 

The Grinnell

Scarlet and Black

Clarification And
Interpretation 0t
Week’s Events

Since the 5818’s special lssueWedr
nesday. there has been some clari»
iication on the events of early last
week. Corrections oi errors in our
special and disagreements oi inter-
pretation among participants are
below. ,

CBS spokesmen Lawrence Wright
and Deborah Wright said that the
report that black students met in
Younker Lounge at 5:00 am was
incorrect. AS Lawrence put it,
“The physical evidence itseli imr
plies that we must have been move
ing pretty rapidly by 6:00.” Dee
borah told the SltB that there were
members of CBS who did not know
oi the planned action as late asSuns
day noon, but she declined to elar
borate any iurther on the sequence
of events leading to the takeover.

The 5&8 can only speculate that
a number oi key members oi CBS
knew about the plans the day betore
and that those who did notknow were
iniormed during the night and early
morning at some time as plans pron
ceeded.

Lawrence Wright clariried exactr
ly what had taken place in Presir
dent Leggett’s office Monday mornr
ing. He said that all of the den
mands were discussed, but that the
president retused to negotiate any
points which were outside his aur
thorily to deal with.

Leggett had told the Ski! that those
demands “concerned things which
were being done already by the ad-
ministration or were being done,”
but the CBS spokesman disagreed.
Lawrence Wright said that more of
the things Leggett claimed werebe.
ing done were obvious to CBS mem-
bers.

President Leggett told the son Sun-
day that agreements were made
Monday morning, but some of them
he considered fairly minor and said
the administration was more than
willing to grant them. For example,
he Said the college has tried to have
present at oilicialy policy discuSr
sions concerningblacks representar
tives oi the black community. From
now on a “mandated spokesman”
will be present, so the matter will
be handled a bit more formally.

president Leggett attempted to cl»
arity the nature of the agreement
which CBS representatives had in-
terpreted as a commitment to com
plete negotiations by Saturday. He

gave to the CBS representatives 3
written statement which said sub
stantially that “if the library was
cleared bythe stipulated time (12:30)
we would being discussions imme-
diately and the results oi these
would be presented to the Trustees”
who were already planning to be in
town during the weekend for dis-
cussions concerning the budget.
Leggett said that though CBS had
interpreted this as a committment
to discuss all the proposals, he was
still not sure Friday whether they
would be able to complete the dis
cussions or all the points in time
to present the results to the Truse
tees.

The agreement not to take repri»
sals against CBS members whopar»
ticipated in the Burling occupation
was also on condition thatthey leave
the library by the“stipu1ated time "

Leggett said the administrationag-
reed that the measures in section
(i) or the Student handbook would
not be invoked. Later during the
week CBS negotiators interpreted

See EVENTS Page 5

Negotiations Completed

Tuesday
December 7, 1971

Volume 80 Number 16

leggett, SGA Review Results

News Summary

Negotiations between Concerned Black Students and the college

administration are now completed;

a number or delinite agree-

ments have resulted irom the talks.
President Leggett‘s statement to the college community about the
origins of the talks and the various resolutions which have been

made is on page 4 oi today’s 8&8.

The son cabinet has also issued a statement describing the
negotiations and their part as observers and oiiicial student repre-t
sentatives in them; an article summarizing it is at right.

Other related stories in this issue concern a Clarification of the
events of early last week (left), and a report on the weekend’s
meeting oi the Trustee’s Executive Committee (below), and a
report oi the meetings for students which were chaired jointly

by CBS and SGA (page 5).

The student government cabinet
today issued a statement on the
negotiations oi the past week and
SGA'S involvement in them.

The statement was written by
Shelley Floyd, SGA President.

She explained that SGA had been
involved in all bargaining sessions
since the Monday atternoon meeting.
However, SGA representatives were
asked to leave the Monday meeting
so that CBS could clarify its demands
to the administration beiore bringing
in other campus groups. In order to
better iniorm the campus commun—
ity, the SGA Cabinet arranged an
unofficial meeting between the Joint
Board and CBS leaders Tuesday
night.

SGA representatives attended
Wednesday’s negotiating session

Blacks, SGA Meet With Trustees

Seven black students and SGA Cab»
inet members Shelley Floyd and
Mario Bognanno met Sunday after-
noon with several trustees or the
college who were presenton campus
this weekend.

Black students Al Wheat, Russ
MacGregor. Ernie Rose, Lawrence
Wright, Marilyn Cubit. Marc Laiont,
and Dennis Moss met with the trus»
tees for four hours to discuss the
problems of the Grinnell black com»
munity, and the general education
of Whites and blacks at Grinnell.
Near the conclusion of the informal
meeting Wright read a joint state-
ment by the black representatives
and SGA cabinet, which is reprinted
elsewhere this issue of the SELE.

SGA president Shelley Floyd, who
said she ieit the meeting was
“worthwhile”, added that ”some
concern was expressed over the
events of the last week, but the stun
dents’ comments were well received
and I think there was general underr

list Meetings

Several negotiating sessions and
other meetings took place last week
prior to the presentation oi pro-
posals to the trustees last week-
end,

Negotiating sessions began Mon-
day afternoon at 2:oo. Tuesday
there were negotiating meetings
morning and aiternoon, and the Exe-
cutive Council met during the eve
ening and, according to Dean Wall,
spent most of the meeting discusr
sing the negotiations.

Beginning Wednesday morning two
son representatives sat in on the
negotiating sessions. There was an
attempt to have the whole SGA
cabinet attend. Mario Boggnanoand
Shelley Floyd represented SGA on
Wednesday and Friday, Terry cure
iord took Mario’s place on Thurs
day.

Wednesday meetings were morning

and afternoon. The ExecutiveCoun»

cil held its weekly meeting at 4.15.

Thursday there were two negotia-
ting sessions, morning and arter—
noon; the raculty met at 4:15 to
approve the structural chnngeinnd.
missions procedure which is discusv
sed in another article.

Friday there were meetings in the
morning, afternoon, and evening as
negotiators hurried to complete as
much oi their work as possible
oetore the Trustees arrived Satur-
day.

standing oi the issues.” Mario
noted that the trustees were not
angry at the black students’ actions,
but desired, and got. explanations
Dean Wall noted that “this Week
has been a tremendously significant
educational experience tor me," and
President Leggett added that since
the main business of the college is
education, the College must take
steps to eliminate the “cultural
shock” experienced by both the black
and white communities here.

The Trustees, who constituted a
quorum oi the Executive Committee
oi the Board of’l‘rustees, approved

Classes End
Tomorrow

the Black Admissions Board pro-
posal pnssed earlier in the week by
the iaculty.

Leggett noted, however, that the
Black Admissions Board and the
resolutions passed by the Executive
Council are Just “compromises"
which have to be tested in actual
usage.

Representatives at the black stu
dents negotiation committee and sea
read a statement to the trustees
thanking president Leggett and
Deans Kimbo, Wall, and Walker
ior their “consideration” and “iair-
ness” during the negotiations.

photo by Jon Davis

Student diners in Quad, trays in hand, wander
aimlessly among the tables, seeming more intent ‘
on the business at hand then in admiring the new 1’1an huusmg. and proposed a black

brightlyrdecornted Christmas tree.

Wednesday’s meeting began with
discussion oi a demand for a stu-
denHaculty review board to hear
black grievances against certain
iaculty members and courses. The
administration pointed out that the
iacttlty, AAUP, and accrediting as-
sociation would not allow any body
with a final say over grades; and
that grievance procedures already
existed through several administra-
tors, the Committee on Academic
Standing, or the student coordina-
tors, Black negotiators indicated
general student ignorance at these
procedures, and indicated that they
would be tested. if found ineilective,
the demand would be renewed.

Discussion then moved to the Cree»
tlon oi a Black Studies major, Black
negotiators explained that such a
major would enable blacks to learn
about their own heritage and would
attract black students to Grinnell.
They denied that the entire program
would be oriented towards social
studies, or that the program was
demanded just to provide Black
Studies teaching positions. The ad-
ministration team pointed out that
action on any major program must
come from the All College EPC,

the Executive Council, and the iac»
ulty.

CBS proposed the creation of ii
Black Housing Committee and, alter
clariiying that this Committee would
send recommendations to the Student
Housing Committee and the Social
Policies and Regulations Committee
for approval, the proposal was acA
cepted. it was speciiied that Presi»
dent Leggett would act as a iinal
arbitrator in any disagreements,
and that other student groups could
set up similar committees.

Friday aiternoon was devoted to
discussion about the SAGA iood
service. Blacks complained about
the differences between SAGA iood
and the food they are accustomed
to eating and asked that blacks be

- allowed to reject the Board option.

The administration expressed con-
cern about possible repercussions
or such a move, and indicated that
individual students with demon-
strable health problems are already
exempt from the board plan.

The final issue discussed was black
control oi black innds. It was agreed
that a Black Student Auditor would
be appointed to administer petty cash
funds of the CBS budget, and that
CBS Officers would be consulted be-
iore the disbursement oi money irom
the Martin Luther King Scholarship
Fund.

It was agreed that an "ad hoc"
committee would be appointed to
drait a detailed proposal ior pre
sentation to the EPC during the
iirst weeks oi second semester.

Next, the negotiators turned to the
issue of a black representative on
every committee. The blacks clar-
iiied their position to indicate that
they meant only committees which
currently have student representa-
tion. The administration responded
that nearly all such commitee meet»
ings are open anyway and that stu-
dents can attend, make proposals,
and even submit minority opinions.
The black students agreed to work
within this framework it was also
agreed that any other committees
dealing with issues or concern to
blacks would consult the blackrep—
resentative betore taking any action.

Thursday, Black negotiators alst
mentioned a desire tor say in all

co-op.

 

