Page 4

Senate Commits Suicide:

Propriety Questioned

The natives are bored, so once more the winds of change are
sweeping over student government. Within a fortnight of its
first consideration of the proposal, the Senate has unofficially
voted to abolish itself, with only two dissenting votes. The gist
of the proposal is not so much the abolishing of the Senate, as
its merger with the AWS/CofHP boards.

The Senate's precipitous action has left all but unconsiderod

its effects on the campus atmosphere and on student participar
tion in college governance. On the ether hand it is all too easy
to see the reasons that prompted the move. This year has seen
the addition of four new student-faculty committees, which has
put the student voice into the upper levels of non-academic
decision-making and more or less displaced the role of the
independent student government. Now with theimminentarrival
of student participation in ails college academic decision-
making, the Senate has lost sight of its role.

The Senate sees itself now as primarily a "committee on

committees", but that view ignores the need for a coordinated

and independent student voice to lend and to muster support

for student positions within student-faculty committees. The

major remaining question is can the joint AWS/CofHP boards
provide that voice or would the elimination of the Senate leave
a debilitating void in the expression ofstudent inputs. An action
such as the abolishing of the Senate should not be taken until
there are some good answers to that question.

Many will argue that house presidents have their hands full
with social and other living problems within the dorms; while
others will say that house presidents are the obvious group to
represent general student interests. The problem is confounded
by the fact that the Housing Subcommittee is planning to re
commend that house presidents be elected by the individual
halls after room draw. Thisprocedure seeminglywouldemphar
size the social aspects ofa house president's job.

The problems are real; but the solution is feasible. There is
a potential here for returning to a truly representative student
government. My only plea would be to examine the inherent
problems very carefully before risking what could become a
tremendous backwards step in the search for student input in

college governance.

Can High School Students Vlsit

- - Greg Eutcher

Campus And Apply Anyway?

by ch. Labowltz

When I am not engaged in
creating suchop’dt'dsidﬂiope-ra
more than one opus such as
these columns or dreaming
about a couple ofpinball ma ch~
ines, I occasionally work for
the admissions ofﬁce and act
as a tour guide forprospective
Grinnell students. Thisjobinr
volves taking the prospectives
and their parents, brothers,
cousins and whoever else
came with them around the
campus and trying to ob—
jectively con them into coming
out to the wonders of Iowa when
it is four below and there is
three feet of snow on the
ground. It is these types that
you may see in Cowles and
Quad who seem bewildered by
the amazing way by which we
feed ourselves, trying to look
inconspicuous in coats and
ties and maybe even dresses,
although rarely both on the
same prospective.

The actual tour begins in the
Forum, since thatis where the
admissions office is. The
prospective types are shown
the grill, and youpoint outhow
Grinnell students can easily
relax in the cozy confines of
the Forum. You fail to menr
tlon, however, that some of
those people have been relaxe
lng continuously in those
booths since September of
1957.

Wandering outside to central
campus, the firstthingyou run
into is the oldest women's
gymnasium west of the Mist
sissippi River (pointed out
with pride in the voice, sethat
the prospectives are properly

To people who took the
"Strong Vocational interest
Blank” in December:

The results have arrived.
Prudence Milite, Steve Mohr,
Bill Abdallah, and Ray Ober-
miller areavailabletodiscuss
the results. Anyone who wants
to talk with one of the above
people should contact Mrs.
Pauline Pugh in Burling5(Mr.
Obermiller’s office), Extenr
sion 390 or 391, foran appoint-
ment.

impressed) What lgencrally
do at this point is to separate
the future Grinnellians from
the Carleton Carls, the
Oberlin Obs and the Slippery
Rock Whatevers. After we
have' discussed the aesthetics

'and historical significance of

a round women's gym, [point
out the cornerstone which
reads “Laid by the Class of
1898”, and we speculate as to
who the possibilities were.

There are other highlights of
the tour. There is absolutely
no diplomatic way of explain-
ing such things as "dorms
coeducated by room" toa little
girl's parents and grand-
parents from Sibley, Iowa or
someplace (no offense, Floyd)
without making it sound like
their little girl is doomed to
certain and immediate ravish-
ment. 1 would say that l aver
age six raised eyebrows per
parent during a typiml tourof
the residence halls, plus at
least one ”I see” or a “oh
my", depending on the gender
of the parent. The number of
“things weren't like this when
l was in college” is astronoV
mioall Dorm visitations with
prospectives present other
problems » for example, pros-
pectives want to see dorm
rooms, and, since ldon't set
these things up in advancc,l
drop in on people lknow and
sort of take my chances with
the state of the room and/or
its occupants. The potential
for disaster is enormous. So
far, a girl in a nightgown and
a couple of hallways at “high
tide" are the worst I have ens
countered with prospectives
in tow.

All in all, the job beats study-
ing, it does earn me a few
pesos, satisfies my missionr
ary zeal, and provides some
amusement in my otherwise
sterile life. It does call for
some reflection, however, be-
cause lwnn't look at a prosr
pective without remembering
that I came here once like that
myself, and maybe that
$14,000 is worth something
after all.

THE SCARLET AND BLACK

Lg.

Paul Hersh, violist, center, returned to the Grinnell ca

l

February 5, 1971

mpus for two performances last

weekend. Hersh was a member of the Lenox Quartet which was in residence here from
1962-1968. Here, he performed Schumann with the Franceso
Nathan Schwartx, and Bonnie Hamptoni (Photo by Marty Sach

Trio, from left, David Abel,
5)

Faculty Debates Money Crises

by Tim Forges
and John Pepper _

"The theme of this meeting
will be . . . welll . . . money,
i am afraid. " With these words
Dean Wall set much of the
tone for a meeting of the fac-
ulty senate which, thuughproV
foundly boring to the CASUAL
OBSERVER, intimated an in-
triguing counterpoint of un-
dertones, which ranged from
right-thinking alarum (the
old George-therDog syn-
drome) to a peculiar sort of
self-satisfaction. One sort of
got the feeling that the kiddies
had been sent to bed with a
ghost story, leaving the par
ents free to talk about money.
Mr. Clotfelter's beginning
address combined these two
themes with a wonderfully
strident statement of the con—
clusion of the COMMITTEE-
MAN. Ambiences aside, what
he had to tell the faculty was
that it would not receive an
across , the - board cost-of-

living salary increase. The
base raise was projected at-
or~below three percent with
exceptions for “necessary enr
couragement", and as re-
wards for special merit.
Much of Mr. Wall’s address
consisted of a discursive re-
port on the last meeting of
the American Associated Cole
leges. Such meetings, he said,
tend to be more reassuring
than otherwise--large1y be
cause of the quality of “unir
versality” which they lend to
problems which one might
previously have felt to be pe-
culiarly one's own. Well, so
misery loves company. And
the misery this year was fin~
ancial. While the addresses of
the previous year had con-
cerned mostly matters ofacar
demic reform and core curri-
culum, this year it was all
money. The general pattern
seems to be one ofa slide
from a small surplus to a
slight deficit to a 500 percent
increase of that deficit over

Crisis Center RevisesSchedule

Revolving Door, open since
December 2, 1970, is a tele-
phone and walkrin counseling
center located in Mears bases
ment which offers confidential
help for emOtional, academic,
and drug-related problems.
The center is staffed primar-
ily by students, with help from
resident advisors and faculty.

Last semester Revolving
Door was open for only sin
teen days. During that time
twenty students requestedhelp
from the Center, including
twelve females and eight
males. Ten had drugrrelated
problems and ten had emo»
tional or academic problems.

Eight of the twenty students
contacted the Center between
8 p.m. and midnight, seven
between midnight and 8 a.m.,
and five at Other times during
the day.

Revolving Doorprescntlyhas
about 30 student staff memb-
ers, all of whom underwent
several weeks of training and
will continue to have in-ser~
vice training throughout the
semester. These students man
the center anti offer absolute
confidentiality to anyone com-
ing in. Revolving Door does
keep statistical records such
as those cited above, but the
names of people coming to
the center for help are never
recorded.

.About fifteen of the staff
members are on aspecialized
drug team which helps people

who have had an adverse re
action to a psychoactive drug.
This team has also divided
into small study teams which
will examine the literature on
the most commonly used dr-
ugs. These study groups will
then teach the other members
of the staffand plan to set up
rap sessions on drugs in dorr
mitories that are interested
in doing so.

Revolving Door is presently
seeking new members and an
allt wmpus notice has been put
out. New members will be
continually trained andabsorr
bed into the present staff. Last
semester staff members were
overextended because the
Center was open too many
hours; this semesterthe num—
ber of open hours has been
reduced. '

Revolving door is now open
from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. These
are the hours that other coun—
seling facilities are the least
available to students, and the
hours that the Center was
most heavily used last gem,
ester.

The Center is seeking to
offer help to those who feel
they need it on any problem
--1arge or smallrrandtooffcr
that help without imposingany
outside values. Its extension
numbers are 602 and 603, and
the campus operator will con-
nect calls from pay or off
campus telephones after 12:30
a.m. with no questions asked.

the last three years.

The conviction carried by
Wall's report is that a moner
mry Fimbulwinter is closing
fast on the nine worlds of the
seven liberal arts

The question is:whatdomost
colleges propose to do in order
to survive the coming hard
times? Nothing too shockingly
original, really. Like any good
businessmen they will try to
raise prices, solicit a greater
clientele, cut back on plant
services (extras), cut down
on credit, juggle the books as
much as possible and, if all
else fails, dip into capital.
Unfortunately, Institutes of
Higher Education labourunder
higher aims and nobler pre—
tenses than most small busiv
nessmen. One of the most
nagging financial problems
faced by private colleges is
the great t‘uitlonrscholarship
spiral race, which may be eXr
pressed thus:

Q. Is it true that a liberal
arts education ought not to be
a privilege of the wealthy7

A. Yes.

Q Then who will pay for the
education of the poor?

A. The Government, private
charities, and the institutions
of Higher Education themselr
ves.

Q. But what if the first two
do not supply sufficient funds
for this?

A. Then the I.’s of H. L. will
make up the difference out of
their own unrestricted funds.

(continued to page 7)

Caine Tederman will have to
wait at least another year for
his turn to speak at com-
mencement, despite J. C.
labowitz’ recent nomination.
The college hasannounced that
it has invited Kurt Vonnegut
Jr. back again this year to
speak at the commencement
ceremonies.

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