The expensive
drunk

$450 was appropriated from the General Budget and
Reserve (GB&R) fund and later $200 was taken from the
Initiative Fund for the Alerampus “ ’50's” party of last
weekend. Parties come and go and generally cost about as
much, if not more, but the method for appropriating these
funds seems fairly unwise.

At the Joint Boards meeting of Nov. 5, Sara Keene,
party organizer, asked the boards to allow $450 to be
taken directly out of the GB&R because it was in
convenient to wait until the following Sunday to appeal
for money from the Initiative fund, After very little
discussion, the money was earmarked for party user

GB&R (which contains an approximate $3,761.00l is the
basic reserve fund tor SGA. It exists to absorb unex-
pected and unbudgeted costs. GB&R will not grow for
many years, just as SGA’s income will not increase. There
is a small income of $300 per month from pinball, but this
is not sizeable or dependable income. A dangerous
precedent has been set for individuals or groups to draw
from this important backup fund before they even in
vestigate the Initiative Fund offerings,

There will be three major events which will require SGA
funding of some kind next semester—The Loose Hall
Ball, The James Gang Bang, and The Relays. There very
well may be more events which will seriously deplete the
fund.

The budgets which will come up for approval in the
spring are going to follow inﬂation, and various‘groups
will ask for increased funds. Since GB&R and the SGA
budget will not be growing, these budgets will be in
trouble. The excess will either have to be cut (less con-
certs, KDIC cutbacks, etc.) or GB&R again will have to be
sliced into Which means less ﬂexibility, fewer parties
next year, and fewer hall funds.

If the new, much-needed budget plan is approved next
Wednesday and a more progressive budget policy is
implemented, it would be wise for the SGA to protect its
future flexibility by setting down rigid guidelines for
GB&R distribution,

THERE Goes
ONEOF THOSE
66A REFS WHO
TRiED To umK
HIS $450.93

Use Mellon funds

The Scarlet and Black, November 2]. 1975—11. 4

comment

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

54M

Letters —..

‘

for Women’s Studies

To the Editor:

Grinnell College has Just an
nounced a grant of $200,000 to the
college irom the Mellon Foun
dation to support iurther education
ior senior iaculty members. This
grant will enable the College to
expand the teaching capabilities of
its tenured iaculty by providing
semester leaves ior study in areas
the College wishes to be able to
offer,

I suggest that Women’s Studies
is an excellent area in which to

make use oi this grant. Women's
contributions are generally
omitted from the Grinnell
curriculum through ignorance,
rather than malice, on the part of
the faculty, The field is new; much
oi the relevant research in many
disciplines has been done wilhin
the last five years, Professors who
have been here long enough to be
tenured are unlikely to be prepared
to include women’s ace
complishments in their courses.
This grant can be used to enable

them to acquire such preparation.

oiiering a few “women'
courses" here and there is Cer-
tainly better than nothing, but it is
remedial—a sort oi an apology to
us ior being left out everywhere
else. We must, as a matter oi
policy, integrate women’s works
into the entire curriculum at
Grinnell. I urge the faculty and
Trustees to consider using some of
the Mellon grantasa means to that
end.7uii|llll Maison

t
‘

Admissions standards slipping?

Tom Parsons

Congratulations, fellow Grin-
nellians, you may conceivably be
the last in a long line of students
who have been graced with the
opportunity or a Grinnell education
and who have, hopefully, not only
taken full advantage of this op
portunity ior themselves but have
offered their knowledge and
wisdom and experience to others. i
think the latter process 'was
previously known as the “sharing
of Grinnell."

I’m sorry for the tone oi that
paragraph and I hope that i
haven’t conjured up images of this
college folding or oi severe
reductions in faculty or a
downgrading in the quality oi a
Grinnell education, But perhaps
there does exist a severe cause for
suspicion ofwhich the student body
should be apprised. I‘m sure that
most of you remember filling out
your applications ior Grinnell

College. That application con»
tained the usual biographical in-
iormation lound inany application.
Address, date oi birth, height and
weight, all are questions which any
college application can ask, but the
character oi the application and
perhaps the character oi the school
itself is set. forth in the subjective
questions and passages which
make up thcbalance oi the ap-
pllcation.

Grinnell’s former application
had two pages devoted to matters
oi family, health, etc. These were
iollowed by several pages which
asked questions about academic
int ests and extracurricular
acti ties. I’m sure that most
students remember the talent
sheet, the structured essay, the
interview and those teacher
recommendations that you sent out
in triplicate or quadruplicate or
whatever.

The former application asked
questions about vocational or
professional interests, special
summer programs or projects, and
books or magazines which the
applying student had considered
significant Was the student in-
volved in school government,
scouting, church, campaigns or
tutoring? What about emr
ploymenl‘? Had the student been
working while in school, and, ii, so,
what kind of jobs did he have? The
former application emphasizcd
two full pages oi direct inquiries
which could give the applicant a
picturc oi the character within
Grinnell.

The school wanted to know and

they wanted to know all, The talent
sheet broke down categories such
as art, athleticsfdrama, or public
spcaking into components of
grades (years or participation),
kinds and degrees oi involvement,
special recognition or awards or
special programs attended. A
couple of blank lines are now ex-
pected to suiiicc for this important
inquiry into the person oi the
student And What about those
multiple recommendationsi
where once were many now there
is one, i think any student, no
matter how intelligent or ignorant,
can easily have one teacher in
whose, eyes they have been a
glowing pupil i‘m also surprised to
include the exclusion of the ins
terview.

In speaking to some employees
of the Admissions Office I was told
that some students had, in previous
years, been unable to be in-
terviewed because there were no
possible interviewers in their
areas. in looking at the roll oi
students one notices that a large
number come from places like
Chicago, New York, and Min-
neapolis. Now really, ii there are
students who find an interview
impossible then they must surely
be in a very small minoritv,

The structure of the present
application is also different irom
the previous one. Some high school
counselors warn students against
citing a professional preference
while others endorse it. The
present application blank makes
no mention of Grinnell's interest
while the former blank asked the

student to list not one but three
such choices in order of
preference.

The present application is not as
representative as its predecessor.
The lack of structure and the ab
sence oi questions also tail to
provide the admissions office with
as much data as in previous years
which Could allow students of lower
academic caliber to be admitted to
Grinnell. The present application
was formulated when a visiting
advisory group attacked the for
mer application’s length, calling it
“uncharacteristically long." That
comment strikes me as odd. I‘m
quite sure that if the same group
had been asked for a suitable
location for a college such as ours
they would probably not pick
Grinnell, Iowa. Imagine, a school
of this caliber in the middle of
nowhere,

I hope that the Grinnell coins
munity will take a sincere interest
in this development It appears
that a ploy to induce more students
to iill out a shortened application
and enlarge enrollment may only
succeed in lowering the quality oi
the average “Grinnellian,” The
decision to adODt a box office
mentality toward filling future
classes will probably cut into
Grinnell’s prestige. touching all
those connected as graduates and
students.

It’s also curious to note that the
admissions office no longer uses
the term “sharing of Grinnell."
Maybe we shouldn’t expect any
more of that around here.

 

