Vol. 139, Issue 18

Sthecarlet & Black

Camera installation and amnesty policy aims to address BSU demands

announced to students by email on Friday, April 7. As the policy currently reads, camera footage will only be reviewed in the instance that a student handbook violation or criminal act is reported. The policy also states that camera footage will not be regularly monitored. Disciplinary amnesty will extend to any students observed on camera to be committing a student handbook violation or misdemeanor if the action is unrelated to a report.

Yet, the College also included in the policy that actions captured on camera can later be investigated if it is learned that the footage is relevant to a report.

This written policy was a collaboration between Ben Newhouse, dean of students and associate vice president of student affairs, Campus Safety and the Student Government Association (SGA).

when everything was coming, or when it’d be done or even had input on the process behind the cameras.” Coffie wrote that amnesty was included in the BSU’s proposal to “ensure that perpetrators of anti-Black crimes receive consequences for their actions instead of being let off the hook, not for students to be surveilled 24/7.” Coffie also mentioned the overarching problem of Black students previously being surveilled on campus, which was an issue the BSU considered when demanding cameras.

The idea of self-governance and over-policing has been a concern of some students following the announcement of camera installation. According to the policy, students violating handbook policies in the view of cameras will be investigated if an individual were to report these actions.

Campus Safety is currently installing cameras along 8th and 10th Ave. where they cross the Grinnell

College campus. This action is in response to one of the demands from the Grinnell Black Student Union (BSU) after the series of racial harassments on campus in the fall semester.

Cameras with an amnesty policy were

proposed by the BSU as an attempt to better ensure Black students’ safety.

The College updated the student handbook about reviewing camera footage and included an accompanying amnesty policy, which they

“The policy was crafted with representatives from each entity sitting in a shared office space,” Newhouse wrote in an email to the S&B. “Pretty early on, we had a shared vision as to what it needed to contain and the amnesty protections that SGA was advocating for.”

Evelynn Coffie `24, vice spokesperson and treasurer of BSU, wrote to the S&B in an email, “We [the BSU] weren’t really given updates about

As of now, the cameras will only preserve footage for a 14-day period due to cloud storage limits, according to Newhouse. An individual wishing to use footage in an investigation would need to report the incident within these 14 days to preserve the footage.

“It is important to remember that

Slavic Coffeehouse returns to celebrate spring

By George Kosinski kosinski@grinnell.edu

Grinnell College students, faculty and community members gathered Saturday evening, April 8, in the Humanities and Social Sciences Center (HSSC) atrium for this year’s Slavic Coffeehouse, an annual event organized and hosted by the Russian Department, Russian, Central, and Eastern European Studies concentrators and students affiliated with the region.

The tradition dates back to at least the early 1990s, according to Todd Armstrong, professor and department chair of Russian at the College. Named after a space called the coffeehouse in the Forum where it was first celebrated, Slavic Coffeehouse originally took

place over the course of three days during which students and faculty members prepared and served various dishes from Slavic and Russian cuisines.

At some point, Armstrong said, it merged with the celebration of Maslenitsa: a folk holiday celebrated before Lent primarily in Belarus, Ukraine and Russia which traces its roots to pre-Christian religion. One such custom of Maslenitsa in particular features prominently in Grinnell every spring: the burning of a wooden effigy that represents the end of winter.

“Food is an area that I really think provides an important window into a culture,” Armstrong said, who takes an active role organizing the event each year. “Slavic Coffeehouse becomes

a sort of forum for students to show something about their culture through food. Different dishes have emerged as favorites over the years and students seem to really have a lot of fun participating.”

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Slavic Coffeehouse was not celebrated in 2021 and not open to the public in 2022, so this year marks its first full celebration since the spring of 2020, immediately before Grinnell students were first sent home.

“I’ve worked the event since my first year,” said Khondamir Imomnazarov `23, who is from Uzbekistan and a member of Grinnell’s Rus-

Changes to COVID reporting policy leave questions about testing at Grinnell

managed the recording and publication of all positive COVID-19 cases. At the beginning of the pandemic, students could view this message in a separate online portal managed by SHAW. Positive case numbers can now be viewed in the weekly campus memo released by administration. COVID tracking briefly paused during winter break due to the lack of students on campus, but it resumed again at the start of the spring 2023 semester.

By Molly Wilcoxson wilcoxso2@grinnell.edu

As the year comes to a close, Grinnell College administration continues to wrestle with the ongoing question of how to handle COVID

cases, particularly as restrictions begin to lax statewide due to the end of mandatory test reporting and the approaching end of testing programs such as Test Iowa.

Since the pandemic, Student Health and Wellness (SHAW) has

Football focuses on increasing roster size

Terry Mason, the College’s dean of health and wellness, said that, until early March, the campus memo kept a tallying number of positive cases recorded since the beginning of the spring 2023 semester. Effective March 1, the reporting method changed, with the positive case number representing the amount of students who tested positive within the past two weeks.

“This enables campus community

By Eleanor Corbin corbinel@grinnell.edu

Landon Skinner `24 had been at Occidental College for two years when the offensive lineman learned that his school would be discontinuing their football program. Skinner described the time as a “feeding frenzy” of other liberal arts institutions working to recruit anyone still looking to play. His ultimate journey to Grinnell, like many others on his team, began with a

call from Head Football Coach Brent Barnes.

Prior to this decision, in 2017, Occidental had to cancel a season with four games remaining as injuries wore down the size of their roster. In 2019, Grinnell College had to make the same call with seven games remaining in the season as their team’s size had dwindled down to 28 players.

MADDI SHINALL

The Grinnell Pioneers football team running drills in September 2022.

By Taylor Nunley nunleyta@grinnell.edu

>> Football recruitment continued on page 6

PAUL HANSEN

The interior of the Student Health and Wellness (SHAW) office.

>> Camera installation continued on page 2

Muslim-Jewish discussions boost interfaith dialogue

By Oliver Palmer palmerol@grinnell.edu

A series of Muslim-Jewish dialogue discussions began this fall, created and hosted by Imam Kamal Hammouda and Associate Chaplain and Rabbi Sarah Brammer-Shlay, offering students an opportunity to engage with topics relevant to the two religions in a structured, non-inflammatory way.

An inspiration for these dialogues comes from the term “Judeo-Christian values,” which Hammouda said implies Christians share similar values to Jewish people but not Muslims.

“I read that as a way that people, specifically some aspects of the Christian community, try to push away Muslims and say that, Jewish values are like Christian values,” Brammer-Shlay said, “I think that that is often used in a very Islamophobic sort of way.”

The first session was on the Israel-Palestine conflict, the second session on March 15 focused on similarities and contrasts of Islam and Judaism, and the third session, held on April 27 in HSSC S1325 will be an interactive text study of the Quran and the Torah.

The Israel-Palestine session drew a crowd of roughly 45 people, said Brammer-Shlay. During the discussion, Brammer-Shlay and Hammouda shared how they each approach the issue as religious leaders and their differing perspectives on the conflict.

Brammer-Shlay said she has a great deal of respect for Hammouda and hopes that their dialogues together show students that relationships can have tension, and still be healthy.

“The sense I get from both students and staff and faculty is there’s a desire to talk about it,” Bram-

mer-Shlay said about the Israel-Palestine conflict, “but there’s a nervousness and how to approach it, so one of our goals in doing that was to model how to have conversations about it too.”

SHAW holds Mental Health First Aid class

By Kailee Shermak shermakk@grinnell.edu

Student Health and Wellness

(SHAW) hosted classes to prepare studentstohelp mitigatementalhealth situations. These classes consisted of discussion-based learning about recognizing signs of mental health issues and how to approach those issues.

Over spring break, virtual classes were held on March 21-22. Prior to break, however, an in-person session was hosted on March 4 that three students and one faculty member attended.

Mary Ann Schwindt `24, an attendee of the class, said the content was informative and gave her a breadthoftoolstohelpthosewhomay be struggling with mental health.

“It’s really important because that way we’re able to prevent any sort of catastrophic event for that person. We all care about each other. That’s what I love about Grinnell,” Schwindt said.

tions and practices, the dialogues are additionally focused on dismantling the notion that Muslims and Jews are hostile towards each other, said Hammouda.

“Hammouda and I are both very committed to fighting back against this projection because we don’t think it’s true and we think that there’s actually a lot of overlap between our communities,” said Brammer-Shlay.

In the first two sessions, students were engaged, asked plenty of questions, and gave positive feedback. Students are also interested in there being more events about Israel-Palestine specifically, according to both Hammouda and Brammer-Shlay.

The Muslim-Jewish Dialogue series differs from the Inter-Religious Conversations held by Reverend Deanna Shorb and Rabbi

Brammer-Shlay every 2nd and 4th Wednesday of the month. The Inter-Religious conversations focus more on theories and practices of religious traditions.

While the Muslim-Jewish Dialogues do touch on religious tradi-

This echoes the intended purpose of hosting these classes, according to Alexis Steele, the manager of SHAW operations and the instructor of these classes. Mental Health First Aid is meant to equip attendees with preventative measures they can take before someone is in a mental health crisis, she explained.

“We know a lot of students care, and we get a lot of students concerned about other students,” Steele said about the initial purpose for her becoming certified to instruct this course and offer it at the College.

they expected. The role-playing activities and discussions allowed for the content to be reflective of the attendees’ lives rather than an out-of-touch presentation, Carroll said.

“I thought it was probably the most coherent, and frank and useful mental health discussion I’ve ever been in,” she said about her experience in the Mental Health First Aid class.

The class offered a range of information to attendees concerning responding to mental health issues and connecting people to resources, Schwindt and Carroll said. However, the class also helped Schwindt identify when she was out of her depth when dealing with these issues, she said.

“We’re not certified to give too much advice, really. We’re certified to help people get connected to the right resources,” Schwindt said.

Carroll `25

The content taught within this class is versatile and includes valuable lifelong skills, according to Steele. Though the language and approach someone uses may change depending on who they are addressing, these tools can apply to a wide range of situations, she explained.

As of now nothing has been planned for continuing these dialogues in the fall of 2023, but both Hammouda and Brammer-Shlay said they are interested in continuing them.

“I’m hoping that this is just the start of having these conversations and building these relationships,” Brammer-Shlay said.

Camera policy raises questions

investigations can still occur without video footage,” Newhouse wrote.

To gain more of the student perspective on the installation of cameras on campus, the S&B spoke with several students in the Spencer Grill.

“I think as long as it’s not used against students and only to protect students, then it’s fine,” Miles Magee `26 said. “But then again, if they’re there, is it up to us how they’re used?”

“I’m glad that the demand of the Black Student Union is being met by the College,” Morell Old `23 said. “And I do trust the College with the amnesty [policy] because I feel like they’re good about amnesty with al-

cohol and drugs.” Some students also said they were not aware the cameras were installed as a result of the BSU’s released list of demands.

“When I read the email, I didn’t even realize that it was specifically for the Black Student Union’s demand,” Honor Hanau `26 said. “I don’t think it was made very clear that [the cameras were] what that was for.” Hanau also expressed concern with the timeline of installation. “I feel like cameras are such a small thing that totally could have been installed months ago … Why did it take six months, or however long, to get those cameras up when we have a three billion dollar endowment? This is a pretty pressing issue, especially

back in the fall,” she said. Newhouse, whose primary role in the project is overseeing the handbook additions regarding the cameras, said he was unable to provide details about how many cameras would be installed or specifically where they would be located, but he would be gathering information about the installation in the upcoming week. The S&B reached out to James Shropshire, director of campus safety, about the camera installation process, but he did not respond to requests for comment. The S&B also reached out to Diogo Tandeta Tartarotti `24, the SGA vice president of student affairs, and Jivyaa Vaidya `23, vice president of academic affairs, but they were not available for comment.

COVID-19 reporting policy changes

members to assess current conditions and adjust their personal protective measures as appropriate,” wrote Heather Cox, director of emergency management and risk mitigation, in an email to the S&B.

Also beginning March 1, the College is now tracking strep- and flu-positive cases on campus.

“What we’re finding now is that students who test positive for influenza or strep are having more severe symptomatology,” said Mason. He also said that SHAW has not recorded any students being hospitalized from COVID in his personal recent memory. To track cases, SHAW uses two primary methods to count positive cases on campus. First of all, SHAW provides COVID testing to any students who schedule an appointment, and it keeps track of those who test positive within their facilities. Secondly, SHAW receives word about positive cases directly from students who use Test Iowa, a mail-in testing service. These numbers are then combined and submitted to the weekly campus memo. Mason said that there are limita-

tions to this method. “We [can] only track what is reported to us,” said Mason. If a student tests positive and does not report it to SHAW, then their positive case cannot be reflected in the memo. Mason said that this makes it difficult to calculate an accurate positivity rate, which is why the memo only reports the raw number of positive cases.

Regarding this possible inaccuracy, Cox wrote, “we have found … that students have been diligent about reporting positive cases and coordinating with SHAW to navigate next steps, so I am confident that our case counts are reliable and accurate.”

The College’s testing system will face several challenges moving forward, which may have an impact on the campus community. As of April 1, according to Iowa legislation, testing facilities are no longer required to report their number of positive cases to the state.

“[This makes] it harder to get a clear understanding of what is happening on campus and in the broader community,” wrote Cox.

In addition to the cessation of mandatory COVID reporting, Test Iowa will only continue to offer athome COVID tests through the end of

2023, according to the Iowa Department of Health and Human Services and a memo released by SHAW on Feb. 28. Despite this, Steele and Mason said that SHAW will continue to provide in-house testing, and rapid testing options will still be available for purchase in Grinnell.

“People will always have availability to get tests,” said Mason. “So it’s not going to impact us.”

Though the class focused on responding to others who are experiencing mental health struggles, attendees noted that the information was also helpful for responding to themselves. Schwindt explained that the content has helped her identify and describe her own struggles better

“The stigma within myself, surrounding mental illness, has been reduced,” Sophia Carroll `25, another attendee, said about her personal growth during the class.

Carroll and Schwindt both said that they got more out of the class than

“It can be used anywhere, anytime, and it’s one of those things where it’s simple information, but you know it,” Steele said about the application of the class’ content.

Steele said she plans to increase the outreach of the Mental Health First Aid class by hosting sessions for academic departments. In addition to departmental collaboration, the class will be included in community advisor training starting in the fall of 2023. Future sessions of the class will be included in emails from SHAW to the student body for those interested.

Community celebration returns to Grinnell

sian-speaking community. “This was the first time in years that it happened as it should and was able to gather all of campus together. I would say that this year Slavic Coffeehouse returned in its full glory,” he added.

During the event, every table in the HSSC atrium was full and a long line formed as attendees awaited dishes including syrniki, plov and pierogis. According to Armstrong and Imomnazarov, cooking and serving such a meal required a vast amount of work. Likewise, the Russian Student Educational Policy Committee, other Russian language learners and community members, alongside Armstrong and Global Kitchen Culinary Coordinator David Stanley, planned the details of the event before spending several days preparing all the food.

“It was really a collaborative effort,” Imomnazarov said. “We used multiple kitchens all over campus. For two days people were always on the clock in shifts, changing one after another. Overall it was an incredible amount of effort on the part of the students involved,” he continued.

Though its aim — using food as a way to celebrate and educate about Slavic, Russian, Eastern European and Central Asian cultures — remains unchanged, Russia’s recent invasion of Ukraine has added new dimensions and significance to Grinnell’s annual celebration, Armstrong said.

“It makes us think more carefully about how we talk about Russian and Russian language speakers,” he said. “We’re trying to support all the students who speak Russian in a respectful way, and the importance here too is to recognize that the language doesn’t belong to Putin. Russian culture is incredibly rich and valuable in its own right.”

Armstrong finds that food can be a crucial lens in which to view the current political reality. He used borscht as an example, relating how he had for

most of his life associated the red beetroot soup with Russian cuisine before more recently learning of its Ukrainian origins. “Just through this one dish I’m able to observe different aspects of identity, of conflict, of historical narratives of colonization, and the need to rethink how we teach Russian culture,” he said.

Imomnazarov said that he views Slavic Coffeehouse as a way to strengthen community-bonding in Grinnell in spite of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

“It really is about bringing all of us together—all of us who have ties to the region—celebrating something that unites us from before the war, before even the Soviet Union or the Russian Empire existed. The holiday Maslenitsa is ancient, from a time when there were no nation states to speak of, so I think it’s super significant for that regional dynamic, but the way we do it in Grinnell also celebrates the rest of the post-Soviet space too,” he said.

Looking ahead, Imomnazarov said that he hopes future Slavic Coffeehouses can further educate people about the cultural significance of the event beyond just eating food. Meanwhile, Armstrong said that he would like to add a dimension of fundraising for local food insecurity.

“Here we all are enjoying this amazing feast and yet there are people going hungry in Poweshiek County,” he said. “How is that possible? Whenever we’re eating, we have to always think about those who have not. I think that’s just an underlying ethical demand. Feeding people offers a way to engage and somehow make the world a better place.”

OHANA SARVOTHAM

From left: Imam Kamal Hammouda, Rabbi Sarah Brammer-Shlay and Dean of Religious Life Deanna Shorb.

The stigma within myself, surrounding mental illness, has been reduced.

Sophia

I’m hoping that this is just the start of having these conversations and building these relationships.

Rabbi Sarah Brammer-Shlay

Students speak: Tattoo tours

By Marcy Cassidy-Mapp cassidym@grinnell.edu

Jules Covitz `24 proudly rocks two gargoyles by the tattoo artist Molly Emmerich at Ritual Tattoo Gallery in Denver, Colorado, one resembling a dog and the other an eagle. Covitz said that the purpose of the gargoyles in architecture is to allow water to drain, similar to gutters. In addition to loving medieval designs and appreciating the intricate and detailed nature of gargoyles, Covitz has a background as a florist. The tattoos are accordingly designed to have flowers flowing out of their mouths.

“Some of my tattoos definitely were sort of spur-of-the-moment,” Covitz said.“While there are some regrets about them, I just want to remember this moment in my life when I had youth and ideas.”

Covitz said that they see getting tattoos as a way to reclaim their body and control what people notice when

History Takeover:

Grinnell as a refuge from WWII

Japanese internment camps

By Carter Ottele otteleca@grinnell.edu

On May 5, 1942 — as the United States entrenched itself in World War II, as rations spread and as public opinion searched furiously for a scapegoat — the Scarlet & Black ran a four-word headline — “Japanese Students Expected Here.”

they see them. They expressed that having control over the scars in their life is empowering, and they believe getting tattoos can be a way to fight against the prejudices surrounding them.

“My tattoos on my shoulder blade and my inner arm accentuate the areas that make me feel more masculine,” Covitz said. “You're inevitably going to have scars in your life, but to have control over them and have a say in the matter is really nice.”

health in high school, and that song is just connected to so many different memories,” Brent said.

Brent got that first tattoo in August of 2020, after she turned 18. The same Chicago-based artist did many of her tattoos which range in subject and meaning. Some relate to her beloved summer camp while others were more spontaneous and simply looked cool, according to Brent.

In light of spiraling racial prejudice, the announcement signaled uncertainty about the safety of the forthcoming students. Yet, it also suggested hope — the newcomers, all Japanese-Americans from the West Coast, would have been taken “to concentration camps unless they left the coast by the end of this week.” For the three students mentioned in the article, education in the unfamiliar, potentially hostile Iowan prairie remained the only alternative to incarceration.

If anyone ever suggests you have to trade quality for quantity, they've never met Ruby Brent `25, owner of nearly a dozen individual tattoos. Brent’s favorite is of an iris on her shoulder blade, a reference to the album cover of her favorite song, “Iris” by the Goo Goo Dolls.

“It’s still my favorite song 100%, but I struggled a lot with my mental

Kade Dolphin `24 has always been thoughtful about what tattoo he would get — when spring break of his sophomore year came around, he decided to take the leap with some friends. He returned to campus sporting a tattoo of a wave enclosed by a triangle shape.

“I was gonna go get a tattoo with some friends, and I had like a week to figure out what I want, what are my hobbies, what I like to do,” Dolphin said. “I’ve been swimming since I was like three or four, and I wanted something with water.”

Dolphin’s lifelong affinity for swimming played a role in his decision as he wanted his first tattoo to represent something meaningful to him. He found inspiration for the tattoo in an episode from the fourth season of a television show called “The Good Place,” where life is compared to a wave that crashes and returns to the ocean.

When Dolphin’s group of friends went to Champaign, Illinois, they found a tattoo artist who was able to ink everything up the following day.

“I would say most of them have been spontaneous, where I don't really know what I want,” Brent said. “Then, one day, it just hits me, and that’s what I’m doing. It’s just like a single moment where that’s the tattoo that I want.”

Brent sees her tattoos as a way of putting her own artwork on her body, and she cherishes the journey that each tattoo represents. She is currently working on her sticker sleeve and plans to tie them all together with a background once she has enough money.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt had signed Executive Order 9066 three months earlier. This order gave the Secretary of War power to “prescribe military areas” on American soil — in other words, to expel civilians from their homes. In practice, the military removed Japanese-Americans living on the West Coast and forced them into “relocation camps.” The U.S. government justified this incarceration with the unfounded, racist assumption that Japanese-Americans would collaborate with Japan during the war.

The executive order spurred civil rights groups into action.

The American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), a Quaker organization, secured a legal carve-out for college students to attend classes inland. According to Daniel Kaiser, professor emeritus of history, Joseph Conard `35 was a “local official” for the AFSC whose uncle, Henry Conard, served as Grinnell’s dean of faculty. The younger Conard urged his uncle to work with the AFSC and accept a limited number of high-achieving Japanese-American students. Henry Conard agreed.

Japanese-American students when obtaining her master’s degree, described the promise and precarity of the situation. While most participants were “really grateful” and “eager to continue their education,” many dropped out. Financial concerns motivated some. Others, Ng continued, struggled with the “onus put on them to show that they were integrating into society.” Indeed, the AFSC encouraged Japanese-American students to avoid congregating with other participants in order to foster the image of racial integration. The country as a whole broadly supported Executive Order 9066. William Kiyasu `44 remembered being advised “not to enter town on weekend nights” for fear of violence from townspeople. Kiyasu remarked that after one ugly encounter, “it was a good thing [he] had a bike.”

Who decides which stories are amplified and which stories gather cobwebs?

Meanwhile, other Grinnell students welcomed the newcomers with open arms. George Carroll `02 spoke with several of the participants in his 2002 research project, “Japanese-American Student Relocation: The Grinnell College Experience.” None recounted any moments of blatant prejudice from Grinnell students.

However, the relative warmth of Grinnell’s reception comes with a caveat — it was still the

U.S. in the 1940s. For instance, Conard heralded the incoming students as “the superior type,” possessing “the refined grace of the true Japanese.” Later, when the Iowa Senate proposed preventing Japanese-American students from attending college in Iowa, the S&B ran an editorial in protest. The article offered some genuine defenses of their classmates, noting that each Japanese-American student had recently made the president’s honor roll. Yet it also argued that concentration camps would make students “conscious of their race,” and that Grinnell students would prefer remaining ignorant of race. The U.S. government closed the last concentration camps in 1946. Over those 4 years, Kaiser found that at least 13 students escaped imprisonment by enrolling at the College, including 6 who graduated. After that, Asian-American student enrollment plummeted for several decades. These students’ stories grew obscure and unknown to most Grinnell College students.

Grinnell should be proud of their involvement, but let's tell the full story.

Laura Ng Professor of anthropology

Who decides which stories are amplified and which stories gather cobwebs? In this case, only a few sources directly talk about Grinnell’s experience during the war. The most comprehensive source comes from a student, Carroll, who had a personal interest as both a grandchild of concentration camp victims and a Grinnell College history major. Ng had already completed graduate-level research on the topic before working at the College. Kaiser was inspired by Dan Ogata, a local Presbyterian pastor of Japanese descent. None of them encountered the story as a well-known fact already enshrined in the collective memory.

The next step, then, is to reinforce the legacy of these students, to make visible their successes and sacrifices. As Ng declared, “Grinnell should be proud of their involvement, but let’s tell the full story.”

It was a spur-of-the-moment decision, but Dolphin said that he couldn’t be happier with the outcome. He said that the tattoo serves as a reminder to live life like a wave, embracing the highs and lows and going with the flow.

“I liked that metaphor and liked that analogy just because it felt meaningful, and one way for me to live my life is to live as a wave.” Dolphin shared.

So on May 8, Barbara Takahashi, William Kiyasu and Akiko Hosoi arrived at the Grinnell train depot. Hisaji Sakai disembarked at 3:00 a.m. two days later. He would later remember that “the entire freshman class was at the station to welcome [him].” Living in an environment with virtually no other Japanese-Americans, these students experienced a blend of hospitality, well-intentioned ignorance and outright racism. Laura Ng, professor of anthropology, who researched an oral history about relocated

Ekta Shaikh `24 and Emma Schaefer `23 awarded travel fellowships

By Claire Giannosa giannosa@grinnell.edu

Emma Schaefer `23 and Ekta

Shaikh `24 have recently become the recipients of the Watson Fellowship and the Fischlowitz Travel Fellowship, respectively. The Fischlowitz Fellowship allows Grinnell College international students to pursue independent travel in the United States, and the Watson Fellowship grants graduating fourth-year students nationwide the opportunity to travel outside of the U.S. for one year. Both fellowships emphasize the theme of exploration for their recipients to fully dive into the project of their choice.

Fellowships are typically funded opportunities that enable students or recent graduates to travel for a short period of time, focused on their personal, academic or career goals.

Ann Landstrom, assistant dean and director of global fellowships and awards, mentors, advises and helps students with their Global Fellowship applications.

Landstrom described the Watson Fellowship as “a project that is personally connected to you in which you have the inspiration and the passion to keep going no matter what challenges might come forth for you.” Watson

recipients must navigate their project and budget independently, traveling to multiple new countries.

According to Landstrom, even completing the application process equips students with “skills that

are fundamental for most everything [they’re] going to do in life,” including interviewing, writing grants and proposals, requesting application letters and networking abroad.

Schaefer’s project, titled “Listening at Dawn: Music That Heals the Planet,” is about the connection between music and environmental justice. Throughout her journeys to seven different countries, Schaefer said she wants to think about how “music can help empower people related to climate change and help people sustain their culture.”

She talked about her tentative plans for each country she will visit, mapping out her travels to Switzerland, Kenya, the United Arab Emirates, India, New Zealand, Chile and the U.K. She plans to interact with the natural landscape through volunteer work as well as listen to and collaborate with musicians who write about climate justice and sustainability.

“Part of this project is thinking about how singing songs about nature helps people connect to it in the first

place and really have a care for it, thinking about how music really drives that,” Schaefer said.

A key component of her Watson Fellowship year will be waking up every day at dawn to sit outside.

“Whether I’m in a city or a rural area, I’ll be listening to the birds, or the construction or just the people walking by,” Schaefer said. “The period of time that dawn exists in can be a symbolic and transformational time.”

In her project titled “Art, History and Performance: Seeking the South Asian Collective,” Shaikh seeks to explore themes of identity and belonging by visiting museums and exhibitions featuring South Asian art around the United States.

As an anthropology and gender, women’s and sexuality studies major, Shaikh said her project will look at “what it means for South Asian artists to be away from home and present their work.”

EVAN HEIN

Emma Schaefer `23 (left) received the Watson Fellowship, and she plans to study the intersections of music and environmental justice. Ekta Shaikh `24 (right) will complete her project "Art, History and Performance: Seeking the South Asian Collective" through the Fischlowitz Travel Fellowship.

Jules Covitz `24

Ruby Brent `25

Kade Dolphin `24

OWEN BARBATO

OWEN BARBATO

OWEN BARBATO

CONTRIBUTED BY GRINNELL COLLEGE ARCHIVES Barbara Takahashi `42 was one of the first three Japanese-American students to arrive on Grinnell's campus near the beginning of WWII.

While most participants were "really grateful" and "eager to continue their education," many dropped out.

Wagon Wheels West is big enough for this town

Residing in a tucked-away blue building off of 175 US-6, Wagon Wheels West has served the Grinnell community for nearly five decades. Attached to S&S Electric, the storefront possesses a classic Western charm, complete with a wooden porch, large wagon wheel and a field with horses. Kris Sieck, owner and likely the first person you will see when you enter the store, has helped to turn a family tradition into a multi-generational business.

Sieck said that her husband and co-owner of Wagon Wheels West, Scott Sieck, loved to show horses as a kid, and they continued that tradition with their own children and now grandchildren. In fact, the horses outside of the store belong to the Siecks, and their current business grew from them caring for their own horses into an abundant stock of horse care and other Western products.

Sieck’s parents-in-law, Shirley and Lloyd Sieck, started Wagon Wheels West in Grinnell in the

1970s at a different location closer to town. The store took a brief hiatus from the late 1980s to 1993 when Sieck and her husband moved to a different home and focused on the electrical business.

When they only operated S&S Electric, Sieck said that she and Scott still purchased grooming supplies for their horses to keep in the shop. When customers began to ask if the products were for sale, they expanded their inventory until eventually deciding to reopen a Western store in the other half of the building. “Once people started asking for different products, we’d bring them into the store. Yeah, it was mainly driven by customers,” Sieck said. Wagon Wheels West has stayed at their current 6th Ave. location for 30 years.

Now, Sieck’s son Curtis and grandson Colton both help out at S&S and the Western store. Sieck also said that her 90-year-old mother-in-law still enjoys helping out at the store when she can.

When asked if she ever thought running a Western store would be for her, Sieck laughed and said, “not

at all. I was a city girl.” Sieck now spends her weeks purchasing cowboy boots from numerous vendors, managing business finances, interacting with customers and maintaining the storefront. She said she enjoys taking Saturdays off to relax.

Sieck purchases many of the store’s products a year in advance, and when the packages come a year later, “it’s like Christmas,” she said. “We like to listen to customers for product recommendations,” Sieck added. Sieck said they owe the persistence of their business to their customers.

“Word of mouth is amazing,” she said. In fact, when Sieck sold horse grooming supplies from inside the electrical shop, customers and friends quickly got the word out and demanded for an increase of a variety of products. Today, Sieck said she hopes people will still continue to spread the word about their unique and expansive collection of Western wear and other supplies.

When they remodeled the store in March of 2022, Sieck said it afforded more space for their sizable assortment of apparel. Addition-

ally, the renovation created a new space for the Bargain Barn, a separate room solely designated for discounted clothes. But perhaps the most eye-catching part of the store is a floor-to-ceiling wall of cowboy boots that tower over Seick’s head.

Sieck said that Wagon Wheels West is “not just a Western store — we’re here to serve Grinnell.” In addition to grooming supplies and their stock of 3,000 cowboy boots, Sieck said she wants people to know that they also have other casual

clothing and shoe options. The casual shoes are her favorite, she said. “I just love these,” Sieck said, pointing to her own pair. “They’re so comfy.”

“They have a good selection of clothes, some funky jewelry and as I said before, an epic selection of cowboy boots,” wrote Agatha Fusco `25 in an email to the S&B. Fusco visited Wagon Wheels West this year and wrote that other students should consider supporting them. “We just want people to come check us out,” Sieck smiled.

Periodic Table, where a table periodically opens

rience for them by crafting a cocktail, mocktail, or meal that they will enjoy and remember.”

The history of the bar and hotel is also unique, as it used to be the location of a high school. “The ballroom of the hotel was where the gym was and the bar was where the locker rooms were,” Nickle said. After renovating the space into its current form, the bar also got its name.

“We did a play on words with the Periodic Table as in the periodic table of elements but also that, periodically, there’s a table open,” said Nickle. Another thing that makes the bar unique is that there is only one neon sign in the whole building, according to Nickle.

Being a bartender also comes with a fair amount of interesting and fun stories. Some of the most interesting people Nickle has met are parents of students at the College. Nickle said that the bar tries to cater to college families and has a diverse menu because of that demographic.

Complete with a checkerboard floor and signs labeled with chemical elements on the wall, the Periodic Table bar and lounge at Hotel Grinnell will not be forgotten. Located only 10 minutes away from the Grinnell College campus, this bar offers drinks and an ambiance that is hard to find elsewhere.

The Periodic Table is a unique bar because every employee of Hotel Grinnell does almost everything, said Amelia Nickle, director of operations and sales at Hotel Grinnell. Nickle is originally from Colorado, and she moved to Grinnell around 10 years ago. She said that she has been working in the service industry for most of her life. Along with her role of director, Nickel also bartends at the Periodic Table.

“A typical day for somebody who’s bartending at the Periodic Table, they could also be cooking, or running the front desk as well as bartending,” Nickle said. This unique system does not change the quality of the bar or the selections available.

“We have a selection of cocktails, mocktails and cans and bottles of craft beer,” Nickle said. All of these drinks can be enjoyed either inside the bar or soon outside on the patio as the weath-

er warms up. Nickle said that when the summer comes the bar will hopefully include live music on Fridays and Saturdays, and maybe Thursdays. Nickle said she thinks this music will only add to the ambiance of the bar.

Nickle also explained how being a good bartender includes making the bar feel welcoming to customers.

“Bartending is an art form rather than a job. Your job is not to get people drunk, your job is to create an expe-

“We do a lot of world-inspired dishes and drinks. So because they [college parents] are from all over the world they seem to appreciate it better,” Nickle said. She also said, “I really like when they come in and I can serve them and get to know them throughout the years.”

The Periodic Table is certainly a unique bar that everyone can enjoy. With a wide range of drinks and food, the bar also has “the best patio in Grinnell,” according to Nickle.

PAUL HANSEN

Wagon Wheels West, a family business, has served the Grinnell community for nearly five decades.

By Allison Moore mooreall2@grinnell.edu

PAUL HANSEN

Wagon Wheels West has a wall filled with cowboy boots.

PAUL HANSEN

Amelia Nickle, director of operations and sales at Hotel Grinnell, stands behind the Periodic Table bar.

By Conrad Dahm dahmconr@grinnell.edu

Arts

By George Kosinski kosinski@grinnell.edu

talk about — I had a notebook, [I] had an imaginative life,” Clavocoressi said.

“Poetry, before I even thought of it as poetry, was a space where I could talk about things that I didn’t know how to talk about, or how to work with silence and make it generative as someone who lived in a different vessel than I imagined for myself at the time, who didn’t know how to talk about being non-binary, transgender or sexuality in general.”

TAKEN BY LEVI STRAND, CONTRIBUTED BY GRINNELL COLLEGE Gabrielle Calvocoressi.

The following evening, the joy donned a more subtle garb as listeners left heartfelt thanks to Calvocoressi and Sandra Lim in the comments of a Zoom call following the poets’ joint reading. All this was part of a miniresidency at Grinnell College during which Calvocoressi and Lim did more on campus than the usual Writers@ Grinnell roundtable discussion and reading, also leading a workshop entitled Mary Oliver & Elizabeth Bishop: Our Queer and Knowing Pals (If We’re Here To Greet Them) and engaging with students and classes over the course of several days.

Calvocoressi and Lim have each resided at the forefront of the American poetry landscape for several years. Calvocoressi is the awardwinning author of three collections

— “The Last Time I Saw Amelia Earhart,” “Apocalyptic Swing,” which was a finalist for the LA Times Book Prize, and “Rocket Fantastic,” winner of the Audre Lorde Award for Lesbian Poetry. They are currently the Beatrice Shepherd Blane Fellow at the HarvardRadcliffe Institute for 2022-2023.

Calvocoressi said in an interview that they began writing poetry at a young age to explore difficult topics they encountered. “In a household and a world filled with secrets and shame — things people didn’t know how to

Citing their influences as Mary Oliver, Elizabeth Bishop, Mark Dody, Marie Howe, Nikky Finney, Lucille Clifton and Marlanda Dekine, Calvocoressi described their journey as one of finding an authentic voice.

“The way in which my poetry, or I myself, have ripened, matured or come more fully into myself reflects an ability to talk in a way that feels authentic about the world and myself — in a way where I retain privacy yet also relate to the world, and people can see something about themselves without me telling them about themselves,” Calvocoressi said.

Many of Calvocoressi’s poems take the form of a story, which through the lens of subjective experience, create vivid images and sensations.

“Story is really important to me,” Calvocoressi said. “I try to tell stories in my poems without using a traditional narrative form — a lot of narrated poetry feels narrated by an authority which talks at the reader, creating a level of distance. Storytelling feels more human, more idiosyncratic.”

In Calvocoressi’s poetry, this often leads to hyper-subjective portrayals of experience which at times feel contradictory, which they say is exactly the point. “My poems are what it means to be in the world and be conscious,” they said. “Poetry

isn’t located in being right but in being willing to look at the world and question one’s view.”

Calvocoressi said that ultimately, they hope their poems are an invitation for readers to open themselves up to feelings which can be difficult to express.

“I would love poems to be vessels that people can drop into and put on,” they said. “Literature lets us think about the specific ways you’re going to make decisions about how you breathe while reading poems, what images your eye falls in, where you enter a work, whether you share it on social media or keep it under your pillow. In that way, it becomes a testing ground and an opportunity to explore citizenship, and everyone is welcome in my poems. If people feel uncomfortable, I’m willing to have a conversation — I won’t change myself, but I’m willing to speak to anyone.” At the event on Tuesday, Calvocoressi read several emotionally stirring poems which grappled with themes of love, death and the inevitability of loss, before Lim took center stage and read several of her own.

Lim is the author of three poetry collections — “The Curious Thing,” “The Wilderness,” winner of the Barnard Women Poets Prize selected by Louise Glück, and “The Loveliest Grotesque.” An associate professor of English at the University of Massachusetts, Lowell also serves on the poetry faculty at the Warren Wilson College MFA Program for Writers.

Like Calvocoressi, Lim wrote in an email to the S&B that she also gravitated to poetry at a young age, albeit for different reasons.

>> Continued on thesandb.com

MIYUMI Project improvises and innovates

By Cadence Chen chencade@grinnell.edu

plucking his upright bass. His improvisational collaborators joined in with patience. Some of the music built off of musical structures the band was previously familiar with, giving them the opportunity to improvise around these structures.

and the energy,” she said.

“There are times when, like, ‘oh, I feel like this is a moment where I can join,’” Kioto Aoki said. “But then the music shifts and maybe that moment has passed, and you're finding a new way.”

Founded and led by Japanese bassist Tatsu Aoki, the MIYUMI Project is a band that melds traditional Japanese music with Chicago’s experimental jazz tradition. With the band having had over 20 years to hone their craft, Aoki told the audience after the music’s first pause that what they were hearing was “the core essence of Chicago avant-garde jazz music.”

The group’s current roster rotates for each of their performances, so every show does not feature every band member. At this performance, collaborators were Mwata Bowden and Edward Wilkerson Jr., both on the horn and didgeridoo, Jamie Kempkers on the cello, Tatsu Aoki on the upright bass and shamisen, Coco Elysses on the conga drum and Noriko Sugiyama and Kioto Aoki on the taiko drum.

In the dimly lit museum, Tatsu Aoki began the performance by

By Krista Spies spieskri@grinnell.edu

“¡Viva Maestro!” is a 2022 feature documentary film that brings the viewer to concert halls around the world as director, writer and producer Ted Braun showcases the electric conductor Gustavo Dudamel. Braun came to Grinnell College last Wednesday, April 12 to screen the movie and participate in a Q&A, sponsored by the Rosenfield Program, the film and media studies concentration and the music department.what

“I think first and foremost, his [Dudamel’s] story is an exemplary tale of the resilience of a person who believes, against incredible obstacles, that art can bring us together in the most trying of times and remind us of why we belong together and what we share in the most principal way as human beings,” said Braun.

Dudamel is currently the music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Paris Opera and the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela, which is Dudamel’s home country.

One of the reasons why Chen, professor of studio art and chair of the American studies department, said he wanted the MIYUMI Project to close his exhibition is because of his personal interest in improvisation as an artist.

“We try to investigate the potential of something,” he said. “What does this object or space afford?”

Kioto Aoki, drummer and daughter of Tatsu Aoki, said that the band was responding to the room and the audience.

While she said she found the room to be humid — “Very ugly,” she added — which flattened the texture of the taiko’s soundwaves, rehearsal was dedicated to working with the drum to better its sound quality. She also found the audience had brought “good energy” with their engagement.

She referred to a “sixth sense” that the band members have been able to develop through experience in their craft and working together. They are “communicating through the sounds

The filmmaker described Dudamel as “the most dynamic and important conductor of his generation,” and as “someone who had a unique capacity to bring people from many different walks of life, sociologically.”

Braun said that this documentary was motivated in part by his desire to take a break from making films about big global problems. His two past feature documentaries include “Betting on Zero,” released in 2016 and about economic crime with the company Herbalife, and “Darfur Now,” released in 2007 and about genocide in Darfur, Sedan. Instead, in “¡Viva Maestro!,” Braun places his focus “on someone who was really interested in bringing beauty into the world.”

The Dudamel film is an example of the documentary filmmaking style known as “cinéma vérité,” or observational cinema. Braun described it as “following the unfolding events in a person’s life.” In this style, as the film’s team accompanies the main subject in their daily life, situations change and alter the filming process. “More often than not, what you expect to unfold turns out to be quite

The band was placed in front of “A Place for Our Bodies,” a piece that centers a silhouette of a person on a wall and is surrounded with various canes Chen collected.

Drummer Noriko Sugiyama joined in much later than the rest of the band. When she did join in, she eventually met Kioto Aoki, and they entered into a groove played in near unison, in which the other players stepped back. This sound could be felt throughout the room, and it reverberated to the back, where a brick hung from the ceiling went from stillness to bouncing.

Over the years, musicians in the Chicago area shuffled in and out of the band, including Chen’s brother Jonathan Chen until he moved to New York City. Kioto, who the brothers have known since she was little, added that the group was playing “for Jeremy” and that there was an “awareness” of him.

While introducing the band, Chen tied together the ideas of philosopher

different from what actually unfolds,” said Braun. “You start to engage in a process of constant revision and constant clarification.”

Within the context of “¡Viva Maestro!,” Braun said that they set out to focus on the musical life of the conductor and the drama of the art world, with his home country of Venezuela and its current sociopolitical and economic issues — from hyperinflation to high crime and mortality rates — serving as an expositional backdrop. However, about six weeks into production, Braun said, “the problems of Venezuela exploded and changed the course of his life,” along with the film team’s access to the country and the people they had been filming.

Braun also works as a professor of cinematic arts and Joseph Campbell Endowed Chair of Cinematic Ethics at the University of Southern California. He said he accepted the position of ethics chair because “its place is actually central to everything that we do. That when you put a film out into the world, in some way or another, you’re inviting change,” no matter how

Cornel West, on jazz as an American art form, and jazz critic Stanley Crouch, on improvisation.

In referencing West’s idea of jazz bringing together diverse people, Chen said that he loves how the medium feels to be the representation of “this ideal of America.” Though the artist acknowledged the difficulty of reaching this kind of perfection, Chen still spoke to the importance of experimentation. He also took from a 2006

CONTRIBUTED BY JEREMY CHEN

interview with NPR, in which Stanley Crouch said, "in jazz, the improvisers create things at just about the same velocity that things are usually destroyed. And that, to me, is part of the excitement and the wonder of the art."

With the destruction brought by wars, shifting weather patterns and the global pandemic, Chen added, “Of all of these things, I just feel like we need things like this that are what bring us together to create something.”

Ted Braun (L) and Assistant Professor of Film and Media Studies Nich Perez (R) discuss Braun's film.

great or small. “You’re actually trying in some way or another to suggest people live a little bit differently from the way they did before they came in,” he said, which engages in the realm of human ethics.

human being has a place in the world, and if you develop your capacities as a filmmaker, which requires enormous discipline, tremendous hard work and a great deal of humility and curiosity about the world, if you develop those capacities, you can bring that individual signature into the world and change it.”

The MIYUMI Project performs in front of Jeremy Chen's piece titled "A Place for Our Bodies."

SOFIIA ZARUCHENKO

The joy in the Alumni Recitation Hall (ARH) auditorium was palpable the night of Monday, April 10 — peals of laughter erupted as Gabrielle Calvocoressi gave a workshop on an Elizabeth Bishop poem. Despite the workshop being highly informative, it might easily have passed for standup comedy.

"¡Viva Maestro!" explores art, political unrest

Chess Club sets the tempo with blitz tournament

in the fall of 2021, Wolfe said that he and Jack Connelly `25, president of Chess Club, have been working to begin hosting regular tournaments, with the April 8 tournament being the second this year. 32 players competed in a league system, and top-scoring players earned prizes. Following Matic and Holding was Gavin Felker `23, who placed third.

Wolfe said the club has been trying to expand to include more students, a goal that motivated him and Connelly to expand club leadership to also include Matic, Holding and Mike Eikmeier as club organizers.

“We just wanted to bring life back to chess at Grinnell,” Wolfe said.

An academic assistant at the College, Eikmeier got involved in the club after coming to some of their meetings.

in collaboration with the Boxing Club at Block Party this year.

“I mean, what could go wrong mixing chess, boxing and alcohol?” he added jokingly. “I think it’s great.”

As their clocks ticked down towards zero, Filip Matic `24 and Noah Holding `26 fired off moves in rapid succession, taking and losing piece after piece. The match had turned into a battle of attrition.

The round five matchup between Matic and Holding had become the pivotal match of the April 8 tournament hosted by Chess Club. Whoever managed to secure a victory in that match would most likely be

crowned champion of the day. With at least a dozen entranced spectators, the match entered its final stage.

A last-minute offensive by Matic began stripping Holding of his pieces, and by the time Holding’s clock ran out, only his king remained. A handshake sealed the result, and Matic ultimately remained undefeated, thus securing first place in the tournament. Holding would take second, only losing that one game to Matic.

Having played chess for over 10 years in his childhood, Matic is no stranger to competition.

Matic, an international student from Serbia, said he used to play more in elementary school at both municipal and national tournaments. He also said he played in a tournament in Russia.

Playing against Holding proved his most challenging match of the day. “He played very, very tough,” Matic said.

While he has a long history playing chess all those years ago, Matic said that he only recently picked up the game again after a five-year break. As one of the organizers of Chess Club, he has had ample time to refresh his skills.

“We have our 8 to 10 people who might come every Saturday to just hang out, laugh and play some chess,” said Oliver Wolfe `25, treasurer of the club. “It’s a great environment.”

Every Saturday, members of the club will meet to play chess in the Humanities and Social Studies Center (HSSC) room N2112 from 2-4 p.m. According to Wolfe, it is at these get-togethers where Matic, Holding and many other chess enthusiasts refine their craft.

Since the club’s official return

“It was fun that we were all students, and then there was a real adult who [was] interested in playing chess with us,” Wolfe said. Eikmeier joined club leadership and served as tournament director for the April 8 event.

Having grown up around chess, Eikmeier said that he had missed the presence of chess and chess clubs on campus. “I wish I had one when I was in school,” he said.

The club has plans to continue expanding, according to Wolfe. In addition to trying to plan one more tournament before the end of the year, Wolfe said the club hopes to have a chess-boxing event

We just wanted to bring life back to chess at Grinnell.

Oliver Wolfe `25

Chess Club is open to all levels of experience. They meet weekly in HSSC N2112 from 2 to 4 p.m. and can be reached at chess@studentorg.grinnell.edu.

Editor’s note: Oliver Wolfe is a staff writer for the S&B. Wolfe was not involved in the writing or editing of this article.

Football ups recruitment efforts

As a Division III institution that does not dole out scholarships or admission based on athletics, Grinnell has similarly struggled to maintain a sufficient number of players on their roster.

In fact, the Grinnell football team had the smallest roster in the Midwest Conference between 2012 and 2019. In the past couple years, however, Barnes said that he has worked to increase the average number of players on the team, and he continues to do so.

“There is a minimum [number of players] that you need to be able to practice and play safely,” Barnes said. “What that number is, that’s a great question. It’s probably higher than we are right now.”

Occidental College made the decision to officially end football at their school in October of 2020, citing concerns over the size of the roster. In order to withstand the inevitable injury and player loss that occurs over the course of a season, Occidental said that they would have to admit 5% of their incoming class, 20-25 students, as football players. They stated that the admissions cost and

economic cost of trying to maintain a sufficient team at a school of their size was the reason for their decision.

Occidental College is not alone in these issues. For example, Swarthmore College and Colorado College ended their football programs in 2000 and 2008, respectively.

Grinnell has 16 official peer institutions, 5 of which — Colorado College, Swarthmore College, Vassar College, Reed College and Smith College — do not currently have football teams.

Coach Barnes is definitely the best recruiter I [have] had. He was the most consistent in terms of checking in on me. It didn’t even have to be footballrelated.

Hugh Werner `25

As of now, Grinnell’s roster has 53 players, 10 of whom are fourthyears. Roughly 20 new players have signed on to join the team for next year.

Barnes said that when looking at peer institutions like Carleton College, teams are able to be more

competitive at the 70-80 player mark as they are able to more regularly switch out players on the field. However, Barnes said that he is not interested in growing to the 100-120 player size of some other schools in the conference, like Monmouth College.

“Players do not want to be the 23rd linebacker on a 28 linebacker crew,” he said. “That doesn’t excite a lot of kids who do the research with regards to what the roster might look like at other schools.”

Hugh Werner `25, defensive back, said that the small team size at Grinnell is also a benefit to team bonding.

“I think if you get on the other teams that are 100 plus, you find that the guys aren’t as dedicated,” said Werner. “It’s nice to have 41 guys that really care.”

With a larger group expected to play next year, Evan Stoller `26, tight end, said that he feels the team is successfully expanding in size. “We [the football team] weren’t even filling the buses,” he said. “But next year, we’re getting a lot more players. So there is clear improvement.”

Barnes said that he and the other coaches have done a better job of attracting players in the past two years, describing their recruitment model as “something we’ve

kind of come up with in-house that works for us.” He continued, “I think the gist of it is it’s a unique school and a unique location.”

Barnes said that they are recruiting from the relatively small group of students who are looking to play college football and meet the right academic standard to receive admission to Grinnell. As a result, he said that he tries to communicate with prospective players directly.

Brandon Tennicott `26, defensive back, said that Barnes reached out to him through Twitter, and the ambition of everyone at the College drew him to attend.

Tennicott said that Grinnell is “just different from what my family has experienced, and I thought, ‘Why not break the box?’”

When comparing the College’s recruitment efforts to those of other colleges, Werner said, “Coach Barnes is definitely the best recruiter I [have] had. He was the most consistent in terms of checking in on me. It didn’t even have to be football-related.”

Barnes said that academics are ultimately the reason why many of his players end up at Grinnell.

As such, he said that he emphasizes the elite academics of Grinnell when talking to potential players.

That reason was the most sa-

ELEANOR CORBIN

lient for Skinner, who said that he chose to transfer to Grinnell College for the academic opportunity.

“When I was narrowing down my list, I talked to people and they always said that they wish they had more Grinnell students to come to their grad programs,” said Skinner. “I knew it would be a place that set me up for success.”

I think we are being a little bit more forceful about saying, ‘Hey, here’s who we are, and here’s how we differ from other schools.’

Brent Barnes Head Football Coach

Looking forward, Barnes said that the coaching staff is always discussing how to improve their strategies of direct communication, academic emphasis and prioritizing campus visits. He said that they debrief after each recruitment season and have worked to finetune the message they send to interested players.

Barnes said, “I think we are being a little bit more forceful about saying ‘Hey, here’s who we are, and here’s how we differ from other schools.’”

MOHAMMAD IGBARIA

Participants playing their matches during Chess Club’s tournament on April 8. By Mohammad Igbaria igbariam@grinnell.edu

MOHAMMAD IGBARIA

Filip Matic `24 (left) in his round 6 match against Howie Youngdahl `25 (right).

MOHAMMAD IGBARIA Raj Jhanwar `25 moves his king in his match against Sam Bigham `26.

The Grinnell football team

MOHAMMAD IGBARIA

The top three players in Chess Club’s April 8 tournament. From left: Noah Holding `26 (2nd place), Filip Matic `24 (1st) and Gavin Felker `23 (3rd).

Shouldn’t student happiness be the simplest reflection of whether a college is “good” or not?

By Zach Spindler-Krage spindler@grinnell.edu

When I was accepted into Grinnell College, the first thing I did was look at its ranking. As I weighed my options and approached a final decision, I subconsciously compared schools based on my perception of their prestige. While rankings were far from the only factor in my eventual selection of Grinnell, they certainly played a role in my choice.

In the U.S. News and World Report, the alleged gold-standard for college rankings, Grinnell College currently ranks #15 out of over 200 liberal arts colleges across the United States. The ranking position prompts a seemingly simple takeaway — Grinnell College is worse than 14 other liberal arts colleges, and it is better than the majority. Yet, this interpretation is a gross simplification of what it means for a college to be “good.”

As soon as U.S. News began placing colleges into an ordered list, it created an assumption that some schools are inherently better than others. However, the establishment of the “best colleges,” which is intended to be an objective list, is based on a subjective methodology. According to U.S. News, a fifth of each college’s overall grade is based on “expert opinion” and “academic reputation.” For liberal arts colleges, this score is calculated by sending a comprehensive list of all the liberal arts colleges in the country to each college’s president, provost and dean of admissions. At each participating school, these three individuals rank the hundreds of schools on a scale of one to five. The average score of all respondents then becomes 20% of the ranking equation.

This process raises the question of how these three individuals possibly know enough about the other colleges to accurately score their reputation. If most of these individuals are delegating scores without knowing meaningful details about the college, it is likely that they are simply relying on the prior year’s rankings to guide their perception of reputation.

As a result, the rankings process becomes cyclical. The colleges at the top of the list generally remain at the top because their high ranking gives them a good reputation, and their good reputation subsequently gives them a high ranking again the next year.

Much of the other data that U.S. News uses — graduation rate, financial resources and student selectivity — fail to reveal any substantive information about the actual quality of an institution. This data does not indicate, for example, why the graduation rate is high or low, how accessible or inaccessible resources are to students or whether selectivity comes at the cost of diversity.

Because U.S. News attempts to be both heterogeneous, comparing colleges of all sizes, locations, etc., and comprehensive, comparing across multiple variables, it ultimately fails to create an effective or useful ranking.

Despite the recent news of many top law schools no longer submitting data to U.S. News, I highly doubt that there will be a widespread rejection of

Sage & PotentialBlunt:Expat

Dear Sage & Blunt,

I’m a fourth-year, and I’m not really sure what I’m gonna do with my life next year (tale as old as time). One option is that I could live abroad for a year teaching English and experience that glamorous European lifestyle (with its accompanying homesickness and potential isolation), or I could settle for a mid job in a Midwestern city, but I’d be around my friends and the people that I love. I’m just not sure what to prioritize — being brave and open to new experiences or keeping a support system of friends nearby during my foray into post-grad life. What do you think I should do?

Sincerely,

Potential Expat

Dear Potential Expat,

Ah! Do you see it? Do you see what you’ve done there? Look at the pseudonym you’ve given yourself for these advice-seeking purposes. Maybe I’m jumping to conclusions, but you didn’t name yourself “Potential Employed Resident of Chicago.” Your imagination is already wandering overseas, which tells me you should follow it there, but let’s talk it through first.

There are so many situations in which my advice would be to go where your people are. The best part of college, as we all know, is living among a vibrant community of people who are your age and at a similar place in life. Entering the workforce post-grad is often jarring and isolating, and it would make a meaningful difference to be around your best folks as you make that transition. But there will always be mid jobs in Midwestern cities waiting for you.

However, you will not always be this young and untethered, and your bravery muscle will atrophy if you don’t flex it. It will become harder and harder to justify wild excursions with each passing season. If there is any time to run off to Europe, it is now.

And like, for a year? No-brainer. Go.

That’s like three weeks in U.S. capitalist hellscape time. Most of your friends

The Scarlet & Black Staff Spring 2023

Nadia Langley

Allison Moore

Nina Baker

Ellianna Cierpiot

Eleanor Corbin

Lilli Morrish

Mohammad Igbaria

Jandry Perez Garcia

Millie Peck

Samuel Bates

Nora Kohnhorst

Maddi Shinall

Cornelia Di Gioia

Gabriela Rożnawska

rankings. After all, highly ranked colleges have a significant incentive to preserve rankings — the higher rated they are, the more applicants they are likely to receive.

Consequently, I believe that the most realistic step is for colleges to insist that U.S. News adapts its methodology to better reflect the quality of student experience at a college. This could mean that a college’s acceptance rate, test scores, post-grad income, alumni giving rate and overall reputation are given less weight.

Instead, rankings could take into account the day-to-day variables that affect student experience, including class size, one-on-one time with professors, research opportunities, funding for individual opportunities, availability of advisors, access to mental health resources, advocacy opportunities, interaction with the community, frequency of interaction with students from different backgrounds, ideological diversity and LGBTQ+ inclusivity. This change also requires an acknowledgement that qualitative data is equally critical to rankings as quantitative data. In fact, student hap-

piness may be the simplest reflection of whether a college is “good” or not.

In my eyes, the increasing focus on college rankings has caused a misguided aspiration for students to attend one of the “top-ranked” national colleges and universities regardless of the cost or actual academic experience. And yet, it is becoming increasingly apparent to me — as cliché as it is — that prestige matters far less than the accessibility of meaningful opportunities for students. Most importantly, success and happiness are derived from finding a “good fit” — something that is not found by looking at the U.S. News rankings.

In addition, at colleges where financial status is included in the acceptance process, a larger applicant pool may cause a rise in tuition as more applicants would be willing and able to pay full tuition or close to it. When this happens, the college tends to become less accessible for low-income students who cannot contribute as much money, potentially leading to a decrease in diversity.

The reliance on current college rankings may be comfortable, but it

certainly is not the best approach to determining the quality of the experience that a college offers. Until the methodology is changed, colleges like Grinnell will continue to prioritize variables that are important to rankings but not important to students. Some colleges actively attempt to lower their acceptance rate strictly because they will rise in the rankings, even though the acceptance rate has little to no effect on student experience.

At Grinnell, for example, I would argue that there is a correlation between the lowering acceptance rate and changes in the character of campus. Many alumni talk about how they actively sought out Grinnell because they were attracted to its academics, intentional community, self-governance, social-justice mindset and ethics. Now, I hear many students indicating that they choose Grinnell simply because of its high ranking and national reputation. It creates an interesting tension — some students are here for the experience while others are here predominantly for the prestige. It seems as if Grinnell is no longer the first choice of many students here. Instead, Grinnell may simply have been the highest ranked college they were accepted to. However, since the rankings do not account for student experience, many of those students may end up unhappy at Grinnell. According to the College’s 2022 Art and Science Persistence Study, 47% of 401 surveyed respondents indicated that they had considered leaving at some point during their time at Grinnell. Not only are these students potentially unhappy, but they also may be occupying spaces that would be better filled by applicants who want Grinnell College for the experience, not the prestige. Colleges should demand an overhaul of the ranking methodology so that they can focus their resources on variables that more directly impact the lives of students. For Grinnell, this could be an increase in funding for student initiatives, prioritizing community interaction or, with enough luck, putting up more hammocks.

will probably still be in that Midwestern city when you return, excited to welcome you back and hear about your adventures.

Besides the exercise of courage and openness to new experiences, this is a chance to form enduring relationships with people who live across the planet. Maybe a beautiful Sicilian man with whom to carry on a passionate affair and reunite after a divorce or two, or an English student you keep in touch with for so many years that you

get to meet each other’s children. (I’m fantasizing on your behalf — I’m getting too excited!) Your world will just get bigger, and that’s pretty nifty. There is always time to settle (your words, not mine!). You won’t regret putting it off for a year even though living abroad will be scary and uncomfortable at times — in fact, this is the most essential reason to go. It’s good to be somewhere significantly different than where you have always been, somewhere you may not fit in.

You’ll learn who you are when everything around you is unfamiliar, and you’ll build the confidence to stay true to that person, even as your surroundings shift and shift again. Don’t forget to send a postcard every so often for the folks at home who’ll miss you. Bon voyage!

Tenderly, Sage & Blunt

GABRIELA ROŻNAWSKA