e., dining room seating arrangements

—» is not a step toward equality -» it com-

piicatis the problems we've already got.

by Sherry Mayrem

l’ve recently been feeling rather cranky
about Grinnell, and rather glum; some of
my adult (i.e., non-student) friends oncamr
pus have diagnosed my malady as a severe
case of Goodaol’rdays syndrome. Unlike
the Melancholia which used to inspire
immortal verses, this longing for the way
things used to be is cause for little cele-
bration.

Apparently, every graduate-to-be feels
that the school has gone down the drain
over her four years there. Also, apparen-
tly, every graduate-tome says what I’m
about to say, that in this case, there really
has been a change.

When I came here four years ago, the
“Grinnell Experience” was a phrase from
public relations, in the catalogue or in the
set speeches of resident advisors. This
year, the “Grinnell Experience" is some
sort of existential Grail, frantically pure
sued by all in real life. If I still place
the words in quotes, in speech as well
as in print, in one of the few people
who still do; people at large seem to
take themselves and their pursuit of hapr
piness all too seriously these days. The
result of all this. I think, is that the student
body here is doing its level best to under-
mine whatever reputation Grinnell has as a
progressive institution of humanistic know-
ledge, teaching not only the mind but the
spirit, etc., as well.

In order to demonstrate some of what
i'm saying, l'd like to focus on an issue
which has grown, over this past year,
very important to me: the position of wo-
men on this campus. Grlnnell is reputed
to be a very liberated sort of place --
no academic discrimination in the class-
room, no sexual segregation, no women
who came to school solely to find husr
hands, and a large percentage of women
graduates who go'on to graduate and pros
fessional school.

That's all very fine, and perhaps it is
partially accurate. I've found that my pro-

ZZZiie Qtnrltigallb aBldtk

It leads to fear, distrust and possibly far
worse feelings, '

I can well understand the need for the
members of a mlnority group to keep to—
gether, but excessive social segregation
leads to a further alienation of both gr.
oups involved, a further separation ofideas
and goals that Blacks and Whites may share.
Having spent two years as the only Black
in an all~white school taught me to further
appreciate my own culture as well as
how to coexist with other Cultures How
can problems be solved if they are totally
isolated and only brought to light and shared
when they become critical?

We, as mature adults, should also be a bit
more responsible when making broad gen»
eralizing statements about either side of
the Black/White problems. lbelievethat the
problem is REAL, and what it is going to
take is a radical change in the though pro~
cesses of many Grinnellians —- both Black
and White .. to get things moving in the
right direction.

Reducing the ‘causes' of the problem down
to “moral deprivation“ or the “perversitles
of a degenerate mentality" is worthless and
probably as far off the subjectas we've ever
been. An “infantile nature" is far, more
accurate a description of one of the prob.
lems but its use in the controversial letter
in the April 13th 5&8 was far too narrow
in scope. That kind of nature is found both
in the White and Black Communities on this
campus. See, we do share something after
all, but I hope for all our sakes that is
not all we are capable of sharing!

A final wish from a Graduating Black Stil-
dent who has tried through S.G.A., E.P.C.,
C.B.S., as a Student Advisor, and as Just
plain Duane, to help ease some ofthetension
between Blacks and Whites in Grinnell:

Grow up, Grinnellians. College is
supposed to be a large step in the
maturation process. Learn from the
experiences of_others around you »»
no matter what color they are. Ac»
cept people as PEOPLE and work
together from thereﬁhumanity as a
common foundation makes a great
place to begin to build.

Wow! After four years I can still think
optimistically and idealistically -- didl
miss something along the line?

fessors have always shown a great deal
of respect for my abilities and for the
ideas and abilities of other women slur
dents; I did not come to find (nor did I,
by the way) a husband; almost all thedorms
on and off campus are now coeducational;
and most of the majors in my department
who are going to graduate school next year
are, in fact, women. '

Fine. However, there is a whole other
side to this beautiful state of affairs, and
most of the important contraries have todo

Six Views Of Grinnell

by Ron Medvin

Graduation Now there's somethingtothink
about. I mean, not the ceremony itself;
that's just the traditional cap and gown
festivities that we all experienced on leave
ing high school But what I mean is that
it does make you think that we’ve been
here for four years and, in spite of sound»
ing trite, a lot has changed. Hmm. As the
country changes, so changed Grinnell?

Think of when we first camehere Remem—
her the music then? The Airplane said we
were "outlaws of America”

We went to Des Moines to catch a glimpse
of Spiro spewing forth his garbage on the
evils of the American press. Finally, the
President sent troops into Cambodia and
in the ensuing protest on campuses, four
students at Kent State were murdered.

As freshmen, we had barely caught our
breath when Grinnell was thrown into the
conflict and we closed early. We went
home. Those who lived in New York City
may have watched construction workers
heating anti-war protesters, and Nixon's
phrase of ”Bring Us Together" was hit-
terly amusing. Finally, to top the summer
off. two black students were murdereddown
at Jackson State.

Our freshman year was not what anyone
would call typical.

Today, Grinnell seems like a different
school entirely. Can you name the Chicago
Seven’7 Rennie Davis is now a loyal fol-
lower of that 15 year old guru wundel‘kind.
Bobby Scale ran for mayor of Oakland, and
he came in second in a ten man field.
Hoffman and Rubin exhorted us to vote for
McGovern as the new sure—fire way of
saving the world, What’s left of Jefferson
Airplane isn't worth saving. Spiro apolo-
gizes to the press. The war is over, sort
of. We're Still bombing Asiansbut you woul»
dn’t know it here. Last year even, Nixon’s
actions would have set us organizing meet-
ings in Herrick and marching around Grins
nell for awhile.

And there is a comic bit of irony in the
scrawled challi messages written on the
South Campus loggia walls. The writer
attempts to remind us of Kent State. “How
soon we forget” he Writes, and then he
puts down the date of the tragedy: “May

with what the “Grinnell Experience" has
become. Academically, the only thing I
have to say is that despite official policy,
many professors don't yet take seriously
the need for women faculty as professors
and advisors. Socially, which is perhaps
more essential, there are several serious
problems with the way things are,

To the avid prospective, perhaps the most
distinctive aspect of Grinnell life is co,
educational housing. According to a recent
article in the Des Moines Register, coed
living at Grinnell is idyllic, fostering“bror
ther-and-sister" relationships and a gen,
erally wholesome one-bigrhappy-iamily ate
mosphere. This family Configuration is par
tly what enables one to have the “Grinnell
Experience,” for it provides the eager
Grinnellian with security and companion-
ship for that frightening voyage into her
or his own ego,

Proponents of coed dorms have always
argued that the presence of the opposite
sex provides a more natural environment
and causes less emphasis to be placed on
sex. The big point in the Register's article
was that members of a hall feel that having
sex with each other is some sort ol incest.
Well, that's not always how it is, in many
cases, the complete integration of men and
women almost presupposes that casual
sex will ensue; intercourse is taken for
granted. And a person who desires to live
in a single sex dorm (of which there are
only one or two left) is regarded as almost
abnormal. Coed life also aids and nbets the
”Grinnell Experience" by encouraging 24»
hour intensity and togetherness; there is
no asexual privacy in which to rest And,
of course, having 95% of available housing
coeducational is to fissume that the most
important relationships for inch to pursue
are with women necessarily, and viceversa,
that students won't be happy without the
opposite sex constantly near at hand. That
is an assumption which today, fortunately,
is not the unquestioned premise it was a
decade ago.

4, 1971” Jesus It's only been three
years and we can't get the damn date
straight.

Changes? Sure But are we now apathe-
tic, are we returning to the 1950’s, as
Time and Newsweek keeps telling us? I ,
don't think 50. Hell, 3 lot did change in
those four years here. Requirements were
abolished, generally students today have
more of a voice in determining what goes
on here, and cared dorms have taken over.
I do not think Grinnell will turn around
and step back to the ways of old. AndI
also do not bellevethat those who do remem~
her the ”Kent State Era"wiil everfor'getit.
it's Just that today times are different,
and in not going to be foolish encughlo say

whether now is better or worse than then.

I ﬁgure if you ve been here long enough
to graduate, then you do like Grinnell.
And I think you’ll miss this school after
you’ve been gone awhile. You may come
back and visit and then you find out that
you really don’t belong here anymore and
that starts to hurt. There are, riends ,
whom you realizeﬁl'l of a sudde ,KILYOuv
won’t ever see again. There was an atmo
phere here that you probably will never
again experience. ‘ ‘.,
Sure, it's exciting to go, and four years.
is a long time to spend at one place, but-’
with one week left, it's getting hard to
accept the tact that you're leaving. Yeah,
you'll miss this place. You’ll see.

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All of these things encourage students to
feel that they’re really with it and right
on, liberated and so forth, that they’re
well on their way to getting their s~t
together and knowing their own heads.
How interesting it is to me that people
are so ousy looking up their various bodily
orifices that they overlook several basic
conflicts in social relations.

Perhaps the most severe is that these
sexually, humanly liberated young men
and women found themselves exploding
into heated and serious debate about a letter
to this paper whichpurportedtobejusta jag,
a letter which expressed a male’s need for
raw female flesh. Very funny. How come
nobody got it?

Another source of tension is that, accorr
ding to informed sources, at least part
of the reason that the women's movement
on this campus never achieves anythingeven
nearly resembling sisterhood is that most
of the women involved are afraid of losing
their boyfriends, who are, incidentally, the
Liberated, Together men of Grinnell.

A third point of tension is that this right-
on, harmonious community is subject to
hitter argument about race relations and
sexual preferences, Would-he poets wander
along the railroad tracks and ejaculate
in the cornfields; students drink and smoke
dope together, thus forming life-long friend-
ships that won't last past the next room
change; men and wolnen from social units
to the exclusion of individual friendships.
And students in all seriousness complain
to their professors that they’re too“down”
to do their work.

The freedom we’ve gained recently seems
to be the right to be hopelessly selHndul-
gent Ah, yes, friends, llle“Grinnell Exper-
ience" is flourishing.

And I? I'm leaving ill a week or two, and
it makes me very Sad to think that this
“Gl‘innell Experience” is something that
l've had to overcome in get from this
school all that u promised me four spring-
tiines ago.

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