Volume 133, Issue 10.

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Community

Features

Grinnell admin responds to the closing of Central Iowa Family Planning

Arts

“We cut out a big chunk and try to slam some stuff out."

Indie artist Mitski lights up Gardner

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the

Scarlet & Black Volume 133, Issue 10

thesandb.com

November 11, 2016 • Grinnell, Iowa

Campus responds to Trump victory

JEFF LI

Students, faculty and staff came together in the JRC courtyard on Wednesday afternoon to support one another and share their grief, concerns and hope. By Emma Friedlander friedlan@grinnell.edu Grinnellians flocked to various locations throughout campus Tuesday night to view the results of the 2016 general election. Anticipation of a sweeping Hillary Clinton victory turned to surprise, shock and fear for some as they were hit with the realization that political outsider

Donald Trump would win the United States presidency. Anna Schierenbeck ’18, co-chair of Grinnell Campus Democrats was working in Lyle’s pub at a campus watch party as the news came in. After pouring hours into political field organization throughout the campaign cycle, Schierenbeck was shocked at Trump’s unexpected win.

“I wish I had given more thought to the idea that there could be a Donald Trump presidency,” Schierenbeck said. “I was so surprised, and I’m mad at myself for not thinking that this could be real. I don’t know if I ever took this seriously enough.” Despite the sweeping Republican victory at all levels of government, including in Poweshiek County,

Campus Democrats saw unprecedented success this year in getting college students out to vote. Grinnellians contributed 616 early votes, which, in combination with votes cast on Nov. 8, surpasses the 683 votes cast in 2012 and 591 votes cast in 2008. “As a campus organization we really, really did everything we could. We have record breaking early vote

numbers this year and got a residential agreement we got to happen with the College,” Schierenbeck said. “We worked hard and we did everything we could, but as a national consciousness, we could have taken this a lot more seriously.” Almost immediately following the announcement of Trump’s victory, students Alice Herman ’18, Michelle >> See Election, page 3

College moves to reopen family planning clinic

By Mira Braneck braneckm@grinnell.edu

obtained.

Central Iowa Family Planning (CIFP), a reproductive health care clinic that provided low cost or free access to care in Grinnell, closed its doors on Monday, Nov. 7. The decision was made very rapidly and came as a shock to the community, the College and even the individuals that worked at CIFP. However, in response to this decision, the College met with the healthcare community of the City of Grinnell on Thursday, Nov. 10. At the meeting, the decision was made to begin the process of opening a new, similar clinic in the Grinnell, with the College backing the clinic financially until federal funding is

What services did CIFP provide? CIFP provided “comprehensive, low-cost reproductive health care and family planning services,” according to the clinic’s website. Although founded as a stand-alone clinic, the clinic eventually obtained Title X funding, funds that are designated to provide lowincome or uninsured individuals access to family planning and reproductive services. “For most of our patients, it’s free care, which means they get free birth control as well as STD testing and reproductive health counseling,” said Claudia Beckwith ’77, a nurse

Mental health task force convenes

By Steve Yang yangstev17@grinnell.edu

The Office of Analytic Support and Institutional Research and the RAND Corporation developed the “Mental Health and Support Networks Survey,” that will be sent to Grinnell students on Monday, Nov. 7. The questions will primarily focus on depression, anxiety and substance abuse, “the three most common issues related to mental health on campus, according to SHACS aggregate reporting,” according to a campus-wide email on Wednesday, Nov. 2. The email also announced the creation of the Student Mental Health Task Force, comprised of representatives from numerous parts of campus. The task force will follow a tripartite model to address mental health on campus and report to President Kington. The mental health survey’s results are intended to serve as a starting point for more intensive research into campus work and will inform the changes implemented by Saturday Liberal Arts in Prison program volunteer training JRC 225, 3 p.m.

the Task Force, which consists of the Chaplain’s office, the CRSSJ, Director of Wellness Jen Jacobsen and student advocates for mental health, including Toby Baratta ’17, SGA Diversity & Outreach Coordinator and Maddie O’Meara ’18. “As someone who really cares about the data and finds the fact that our mental health on campus is collectively worse than the norm really troubling, I’m excited to see how this pilot survey turns out and hope to see other [Associated Colleges of the Midwest (ACM)] colleges participating,” Baratta wrote in an email to The S&B. O’Meara added that the survey serves as a first step towards concrete, practical action at Grinnell. She anticipates the College will feel obliged to fulfill this role since it is serves as the vanguard for this program within ACM schools. “[This] particular survey is important because it represents >> See Mental Health page 2

practitioner who has been working at CIFP since 1989. “So it’s been an amazing government program, and it still exists, but the clinics that have Title X funding that can stay open now are those who also have some other major funding.” The clinic, which Beckwith describes as having provided “LBGT friendly and feminist care,” provided birth control, pregnancy testing, breast and pelvic exams, STI and HIV testing and family planning education and counseling, all at a very low cost or completely free to its patients. Many of the patients went to the clinic either out of financial necessity or in search of confidential access to reproductive care.

Beckwith saw something special in the way the Grinnell office of CIFP operated. “I would say that since we’re the satellite clinic, the clinic had its own personality. We could practice how we wanted, as long as it was safe and careful,” she said. “We were able to put our personality into it, which was really nice.” What brought on the closure? The decision to close CIFP came very suddenly and shook the community. The board of the organization making the decision to close on Tuesday, Nov. 2, informed the staff on Wednesday, Nov. 3 and closed its office on the following Monday.

The clinic simply did not have the funds to continue its day-today operations. Last April, the state privatized Medicaid, which is now run by three managed care organizations (MCOs), which essentially ceased payments to CIFP. “They’ve been paying us either not at all or a lot less or delaying the payment,” Beckwith said. “And so since April, our income has gone way, way down, because we haven’t been getting this major source of our income. That was what really precipitated the closing.” The privatization complicated the >> See Central Iowa page 4

Group volunteers at Standing Rock

HELENA GRUENSTEIDL

Students prepare a banner to bring to Standing Rock protesters. By Keli Vitaioli vitaioli@grinnell.edu 11 Grinnell students will make a supply trip to Standing Rock, ND beginning yesterday and returning Sunday. They will deliver banners, food, warm clothes and other donations that were collected and made in the week leading up to the trip. Planning began soon after massive support for the protests was expressed on Facebook, wherein people across the United States checked into Standing

Rock as a response to rumors that the police had been using check ins to target protestors. Some students, including Annie Casey and Fintan Mason, both ’17, felt they had the means to organize. “It started as a conversation in my kitchen … it just generated this organic conversation about what it means to stand in solidarity and what it means to show support,” Casey said. “We felt like it was a really powerful moment where people were cognizant of the issue for the first time in a really

present way and linking themselves to that issue as a powerful statement, and we wanted to ask how we could do more.” Members of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe founded the Sacred Stone Protest Camp on April 1, 2015. Since the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers approval of the pipeline in July of 2015, protestors have faced responses from police in the form of tear gas and arrests and more violent cases of rubber bullets and stand offs with white militant groups. The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe heads the protests. The 3.8 billion dollar Dakota Access Pipeline is attempting to run through land that belongs to the Tribe, according to the Fort-Laramie Treaty of 1851 and also native claims. More than 100 other tribes have joined the cause, along with other water protectors from across the country. Construction of the pipeline threatens drinking water, sacred sites and historic lands. The pipeline was previously purposed to run through predominantly white Bismarck, and when the inhabitants balked at the possibility of their water supply being >> See Standing Rock page 2

Tuesday The Making of a Midwestern Prairie

Wednesday Community Lunch

Wednesday

Racism in Global Perspective

Thursday In Defense of Popular Culture

JRC 101, 7:30 p.m.

JRC 224B, 12 p.m.

JRC 101, 5:30 p.m.

JRC 101, 5:30 p.m.

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