The

I” Scarlet
& Black

Neiderbach and. Parsons
in today’s runoff

by Toni Areiiberg

Jon Neiderbach and Tom Par-
sons will be involved in a: runoff
election today for Student
Government Association president
of 1977-73. Neiderbach and Parsons
were the two top vote-getters in
last Wednesday’s election Ed
Hassey and a \vriterin trio of Adam
Leavitt. Chuck Platter and Bob

Tom Parsons and Jon Neiderhach a

Grinnell College
Grinnell, Iowa

3/11/77 Vol. 85, No. 20

 

Weiss, who ran together, were
eliminated,

With 602 students voting.
Neiderbach received 295 votes for
49 per cent. Parsons received 109
for 18 per cent, Thewriteein trio got
86 for 14 per cent and iiassey
received 71 for i2 per cent. Seven
per cent of the votes went to other

parti poting in a run—oil

election lor son president today. More they answer questions at an
open forum Ill Loose Lounge Monday night. Ed llassey also par-

. licipated. The three candidates also answered questions Sunday night
in Youiiker Lounge and engaged in a debate last night.

‘G

\vriteein candidates

Neiderbach, a junior, would have
\ton had he received seven more
votes. He said, “I'm obviously very
pleased with the results, I hope the
students look again at the major
differences between Tom Parsons
and myseli when they vote on
Friday.”

Parsons, a sophomore, said, “I
thoughtl would have fared better,
I expected 200 votes and I didn’t get
them. ii all of my votes come out
on Friday, I think I'll \vin."

Sophomore Platter spoke on
behalf of the writeein trio. “I'm
actually pretty pleased with the
results, considering how uniairly
we were treated." Platter com-
plained that the trio'was denied
access to campus media and panel
discussions. He also expressed
displeasure with the election
board’s decision to count only votes
under the name of “Platter" as ,
votes for the trio.

Hassey, a junior, commented,
“You have to be able to face the
losing as well as the winning. The
experience was worthwhile, Idon't
regret becoming involved.”

lgal Roodenko:

all optimistic pacifist

by Polly Morrice

Igal Roodenko believes that a
liberal community and a cone
servative one are quantitatively
alike. “There are ten liberals in

ach " The difference, explained
he paciiist leader who spoke at
Grinnell yesterday and Wed-
esday, lies in the quality of those
iberals. Optimism and come
mitment, rather than numerical
strength, can eiiectively promote
social change. Roodenko stressed
that ”throughout history, many of
the important human rights
movements have been initiated by
single individuals,”

Roodenko’s own brand of op-
timism is perhaps the force behind
his long and active service to the
causes of peace and civil rights.
Thirty years ago, he joined the War
Resistors League (WRL), an

’yganization founded on the
premise that the causes oi war are
deeply rooted in human behavior
and institutions, Roodenko said
that given the high levels of

€olence present in all areas oi

ocicty, armed conilict seems

inevitable and inescapable
However, he says, the possibilities
for changing humanity, through
noneviolent means, are endless.

Roodenko’s convictions have
inspired a career which has led
him through eight different
prisons—“the federal one was
cleanest; not a single case of
athlete’s foot”—and more

-recently; to more than 80 college.

 

, Roodenko. _ this attempt

campuses. This week's visit was
his third trip to Grinnell.

He was active in the antlewar
movement of the 19305, but it. was
not until he spent 20 months in a
federal prison at the end of World
War II for draft resisting that he
had time to reflect on the true
nature of war.

“Three things happened while I
was in prison that profoundly
altered my thinking,” he said.
“The bombing of Hiroshima, the
beginnings of the missile race and
the emergence oi Gliandi as a
world figure". The threat of
”biological annihilation“ made
him intensely aware that peace
would never be achieved through
the unlimited application of
violence. Ghandi's success,
meanwhile, encouraged him to
consider exercising Ghandian
tactics of nonviolent resistance for
political ends.

Along with his friends, Roodenko
believed racism to be the ”one
institution most susceptible to
Ghandian principles and
methods,” Thus. shortly after his
release from prison in 1947, he and
a group of iellow activists, black
and white, formed the Committee
on Racial Equality tCOREt.

CORE's first political act:

boarding buses in Washington.

DC, and traveling through four
Southern states, This “Journey of
Reconciliation" was the first
freedom ride. According to
to in-

tegrate public transportation was
not very successful; he termed it
“only the first wave." This wave
had no immediate social reper-
cussions, but it did carry him into
prison again. This time he served
30 days on a chain gang in North
Carolina.

Beginning in the late '405,
Roodenko has concentrated his
energies on the WRL, a paciiist
organization formed in the 1920s
by three former suffragettes. ’He
has served on the executive
committee and was committee
chairperson from 1968-1972, during
the height of the Viet Nam antiwar

movement.
Since 1972, he has devoted four

months of the year to touring
college campuses; the remainder
of his time goes to WRL, to
carrying out his duties as a
member of the editorial board of
Win magazine and to earning his
livmg, He is a printer, the owner of
a small letter press in New York
City which prints movement
material and “elegant work, like
wedding invitations,"

He likes his trade, which he
entered on the suggestion of iellow
pacifist David Delliliger. He likes it
much better, in fact, than he does
the profession of horticulture, in
which he holds a degree lrom
Cornell University

And his employment experience
leaves him wondering at college

 

ircshmen who strive to plan their
lives heiore the close ot their first

College

Office

building - sold

The Grinnell College downtown
office building at 321 Fifth Avenue
has been sold to General Telephone
and Electronics (GTE) Data
Services, a data processing turn, it
was announced Monday by college
President A. Richard Turner,

Under terms of the agreement,
the college will vacate the building
by May 1 oi this year. GTE Data
Services is scheduled to move in
sometime during the first quarter
of 1973.

The college offices currently
housed in the downtown building
\i‘lll be relocated in various tem-
porary sites on campus, according
to Provost and Dean of the College
Waldo Walker, Plans are for the
Office of College Relations to be
relocated in Nollen House; the
Treasurer’s Office and the Service
Bureau will be moved into the BALG
Service Building on Tenth Avenue;
and the Development Office will
occupy the southeast corner of
Darby gym. including the present
offices of the Grinnell Outdoor
Recreation Program (GORP).
Walker said that the GORP offices

would probably be moved to the

PEG

Walker stressed that, with the
exception of the Service Bureau.
these relocations are strictly
temporary and that a study will

begin “immediately" to rind pere ,

manent locations for the other
three departments,
Turner said that administrators

 

would work to hold the costs of both
short and long term renovations

semester “Why, I didn't discover
what I wanted to do until I was 31.5'

Nevertheless, his faith in the
powers of youth surpasses liis
resilient faith in the abilities of
society as a whole. Pressed for his
opinion of college students today,
he characterized the tvpical

less than or equal to the net amount
gained irom the sale oi the
building.

There were two reasons cited by
Turner for the sale of the building.
First, he noted the desirability of
concentrating all college oiiices on
campus. In particular, Turner said
lhatthei‘e has been a “desire to get
the alumni office and college
relations back to the life of the
campus.”

Turner also said It was
“financially unwise to continue
maintaining a partially unused
building.” Presently, only two
floors of the four-floor building are
being utilized, The third floor is
being used as storage
space and the fourth floor IS not
being used at all.

Walker explained that if the
building had not been sold, the
college would have had to spend
“between $30,000 and 50.000 to
upgrade the building's mechanical
systems.”

The college bought the building
in 19157 from the Grinnell‘Rein-
surance Company. According to
wa er the college made a profit
on the sale. However, neither he
nor Turner \vould disclose the sale
price,

According to Donald B. Lloyd,
local data services director for
GTE Data Services, the company
plans a complete renovation of the
building. including architectural
modifications and installation of
new air conditioning and electrical
systems.

photo by Steve 5 berberg

student as “intelligent.
sophisticated, and energetic.
possessing a high potential for
idealism and a thin shell of
cynicism. MV job, ” he said. “is
to break through the shell and let.
the idealism flower '

 

