November 2 I, I958

SCARLET AND BLACK

Page Three

 

 

Sticks and Stones

By Paul Bass
The dichotomy or the Grinncll mind never ceases to amaze me.
Three weeks ago the student body was babbling incoherently
about intellectualism and deploring the apparent lack thereof; no
indictment of undergraduate shallowness was too biting, and the
chief desire of the mass seemed to have been to achieve some sort
of excellence, intellectual or academic. if the furor was marked by

a good deal. of silliness, it did, at

least, evince an awareness of our

lacks, and was, for that reason, encouraging.

This week, however, the
tides of opinion have ebbed
again, and the dcsirc to learn
hasgbeen replaced by (1) a
desire for a lessening of the
work load, and (2) it tre-
mendous desire for a Thanks-
giving vacation. It is imp05r
sible to reconcile this latest
thing with the notion of in-
tellectualism_which is now
passe—but both aspects are
worthy of some comment.

It must be said, in fairness to
the student, that much of this
wailing about the academic load
has stemmed from the faculty
and administration: I was aware
of very little complaint prior to
the rash of emergency meetings
and top—level consternation this
past week. It would appear that
the faculty prematurely recog-
nized its own imagined villainy,

and, in doing so, called down
upon us the current storm.
Be that as it may, the

storm is here, and not one Grin-
nellian in ten is willing to ad-
mit that he is not overworked.

Is anyone truly being run
ragged? I think not, We have
time for m volleyball and
dance intramural; we perform—
ed in the theater workshop
and spent dozens of busy
hours prepping our preps. our
television sets glow ghostly in
our lounges, and the machines
chime nightly down at
the White Spot. We have time
for bridge and the Union and
KGRW and a score of clubs.
Sinall wonder that we are
haggard and wan: we've bat-er
ly time to crowd class attendr
ance into this appalling sched-
ule

Nol‘ is this to say that [M
Volleyball and the rest are not
good things; on the contrary, I

Do Km

NWT" ﬁ‘

1. Do you ﬁnd going "on the

 

think them worthy of our time
and perhaps even vital to our
wellrbeing. But extracurricular
activities oi any sort must be
seen for what they are: extra-
curricular. They lie outside the
pale of education; they are
merely the frosting on our
scholastic cake. They must take
second place to the daily busi—
ness oi learning.

I would hesitase to say that
the drab showing or the
freshman class or the wide—
spread feeling that we are
overworked is due directly to
participation in things extra-
curricular, but I would suggest
that those whose grades are
suffering might do well to
slack oil on volleyball and the
dance.

The Grinnellian’s remcdy for
his academic slump, or course, is
not less play and more work, but
a vacation. Just give him four
days of peace and quiet and he
will “catch up on his studies”; the
process of education, you sec, is
analogous to a footracc . . , the
professor is presently leading
the pack, and the student needs
time to close the gap. Give us
a Thanksgiving vacation and all
will bc well.

The notion is too absurd to
take seriously. Aside lrom the
fact that the student is not, iii
truth, overworked. and in
spite of the fact that he can
take a vacation whenever he
wants (there are, you know,
unlimited cuts), there is simply
no justifying a Thanksgiving va»
cation. A good percentage of
the student body would have
pily traipsc home for dinner,
and those who remained here
would merely “catch up" on
work that they could—and

Think

Council To Forward Pelilions,

 

five Halls Chosen

Reques’rs Thanksgiving Holiday To Vie For Prize

Student Council voted Wednesday night to forward a

set of petitions for 21 Thanks
Howard Pt. Bowen along with
vacation be called.

Council president Gol'die

givingT vacation to President
its recommendation that the

Hunt was delegated by the

council to deliver the petitions to Bowen and explain to
him the nature of the arguments for and against the vaca-

tion.

In the course of the discus»
sion, Several arguments were
raised in opposition to the pro-
posed weekend holiday:

Faculty memhers objected,
according to Ralph Luebbcn,
council Sponsor, on ' the
grounds that their course
schedulcs had been planned in
advance and would be disrupt-
ed by this change. Luchben
mentioned specifically the
science department’s problem
in regard to lahoratorv ueriods.
Other faculty members 011-
posed the move on the grounds
that there will be another va-
cation period beginning on
Dec. 13, two weeks from
Thanksgiving weekend.

Some students objected be-
cause thev couldn't go home
due to financial difficulty and
the long distances some would
have to travel,

other student objection was
raised on the premise that if
a Thanksgiving holiday is
granted, a few days must be
taken off Christmas vacation.

 

should—have done before.
We don’t need a vacation half
as much as WC need some Stu-

dents.
Our football team is to be
congratulated on its smashing

upset ol Coo last week; it was
a victory that made a good sear
son of an otherwise dreary one,
and which completely vindicated
the season-long contention that
We had a great team. I wonder,
though, whether it was quite
proper of the gridders to at-
tribute their success lo God. I
thought He was ineligible or
something, '

 

 

 

Some have already contracted
for jobs at Christmas time,
which are scheduled to start
the 14th or 15th. Luebben
assured the council that this
was not necessarily true.

Students who backed the
move seemed to feel that they

need the 3-day rest from studyr
ing; those who wanted to go
home could go, and the remain-
der could stay on campus.

v i e

A subscription to the Scar-
let and Black will he sent to
the local high school. After a
conference with the high
school student council presi-
dent Evan Evans, Bill Christ-
man and Hunt concluded that
this was one way to help
cement relations between the
high School and the college.

In Discussion lM's

Main and Read, Smith, Lan~
gan and Dibble were judged the
top halls in discussion intrar
murals, held last Monday and

Tuesday evenings for south and ,

north campus respectively.
“How Can the U. S hu-
move Relations with Latin
America?" was the question
discussed by the 12 halls which
participated in the contest,

The five winning discussions
will be put on tape and a panel
consisting of faculty and out-
side iudges will select the best
women's and the best men’s dis-
cussions. These two halls will
each receive $50 and a placque.

The'la Sig Induc’rs
Incoming Members

Three new members of Theta
Sigma Phi, women’s honorary
journalism fraternity, will be
initiated Sunday afternoon at
the home of Evelyn Boyd (Eng-
lish).

The three initiates are Jan
Baumel, Barb Haardt and Sue
O’Brien.

 

 

HERMES—L. 9. SMITH—REMINGTON—SMJTH-CORA)
TYPE’W‘RITE‘RS

Complete Line of

. School Supplies
. Tempra Paints

. Poster Board
. Religious items

Grinnell Office ,
/ Supply

Across from the Post Office

 

 

WILL TELL YOU.’ 45-

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