Volume 135, Issue 6

Page 1

Grinnell artist: Joe Lacina

Kites Over Grinnell

Arts page5

Community page 4

Bryce Lew and Kiara Borosky posing in the grill

Features page 6

Scarlet & Black the

Volume 135, Issue 6

thesandb.com

October 5, 2018 • Grinnell, Iowa

Use of racial slurs in class Mélanie Marcel wins Grinnell Prize prompts discussion Intercultural Affairs hope diversity plan will ensure inclusivity

By Candace Mettle mettleca@grinnell.edu Professor and Trustee of the College Kathryn Mohrman’s '67 use of racial slurs sparked a discussion on classroom expectations and hiring practices. In her Women in Leadership short course, sponsored by the Wilson Center for Innovation and Leadership, Mohrman used racial slurs to illustrate inappropriate language in the workplace. Ceci Bergman '19 was one of the students in the short course who believed Mohrman’s use of the words created an unsafe academic environment. After email exchanges and in-person discussions prompted by Bergman, Mohrman claimed to have acknowledged her ignorance and her privilege and apologized to the whole class the next time they met. “It was not appropriate. I clearly hurt one and maybe more members of the class,” said Mohrman. “Grinnell is a learning environment, not just for students, but also for instructors, so something that was intended not to be hurtful was in fact hurtful.” Bergman believed dynamics between professors and students make

it difficult to raise concerns regarding a professor’s conduct. Her status as a fourth-year, she believes, emboldened her to even approach Mohrman about how she felt about her classroom conduct. However, Bergman worries that other students may feel powerless to approach professors when they experience racial bias by a professor. “I would hope that Intercultural Affairs and the College would focus on what are systems we have in place so that this doesn’t continue to happen, because this isn’t the first time that I have been in a class and felt like I have experienced racism in an educational setting and how am I supposed to learn if I don’t even feel safe?” Bergman said. Though taking on the burden of stating her discomfort and hurt, Bergman did not anticipate the toll it would take. “I think overall I’m as satisfied as I can be,” Bergman said. “I think it’s been a good learning point for me with interacting with power in a really obvious way. There’s a lot of emotional labor I felt like I dealt with … I chose that, but I guess I’ve been reflecting a lot on respectabil-

ity politics and the realities of power dynamics between students and professors and I hope we can find better ways of holding professors accountable without making students feel unsafe.” For now, Bergman feels like she has exhausted all resources available.

I would think more about what I say or what I assign to read, what impact that would have on others because context is everything ... Kathryn Mohrman '67

LIZ PAIK

Mélanie Marcel presents about SoScience, an organization she founded. Other students from the short course contacted Director of Intercultural Affairs Maure Smith-Benanti. As a mandatory reporter, Smith-Benanti must report anything that violates federal law. However, anyone can speak to Smith-Benanti for guidance on bias and cultural insensitivity without making a formal complaint. “The best answer is that it really depends on what the student needs and what their goals are,” said >> See Students and faculty page 2

By Linnet Adams adamslin@grinnell.edu The College dedicated a week to honoring the work of the Grinnell College Innovator for Social Justice Prize 2018 winner, Mélanie Marcel, a native of France who founded the organization SoScience. The goal of SoScience is to combine aspects of science and social justice to provide for the common good. The prize annually awards $100,000 to someone who challeng-

Josh Dorner holds talk on Kavanaugh hearing

es systemic oppressions in society. When asked how she felt about winning the Grinnell Prize, Marcel expressed the important implications of linking higher education with her organization’s goals. “This college is a great place to explore [the notion of responsibility],” Marcel said. “Grinnell College is an academic institution, and the prize is about social justice. For me, in my field, it is very important to have an academic institution recognizing that >> See Marcel addresses page 3

Students face cross-contact at Dining Hall

By Shabana Gupta guptasha@grinnell.edu

REINA SHAHI

Josh Dorner addresses students and faculty about recent political trends and the Supreme Court confirmation for Judge Brett Kavanaugh. By Clara Larson larsoncl@grinnell.edu Josh Dorner ’03 gave a talk concerning the recent hearing regarding the potential appointment of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court. Well before the official 8pm start time on Oct. 1, the first floor of Burling was packed full of students, faculty and community members. Dorner studied political science and went on to work for advocacy organizations and policy campaigns. His resume includes a significant extent of progressive public service. The American public’s prevail-

ing interest in the Kavanaugh hearings has generally revolved around one central issue: sexual assault allegations brought forward by Dr. Christine Blasey Ford, Deborah Ramirez and Julie Swetnick. Dorner, however, mentioned the allegations only a few times throughout his talk. Instead, Dorner contextualized the significance of the Kavanaugh hearings within recent Supreme Court history, and explained how Kavanaugh’s nomination reflects both established political trends and changing ones. According to Dormer, Republicans and Democrats have each re-

fused to appoint judicial nominations made by the opposing party for years. However, Dorner claimed “it’s undeniable that the Republicans turned it into an all-out war once Obama came into office.” Dorner went on to cite that in the 42 years before Obama came into office, federal court nominations were filibustered on average less than once per year. However, in the first five years of Obama’s presidency, this happened 36 times, often limiting Obama’s ability to appoint judges to District Courts, Courts of Appeals and to the Supreme Court. In fact, Dorner noted that after Supreme

Court Justice Scalia passed away, Republicans ensured his position remained empty for 422 days, long enough to make sure that Obama wouldn’t fill the seat. Dorner argued that because of this “Supreme Court war” forged by Republicans, “Trump was really given a tremendous gift.” When Trump came into office, there were 112 vacant seats to fill. As of now, one eighth of all judges in federal courts were appointed by Trump. It was this unique “gift” given to Trump, Dorner claimed, that set the scene for Kavanaugh’s nomination. >> See Josh Dorner holds page 2

Friday SWAG Plenary Noyce 1302, 4:00 p.m.

Monday Workshop with Josh More JRC 209, 5:30 p.m.

Tuesday Foreign Affairs Discussion Mears Cottage Lounge 11 a.m.

Tuesday Writers@Grinnell: A Celebration of Global Creative Writing Hotel Grinnell 4:15 p.m.

Follow us on Twitter @thesandb and on Instagram @grinnellsandb

Last Thursday, during the Russian-themed food night at the Dining Hall, inadequate labeling of food caused difficulty for some students with various food sensitivities. Katie Herbert '20, whose main sensitivity is to nuts, was one of the students who struggled to find sufficient food options that day. Before entering the Dining Hall, Herbert claimed to have checked NetNutrition, the website that allows people to view what the Dining Hall is serving on a weekly basis. Herbert said she often does this to see what foods she can eat at a given meal. Many of the dishes included walnuts, and, as the names of the dishes were in Russian, Herbert was not able to decipher what each dish was. Herbert recalled arriving at the Dining Halland taking a to-go box to the grilled chicken section. All of the screens were malfunctioning, showing a white screen instead of the menu. The student worker at the station could not tell her most of the ingredients in the bowl of beans, and Herbert proceeded to take the beans back to her room in Cowles, without knowing that nuts were inside. “I’m sitting there on the couch, and I start to eat the beans and thought ‘this tastes interesting but a bit weird,’” said Herbert, “I start to feel a bit off, so I look a bit more closely, and I’m like ‘no, this is defi>> See Student with page 2 Wednesday Reading with Betty Moffett Pioneer Bookshop 5 p.m.

Community 4 | Arts 5 |Features 6 |Sports 7 | Opinions 9 |


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