First Year VP gets busy Early

First Year VP gets busy Early

Beth Halloran, the new Vice President of Development and Alumni Relations, has only been on campus for three months, but in that time she has already begun a 30-city tour of the U.S. with President Raynard Kington, joined the Strategic Planning Steering Committee and identified several areas of improvement for the college.

Beth Halloran

“I’m just spending this full year getting to know the alumni, getting to know the college, and getting to know how we can engage the alumni more,” Halloran said.

Halloran’s job responsibilities span two services vital to the continued success of the College. In her capacity as head of Alumni Relations, she is responsible for simply giving Grinnell alumni the chance to engage with the current campus and with each other. As head of Development, she is responsible for soliciting philanthropic donations from those who are willing and able to give. She is careful to distinguish between these two different, albeit related, responsibilities.

“They are siblings to each other, part of the same family, but you would never mistake one for another,” Halloran said.

When looking for a new VP of Development and Alumni Relations,

the College reached out to Halloran because she has experience

working with the institutional development as well as a commitment to community outreach.

“My undergraduate degree and graduate degree are in social work. … In that role you’re really dealing with people’s needs and finding resources to plug them in,” Halloran said. “I thought it would be interesting to look at the other side of the equation where you have people with resources who are looking to make a difference.

After working in development for Mayo Clinic, where she had been a social worker, Halloran took a position at the University of Michigan to pursue a career in development at an institution known for its fundraising capabilities. When she was approached by Grinnell College last year, she saw a chance to put her skills to use in a community that shared her values.

“I’ve always been a long-distance admirer of Grinnell because of the social justice, social equity background,” Halloran said, “I thought this was a great opportunity [for]

fulfillment.”

Halloran plans to work with both Alumni Relations and Development to improve the College’s endowment, which, at this point, survives primarily on investment returns. According to the College’s data, roughly 30 percent of Grinnell alumni choose to give to the college’s endowment. Our peer institutions report roughly 60 percent participation in giving to the college endowment.

“We need to think through why that is,” said Halloran, “I would argue that we haven’t made the case as to why support is important, and we’ve not really engaged our alumni in that conversation. Thus the 30-city tour and my traveling …. and the working group on the strategic plan.”

Halloran is ready to tackle the difficult issue of

strengthening the connection between alumni and the College in

order to lead Grinnell down a path that will sustain such practices as need-blind admissions and charging students less than it costs to support the College.

“There’s many alumni who don’t know about our need- blind admissions and don’t recognize that 85 percent of our students are on scholarship support,” she said. “Even those [students]

who write the full check are receiving a $7,000 discount.”

Halloran hopes that, by reaching out to a group of roughly 20,000 Grinnell alums, the importance of supporting the endowment can be made clear.

“We’ve not done a very good job of engaging in that difficult conversation and I see that as our opportunity,” Halloran said.

10/10 Makes Adjustments After Last Year’s Success

Grinnell is looking to replicate last year’s positive partying atmosphere during 10/10 by reminding students to stay responsible and respectful as they enjoy this weekend’s traditional party. Party organizers Noah Fribley ‘12, Scott Hoag ’12, Jonathan Davis ‘12 and Max Callenberg ’12 (Sports Editor for the Scarlet & Black) are focused on keeping 10/10’s

“formula for success,” while keeping students safe.

Two years ago, the chaos that resulted from 10/10 forced

administrators and students to reassess policies regarding

campus safety and responsibility. Some changes that will

remain in place for this year’s party include wristbands for

current Grinnell students and their visiting friends,

informational posters in the bathrooms of dorms and other buildings and increased training for “Rescue Dogs,” who ensure that the party goes smoothly.

“Something new we want to encourage this year is decreasing open containers on 8

Street,” said Fribley. “People need to throw out their drinks before they cross. It’s really easy to forget that this is a public street, and crossing it with an open container is illegal.”

Trash cans will be positioned conveniently by the street and ACE Security will be present to monitor student crossings.

Although organizers do not consider police action to be a concern, they do stress that all students should be civil to local authorities and refrain from “freaking out.”

“Police are generally on campus because of some sort of call;

they are required to respond,” Davis said. “The police chief and captain of police assured us that they are only coming onto campus for the incident they were called for. They just want to take care of the situation.”

“We want people to be very respectful to Grinnell police officers, campus security guards and ACE Security,” said Fribley. “They’re here to help. The more provocation they get, the worse things are going to be. If you see them, please be calm. If you treat them with respect, they will treat you with respect in return.”

Organizers also ask that all campus property be treated with respect. Any damage that occurs during the party will be the responsibility of the organizers, who are staking their own finances for the party.

“There will be a small amount from collections budgeted toward

fines,” said Davis. “Hopefully things will go well again this

year, and we won’t have to worry too much about it after the

party.”

Personal property also needs to be secured before the travelling party begins. During 10/10 two years ago, laptops and other valuables were stolen from dorms shortly after partygoers had moved on to the next location of the party.

“Lock your doors. Lock your bikes,” advised Hoag during this week’s SGA Joint Board Meeting.

This year, campus security will be trailing the crowd, preventing any potential thievery. Organizers and administrators hope that this will also be helpful for those partygoers who fall behind—better to be found and assisted by security than left unconscious on Mac field. Some students, given TIPS training and nicknamed Rescue Dogs, will also do all they can to aid students stuck in difficult situations.

“Rescue Dogs are actually people. They ensure that the party is going well,” said Fribley. “They provide whatever you need in any special circumstance. If you need water, they get you water. If you’re with a special someone, they get you a condom.”

For those not interested in participating in the 10/10 party, Not Your Average Weekend will be holding a sub-free Night in the Bear, featuring exciting athletic activities. Also, the party route does not include East Campus, which should remain relatively quiet for most of the evening.

“10/10 has a great formula for success,” said Davis. “We want

to provide the frame, but it’s the rest of campus that makes

the event what it is. Stay safe and have a nice time.”

College Creates Grant for International Travel

Ever wanted to spend a week in Prague with Professor Anatoly Vishevsky? Or maybe you were inspired by Social Justice Prize Winner Rabbi Weintraub and want to go help her in Palestine.

Or what if instead of a swim team training trip to Florida during winter break, they went to Australia? Well, now all of these opportunities are available with the establishment of the International Co-curricular Travel Program (ICCTP). The Center for International Studies and the Office of Social Commitment announced this week that they are approaching the Budget Steering Committee to establish a grant that would allow groups to travel internationally starting next year.

Proposals for travel next year are due November 21 to Lynn Stafford. The grant is a part of the college’s effort to

“internationalize” the many parts of campus Grinnell.

“We wanted to add specific ways to invite the college community, students faculty and staff, to think about how do we take the really good work that we do outside of the classroom and add an international component to that as well,”

said Doug Cutchins, Director of Social Commitment.

The college funds course-embedded travel such as Biology Professor David Campbell’s trips to Belize in the past or German Professor Dan Reynolds’ and Art History Professor Jennifer Anger’s course, Berlin: Borders and Transgressions, coming up this next semester, and given the success of programs like Alt-break within the United States, the jump to international travel seemed natural. Former President Russell Osgood began working on the idea and putting aside money to fund it in response to student desire.

“It was President Osgood’s idea, sparked by student interest

so we had a trip to Nicargua that the college funded for

students a few years ago where students just decided they

wanted to do this and kind of ran around, hat in hand, to a lot of different offices, trying to round up the money, and we’re trying to make that easier. We want to say, ‘That’s a good idea, let’s do this in a bit more organized way and in a way where we encourage everyone to think about this at once!’”

Cutchins said.

One of the components that Cutchins hopes groups seize upon are the connections that exist already between the campus and the world, from obvious sources like Grinnell Corps and the Social Justice Prize to any contacts that professors or students have around the world.

“We very specifically and intentionally made the deadline about three weeks after the social justice prize winners are here on campus to encourage people to think about talking to the social justice prize winners—is there a way we can connect this with that.”

The costs of the program will vary depending on the project.

“We’re trying not to have people limit their imagination by dollar amounts or stretch their imagination to meet a dollar amount,” Cutchins said.

Gerth ’88 chit chats about China, Environment and the New World Order

Dr. Karl Gerth ’88, a Grinnell alum and current professor at

Merton College, came to speak at Grinnell on Thursday as part

of the Scholars’ Convocations program. His talk addressed

several key questions regarding China’s explosive economic and cultural growth, rise to international prominence, and most importantly, what all of this means for the future.

Dr. Gerth graduated from Grinnell, then went on to earn his Ph.D. From Harvard in 2000. Until he moved to Oxford to take up a teaching position there, he taught at the University of South Carolina. He has conducted research in China and Japan for over twenty-five years, and his books on China have been sold around the world and translated into several different languages.

Do you see the intellectual property laws in China changing any time soon?

We make a lot of assumptions of the world based on the U.S.

America’s up here with its wonderful democracy, human rights, and all that other stuff, and the rest of the world is down here, ever so slowly inching its way towards American norms.

Some day, maybe if they work hard enough, they’ll get there.

Whether it’s intellectual property rights, or it’s respecting artists, or all these other things we magically think that we have here and they don’t have there. I see convergence somewhere in between.

It takes a powerful state, the one the Republicans are having

us dismantle, to enforce intellectual property rights. We already have these idiotic border guards, security my ass, they’re checking to see whether I’m bringing in bootlegs of Family Guy from China, or whatever it is. All of that takes money, so it’s going to be harder to protect here, it already is. Chinese bootleggers are compromising our economy. There may not be when China comes up to our standards, but it may be how to figure out how to operate in a world where the value added on brands is not important.

When China has more IPR to protect, they’ll do a better job protecting it … and China’s trying to have more intellectual property. In other words, they want to create more Sonys and Disneys and all of that. All of this suggests they have a vested interest, which is why you will see them go through the motions, at least at the top level they will. But where this analysis is lacking is the assumption that whatever Bejing wants, the rest of the provinces will do. There are parts of China in Chujon, for example, where the entire local economies are based on creating counterfeits for the national market.

And unless you’re prepared to call in the People’s Liberation Army and have them start shooting over this issue, you get in a sort of state in which it’s rationalized for the top level to seemingly move in this direction, but on the other hand they don’t have this centralized state that can work all this IPR protection in.

So does Bejing really has that little control over everything?

That’s a standard byline left over from the Cold War. A lot of people are ignorant of China and imagine this evil Communist Party deciding this, and not the other thing and having its will all the way down. Much more, my opinion, and I think the consensus of people who study this stuff is to look at how much it collapses and how many unintended consequences it produces along the way.

The housing bubble is a good example of that: underfunding the

local administration means that the local administration has to raise enough money on its own. How is it doing that, property speculation: facilitating stealing land from poor people and creating housing complexes and selling it to developers that are politically connected and getting kickbacks, and funding their local government based on that.

It’s a best practice, and it’s an old practice in China.

I don’t know if you guys read The Magistrate’s Tale in your class, but it’s a book about the Chinese central government trying to solve the exact same problem: local governments are incredibly corrupt. So the solution is to pay them more, and control them more centrally. Problem with that, it requires a lot of revenue to the state to do it. It’s why I look at what’s happening in America, and shake my head, because it’s like, they look at other countries’ experiments with government lite, and usually that means you have exactly what you see unfolding in the United States: incredibly high local fees to do everything, bureaucrats who are either indifferent or aren’t very good at what they do. Or, you know, they essentially pay to be a bureaucrat so they can have a fiefdom to make money locally. I’m not saying that’s what’s going to happen, but it’s a good cautionary tale.

Economically, where is China headed?

One of the premises of the book … is why the Chinese are interested in creating their own middle class. Western Europe and the Americas have been top dog for awhile … and while China has the growth to suit their needs, it’s also the growth to suit our needs. The American way is highly leveraged.

We’re kind of looking at the Chinese without looking in the

mirror first. Looking in the mirror first is very humbling

when it comes to diagnosing other peoples’ problems. What

about Chinese artists, what about democracy there, what about

their military buildups? I’m not saying that… their regime is

so great, and I wish they would take over the United States.

Do you see them changing to a democracy?

When people go on about democracy is I say … it’s a great way of deflecting responsibility We see that in the United States today, with the Republicans and the Democrats both … right now, the buck stops with the Chinese Communist Party for everything, and isn’t that convenient?

“That’s probably left over from my Grinnell days, and I believe as a professional academic that my only useful academic function is to be idealistic. I mean … if my politics were the same as my representative who has to make compromise

… what would be the use?”

How about environmentalism? Why is China taking action?

If you agree what the problem is, that is, if you agree with the overwhelming number of scientists, you start to do what the Western Europeans and indeed what the Chinese are doing, which is saying we can’t wait for the Americans: we have to act anyway because it’s the right thing to do.

So is this a new trend?

They’ve had environmental practices infinitely more rigorous than ours for a lot longer. When Saint Obama got elected, he finally passed emissions controls that will only take place by 2020, and will gradually ratchet up, which will still be behind where China was 10 years ago in terms of emissions standards! They’re already planning on implementing a carbon trading network, because they also know, instead of the bogus line of how it’s going to kill our economy and all that, they realize that the future is creating the infrastructure to make them competitive in those areas. And the way you make people competitive is you don’t let the market work its magic, you rig the damn market so that you create competitive industries in those areas you want to dominate.

And that’s not a prediction of the future, that’s a

description of what’s unfolding now. I get these cute kooky accusations that I’m a fortune teller, and I always say my book is describing what’s happening now, and where those trend lines are going, not ten years from now, but six months.

So are these movements stemmed from a sense of responsibility or from a profit motive?

It’s all of the above. There’s a very outspoken Chinese official who’s only outspoken because he’s politically connected, who said all of China’s GDP growth in the last 20 years has come because they’ve trashed their environment. When you have zero environmental controls, not surprisingly your factories are a little more efficient.

Lastly, what kind of an impact did Grinnell have on your beliefs?

I thought the culture here, especially in South Campus, perhaps even to an extreme, gets you to question a lot of your assumptions about the world … I still myself as pretty open to change, and I think a lot of that comes from being in that kind of environment.

Ultimate, Water Polo Struggle to Find Funding

For athletes on Grinnell’s Ultimate Frisbee and Water Polo

teams, preparation for competition involves far more than

practice. Members of Grinnell’s two club sports teams must

also deal with logistical problems and budgetary restraints

that varsity teams never have to consider.

“We get four hotel rooms every tournament, and we normally send forty people,” said Ultimate Frisbee Captain Jon Davis

’12. “Ten people per hotel room can get pretty interesting.”

The teams hope that this year may mark the end of these money- saving situations. SGA President Gabe Schechter ’12 and members of the administration and the athletics department are discussing a new system of financing for club sports, after years of dependence on narrow SGA funding and emergency use of the president’s discretionary fund.

“The College doesn’t support Ultimate Frisbee and Water Polo right now, besides providing space for them to practice,” said President Schechter. “We’re working to amend that.”

The proposed changes include channeling institutional support through either the athletics department or the Student Programming Committee. The College’s role would be to give money for transportation and medical expenses, with the SGA providing matching funds during a two-year trial period of the new system. Although discussed in the past, it is only now that changes are being seriously considered.

“I don’t know why this process has taken so long,” said SGA Treasurer Kathy Anderson ’13. “I’ve done research on this, and schools like Haverford have a very good system of funding in place for their club sports. With some work, Grinnell could have the same.”

Those involved with the project hope for action soon, because the financial situation is becoming untenable. In this year’s SGA budget, Ultimate Frisbee is slated to receive around

$6,000, while Water Polo expects just $3,250. Although these

are disproportionately large fractions of the SGA budget per

student on the teams, these sums are less than ten percent of

what the teams actually require. An SGA report estimates that,

for both the regular and post season, Ultimate Frisbee would

need up to $63,000 to be considered fully funded, and Water

Polo would need around $34,000.

These low budgets have caused chaos for teams in the past. To compete in Division 3 Nationals, teams resorted to asking former President Russell K. Osgood for money from his discretionary fund, as well as organizing fundraising of their own.

“Ultimate Frisbee placed third in the nation. The fact that we had to beg for the money to get there is unfortunate,” said Davis.

“Water Polo is representing the school on a national stage, and we represent Grinnell well. We got fifth in the nation during my second year,” said Water Polo Capitan Sam Sherwood

’12. “The more help the College can provide, the more people we can bring in, and the more inclusive and successful our club can be.”

The teams recognize their precarious finances, so they work to save in nearly every situation, by shaving costs off of lodging and travel. To avoid the infamous overcrowded hotel rooms inhabited by Ultimate Frisbee players, Water Polo has opted to stay at a private residence during an upcoming tournament, and both teams use personal vehicles for transportation.

“I’ve put 15,000 miles on my car in the past seven months, and much of it is related to Ultimate Frisbee,” Davis said.

“There’s definitely a large personal contribution when it comes to vehicles and travel.”

However, even SGA’s current limited contribution meets some

o p p o s i t i o n , a d d i n g e v e n m o r e c o m p l i c a t i o n s t o t h e

conversation. Some SGA members are uncomfortable with large

spending on single organizations, such as Ultimate Frisbee and

Water Polo, because it requires giving team members access to

a disproportionate amount of money from the pool provided by

the student activity fee.

“They’re a great team, and I’m glad to be supporting them, but some people believe that we over support them. We are aware of that difficulty,” said President Schechter.

The current working group on the issue consists of President Schechter, Intramural Coordinator Tim Hammond, Director of Student Activities Mike Sims, Residence Life Coordinator Dan Hirsch, and Assistant Professor Dave Zeiss, Physical Education. They have been meeting frequently to determine the best route for institutional support—through SPA or athletics—and if the clubs should be held to higher standards because of their increased funding.

Potential changes include hiring a coaching staff to supervise Ultimate Frisbee and Water Polo and providing access to athletic trainers for medical attention. Transportation problems, both costs and liabilities, would also need to be addressed. But before those issues can be solved, some members of the group would like the College to better define its understanding of club sports.

“What is the school’s philosophy?” asked Hammond. “What do we want from these programs? Do we want mass participation or do we want representation on the national level? Nobody has told us, and I believe that highly impacts any suggestions we may make.”

With seasons for both sports already starting, the pressure is on for the group to answer those questions and come up with recommendations as quickly as possible.

“I am optimistic that by the end of this semester, the funding

will finally be worked out,” said President Schechter. “To

actually check this off the list would be lovely.”

Seniors Submit to Fulbright in Record numbers

Perhaps as a result of (or maybe in spite of) the recent success of the Julia Roberts’ film “Eat, Pray, Love,” Grinnell College seniors applied to post-baccalaureate programs in record numbers this year. Combined, the applicants of Watson fellowship, Fulbright scholarship and Rhodes scholarship make up about 20 percent of this year’s graduating class.

“We have 27 Watson applicants this year—that’s the most that I’ve known of,” Doug Cutchins, the director of Social Commitment Office. “As for Fulbright, we absolutely destroyed our known records for Grinnell. Our previous record was 31 applicants, and this year we have 56, which is a huge increase. I think this is the new normal for us. We will see continuing high numbers of Watson and Fulbright applications.”

According the Thomas J. Watson Foundation website, the Watson Fellowship awards graduating seniors with a grant that allows them to travel the world pursuing a project of independent study. Grant recipients receive $25,000 and cannot return to the U.S. for a year. Last year, three Grinnellians received the grant. The Fulbright Scholar Program is an international exchange program that—similar to the Watson—awards grants to graduated seniors to pursue their own research or teach English abroad.

Ben Saderholm ’12 applied to for the Fulbright in order to go to New Zealand for mathematics.

“I will be enrolled in a master’s program, working with the

professor at the University of Auckland. The professor

actually got a Fulbright to come to the United States in the

60s to get his Ph.D. If I get the scholarship, the Fulbright

will pay for my tuition,” Saderholm said. “After one year in

there, I’m planning to come back to the United States for post doctorate education.”

Many individuals who applied for the Fulbright are for social, economic or cultural reasons and are often tied to place of study, although with math, there is not really that restriction.

“You follow people who are doing what you are interested in.

I’m going to New Zealand because there’s a professor there who studies nonmetricable manifolds, which is something I find very interesting,” Saderholm said.

New Zealand was just one place that Saderholm looked into. He also thought about applying for programs in Canada, Australia and Russia, because he is also a Russian major, but his experience abroad taught him a valuable lesson.

“Towards the end of my semester (abroad) in Budapest I felt homesick, and was getting tired of not being able to understand words being said around me,” Saderholm explained,

“so I choose to go to an English speaking country, and it also opens up the opportunity to explore the country itself when you understand the language.”

Liz Reischmann ’12, a Physics major, is applying for Watson Fellowship to study story-telling cultures and try to understand the basis of what makes a story last, and try to apply that to teaching science.

“I would like to tell stories about science that everyone can understand,” Reischmann said.

Right now her countries are New Zealand, Canada, Cambodia and

Namibia. In Namibia, Reischmann hopes to join fellow

Grinnellians who are there working for the GrinnellCorps

program that researches local desertification as well as

brings in kindergarten children from local tribes and teaches

them about the science that they are doing there.

“I would love to be there to see the interaction between the kids and the science that the researchers bring up,”

Reischmann said. “I also want to know how the researchers there present [science] and its relation to the stories. What I want to do is to make science more accessible to everyone.”

Reischmann also provided advice to first- and second-year students who want to apply for the Watson Fellowship and Fulbright Scholarships.

“Everyone should apply for it because it’s such a great opportunity to explore life outside your comfort zone,”

Reischmann said. “The preparation is simply thinking what you really love in your life, and how to make it something that you can keep doing, and thinking about where you really want do these things. Then just imagine having 25,000 dollars doing it. Start early, and do not be afraid of talking to people.”

Holocaust Survivor visits Grinnell, Grandson

Until seventh grade, Jacob Goldsmith ’13 thought that his grandfather was just like any other pharmacist from St. Louis.

It wasn’t until he was assigned a project to create a video

about the Holocaust that he discovered that Guenter Goldsmith

is a survivor.

Holocaust survivor Guenter G o l d s m i t h s p e a k s t o s t u d e n t s i n t h e A R H auditorium on Sept. 12.

G o l d s m i t h i s t h e g r a n d f a t h e r o f J a c o b Goldsmith '13. Photograph by Roni Finkelstein.

“[Because] we had Holocaust class in school I became really interested in it,” Goldsmith said. “When I found out that my grandfather had survived the Holocaust, he offered to do an interview with us for our film.”

Until that interview, Guenter Goldsmith had not spoken about his experience before and during World War II publicly.

“I didn’t talk about it until nine years ago. [Jacob and his classmates] interviewed me for the movie then we all went to the Holocaust Museum in St. Louis and that’s when I started talking about it,” said G. Goldsmith.

J. Goldsmith and his family have had close ties to the museum since then. G. Goldsmith acts as one of 11 regular speakers and Jacob Goldsmith interned there over the summer.

“I transcribed and read a lot of interviews, I organized some

things and I interviewed people,” said J. Goldsmith. “[The

museum] is going to compile all of it in either a book form or

on a website where you can go and look at all the stories.”

This internship was the perfect transition into his German Literary Studies class taught by Professor Jennifer Michaels.

During the course, students read histories, testimonies,and literary responses to the Holocaust. J. Goldsmith knew that he could connect his experience over the summer to Michaels’

course.

“I emailed Professor Michaels over the summer to see if there was room for [my grandfather] to speak and it just kind of fit in to place,” J. Goldsmith said.

“When I teach the course I try to get someone to come to talk about the Holocaust,” Michaels said. “Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t. So this is even nicer because there is that Grinnell connection,”

G. Goldsmith spoke to Professor Michaels’ class in the ARH auditorium at an event on Sept. 21. Students then had the opportunity to ask him questions about his experience and opinions about the Holocaust.

Born in Germany, G. Goldsmith arrived in St. Louis in 1941 at the age of 15, never to see his mother and father again. He lived with an adopted family until graduating from high school and joining the army’s 17th airborne division.

“I volunteered to become a paratrooper [after being drafted]

because I found out that I would certainly end up fighting in Europe,” G. Goldsmith explained. “Before we came back to the United States, my commanding general was nice enough to lend me a Jeep and a driver so that I could go to the towns that I used to live in. I went there looking for Jews.”

Though he knew that his search would be unsuccessful, G.

Goldsmith was satisfied with his time overseas.

“I was on a mission to go back there and I had a purpose to be

there,” he said. “I was lucky enough to get into Germany and

be one of the first Americans there.”

Though his early life was affected by the Holocaust, G.

Goldsmith has never let it hinder his motivation. After the war, he went on to college and pharmacy school, eventually opening his own pharmacy in St. Louis.

“I retired 20 years ago, but the name is still Goldsmith Pharmacy, they haven’t changed it,” G. Goldsmith said. “I don’t think that [the Holocaust] affected me as a person. I lived my life the way I wanted to live my life. The minute I came here I was an American, and I’ve been an American ever since.”

Now, at the age of 85, G. Goldsmith talks to high schools, churches and other groups in order share his story. Though he speaks openly about his past, some survivors prefer not to.

“Some people just don’t want to relive that horror. I mean, you have to get on with your life,” Professor Michaels said.

It took G. Goldsmith a long time to open up about his past, yet he is still sharing long after his interview for his grandson’s middle school video project. Today, G. Goldsmith continues to inspire his grandson.

“He’s definitely helped me to understand where I am in this world in the sense of what I want to do,” J. Goldsmith said.

‘Uncivil Discourse’ frames Mountain Mining

This week, the mountains came to visit Grinnell students

yearning for some peaks through the topic of Susan Hirsch’s

convocation, “Mountains and Metaphors: Conflict over Mining in

a Time of Uncivil Discourse.” Cultural anthropologist and Associate Professor, Susan Hirsch visited from the Institute for Conflict Analysis and Resolution at George Mason University. Hirsch brought with her an impressive career in academia, receiving her B.A. in Anthropology from Yale and Ph.D. in Anthropology from Duke, then serving as a professor for 14 years at Wesleyan University in Conn. She is currently on the editorial board of the Law and Society Review and the American Ethnologist.

Hirsch discussed the importance of the language employed in discussions regarding conflicts, with a focus on the controversial industry of mountaintop removal mining in Appalachia. After explaining the devastating results that the actions of clearing timber, blowing up the earth and combing for coal produce in Appalachia, she focused on how the creation of metaphors often dominates the discourse in the political sphere, that which too often is polarizing and uncivil. Hirsch expounded upon how the principles of anthropomorphism—the attribution of human characteristics to nonhumans—have been used in the debate over mountaintop removal mining. She offered the example of actress Ashley Judd, who stated, “But the ache I feel for my mountain home is now more than a bittersweet nostalgia . . . [due to] the coal industry-operated rape of Appalachia mountaintop removal coal mining.” Hirsch reacted to the quote of Judd by stating that

“while the metaphor of rape clearly gets our attention, it may distract us from the most important message.”

Hirsch extended her discussion by asking the audience, “How are we all implicated as bystanders?” as she cited the example of a nearby industry which sources its coal from mountaintop mining removal. She encouraged attendees to join the cause, stating, “I feel like we are all being drawn in [to join in the discourse regarding mountaintop mining].”

Hirsch emphasized that in order to move forward, humans “have

to generate new metaphors for the future which will uproot the

causes of conflict.” These new metaphors can hopefully foster a discussion which is, rather than dehumanizing or polarizing, civil and collaborative.

OCS starts new Global commons

A new student-faculty group, Global Commons, is in the process of establishing itself on campus this semester. This hybrid group, designed to complement the services of the pre-existing Off-Campus Study (OCS) office and Center for International Studies (CIS), is interested in fostering open conversation between faculty and students about off-campus study and other internationally-themed programs at Grinnell, as well as providing both international students and students returning from off-campus programs the opportunity to share their global perspective with the rest of the campus community.

“The idea is that [Global Commons] would create ways for students to communicate their views, through this group, to the Off-Campus Study office, to the administration, to the f a c u l t y , a b o u t a n y t h i n g a n d e v e r y t h i n g a b o u t internationalization and off-campus study,” said Richard Bright, Director of Off-Campus Study.

Global Commons formed last spring when, during meetings with Bright and Neela Nandyal, Assistant Director of Off-Campus Study, students expressed their desire to share their experiences with the rest of the campus community and frustration at not having found any formal means of doing so.

“A lot of us talked about trying to re-integrate our

experiences back into Grinnell … and I feel like a lot of

people felt like there wasn’t a way to do it,” said Kat

Atcheson ’12, a founding member of Global Commons. “You just

are supposed to step back into this kind of mold and your off- campus experience is this whole other entity.”

In response to these conversations, Bright brought together classmates Atcheson, Morgan Bober ’12 and Anna-Lisa Bowans

’12, a group of students who all had very positive experiences with off-campus study and who wanted to share these experiences with their campus peers. As conversations began to occur regarding the group’s goals and direction, the creation of a way for students to share these experiences emerged as a primary objective.

“ T h e i d e a i s t o f a c i l i t a t e w h a t w e c a l l

‘internationalization,’” Bright said. “To help students become more aware of the wider world … and hopefully more interested in it to the degree that they themselves would choose to have an international experience of some sort.”

To this end, Global Commons already hosted and plans to host a number of campus events geared towards those returning from off-campus study, those interested in pursuing such opportunities in the future and Grinnell’s significant international student population. Earlier this semester, the group hosted an ice-cream social for students who participated in off-campus study last semester, an event they hope to repeat this spring for those students who are currently abroad.

First and foremost on the group’s agenda, however, is an Off- Campus Study Meet-and-Greet scheduled for this Tuesday, Sept.

27 from 7-9 p.m. in the Joe Rosenfield ’25 Center in the 2nd Floor Lobby. At this event, interested students will have the opportunity to speak with Grinnell upperclassmen who have participated in a wide range of off-campus study programs around the world.

While Global Commons is currently still in a nascent stage of

its existence, students and faculty are encouraged get

involved by providing input into directions they would like to see the group take or events they would like to see planned.

The group can be contacted at [globalcommons].

Tutorial, curriculum re- examined

Choosing a tutorial is an integral part of the first-year experience. It’s the only class we have a part in choosing before arriving on campus and also the first we attend once here. But while the tutorial system looks impregnably established to many students, this year actually marks its 40th anniversary. That comes out to just over a quarter of the school’s lifetime.

To mark the occasion, The Grinnell College Debating Union reenacted the discussions that resulted in the tutorial system’s formation in Burling Library. The event could not have occurred at a more appropriate time, as the College is now re-evaluating the impact of both tutorials and the open curriculum.

Julianne Toia ’15 spoke first, laying out the merits of an open curriculum and the introductory tutorials. A lack of hard requirements would let students maximize their own potential and choose their own paths, while the tutorial system would give first years a unique opportunity to interact with each other and get used to college lifestyle.

The opposition’s first speech raised questions about how we

learn here, such as: what if you would really have liked to

take a required course in retrospect, but didn’t know about it

before you took a class in which it would have been helpful?

Could professors work without the students having some established prerequisites? And was segregating the classes by age depriving everyone involved of valuable perspectives?

At the end of the night, the proposition side won the motion, but lost the technical debate by a slim margin. And as Erica Hauswald ’12 explained, this divide is readily apparent in the student body at large. Hauswald is part of a student-led initiative to assess the tutorial system and open curriculum at the college and as a writing mentor, Hauswald had the opportunity to look over student papers arguing for and against the tutorial system which found the same split opinion there. As for herself, Hauswald sees the program as providing crucial information about the opportunities that are available at Grinnell.

“I’m a huge advocate of the tutorial. One of the most important roles of the tutorial is to … prepare you to seek out other resources,” Hauswald said. “If your tutorial teaches you how to use the writing lab … if it teaches you to seek out help … then I think it’s done its job.”

However, Hauswald admits that the tutorial system may be overly ambitious in its scope.

“I think a lot of the debate about it is whether or not one course can fulfill everything that it’s supposed to do,”

Hauswald said. “It’s been on the College’s mind for a long t i m e — w h e t h e r o r n o t t h e t u t o r i a l i s d o i n g i t s j o b effectively.”

Over the course of the year, the group hopes to gather student

and faculty opinions through surveys and focus groups of

second year students looking back on their tutorial

experience. And at the end of all of this, they hope to

synthesize their research into a comprehensive report on this

unique Grinnellian tradition.

D-Hall Giveth and Taketh Away

With eight professionally certified chefs on staff and a veritable army of student bakers, cooks and staff, the Dining Hall is a complicated entity with a seemingly simple job. On top of dealing with the sheer numbers of people they must feed, Dining Services also does a great deal of extra work ensuring students have delectable, nutritious meals. This includes devising new recipes, planning special events and spending over a week each summer poring over the results of the student dining survey. The Dining Hall is constantly changing, adapting and evolving.

One of the most hotly discussed topics in regards to the Dining Hall is the end of the Dining Hall serving favorite items like chicken wings and mozzarella sticks.

“The problem is with production, not cost,” Dick Williams said. “It is simply too hard on the staff.”

Wing Night originally started serving 400 lbs of wings, but by the end of last year, the Dining Hall was serving over 800 lbs. It simply was not possible to keep up with demand.

Not all changes have been losses, however. The salad bar and stir-fry station also changed to improve their quality and speed. The salad bar has a new rotation system that ensures that the freshness of the vegetables is at its highest.

“This has added a significant amount of work to the salad bar station, but the students are reaping the benefits. The salad bar has also been featuring more puddings and side dishes in an effort to better serve the students,” Williams said.

The new stir-fry system asks that students wait until they

receive their plate before leaving the station. While some may bemoan having to wait while their dish is cooked, cook time is faster.

“Before, students were waiting an average of four to five minutes for stir-fry, sometimes up to 10 minutes. Now, the average wait is two minutes,” Williams said.

To replace some of the student favorites like Wing Night, Dining Services began several new innovations from the Burrito Bar and Gluten Free Station to the Foods of the World Series.

Dining Services created the Burrito bar as a result of the student dining survey at the end of last year.

“We really read the student survey quite carefully, listening to your ideas,” said Head Chef Scott Turley.

The Foods of the World Series, which began Wednesday with Tapas Night, is designed to feature a different culture each month. Dining Services is continuously looking for opportunities to improve the eating experience of each student and would love to hear anything students want to say. Student demand is what fuels Dining Hall changes.

“We want to hear your comments, positive or negative,” said Chef Turley. “That’s how we get better.”

College Constructs New Facility for Youngest Students

Ask anybody what they expect to find on a college campus and

they would probably list a host of resources including

residence halls, academic buildings and athletic facilities. A preschool would probably be the last thing on their mind.

Now located in 1207 Park Street, the Grinnell College Preschool Laboratory provides a high-quality program that serves both the college and the community of Grinnell.

The Preschool Laboratory is almost 50 years old. Founded in 1963, it moved from Goodnow Hall, to Steiner Hall, and finally to its current location. In fact, the facility holds a five- star rating from the Iowa Department of Human Services.

Despite the high-quality program, however, the 1970s-style building that houses the program is now out of date and in need of renovation. Functional issues like leaks and lack of a tornado shelter make the need for a new building even more pressing.

“This building was [established] in the seventies as a temporary location. Over the years it has deteriorated and it’s at the point where you can’t make repairs anymore,”

explained Karen Veerhusen-Langerud, Director of the Preschool Laboratory.

Veerhusen-Langerud, who worked at the preschool for fifteen years, is looking forward to the new facility..

According to Ann Ellis, Professor of Psychology and the direct supervisor for the preschool, the preschool serves the dual functions of providing a laboratory space for the study of child development, as well as providing quality early childhood education. Unfortunately, however, the building can no longer adequately fulfill its purposes.

“We cannot do, in terms of preschool education and in terms of

the education of college students, the things we want to do

functionally in this facility,” Ellis stated. “I would like a

space where my college students can conduct observations of

the preschoolers without actually having to be in the room

with them, and a quiet space for college students to do their

research with children. And right now that’s done right here in the classroom.”

Psychology students use the laboratory to observe and interact with the preschoolers. The college students who do research with the children separate themselves from classroom activities with a plastic accordion folding door, which does not allow for a quiet space.

“Whenever a student comes in, we have to clear out the middle of the room, put up the partitions, and then arrange the furniture like we need it.” said Katherine Munday ’13, a Psychology and Spanish major who has been involved with the preschool. ”This inconveniences the children who are using the computers and also takes away from the time that we could be interacting with the children. It can also be hard to simply observe the children because we are so obviously present in the small spaces that they play in.”

The new building, however, will have an observation room that will both serve as both a classroom as well as a lab room to do direct instruction with preschoolers. That observation room will be equipped with cameras so that Ellis’ students will be able to observe and listen to preschool activities without disrupting them. Two small research rooms will also be constructed, where the college students work individually with the children on research projects.

For Veerhusen-Langerud, the new building provides for a better space to educate the children. The new facility will include classrooms where she will be able to see all of the preschoolers at once. Adjacent restrooms, storage rooms, and a fully-functioning kitchen are also included in the design. The preschoolers will also be able to work in an interior garden.

The new preschool will also benefit the staff. A Director’s

office will allow Veerhusen-Langerud to have private

conversations with parents – a luxury the current building

does not provide. Further, a staff workroom will allow her and

her staff to do curriculum development.

The planned construction for the new preschool has been in the works for the past few years, and will be located at 1000 Park Street. It is expected to cost about $1.75 million.

“We’re very, very, very excited,” said Ellis.