Embed Doc
Copy Link
Readcast
Collections

CommentGo Back

ALDWELL

The ongoing dispute between some members of the faculty and parts of the administration has taken a turn over the pastfew days, indicating that a resolution may soon occur. While an exact decision is still in the works, on Thursday,Feb 19, President Russell K. Osgood rescinded the cease-and-desist he had previously issued to Ralph Savarese, English, on Jan 26. According to those close to the decisionmaking, a tenta-tive agreement has also been reached for an external review of all administrative hirings and firings.Osgood would not comment specifically on either an exter-

Grinnell College Grinnell, IAFebruary 20, 2009 Volume 125, Issue 17

The Scarlet and Black

First College Newspaper West of the Mississippi

Swimming and diving teams handily win conference

Inside

An interview with aleading intelligence in-sider from the 9/11days.........................p. 4 A basketballapalooza with a summary of the men’s and wom-en’s seasons........p. 7-8Editors Caldwell and Japinga whine, offendand prognosticate allup on the Oscars...p. 6Northeast RLC ChrisBylone on farming,dancing and the Gar-den State..............p. 11

Sub-free housingexpands to James

HLOE

ORYL

Jamaland, the south campus cluster con-sisting of James, Cleveland and Main resi-dence halls, is largely known for its cigarette-burned furniture, all-night dance parties andpungent musk. But next year, Jamaland willbe home to something else—substance-freehousing.After growing requests for sub-freehousing began to outpace supply, the Resi-dence Life Committee has decided to intro-duce James Residence hall as a substance-free housing option for students beginningin the 2009-2010 academic year.“Over the past two or three years there’sbeen a steady increase in demand for sub-stance-free housing,” said Residence LifeCommittee member P.J. Mahaffey ’11. “Last year they had enough overflow in people thatapplied to be sub-free that they created clus-ters that could fit into a whole other dorm.”Currently, substance-free “clusters” ex-ist all over campus on various floors, andconsist of substance-free students, as well asstudents that drew into their floors unawareuntil the beginning of first semester thatthey were actually substance-free.“They are intermixed with different peo-ple, upper classmen who had no idea thatthey were going to become sub-free,” Deanof Students Travis Greene said. “In essence,they technically weren’t—we just asked peo-ple to try and honor it.”Now, with the addition of James as a sub-free dorm, these clusters will be eliminated,creating one substance-free dorm on eachcampus, which was a goal of the Committee,according to Mahaffey.“[The Residence Life Committee]thinks it’s a good idea because it gives sub-free kids a choice to live on each [part of]

Faculty, see p. 5 Subfree, see p. 5

Resolution between administration and faculty in works

nal review or the cease-and-desist, but he did state that, in gen-eral, progress had been made, and some form of resolution may soon be reached. “I have been talking with Executive Council, with [the] faculty group and I am very encouraged by the dis-cussions,” Osgood said. “We’re going to have more discussionsnext week all aimed at moving [these] matters forward in a con-structive way.” The change in the dispute appears to have shifted on Wednesday, when a group of faculty met with Osgood. “We asa group tried to break it down to the big issues that we felt wecould address at this meeting,” said Kelly Herold, Russian, oneof the professors who attended the meeting.According the Herold, the faculty at the meeting requestedthe external review and the retraction of the letter to Savarese.Also discussed were general issues about a lack of independencein faculty governance, among other topics.From this meeting, a tentative external review of the Col-lege’s hiring and firing practices is under development. The review would examine both general College procedures as wellas specific past instances, and will be open for students, faculty,and staff to raise concerns.

TEPHANIE

ORDSTROM

& N

AJMA

SMAN

Recent moves have brought gender-neu-trality to the forefront of campus discussion. The College is planning to expand gender-neutral housing options for the next academic year, with 123 gender-neutral housing spacesallotted for next year. Gender-neutral hous-ing will be available in Younker North, LooseSouth, the Cowles Apartments, and all projecthouses, which include themed college-ownedhousing such as Eco House.Gender-neutral housing allows students who opt for it to room with any other stu-dent, regardless of gender identification, andensures access to gender-neutral bathrooms.

Gender-neutral housing spreads to more campus residences

“The whole concept of gender-neutral hous-ing at places like Grinnell has been to providehousing for people for whom the gender bi-nary is not ideal,” said Dean of Students TravisGreene.According to Erin Duran ’09, who serveson the Gender Neutral Committee, the move will be accompanied by increased educationon gender-neutral housing on campus in orderto extend campus awareness. “Gender neutralhousing is for everyone, not just one group,”Duran said. “It’s to make sure that everyone iscomfortable and has options.”According to Greene, students may draw into gender-neutral housing just as they wouldinto other dorm rooms during room draw. In-coming first-years will also have the option, which they must opt into by notifying theOffice of Residence Life. Greene said anyone who applied, regardless of year, would be al-lowed to live in gender-neutral housing.Greene said that while couples of all sortsalready live together on campus, he advisesagainst using the new housing option to live with a significant other. “If you’re in a rela-tionship with someone, probably the quickest way to end that would be to live together in acramped dorm room,” he said.In her campaign platform last year, SGAPresident Neo Morake ’09 included genderneutrality issues.“In light of the … hate crimes that werehappening, there were a lot of students who were noticing that our college was not very gender-neutral friendly,” Morake said. “Wedecided that this is something that should beaddressed. [Since] the initiative passed, thisis something that is important to the studentbody.”“We knew there was a demand and a needfor it, so we’re trying to figure out how wecan move forward without shaking the earth,”Greene said.Currently, the 18 gender-neutral rooms onLoose second South represent one percent of all housing. Next year, gender-neutral housing will increase to ten percent.

Divers Katherine Ni ’09, Balyssa Bell ’12, Hannah LaFollette ’11, Kelly Bruce ’12, Charlie Kessner ’12, Mark Sullivan ’10, Jordan Allison ’09, and Nick Smith ’10 celebrate aftersweeping all of the diving events during the MWC championship held at the Obermiller Pool . This will be the last conference championship held in the Pool, as Phase II of the Athletic Center will be complete in 2010. For story see page 13

AUL

RAMER

February 20, 2009

EWS

edited by J. Francis Buse and Brian Sherwinbusejohn@grinnell.edu, sherwinb@grinnell.edu

World Headlines

• The British and French departments of defense dis-closed this week that two of their nuclear submarinescollided while submerged in the Atlantic Ocean in early February. The French and British submarines, which were equipped with several nuclear missiles each, wereonly slightly damaged in the collision and returned totheir respective ports. The accident has renewed protestsacross Europe against France and Britain’s nuclear ar-senals.• Officials in Equatorial Guinea arrested 16 men in analleged attempt to overthrow the current governmentled by Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo. The suspectsallegedly approached the capital city Malabo in heavily armed speedboats early Tuesday morning.

National Headlines

• 17 prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba were barredfrom release after the federal appeals court overturned apast order to free the men. The prisoners, who were tobe resettled outside of the country under President Ba-rack Obama’s recent orders to close the prison, had neverfought or conspired against the United States, accordingto a federal district court judge.

Iowa Headlines

•Outside of a downtown Des Moines nightclub, an off-duty officer prevented 27-year-old Steve Allen Young of Des Moines from entering the nightclub Liar’s Club ongrounds of public intoxication. The man and two friendsargued with the police officer and resisted arrest, at which point Young was tasered. Young refused medicaltreatment after the removal of the taser’s probes and said,“You can’t hurt me—I’m a man.”—

Compiled by J. Francis Buse and Brian Sherwin

• VPAA Julie Hoye discussed the college’s ongoing commit-ment to flexibility in regards to the semester schedule, andbeing more open to traveling over Thanksgiving break andalloting for summer internships by shortening the semesterby a week.•

Applications for SGA Executives are out. Applications aredue on Tuesday, Feb 24.• The semester budget was passed—look in the minutes tosee how SGA is spending its money. —

Compiled by Hugh Redford

Grinnell may be “Coolest Small Town”

ARAH

LACK

Budget Travel

magazine is openingup the task of selecting its annual list of America’s Coolest Small Towns to online voters from across the globe. Out of the 22finalists, Grinnell is one of the competi-tors seeking the title of “coolest”. The magazine’s editors chose the con-tenders from among 152 reader-nominat-ed towns with populations under 10,000.In addition to the online poll that will runthrough early March, the final selectionof the ten “coolest towns” will be based oncomments, photos and videos submittedby website visitors describing why their fa- vorite town should be featured. The competition is seeking “places thatare kind of off-the-radar and aren’t touristdestinations, but are great places to visitand great places to escape to,” accordingto Media Relations spokesperson LaurenGould at

Budget Travel.

“Now people aresticking to trips that are close to home, so[the contest] is a way to look at these smalltown treasures that wouldn’t normally belooked at by travel magazines.”Gould said that Grinnell’s current po-sition as a finalist is alone enough to vali-date Grinnell as a quality small town. “Fora town to make it past the first round, therehas to be a quality that sets it apart,” Gouldsaid. “With Grinnell it was the history be-hind the town, and that it has really goodarchitecture and has stayed true to that ar-chitecture for over a hundred years.”SGA President Neo Morake ’09, whoposted a link to voting on GrinnellPlanssaid that she was first alerted to the con-test in an e-mail from Assistant TennisCoach and frequent town-gown liaisonBill Menner. “I’m really excited,” Morakesaid. “If it’s more press for Grinnell it’sgood, and the town is nice. There are a lotof things that you really wouldn’t get in abig city.”Grinnell residents of both town andgown persuasion offered mixed predic-tions about Grinnell’s online popularity.“The winter’s pretty awful, but other timesof the year it looks pretty nice,” said Nick Johnson, who grew up and lived in townuntil he left to attend Kenyon College this year. “It takes a certain kind of aesthetic tothink Iowa’s pretty, one that not everybody has.”“Grinnell’s cool for reasons I don’t think it has any control over,” said Emily Iwuc’08, who lived in town for nine months af-ter graduation and recently moved to Min-neapolis. “It has a lot of cool people livingin it, but the town itself isn’t that unique. Ido think Grinnell’s a really cool place, I’m just not sure why it was nominated.”Asked what his reaction would beif told that Grinnell had been voted theCoolest Small Town in America, Johnsonsaid “I guess I would say, that’s cool. That’s where I’m from.”

Friday

UNDAY

OLLEY

BALL

Athletic andFitness Center Aux-iliary Gym, 4 p.m.

RANT

ROGRAM

& E

NDOWED

NTERN

SHIPS

ORKSHOP

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

NDEPENDENT

AJOR

– I

JRC 225, 4:15 p.m.

EAUTY

ARK

HarrisCenter Cinema, 4:15& 8 p.m.

RESENTATION

ATHER

UDERKIRK

JRC 101, 4:15 p.m.

CHOLAR

TORY

Rachel Fleming’02: Forum SouthLounge, 7 p.m.

ONVOCATION

: D

OUG

ILSON

JRC 101,11 a.m.

ESUME

AND

OVER

ETTER

ORKSHOP

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

CHOLAR

RESEN

TATION

: S

USANNA

RAKE

’02:

ARH102, 4:15 p.m.

LICIA

VIGALS

ONCERT

HerrickChapel, 8 p.m.

EDNESDAY

ERVICE

HerrickChapel, 12:10 p.m.

ONFLICT

ESOLU

TION

ORKSHOP

Forum SouthLounge, 8 p.m.

ATURDAY

ORNING

ARTOONS

Bucks-baum Faulconer Gal-lery, 1 p.m.

OHN

URROWS

’21

Harris CenterConcert Hall, 10 p.m.

AULCONER

RTS

UTREACH

DavisElementary School,818 Hamilton Av-enue, 3:30 p.m.

AREER

ONNECTION

ACHEL

LEMING

’02:

CDO Confer-ence Room, 1127Park Street, 4:15p.m.

HOOSE

OUR

AJOR

JRC225, 4:15 p.m.

OMMUNITY

EAL

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

ESUME

AND

OVER

ETTER

ORKSHOP

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

RITING

ORKSHOP

: S

TENCES

JRC 203,1:15 p.m.

UBE

PEN

CREENING

Bucks-baum FaulconerGallery, 7 p.m.

RDER

ANCE

ARTY

Main HallGardner Lounge, 10p.m.

2321245622

Movie Times Not Printed This Week

Feb. 20 - Feb. 26

Monday Thursday Saturday Sunday Tuesday Wednesday

The city of Grinnell finds itself in the top tier of finalists for magazine’s contest

Vance1966

“Grinnell is our little secret,as it is overlooked due tothe location of being in themiddle of Iowa! Those that don’t consider it viable arethe losers! Grinnell, as acommunity, offers morethan words can describematerialistically, environ-mentally or visually.”

Strickler47

“Are you beyond troubles?The Smith family’s funeral home has been helping people cope with deathfor generations, and they do it with compassion and professionalism. Grinnell:a great place to live--and die.”

Joanna S“

Have an expresso at Saint’s

Rest with a highschool science teacher, alocal farmer, a retired phi-losophy professor, and aminister, all of whom areequally articulate in poli-tics and the latest technol-ogy.”

—from www.budgettravel.com

Online Comments

CDO C

UBBY

ORNER

FROM

THE

AREER

EER

DVISORS

The Cover Letter, also known as the Application Letter, puts your experience into context and provides employers with a sample of your professional writing and communication skills. The Cover Letter format is similar to that of a traditional letter and includes your address, the date, a specific letterrecipient’s name, title, and address, and your signature. The opening paragraph tells why you’re writing, how you found theposition, and what skills you offer. Strong middle paragraphs highlight relevant aspects of your resume, emphasize elementsof your research experience, and link your skills and experience to the job and organization. Finally, the closing paragraphsummarizes the skills you have to offer, suggests a next step in the process, and thanks the reader for their time and attention.It should include a phone number and e-mail address where you can be reached and end on a positive note. The CDO (1127 Park St.) will hold Cover Letter Workshops at 12:15 on Friday, February 20th and at 4:15 on Thursday, February 26th

February 20, 2009

EWS

edited by J. Francis Buse and Brian Sherwinbusejohn@grinnell.edu, sherwinb@grinnell.edu

Aniko Drlik-Muehleck ‘11 studies on a bean-bag—the product of a student initiative—in Burling Library.

AIT

OTT

RADY

StiFund becomes STIC, goes beyond its deep pockets

ICHAEL

CHOELZ

There’s another acronym being added to the numerousothers that confuse first-years and stump parents. The Student Initiative Fund (StiFund) is changing itsname to the Student Initiative Committee (STIC). Accord-ing to STIC Chair Bill Mogavero ’12, the name change em-phasizes the committee’s purpose of helping initiative spon-sors carry out their initiative’s goals after spending STIC’sinitial funding.“We can’t use [our funding] for ongoing commitments, soa lot of our job is finding someone that can fund these initia-tives,” Mogavero said.STIC plans to continue to help students who pass ini-tiatives secure future funding from other groups on campus.STIC Representative Ami Freeberg ’10 helped Anders Ahl-berg ‘10 and Hugh Redford ’10 find further funding for theirbike shop initiative once they had spent their original budgetfrom STIC.“STIC gave us money for the start-up, the one-time pur-chases like tools and stands,” Redford said. “For things that we go through, we’re just going to be applying for fundingthrough the Student Programming Committee.”SGA President Neo Morake ’09, who is a member of STIC, said STIC provides her with another avenue to advo-cate for student concerns.“It’s a chance for me to see what else students are con-cerned about and that’s what we’re trying to do in JointBoard,” Morake said. “Senators try to figure out what needsto be done or any concerns that the constituents have so that we can implement them through Joint Board. But STIC is adifferent method of implementing change on campus becausestudents are doing it themselves.”According to Mogavero, the Committee is also trying tobecome more transparent by announcing the outcome of eachpassed initiative publicly so that students are not discouragedfrom using the initiative process. In the past, several initiativesthat were out of STIC’s financial reach have been abandoned without any notice given to the student body.Mogavero said substantial work is put into an initiativeand that several possibilities are looked into for funding be-fore it is abandoned. For example, STIC, with a budget of $20,000, would be unable to pay for a new Arabic Professorout of their budget, as an initiative passed by students last se-mester suggested.“So we talked to the Arabic Department and let themknow that there is a lot of interest for this and that when they consider hiring new professors that this is a priority for thestudent body,” Mogavero said. “At this point I don’t know how eager the College is to hire new professors because of money. We did all we could but it’s definitely not a simple thing thatthe STIC could accomplish all on its own.”

SEG in process of applying for non-profit status

ASSIL

LCHEIKH

The Social Entrepreneurs of Grinnell(SEG), a student organiztion that providesinterest-free loans to struggling businessesabroad in developing countries, is applyingfor non-profit status. Members of SEG saidthere are financial and organizational ben-efits to obtaining a 501(c)(3) status fromthe IRS.According to SEG co-leader Harry Krejsa ’10, non-profit status would have thepotential to improve the group’s financialsituation. Under 501(c)(3) status, donationsto SEG and their fiscal transactions wouldbe tax-exempt. “Once we’re an official non-profit, people will be able to give tax-de-ductible donations to us, making larger do-nations easier and more attractive,” Kresjasaid.Members also said that non-profit sta-tus would allow SEG to extend beyond therole of a typical student group, within andoutside of the context of the College. “Wefeel that becoming non-profit will seriously increase the legitimacy of SEG in the eyesof the government, on campus, and in thegreater Grinnell community,” co-leaderEmily Kugisaki ’09 wrote in an e-mail to theS&B. “We hope to continue expanding andgrowing into the community as more than just a student group.” The application process, which beganlast semester, has required the formation of a Board of Trustees, consisting of studentsand community members, as well as dozensof pages of paperwork according to Krejsa.“It has taken many weeks just to get allof the materials and documents togetherthat we need to complete the applicationbecause we basically started from scratch with nothing more than a vision for SEG,”Krejsa said. “We had no bylaws, charter, no‘official’ rules for anything.” With much of the preparation finished,SEG has already submitted the state non-profit status application and soon will sub-mit the federal application. “The federalone is significantly more in depth. We’reessentially done,” Kresja said, “We’re justputting all the various pieces together and we’ll have the application off in a couple of weeks. We hope to become an official non-profit in a year.”According to Kresja, non-profit status will not change the basic function of SEG.“Even if we’re a non-profit, it doesn’t mean we can’t make a profit on our loan,” Krejsasaid. “If we come out ahead on repayment of loans, that money will just go straight back into the pot to grow our portfolio, to add tothe principal of someone else’s loan.”Doug Caulkins, director of the WilsonProgram in Enterprise and Leadership, amember of SEG’s Board of Trustees, saidthat SEG has proven itself as a role modelstudent group. “This is exactly the kind of program we encourage to see on campus ...enterprise means creativity, and SEG hasdone just that—effectively and for socialcause,” Caulkins said.

—additional reporting by Brian Sherwinand Ari Anisfeld

New website banner draws complaints from students

ARLEY

HANG

With endless possibilities for a websitebanner, Grinnell’s choice has left a numberof students unsatisfied.Ahead of a major overhaul of the Col-lege’s website, smaller changes to the ban-ners of the front page and PioneerWeb haveraised concerns among students about thedirection the new design of the website.Director of Communications Kate Worster said that the decision to changethe banner was part of an effort to makethe website conform to the style of theCollege’s other publications. “I consider the website to be a part of the College’s publi-cations, and if you look at them, whetherthey’re from admission, diversity, athlet-ics or so on, they all have the same type of branding,” Worster said. “If the rest of thepublications are like that, then why not the website as well? Plus, many different audi-ences read our publications, so the brandingbrings it all together.”Students have presented concerns aboutthe change to SGA, according to SGA VicePresident for Student Affairs John Burrows’10. “Although students feel they lackedinput on the website’s change, I believechange in any direction is better than theseven- year-long status quo,” Burrows said.“It shows that at least we are taking positivesteps toward making the website better.”Ian Atha ’09, a Computer Science major,said he felt changes to the website shouldundergo testing and feedback periods priorto going public. He suggested the resultingbacklash has ensued because minor changesdramatically alter how people experiencethe website.“The website is the first thing peoplesee when they want to know about ourschool nowadays. I think the banner change… makes the mistake of telling people andnot showing them,” Atha said. “Insteadof telling me Grinnell is a ‘place of end-less possibilities,’ I want to see examples of endless possibilities on the website.”Others, such as Mark Root-Wiley ’09, who has submitted an independent pro-posal for a new website design, said they felt the new banner has tailored the web-site to prospective students at the expenseof current ones. “Grinnell has always beenabout the students,” Root-Wiley said. “If the website really wants to show that theCollege is about the students, there shouldbe more on students and showcasing whatthey have been doing.” The complete redesign will not occuruntil the entire website–every link and file–is converted to the new open source systemcontent management system Drupal.Drupal provides the College with anonline support community, which will al-low for more innovation in the future. Ac-cording to Worster, the conversion has beenslowed due to budgetary issues.“With our system now, we pretty muchhave to reinvent the wheel every time we want to do something new,” said Worster.“With Drupal, chances are that if we needsomething newly developed for our system,someone in the online community has al-ready done it, which simplifies things great-ly.”

—additional reporting by Ari Anisfeld A screenshot of the banner from the college’s redesigned website.

WWW

GRINNELL

EDU