The Scarlet 81 Black, Feb. 23, INS—page 5_

 

Terri Tiddle
Says free-time

necessary here

HOW do Grinnellians spend their
free time, those wonderful rare
moments when we can escape
from academia? For all intenB
and purposes, it’s undoubtedly a
good idea to relax and release our
energy from time to time, It seems
that Grinnellians spent their spare
time ina number of different ways

Oddly enough, many oi us spend
our free time procrastinating,
doing anything to avoid work Well,
don't feel bad Recent studies have
shown that procrastination is one
oi the most popular pastimes in the
nation. You must admit it gives one
a sense of comfort knowing that
everyone else is wasting time too.

MANY OF US spend our free
time socializing in the Forum. I
must hastily add that often times
people (like me) study in the
Forum as well. For the most part
however, the Forum (the grill in
particular) provides us with an
area to relax and enjoy each
other's company.

I am always amazed at the

woman

number of people who spend hours
playing pool and pinball in the
game room I'm not knocking it,
mind youisome of my best friends
are pinball addicts. But at least the
game oi pool requires skill and
concentration.

PINBALL IS THE ultimate in
nonsensical games. The game
seems to be a simple matter oi
pushing two flickeis in an attempt
to prevent the ball irom disap-
pearing into the table, Actually, a
great deal oi the game depends on
chance. If you ask me, trying to
keep that ball irom disappearing,
as it eventually will, is trustrating
indeed, I never can keep those little
balls irom shooting straight down
the middle of the table right into
oblivion. To top it all off, pinball is
an expensive pastime, costing a
quarter for one game and a
whopping fifty cents ior three.

For many of us, the Pub is the
perfect place to relax. After a long

 

day 5 work, you can venture down
to the Pub and enjoy a couple of
Natural Lights tone third less
calories than their regular beer,
you know) If you re lucky you
might even catch a glimpse oi
those wild and crazy disco dancers.
I can't help but feel Sorry for those
underagcd freshmen who are
missing out on an essential part of
the Grinnell Experience.

THERE ARE A fortunate few
Grinnellians who are able to spend
some oi their free time watching
the “soaps. " Hard to believe isn t
it, that an intellectual environment
like ours could be harboring
potential, perhaps undercover,
”Soap” fanatics? The thought is
alarming! Have you ever passed
by a group of serious looking
people exclaiming words to the
effect of, ”Did you know that
Lance and Laurie broke up
because she found out that he used
to talk to Leslie and now she’s
pregnant?”

Well. for heaven's sake, when I
hear something like that I'm

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i iusrAclthogr'THf

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tempted to say, “Who's Lance and
who’d you say got pregnant?" rm
quickly informed that Lance is
Laurie’s husband and Leslie, who
got pregnant, is Laurie‘s sister. To
my amazement neither Lance, nor
Leslie, nor Laurie, go to Grinnell,
They are, however, members oi
“The Young and the Restless.”
Well who isn't?!?

RECENTLY, PLAYING backs
gammon has become a popular
pastime. It's now up in the ranks
with racquetball as one of the top
competitive sports on campus
Both are fun and absolutely free if
you can obtain a board or a court.

Regardless oi what anybody
says, however, we all know what
the best, and by far the most
relaxing pastime is. I am refering
to sleep. It doen‘t take much
energy and it requires little skill.
You can do it any time and any
place. What‘s more, it's good and
good for you. You can’t beat that.

Choose from ten different kinds of
breads such as 100% Stone Ground, Wholewheat,

Cinnamon, Pumpernidile, Peasant, Rye, Raisin,

French, or White .

VISIT

DANISH MAID BAKERY

I: slie Rose

The $14 thou a year question

The Hundred Days Party didn't
occur exactly one hundred days
irom graduation, Our act was not
quite together, thus the party was a
little late, No problem. There were
those of us who would have
preierred to skip the idea entirely,
and would have been just as
pleased ii no one remembered

i am not accusing the senior
class of being sluggish in their
partying; hopefully we‘ve lost no
momentum in that area. But, as for
graduation, as for entrance into
that vaguest oi atmospheresi
realityiwell, let’s be honest;
which one oi us is ready to get
down and boogie about it?

THERE ARE BASlCALLY two
types oi seniors iloating around
these days: the ones with plans and
the ones Without, The members of
the former group are easier to spot
than those of the latter. They are
ﬂoating a good three to five inches
higher oii the ground, and can be
overheard in a trancelike state
muttering “It pays fourteen thou a
year, man , . ,

Slightly lower to the ground are
those of us accepted to graduate
school, This group knows where it
is going and doesn't mind. They
can be overheard saying, “It costs
iourteen thou a year, man . . .

THEN THERE ARE those of us
with no plans. We take various
shapes and iorms. We often look
perplexed, sometimes alienated
But don’t be fooled; we have our
moments. On a iull moon you

Gregg Edwards

 

would do well to find us. We are
most likely wandering around
campus, or tied to trees, grinning
as we mutter, “What is food? Who
needs iourteen thou a year when
there's no such thing as food? What
is economics? What is life?” and
other pertinent questions
reminiscent oflntro to Philosophy.

Some of us will admit to Caring
about the future, but many will
swear up and down we don't. Yet
we've been known to have nervous
breakdowns at 5 pm. Friday
in Career Services, ranting
bitterly about incompetence and
the absence of pass-fail options in
the real world,

IN REGARD to advice, we ought
to thank the faculty for their tact
and patience. Don't be fooled,
even if we don’t look grateful.
Keep those suggestions coming in
folks; we give points ior creativity.
High in the running right now is a
certain professor who told a
musician about to freak that he
ought not panic because one could
always take in the bucks playing
gigs at weddings and barmitzvahs.
I would like to add funerals and
Italian restaurant openings to that
endless list of possibilities. You
see? With a little optimism it all
looks better.

Thanks, too, for not telling us
again that a master’s degree is
mandatory in our fields, especially
if we’re women. Chances are we
know this only too well and are

 

doing iine ignoring it.

FOR ALL THE pessimistic rutS
we allow ourselves to wallow in,
perhaps the worst is
procrastination. I think maybe it's
deadly, It stiiies ingenuity,
eliminates creativity, and it cer
tainly seen-is those are the only
things that will get us out there in
the iirst place. The pessimistic
views we hold about the future are,
nonetheless, the views of an out-
sider and this is often forgotten in
the confines of an academic
situation.

Look behind you. You're leaving
a college where incoming students
are called children, unable to make
deCisions about which john to use.
Soon seniors will be asked to write
essays along the lines oi “How I
Spent My Summer Vacation, ” only
the topic is “How i Spent My Four
Years and Fourteen Thou

TAKE WHAT YOU milked ut of
[our very transitional years at
Grinnellipre-requirements, pre-
convocations. and get out there
with a smile on your face. It does,
in tact, make people nervous.

One last note. it has been
evidenced of late that there are
many SM: readers who are, in
fact, actual members of a society
that functions in the real world.
Well, needlas to say, your opinions
and suggestions are more than
requested, as well as any job of-
fers, co actions a quarter for
coffee.

Saliency and frivolity 1n SGA

“You re never satisfied "
roommate exclaimed. He

my
was

responding to my most recent;

tirade against our Student
Government Association.

I was complaining about the
SGA's rather warped sense of
priorities. The painiully prolonged
debates on the alcohol policy, the
bathroom policy and Skip Day had
caused me to question what issues
were really important to our
elected representatives.

MY RDOMMATE, reminding me
that last year I was quoted in the
55:8 complaining about the Joint
Board’s unproductive and
irrelevant discussions on non-
college related issues, said it was
inconsistent for me to complain
about discussion of campus issues.

I don’t think I am being in
consistent at all. While SGA is
certainly discussing more campus
issues this year than last, it can be
questioned whether they are any
more important than last year’s
boondoggles such as Kent State.
Look at the record,

THE “BIG ISSUE" last sem-
ester was the alcohol policy. i
thought the alcohol policy was a
legitimate issue last year, but that’s
because it was an issue. But, by the
time this school year began, it was
no longer an issue. The lowa
Legislature changed the drinking
age law and theissue was out of the
student body‘s hands Una
fortunately, a segment of the
student body would not accept
reality, i.e,, the law, and insisted

 

on debating a non issue.

The bathroom policy was
another concern high on last
semester's agenda, and the
discussion has spilled over into this
semester. In this case, I would
fault the administration for not
recognizing reality. Cored bath-

rooms are here to stay no matter .

what some prospective student‘s
parents feel about Grinnell‘s
bathroom policy. But this is a
rather ridiculous issue for the
student body to wrangle over with
the administration. The fact of the
matter is that students will
determine the bathroom situation
regardless of the stated policy,

MANY OF US have lived on
floors that voted for singlesex
bathrooms, but over the course of
the semester changed to coal
bathrooms without the benefit of a
iioor vote. I have enough iaith that
Grinnell students can work such
situations out Without the inter
vention of the college ad
ministration, Unlike the alcohol
policy, this time the students have
the administration in a corner.

in the Feb, 2 issue of the Sam, the
major story oi the week was on
possible changes in the grading
system On the front page, along
with this article on the grading
system, was an account of the
same week’s .Ioint Board meeting
in which the highlight of the
meeting was the passage of a
resolution calling for the retention
of Skip Day The contrast is in-
structive, and is a good indicator of

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the priorities established- -by
students collectively

THIS SHOULD NOT be inter-
preted as an indictment oi SGA. A
good case can probably be made
that the SGA’S agenda for the year
correctly reﬂects the concerns of
the students, Hooray for
representative government. The
unfortunate- thing is that this
agenda is comprised oi only im-
mediate concerns that have very
little impact on the general well
being oi the student body.

why do we emphasize the
mundane and ignore or avoid the
more serious issues such as the
grading system and a curriculum
with requirements? As Walt Stone
might tell his Campaigns and
Elections class, issues such as
required courses are not salient to
the populace. That is, we all know
that even it requirements are
rcinstituted, they won't affect us.
Similarly, changes in the grading
system will not affect the student
body,

ISSUES LIKE skip Day or the
bathroom policy are salient
because they aiiect a large
majority of us. But is saliency the
only criteria by which to judge an
issue? Should we not, for just a
moment, abandon our present
orientation and ask ourselves
whether the elimination of Skip
Day will have as great an impact
on the wellsbeing of the student
body (present and future) as will
credit distributional require-
ments‘?

The nature of being a student
does not easily allow most of us to
concentrate on matters beyond our
academic studies. Some issues
require intense examination
Rathcr than picking a light with
the faculty and administration on

, every issue, it might be advisable

to achieve sensible compromises
and save our energy and
crcdibility for when they really
ought to count Skip Day can be
placed on the public agenda at any
time. but such is not the case with
serious discussion of Grinnell's
general curriculum.

 

