hm: hath mm: a lung map

by Kathy Kramer
i came across this unusual arr
ticle while browsing through the
Grinnell Room last week, it was
printed in the student newspaper,
the Iowa College Newsletter, on
November U, 1882. l have little
commentary on the piece, except i
believe the attitudes of women,
especially Grinnell women, have
changed, and I applaud Grinnell
ior its support oi higher education
ior women, particularly in 1882.
Aiter those briei points, the article
can stand alone,
+++
“it is really surprising to see how

few young ladies resort to the
reading room ior the purpose oi
reading. Some are evidently
astonished at the idea 01‘ their
needing to read Others say they
have no time ior reading. The
trouble is they do not take time.
When thinking over the matter
they sometimes wonder why they
hear so little ol' the transactions of
the outside world They do not
understand it, yet the fault is their
own. Every one should, in their
plans, leave time ior reading the
newspapers and keep up with the
times Not to enter lully and en~
thusiastically into the times and

surroundings is to shirk, and the
more one wanders beyond her
place, to thatexient are her powers
paralyzed. The moment comes
when she apprehends her life
purpose, and iinds her iaculties are
locked up and oiier no resistance.
Young ladies as well as gentlemen
should be able to converse on some
or the leading topics oi the day,
learn oisome new book, read oi the
late inventions, and at least know
enough oi the elections to know
whether to regret and be surprised
at the Democratic majority in New
York, or to suppose ‘ ’twas ever
thus ' "

SAGA fast no sham

to the editor:

As an organizer oi Friday’s
SAGA Fast, 1 ieel obligated to
write a brici response to Jail Bob's
“Open Space” column (SAGA
Fast: A liberal hypocrisy» oi last
week, Bob roundly criticizes the
“semiannual larce" because oi
the obvious hypocrisy oi “Grinnell
College liberals” donating 72 cents
to hungry Airicans rather than the
3250 they presumably spent by
eating out. Bob otters two “non~
hypocritical” alternatives: one,
that the Fast be held on a Saturday
(steak) night, and two, that it be a
lull day aiiair. Although many
iewer students might participate,
reasons Bob, this way the money
raised would represent more
sacriiice and consequently be
more meaningiul.

Whether or not most oi the 571
students joining the Fast went out
and made town restaurant owners

happy is oi no special relevance
here what is cricial, ultimately, is
the amniount oi money raised Ask
the people in southeastern Nigeria
it they would choose, say, $200 in
“principled" dollars or the $435
“hypocritical" dollars of last
week's Fast. People righting ior
their lives don’t ask “ho\v7”, only
“how much?".
[Pretentious American concerns
with symbolism and ceremony in
giving should not be allowed to
interfere with the lives of third
worlders going to bed with no iocd.
What, Mr, Bob. is more im~
portant, your inoral satisiaction or
a West African's daily bread?
The true hypocrisy is that ex-
pressed unknowingiy by those that
bypass both the signup sheets and
the donation cans. They’ve got
plenty oi excuses: “Naw, my
stomach might complain,” or “But

SAGA’s only giving 72 cents," or
“How 'boul the people starving
right here in America'J”, at which
time they blithely strut into the
dining room and eat until they are
iull. I can ieel only pity ior students
so closermindcd they cannot make
even this small sacriiicc two nights
a year.

i agree with Bob that it would be
nice ii Grinnell students took the
Fast more mcaninglully. I would
like to see everybody sign up, toss
donations into the can, and think
seriously about what’s going on in
less iortunate parts oi the world.
But i'm realistic enough to
recognize that this will never be
iully achieved, and ior now the best
policy is to obtain the most money
in the least painiul way, in this
business, you see, it's the result,
and not the thought, that counts,

Dine Calvert

For Kathleen

There are probably only a iew
people here who knew Kathleen
wheeler, She was a gentle and
quiet person ivlio only spent last
semester here. Yet in the short
lime she was here. shc touched and
graced the lives or those people
close to her with a unique friend-
ship.

Last week, overwhelmed by the
many sadnesscs she had carried
i ‘idc her for a long time, she
finally decided “Not to be" and
took her the. Kathleen is gone, and
those at us who knew and loved her
will have to come to grips with

888

lounded ion

Scarlet & Black May 2, unis—p. 5

that Nothing can change that.
perhaps nothing could have been
done to change her decision. What
is importantnow, i think, is that we
just stop brielly to remind our
selves of how tenuous and iragile a
hold we all really have on this life,
and how vital genuine love and
concern are if we are to maintain
that hold. Times like this call (or a
renewal oi commitment. to each
other and to ourselves, a Coma
mitmcnt to human understanding
and conern Our obligation to one
another cannot be icrgotten it we
are to get by in a SOmCtlmCS very
sad world. Patty Marci-

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Within Poweshiek 55.50

on Sees independent study limitations

More Open Space

As the college entered a new
academic year last lall, it was that
perception oi many that various
alternatives in gaining an
education at Grinnell were in
danger of being withdrawn. In
particular, there appeared to be, or
had already been, evidence that
the recently acquired or expanded
policies involving practicum
credits, distribution requirements,
independent majors, oil'rcampus
study and independent projects.
were in danger oi being reduced or
curtailed. Especially disagreeable
to many students was the imr
plication that these Changes would
come about by gradual ads
ministrative (and perhaps
executive council) action and rule
changes, The lack of open debate,
and the lack of general student
involvement in such debate,
seemed a denial of the better side
of the recently redefined liberal
arts experience.

Crazy House decided to explore
what appeared to be the most
obvious example of administrative
restrictions—the area of in
dependent sutdy. Also, some in
terest was focused on independent
majors. Last February Joanna
Axtmann and‘myseli wrote up an
open question about these
programs, and distributed a ditto
to all students and faculty, We
received about thirtyrl‘ive replies.
Somewhat to our surprise only a
iew of these replies indicated that
there had been serious trouble with
getting an independent project
approved, although the iew replies
about independent majors told of
difﬁculties.

The problems with independent
majors that were indicated by uie

survey were subject matter is not
in the curriculum; subject matter
duplicates coursework in the
curriculum; lack oi explicit
deiinition or subject matter;
situations where there was no
acceptable evaluator,

To help evaluate these iindings,l
sonke with Dean of the Curriculum
Mary Eysenhach recently. We
talked at some length about tne
question of whether to allow
projects or majors on topics not in
the curriculum (as contrasted with
topics specialized, advanced, or
not regularly oiieredi. She ex-
plained that she would generally
approve a project outside oi the
curriculum, assuming there was a
iaculty member who could
evaluate the work and it there was
a logical reason to believe the
applicant could actually do the
work independently, without
having to depend extensively on
the adviser for assistance.

Regarding duplication oi
regularly-offered course work, it
appears that the regulations have
recently been revised to allow ior
reasonable exceptions

whether loosely deiined projects
should be permitted or not seems
an open issue. The iaculty
responses we received (two of the
three bcing irom executive council
members) suggested that this was
one type or project they would not
like to see

The question oi iinding an ac-
ceptable evaluation has two iacets.
First, on campus it seems that the
lack oiadeouatc iaculty evaluation
is only an occasional problem, The
question oi whether nonrlaculty

dependent has been periodically
raised. Especially for a “selec-
tive” school, this is a curiously
political problem, The second
aspect concerns oil-campus
program independents. It appears
that there is an ongoing tension
over how lnuch status to award to
oil-campus programs in general,
thus there is a broader problem
involved here

Although the data base {mm the
survey is quite scanty, it appears
that there have been some Con»
siderable problems in obtaining
approval ior various independent
majors It seems that two iairly
popular topics, Urban Studies and
Latin American Studies are not
looked upon with iavor by certain
members at the administration
and faculty involved in their
review it appears that there is
some measure oi personal bias at
work here, are less than salubrious
sort, especially as the curriculum
seems to be wide enough ior such
interdisciplinary studies.

From my interview with Dean
Eysenbach, it came out that there
are actually rather Iew in-
dependent project proposals
turned down. Based on that in-
terview, and some personal and
shared experiences, I might offer
the iollowing as suggestions
towards getting approval oi a
project proposal:

it. it you have been
progressively advancing in some
sequence oi courses towards a
particular independent topic, ins
dicate this

2). It you are contemplating
advanced work on subject matter
you already have worked in ex

tensively, indicate this.

3). it you are excited about the
topic of your project, indicate why.

it, Try to put down in words the
sense oi what you would like to
explore or accomplish. Then work
on this with your project adviser,
so you are both happy with the
iv tten statement.

5). The iorm ior the project looks
like it requires a ten-page outline.
it doesn't. The most important
parts oi the statements are your
objectives, and your background
and preparedness The latter
should cover background in the
subject matter, and some
statement oi readiness to do in
dependent work. The other parts
must be completed also, but are
not as hard as they might look
Talk over any questions with your
adviser, Be sure to do everything,
and get the iorm properly signed

6). Talk to other students who
have had success in getting project
approval.

For those students who are
trying to get an independent major
approved, and are running into
what seem like unreasonable
diiiiculties, it appears that getting
“important" people on your side to
argue ior you helps a lot,

Clearly, independent projects
are not on quite as shaky ground as
one may think. Students who will
be here next year might do well to
devote time to some of the other
issues that also seem on the
horizon, as mentioned beiore, and
try to gather some iniormation on
the status oi the alternativ.
educational opportunities. and on
how decisions about their status
are going to be made,

 

