 

White paper

(continued from page it

indeed stolid in planning and
executing change in their own
affairs. Aggressive, planned
change is rare with us; rather, we
drift. on the tide. Instead of
initiating, we usually are content to
react.

Like it or not, Change is cons
stantly upon us, some of it quite
beyond our control. The real
question is: To what extent are we
willing in the time ahead to make
some clear chorces in those mat-
ters which are under our control,

Why Now?

One might well ask: Why raise
the subject of our future so
prominently at this particular
time? The administration believes
that Grinnell is academically
strong and that even in an unr
favorable financial climate we
can, with hard work. not only
maintain but better our ﬁnancial
position,

Yet, despite our stability. many
Grinnellians. both here and across
the country. sense a mood oi
malaise and driit. They ask not
necessarily for radical change but
that, at the very least, we say
without failure of nerve just who
we are and what our value is to
society and that we do so with a
conviction which suggests we can
cope creatively with the com-
plexity and contradictions or
societal change.

Some of the most penetrating
questions ihave heard come irom
Grinnellians of the ’60's, Loyal to
the college, they nonetheless
question the ability of an institution
such as this to respond to the needs
of an afﬂicted society in an inc
telligent and responsive way it is
no admission oi weakness to say
that their questions should be
taken with the highest seriousness.

Where Have We Been?

Where we are may be suggested
by a brief sketch of where we have
been in the last iew years,

 

The recent history of Grinnell is
parallel to the histories of
numerous other colleges. The
anguish of a morally ambiguous
war focused our attention upon
lands many thousands oi miles
away, uniting us in a common
frustration and sense of outrage
and bringing to the fore as a
consequence the most basic
questions as to how an educational
institution ought to conduct itself in
the face of a bitterly divided
society. It was a time when the
campus asked itself questions
rarely posed beiore, and con-
ilicting answers produced more
than a tow spiritual victims.

At the same time that this was
going on, students and faculty ielt
that the old curriculum with its
attendant requirements had
become stale and that change was
needed. so, oiten quietly,
requirements were voted away,
with a resolve to build something
better in the near future At
Middlebury College, from which I
came to Grinnell, the vote to reject
the old curriculum was taken two
days before the killings at Kent
State. For Middlebury and Grin-
nell, the promised “near future”
never arrived.

Subsequently a United States
President declined to run for re-
election, a war officially came to
an end, and another President
abdicated in disgrace. But our
passion as a college community
had subsided, and in a mood of
powerlessness and cynicism we
became introspective We ex-
perienced aftershocks of concern
with governance. were not wholly
confident why we were here,
tended in our discontent to
denigrate ourselves and our
college, and persuaded ourselves
oia hali-truth that we were hapless
victims of a fierce and counters
productive competitiveness in»
duced by preparation ior graduate
school.

Perhaps, in the last couple of
years. things have changed tor the
better. While we are not without

GRIN AND WEAR IT

OLE iii/moi TIBBS

 

problems, more of us seem to know
why we are here, more oi us are
happy, more oi us are willing to
work at resolving differences
rather than falling back on acid
criticism of the institution or each
other.

Yet—and I address this par-
ticularly to the iaculty and ad-
ministrationiwe may unr
derestimale the extent to which we
were bruised a few years back. It’s
almost as it, having regained some
of the bland composure of the ’50’s,
we have decided to enjoy it ior
awhile before taking any new
chances. Our talk is of admissions,
salaries, the job market, and
tenure. But, with a few bright
exceptions, we have yet to one
dertake that conversation about
education which we promised
ourselves more than a half decade
ago.

inventing the Future

It is time to forget Jack
Kerouac's most famous line,
“Where are we going, man? 1 don’t
know, but we gotta go.” And it is
time to invent the future, agreeing
with the critic who observed that
the only thing new in Future Shock
is a felicitous phrase, Much of what
is to happen is in our control, and
the moment to rechart a Course is
when a ship still has its bearings
and pr' ‘eeds under full power,

We need to talk education and be
willing to take calculated chances,
instead of always asking whether
thus and such a strategy is what
prospective students, meaning
presenter past students, will want.
To do otherwise is to admit that we
have no vision and to admit our
unwillingness to risk innovation
that may better suit those students
who will come to us in the years
ahead,

A few words on procedures are in
order as we enter a consideration
of our future. The administration's
paper is intended to do nothing
more than broach the subJect, an
intent suggested by the fact that
the printed version which will be
available shortly will have the
appearance or galley proofs.

As i've said, our expectation is
that the specifics in the paper~nnd
indeed the paper itselfiwill give
way lo reformulation as new ideas
emerge. We have no set timetable
or precise plan for discussion, on
the assumption that threads of
concern and interest will develop
as we go along, calling tor diiicrent
sorts of meetings

For a start, Luther Erickson,
Chairman of the Faculty, will
consult the iaculty at its next
regular meeting to determine
whether it wishes to proceed in
faculty meetings or in informal
evening sessions Ruth Mont-
gomery, President oi the Student
Government Association. and
Resident Adviser Mikc Daley, who
is in charge of Outreach, Will
coordinate a continuing series oi
concurrent evening discussions in
residence halls, open to the entire
community. Later, as the major
concerns come into clearer focus,
wc doubtless will want more for-
mal meetings, probably in the
form oi iaculty meetings and open
iorums, to discuss speciiic topics.

Felt Needs

As this process goes on, i hope
we all remind ourselves constantly
of several things.

First, and most important,
change comes about only through
felt needs. N0 paper. no talk, no
proposal stands a chance of being
taken seriously unless there is a
substantial perception of need by
the community. Our iirst job, and
we should take as much time at it
as is necessary, is to discuss what
consensus exists as to the problems
we face and what is the level of
urgency and commitment to do
something about them.

Second, we all know that change
comes through the iniluence oi
individuals and small groups of
individuals and that committees
oiten tend to be graveyards of good
ideas, We must know that
whatever comes out of our
discussions has substantial ens
thusiastic support before bothering
to put a proposal into the normal
legislative channels oi the college.

Third, such support is likely to
emerge only as the result oi a
political process, and we must not
fool ourselves into thinking that
What is to happen is anything other
than a political process. For some
reason the word “political” and the
phrase “political process” have
come on bad times at Grinnell.
This shouldn't be the case: If
anything is to issue irom our
discussions, it will be because a
few of us succeed in applying the
arts of explication, education, and
persuasion to the rest oi us.

Four Cautions

To these observations I ought to
add tour cautionary notes.
Everyone should be heard and
treated with civility, ior our
assumption is that we will speak
not irom personal interest but in
the wider interests of the college.
We must avoid making “how is it
going to affect me personally?”
our starting point, a failing ot
which all of us tend to be guilty. We
must not. assume that we will move
iorward on all ironts, ior surely we
won't. And: above all, we must
avoid treating this enterprise with
cynicism, Any iorward movement
Will be the combined effort of
dreamers, planners, and doersi
and there is nothing like a steadr
iastly practical person to trim a
promising idea down to unin-
teresting 5126,

Finally, the major question
remains: Is there a felt need in this
community ior reform? The ads
ministrative officers oi the college
believe so, or we would not have
initiated this entire process. It
seems to us not so much a matter
of survival. for Grinnell will sure
me, as a question oi whether
Grinnell will continue to be a
leading liberal-arts college in the
decades ahead.

Four Beiicis

Finally, putting the issues and
suggestions of the position paper
quite aside, I bélieve I owe it to you
to state unequivocally iour basic
beliefs to which i am personally
committed as PreSldentot Grinnell
and for the realization of which,
consonant with the due processes
of the college, i am prepared to use

 

new IDEA!

Slim mom will
on Mr lirllllay wilﬁ
a Mic/(q Mom or
Donal! Duali caka'
ﬁwn Dani's/i Mall Battery
Pb“ pur will order!
for Funny claim and

Iloly Ilobbb calm ho!

Grinnell’s Only

DAN'S

818 4th Ave.

Full Line Bakery
H MAID

173624.145. , , .

the full authority and persuasion oi
my oiiice,

First, Grinnell is a college at '
not a university, and only at o;
peril dare we ever forget this, The
chief aim of the institution should
be neither production or scholai‘
knowledge nor training of futulc
scholars and professionals.
Rather, our leading enterprise
should be general education for all
Grinnell studentsithat is, a
common core oi understanding oi
the culture, a perception oi the
interrelatedness of all things, and
wisdom concerning the motives at
human behavior. What we teach
should not primarily issue irom
traditional disciplines, but from a
compassionate consideration of the
fundamental human proble
lying at the ground oi our being
Above all, our aim must be the
cultivation of ethical beings,

Second. it follows that I dream of
a college whose various program.
whatever they may be. are
saturated in questions oi values
and ethics. We have seen the
progressive decline of the various
institutions of society in the last
years, and it may well be that
colleges and universities are the
one last viable forum where a
national regeneration of values
and purpose can occur. Unless we
show far greater sensitivity to the
problems that beset mankind and
are able to bring to bear upon them
the usable wisdom of the past, this
will not hannen. It is high time!
we reassess the virtues oi mor
relativism, academic detachment.
and scientiiic objectivity.

Third, i believe that any college
which fails to join to its acade '
program a strong program
foster the personal development of
its students is destined to be
secondrrate, no matter how ex-
cellent that academic program. i
agree with Philip Slator. who wrote
in The Pursuit of Loneliness,
“Americans are forced into
making more choices per day, with
fewer ‘givens,’ more ambiguous
criteria, less environmental
stability, and less social structural
support, than any people _in
history," Only intensely per3t ,
centered education, aimed at total
growth. can speak to this dilemma.

Last; I have no hesitation in
saying that preparation of stude is ~
for graduate school should it
tundamental continuing function ot
a Grinnell education, but that such
preparation is iinally subordinate
to the goal of producing in-
tellectually capable, socially
relevant, and morally sensitive
Citizens

At llaiitl

A new year is beginning, there
are many things to talk about in the
coming months and many poss ble
courses oi action open to usi ,
to invite all who care for Grinnet
to participate actively, to have the
adventuresomeness to th'
beyond the conventional and .
courage to entertain substantial
risks.

ihelieve a propitious moment is
at hand, and I pray that there are
men and women among us with

 

things to say and do which sieze lhe
potentiality of that moment,

Step up to

%
o

JD'S RESTAURANT

. COCKTAIL LOUNGE

LUNCH: Mon. thru Fri.
DINNER: Mon. thru 'I‘hur
4pm,ioiip m,: Fri..Sat,.4
. m, to 12 pm.

 

