'DRAMA STUDENT
Balloons coups

By MOLLY MCGUIRE

While the majority of seniors were
cramming for their comprehensive
exams last week, Bonnie Tinker, a
theatre major, announced her intention
to bnycutt hei- exams and invited her
classmates to join her. At a meeting
last Friday night, several students ex
pressed their support or her action, but
were afraid themselves to participate
in a comps boycott,

Saturday morning Miss Tinker show-
etl up for her written exam, but spent
the time writing a statement explain-
ing her reasons for electing to refuse to
write a comprehensive exam for the
Speech and Theater department.

When she appeared Monday morning
i'or her Oral comprehensive, Miss
Tinker explained that she would be
glad to answer questions regarding the
issues raised in her statement, but
would not answer any questions that
were part ot an oral examination.
She spent the hour discussing grades,
education, and even theatre in general,
but nothing that would theoretically
constitute an oral exam,

Miss Tinker is uncertain about what
the theatre Staff will do about her re-
iusel to take the comps, but she men-
tioned a few steps they could follow:
1) fall her; 2) decide that she had in
fact taken the camps and pass her (she
did show up, but didn't answer the
questions); 3) average the grades of
all three comps (she took the ﬁrst ear-
lier in the year and received a “B”;)
or 4) refer her case to the Academic
Standing Committee, with or without a
recommendation that the comprehena
sive requirement be waived. in any
case, she plans to ﬁle a request with
the Committee to the effect that sen-
iors who do not complete or pass tllelr
comps he allowert ‘lo gmdmite anyway.
(The Senate p‘assed a re mg, Wed-
nesday to petition the .Asc with the
same request.)

Porter Woods of the theatre depart~
ment, when asked about the stairs de-
cision concerning Miss Tinker, said he
couldn’t: speak for the Whole staff, but
that he thought that she “knows what
to expect” from the staff. But he did
say, as an individual, that he “ques-
tions the merits of a general case
against departmental comprehensives
which is brought up during the week
or comps.” He said that the staff would
probably make a decision this week,
and included that he does not want the
decision to set a precedent tor the rest
oi the campus.

GLASSES

Made and Repaired
in Our Laboratory

Contact Lenses

Cases and
Solutions

Eyes Examined
Phone 136-3779

E. l. 1’ seat. on.

OFTOMETRlST

Across from Post Oi‘ﬁce

Closed rirurs. F.M.
and Sat. PM.

SCARLET AND I ACK

Excerpts From An All

Printed below are excepts from a state-
ment written by senior drama major
Bonnie Tinker instead of her comprehen»
sive examination. Students who wish to
read the entire statement are urged to
contact Miss Tinker. — Ed.

I’d like to believe that my objections
to comps are primarily grounded in a
concept or education, and that they are,
therefore, logically justiﬁable. This may
or may not be primary motivation, hut
assuming tor the moment that it is H
or that it is at least for a major {actor
in this impulsive action—I should at-
tempt. some deﬁnition of “education”
and then try to use that as a major pre—
mise for building my argument. (There
I go again, that tact is certainly well
within the ground rules oi proper aca-
demic ritual!)

in any case, tor the sake oi argument,
let’s assume that: Education is a pro-
cess. it is the vital and intimate abstrac-
tion, analysis, and integration or inter
mation and experience into one’s past,
present and iuture being. I am objecting
to “comprehensive examinations” baa
cause i have abstracted, analyzed and
integrated iniormaiion and experience
into my being in such a way that the idea
oi comps strikes a most unsettling note
of discord,

That leaves me with the most perplex<
ing problem of explicating my own being.
Certainly such presumption must be sec
ond only to the praisumptlon of judging
someone else’s being, Nonetheless, hav<
ing fully mastered such intellectual au-
dacity during the past four years, i
will capriciously iorge ahead.

Most people who know me — iriends,
enemies, relatives, myseli — would
agree upon three things about me: 1
am an extremist, I am emotional. And
I am “idealistic.” Sometimes these terms
are considered compliments, sometimes
insults. But regardless oi the attached
value judgment, its a curious combina-
tion. When people call me emotional,
they usually mean that i am acting

BEYMER?
king's Food Host U.S.A.

without regard for the logical processes
of the human intellect. Those who call
me idealistic mean to say that i am
acting too completely within the logical
constructs oi my mind. Now it I simply
switched on between the two we Could
simply chalk it up to schizophrenia and
have the contradiction neatly consigned
to a conceptual box where it can be
routinely dealt with (oi course, you may
want to do that anyway). The problem
is that I seem to be extremely emotion-
a1 and idealistic zit the same time (which
sets up a certain amount of cognitive
dissonance, or something like that). Giv~.
en the limitations of a line media, how—
ever. 1 can’t simultaneously deal with
the relationship of these two aspects of
my personality to my speciiic objection
to comps, so I’ll iirst deal with my emo-
tional objection and then with my ideal-
istic objections.

About a week ago someone asked a
classmate why he was staying in school
if he really believed what he claimed
to believe about the relevancy, value,
etc. of education institutions. He replied
that he was staying because he was a
Schmuck. I’d already been thinking simi-
lar thoughts about my own submission to
the rules of the BA. ritual, but hearing
the conclusion 5n bluntly slated just one
more time was the final straw. I dislike
leeling like a schmuckr It’s a very des-
tructive emotion; it’s obscene. If 1 can’t
ﬁnd it better reason ior staying in school,
ior putting up with nuisances like grades
and finals and comps, I’ve got to drop
out.

Another emotional rejection of comps
stems from their typical content. I’ve
already taken one set of comps this
spring. 1 was given two grades or “B."
Grinnell College should feel insulted. If
that material (lirst learned in 10th
grade and subsequently suriacod in
about 24 hours at high-power cramming)
represents my “Grinnell Education" and
if my graduation irom Grinnell is de-
pendent upon spewing forth that sort
of incidentia] information, Ihen the C014
loge has wasted every penny or ﬁnancial
aid it has invested in me. And What hap-
pened today when I came into this comp?
One or the oiher majors said to me, “Aw
come on Bonnie, you can just write some
sort or sh—t to those questions.” And
they’re right. I’m sure I could write
some sort of sh—t and pass the exam.
But hell, it the only way to get a BA.
is to abandon your intellectual creativity
and integrity, I’d guess l’ll just have to
do without it.

I have one other emotional objection
to comps—which may or may not be
very noble. But it‘s very basic. 1 hate
being in any way dependent upon other
people’s judgments oi me. i feel ex-
tremely repressed when someone holds
the power to say that my education, that
my creationewhich is my being # is

Pug. Swen

Comp

worth so much measured on a 41min:
scale, or that it just doesn’t make the
grade. When I submit to that kind of
power 1 ieel that I’ve perverted my ex-
istence, that We neutralized my indivi-
duality. . ..

Now to carry the argument hack to
the more speciﬁc issue or education, 1
delined education as “a process, the
vital and intimate abstraction, analysis,
and integration or iniormation and ex-
perience into nne’s being.“ in these
terms, if a person submits his education
to judgment by another person he is sub-
mitting his very life to external value
judgment, In which case the judge sets
himself up in the position of God. it
seems to me that the more “liberal"
Liberal Arts Colleges have caught
themselves between two poles. 0n the
one hand, they want to say that educa-
tion is indeed more than the storage 01
a given body oi iniormation. 0n the
other hand, they want to continue to
apply quantitative measures which can
be transcribed into a qualitative judg.
merit.

The defense is, of course, that exams
are not intended to be simply a measure
or stored intormation, they are to allow
a student to demonstrate his ability to
synthesize iniormation into concepts, and
to deal creatively with his confusion.
Yes? Well, 1 don’t believe . it people
who give exams really believed that
“exams are tor the student,” seriously,
they certainly wouldn’t be so presump-
tuous to “grade" exams, or papers, or
courses, or people. What all too often
happens in the Liberal Arts College is
that concepts are turned into the inﬁll"
rnation, synthesis is turned inio regurgi-
tation, a process is turned into a product,

A short quote from the "Theater Ma-
jors: Comprehensive Reading List,
Spring 1969" is pertinent:

rim {oliowmg list is designed to

to disorder, early sorrow, cont

blinding intuitions . . , . The

will be based upon this list. ornis

range Vildrly .ino you will not be pen-

alized ior (it briginai ideas on what inis
reading iisr might mean. (2) your nbiiiiy

to iii oiiior rradings and understandings
into it. and ts) a deep, consnicrcd con-

mm" Theater stair

Come on now, my friends on the Thea:
[er Slaif, if you really mean that Stop
asking me silly questions. Have a little
respect ior my originality and consid-
ercd contusion. i don’t know what you
mean giving me a 21/2 hour comprehem
sive examination on Theater. You‘re
messing around with my lite, you know.
Theater is my Art, my Ritual; it’s my
way of plugging into eternity, my way
oi transcending my own inherent soli-
tude and mortality. You talk about King
Lear and Peer Gynt as “departure from
the mainstream of theatrical tradition“
and i just think about how no matter
he wslubborn and willful I am, i am

ANTI-COM F—

Will

 

(Continued Page 5, Column 4)

SPECIAL
THIS WEEK!

AND THE NEXT, AND THE NEXT.

OUR PEZZA IS ALWAYS PEC

PLACE OR 03’

TOM 84 BETTE GAHBISON

AND THE NEXT

EAL. TRY IT SOME‘HME. VOUR

MT"

.i.‘

236-6222

 

