Volume 133, Issue 11

Arts

Community

Features

QPOC lights up the stage at Drag Show

The Stonewall Resource Center celebrates 30 years of support for queer students

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Grinnell High School experiences bias incidents page 6

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the

Scarlet & Black Volume 133, Issue 11

thesandb.com

November 18, 2016 • Grinnell, Iowa

Post-election, Grinnell springs into action

Rosenfield responds to Republican resurgence

Student Action protests Trump, Rastetter

By Steve Yang yangstev@grinnell.edu On Friday, Nov. 11, Grinnell College Student Action (GCSA) led a group of over 60 Grinnell students to Des Moines to protest at the office of Cultivation Corridor, where Bruce Rastetter, the sitting president of the Board of Regents that overlooks Iowa’s public universities, has a seat on the company’s Board. The group’s student letter demanded a 15 dollar minimum wage, a water clean-up program paid for by corporate polluters and the shutdown of the Dakota Access Oil Pipeline. GCSA garnered significant media attention with their activism, including a feature in the Des Moines Register and a substantial number of engagements on social media.

The organizers sought to guide confused and frustrated students towards concrete action against a man they expect to make the short list for Secretary of Agriculture in the incoming White House Cabinet. Molly Kraus-Steinmetz '17 said that while she felt Trump’s election was detrimental for GCSA’s goals, it wouldn’t stop the group from pushing forward and advocating for its aims.

“In some ways, this was born out of a desire to give people a chance to actually act, to move forward,” KrausSteinmetz said. “With Trump, that creates a much more hostile climate for things that GCSA wants to have happen. We are determined not to play defense … and see direct action as a good way to get involved. We want to show students a way to make a difference.”

A student in GCSA presented a letter to Jay Byers, one of Ratsetter’s fellow Board-members on the Board of Regents. The letter stated that the group’s protest was primarily based on Rastetter’s funding of “corporate demagogues like Donald Trump, [which] is fundamentally at odds with our needs and the needs of our community.” Students in GCSA worked with Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement to identify Rastetter as a target for protest.

“This let [Rastetter] know what we’re about,” she said. “This built a base for GCSA to continue doing this kind of work. At our meetings, we have everyone share a word to describe how they are feeling, and people said they felt pumped, exhilarated and empowered.” Kraus-Steinmetz says that GCSA will continue to push >> See Protests page 2

By Lily Bohlke bohlkeli@grinnell.edu

GARRETT WANG

People from all parts of Grinnell contributed to the chalk art that now covers 8th Ave.

Chalking over hate

By Emma Friedlander friedlan@grinnell.edu Grinnell’s 8th Ave. was transformed into a canvas of love and support on Saturday when Intercultural Affairs hosted Replace Hate outside of the Joe Rosenfield Center (JRC). The event invited the Grinnell community to decorate the street with chalk art, which took the form of warm messages and phrases as well as vibrant drawings of hearts, flames, trees and other symbols.

Replace Hate was put on by Chief of Staff Angela Voos, Chief Diversity Officer Lakesia Johnson and Intercultural Affairs staff, along with the support of Mayor Gordon Canfield who granted permission to block off the road. The event was a response to a recent increase in bias incidents on campus, especially the stretch of 8th Ave. in front of the JRC. This increase corresponds to a national increase in bias-related incidents following last Tuesday’s general election.

“We had heard that there were trucks and cars going through campus shouting hateful, scary, sexist, racist comments. The frequency and severity was up, reflecting what was happening all over the country,” Voos said.

These cars and trucks have occasionally been witnessed on campus for years, but were reported at an unusually high frequency over the last month. According to Johnson, three or four complaints were reported in the last month.

“Obviously this is not the first time we’ve had experiences with people driving through our campus

and saying horrible things, but quite a few have happened in front of the JRC,” Johnson said. “Symbolically it made sense to place messages in a place where bias-motivated incidents had recently occurred.”

The idea for a chalking event came from Jordan Brooks, assistant director of Intercultural Affairs, who has put on similar events in his previous student affairs positions.

“These emotions are really vibrant right now. When you initially put the chalk down it’s really bright and colorful, but it will fade,” Brooks said, explaining the significance of chalk art. “Right now we’re very sensitive to engaging with each other. But over time as we go back to our routine, [that] will fade, similar to how the chalk will fade.”

Once the chalk art has faded, Intercultural Affairs plans to hold another art event on campus, which will invite the public to participate in painting a mural. The painting event will be held on campus and the completed murals will then potentially be relocated to a space on the perimeter of campus or downtown. This move symbolizes the joining together of campus and community, a point that Intercultural Affairs hopes to emphasize in their public art events.

“A lot of community members came [to Replace Hate], and they were incredibly excited and willing to be a part of this conversation,” said Vrinda Varia, student support advisor for Intercultural Affairs. “I’m excited almost, because I feel like there is an urgency to actually follow through on both ends and to engage in that

conversation.”

The Intercultural Affairs department plans to keep the conversation going with a series of programs this semester. They continue to hold weekly community conversations in the Dining Hall and will screen the documentary “The 13th,” which explores the inordinate number of African-Americans in the American prison system, on Dec. 6 in observance of the 153rd anniversary of the 13th amendment.

The Intercultural Affairs department urges students to follow them on Facebook, Twiter and Instagram to keep up with developing events.

Although the Replace Hate event made an important symbolic gesture, the same cars and trucks are likely to continue spreading hateful messages on campus from time to time.

“That street is public. We don’t own the street, we can’t control who drives down the street,” Johnson said.

“Obviously there are complicated legal statutes that govern what is actionable from the Grinnell police department’s perspective. We can’t guarantee that we will never have other inappropriate visitors driving through the campus on a public street. But I do think the more information that we have, the more we can document, the better our chances are of exploring all of our options.”

In order to best combat biasmotivated incidents on and around campus, President Kington’s office urges people to document perpetrators of hate speech and acts and report them to Campus Safety if they feel comfortable doing so.

The Rosenfield Program is committed to public affairs, international relations and human rights, all of which are topics to discuss in the context of last week’s election results.

Among events that the Rosenfield Program has planned in reaction to the election, Professor Sarah Purcell, director of the Rosenfield Program, moderated a panel discussion last week with political science Professors Barbara Trish, Doug Hess and Wayne Moyer.

“The idea was to have an analysis of the election, because one of the main things the Rosenfield Program tries to do is bring a context and an analytical eye to current events of all different kinds,” Purcell said. “Bringing people together to come at the results from that angle, just as one piece of trying to make sense of the election.”

Hess began by speaking about the outcome of the election itself, including voter demographics, turnout and vote counts. Trish talked about the politics of the election in terms of trying to figure out why these results were so unexpected. She talked about reading polls and forecasting models.

Moyer spoke about prospects for international relations. Finally, the panel opened up for questions.

“It was unexpected that someone like [Donald Trump] would win,” Trish said. “There was a lot of tension and toil within the Republican party.

His campaign seemed to be doing things that didn’t bode well for success [even though] it turned out successful, and I think for some people, it’s just hard to imagine.”

As a non-partisan organization in a non-partisan institution, Purcell emphasized the importance of providing a space to validate students’ reactions, whether they are positive or negative.

“Some people, depending on their identities, have different stakes in certain policy issues and we want to validate that,” Purcell said.

This week, the Rosenfield Program planned two more programs to help analyze the election in Burling Lounge. Tuesday at 11 a.m., Josh Voorhees, senior writer at Slate Magazine, discussed how data journalism played a role in the election.

Last Thursday at 11 a.m., John Norris, a former Obama administration appointee, gave an insider’s look at presidential transitions.

Grinnell's first Social Class Awareness Week

By Lily Bohlke bohlkeli@grinnell.edu

This week marks Grinnell’s first Social Class Awareness Week.

Questbridge liaison Tim Burnette '19 collaborated with the Questbridge team and Intercultural Affairs to plan a slew of events, including talks by professors, a student panel and a film screening.

The week began on Monday, Nov. 14 with a first generation student talk

by Professor Liz Queathem, biology.

On Wednesday, Professor Kesho Scott, sociology, delivered a talk called “Low Income and First-Gen in Higher Ed.” On Thursday, Professor Fredo Rivera '06, art history, spoke about Social Class and Academia. Later

that evening, there was a Low Income Student Panel. The week will finish off

tonight at 7 p.m. in ARH 302, with a showing of “Low Income @Grinnell”

by Kara Jones '00.

Beyond this designated week,

HELENA GRUENSTEIDL

As part of Social Class Awareness Week, Questbridge scholars met up on the graduation stage.

Friday Friday Effective Grassroots Organizing with Jingle Bell Holiday Caroline Heldman Downtown, 5 p.m.

ARH 324, 12 p.m.

Follow us on twitter @thesandb

Saturday Alloys and Alchemy: Music of the 16th and 17th Centuries with Rook Sebring-Lewis, 7:30 p.m.

Sunday

Grinnell Symphonic Band concert

however, Burnette hopes discussions about social class will continue on campus. In the film “Low Income @ Grinnell,” Jones emphasizes “dress down culture,” in which affluence is often not visible through appearance and clothing. Burnette said that although it may be less applicable now than it was in 2000, the culture behind affluence still exists at Grinnell.

“There are people here who aren’t middle class, who aren’t rich.

There are people here who don’t have family members who have ever been to college. Social class comes up in conversations but it usually doesn’t come up in a Grinnell context,” Burnette said. >> See Socioeconomic diveristy page 2

Thursday Thanksgiving

Sebring-Lewis, 2 p.m.

Arts 3 | Community 5 | Features 6 | Advertisements 7 | Sports 8 | Opinions 9

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News

Alexander '97 talks race and pop culture

Lisa Doris Alexander '17, associate professor of African American Studies at Wayne State University, returned to Grinnell this week to deliver a convocation lecture on what pop culture says about society, with a particular focus on race relations. Before speaking on Thursday, Alexander met with The S&B’s Philip Kiely to talk about her return .

The S&B: What did you study and participate in when you attended Grinnell?

LDA: I was a political science major with an African American Studies concentration, so I studied a little bit of everything. I was involved with Concerned Black Students; I was a spokesperson of that organization at one time. I did student government. … CBS and SGA were my two biggies.

The S&B: How did you get into the study of pop culture?

LDA: I’m of that generation where both of my parents worked full time, so I was what they called then a “latchkey kid.” After school I walked myself home and I watched TV. So I was always interested in television and then film is a natural progression after that. When it was time to go to graduate school I went to UCLA for my masters, which has one of the best film schools in the country. I naturally took some classes over there and it just grew from there.

The S&B: What is pop culture currently telling us about the state of race relations in the United States?

LDA: It’s telling us a lot. I’m going to talk about three case studies.

Film [uses] two concepts, the first known as “whitewashing” and the other known as “race bending.”

Whitewashing is when studios cast a white actor in a role that [has] historically been played by a person of color and race bending is when a person of color is cast in a role that has traditionally been thought of as white. I’m going to look at how that’s working in popular culture [and] some of the blowback that fans have when either of those practices is used. Then I’m going to talk about Shonda Rhimes in television, particularly her work on “Scandal,” and this explosion of inclusion on the small screen — not necessarily on the big screen — and the increase in the number of people of color behind the camera and the effect that has had on what we see on the screen. The third is to talk about sports, particularly Colin Kaepernick and his national anthem protest and some of the backlash that he’s gotten from that and how that relates to the election that we’ve just had.

The S&B: What do you think defines pop culture?

LDA: There’s kind of a hierarchy of culture. There’s typically what people think of as the high culture, so you have classical music and maybe international film. Pop culture is thought of the “lower” culture — so you’ve got the pop music, the hip-hop, the film and the TV. So it’s all the cool stuff, I like to say, but the stuff that is usually dismissed as being devoid of meaning even though it is truly not devoid of meaning.

The S&B: What do you think makes pop culture less studied than “higher” culture?

LDA: Academics are kind of uppity.

A lot of academics like to turn their noses up to what the masses like because they think, “Oh, we’re better than that.” But the masses know what the fun stuff is. … If millions of people are going to spend their money on “Fast and Furious Five,” then we as academics should want to know, what messages are “Fast and Furious Five” sending out to all of the millions of people around the globe who are watching it?

The S&B: Have you seen anything interesting in the intersections between popular and “higher” culture recently?

LDA: Typically Broadway is thought of as higher culture but Hamilton brought hip-hop to that area. It’s the number one selling album, [Lin Manuel Miranda] got a Grammy and a Pulitzer, now the mix tape is coming out in a couple of weeks, so it’s further expanding how we think of Broadway and who can be involved in it. No one’s going to think of Busta Rhymes when they think of Broadway, but he does one of the remixes on the mix tape so it’s combining all of these cultures. Even my mom is listening to Hamilton. I had to explain to her that the cabinet rules came from Biggie’s crack commandments, so that was an interesting discussion in the car. But it’s bringing in a whole generation of people who would never think that they would listen to hip-hop.

Socioeconomic diversity explored in special programming

Continued from Front Page

Burnette’s goal for the week is both to raise awareness about the presence of class differences at Grinnell and to reassure students who are low income or first generation that there are support systems and resources in place, as well as other students and faculty who can relate.

“I hope students know that there are resources among faculty and staff for thinking about issues of class on Grinnell’s campus, but more broadly throughout the town,” Rivera said.

“I hope it comes up more broadly throughout this week, particularly given the recent election, that we think about the politics of class and what it means from within our bubble on campus and then outside of that.”

Supportive resources on financial politics are especially important during a transition period, such as the current transition into Donald Trump’s presidency. Rivera explained that Grinnellians who rely on federal financial aid need to be aware of changing educational and financial policies. When Rivera was a Grinnell student in the early 2000s and President George W. Bush was elected, Pell Grant funding structures were transformed.

“One of my colleagues was impacted. She was eligible for the Pell Grant her freshman year; she was not eligible the following year.

The threshold had changed,” he said. “How we qualify low income students … [is based] on certain criteria that are in flux and dependent on certain political contexts.”

To encourage discussions about socioeconomic diversity on campus, Rivera helped found a group called Grinnellians for Economic and Social Diversity when he was a student.

According to Rivera, there was less socioeconomic diversity at Grinnell in the early 2000s than there is now, particularly in regards to racial and ethnic diversity.

“We wanted to discuss diversity in an intersectional manner and also deal with things the campus wasn’t dealing with back then. [In my talk,] I wanted to give that history of student activism and think about the significance of class diversity and issues around diversity [over the course of] the past two decades on campus,” Rivera said.

Grinnellians for Economic and Social Diversity initiated a textbook lending library, from which low income students could borrow textbooks and course materials for

a semester, donated by past students who had taken the course. After the group members graduated, the lending library died out.

“It’s a matter of resources, investment and student interest,” Rivera explained.

Last year, however, Burnette started a new textbook lending library on campus. He plans to continue discussions about social class to make sure all Grinnellians are aware of the socioeconomic diversity of students, and how that applies to everyday life.

Burnette emphasized the importance of realizing that not everyone is able to go out to eat or go to the movie theater. He said he is lucky to have found a group of friends who understand his situation, but not all low-income students do.

“All the events [in Social Class Awareness Week] are intended for everyone. My goal with the whole week is to have professors and students talk about their experiences so that everyone can hear it,” Burnette said. “It’s just as much to raise awareness as to say you’re not alone.

For the students who are low-income, first-gen, there are people like you, there are professors like you. I want people to acknowledge and realize that [social class] is present.”

Group protests new administration Continued from Front Page Rastetter for a meeting.

The protest was organized after GCSA held an emergency meeting on Wednesday evening, which required numerous subgroups to take action quickly to cover issues related to recruitment, travel logistics and safety.

Some students were assigned as press and police liaisons, while others provided social media support, led chants and gave speeches.

“Everyone is involved in some level … because there’s a lot of work that goes into putting together something like this,” said Sayles

Kasten '19. “We need to make sure we can do this safely and effectively.

There are also people in charge of turnout and making sure it would be a good action.”

Kasten, Nyx Hauth '19 and Langston Thomas '20 wanted to emphasize that the Rastetter protest will be only one type of event that GCSA will hold, along with a schedule of events protesting for divestment from fossil fuels and a 15 dollar minimum wage on Grinnell’s campus.

“We are part of a national organization with a base of a million people in 30 states, which is a huge advantage. We can build that

CONTRIBUTED

Student action protesters drove to Des Moines to protest Rastetter at his office.

action across our chapters,” Hauth said, adding that their training is conducted by People’s Action, which encompasses Student Action and GCSA. “We still need the same things that we needed before Trump was elected.”

Thomas said that he hopes to see more participation and involvement, particularly at Saturday meetings at 4 p.m. He noted that at the next meeting, protests will be planned for aims like making a living wage and a space provided to foster discussion about how to make physical change.

“A lot of people have a lot of emotions. People have a desire to do something about it. Knowing that there is power in numbers, future protests, … if [students] really feel strongly about the outcome of the election, then sometimes you have to do more than make a post on Facebook,” Thomas said. “You have to translate it into action. It’s a great way to productively turn that emotion into action with students who care about those issues.”

“All they have to do is reach out,” Hauth added.

Edited by cummings@grinnell.edu & friedlan@grinnell.edu

Heldman on Anti-Rape Movements

Caroline Heldman, a professor at Occidental College, has spent years fighting against the injustices of sexual assault on college campuses.

This week, Heldman came to campus to give a talk entitled “The New Campus Anti-Rape Movement”.

Prior to their talk, The S&B met with Heldman to discuss their expertise.

The S&B: In recent years, there’s been a major focus on sexual assault on campus. What has been the role of both grassroots activism and the Obama Administration?

Caroline Heldman: Even though activists have been pushing for this for decades, it’s really student activism using social media. Social media allows students to hold institutions directly accountable using essentially consciousness raising and shaming through social media. …The Obama Administration has been key to all of this. The big thing that they did policy-wise was to issue what’s called a Dear Colleague letter, which is a directive from the top of the Department of Education to the rest of the department saying we are now going to consider sexual violence on college campuses a Title IX issue.

The S&B: What affect has this focus had on reducing rape and sexual assault?

CH: We have seen the rates of reported rape and sexual assault go up dramatically. I think we are many years away from having the best practices for addressing campus rape, and I would go a step further to say that most college administrations are more focused on risk reduction than they are on sexual violence reduction.

The S&B: Are college administrators, rather than the courts, the best people to deal with sexual assault?

CH: Yes, for two reasons. One is that college campuses are required to provide an equitable learning environment, which means that they have an obligation that is distinct from the criminal code. The second

reason is that the only place that is worse than colleges and universities at adjudicating sexual violence is law enforcement. We know that out of every 100 rapes that occur in civil society, just over two rapists will ever see a day in jail.

The S&B: Once the 2016 Republicans control the Presidency and Congress, how will the Department of Education’s approach change?

CH: I think a lot will change, but it won’t change formally. I don’t think a Trump administration would have the audacity to issue a Dear Colleague letter that overturns the Dear Colleague letter from 2011, because that would just be such an egregious violation of how we understand justice for survivors on college campuses. But I do think the Trump administration will slow down the process in terms of implementation.

So all Trump has to do is tell any department or administration, “I don’t want to focus on this set of policies anymore,” and if that’s the case, the 200 plus Title IX and Clery cases that are open right now, they would essentially be delayed or not investigated.

The S&B: According to the Washington Post in 2012 Grinnell had the second highest rate of sex offenses among colleges analyzed, at 10.75 cases per 1000 students. How should this be interpreted?

CH: Campuses that have high reporting rates of sexual violence tend to be doing a much better job of creating a comfortable environment for survivors to report. So Grinnell’s numbers are likely well below what the real numbers are, but my guess is that they’re just closer to the real numbers because you must have some mechanisms on campus that facilitate reporting.

Contributing reporting by Philip Kiely, Zane Silk and Michael Cummings

HELENA GRUENSTEIDL

Heldman's Thursday talk detailed anti-rape movements throughout the years.

Five student initiatives pass

By Megan Tcheng tchengme@grinnell.edu According to an email released

by Grinnell College’s Student Government Association (SGA) on Tuesday, Nov. 8, five out of the six student initiatives proposed for the Fall 2016 semester have been officially passed.

Student initiatives offer a platform for students to voice their opinions and propose potential improvements to campus life. In the past, suggested student initiatives have ranged from a motion to build a swing set on campus (now located just outside the JRC) to the purchase of a foam machine (rejected by the student body at least three separate times).

“Student initiatives are important because they give students an outlet to have their collective voices heard, both within the student government itself and within the administration,” said Toby Baratta '17, SGA diversity and outreach coordinator.

Just last semester, over two-thirds of participating students voted in favor of bringing back the stir fry station in the dining hall, establishing the Grinnell College Textbook Lending Library and adding accessibility improvements to Lyle’s Pub. Such initiatives have already taken shape on campus.

This semester, after receiving over 800 votes and passing a total of five new initiatives, the SGA is now faced with the task of rationalizing, organizing and executing the proposed changes. Altogether, the successful initiatives — which include employing a Campus Therapy Dog, opening up the Quad as a study space, reinstituting Posse, improving campus lighting and introducing a longboard rack to the JRC and the Bear — vary significantly in

their ease of execution and feasibility.

Andrea Conner, associate vice president for Student Affairs, described the difficulty of navigating between the five different initiatives.

“Some initiatives that pass are more demonstrative in nature … and will not lead to that specific action [i.e. reinstating Posse]. Others are already underway through other avenues … [and] others will receive attention through collaborative meetings with student leaders and the relevant College staff,” Conner wrote in an email to The S&B. Under the direction of Eliana Schechter '17, the Student Initiatives Committee is currently working to make the five initiatives a reality.

“We are currently looking at the feasibility of each of the five approved initiatives by reaching out to the authors of each proposal and then scheduling meetings with the faculty and staff needed to help with implementation of [the initiatives],” said Anita DeWitt '17, SGA president.

Already, the long board rack and campus therapy dog initiatives appear to be on the fast track to becoming a campus staple. Baratta, the delegate for the therapy dog initiative, went into more detail about the drive behind the initial proposal.

“The [campus therapy dog project] was already being looked at and taken seriously by the administration.

Autumn [Wilke, coordinator of disability resources] basically proposed the initiative as a way to gauge student support. Right now, we’re just trying to figure out the logistics of it all,” Baratta said.

Ultimately, student initiatives provide the student body with an opportunity to voice their opinions and enact real and lasting change on campus.

Arts

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Drag Show Fall 2016

This year's Queer Cultures Week came to a close with Drag Show Fall 2016. Campus came together in a much needed celebration, and raised over $700 to be donated to the protests at Standing Rock. The S&B's Emma Friedlander sat down with QPOC leaders and Drag Superstars Gabi Matthews '17 and Armando Perez '17 to talk about the hottest performances, Drag in the time of Trump, and the future of QPOC. The S&B: What was your favorite part of Drag Show this semester?

Gabi Matthews: I really liked the Britney group at the end. I love Britney Spears though so I’m biased. That group, during the first open stage rehearsals where they could test everything out for the first time, they brought all their costumes and it wasn’t even a dress rehearsal. By then they were so ready and it looked so good.

Armando Perez: Beyond that, the alums being there was pretty cool.

The S&B: Were there any challenges in putting together this Drag Show?

AP: Usually in the fall we’re in a place where we don’t have enough acts. We’re asking everyone to do it because we’re like ‘shit, we need to fill this.’ But this semester we didn’t have that, surprisingly. It worked really well because last fall some people put performances together the week of Drag Show. This, thankfully, was so much easier. Beyond that, it went pretty smoothly.

GM: This is the most fun I’ve had at Drag. We’re seasoned and don’t give a shit anymore.

The S&B: How did you decide to donate the money to Standing Rock this year?

AP: It seemed logical. It’s a prevalent issue and there are Grinnell students that are already going there. It is sad that Central Iowa Family Planning closed. Drag Show hasn’t always given its money there, but once it started to, it benefited more than just the Grinnell College community, it benefited people from the town.

GM: [The money] isn’t going to Grinnell students who are going to [Standing Rock], it’s going directly to one of the camps there so that it’s for sure going toward their supplies and it’s simpler that way.

The S&B: Did the election results coming out that Tuesday impact the show?

AP: On the Tuesday night of the election, QPOC was meeting and practicing the intro. We were so distracted because half the computer screen was the music and the other half was reflecting the election. In the moment it was very distracting. In terms of Drag Show, it had been a long week for a lot of reasons — because of the election, because of Central Iowa Family Planning, emotions were all over the place. For that reason, Drag Show was needed much more because it provided a break for students. Not saying let’s ignore [everything else], but the fact of the matter is we need to care for ourselves, and this might be one of those ways.

GM: One of the performances had “Fuck Trump” on their clothing. I was like ‘Woah, when did you do that?’ but also ‘Good job, great idea.’ [The election] was definitely distracting during our meeting, but it made me want to emphasize how important spaces like Drag Show are — celebratory spaces of resistance. They keep us going and challenge the systems that want to put you down. People needed an upbeat thing, I think.

The S&B: How has Drag Show changed over the years?

AP: What Drag Show started out as is different than what it is now.

When we do Drag Show, one of the requirements for trying out is telling us how you’re interacting with or subverting gender or gender norms.

Most of the times people just say drag.

GM: One of the problems I have with drag here specifically is how it’s become a lot about performances that are just about dancing and being cool. It becomes more about performing sex and sexuality than drag. The drag portion of people’s acts are usually ‘We’re going to have a dude who’s going to wear a dress but we’re going to do all these other things about being sexy.’ It’s good and bad in a lot of ways.

AP: Drag is not perfect. There are issues that we’ve seen over our time here — people that graduated, they’ve seen it before.

GM: But then where would we be if we didn’t have it at all?

AP: Exactly. Just because we have these downfalls or negatives, we’re not going to not do it at all.

The S&B: What do you hope the future of Drag Show is after you graduate Grinnell in the spring?

AP: As long as it persists in one form, that would be nice.

GM: I don’t want it to die. I don’t want QPOC to die off, because it’s happened before. That’s all I can really hope for. If they can make it super awesome and more about what drag is supposed to be that would be cool.

Photos by Sarah Ruiz and Kosuke Yo

Edited by coghlann17@grinnell.edu

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Arts

Edited by coghlann17@grinnell.edu

"Constellations" explores alternate realities this weekend tee consequences.

Emily Howe ’17 reflected on making changes to the original script that called for only two actors.

"Traditionally this play is just a cast of two people... we cast it with four different couples, and... I think that also gets at the complexity of emotions and feelings and experiences."

Emily Howe '17

JEFF LI

Amelia Darling '20 plays Jackie in the Theatre Department's production of "Constellations."

Teresa Fleming flemingt17@grinnell.edu In Lesley Delmenico’s production of “Constellations,” parallel universes play out simultaneously onstage as a couple’s relationship unfolds through a series of disconnected scenes. The show opened on Thursday, and performance continue tonight and Saturday at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m.

"These experiences are always going to exist. I mean, the traumatic things are very traumatic, but there are also beautiful moments that are always going to be there and are always going to exist. " Emily Howe '17

The play follows a beekeeper, Jack, and a quantum physicist, Mor-

gan, as they meet and fall in and out of love. But as the play progresses, their stories split off into four separate timelines. Scenes are played and replayed in different iterations that diverge from one another, only to return to familiar conversations.

In an oft-repeated line, Morgan argues “I have to have a choice ... control,” but as the consequences of both characters’ decisions play out across multiple universes, it seems unclear whether choice can guaran-

“Traditionally this play is just a cast of two people, but, in a college setting, that’s just way too hard to do,” Howe said. “We cast it with four different couples, and it’s really, really fascinating. I think that also gets at the complexity of emotions and feelings and experiences, because no two people experience things the same way – or experience things the same way twice, even.”

Howe described an intensive, hands-on rehearsal process with the cast that ranged from discussions of grief and trauma, to tasting different types of honey as part of character research. As a chemistry major, Howe drew from her interdisciplinary experience to examine the intersections between science and human relationships.

“One of the characters, Morgan, talks a lot about time and how time is symmetrical – it’s recurring and we always have time. And for me

that’s so valuable. We always have this time and it’s always going to be there,” Howe said. “These experiences are always going to exist. I mean, the traumatic things are very traumatic, but there are also beautiful moments that are always going to be there and are always going to exist.”

For Delmenico, the adaptations made to the script’s original couple seem particularly timely.

"I didn't think of the play as making a political statement in the way that I adapted it, but I do now. " Lesley Delmenico, Director “It’s about love, so let’s have straight couples and gay couples and lesbian couples. And it’s about these people that find each other and lose each other and find each other again and love each other,” Delmenico said. “In what I’ve seen in the actors, it just played through different actors’ bodies and quirks and ways of working, these wonderful expressions of love that are sometimes prickly and … sometimes frustrating, but always it’s based on caring. I think we need a little bit of that, lately. I didn’t think of the play as making a political statement in the way that I adapted it, but I do now.”

Tickets for “Constellations” are available now in the box office in Bucksbaum.

Showvember promises good music, good food, good vibes Nora Coghlan coghlann17@grinnell.edu Tomorrow night Freesound will host the long awaited Gardner music festival of the semester, Showvember, in collaboration with local foods, Bob’s Underground Café, Tiny Dorm, and Concerts Committee.

Over the course of five hours, attendees can expect to see 19 acts, composed of roughly 50 student musicians, with three rounds of food coming in throughout the event. The new programming is a huge expansion from Showevember in recent years.

"While it's entertaining, the entertainment isn't the focal point. It's a community event.

It's about people coming together. " Justin Leuba '18 “In the past it was like three hours long, and it was generally rock bands, so not that diverse of a selection, no food, no Bob’s participation,” said Freesound Manager Michael Owusu ’17.

“It was a pretty straightforward event, not that much programming went into it … it was very bare bones,” added fellow Freesound Manager Justin Leuba ’18.

Although Showvember has been relatively small in recent years, during the early years of its decade-long history the event took place over the course of several days, and included concerts in the loggia.

“It was a really different music

community than we know today,” said Freesound Manager Noah Sebek ’17. “But we are trying to revamp everything and bring it back … to the glory days.”

And Saturday promises a return to Shovember’s former glory, with music from all genres, performers from all class years, seasoned Grinnell favorites, brand new acts and even an act with alumnus Austin McKinney ’15.

“In terms of raw numbers, and numbers of performers and time, this is by far the biggest music event of the year,” Sebek said.

The festival will kick off with lower energy acts at 6 p.m., with more upbeat genres and larger groups and DJs to come later in the evening.

“We picked the genres that make sense to follow each other and then we randomized [within those genres],” Sebek said Despite the hype surrounding Showvember, all the Freesound managers promised a low-stakes, chill environment, where all students and performers will feel welcome and comfortable.

"It's low-stake, so it's really good energy. " Michael Owusu'17 “There’s a lot of people who aren’t playing shows casually who will play like a 20 minute set amongst a group of other people. It’s low stakes, so it’s really good energy,” Owusu said.

Freesound Manager Jacob Getzoff ’18 cited this environment as a

perfect time for first-year musicians to get involved with the music scene at Grinnell.

“I think it’s definitely important for first years to make their first Shovember experience memorable, because they’re the future … as far as the music scene goes. If you can make a positive impression now hopefully our efforts will carry on in Freesound,” he said.

"In terms of raw numbers, and numbers of performers and time, this is by far the biggest music event of the year. " Noah Sebek'17 “One thing about Shovember is that a lot of student bands get their start then,” Sebek added. “It … serves as a catalyst for new groups to form and it’s also a survey of the music scene at Grinnell.”

The event seems to encourage students to come for the music, stay for the food, and leave with good vibes.

“While it’s entertaining, the entertainment isn’t the focal point. It’s a community event,” Leuba said. “It’s about people coming together and using the music community as a crutch for personal and emotional support in a lot of ways. It’s just a lot of love and everyone is just kind of vibing with each other and a lot of positive energy. It’s much more about the creation of the positive community than it is about the people showing off their talent.”

CONTRIBUTED

Steven Duong '19 playing at last year's Shovember in Gardner.

Folk-pop in Herrick tonight with PHOX Stewart ’17 and Rafael Estrada ’18 who will perform with him tonight.

Not only does he collaborate with musical artist, but visual artist as well — in addition to CD’s, tonight he will be selling “Seth Hanson, Helen Forsythe, and The Additional Six Help You Find Your Keys,” a zine created by Serena Hocharoen ’17.

CONTRIBUTED

PHOX will play in Herrick tonight at 9 p.m.

Halley Freger fregerha17@grinnell.edu It’s time for another highly anticipated concert — PHOX is playing at Herrick Chapel tonight at 9 p.m. Opening for PHOX is Grinnell’s Seth Hanson ’17 who performs under the moniker Seth Hanson and the Additional Six. Since starting this project in 2012, Hanson has put out 11 releases.

On his most recent, he abandons a warm, folky sound for a new

lo-fi aesthetic. The four track EP “Down Time’s” was mostly written and recorded while Hanson was studying abroad in New Zealand, and perhaps it was the change of landscape that inspired a change in sound.

The standout track “Moving Song” is heart wrenching in its minimalism. Hanson’s vocals pound and waver over a keyboard, sometimes intertwining with Eliana Gray’s vocals. Towards the end, simple strums of electric

guitar ring in a layer of fuzz. The entire EP was recorded on a Memorex handheld cassette recorder.

It’s washed in lo-fi distortion that causes the keyboard to waver and guitar to buzz. It’s truly a bedroom recording, which suits the deeply emotional content of the album.

The name Seth Hanson & the Additional Six is somewhat misleading because it is ultimately a solo project, but Hanson is constantly collaborating with other artists, such as Helen Forsythe, Zach

"It's daring in its ability to embrace playfulness. It's in this bold experimentation that the song maintains a minimalist, alt-folk edge even though it's layered in instrumentation. " PHOX similarly relies on creative collaboration. Although they connected for what was assumed to be a one-off show at the local event, they continued to play together, inviting Monica Martin to join them as a vocalist. The band hails from Baraboo, WI, the former home of the Ringling Brothers. It’s somewhat fitting that they come from a town associated with the circus because their music often has a unique sense of whimsy.

The band’s blend of alterna-

tive folk and indie pop is perfectly showcased on their irresistible single “Slow Motion” off of their self-titled debut album. Martin’s rich vocals are interrupted by guitar flourishes and whistling. There’s even a clarinet solo in the middle of the song. It’s daring in its ability to embrace playfulness. It’s in this bold experimentation that the song maintains a minimalist, alt-folk edge even though it’s layered in instrumentation. They often couple their music with other forms of art.

When they released their 2013 EP “Confetti,” a video component was created for each track. They also screened their mockumentary film “Amor Fati,” directed by member Zach Johnston, at the Eaux Claires Music and Arts Festival.

Although the band announced last month that they are going on final tour before a hiatus, it is clear that they will continue to create together. In their message they assured fans they would “make sure to keep you posted on all [their] respective explorations in songwriting, filmmaking, collaborating, composing, producing, and graphic novel writing.”

Grinnell is lucky to welcome PHOX on this celebratory tour.

Community

Edited by carhartl17@grinnell.edu

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Bias incidents reported at Grinnell-Newburg Community High School

By Louise Carhart carhartl17@grinnell.edu As the country continues to reel from the election of President-Elect Donald Trump, the results of his election have been all too tangible for those targeted by racist ideology. In the City of Grinnell, this has manifested in harassment cases involving college students but also reaching farther into the daily lives of residents. Incidents at Grinnell-Newburg Community High School (GHS) have increased with the results of Election Day, preventing many students from feeling secure in their place at the school.

“A young man was running down the hall and he told someone to get shipped back to Mexico and that’s when the principal said a Hispanic student had a panic attack,” said Anita DeWitt ’17, SGA president. “[The principal] also had to give a suspension because someone said ship that n---- back to Africa.”

Incidents like these have caused some students to feel threatened in their place as community members.

Students have formed a Diversity Alliance that has met with DeWitt to facilitate conversations about what they can do to protect themselves as well as confront the reality of their situation.

As Trump takes office, it will likely

become increasingly hard for already marginalized groups to feel normal.

DeWitt, along with Cassidy Hilburn ’20, visited GHS and plan to continue reaching out and encouraging dialogue between the College and GHS. “[We are thinking of] having people’s reaction to the election [in a public place] but without names or anonymously, and this will be students, it will be faculty, it will be community members, it’ll be high schoolers and college students and you’ll be able to reflect and take it in and no one’s talking at you or to you,” DeWitt said. “We hav-

en’t been able to have that yet.”

This idea is meant to bridge the gap between GHS and the College and provide the resources available at the College to those in need of them. More immediately, DeWitt hopes to meet with the principal and the Diversity Alliance again to help establish their next steps.

Town Incidents

In regards to incidents within the City of Grinnell, there has not been an increase in the number of hate crimes in the days following the election.

Grinnell Police Chief Dennis Reilly said that although reports have been made regarding harassment based on identity, these events cannot be classified as hate crimes under the Iowa Legal Code.

“Harassment is conduct with the intent of annoying or alarming someone. Harassment is usually verbal … usually in terms of calling at late or inconvenient hours or repetitive contact despite the person saying I don’t want to talk to you,” Reilly said. “If acts of ignorance could be channeled into harassment charges, we would be locking

up a lot of people.”

While Reilly has encountered many cases over his five years of service regarding harassment of students based on what would normally fit under a hate crime criteria, the Iowa Legal Code prevents filing any type of harassment as a hate crime. Without this legal backing, it is difficult to pursue harassment charges. “[When I worked in] New Jersey there must have been 15 offenses that could be classified as a bias incident.

In Iowa there’s only a couple. For example, harassment is not one of them,” Reilly said. “Quite frankly when I got here and got to know the Iowa code a little bit, I went ‘I wonder why?’”

Reilly brought up the importance of reporting harassment directly to the police as soon as possible. Instead of calling Campus Safety first and giving the perpetrator more time to distance themselves from the scene, immediately calling 911 and informing the dispatcher of the direction the perpetrator is headed in often results in a higher chance of catching them.

“Three or four years ago when I met with student government and this topic came up and I said you guys have got to be calling 911, the College administration’s heads went 360 … because that’s not what ingrained in the College,” Reilly said.

Jingle Bell Holiday ushers in the season this Friday

By Mira Braneck braneckm@grinnell.edu Jack Frost has yet to arrive in Grinnell, but that’s not stopping the arrival of Jingle Bell Holiday, Grinnell’s annual holiday kick-off event.

If you head downtown tonight between 5 p.m. and 8 p.m., you will find yourself in the midst of a holiday extravaganza, complete with free horsedrawn carriage rides and a visit from Santa.

The event, organized by the Grinnell Area Chamber of Commerce, features festive activities hosted by the businesses of downtown Grinnell.

“We have over a dozen different businesses who will be open late and have added activities in their stores,” said Rachael Kinnick, director of the Chamber of Commerce.

The activities include cookie decorating, live music and events aimed at children. There will also be a winter farmer’s market in the Masonic Temple building, complete with 12 different vendors who also work during the regular farmer’s market season selling baked goods, craft items and produce. And watch out for

Rockettes because Michelle’s Dance Academy will be holding a dance performance at 5:30 p.m. in front of the Strand movie theater.

“It’s not something you see every day — horse-drawn carriage rides going around the downtown square, so that’s sort of a fun thing, again for all different demographics to experience.”

Rachael Kinnick The event, while fun and intended for community-building, is also designed to help the small businesses of Grinnell head into the holiday season.

“Our small retailers can’t compete,” Kinnick said, referring to the economy of the holiday season that is largely geared towards big businesses. “What we can do is have our open house ahead of time so that it at least encourages people to come downtown and check out what there is to offer in Grinnell before you go

out and do all of your holiday shopping and be thinking of ways you can come back and support our local retailers.”

While it may feel like it’s much too early in the season for a holiday-themed event, it’s a strategic choice on the part of the Chamber.

“It’s meant to be an opportunity for customers to come downtown and experience what they can, come back and find for holiday shopping. It’s intentionally early, before Black Friday and before Thanksgiving and things like that, because it’s one of the few ways our retailers can compete in the [holiday] economy,” Kinnick said.

The event brings people of all ages, from young children to college students to retirees. Kinnick loves to see the community-building that occurs during the event.

“It’s a very successful event. It’s a lot of fun to see the community just kind of come out and embrace the holidays, and just in general, just kind of getting out and experiencing Grinnell,” she said. “It’s always a unique event in that it draws all sorts of people — retirees and college stu-

KOSUKE YO

Lights, trees and decorations compliment the Jingle Bell Holiday, taking place today. dents and families. It’s kind of fun to be able to see all those demographics interacting with each other.”

After Jingle Bell Holiday, businesses downtown will begin operating under holiday hours for the two weeks leading up to Christmas. From Dec. 12 through Dec. 23, businesses will be open extra hours from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. on the weeknights, as well as open until 5 p.m. on Saturdays.

Some will also be open that Sunday, Dec. 18, from 12 p.m. to 4 p.m.

Aside from extended shopping hours, there is something magical about the event to Kinnick.

“It’s not something you see every day — horse-drawn carriage rides going around the downtown square, so that’s sort of a fun thing, again for all different demographics to experience.”

New county officials to take office 2017 In Poweshiek County, three offices were up for election: last Tuesday Auditor, Sheriff and a spot on the County Board of Trustees as a supervisor. Diana Dawley will take office as a first term supervisor, Thomas Kriegel will return to his post as County Sheriff and Missy Eilander will take over as County Auditor. The S&B sat down with all three to discuss their plans for their coming terms.

Missy Eilander Missy Eilander won an uncontested election on Nov. 8 for the role of Poweshiek County’s new auditor. She ran as a Republican and will start Jan. 1, 2017.

Until then she will maintain her current position as the assistant finance director within the office.

“I’ll take over Jan. 1, and although I know quite a bit about the office … there is still a lot that I need to dive into and learn,” Eilander said.

She currently works in the office and intends to keep everything the same.

“I don’t foresee any major changes,” Eilander said.

The county auditor is responsible for keeping the country running financially.

“The auditor is the custodian of the courthouse … handles the budget information for the county … [does] the real estate taxes and valuations … the HR for the country, the payroll, the accounts payable and a lot of financials for the county. We work with the public a lot, we maintain the official plat book or transfer book for the county,” Eilander said.

By Phillip Kiely

Movies at the Strand

Thomas Kriegel

Diana Dawley

Thomas Kriegel, county sheriff, was reelected by the people of Poweshiek County on Nov. 8. Running as a Democrat, Kriegel received 731 votes, compared with 30 total write-ins.

This will be Kriegel’s second term as Sheriff, an office he took in 2012. However, before 2012, he ran three separate times. “It took me 20 years to get elected,” he said.

Before becoming the country sheriff, Kriegel had a long career in law enforcement. He began in Brooklyn, IA in 1982 as a police officer, staying there for 17 years. He then worked in Montezuma, IA, where he worked in law enforcement from 1997 until 2001, when he began working for the Sheriff’s Department.

In his past four years in office, Kriegel has focused on cutting costs and making the department more professional. “When I first got elected in 2012, we had some problems down here that I thought needed to be addressed,” he said. “We’ve had some people that chose not to keep working here.”

He listed ways to improve revenue, such as improving the commissary at the jail, obtaining a contract with the federal government to house federal prisoners and contracting out more law enforcement services to towns in the County.

Kriegel sees the overwhelming support he received as reflecting his nonpartisan attitude towards his office. “I just try to do the best job that I possibly can, and have the best people in positions that I need them to help me. I don’t think I’m a partisan sheriff, I think I’m a sheriff for everybody, and maybe that’s reflected in the polls.”

By Mira Braneck

Decades of public service have paid off this year for County Auditor Diana Dawley, who won election earlier this month to the Poweshiek County Board of Trustees.

Dawley, who was born in Montezuma, has spent her entire life living and working in Poweshiek County.

“I grew up in Montezuma, and I got married and moved to a farm southwest of Montezuma and we’re still in the country [today],” Dawley said.

Dawley explained that her entrance into local government was a result of low agricultural profits in the 1980s.

“In the eighties, farming wasn’t as profitable … my children were in high school at that time, and so I decided to apply for a job at the [county] courthouse, and that’s what got me started in public service, in 1986.”

Since 1986, Dawley has held a variety of positions in Montezuma. These include the roles of clerk at the county courthouse, Deputy Auditor, Auditor and her new role on the Board of Supervisors.

Dawley hopes to use her new role to help Poweshiek residents with mental health needs.

“One thing I’m interested in … is jail diversion, working with [prison] inmates who have mental health issues to give them counselling, and there’s times where they could be placed somewhere else other than the jail.”

By Michael Cummings

DOCTOR STRANGE 3D: 9:20 p.m.

Showtimes: 3:50 p.m., 6:45 p.m.

Some nice orientalism sets up an "alternative" Marvel story.

FANTASTIC BEASTS AND WHERE TO FIND THEM

3D: 9:45 p.m.

Showtimes: 4:00 p.m.,7:00 p.m.

Turns out New York has a super chill magic community.

TROLLS Showtimes: 3:40 p.m., 6:30 p.m., 8:40 p.m.

A horror movie about small tufts of hair that constitute the main component of the diet of giants.

Features

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Edited by bohlkeli@grinnell.edu

Stonewall Resource Center celebrates 30 years of providing support

JENNY DONG

Magyar '17, Lily Galloway '17 and Takshil Sachdev '19 pose in front of a framed front page of The S&B from 30 years ago, when the SRC began.

By Nora Coghlan coghlann17@grinnell.edu On Feb. 11, 1986 Sara Croft '87, a third year at the time, returned to her art exhibition in the Forum to find that her work had been vandalized. The human figures Croft had crafted with wire were bent

into sexually explicit positions and newspaper clippings on the AIDS epidemic were stripped down from their original positions and placed on top of the smashed sculptures.

In an article in The S&B the following week, Croft stated that she believed the vandalism was an act of homophobic violence. Among

several reports of homophobic graffiti in Burling and the defacement of posters for queer groups on campus, the vandalism of Croft’s work incited protests in support of the gay community. Nearly 100 students rallied outside the office of the then Dean of Student Affairs, Jim Tederman, calling the administration to open a resource center as a safe meeting and educational space for Grinnell’s queer community.

In October of that same year, Grinnell opened its first Human/Gay Resource Center. Now 30 years later, the space known as the Stonewall Resource Center (SRC) still proudly offers Grinnellians support groups, activities, educational tools and a strong sense of community.

Last week, the SRC celebrated its third decade of hard work through Queer Cultures Week, hosting Pub Quiz, an ice cream social, a clothing swap, a performance by the Des Moines Gay Men’s Chorus and Fall Drag Show.

SRC Outreach Coordinator Takshil Sachdev '19 dubbed the events a success.

“I think overall the thirtieth was pretty good … We did our best in making sure that it was memorable,” said Sachdev. “[It] was a really important week in my life. It definitely defined some of my experiences here and I’m just glad that I got this opportunity.”

The SRC also partnered with the Department of Alumni Relations to invite several SRC Alumni, ranging from the class of 1988 all the way up to the class of 2015.

SRC Library and Space Coordinator Magyar '17 said that the opportunity to meet with alumni not only provided opportunities for community building, but also im-

portant information about SRC history.

“I have so much respect for the queer alumni,” they said. “It was so great, getting to talk to them and hear what the SRC was like when they were here, especially because there is so little institutional memory … It’s nice to know that life as a queer person keeps going on after Grinnell and they have stories that are hilarious and that are interesting about their time at the SRC and … it was so nice to have that opportunity that you usually don’t get because … there’s no real archive.”

While the SRC has served the Grinnell community for many years, the visiting alumni provided new perspectives on how the SRC’s mission has changed and adapted to better meet the needs of students today.

“The SRC used to be much more focused on fighting homophobia on campus back in the 80s when you would have people postering homophobic messages openly across campus … to an extent that you maybe don’t see now,” Magyar said. “[Even] though homophobia is still … very much a problem that we deal with on campus today … I think the shape of that has changed as the climate in Grinnell and in the US has changed over time.”

Given the results of the recent election, Sachdev and Magyar expect to see the SRC’s focus continue to shift. Specifically, they intend to continue adapting their services to combat the increase in homophobia and homophobic violence in the days after Donald Trump’s election.

“In order for the SRC to accomplish its mission and to do that well, it needs to be a space that can serve not just the College, but the community as well … especially now,

after the election,” Sachdev said.

“It could be so much more than it is now if it had a more welcoming and a more accessible and a more central space.”

According to Magyar, plans are underway to make the space more accessible.

“Making the SRC an accessible space is a big concern for us. We’ve been fighting for this for a long time … but those [plans] always seem to fall apart,” they said. “So we definitely want to continue fighting for that, especially this spring.”

Queer Cultures Week provided a space for students to keep their spirits high, even in times when national politics are not in line with the SRC. Sachdev said that he and many other students were not happy with the results of Nov. 8’s election.

“Obviously the election not turning out how [I] wanted it to on Wednesday dampened my spirits a little bit, but Queer Cultures Week … kept me going,” Sachdev said.

“Having that support from returning alumni, from our current students and so much queer programming in one week definitely kept me grounded … and kept me happy.”

Three decades after the destruction of Sara Croft’s exhibition, Grinnell still faces challenges to the safety and comfort of its students. But the SRC continues to fight for equality and community for all Grinnellians. Trans Advocacy Group (TAG) is hosting a candlelight vigil on Sunday, Nov. 20 at 5 p.m. in the JRC courtyard for Trans Day of Remembrance.

“I think it’s important, even if things look pretty blue, to keep fighting,” Magyar said. “And having a space for that is more important than ever.”

Grinnellians become white blood cells through virtual reality

By Lily Bohlke bohlkeli@grinnell.edu Have you ever wanted to be a white blood cell running away from a virus, saving someone’s life? Maybe you’ve never thought about that prospect before, but now you can with the new equipment acquired by the Grinnell College Virtual Reality Club (GCVR).

Virtual reality is the creation and use of digital environments that users can interact with. Programmers can build any type of environment they want, depending on what they intend to use this technology for.

“Say you want to be in Hawaii.

You can be in Hawaii. Or say you want to go explore the ruins of a temple or some kind of building, you can do that,” said Richard Li '17, co-founder and co-leader of GCVR. “What’s really awesome about it is you can build this environment however you want.

All it takes is for the virtual environment to be built to exist.”

GCVR’s virtual reality headset, which students were able to test during the open house, senses head movement. The white blood cell moves as fast as it can through the arteries. The person wearing the headset moves their head left to move left and right to move right. As a white blood cell, they want to avoid blood clots and the things that will slow them down, while

also trying to collect the things that will strengthen them.

At the end of last semester, Li and several friends thought that virtual reality was a really interesting new technology that could be brought to campus. They began by searching for professors doing research that could potentially be supplemented by this kind of technology. They spoke with Professor Damian Kelty-Stephen, psychology, whose research about perception and motion could be well supplemented by virtual reality.

“This was something that can happen, and something we’re all interested in helping to make,” Li said.

One project that GCVR has begun working on is porting the digital mockup of the new ARH building into a 3D visualization software. Once this is complete, by using the headset people will be able to experience the building at a near exact scale.

“You can go in and visualize what the space will look and feel like before it’s even built … and see how does this space feel, do we want to add more chairs here, are these good study spaces,” Li said.

Not only does GCVR want to develop environments for interests of professors, they also want to integrate students into the process. They are on the lookout for students to start thinking about what they might like to use virtual reality technology for.

GARRETT WANG

Co-founder and co-leader of Grinnell College Virtual Reality Club Richard Li '17 aids student in trying out the new virtual reality equipment. To operate the headset, lean left to turn left and right to turn right.

“We’ve been trying to lay the groundwork for students who are interested in developing for these platforms,” Li said. “Or other students that might be interested in starting pilot projects.”

This technology can be used in a variety of different disciplines, ranging from history to studio art. The HTC Vive, one of the pieces of VR equipment the club purchased, would be

well suited for artists looking for digital mediums.

“The HTC Vive has the capability to use hand controls to draw in 3D space, so we think that would be a very cool application for any art students or any professors who might want to use it as a digital media for art,” Li said.

Even if students don’t have specific research purposes for using virtual reality equipment, the club still hopes

that a lot of the community will get involved.

“I think we’re really excited to be at the point where we can bring this technology to the general public of Grinnell,” Li said. “And [we can] really start getting people in the space to interact with the technology, experience the technology and really start those ideas churning for what we can use this technology for.”

Groups across campus come together to celebrate Indian history

JEFF LI

"Mangal Pandey: The Rising" was shown during the Politics of Indian History Film Festival this week. The movie is based on the life of an Indian soldier named Mangal Pandey who played a crucial role in the Sepoy Rebellion of 1857.

By Cassidy Hilburn hilburnc@grinnell.edu The History and Religious Studies departments, the South Asian Student Organization

(SASO), the Alternate Language Study Option (ALSO) and the Institute for Global Engagement sponsored the Politics of Indian History Film Festival earlier this week.

The concept for the film fes-

tival came from a multitude of organizations on campus taking initiative to create a space where the community can come together and celebrate Indian history. Two student-led organizations, SASO and

ALSO, were involved in the organization and structure of the event.

“We were highlighting Indian political history movies. One goes back to the Sepoy Rebellion set in the 1800s,” said Dhruv Gupta '17.

“The second is a modern romance film about a man who learns a lot about Gandhi in order to impress a girl, and then begins to see Gandhi everywhere and get advice from Gandhi on day-to-day things. Then, the last is a romance film [about a relationship] between an Indian and Pakistani.”

Despite some logistical difficulties, the festival was successful and furthered the goals of the various organizations that sponsored it. Karnika Arora '18, a two-year participant and leader of the ALSO program, sees such programming as a powerful tool in advancing the verbal and cultural immersion their organization works to provide.

According to Arora, this is not the first Indian film event on campus.

“The year before last we had a Hindi film festival,” Arora said.

“We had films in various languages … and then had snacks from

that target culture. For example, we watched a movie in Hindi and had Indian snacks and Chai, that kind of thing. We really try and focus a lot on cultural immersion, and these events can help a lot with that.”

There were some challenges that threatened the event, organizers explained. The three films were hosted in Harris Cinema, and were initially supposed to be accompanied by Indian snacks. Unfortunately, due to conflicts with Catering, the festival was unable to procure samosas for the event.

Attendance was also a point of difficulty in the organization of this event. On top of the rigorous academics and extra-curricular engagement students face, some saw the times of the film festival, 6:30 p.m., as a potential deterrent to getting a larger crowd, especially when trying to draw in athletes with conflicting practice schedules.

Despite the difficulties faced in the organization of the event, the organizers were understanding of the turnout. Altogether, they are excited to create more events that celebrate the different cultures and identities present on Grinnell’s campus.

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Sports

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Edited by mettleca@grinnell.edu

Swimming & Diving dominate the pool

By Eva Lilienfeld lilienfe17@grinnell.edu Something must be in the water at Grinnell’s Russell K. Osgood Natatorium because the Grinnell College swimmers have been winning every chance they can get. The men’s and women’s swim team beat longtime rival Luther College 198-86 and 211-89 respectively on Nov. 5. Again, on Nov. 11, they crushed Coe College — 177-62 for the men’s teams and 166-72 for the women’s team. Most recently, both teams took home first place titles at the Monmouth Quadrangular last Saturday, Nov. 12.

One of the most important players in securing these wins is Beth Tsuha '17, who won four races at Monmouth in addition to the six she won against Coe and Luther. For the second consecutive week, Tsuha has been named the Midwest Conference Women’s Swimming and Diving Performer of the Week. Tsuha, who has been on the team for four years, has been waiting for a long time to see a win against Luther.

“The most exciting results were that the women's team overall came out with the win,” Tsuha wrote in an email to The S&B. “In the past two years we came really close to winning, like a 10 point difference, and this time we came together as a team and left it all in the pool. It was amazing to watch the women put all their efforts into their races. I know a lot of women were placed in events that they do not usually swim, but they

made the best of the situation and raced with everyone.”

The women’s team has been maintaining their perfect season along with the men’s team, which scored 153.5 points at the Monmouth Quadrangular, beating runner-up Monmouth by over 100 points. Houfu Yan '20 won three events, the most of any Grinnell men at the event. Ian Dixon-Anderson '17, Kyren DiMarzio '17, Ben Grubb '19 and Will Lindell '19 also all won first place in individual races. Lindell, however, has particularly enjoyed seeing the younger swimmers get their feet wet at the meets.

“It was very inspiring to see the level of ability our team will continue to attain,” Lindell wrote in an email to The S&B. “Our team has been training hard since the season started, and many trained even before then. Our coaches have been giving us difficult workouts in the pool, as well as expanding their interest in exercise outside of the pool.”

Men’s and Women’s Head Coach Erin Hurley partially credits the team’s wins to a positive team culture. She has noticed over the last several years that there has been an increase in participation in off-season training. This helps to build a team that secures several wins early in the season and develops an atmosphere where teammates support one another.

“Divers and swimmers are almost always referencing the small details that should be done

GARRETT WANG

Swimmers take off at the Russell K. Osgood Natatorium against rival Luther College. in every stroke, dive and turn,” Hurley wrote in an email to The S&B. “These small details have a great impact over the course of an event and a meet. Thankfully at [the Luther meet] there weren’t any glaring problems across the team.”

Tsuha agreed and stressed the need for the team to work on their goals of supporting one another.

“Some of the team goals are to … support everyone on the team swimming and diving, and to

leave it all in the pool, meaning you give the 100 percent effort during your race and leave the race in the pool whether it was good or bad.” Tsuha wrote.

The men’s and women’s teams are currently preparing to face off against Loras College tomorrow in Dubuque, Iowa. The Loras men’s team currently stands at 1-4 and the women’s team at 2-3, though both teams lost to Coe, which Grinnell easily defeated.

Football ends toughest season

By Zane Silk silkzane@grinnell.edu

The Grinnell football team ended the season with a 52-20 loss to Cornell College on Nov. 12, bringing this fall’s final tally to zero wins and 10 losses, landing them at the bottom of the Midwest Conference (MWC) standings. However, despite setback, the players and athletics staff are far from hopeless and are working on addressing the issues that impacted their performance.

“We certainly had a tough season, not one of us are satisfied with [it],” Head Coach Jeff Pedersen wrote in an email to The S&B. Despite their disappointment, players were able to find the positives when looking back at the season.

“The little challenges that you overcome throughout the season, even if they don’t add up to a win, I think are gratifying. It’s definitely an honor and a privilege to play college sports,” said wide receiver A.T. Tambay '20.

According to Pedersen, the biggest roadblock to winning games is the team’s small size.

“Any time we have a player miss time due to an injury it affects us more than an injury would affect another team,” Pedersen wrote. “Last year we had similar numbers but we were lucky with injuries. This year we weren’t so lucky.”

While Grinnell’s team has 35 players, the average size of a team in the MWC is around 60 or 70 players, according to linebacker Ryan Slager '19.

Pedersen wrote that there were

different reasons for this size disparity, adding that unlike at Grinnell, “Many of the schools in our conference have large football teams because that is their main source of male students on

However, Tambay did not agree that the academic requirements to entering into Grinnell are a barrier to having a larger team.

“It’s not like because we have

focused on improving the one thing he has the most control over — the recruiting process itself. And, according to him, the effort is paying off.

“For this recruiting cycle in par-

XIAOXUAN YANG

After a disappointing season, the Grinnell football team is focusing on issues that impacted their performance. their campus. They need large teams to fill the beds.”

Slager pointed to academics as one of the reasons why he thought the College has been unable to recruit more players.

“We recruit a lot of people, but it’s hard to get in,” Slager said, who does not think it would be the right thing to lower the academic standards for recruits.

high admissions standards that we aren’t recruiting as many kids as we want to. There are plenty of intelligent kids out there, who are great at football as well,” Tambay said. “Maybe our location is not as ideal as schools like Macalester … which have similar academic standards, but beat us in the recruiting game a lot.”

With many barriers to attracting players to Grinnell, Pedersen has been

ticular, more of these kids visited as juniors than ever before, we saw more of them at camps and showcases than ever before and we’ve had more of them visit as seniors than ever before,” Pedersen wrote. “Compared to our four-year average we’ve doubled the number of Early Decision I applicants we received. We’re hoping for similar success with Early Decision II and Regular Decision.”

of 14 people, but at the same time experience isn’t going to be enough.

We’re going to have to make a lot of adjustments — especially after losing Alissa Hirsh '16, who was our point guard, last year. Easily since us seven seniors have been here, [Hirsh was] the best point guard in the conference. So we’re definitely

a different team without her. But I think that gives people a lot more opportunities to contribute in ways that we haven’t before. It was definitely a learning experience and the good news is we can only go up from here.

for the team going forward? What will you focus on?

SG: Definitely the biggest thing coming out of this game is we have to play team defense. We’re small, which means we’re fast — which is good offensively and defensively, but that means we’re going to have to help each other … more defensively. And that’s going to come with more communication and just a lot quicker rotations that we have to focus on definitely going forward.

Aside from recruitment, the team has struggled to retain students, but Pedersen is hopeful that the retention issues are also on the mend.

“We’re still suffering from two years in a row of more attrition than normal … but we did a much better job retaining last year’s first-year class and I think we’ll do the same this year.

I expect we’ll field a bigger team in the fall of 2017 and with a small class of rising seniors, we could have a significantly larger team by the fall of 2018,” Pedersen wrote.

Beyond getting and keeping players, a factor that impacted performance this season in particular was team cohesion and camaraderie.

“We just clicked better last year, I guess. We just didn’t have it this year,” Slager said. “We’re still a tight group and everything, it’s not like we hate each other … It just didn’t click during the games.”

According to Tambay, that lack of cohesion was partly due to political disagreements, though he was unsure how much impact they had on how well the team played.

With the season now behind them, the team is focusing on the actions that can have an impact in time for next fall.

“We’ve got a very good strength and conditioning program and I expect our guys will put in the necessary effort between now and August for us to be a much improved team next year,” Pedersen wrote. “Right now we’ve got a group of guys hungry to do whatever it takes for us to get better and that’s a good place to start.”

Spotlight: Sophia Gatton '17

After a near 40 point loss to Central College on Tuesday, the women’s basketball team will face Macalester tomorrow afternoon.

The S&B’s Eva Lilienfeld sat down with Sophia Gatton '17, one of the team’s seven seniors, to discuss the team’s plan moving forward.

The S&B: What were some of the most memorable parts of Tuesday’s game?

Sophia Gatton: We ended up losing, definitely not the way we wanted to come out this season. I think that really something that happened was we came out without the attack mentality that we usually have, so we just played a little soft and scared.

And they definitely took advantage of that. We definitely came out flat, and they shot the lights out. There was basically a lid on the basket. We ended up scoring 39 points, which is really low. But in the second half, we came out and tried to respond.

They were in a bit of a groove by that point, so it was kind of hard to break their momentum. We did have some flashes of good plays, good ball movement, good stops, things like that. The game itself was definitely a good wake up call for our team just in terms of yeah we are experienced because we have a team of seven seniors and a team

The S&B: What does this mean

The S&B: Does that come from drills in practice or does that start off the court?

SG: I think it’s a bit of both. It definitely starts in practice though. We definitely need to do a better job of holding each other accountable if we aren’t talking, if we’re fouling a lot and things like that … The other thing is we’ve known each other for so long too and most of us have played together for a really long time … so I think it’s really just working out those kinks in communication and that kind of thing — so just getting more reps defensively in practice.

GARRETT WANG

Gatton is one of seven seniors and three co-captains of the women's team.

The S&B: How are the first and second years adjusting to such a senior heavy team?

SG: We actually only have one first

year this year. So she’s 6’1” and would have helped us out a lot this year, but she tore her ACL a week before the season started so she’s out for the season. It’s a very big loss for our team, which is really too bad. We have four second years.

And I think for them, they know that since they’ve been here, our team has been dubbed as more experienced. With that, they’ve been able to get more opportunities, especially more so this year in games and also in practice. So I’d like to think it’s a positive from them because they can learn a lot from some of us who have a lot of experience throughout our four years here. That being said, even with a really big senior class, seniority itself isn’t a really big issue on our team. Everyone contributes. Everyone talks. So I think it’s a really good culture to be a part of.

The S&B: Even though it’s the beginning of the season, how are you preparing for half the team graduating this year?

SG: There is some concern, but our coach has really just focused so much energy this preseason and over the summer on recruiting. She should bring in a very substantial class, similar to ours. Hopefully the program will continue going at the rate it is.

Opinions

Edited by sundbyjo17@grinnell.edu

9

An Open Letter from the President: Grinnell Voices from Central Iowa Family Planning The Beginning of a Conversation By the time this letter to the editor is published, you will probably have read many think-pieces about a Trump presidency, about Republican control of the legislative and judicial branch, and what that means for the next four years and beyond. There is no doubt that it is a tumultuous time, but Grinnell has rallied as a community, provided spaces for discussion and is ultimately poised to move forward.

There are a seemingly infinite number of issues that can and should be discussed, but we want to focus on the local level, and what we can do today and tomorrow at Grinnell. First, we feel that resolutions for student safety must be adopted immediately. The financial and administrative resources are there, and Grinnell students must hold the administration accountable for the power that they have to help students in a time that is fearful and anxiety-ridden for many.

For some of our student body, it can feel like the first time that we were worried as a community about the safety of our students, and of the safety of these underrepresented identities in particular. But it is vital to remember that this harassment didn’t start today. People have been dealing with these realities every single day of their lives.

Small steps forward can be taken immediately. We hope that Grinnell students will take a chance to learn about the Hate Crimes and Bias-Motivated Incidents Policy, and then report and document bias-motivated incidents. If you have seen a truck waving a Confederate flag around campus, for example, there are options available for targeted individuals and groups to report these incidents, so Grinnell can build a case against the perpetrators.

Secondly, the men on the pres-

idential-elect ticket have insulted and attacked a huge number of identities that we hold dear. We hope that faculty and administration members will accommodate and assist students worried about their status on our campus, at home and in any space they are part of.

The College must commit (through the Office of International Students) to helping undocumented students, educating international students about the citations they can receive for protesting and other factors of their status in the US that may soon change drastically.

We must also hold our College administration accountable for reflecting on national issues.

Minimum wage, Title IX policy and birth control are all pressing subjects that affect students on a daily basis, and averting our attention is irresponsible and dangerous.

As fourth-years, we have seen numerous iterations of student groups dedicated to fighting these battles.

These efforts must never cease.

In terms of immediate support, we encourage anyone who wishes to talk about these issues to reach out to Rabbi Rob, Deanna Shorb and other members of Grinnell’s “Care Team”. Reassuringly, steps are already being taken to improve community involvement. A mandatory orientation is in discussion by the Residential Learning Task Force, which will cover sexual assault, diversity and wellness. By changing and adapting institutionalized structures, Grinnell students can help insure that the community and College are more accepting and inclusive. Along the same lines, we encourage students to critique implicit bias trainings for faculty and staff, so that their identities are better understood and appreciated.

On a different note, voices are often left out at Grinnell when

these opinions may not fit snugly into the “mainstream” Grinnell values. For example, after a previous Town Hall about “unpopular identities,” we are still struggling to understand why can’t we talk about unpopular identities at Grinnell.

Why, for example, did a pro-life student group only come into the SGA offices after Trump won? It is important to start locally: both SGA and The Scarlet & Black have a responsibility to serve as campus voices, and to foster education and conversations around Grinnell. In this vein, there are fellow students on campus who care about something different, and have different priorities that influence their vote.

We want to ensure that their voices will also be heard, that these ideologies are not left out of the perceived homogeneity at Grinnell, so long as they do not infringe on the rights of other students.

It is unhealthy for students to harbor paranoias about the beliefs of people around them, and we want to do what we can to make open discussion more possible in the coming days. As we continue to move forward, the amount of healing and mobilization that we have seen has been incredibly inspiring, and it should be channeled into something very real. We want to advocate that this energy does not only go into getting votes for the party, or candidate, in which you believe, but in also talking to the “silent group” of people. They probably dedicated a lot of thought to their vote. Although we often take pride in calling others out for their attacks on our identities, we must also listen as students. It needs to be a conversation.

Anita DeWitt ’17 and Steve Yang ’17

What your administration is doing in the fight to eliminate sexual assualt Dear Grinnellians, The 2016 Title IX Report is posted on the Grinnell’s Sexual Respect Site and will be printed in hard copy early December. We have come a long way since 2011, when the Dear Colleague letter sent its wakeup call to higher education. And we still have a long way to go. You will see that many things have changed in the past five years. The conduct process, the interim remedies and the staffing have all been strengthened. There are now six deputies and a coordinator that all play key roles in Title IX work.

The options and resources for individuals who have experienced some form of sexual misconduct have grown enormously — and we continue to make new partnerships with outside organizations that can provide culturally specific support, such as Transformative Healing for the LGBTQIA community, or Latinas for a New Dawn (LUNA) Iowa for the Latinx Community. (The full list of resources is on the back page of the report). Last year, we received 74 referrals. We were able to send a gentle reach-out to those individuals and 47 of them wanted to meet to talk about options and what we call "interim remedies." Most often, people ask us to reach out to professors to alert the professors that a student may need more flexibility in a course. We don't give out any information about the situation, just that it is a Title IX situation. Our faculty have worked privately and creative-

Editors-in-Chief Managing Editor News Editors Features Editor Sports Editor Arts Editor Community Editor Staff Writer Copy Editors Photo Editor Graphics Editor Business Manager

ly to help students through difficult times. Students also frequently ask for help getting counseling appointments at SHACs and within the community. The third most common interim remedy that is requested is issuing no-contact order between students.

"The options and resources for individuals who have experienced some form of sexual misconduct have grown enormously" Of the 74 referrals, six of them went on to conduct cases. The way student conduct cases involving sexual misconduct are handled has changed significantly. Last year, we piloted using outside investigators to interview individuals involved in cases. We also added another third-party step by using an outside adjudicator (retired Iowa Supreme Court Justice Marsha Ternus) who makes recommendations to Dean Sarah Moschenross. These changes increased the level of expertise and experience to the sexual assault investigation and adjudication processes. I, as Title IX Coordinator, do not investigate or adjudicate cases.

Teresa Fleming Eva Lilienfeld Steve Yang Michael Cummings Emma Friedlander Lily Bohlke Candace Mettle Nora Coghlan Louise Carhart Megan Tcheng Mira Braneck Keli Vitaioli Jeff Li Lica Ishida Jenny Dong

Nor does Bailey Thompson Asberry, the full time Deputy for Case Management.

We learned a lot from our 2015 sexual climate survey — there is more work to be done. Sexual assault, intimate partner abuse, unwanted touching are all happening on this campus. Any level of sexual misconduct is unacceptable. It will continue to take the work of all of us to make Grinnell a campus that prevents sexual assault from ever happening — and in the event that it does, that we respond compassionately, promptly and fairly in a trauma-informed way.

Lastly, I want to remind you that we are under investigation by the Office of Civil Rights (OCR) related to cases that took place in 2012. These investigations at other colleges and universities have taken years to resolve. We have not waited for the OCR to recommend changes but have continued improving our work, policies and procedures to best serve Grinnell.

We recognize that addressing sexual violence on our campus is a work in progress. We welcome you to reach out regarding thoughts, questions, or concerns with the Title IX process. Thank you to the faculty, students and staff who have helped us reach out to help members of Grinnell community who have experienced sexual misconduct.

Angela Voos, Title IX Coordinator

As you know, Central Iowa Family Planning reluctantly closed its doors last week. We would like to express our gratitude to you for being our patients and our supporters.

It has been an incredible honor to be able to provide our community with open access to reproductive/sexual health care.

These services should be a right, not a privilege that can be taken away. We have had the freedom to practice non-judgmental, sex-positive, LGBTQ-friendly care. We have worked to empower you, our patients, by demystifying health care and by involving you in your own care. This type of practice should be the norm, not a rare opportunity.

We wish that Governor Brans-

tad had not given in to the pressure to work against President Obama’s Affordable Care Act, that the system could have supported this type of clinic indefinitely and that if the clinic had to close, the process could have been more gradual.

We will continue to keep your confidentiality. Thank you for your support and for opening yourselves up to us at an often vulnerable time in your lives. We will always hold your trust very dear.

Fondly, Claudia Beckwith, ’77, NP Cindy Krull, LPN Patti DeLaTorre, Data entry/Interpreter

Make Our School a Sanctuary Dear Grinnell College Administration and Board of Trustees: Grinnell College prides itself in upholding its core values of fostering a diverse community and committing to a life-long project of social responsibility. Yet we — Grinnell College faculty, staff, student body, alumni, family members and members of the broader community — believe these critical elements that make up the College's mission and core values are being challenged in the wake of the recent presidential election. The election announcement that President-elect Donald Trump would take office in January makes our commitment to social responsibility and creating a diverse and inclusive community imperative today, especially for the undocumented College community, which has been threatened during the election cycle.

From early on in his candidacy, draconian immigration and border control measures have been one of Trump's top priorities. These measures will, in all likelihood, affect undocumented students around the country, as well as in Grinnell College. President Obama's Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) currently safeguards many undocumented students from deportation, grants them work authorization and enables them to obtain driver's licenses. It has also opened doors for employment, greater participation in America’s democracy and a unique sense of belonging. Not only is Trump an imminent threat to DACA, but he has also threatened to block and overturn progressive immigration policies. President-elect Trump now possesses the power to materialize his words with the support of our Congress, making the repeal of vital immigration policies not only possible, but frighteningly plausible.

Grinnell's history of social responsibility, such as being a center for abolitionist activity before and during the Civil War, demands that our institution implement concrete actions to protect the most vulnerable members of our community. Thus we urge the school take the following steps to protect

them: • Declare the immediate possibility of our campus serving as a sanctuary for students, staff and their family members who face imminent deportation. We have reason to believe that Grinnell police officers cannot enter the campus without permission of the College. Similarly, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers are subject to restrictions based on a 2011 memo regarding places of worship, schools and hospitals • Issue a statement in support of undocumented students • Create a page on the school website and GrinnellShare that is dedicated to providing resources for undocumented students on campus; • Immediately release and disseminate a clear and transparent plan of action so that students who are verbally or physically assaulted by College community members, residents of the town of Grinnell, or any other person on or near the College campus will know how to report it and receive proper institutional support from the College; • Hire a mental health professional who has cultural competency in working with politically marginalized communities and trauma-related issues of familial separation and the chronic threat of deportation; • Actively work with local churches and other religious institutions to ensure a network of sanctuary churches that provide a refuge for students facing deportation proceedings; • Significantly increase the percentage of tenured faculty of color, specifically those teaching courses in interdisciplinary programs, such as American Studies and/or Gender, Women's and Sexuality Studies (GWSS) departments. Courses added should engage with the undocumented experience in a way that does not place the burden of instruction on undocumented students.

This is not a moment when we can afford silence. We need action now. As Nobel Laureate Elie Wiesel famously stated, "We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented." If we do nothing when Trump becomes President, then any stated commitments to diversity, social justice and inclusion Grinnell has made will prove themselves useless.

This is not a moment when we can afford silence. We need action now, and we will be following up diligently with Grinnell community members, including students, faculty, alumni and you, the administration and Board of Trustees.

Awaiting your action, Concerned Grinnell College community members

SPARC Policy The Scarlet & Black is published on Fridays by students of Grinnell College and is printed by Times Republican of Marshalltown.

The newspaper is funded in part by the Student Publications and Radio Committee (SPARC) and also relies on advertising revenue to cover operating costs. All publications funded by SPARC are copyright of SPARC and cannot be reproduced elsewhere without specific written consent from SPARC. Contributions The Scarlet & Black welcomes story ideas from students, faculty and other members of the town and college community. If there is any story that should be covered, please email newspapr@grinnell.edu or visit thesandb.com Send letters to the editor via email at newspapr@grinnell.edu or mail them to Box 5886. The author’s name must be included, but letters can be published anonymously in certain occasions. Letters will be printed at the discretion of the editor. The opinions expressed in this section do not necessarily reflect those of the editorial staff. The S&B reserves the right to edit any and all submissions.

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Back Page

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Volume 133, Issue 11

Photo of the Week

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Got a backpage-worthy photo? Submit it to [sundbyjo17] and earn $5 for contributing a winner!

East Campus cleanly sparkles under a hidden moon

Arbitrary Analysis Pub Quiz Winners

1. Putin's

Fuckbuddies

JEFFERY LI

Leonard Cohen

Snedge

This week, Mira Berkson '20 and Mira Braneck '19 polled students asking: Sad Boyz or Plaid Boyz

JRC

1 p.m. Men's Basketball v. Silver Lake @ Darby Gym 3 p.m. "Art of Brewing" @ German House 5 p.m. Noteworthy Fall Concert @ Bucksbaum Rotunda 4 p.m. Young, Gifted and Black concert @ Herrick Chapel

ARH

Staff Shoutout

or

check us out:

We'd like to send a huge shoutout to Megan Tcheng '19 for filling in tonight in the copy editor's hot seat. It takes a special type of person to put up with our editorial staff for six hours.

@thesandb /thescarletandblack thesandb.com @newspapr

Ethical Sandwiches Needed

Students speak about what’s on their minds in 100 words or fewer, and you’re invited! If you have a rant or a rave, email it to [sundbyjo17]

#FatSolidarity

I, like I am sure most of the Grinnell com- This is a rave about how fat the squirrels munity, was incredibly sad when I heard that have gotten. You can barely even see their the owner of Jimmy John's hobbies don't tiny lil' legs anymore. I love them. include cooking, or bike riding, or possibly volunteering at his local animal shelter, but rather hunting semi-endangered animals. I don't know why the owner of Jimmy John's needs this validation to his masculinity, [coghlann17] you'd think he would have found it in his amazing sandwiches, but the human mind works in mysterious ways. Honestly, I'll probably still eat the sandwiches, I just won't feel good about it. [sundbyjo17]

Friday

Saturday​

3. Pubic Undercut

Rants & Raves:

Social Calendar

2 p.m. Showvember @ Main Hall 4:15 p.m. Voice Studio Recital @ Sebring-Lewis 5 p.m. Jingle Bell Holiday @ Pioneer Bookstore 6 p.m. DIY Zen Garden Making @ JRC 2nd floor lobby 7:00 p.m. Screening - Low Income @ ARH 302 7:30 p.m. PHOX concert @ Herrick Chapel 7:30 p.m. Constellations @ Flanagan Theatre 9:00 p.m. The Trustees Improv Show @ The Wall-Bucksbaum 10:00 p.m. 80's @ Harris

2. In God We Thrust

Like what you see?

John Mayer

Jeff Buckley

Rest in Peace Ring the Bells that still can ring Forget your perfect offering There's a crack in everything That's how the light gets in -Leonard Cohen

Inserting yourself where you don't belong Thursday morning you decided that you would participate in a talk on presidential transitions.

You then made clear the difference between you and the person brought to campus to give this talk, and went to great lengths to explain why your position was better than his.

After that, you spent time disparaging a U.S. Senator while a professor who spent years working in that Senator's office was sitting five feet away from you.

Finally, you interrupted the main speaker after every single question, barely letting him get any words in.

Your conduct was totally unprofessional.