To the Editors:

As I was sitting at my desk
one day last week wrestling
with the weighty problems
involved in the preparation of
the agenda for the Committee
on Campus Clock Synchroni-
zation, l was informed by my
secretary that there was a
young man who wished to see
me. The visitor identified
himself as a prospective stu-
dent who wished to inquire as
bout the entrance require-
ments for the Grinnell College
Interdisciplinary Program in
Mummy Wrapping. lquickly
explained that, though i recog*
nized the pursuit of that pro-
fession as a valid and worthy
enterprise, Grinnell College
did not have faculty members
with enough expertise in that
area to develop such a pro-
gram. Iadded that in my opi-
nion the stress that we are
presently experiencing in the
current fund budget would not
even allow us to Consider its
development in the near
future. I then inquired from
whom he had gained the im'
pression that a program in
that area was a part of the
Grinnell curriculum. He resa
ponded that no one actually
had suggested the idea to him
but that. he had reached that
conclusio quiteindependently
after vis ‘ng the College for
two days and talkingwith Grin-
nell students, faculty, and ad-
ministrators. He submitted
that the apparent gravity with
which all people to whom he
had spoken at the College
viewed themselves, each 0t-
her, the College, the world,
the pet problem, academic
pressure, losing streaks, col-
lege governance, love, hate.
the grading system, [Own'
gown relationships, medical
school applications. GPA,

Austria

by Kyle Sohaub

Chief ul mum bursiu

KLAGENFURT, AUSTRIA’ *The
Austrian reports of the war in
the Middle East take on a diff‘
erent slant than those which ap-
pear in the Internationa Herald
Iribun . To begin with, Austria
is a neutral country and musttake
careful pains not to antagonize
the West or the East and risk

WE ill/Willi WEW

her rather precarious sovere —
gnty. Ever since 1913, Austria

has lived in fear of being "ab-
sorbed" by powerful neighbors
and so has had to accept a sh-

riveled empire, shrunkenboard-

ers, and the presence of her se-
ven strong politically-allined nee
ighbors to smy alive. She is not
about to risk her existence with
favoritism in the press.

One noticeable change is thAt
Brezhnev and Nixon are handled
as equals instead of the good
guy versus the bad guy. For ex*
ample, there are reports from
both sides accusing the other of
esmlating the Mideast Situation
with promises of troops and
weapons, which only makes both
sides appear equally mistrustful
and maybe even a little childish
if the War were not so serious.
This balance of power @me
seems tothe Europeans to be hana
dled carelessly enough to start
World War III. And they are dead
serious about it.

In an editorial in one Austrian
daily, the meme Zeitung, the
blame for increasing the scale
of the Mideast war was placed

etc” Could lead him to no

other conclusion than that the

College must specialize in
pro ams that require formal
trai ing in general grimness
and solemnity. As he left my
office after using up the eigh-
ty’ three seconds which my
secretary had allotted to him,
his parting comment was
"Dean, baby, let me give you
some good advice. You would
do well to take advantage of
the built-in, high level otpro-
found gravity that you guys
have going for you aroundthis
place and develop one hell
of a good program in Mummy
Wrapping or Grave Digging.
Man, they are shoo-ins to be
the best of their kind west
of the Mississippi."

As the prospective student
left, I reﬂected for a mcmv
out trying to decide if I had .
been the victim of a practi-
ml joke when Dean Hamilton
burst into my office without
knocking, muttering some
thing about nine students who,
as a result of conversations
that they had just had in the
Forum with aprospective stu-
dent, were applying for inde-
pendent majors in "Ghoul
Tending," to be jointly super-
vised by the Departments of
Physical Education and Anth-
ropology. It was not a prac-
tical joke after a1!!!

But waitll I confess” Ihave
perpetrated a great hoax. The
story 1 have just related to
you does not have a grain of
factual truth in it.

But agin, waltll It occurs to
me that if I feel obliged to
explain that there is no truth
in the storytheremay be more
realatruth in it than was a-

pparent upon initial observer
tion.

Seriously, I hope that the
"Grinnell Parable" which I

have just related brings to
your attention an issue that
I consider to be one of great
signiﬁcance at the College.
At the risk of being chided
by all members of the college
community for being too friv-
olous and at the risk of being
the butt of numerous practi‘
:31 jokes because Ihaveasked
for humor, I suggest that we
all attempt to take ourselves
just a little less seriously,
try to relax and see some of
the fun that exists inall human
situations that we face here
as Well as elsewhere. Iai'n
quite serious when I say that,
as viewed from my perspec
tive, in recent yéars th6re has
been a fairly steady decline in
the degree of levity on can-r
pus and a steady intensifica-
tion of the degree of gravity
among all elements ofthe cola
lege community.

I suggest that the blame for
this problem rests with all
of us at the College. If you as
snidents, faculty andadminis‘
trators are interestedinhelp-
ing change this tendency, in
talking about this problem, or
perhaps in just having a laugh
about ourselves. I invite you
to attend the next Dean's Open
Forum in the South Lounge of
the Forum on Wednesday, No-
vember 14, from 7:30 V 9:00
p.m. At the risk of sounding
like Pollyanna, may I suggest
that ifweasa community don't
work to keep things at the
College in better perspective
and recognize the humor that
is present in nearlyevery sit-
uation weface, Grinnell could
become an ulcer factory ra-
ther than a pleasant place to
receive both a social andaca-
demic education of high quala
ity.

LWaldo Walker

Vie'ws Mid-East Crisis

directly on the USSR and the US.
It recognized the difﬁculty of
reaching a satisfactory solution
in the Mid East, but emphasized
the potential scope that the super
powers‘ “troop preparedness"
responses could reach. Itwarned
that world pace did notrest just
on the balance of power, but
rather also On the mutual undet-
standings that have been cau-
tiously built up.

The editorial continued, saying
that this important understand-
ing has become worse recently
through troubles at the respec-
tive home fronts, Brezhnev no
longer enjoys united approval fr~
Om the \Kremlin for his “West-
politik" and Nixon no longer en»
joys any Congressional approval
for his‘ politics. And, with these
shakier bases ofapproval, the ed-
itorial thought that the supplying
of weapons to the Middle East
could be compared toplayingwith
fire, saying thatthe superpowers
themselves stand a good chance
of getting burned and losing cone
trol of the game. And, thearticle
concluded, world peace should
never be reduced to the level of
a game.

When the war first broke out
in October, me Austrian press
reported the overwhelming odds
against Israel, comparing her
plight to David surrounded by a
10 man team of Golialhs. It was
assumed that the Arabs this time
had the Drﬁnization and element
of surprise working for them,
and that the log'lml result would
be the return of the lands Israel
pined in 1957. No thought was
given to the idea that Israel

Cornell Theatre VisiIs'Here

Members of Cornell College
will travel to Grinnell to per-
form the Pulitzer Prize win-
ning play, '_rne Hg ct f Cam-

rﬂLRays on Man if 7'“
'Mari olds by Faul Zinder. The
performance -.-.lll beglven oat-
urday, November ll) at 8:00
in Arena Theatre.

The play received the New
York Drama Critics Circle
for the Best American Play
of 1959-70. Best Plays of the

American Theatre describes
the play as follower"
"Zindel‘s script is about a
widow and her household of
women without men: an epic
leptic daughter whose imagi-
nation has been captured by
the ‘atom and all its works;
and an aged nanny whose board
money is essential in their
grimly penurious circum-
stances." .

No tickets are required.

would be annahilated, or thatthis
war would last longer than six
days. The over-all attitude was
similar to a ”you win some, you
lose some" feeling, and that Is-
rael happened to be on thelosing
side this timer

When the US entered its Show
of support into the war, Europa
eans were stunned and visions
of WWII! spun in their heads.
The tension was very evident,
and there were reports that some
people were stocking up on basic
food supplies. Quite the world
peace game is being played but
nobody here an predict the out~
come because they do nor trust
the players in charge! oftheplay-
ing strategy.

THE GRINNE LL SCAR LE

Walker: A Parable For Grinnell ,

x:

Workmen re- roofin

T AND BLACK NOVEMBER 9, 1973 PAGE

.s' l .v»

and tuck-point the brickwork a

Herrick Chapel are the most visible signs of mmpu
renovation work recently approved by the Trustees

Considerable work will be

Hall during Christmas vacation.

done on the Quad Dinin

starlet and sun. photo by as... Nutty I

Rebel With Dr Without A Cause

by J. C. Woods h Pat Swansey
It has never failed to amaze
mETT-[he number of causes this
student body espouses. Each cau-
se based upon a moral issue of
paramount importance; eachca‘
use taken up with the urgency of
desperation and transiency of a
vagrant thild, Before break we
managed to crowd ina succession
of paramount causes: grape and
lettuce boycott, Chilean Solidart
ity, and soliciting for the Israel
Emergency Fund. Now we have
Impeachment Funds. These cau-
ses are not had; in themselves
they are good. They show a wills
ingness to take action against
"those thousand nameless vapors
that are the evils of today."
BUT consider this! allow us to
use Chile as an example. A mil’
itary junta has taken over Chile,
an Amerimn encouraged, inspir-
ed, and financed military junta.
Chile had been a corporate State
in the truest sense of the word.
Now its new owners,‘ITT,are re-
grouping and dividing the pie bet-
ween themselves. Now repres-
sion, death, alienation, and degr- .
adation are a way oflife in that
poor country. And here we are
in Grinnell, Iowa, one of the
safest and isolated of Communk
ties. A place where we have lit-
tle crime, little repression and
fewer policemen with less to do
than any place in theworld, yet \ve
have a week of solidarity with

West Coast Intern Program

College officials hope that the

SAN FRANCISCO, CA--A group
of San Francisco area Grinnell
alumni have developped a unique
internship program for Crinnell
students, to be offeredduringse-
mester break.

The program, initiated indepen-
dently of the College, Was first
conceived by attorney Neil Hora
ton, '58.

Working with other members of
the San Francisco Bay Area Ale
umni Club, Horton has prepared
8 internship programs in law,
teaching, journalism, publishing,
chemistry, and organizational
behavior and management.

In his words, the offer is ll—
mite . "no pay, no housing, no
transportation costs. Only an op
portunity to spend several weeks
in a professional or postagrad'
uate setting with an alumnus of
the College who will try to make
me experience worthwhile."

However, the internship offer»
ings vary from covering court
cases for the American Civil
Liberties Union newspaper in
San Francisco to teaching in a
small alternative school for Chll'
drcn five to lab years of age.

Complete listings ofapprenticee
Ship Openings are available in
Campus Memo or through the Ca-
reer Services Office.

San Francisco experiment, if
successful, Will lead to similar
otterings in other parts of the

country.
Alumni Executive Secretary

Dorothy Palmer, ’62, described
the new program as an example
of ways Grinnell alumni are be-
coming involved with the life of
Grinnell College and its prEsEni'
day students.

U.F.W.

A rally in Des Moines
for the UnitedSt‘ates Fa-
rm Workers will be sta-
ged at 10 a.m. tomor-
row. Ridesand informa-
tion are availablefrom
the group's campus re-
presentative, Robert

Quint.

Chile. How much solidarity can
we have with a people with who
we have nothing in commonl How
much good can be done for anot—
her without making a loving pre-
sence felt? The Chileans felt:
no such love nor support from
this campus.

They killed a man ln.t‘hile.
They killed him in hope of kill-
ing his dream. Whether they are
successful or not is something.
for history to untie. How can
anything of an ordinary natur-
done here help to honor him or
propagate his dream? And may
I add that everything done here
was extremely ordinary. When-.
ever something big goes wrong,
this campus reacts with a pro-
test march. Protest marches}
were an important weapon in the
60's, but now they have a rele-
vance equal to that of Baachboy,
albums and a social significance
of a much lower level. When
Martin came to Memphis in ‘61,
the mood was ”let the nigras
march and get it out of their
systems." The protest march
lost all of its signifimnce alter
the ‘64 Washington Super-Gla-
mourarna and Circus. And as
for chalking up walls and side-
walks, we quit getting cheap th«
rills from that type of protest
the same time we quit playin
hopscotrh.

We don't disagree with it, but
we wonder whom this type offee-
ble protest serves. It doesn‘t
seem to help those who are ops
pressed. We feel the answer is
that it helps those who are doing
the protesting. It assuages guilt
feelings, helps build egos and
gives people on campus a chance
to went their frustrations while
working for some high sacred
goal. Personally, we feel that
such selﬂess, altruistic hedor
nism would best be served by
dropping the politics and in'stitu-
ting oncerarmonth riots for
CARE.

SDX Elects Tw

The Grinnell College Chapter
of Sigma Delta Chi, national
professional journalism so:
ciety, has announced its chap-
ter officers and advisers and
its first new members for
197374.

Mark C. Hanisoh, junior, is
president and treasurer of
the chapter, and lack H. Dop-
pelt, senior is vice-president
and secretary.

New members include Dale
A. Scherler, sophomore;
Brent L. Schondelmeyer, so-
phomore; Franklin J. Stoler.
sophomore; and john M. Wy-
lie 11, junior.

Gordon E. Brmvn, editor of
the college's publimtion, The
Crinnell Magazine, is (Em’
pus chapter adviser. A.J. Pin-
der, managing editor of The
Grinnell Herald-Register, is
the chapter's professional-
member liaison with Sigma
Delta Chi.

 

