Recent Alums: Dispute lieberman's letter

To the Editors:

Professor MtM. Liberman’s fund
raising letter to alumni, mailed by
the Office of Development, repres-
ents the most disturbing newswe’ve
ever received from Grlnnell since
graduation, The Professor attacks
the politicization of the campus
in the period of '69470 and yet,
ironically, goes ahead to espouse
his own independently held, poli-
tical Viewpoint, using a general

fund-raising letter as his vehicle,’

Professor Liberman writes, “Thr

ere is a disposition on this camplis
these days, among all segments of
the college population, to acknow-
ledge openly that Grinnell suffered
some losses both in quality and in
integrity in those convulsive days
of 1969 and 1970 which culminated
in the early closing of the school
in 1970."

We contend that just the opposite
is true.

As students actively involved in
those “convulsive days," and as
concerned alumni who maintain cl-
ose contact with the college com-
munity, we hold that both the qualr
ity and integrity of Grinnellbene—
fitted immeasurably from the fer-

ment which characterized those ye-

ars,
The distinguished Professor of

English asserts that the early clos- _

ing of the college, purportedly for
political motivations, was largely
responsible for a general retreat
from many ofGrinnell’s long-stand—
-ing curricular programs.
Curricular change at Grinnell has
always been and continues to be a
very gradual process. The old His-
- torical Studies program had been
scrapped (by the Faculty)beforeany
of us came to Grinnell. Many of the

MORE

“I'lll

Silverman: Explode:
'Grinnell Myth’

To the Editors:

Einstein’s theories have not yet
prov1ded us with a technique for
reversing the ravages of time upon
our cherished institutions. With each
passing year one more myth is
bound to-lall to the seeping eros-
ion of reality. Perhaps some daythe
only verities to remain unchallenged
will be Murphy’s Laws (If anything
at.all can possibly go wrong, it
will . . . etc.) We now know, for
instance, that John Audubon was
no conservationist, In fact, he glee-
fully wrote of his adventures of
shooting birds over a lake and war
tching them spin to their deaths
into the water. The Swedes, noted
international neutralists, sold mile
lions of tons of iron to the Germans
during World War 11. Alfred Nobel,
father of the revered Nobel Peace
Prize was also the inventor ofdyr
namite. Even Grinnell College is
suffering a shattered image of el-
iteness due to its first new student
application crisis in recent years.
As if these crumbling frameworks
of our sacredcreedswere not enough
to undermine our confidence in the
existence of Truth itself, I take
great pleasure in promoting the
inevitable general entrophy of fame
into mediocrity. Horace Greeley
did not author the adage “Go West,
young man, go West.” We now find
in the New Orleans States’ Item
(January 13, 1974) editorial pages
that the real author was John L.
Soule who wrote it in an article in
the Terre Haut Express in 1551.
”Despite Greeley‘s frequent discl-
aimer -- and a reprint of Soule’s
original piece .. the public genera-
lly attributed the remark to Gree-
le

itiien Grinnell, read it and weep.
And, by the way, even Einstein
never credited himself with more
than two original ideas At life's
end he denounced most attempts
of science to explain natural phene
omen and attributed our realities
of existence to the unpredictable

whims of God. .
Bruce Silverman

other required courses wereunder—
going significant changes during our
earlier years at the College.

In the fall of 1969, months before
anyone had ever conceived that the
College would be closed earlyrrfor
any reason--the student government
established a number ofcommittees
to deal with such questionsasalter»
natives to required courses, a more
responsive ireshman program, and
an improved grading system. By the
end of thatacademic year,beforethe
College had closed, a student posi-
tion had been formulated, calling for
an end to specinc course require—
ments, and the initiation of an eXr
tensive freshman tutorial program
designed to provide incoming stur
dents with close faculty guidance.

In the fall of 1970, after the early
closing of the College--but, as we
have shown, totally independent of
that event--the faculty began a two
month debate on the merits of these
proposals. With the enthusiastic
support of someiof the most distine
guished members of the Faculty
and with the leadership of then Dean
of the College Joseph F. Wall (class
of ‘41) the reforms were substan-
tially approved.

Now, Professor Liberman states,
“many students are asking forare-
institution of trequii‘ements.” We
have heard from a number of faculr
ty and students——including the cur»
rent Student Government President
"who strongly dissentfromProfes-
sor Liberman’s contention. The pre-
sent curricular structure at Grinv
nell has requirements--individua1
requirements developed by, the stUr
dent and his faculty advisor, and ta-
ilored to meet his individual needs.
These are requirements which do
not force each Grinnell student into
the same inﬂexible mold but, rat-
her, place upon the student the
responsibility oi developing a com»
prehensive program reflecting his
or her personal academic interests
and future vocational goals.
—

RIOT BENEFITS

CAMBRIDGE, MAWThe decline of
campus activism has had at least
one detrimental side effect, accord
ing to a Harvard psychiatrist. Dr.
P. K. Munter says that the student
need for psychiatric services may
he on the rise.

Renaud, Kolber:
Vote Hansen

To the Editors:

We_would li e to make a few rer
marks concerning the S.G,A, Pres»
idency. Because niour long term
attachment to Norris Hall we wish
to express our reasons for ieeling
that John Hansen is extremely well
qualified ior this position.

First, he has been an outstanding
president of Norris Hall for two
years. During this time, Hansen
has effectively taken care of the
rat problem, the insectproblem, and
the low temperanlrewethree of the
Norrises’ plagues. He has made a
great many freshman feel at home
in a tough environment largely de—

void oi upperclassmen. He has co-‘

ordinated the hall in such a way
as to give it a cohesiveness un-
known in previous years. For ex-
ample, he has helped give imag-
inative and stimulating parties wh»
ich have delighted most of the re-
sidents. In addition, he has made
Norris into a place where even the
upperclassmen are satisfied with th-
eir surroundings despite moving in
with a lot of doubtful feelings. See
cond, his S.G.A. Credentials areex-
cellent. In addition to having held
various positions, Hansen has been
one of the most dedicated peoplein-
sotar as meeting attendance and
participation. He is one of the few
really active members of S.G.A.,
and has demonstrated the pragma~
tism necessary to get things done.
Finally, Hansen’s personalqualities
are superb. He is always available
at any hour to help with a personal
problem. He is one o! the most out-
standing Economics students in the
history of our college. Yet, despite
how hardworking he is, he always
puts people first. This is the kind
of person we need to oversee the
social welfare and finances of our
student body.
David Renaud
Jon Kolber

If students are truly calling for
acrossrthe—board requirements,
and we doubt that many are, it only
indicates to us that there may be
a weak linkv-the failure of some fa—
culty to adequately assist in the un—
derstandably difficult task of devel—
oping requirements for individual
students.

We are delighted that Mr. Liber-
man makes mention of the innova-
tive programs now being developed
«programs which we feel are a lo-
gical outgrowth of the changes in-
stituted in 1970. Clearly, thesecur»
rent innovative programs could
never have been fostered under the
old, highly structured system.

Finally, Mr. Liberman concludes
that “an ongoing education institu-

. tion (should never) shut its doors

in the name of any ideal save dis-
interested learning.” We wholeness
rtedly agree--and that is precisely
why the college community did den
cide to close in the spring oflS'Io.
American forces were invading
Cambodia, four students werekilled
at Kent State and,two others at Jack
son State, and riots and Violence
were prevalent in many of the na»
tion‘s leading institutions of higher
learning. Grinnell could not have
isolated itselffrom thatatmosphere.
At that time, even in Grinnell, the
potential for violence was great»-
the potential for ”disinterested le-
arning” was nonexistent.
Sincerely, '

Jodie Levin-Epstein, ‘72

House President, ‘72

Appointments Secretary with
Senator Dick Clark

Andy Loewi, :71

soA president, ‘71
Legislative Assistant with
Senator Dick Clark

Barry Zigas, ‘73

Student Senator, ”if

Staff Writer with

Housing and Urban Development
Reporter

Walters: Vote Nash

To the Editors:

There are those who say there
are no pressing issues in the forth
coining SGA presidential election.
They may be right because nothing
of a controversial consequence has
surfaced. I feel however this elec-
tion gives us the opportunity to deal
with a fundamentalethicalissueccn-
cerning the straightforwardnessand
frankness of elected officials. EV»
eryone knows that all Elected off»
icials have a knack for talking
around anything. Besides thatis how
they got elected in the first place,
they talked us into it. Agood negr
atively toned description of them is
politicians. There is one candidate
in this election who is deﬁnitely
not a politician. His personal con-
stitution is such that he attacks
problems with great vigor, total
frankness, and unrelentless deter
mination. In other words, he will
not be a docile instrument of the
administration who is used to con-
sole the student body. If the Grin—
nell student body wants to throw
down the gauntlet and be daring
enough to break away from the
conventional SGA president, then
vote for Charlie Nash,

' I Dennis Walters

by: t t

Sunshine felitude. ‘

Medvin: ‘Experience' ls WhatYou Make It

To the Editors:

I’ve just received the February
22nd edition of the son in the mail,
and I feel I must reply to the“three
ell-students” who found Grinnell
such a dismal place. Basically, the
complaint was that Grinnell acade-
mics were too “traditional,” and
that there was no time for “spam
taneity" because of the endless
workload.

Bull! The problem, in my opin—
ion, of ex-students’ White, Childs,
and Krohm is that they did not know
how to realistically handle this so-
caued ”Grinnell Experience.” 1 sp-
erlt four years at Grinnell—-admit-
tingly it was tiring at times—rand
l learned one hell of a lot more
than how to write a paper. lmade
sure in my mind that there were
other things on campus that were
just as important as what went
on inside the classroom.

Such as? 0.K. I worked for four
years as a KDIC programmer, and
nothing would stop me from doing
a show. if i had work to do,l
would put it off for a few hours,
simple as that. I also well remem-
ber walking to the library to get
moving on work 1 should have been
doing before that time. But wait.
There was a band playing by the
Forum, and the sun was shining,
and...the hell with the work, it
would get done. And somehow, it
did. (Even if it sometimes didn't,
Grinnell professors seem to be
quite liberal in granting extensions.)
Sure there was pressure.Therewas
that great Grinnell pastime of Ste
anding in meal lines and trying to
outdo the person next to you in
describing hnw much work you had
to do. But there was alwaystime for
the “spontaneity" that the above
three named students never seemv
ed to find,

These three students say that they
asked President Legged for “a cer-

tain day a week set aside where
there would be no studying, and

people would be'free to grow in
other areas of their lives.” The
absurdity of that statement is fr-
ightening! Does this mean that we

tell students that on Tuesday, for
example, that “today is the day
of the week that you stop reading
and you find some other way to ma—
ture?” Why in the world do you
have to set aside a day for every-
one to stop studying? As I said
above. you are on your own at
Grinnell, and if you are not Ini-
ture enough to tell yourself when
to study and when to do other_tl|-
ings, then maybe it’s true thstGr-
innell is not the place for you.
Here you are demanding to set up
a rigid schedule of sorts, when
in the paragraph above, you accuse
Grinnell as being too schedule or-
iented. “The classesdispersedwis-
dam to the timing of bells.”

Tradition? Lack of warmth? Hell, :
you ought to be here atBrown, one
of those golden ivy League institu—
tions. Three of my four classes
have over one hundred students,
who are content to have the pro-
fessor walk in and talk to them for
an hour while they write down evy‘
erything he says. No class discus-
sion. I’ve been in classes here now
for over a month, and I could count
the students I’ve talked with on one
hand. In my novel courses we one
a week, and spend one or two. '
class periods “discussing" it. Even
the professors admit it's superfi»
cial. There’s no chance of studying
Moby Dick with a Mr. Cleaver or
Invisible Mail with a Ms.,Wallace.
There’s no time here; you've got to
keep moving, movmg, moving.

But I’m probably getting ,off the
track here. All I’m saying is that
this “G rinnellExperience" involved
so much more than the academics, ‘
IF you approached everything in the
right frame of mind and put every-
thing in the proper perspective. In
my mind, not only were the acti—
demics at Grinnell excellent, but
the atmosphere in general was both ,
enlightening and enjoyable.

Conclusion: The “Grinnell Exper<
ience” is what you make it! ‘
Sincerely,

Ron Medvin ‘73.

6 Thomas Olney Common

Providence, RI 10904

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To the Editors:

This correspondence is an honest
promo for the Urban Teaching Pror
gram. A prepared blurb exists, but
I'd rather give a biased testimon—
ial, it just hit me a couple oi days
ago how happy 1: am here in Chie
cago, a realization that has been
hitting us one by one in this third
week of the semester. ‘Us’ is sixA
teen people who live in a convent,
sans nuns, above a Catholic school
in a Latinthalian neighborhood a
couple of miles west of the loop,
Chicago seemed a big scary place
at first, but those tears dissipated
quickly in favor of energetic, optie
mlstic views of what we could do,
Daily we set out for scattered eler
mentary, secondary, and special
schools operating under various al—

ternative curriculums. One thing
that is common to all our teaching
experiences is the opportunity, in-
deed necessity, to knowstudents and
their work on a onertorone basis,
which is as demanding as it is sat.
isfying. The teaching experience
is intense, because even back at
the convent we talk a lot about
school and try to organize our th—
oughts.

«Another commitment to the pro:

gram is a seminar (4 credits)'sup-

, posedly about personal growth and

affirmative education, but in this
semester not yet clearly defined.
In addition, we have to compile 4
credits of independent study. De-
pending on the subject, the resources
of the city can be a great help,
As if school weren't enough to

keep us busy, a lot of us are doing
things like tutoring at the neigh—
borhood settlement house, work‘—
ing ata women’s health service, can»
vassing for a local political cam— ,
paign, or interviewing people on
trial for the Cook County bail~bond
project. On free nights we may go
out for dinner or entertainment, and

a lot of us spend time with other
friends in the area.

On either Tuesday, March 12; or
Wednesday, March 13, Jo Ann Milln
er, our director, and someprogram
participants will be in Grinnell to
talk about the Urban Teaching and
answer questions. watch for notices
or talk to Mr. Welborn for the ex~
act time, and remember, you can
study off»campus study'only first
semester, so check this out now.

Althea Kalla‘s

 

