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SCARLET AND BLACK

 

Scarlei' and Black

GRINNELL COLLEGE
Grinncll. law!

A weekly newspaper published each Friday of the col»
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Thoughts About New Dorm

Ed: Note: This is the first
of two articles being written
for the 5&3 by Ann Lousin.
Appearing this week as a
"guest editorial," the article
”does not necessarily repre-
sent the opinion of the 58:3
or its staff.

At a recent quarterly meet-
ing, the Board of Trustees
yoted to approve the plans for
It new men’s dorm, to be erect-

' ed in the near future, presum-
ably just north of the Norrises.
.This announcement met with
little opposition, for on first
glance it would appear that
there is a definite need of a
new hall, in view of our ex-
panding enrollment of men and
the considerable number of
men who now live off-campus.

Cause for Doubt

A closer inspection, how-
ever, reveals some reasons for
doubting the validity of such of-
ﬁcial reasoning. There is cer-
tainly an increase in the num-
ber of men students, either be-
cause more qualified men apply
or because of a rather naive be-
lief that an increase in the
male-female ratio Will improve
that hackneyed old bugaboo,
the “Grinnell social problem."
,But are there that many more
qualiﬁed malc applicants? Un-
til we discontinued Computing
hall averages, the women usu-
ally had distinctly higher grade-
points than the men and they
have long carried off a good
portion oi the Phi Beta Kappa
keys and graduate awards,

Furthermore, the president
has expressed concern that in»
telligent women do not obtain
a higher education and utilize
their abilities more for the
good of mankind. If Grinnell
is serious about this problem,
I should think that there would
be more attempts to alleviate
this, both by admitting more
qualiiied women and by encour
aging our women graduates to
put their most outstanding tal—
I‘mts to use. instead, the col-
lege admits more men.

More Do Graduate Work

While doing so, we are steadr
lly raising the standards of ad-
mission. so that now more grad»
uates—both men and women—
go on to graduate or profes-
sional school than ever before.
These people tend to postpone
marriage until their education
is completed, for school is difs
ricult enough and expensive
enough without the responsibil»
ity of a wife and family.

Of course, one may say
that the Grinnell cored gradu-
ate can work and put her hub»

i. f' i r

by through graduate school, but ,

 

all too often the girls educa-
tion is then abruptly terminat-
ed, when she had the ability to
continue it. This violates every-
thing Dr. Bowen said in his last
convocation. An even more
telling criticism of the attempt
to solve the social problem by
admitting more men is the
simple fault that it has not
worked—lets face it, men are
not going to date more simply
because there are more men
than women. Who subscribes to
that kind of logic?

The second reason that has
been advanced for building a
new mens dorm is that mere
are thirty men living off-camp-
us. Somehow or other this is
regarded as intrinsically an
evil. To be sure, Grinnell is a
residential college and it is a
positive good that most of the
students live in the dorms
(barracks, as one prof. put it).
but is it necessary to the co-
hesion of the student body that
everyone live on~campus? l
maintain that for some people
and some situations, off-camp»
us living is a positive good, for
themselves and for the college.

Language House Praised

Having lived for two years
on and two years off campus,
I can unhesitatingly say that
for language houses off-camp-
us living is a positive good and
that.off»campus housmg gener-
ally tends to be quieter, more
spacious, and betterrequipped.
Our tiny group of six, the Ger-
man House. has a complete
kitchenette b e tte r equipped
than any in the Quad. a bigger
lounge, our own library and
periodicals, and twice as big
a bathroom for our six then
we would have had in the Quad,
Admittedly, much of this comes
from our being a language-
house, but I have noticed that
even the off-campus men main-
tain that they have better fa-
cilities than on North Campus.

‘Growing Gulf’

Dr. Bowen has said that
there is a growing gull be-
tween the off-campus and on-
campus housing, which may be
true. But is this due to their
physical separation alone, or is
it also due to their different
desires? The generalization
that all North Campus consists
of crew-cut lettermen and that
all off-campus consists of shag-
gy beats is simply not true. As
part of the “Park Street Line”
I‘ve gotten to know several of
the off-campus men, and I‘ve
found them as diversified as
any group, united perhaps by

LOUSlN COLUMN—
“,Continuod ,on' Page 7

 

Friday, March A. but

. Letters to the Editor

Rosenfield Questions Friedlander’s Attack on Ford Fund

To the Editor:

As a graduate and long time
trustee of the college, my in
terest is aroused by Dan Fried-
lander's letter to the editor
criticizing the Ford matching
fund drive. While, frankly, I do
not fathom some of Mr, Fried-
lander’s arguments, I gather
that he feels that some kind of
a fraud has been committed on
the student body, that the
money is not being well spent,
and that in order to raise this
money, student government and

student action has been cur-
tailed.

None of these contentions is

valid. The six million dollars
which is being raised will be
spent for a variety of purposes.
all well publicized and all for
the direct benefit of the college
and. its student body. These in-
clude additional faculty salar~
ies, buildings and increased
endowment. if this six million
dollars had not been raised,
student tuition would ultimately
have to be increased to absorb
this sum or the college’s stan-
dards would suffer accordingly.
The fact that tuition has been
raised annually is regrettable.
but these sums have not been
buried underground, but have
been used for college expenses,

 

'Aware' Men Make Suggestion
For 'More Siimulaling' Break

To the Editor

We heartily agree with Miss
Muffie Meyer’s proposal com
cerning interim. Intellectual
pursuits definitely wane during

this period. The inexperienced
freshmen and sophomores need
guidance to realize their poten-
tial for independent study. Jun-
iors and seniors need second
ary interests to supplement
their required studies—the JLA
and comps. An experienced,
aware student has recognized
tlle flaw and suggested meas»
ures to remedy it. (Critics take
note; the student body does
contain responsible, concerned
students.)

Since a student has made the
first suggestion, we feel that the
subsequent ones should also be
proposed by equally aware
students. As Miss Muffie Meyer
has pointed out, students need
guidance. in the spirit of her
original proposition, we pro-
pose specific projects” . . . as
absolutely free and independent
as the student Wishes.”

1, For the literati e, e. Cums
rnins’ entire works might be
gramatically revised, employ«

 

ing the canons of the MLA
Style Sheet.

2. To broaden one’s scope,
independent study could be car-
ried out in different environs.
For e x a m p l e, probability
theory could be studied in Las
Vegas; dermatology in Flori-
da; or Alpine athletics in As-
pen, Colorado. '

i. iearn the Dewey Decimal
System. (For the more inspired
the Library of Congress System
might also be included.)

4. For an interdisciplinary
project, the group dynamics of.
and the individual’s non-verbal
experience in, a “bender~end-
er,” to use the colloquial term,
might warrant consideration.
This project would entail fre-
quent seminars of extended
duration. If considerable stu-
dent interest were shown,
school funds might be used to
finance serious research.

The above suggestions are in-
tesesting but intellectually stim«
ulating. We hope Griunell stu-
dents do not muff their oppor-
tunity.

John Johnson
Bruce Kaufmann
Bruce Kohler

 

Grinnell Sludenl Thoreaus Tanlrums,
Flies Off Handle at B and G's Walden

To the Editor:

Dear Mr. Walden:
With the return of the warm

weather, all 48 hours of it,
there has come the return of
the flies. Due to a loose screen
in my window. I now have 11
flies, 26 dead ones, and 8 in
their death throes. Actually this
is a minor problem at the mo-
ment, but if this weather should
continue, it is probable that this
problem will increase to the
proportions that it reached last
fall.

From the beginning of school
until the bitter Cold of last No»
vember. there existed a coiled
tion of hundreds of live, dead,
and dying flies between my
screen and window. Most of
these creatures confined them-
selves to this area which
measures 51" by “/2", but a
few, 1042, in a final attempt to

 

avoid death, tried tolfly and,

found themselves buzzing helpr
lessly on the furniture, floor,
and bells. And as unbelievable
as it may sound, all fall there
existed a layer of dead and dy-
ing flies, 3 and 4 bodies deep in
the area. between window and
screen.

Because of the size of our
room it has been necessary to
place my bed next to the win-
dow, parallel to the outside
wall. Therefore, on a warm
night I have me pleasure of
knowing that every breath l
breathe has been filtered over
a 1 inch layer of dead and dy-
ing fly bodies. Not only is that
distasteful to think of, it is also
unhealthy to exist with.

Although this letter may
seem to contain gross exagger-
ations, I can assure you that

WALDEN LETTER—
Continued on Page s

115“} .l'lvi.

i, t

 

largely faculty salary in-
creases. It is not by accident
that Grinnell has collected and
retained an outstanding faculty.

The assertion that student
government and liberties have
been circumscribed because of
this drive is also untrue. The
trustees have accepted a ma-
jor part of the responsibility
of this drive and their activities
have never been inﬂuenced by
student rules or student gov<
ernment, As a matter of fact,
several of the official acts of
the trustees and the adminis-
tration have knowingly resulted
in the loss of revenue to the
college. As an illustration, 1h:
college, through official action
by the faculty and the trustees,
consistently refused to accept
from the federal government
hundreds of thousands of loan
funds as long as the taking of
the loyalty oath was required
from the student. This not only
resulted in the loss of govern.
ment funds but also resulted in
the loss of a number of sub-
stantlal gifts including the
probable loss of a million dol-
lars for a new building.

But what bothers me most
is the cynical and disdainful
attitude expressed by Mr.
Friedlander toward alumni giv-
ing. This giving is the life blood
of the college’s existence and
must be maintained in an uni<
terrupted manner if the excel-
lencc of the college is to con-
tinue. in the past, when com
nomlc depressions or tempor-
ary lack of faith in the college
has developed, the stature of
the school has diminished in
alarming proportions.

Over the long stretch, the
college has been fortunate in
having thousands of alumni
and friends whose millions of
dollars of gifts lifted Grinnell
college to its pre-eminent po-
sition among the Small liberal
arts colleges of the country.
And equally fortunate are these
alumni because, through their
generosity, they have given
added meaning to their own
lives by supporting a college
which has become very person-
al and dear to them.

Joseph F. Rosenfield, ’25
Des Moines, lowa

Couririghi Gives
Thanks to Gilmour

To the Editor:
On behalf of the Election
Board and the Student Govern-
ment Association, I wish to ex-
tend our sincere gratitude to
Mr. C. Edwin Gilmour, Direct-
or of the Program in Practical
Political Education, for procur-
ing the voting machines for the
recent SGA President election.
This effort saved us a good
deal of time and work and gave
the students the opportunity to
learn more about how elections
are conducted in their own
cities.
Again, our thanks to Mr. Gil-
mour for his support.
Paul Courfrighl.
Chairman
Electionﬁoari!

.i '.:.. -.:i:

 

