Scarlet- and Black

GRINNELL COLLEGE
Grinnell. lewd

A weekly newspaper published each Friday or the col~
lege year by Lila Grinnell Committee on Student Publica-
tions, Laird n. Barber. chairman. Represented for
notional advertising by Nnrlonal Advertising Service, Inc,
College Publishers Representative, is Ens: sum Street.
New York 22. N.Y. Second class pouage paid at Grinnell,
Iowa. Subscription me $4.50 per school year.

. .mn I-lcrzog
Conrad oauin
Dave pref:

smron .. .
BUSINESS MANAGER
MANAGlNG rmron

NEWS EDITOR

FEATURE EDITOR .
strs EDITOR
AssisrANr srom‘s EDITOR .
CHIEF PHOTOGRAPHER .
DIcI-IANGE EDITOR .
BUSINEss ASSISTANTS
CIRCULATION MANAo
susscmch MANAGER .

Len Cnlolllley
1. Eric Jacobson
Tom nnrlman

. . Jelf Knlillnun
elten, Mlu Mnrshnll
John Pojman

. Larry Rinderknecht

,Grinnell's Future

1 Sunday’s Boar’s Head, 3 traditional Christmas dinner,
lrupted into a two and one half hour display of foul language
and foul manners, as the men of North Campus treated their
faculty guests be an unceasing volley of four-letter words in
the form of inappropriate toasts and uncalledvlor chants.

‘ The guests reacted quickly and strongly to the humorless
display of crudity. At first the faculty members simply concen-
trated on the failings of the men at that meal. Winston King
(philosophy and religion) on Monday afternoon delivered an an-
gry denunci Lion of me event. However, today the 18 faculty
guests delivered a letter to students which goes far beyond the
Boar’s Head incident, The faculty said, ”This (the Boar’s Head)
is not an isolated incident.” It continued that the dinner was but
a symptom of a greater problem, that the college “cannot have

its character determined by individual and group lrresponsi»
bility."

“The alteration of rules has brought neither maturity nor
satisfaction to the students. The faculty has seen the academic
life it zealously guards seriously weakened by the communal
problems that it has sought to avoid. We have, in short, reached
.Ihe point in the lifeof Ihis college in whch there must be a sober
reconsideration of internal operations if we are to remain effec-
tive as an educational institution," me faculty members stated.

The letter suggested a reevaluation of the hall system, of
the role of the faculty in the social area, of the time and effort
given by students to college government, and of “the proper re-

atlonship of the two residential campuses to each other and to

the total life of the College."

The letter closed, “We hope that something positive and cons
structivc will follow recent eVenIs that have troubled us. The
residential college necessarily restricts a student’s freedom.
(Those students who find the limitations inherent in such an in4
ﬁitution should seek other places for their education. We be-
lieve, however, that there is a value in this kind of a college,
and we are determined to preserve it. We express our willing-

ness to participate in a program for the reconstruction of a
united college community,”

James Hr Stauss, Acting President of the college, followed
that letter with a statement. In that statement he noted, “The
college has liberal policies pertaining to the student culture.
.Yet, insofar as these take the form of rules, there is widespread
disrespect of them, More importantly, there is frequent viola»
tion of the premises upon which the college has approached
student affairs — namely, that individual standards and prac<
titles will reflect individual selfrrestraint, responsibility, and
common sense.”

Preoccupation with college rules has not succeeded in imv
proving either the rules or the college.”

“Means must be found to achieve a ‘settling down’ to the

main business of me college and to behavior appropriate to the
ideals of the college."

We find no argument with these statements, but can only
agree with them and with Peter Cohan, Cofl-lP President; Jack
Chapman, SGA President and Marie Martin, AWS Board Presi-
dent; who said in a joint statement, ”The communty is ailing.
it is time for all factions to forget about being opponents . . I
.The community has now recognized and accepted the problem
as its own and seems willing to act on it. This has the potential
for being the first step toward a serious appraisal of our sys-
tem, the society it supports and promotes and the mechanics of
communication and intervactlon in that society,"

The statement concluded, “We would urge an honest and
critical assessment of the community so that steps may be tak-
In to help us regain our equilibrium as rapidly as possible.”

Before us we have the statements of all three factions, all
zﬁering to cooperate. We can only add our agreement and our
ope that if action follows, it will be jointlaction.

 

SCARLET AND BLACK

Friday, December l). I961

Olcl S&B's Throw Colcl Light
On Past Christmas Seasons

By Karen Adkinson

Grinnell College has been an
ongoing organization for over
one hundred years, but rarely
do students have a sense of this
continuity. Some link with the
past can be gained by thumb-
ing through back issues of the
8&3 for the weeks around
Christmas time. Here can be
seen not only the great changes
in the school, but also the con»
tinuing concerns.

December 31, 1919

"Grinnell College will hold
classes as usual during New
Year’s day according to the an-
nouncement of the administra»
tion this morning. . . ." This
move was caused by a “fuel va-
cation" when Grinnell ran out
of coal to heat the buildings.
Smith and Mears were kept
heated during the fuel break by
wood supplied by a crew of
(student) wood cutters.

December 15, 1937

"Roads about Grinnell and
vicinity are at present impas»
sable, according to a statement
released today by the Iowa
state highway commission.”

December 16, 1936

Announcement of the results

Not Boar's Head
But Boar's Head

Dear Dr. King,

The men of'CLARK HALL
would like to express their come
plete agreement with your let-
ter condemning the actions of
the men of Grinnell College at
the Boar‘s Head dinner. Many
have stated that this was a
“mild” affair in comparison
with some dinners of past years
and have thereby wrongly tried
to pass it off and excuse their
own poor taste.

Although the men of CLARK
can proudly say that not one
of us allowed our sense of pro-
portions to become unbalanced,
We feel that because we were
a part of the men of the cam-
pus we must express our sin—
cerest apologies for the disre-
spect shown to you, to the
o t h e r distinguished guests,
and to the student body itself.

CLARK HALL

Ed. Note: This letter was
sent both to Winston King (re-
ligion) and the 5&3.

Pursell to Visu School

Dr. Lyle E. Pursell, associ-
ate professor of mathematics
at Grinnell College, will be a
“visiting scientist” on Friday
(Dec. 20) at the Story City
Community Sc h 0 01 in Story
City.

As a participant in the pro-
gram, Dr. Pursell will give
demonstrations, hold informal
discussions, speak to science
and mathematics classes, and
talk to interested students in-
dividually at the high school.

The program. now in its
fourth year, is sponsored by
the Iowa Academy of Science,
the State University of Iowa,
and the National Science Foun-
dation. - . -‘ '

 

of the annual freshman eti~
quette test revealed Grinnell
preps to have an average score
of 108 out of 200 possible points.
The women‘s average was a
scant 10 points higher.

December 16, 1933
letter to the editor

"Athletics at Grinnell are un-
derestimated, not overempha-
sized. Successful teams are the
financial backbone of th e
school, and if Grinnell is to con-
tinue in operation in the face of
its mounting deficit, there must
be more concentrated effort
. . . to bring in good high school
athletes."

December [6, 1933

” ‘Sex in Soviet Russia' will
be the subject of Manuel
Brown's talk at tomorrow
night's meeting of the Satur-
day Evening Club. . ."

December 10, 1943
advertisement

“Have a ‘Coke’ -- Swell Work
Leatherneck

Returning home with a cap
tured Japanese sword, the
husky Marine is greeted with
‘Have a Coke,’ It’s the kind of
celebration he welcomes most.
At home or abroad Coca-Cola
stands for ‘the pause that re-
freshes’ ~ has become a sym~
hol of the American way 01
life."

December 15, 1937

"The dean of women’s office
continues its campaign for de—
cency. But we have small
doubt that truth is great and
will prevail and that one of
these days an ingenuous young
men is going to find out how to
open the quaint devices on the
light switches."

 

Winston L. King Scorns Boar's Head,
Says Student Courtesy ls lacking

To Everybody at Grinnelli

You took the words right out
of my mouth: The amazing ma-
turity of Grinnell students! I
have been hearing those magic
words from Grinnell student
leaders for a long time. But
now, after attending the Boar’s
Head Dinner, I know what they
mean!

What a splendid spirits-
filled demonstration of ma-
ture masculinity it was! What
COURTESY and CONSIDER-
ATION to trustees and faculty
dining with them — a con-
tinual raucous yelling and
booing which made it'impos-
sible for any of the cere~
monial and most of the toasts
to be heard, or Christmas
carols to be sung — except
when the animals were feed-
ing! What VIGOR — whole
tables full of GROWN-UP
men chanting Obscenities at
the tops of their voices]
What IMAGINATION ,- a
tremendous variety of at least
two of those vigorous four-
letter words straight off the
walls of men‘s washrooms
and grade-school prlvies,

used over and over again in
all sorts of fascinating com-
binations! What COURAGE
rising to shout insults at col-
lege officials from the safe
anonymity of a buzzing
crowdl

It does one’s heaIt good to
see such a resounding demon-
stration of those qualities
which make Grinnell great and
her students ready for adult
FREEDOM. We must have at-
tained to at least a ten, maybe
even a twelveryear old level of
conduct on that occasion. Fif-
tee more years of development
at this rate will surely result
in some sort of super-maturity.
And let’s wait for another
Boar’s Head dinner that long,
too!

Winston L._ King (religion)

P.S. We’re sorry that those
really mature junior women
who heard the “program" from
under the HeadrTable plat;
form, after “hiding" there for
four hours, couldn’t have heard
it all, but were just able to get
out in time to have their pic-
tures taken ‘vith the grown-
ups.

 

Adult Problem N

To the editorl

Both the, Boar's Head Din-
ner and Winston King’s angry
letter “to everybody at Grin-
nell" manifest frustration over
a situation which, despite
much well meant conversation,
has not found a workable solu-
tion.

The men of Grinnell want the
right to govern dremselves as
“grown ups", yet childishly
(if amusingly) stuck out their
tongues at those College lead-
ers who must ultimately de-
cide whether we are responsi»
ble enough to behave without
their supervision.

Dr. King Wants mature Grin-
nell students, yet can do no

eeds Compromise

our adolescent fannies. The
students won’t behave until
they're treated as adults, The
administration Won't treat stu-
dents like adults until they be-
have.

- This situation has been the
topic for heated debates bee
tween administration, faculty,
and student leaders. but no
workable compromise has
emerged, or seems pending. A
compromise is necessary.
Now, instead of planning for
the future and looking away
from the very real ugliness
of the Boar‘s Head and of Dr.
King’s letter, let us face and
work with the contemporary
problem. everybody at Grin-
nell.

 

better than swat us angrily on

Donne Hollinl

 

