Jan Palmer::  Are you gonna be in the room? Which is fine.
Alenka Figa & Jan Palmer::  Yeah.
Alenka Figa & Jan Palmer::  Are you gonna be in the room?
Alenka Figa & Jan Palmer::  Oh, yeah. I'll be here.
Alenka Figa & Jan Palmer::  Oh, okay.
Alenka Figa & Jan Palmer::  Just to make sure everything works alright. [Sound of mic being moved.]
Jan Palmer::  My name is Jan Palmer. I’m currently living in Iowa City, Iowa, and I’m from the class of ’73. I was looking at the exhibit today of the Yearbook Project 1966, and I was very struck with a comment in the text of the book that said in ’66, ’67, that Grinnellians were much less activist than on many liberal arts campuses across the United States.
Jan Palmer::  That really took me by surprise because by 1969 when I arrived here, that was not my perception. I know there were some very dramatic changes in those three years, but I think it’s worth looking at what the pivot points of that shift were, or perhaps, it’s not an accurate recollection on my part. Perhaps, some of my sense of social activism came from involvements I had beyond the College, through my family.
Jan Palmer::  But, one of the things that I was involved with while I was at Grinnell was, I was very active in a group of students that petitioned the administration to fly the UN flag with the US flag. I’m very proud that, y'know, when I come on campus, they still fly side-by-side. That, to me, was a very important symbol of recognizing that our commitment is not only to our nation, but, first and foremost, to a global community, to humanity, and I think now my wisdom would embrace the cosmos and all of the natural world, as well as, humanity. But I think... I think that was significant as a piece of my memory of time on campus.
Jan Palmer::  I remember the day in the spring of ’70- I remember Kent State. I remember... I don’t know if it was the day that classes were canceled or the day that the term, the session was declared ended for the spring. But, I was living in Langan that year and it had just poured. It had rained so hard that the whole grass field in front of Langan was flooded. And about simultaneously with the announcement of the closure of the College, this huge rainbow, completely a complete arc, covered the span of the entire field. I remember going out in bathing suits and belly-diving on the field, and in retrospect there’s something incongruous. I had been quite involved in the anti-war movement, and to me there’s in some ways something incongruous about going out and celebrating in that way.
Jan Palmer::  But I think that what I was experiencing at the time was this tremendous sense of hope. The celebration was that we, the people, we as students, but the people as a whole in the country were finally beginning to gain some traction, leverage, that would compel change and would compel us to end the Vietnam War. So, that’s a pretty vivid memory for me of, y’know, when I look back at snapshots in my mental album, that day is a significant one.
Jan Palmer::  I stayed on campus after it closed. We were given the opportunity to stay. I believe it was a week or ten days before we were compelled to leave campus in order to do community education around the Vietnam War, and I participated in that in town. And it’s a bit confused in my memory, but it seems to me that it was within that week somehow, or maybe it was earlier in the spring, but one of the Biology professors invited people to come on a tour of organic farms in Iowa. And.. that was really my first introduction to organic agriculture, and I was profoundly moved by the fact that the farms that had been participating in this organic co-op for many years were financially viable.
Jan Palmer::  That left a deep impression on me, and I didn’t go into organic agriculture or... any form of ecological work until much later. But, in my later years, organic gardening and the whole care and restoration of land has become very important to me, and those seeds were planted, I think, on that field trip, which was very informal thing. It wasn’t part of the curriculum or even the academic program, but it was upon the invitation of one of the professors.
Jan Palmer::  I think, looking back- well, not looking back, in the present... Grinnell continues to nourish me in a profound way.... I often find myself asking why or asking how else things could be done, or suggesting alternatives and I rarely assume a position without creating some new program within it that wasn’t part of the job description, some way of trying to translate part of my vision to the organization.
Jan Palmer::  I’ve been very involved in innovative educational program design and in order to create more holistic models of education, and to stand with people and support them in- persons in marginalized groups, to support them in their efforts for self-empowerment. And that can be very lonely work. It’s not the way institutions normally think, and even when I’m in more conventional roles, I find myself being the person who says, “Why can’t we do something about this? Why can’t we do something differently? Couldn’t we try this?” and in small ways trying to introduce those changes.
Jan Palmer::  And I don’t see a lot of people around me asking the same questions always, and it’s... Grinnell is my tribe. It’s the group. I’ve been part of issues-focused groups, which certainly are asking why and posing alternatives, but in terms of a community of very diverse professions and commitments and passions... Grinnell is where I don’t feel alone.
Jan Palmer::  I think that so many of the graduates of Grinnell have taken a very innovative stance. It’s- they’re not only competent but they’re highly innovative. So, that has become a source of... support and encouragement to me, even when I’m not here, you know? It’s something I carry with me, a sort of a piece of my identity, a sense that there is a group of which I am part where I don’t stand out in that way but I’m the norm instead of the person who’s making trouble.
Jan Palmer::  I have a bit of sadness about... One of the things I loved about Grinnell when I was here was that it was so incredibly serious about its mission and its learning and purpose but it was very unself-conscious, I thought. I remember, y’know, the dining room on North Campus was.... I describe it to people as sort of a cinderblock one-story building.
Jan Palmer::  And I later had a lot of interaction, very shortly after I was at Grinnell, with a liberal arts college where the dining hall had won architectural awards and it was completely made out of flagstone and it had a three-story atrium with a huge fireplace in the center of it. And now, you know- And to me and with- I won’t say that it came with the architecture, but I also felt a much greater degree of self-consciousness among the students of that campus.
Jan Palmer::  And I see the... in- the explosion of really, beautifully designed but very.... stylized, expensive, dramatic buildings here, and... some of the simplicity that I experienced here in the early, in the late 60s seems to be gone. And I really, really hope that.... The students- I don’t see how students can be surrounded by such wealth.
Jan Palmer::  And the dining hall is phenomenal. I mean, the array of choices of food is just bizarre to me. Y’know, I remember choosing between pork chops and lasagna, and that was good.... And so, I just hope that we haven’t lost something. That we haven’t- some, I hope- I see it as being harder to hold onto a sense of being part of the community at large... harder to identify with... those who live a far simpler life. I don’t know.
Jan Palmer::  Certainly your surroundings don’t govern that, but I certainly hope that.... people at Grinnell don’t see themselves, or subconsciously experience themselves as set apart from the world because of the tremendous assets that the College has and I’m very grateful for the funding for programs and research and international internships and experiences. I just think that’s invaluable, having lived overseas myself and not having gotten to undertake research until much later in my life. But....
Jan Palmer & Alenka Figa::  I hope we haven’t lost some of the down-to-earth-ness that I think was a precious part of the experience here.
Jan Palmer & Alenka Figa::  Thank you.
Jan Palmer & Alenka Figa::  You are very welcome.
