The Invalid Box

The New England town hall has produced yet another debacle. in
our re-affirmation of the democratic process, students will
have the opportunity to vote yet another time for a Vice-Pres-
ident of the Student Government Association.

This has been embarrassing for the candidates and the SGA,
and has been a trying experience for the student body. The elec-

tion invalidations are tied not to machine politics aia Daley, _

but rather to the sheer negligence on the part of those charged

with running the elections.

The first invalidation came after the ballot box had been left
unattended for more than an hour. Immediately following the dis-
covery, it was decided to conduct a second election the follow-

ing day to remedy the error.

The second invalidation came after the Joint Board, reacting
-to complaints that students were not aware of the second elec-
tion, voted to void the announced election of junior Pete Reiner

and freshman Terri Yasdick.

We are not doubting the action of the Joint Board in invalidat-
ing the election, although we consider the necessity of doing so
unfortunate. SGA President-elect John Hansen must now wait
until April 5 to have vice-presidential help in groping with the
problems of transferring power from one administration to the

next.

Our dissatisfaction with the Election Board is not isolated to
the apparent ineptness with which they conduct elections. Even

small—time bureaucracies are not immune from incompetence.
What really disturbs us is that we had to inform the Election Board

chairman about who was running in the first place!

One of the candidate‘s application was not confirmed until after
we contacted the out-going SGA President who said that he had
talked with some girl at the Pub who wanted to run for SGA Vice—
President who was the friend of so and so and if we called the
friend she could tell us who the potential candidate was. The Elec-
tion Board chairman did not know ofthe candidacy until we informed

him.

The name of another candidate was not included in a candidate
profile article appearing in the newspaper. The reason is that we

were not informed of this person’s candidacy. We were told later v

that when this candidate withdrew from another SGA race he had
stated his intentions to run for Vice-President, but we never re-

ceived any confirmation of this.

Acts of incompetence such as these make it difficult for SGA to
become a residual of student confidence. The SGA is not at fault
for the election invalidation but unfortunately becomes the trans-

ference point of responsibility.

it is understandable, in light of the recent fiascos, why the ad-
ministration asks the proverbial question, “Who do you represent?”
or in this case “Who represents you?” We can’t readily decide.

We, at this time, .wish to express a vote of confidence in the new
SGA officials and in those yet to be determined and raise the other
hand in a vote of incompetence on the part of the Election Board.
When both arms are raised simultaneously, to the uninformed
observer, it would appear to be an action of disgust. It is not. It’s
just to say some things never change.

THE GRINNELL SCARLET AND BLACK

in. citinitt smut .iia Elie! ti punitihin
weekly except during mini period: by lhl
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“this in: Radio Editorial opinions iipriim
bmtr do not iiniiiiitu iiprrsirt in. views of
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of Grinnell critter: Views uprused tn xllngd
columns in thou of the aulhors inc not i...
cesslrily their 9' the it." or niintrtinrit III
the crtniitt smut and Black

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continuum sum.

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John Wylie
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PROFESSIONAL AnviSEh ..,wttttitii ornitiiiu

Women's Groups Politically Active

To the Editors:

We commend Fred Horecky on his
valid criticisms of Grinnell’sindul-
gent and apathetic political mood.
However. we do feel that the ant-
nor has done a disservice to many
feminists who have remained ac-
tiveland even radical during this
period of general political inacti-
vity.

The Grinnell Women’s Group has
made significant contributions in
birth control counseling and curri-
culum changes. Since last year,
members of the Women's Group
have sought improvements in the
medical services available to wom-
en as well as those available to

the campus community at large.

We regret the lack of campus
political consciousness regarding
the continuing illegal and immoral
actions in S.E. Asia. The low turn-
out at impeachment meetings and
general shallowed concern is sad-
dening, frightening,

We do feel that the Women’s Move-
ment is a viable political force wh-
ich should not be discounted. Un-
fortunately, Mr. Horecky does not
seem to recognize channels of poli-
tical change other than those keep-
ing in the style of the 60’s,

Sincerely,
Susan Morrice
Rhonda Casady

Surlel inn slack photo by not: To-

A Chicago—Northwestern freight train rumbles through the Grinnell campus
on its daily rim south. Several bills in the Iowa Legislature could restore
rail passenger service to Griunell, which has been without such service

since 1970.

Yacknin: Credit/Fails again-

To the Editors:

1 Last Thursday, the Allrcollege

EPC voted against a motion to re
institute the Credit/No Credit grade
ing option at Grinnell. The motion
was defeated in an extremely close
vote: a to d. All the students pre-
sent at the meeting voted for the
motion. They included Social Sci-
ences Representative Ellen Yach-
nin, SGA Representative Scott Weil,
and All — Campus Representative
Andy Borson. All the faculty mem»
bers present at the meeting voted
against the motion. They included
Professor Kinter, Professor Dur»
kee, Professor Don Smith, and Pro-
fessor Moffett. Student members
Robert Ruhl, Larry Cohen, and Shei-
la Cochran were not present, nor
was faculty member Professor
Grey.

when the SGA Cabinet took office,
one of our goals was to reinstitute
the Credit/No Credit option at Grin-
nell. Throughout the past year, a
large number of students have per—
sistently approached us, asking usto
get our asses into gear and bring
back Credit/No Credit‘. Unfortuna-
tely, bureaucracies tend to slow
down policyrmaking, and the bur-
eaucracy of the EPC is no excep-
tion. But after working on the prob-
lem of grades at Grihhell for over
two months, we were finally able to
bring some proposals to the floor
for a vote. After much debate, the
proposaltwhich seemed to have the
best chance of passing __ it called
for an unlimited Credit/No Credit
option; no grades would be record
ed bythe Registrarforthose courses
in which students chose to receive
only credit -- was voted upon. it
failed along student/faculty lines.
Needless to say, i was not at all
convinced by the faculty that stu-
dents at Grinnell do not deserve
the right to determine if they want
to take a course for a grade or for
merely the credit. But I’m not going

' to rehash the countless arguments

for and against the Credit/No Credit
option which have been debated in
the EPC for the past few months.
However, three important aspects
of the Grinnell decision-making pro
cess have been exemplified by this
incident, and 1 strongly believe that
they should be pointed out.

1) Only 3 student members out of
6 were present at Thursday's meet—
ing. Two of those students, Robert
Ruhl and Sheila Cochran, have not
attended a single meeting since seCr
ong semester began. Because Dean
Hamilton was chairing the meeting
and therefore was not voting, we
might have had a chance of passing

the Credit/No Credit motion, and
sending it to the faculty if all the
students had been present and will-
ing to vote positively on the pro-
posal.

it is deplorable that many times
students around here (and I’m re»
ferring to many more besides just
Robert and Sheila) demand repre-
sentation in decision-making, and
yet they “forget” to come to the
boring and monotonous, though at
times extremely important, meet—
ings to make their views and their
votes known. Representation means
nothing without participation. lfstu—
dents are ever going to make any ga—
ins in decisionrmaking at Grinnell.
we have to be willing to participate
wherever and whenever possible,
while continuing to fight Outside the
system, even ifthatparticipationul-
timately results in frustration.
Otherwise, we can never expect to
get any further than we are now.
2) The faculty/student split demon-
strated once again just how power-
less students areindecision-making
at Grinnell. 0n non-controversial
issues, there is no problem; stur
dents tend to vote the same way
as the faculty. On issues such as
grading, the reality of the situa-
tion is revealed. Even if students
had been able to force the Credit/
No Credit option through the EPC,
the proposal would have had to go
to the faculty for final approval.
The faculty on the EPC, therefore,
really had nothing to worry about.
It's rather obvious that they have
a liltle more clout with the faculty
than we do! (Need evidence? Look
at what happened at the faculty
meeting at the beginning ofthe year,
when students lobbied ardently just
to get the faculty to set up a commr
iltee merely to discuss the stur
dent role in decisionrmaking. For
those who have forgotten, the pror
Dosal failed.) ‘

If Grinnell Students are really
concerned about the academic pol-
icies at Grinnell, then we must
work persistently to obtain voting
participation in the actual decision-
making bodies at Grinnell. Other
wise, the faculty will continue to
make the decisions which affect
our future much more than they’ll
ever affect their Own.

3) Finally, one of the main argue
ments against the Credit/N0 Credit
option, put forthby ProfessorSmiih,
and which was apparently convincing
to some other faculty members,
was as follows: “We’ve already
tried Credit/Fail (not to mention
other grading systems) once, and

Alan Green Dies In
Calilornia Mishap

Scarlet inc Black News sirvici

SANTA MONICA, CAr—AlanT.
Green, class of 1973, died late
Tuesday night following a traffic
accident here.

Green, a law student at the
University of California at Los
Angeles, was crossing a street
following a party when he was
struck by a car. He died at a
Santa Monica hosltal without

nuologn
hum -r arm
regaining consciousness.

An honors graduate in politi»
cal science, Green was a mem-
ber of the Grinnell College Or-
chestra and a Dean's List Stu-
dent.

Survivors include a brother,
Bruce Green, who is a Grinn-
ell sophomore and music edi-
tor of the Grinnell Scarlet and
Black.

Funeral arrangements
Alan Green are pending.

for

it failed. We’re sick and tired of
spending so much time on some-
thing as unimportant as grading
systems year after year. it’s about
time that students stopped making
such a large issue out of grades,
take their grades as they come,
and start worrying about more imr
portant things." ,-

The argument is a specious one.
The importance of an issue is not
determined by some neutral entity
peering down upon Grinnell and ass-
igning the word “important" to some
issues, ”somewhat important” to
others, and “unimportant” tp the
rest. The importance of an issue is
determined by how strongly people
feel about an issue. If students have
been anxious to discuss and pro-
pose new grading systems » and
specifically the Credit/No Credit
option -- year after year, it is pre»
cisely because the issue is impor
ant to them. Ignoring the issue
will not diminish its importance.
The Credit/No Credit issue was
important enough to our Cabinet
that we made the option’s passage
one of our major objectives. 0b-
viously we failed. John Hansen, in»
coming SGA President, has stated
that he and his cabinet will be
working hard in the coming year
to obtain a Credit/No Credit op-
tion. Hopefully, they will have the
constant support and participation
Of all those students who believe
the issue is as important as i
truly feel it is.

Ellen Yacknin

Adams: ‘Thanks

To the Editors;
l wish to express my apprecia-
lion to the Careers Committee -

Nancy Carver, Mary Quirk, Caro—

lyn Ferry, Gita Modak, Joan Pa—
maranc, and Phil Foster - for or—
ganizing and offering to the com—
munity the Grinnell Careers Con—
ference.

We, as a community, owe them a
vote of thanks for making it possible
to talk with alumni in their fields
of interest. The Careers Commit
tee Spent a great deal of time and
energy organizing the conference
without any remuneration. To those
who contributed in other ways 7
money, attendance, supplies and
support » thank you.

Grinnell needed this conference.
Again, thank you.

John E. Adams,
Assistant Director
Career Services Office

Q

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