Friday, August 27, 1971

THE SCARLET AND BLACK

New SA’s Discuss Their Role

by Yvor Stoakley

"The first thing I'd recomr
mend is to try and overcome
your title of ‘student advisor',"
said former S-A David Ross
senwasser. "Get to be kno-
wn as just a student who‘s
there to help."

The first meeting of the SILI’
dent advisors orientation was
a panel of former S-A’s sha-
ring their experiences of last
year. A variety of viewpoV
ints was expressed, with the
main point being that there is
no set S- A methodology.

Pat Leubbens, as S-A in Yo~
unkers last year termed her-
self a "go-getter" and no-
ted that she tried diligently
to set up a variety of situa-
tions and to make her fellow
students comfortable with one
another. "It can either bea
situation where 15 or 20 peo*
ple really live together or it
can-be like an apartment hou-
se," she advised.

Jon Grey, also a Younker
S-A last year, proposed a
more passive approach. "I
found that I wasn't around

but I made it a definite po-
int to be there when the pro-
blems arose,” said Jon.
"And though my method has
been criticized by some,” he
quipped, “it seems like the
most effective, considering
that three freshmen from my
floor are S-A’s this year."
Other 5- A’s of old noted that
listening consumed a large
portion of their time in the
role of student advisor, and
that problems could arise if
the S-A took on too much of
the responsibility or made
decisions for hisnew students.
Student advisor orientation
continued Wednesday with a
discussion of counseling and
services for emotional prob‘
lems. Margy Daly, assistant
Dean of Student Affairs inr
formed S-A’s of the variety
of services available to han—
dle such problems and dis-
cussed procedures to} be used
in emergencies.

College Registrar, Charles
Sellers, briefed the new S-
A’s on the problems involr

vcd in registering the new
students. lie informed them
of the new situation which
will exist with the installa-
tion of freshman tutorials and
the increased number of op~
tions. Sellers also noted
tions. Sellers also noted that
70% of the incoming fresht
men were placed in their
first or second choice lur
torial.

In a brief address on acader
mic counseling, Ray Obermil-
ler, Director of/\cadcmicAdA
vising, reviewed some of the
problems which could be ex-
pected and pointed out guide?
lines for helping insure the
academic wellbeing ofthe stu»
dents. in referring to last
semester, Grinnell's first
without requirements, Oberr
miller made an interesting
observation noting that the
school's overall gradepoint
average jumped from 2;7 to
above a 3.2. and that less
than 50 failing grades were
recordodwlhe lowestnumber,
said Obermiller, that he can
remember in some time.

Clotfelter Outlines His Academic Concerns

Chairman of the Faculty
Beryl Clotfelter (physics) di-
vided his report to the far
culty in the three areas of
faculty salaries, comment on
last year's activities, and is,
sues which he sees as of im-
portance for the agenda in
the coming year.

in reviewing the past year at
Grinnell, Clotfelter termed it
“quiet compared to the pre
ceding year", with less dra-
matic war protest, less aca—
demic disruption, and less
strident student demands.
One possible reason for the
change in students’ activity
with regard to changing the
formal structure of the coir
lege, Clotfelter suggested,
"is that much progress has
been' made in including stu-
dents, both formally and il'r
formally."

“This suggests," ClothltEr
told the faculty, "that an ace
commodation is being deve-
loped between the legitimate
desires of students to have
some voice in the decisions
which affect them and in which
their knowledge is important
and the traditional concepts
of proper governing proce
dures held by the faculty and
the administration."

During the last year, several
very significant problems
have become apparent. These
will require, Clotfelter said,
serious discussion of the
problems and of fundamental
educational policy. Although

they are most apparent to
members of the Academic
Standing Committee, they re-
quire full faculty discussion,
and should possibly provide
the focus for the year's
discussion.

The credit/fail option is an
important problem. Begun in
1966, it first permitted on-
ly students above the freshman
level to register for one cour
rse each semester ona crer
dit/fail basis .. thus, amaxir
mum of six of a student's
approximately thirty courses
could be taken on that basis.

The original credit/failsysr
ten-l was established to enable
students to take courses
”outside their general area
of interest or competence”
without fear of endangering
their graderpoint. "The op-
tion", Clotfelter said, “has
been successful in meeting
this goal."

However, the option was exe
tended to freshmen and to
cover a maximum of half of
a student’s course work in
Spring, 1970. Clotgelter sugr
gested that this extended op-
tion should be reevaluated in
light of twonew developments.

First, many graduateschools
are refusing to consider stu-
dents with credit/fail on their
transcripts, or are consit
dering such students only af-
ter those with graded [ranS’
cripts.

Also. and more importantly
from the faculty’s viewpoint,
some students are using the

option as a means to maxi-

mize their grade point by
doint the minimum amount of
work, without penalty, in two
courses, Clotfelter told the
faculty.

Although “Part of the rar
tionalc for the expanded cre-
dit/fail option was a desire to
reduce the competition for
grades and the preoccupation
with grades," Clotfelter feels
that lhc option is clearly not
having that effect with many
students.

Clotfelter suggested several
possible ways for the faculty
to correct the problems he
sees with credit/fail grading:
I) returning to a restricted
use of the option; 2) making
credit indicate :’\,B, or Cand
eliminating the D grade on-
tirely; 3) making credit indir
Cato A, B, or C and elimi-
nating all other grades “so
that the system becomes cre-
dit/erase rather than credit/
fail"; and 4) eliminating the
F grade from the system.

(A proposal from the A03.
dcmic Standing Committee to
make credit apply to only A,
B, or C while retainin D in
the grading system was de-
feated by the faculty last
year).

Indcpendem study was also
pointed out as an important
area of concern by Cletfcltcr;

one problem is that it is
expensive and overburdens
many faculty members, and
another is that "an indepenr
dent is often a cheap way to
get academic credit."

Page Five

New Student Days Schedule

New Student Days, which will
begin this afternoon and cone
tinue until Monday, will fea-
ture the usual meetings ofnew
students and their advisors
(student, resident, faculty),
the usual informal get~toge-
thers and socialactivities,and
several important new inno-
vatlotls.

The New Student Days Com‘
mittee will present a series
of student run seminars dea-
ling with particular problems
and topics taken from courses
and independents held last
year. Carolyn Ashbaugh, New
Student Days chairman, told
the 5&8 that she hopes these
seminars will show new stu*
dents what possibilities there
are for student initiative at
Grinnell.

Most of the seminars will
be held in various hall loun-
ges and will consist of pre
sentations by students of a
certain topic taken from their
work in a class or indepen-
dent or tutorial. As one ex-
ample of seminar topics and
origins, Lynne Ogawa will
present one on “A Nonrhy-
bolic Look at Modern Science
and Art." Her topic, which
grew out ofa project for Mr.
Will's tutorial on “Man and
Science," will show the para-
llel relationships between
the development of quantum
mechanics, the theory of re
lativity, and "modern" art.
The seminar will be illusr
trated through the use of
slides.

While the seminars are
aimed at interesting new stu-
dents in the possibilities for
creative academicwork, other
programs planned for New

Student Days will introduce
them to the people with whom
they will pursue that work.

One of the traditional fea-
tures of New Student Days,
the History of Grinnell lec-
ture, will be given by Pro—
fessor Alan Jones at 3:00
p.m. Friday afternoon.

Friday night, after a gene?
ral meeting with President
Leggett, Mr. Clotfelter,
chairman of the faculty and
Shelly Floyd, SGA President,
ﬂoor and hall meetings will
be held to introduce new stu-
dents to their studentadvisors
and hail presidents and to
orient them to what happens
in their hall.

Saturday morning, there will
be special breakfasts withre-
sident advisors in the halls
where the resident advisors
live. After a series of place-
ment tests and preprofe5‘
sional meetings, the student
seminars will be held Saturn
day afternoon.

Saturday evening, meetings
of professors with the fresh—
men they will be teaching in
tutorials will be held in an
informal setting. This, anda
Sunday morning breakfast,
with five faculty or adminis
tration families at each of
seven breakfasts, is part of
an attempt to give new stu-
dents the opportunity to get
acquainted with faculty infore
mally.

Sunday afternoon, Student
Government will conduct a
series of discussions about
"The Decision Making Pro
case at Grinnell." SGA hopes
to show new students what can
be done through it, and to
spot freshmenparticularlyin-
terested in working for SGA.

 

 

lEGGETT --from Page 1

of cooperative and special-
purpose houses available to
students should be increases,
if the move is found to be
"financially and academically
feasible." He hopes to pro-
m0te ”full utilization of the
new physical education coma
plex.” ,

As always finincial affairs
of the College will receive
careful attention by the Free
sident. He seeks "a more
clearrcut financial solvency,
which in the long run means
more endowment and thus less
nerve—wracking pressure on
the trustees, the development
office, the deans, other offie
cers of the College and me
both for raising and saving
money on a seventdayaweek,
24-hour a day schedule; sothat
we can begin to put more of
our energies into seeing that
this College develops... an

academic program ofthe
kind you'faculty and staff are
proud to be a part of and of
the kind that pushes our stu-
dents so clearly and exciting—
ly that they are happy to work
beyond their immediate capar
cities."

The primary goal ofthe com-
munity should be to make
Grinnell "abetter educational
institution. For that is the
way its graduates will make
their markin thisworld. Other
ways are interesting, humanly
understandable, and some
times even exciting, but from
my own reading of history I
suspect they are mostly ir-
relevant noise, devices for
evading or postponing our bar
sic responsibility, which is,
as so precisely stated in the
charter of this College, ”to
prepare young men and women
for the professions and for
the honorable discharge of
the various duties of life.”

 

 

"Although one must applaud
the student who is sufficient
ly mature to work completely
independently, and the deve-
lopment of such ability must
be one of the goals ofa col-
lege education, one may won-
der how many Grinnell stu-
dents have reached thatgoal,"
Clotfelter said.

The problem of the nature
and amount of independent
work which should be part of
a Grinnell education leads to
two related issues ‘- how
much work from other institur
tions should be accepted to-
ward a Grinnell degree, and
what activities outside of
courses should be counted for
credit.

In considering the problems
involved, Clotfelter offereda
new analysis of the goals of
a Grinnell liberal arts edu-
cation, as follows.

i) “To further increase the
student’s knowledge of the

world .. physical, social, po-
litical, and cultural -* in which
he lives."

2) ”To train students to think
logically, to express ideas
clearly, and to develop habits
of critical thought."

3) ”To achieve some degree
of mastery in one coherent
field of knowledge” -- not
necessarily the traditional der
partments.

4)"To prepare fora career."

5) ”To certify the comple-
tion ofa stage of formal edu*

cation."

In conclusion, Clotfelter told
the faculty that although the
goal of developing skills of
thought and expression may
be the most important reason
for the existence of the col»
lege, it is likely that the goal
of career preparation will be-
come more important than it
has seemed during the era
when most students went to
graduate schools.

 

