Embed Doc
Copy Link
Readcast
Collections

CommentGo Back

Grinnell College Grinnell, IAFebruary 13, 2009 Volume 125, Issue 16

The Scarlet and Black

First College Newspaper West of the Mississippi

Seniors hold up honorary plastic mugs and chant “Four more beers” at the infamous party celebrating the near end of their college experience. With only 100 days left to commencement, over 260 Grinnell seniors gathered at Jimbo’s Pizza Parlor for a night of pizza and debauchery. For detailed kiss-and-tell from two attendees, see page 9.

ONTRIBUTED

Meseke, see p. 2

Seniors kick off last 100 days with smooches

ARAH

LACK

After nearly a year of organizing student activists and col-laborating with administrators, next month a new program willtake the first step toward creating a more just campus.During Spring Break, Mar 14 to 17, the student group A Just Grinnell will hold a free workshop aimed at facilitatingdiscussions about oppression and privilege in Grinnell. Par-ticipants will go on to develop a permanent program to enablesuch dialogue throughout the community on an ongoing basis. The workshop will feature three days with a workshop facil-itator from the Social Justice Training Institute, Kathy Obear.According to organizer Leah Krandel’09, the first few days willbe spent defining social justice and its relevance to campus life,along with training sessions. The final day will consist of “talk-ing about how we see a peer education program coming to-gether,” Krandel said.Feedback from the workshop and a Pioneerweb survey willbe used to create a pilot program this spring as a model fora permanent program to be instituted next fall. The ultimateproduct is intended to be “a place where respectful dialogue cantake place, but also where beliefs are challenged and new infor-mation is provided” said group co-founder Brian Perbix ’09.Along with Krandel and Perbix, students Dayna Hamann’09, Latona Giwa ’10, and Julie Ross ’09 created A Just Grinnellto expand the formal discussions organized by students in re-sponse to the bias-motivated incidents committed in the spring

RLC Rachel Meseketo leave Grinnell

ALDWELL

On Feb 20, Residence Life will lose its second RLC this year when Rachel Meseke leaves her position to work at an-other college. Meseke has served as the RLC for Clangrala all year, and has worked as the Smounker RLC this semester afterformer RLC Jim McCarthy resigned over winter break.“I feel bad up and leaving in the middle of the semester butthis is a great job, so I don’t want to chance that,” Meseke said.Her new job will be an administrative position dealing withhousing at Roosevelt University in Chicago.After Meseke informed Student Affairs of her intention toleave during the middle of last week, the office acted quickly to fill the open position. Marcia Purdy, who served as interimdirector of Intercultural Affairs during the fall semester, willstep in as the RLCfor Smounker andClangrala for the re-mainder of the year.Purdy was unable tobe reached for com-ment before the S&B went to print.“She loves work-ing with college students, and really has a commitment toGrinnell,” said Dean of Students Travis Greene. “She’s a non-traditional person in that she’s had some really good life experi-ence and probably older than a traditional RLC, but really doesa nice job of building relationships with students.”Students who worked with Purdy during the fall said that

Takes job at Roosevelt University

Inside

Mysterious transatlan-tic crew with camerascomes to campus, talksabout Noyce...........p. 5Campus Celebrity: The life of cool dudeand security employeePat Ritter ’08 ......p. 10 An actor prepares:new play written by Jaysen Wright ’09 in itsearly stages.............p. 8Men’s tennis gets ready to win conference, goto nationals, dominateearth.....................p. 15

SGA on campus climate

AVID

OGAN

Before Wednesday’s regular Joint Board meeting, SGACabinet executives delivered a 20-minute presentation onthe current campus climate. The presentation, similar to theone given before Trustees last weekend, addressed concernsover the current campus climate and perceptions of growingdistrust among faculty, students and administrators. The subject and tone of the presentation, which was de-livered before an audience of approximately 60 students in JRC 101, were sobering as Cabinet members described thecurrent state of the College and relations between its variouscommunities as a “crisis.”“What’s the crisis?” asked SGA President Neo Morake’09 at the beginning of the presentation. “We have a brokencommunity.”Cabinet members sought to provide a comprehensiveoverview of “the current campus climate,” Morake said dur-ing the presentation. “We feel that it is necessary to confrontthe very issues that are breaking down our sense of com-munity.” The presentation first turned to the ongoing dispute be-tween some faculty members and members of the adminis-tration which erupted following the contentious departureof Sheree Andrews, former associate dean and director of Residence Life. According to Morake, students had beenthrust into an uncomfortable position in navigating relationsbetween faculty and staff.“Students are structurally placed in the middle of a dis-pute between faculty and Student Affairs,” Morake said.“SGA has heard many of their concerns, some including thatstudents have felt uncomfortable at the perception that they were being used as pawns. And to us, perception is reality.”In addition to students’ position relative to faculty andstaff, the presentation highlighted a perceived lack of trans-parency and openness among both the College’s professorsand administrators.“We feel like [students have] been sort of disenfran-chised in a way and cut out of our role in Student Affairsdecision-making,” said SGA Vice President for Student Af-

Justice, see p. 3Faculty, see p. 4

of 2008.“Over the summer we were talking and felt that there need-ed to be something that was institutionalized,” Krandel said.“And that we shouldn’t just be talking about LBGT issues be-cause there are a lot of other ways that people are disadvantagedand privileged on this campus.”Perbix said that the organization saw a need on campusfor a common forumto present social justiceconcerns. “Instead of re-lying on student groupsto fill that vacuum, thisis a picture where every-one has experience of having dialogue,” Perbixsaid. “We will probably eventually find a homein Student Affairs.”A Just Grinnell’sprogram was developed with advisement from the Student Af-fairs office. According to Dean of Students Travis Greene, sev-eral members of the administration, such as Vice President forDiversity and Achievement Elena Bernal, and Vice Presidentfor Student Affairs Houston Dougharty have been involved insimilar projects in the past.“Elena, Houston and I have done work around social justice

A Just Grinnell to host workshop

“Instead o relying on student groups to fll [the] vacuum, thisis a picture where everyone hasexperience o having dialogue.”

Brian Perbix ‘09

February 13, 2009

EWS

edited by Ari Anisfeld and J. Francis Buseanisfeld@grinnell.edu; busejohn@grinnell.edu

“It’s unacceptable that peopleleave mid-semester, but I under- stand the reality behind it, but that doesn’t mean I like it.”

Travis GreenDean of Students

“There needs to be a cultural shit that places more emphasison wellness which can decrease stress on campus.”

John Burrows ‘10SGA VP for Student Affairs

Help Desk

TC Tech Tips!

Have you ever had any technology issues oncampus, but you’re not sure who to ask?ITS has a brand new system for reportingany technology problems at

help.grinnell.edu

(or simply “help” from on campus).Anything from printer problems to technology questions isfair game—if you have an issue, we can probably fix it!And of course, feel free to call the Helpdesk at x4400 if youever need anything at all.

—The Technology Consultants

World Headlines

• An inflammatory member of Dutch parliament whohas been accused of anti-Islamic statements was deport-ed from Britain upon his arrival at Heathrow Interna-tional airport. Geert Wilders, who was visiting Britain toattend a screening of his controversial film

“Fitna,”

wassent back to Holland almost immediately after arrivingin the country under orders of British Home Secretary Jacqui Smith.

National Headlines

• Former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich, who wasimpeached a little over a month ago, has been offerreda contract by a minor-league baseball team. The Joliet Jackhammers, a semi-professional team in the North-ern League, have engaged Blagojevich in what the team website calls a “pay-to-play” discussion.

Iowa Headlines

• Authorities are building a case against a Texas-basedturkey company after it was uncovered that 21 men-tally disabled men were being housed in an abandonedschoolhouse in Atalissa, Iowa and subject to what au-thorities have described as work-camp like conditions. The men were reportedly working for as little as 44 centsan hour at Henry’s Turkey Service, and have been movedinto group homes after Fire Marshalls discovered andcondemned the building they were housed in.

—Compiled by J. Francis Buse

• The additional Substance-Free dorm will be in JaMaLand.•

A resolution was passed to require a community discussionat least once a semester.• The semester budget passed its first vote, and will be up forits final round of voting next week.—

Compiled by Hugh Redford

Friday

WIMMING

WEST

ONFER

ENCE

OURNEY

Obermiller Pool, 9a.m.-12:30 p.m.

WIMMING

WEST

ONFERENCE

OURNEY

Obermill-er Pool, 4 p.m.

RESS

MPRESS

CDO 104, 1127 ParkStreet, 12:15 p.m.

RITING

ITA

TION

ORKSHOP

JRC 203, 2:15 p.m.

ALLERY

ALK

: V

TORIA

Bucks-baum FaulconerGallery, 4:15 p.m.

RITING

SIS

ORKSHOP

JRC203, 10 a.m.

ROKOFIEV

’

IANO

ONATA

Bucksbaum Sebring-Lewis Hall, 11 a.m.

RITING

NTRO

& C

ONCLUSION

ORKSHOP

JRC203, 2:15 p.m.

RANT

ROGRAMS

& E

NDOWED

NTERN

SHIPS

ORKSHOP

CDO 104, 1127 ParkStreet, 4:15 p.m.

LOOD

RIVE

JRC101, 9 a.m.-3 p.m.

RITING

TENCES

ORKSHOP

JRC 203, 11 a.m.

RITING

ITA

TION

ORKSHOP

JRC 203, 1:15 p.m.

ALL

’09 I

NTERN

SHIPS

ORKSHOP

CDO 104, 1127 ParkStreet, 4:15 p.m.

WIMMING

IDWEST

ONFERENCE

OUR

NEY

Obermiller Pool,10 a.m.-3 p.m.

OMEN

’

ASKET

BALL

. I

LLINOIS

OLLEGE

DarbyGymnasium, 1 p.m.

’

ASKETBALL

. I

LLINOIS

LEGE

Darby Gymna-sium, 3 p.m.

WIMMING

IDWEST

ONFERENCE

OUR

NEY

Obermiller Pool,6-8 p.m.

OCKER

’

ALL

RIS

Harris CenterConcert Hall, 10 p.m.

RITING

TRO

& C

ONCLUSION

ORKSHOP

JRC 203,9 a.m.

RANT

ROGRAM

AND

NDOWED

NTERN

SHIP

ORKSHOP

CDO 104, 1127 ParkStreet, 12:15 p.m.

ESUME

RITING

AND

OVER

ETTER

ORKSHOP

CDO104, 1127 ParkStreet, 4:15 p.m.

OMMUNITY

EAL

Davis ElementarySchool, 818 HamiltonAvenue, 5:30 p.m.

TUDENT

ELLNESS

AIR

JRC, 5:30 p.m.

RANT

ROGRAM

& E

NDOWED

NTERN

SHIPS

ORKSHOP

CDO 104, 1127 ParkStreet, 12:15 p.m.

RTIST

ALK

: K

OTA

ZAWA

BucksbaumFaulconer Gallery,4:15 p.m.

SOL M

OVIE

IGHT

JRC 225, 6 p.m.

SGA C

ONCERT

Main Hall GardnerLounge, 9 p.m.

WIMMING

IDWEST

ONFERENCE

OUR

NEY

Obermiller Pool,6-8 p.m.

161417181915

Movie Times on Page 7

Feb. 13 - Feb. 19

Monday Thursday Saturday Sunday Tuesday Wednesday

Wellness fair to promote healthy living

ANDO

ONTANO

Despite February’s gloomy atmosphere, students will have achance to liven up at the upcoming Wellness Fair on Tuesday in various rooms throughout the JRC. Wellness Coordinator Jen Jacobsen ’95 said she organizedthe fair in order to promote healthier habits on campus anddefine wellness beyond typical issues such as alcohol and sleep. The fair will include a variety of exhibits, ranging from a discus-sion on the benefits of drinking tea to time for petting therapy dogs.“People have an initial reaction that wellness is exercisingand eating right, but really it’s much more holistic than that,” Jacobson said. “There’s a whole of bunch of areas in your life where you can address wellness.”According to Rebecca Gernes ’09, who will be leading a yogademonstration, awareness of wellness at Grinnell has increasedsince her first year. “I was really surprised when I came herethree years ago and there wasn’t a yoga community,” Gernessaid. “But now it’s been thriving, with people coming every week and regular attendance in the classes.” While wellness has slowly become a more visible part of campus life, SGA Vice President for Student Affairs John Bur-rows ’10 said he believes the campus needs more wellness edu-cation. “Often at times at Grinnell we get into contests of ‘whocan sleep the least’ or ‘who can drink the most on weekends’,”Burrows said. “There needs to be a cultural shift that placesmore emphasis on wellness, which can decrease stress on cam-pus.”Even though alco-hol-related hospital-izations were high lastsemester, Jacobsen saidthe wellness fair wasnot a direct response toalcohol concerns. “The wellness fair was already in production before thestudents came back inAugust,” Jacobsen said.“The students’ relationship with alcohol is only just a tiny pieceof the picture.”Beyond the Wellness Fair, Jacobsen hopes to promotehealthy habits through new events such as spinning and yogaclasses, as well as a square dancing Harris party later in thesemester.she was a good fit for the College. “Hernickname is Ma, andshe’s very motherly,and she’s a lot of fun,”said Leah Krandel’09. “I think she’s a really great ally, andcares a lot about students.” While most were positive about thechoice of Purdy to fill the newly openslot, there is disappointment that an-other change to RLCs is occurring mid- year. “I’m really upset because I had beentalking to [Rachel] about the possibility of staying next year, because she was areally strong RLC, and with new RLC’sleaving she’d help out with that turnover,” said Kathleen Mur-phy-Geiss ’11, a Student Advisor in Gates. “[But] as much as itsucks for our staff, it’s really good for her, so I’m happy for her.”Greene noted that RLCs leaving during the middle of the year poses a serious problem for Student Af-fairs. “I worry most about the Smounker staff. They’ve gone through this twice now,” Greenesaid. “That’s unacceptable in my mind. It’s un-acceptable that people leave mid-semester, but Iunderstand the reality behind it, but that doesn’tmean I like it.”Greene said that Student Affairs may con-sider implementing changes to next year’s RLCprogram to encourage staff members to remainfor the full year. “I’m not opposed to looking at ways for them to sign some agreement that says,‘I pledge, or indicate, that I’ll be here for the re-mainder of at least a year,’” he said.

—additional reporting by J. Francis Buse and David Logan

Meseke

from p. 1

In the Feb 6 issue of the

S&B

, the article “Chris Hade me-morial service Saturday,” mistakenly stated Hade passedaway Nov 14. In fact, he pased away Nov 21.Also in that issue, the article “Admission sees increase in theapplication rate,” incorrectly stated that Director of Finan-cial Aid Arnold Woods said that the financial aid budget would increase by 15 percent. Dean of Admissions Seth Al-len, not Woods, said that.

February 13, 2009

EWS

edited by Ari Anisfeld and J. Francis Buseanisfeld@grinnell.edu; busejohn@grinnell.edu

Justice

from p. 1

“These women are ofenders inthe eyes o the law but they arealso victims.”

Noga Ashkenazi ‘09

Skylark Program assists incarcerated

ESSA

HEEK

Last weekend ten Grinnellians interviewed inmates inMitchellville’s Iowa Correctional Institution for Women,asking detailed questions about their history of violence and victimization.Organized through Domestic Violence Alternatives/Sexual Assault Center (DVA/SAC), stu-dent volunteers will continue to interview potential candidates for commutationassistance—help towards reducing prisonsentences— through the Skylark program,an initiative of the Iowa Coalition AgainstDomestic Violence (ICADV). Through the Skylark Project, 50 wom-en at Mitchellville will participate in athree-tiered interview process to examinecausal links between domestic violence orsexual assault and the crime for which they were convicted.Once a connection is established, ICADV helps strengtheninmates’ arguments for decreasing their prison time.According to Katie Jares ’07, the ICADV project coordi-nator, volunteers will help put together the prisoners’ casesfor commutation. “Grinnell students will be helping withthe second interview to create a profile for us about the of-fender’s history of victimization,” Jares said.According to Jares, the project’s effect on the surroundingcommunity and the student interviewers, is just as importantas the legal and political processes Skylark is involved in.“One of the main goals of the project is toeducate people about how women end upin this situation and just how ubiquitousassault is in incarcerated women,” Jaressaid. The volunteers hope to exhibit thestrong influences that abuse and victimiza-tion can have on the inmates’ convictions.“These women are offenders in the eyes of the law but they are also victims,” said in-terviewer Noga Ashkenazi ’09.Ashkenazi said she was drawn to the project by itsuniqueness in scope and a target population that is oftenforgotten by service projects.“When you think of activism, or volunteering even, yourarely think of a population of inmates,” Ashkenazi said.“Prisons are located in the middle of nowhere, it’s so easy forus to look away, to not even think about them.”Student interviewers were trained to question inmatesabout their histories of violence, and spent hours interview-ing candidates. “The actual interview process was very in-tense,” said Cecilia Darby ’12, who spent over two hoursinterviewing inmates last weekend. “It was like nothing I’veever done before. … The whole experience was incredibly hu-manizing.”Under the Skylark umbrella, ICADV staff offers group ther-apy classes addressingtrauma and abuse atthe Iowa CorrectionalInstitute for Women,one-on-one pre-release counseling concerning healthy rela-tionships, pre-release classes on domestic violence resources,along with commutation assistance.

Grinnell College students volunteer time to interview and help abused inmates in nearby Mitchellville decrease sentences

EIL

INNEGAN

& C

LAIRE

EEDER

While candidates from various academic fields flock toGrinnell to give presentations in hopes of gaining employmentas professors at Grinnell, the College is working to figure outhow to hire in the face of a smaller endowment.Rather than retracting job offers due to budget constraints,Grinnell plans to continue with hiring all advertised tenure-track positions. However, fewer proposals for term positions—one- or two-year positions that serve as stopgaps in depart-ments—will be approved.Seventeen tenure positions will be filled for next year, in-cluding five new positions, three of which are through theExpanding Knowledge Initiative (EKI)—the College’s planfor enhancing interdisciplinary teaching and scholarship. “Wedon’t want to make decisions now and be overly cautious andlose momentum on implementing things like the StrategicPlan and the EKI,” said Associate Dean and Professor of Biol-ogy Leslie Gregg-Jolly.According to Chair of the Faculty Mark Schneider, Physics, vacant positions are not automatically filled by term professorsand will be reevaluated to consider the current needs of stu-dents and faculty. Every year departments submit more propos-als for term positions than are actually filled. “This year theremight be one or two less positions filled,” Schneider said.However, the College may need less term professors thanprior years. The reliance on term professors on the whole is lessthan in past years due to the recent trend toward expansion of tenure faculty, Gregg-Jolly said.Faculty salaries are likely to be affected as well. “One of thethings that is happening is that the raises, both on the faculty side and the administrative side, are going to be dramatically lower than in past years,” Schneider said. “While in a typical year a faculty member might get a raise of five percent ... we’llbe looking … in the ballpark of one percent.”Administrators and faculty alike stressed the fact that al-though Grinnell is in a fortunate financial position in compari-son to many institutions, there will still be academic cutbacks.“It is important that we all recognize the severity of the situa-tion,” said Victoria Brown, History department chair. “We are very lucky, but we have to be careful.” The issue of the reduced budget and both its short- andlong-term impact on academic positions are far from solved. The Trustees have postponed approval of the budget untilApril in order to gain a clearer sense of the future of the marketand how to navigate the financial waters.

Stella Chan presents “Sterilization by the People and Trade Liberalization” as part of her candidacy presentation on Thursday afternoon. Origi-nally from Hong Kong, Chan graduated from University of California at Los Angeles and is applying for a macroeconomics professor position at Grinnell.

ARON

ARKER

College hiring continues, pay raises to decline

“It was like nothing I’ve ever done beore. The whole experi-ence was incredibly humanizing.”

Cecilia Darby ‘12

issues for quite some time andhave actually gone to other col-leges and done some consultingin that area,” Greene said. “Given that many of [the organizers] are graduating this year, they were hoping to try and find some way to insti-tutionalize it in a way where it would live onpast their time here at Grinnell.”Despite Student Affairs support of the pro-gram, Krandel said students have not reacheda consensus on the program’s necessity, whichhas sparked further conversation.“Some people don’t see the need for thisprogram on campus,” Krandel said. “Often I’llpoint to the better remembered incidents oncampus like the hate crime and the swastikasand defamation of posters. … For every person who says we don’t need a program like this,there are four or five people who say ‘yeah, thatsounds really cool and really important.’”In addition to creating a permanent pro-gram, Dougharty envisions the organization’sefforts extending beyond campus. “[It’s] notonly having the chance to bring trainers hereto help us, but also having the opportunity to have folks from Grinnell go to work withfolks at SJTI or other sorts of organizations,”Dougharty said.

HITS

KEEP

COMING

...

THE

S&B’

WEBSITE

THAT

...

WWW

THESANDB

COM