Features
Election
Arts
Mira Braneck '19 and Lily Bohlke '19 take a closer look at student workers.
Got questions about voting? The S&B digs into the 2016 election.
Candace Mettle '19 reviews Solange's album "A Seat at the Table."
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Scarlet & Black Volume 133, Issue 7
thesandb.com
October 7, 2016 • Grinnell, Iowa
Annual Clery reports released
Campus Safety deals with structural changes
Minimum penalties for sexual assault at Grinnell?
Administrators, faculty reflect on Brock Turner bill and Title IX
By Lily Bohlke bohlkeli@grinnell.edu
By Emma Friedlander friedlan@grinnell.edu California Governor Jerry Brown signed Assembly Bill 2888 into state law last Friday, mandating that persons convicted of sexually assaulting an unconscious or intoxicated victim must serve a prison sentence and may not receive probation. The bill was inspired by the June sentencing of Brock Turner, a 19-year old Stanford University student who sexually assaulted an unconscious woman on Stanford property. When Turner was sentenced to six months in prison and granted probation after only three, the media responded with outrage at Turner’s lenient sentencing. For some, California’s new law is a triumph for sexual assault survivors. However, the passage of AB 2888 coincides with a strong bipartisan movement to remove mandatory minimums from the criminal justice system, raising questions as to whether the bill is the right move. “There has been a strong bipartisan push to do away with mandatory minimums. This has been driven by consistent findings that mandatory minimums are inefficient and ultimately cost us more than they are worth,” wrote Professor Logan Lee, Economics, in an email to The S&B. “Unfortunately, laws that fix a specific problem — in this case, the perception that Turner's sentence was too lenient — often cause more significant problems down the road, such as prison overcrowding, high costs and limited crimes prevented. It's difficult to predict which story will ‘win out,’ but I expect that mandatory minimums for sexual assault specifically are here to stay.” Beyond economic concerns regarding challenges with the prison system, mandatory minimum punishments also raise the question as to whether they adequately address the particularities of any case. Although the conduct process for sexual assault at the institution level and the criminal level differs greatly, at Grinnell College, adjudicators must also consider whether mandatory minimums are appropriate or productive. “In the criminal process, of course, the standard of proof is beyond a reasonable doubt. At the college institution, it’s a preponderance of the evidence,” explained Sarah Moschenross, Dean of Students and Deputy Coordinator for Student Conduct. “It’s not considered best practice to have a standard minimum conduct outcome, because data suggests it actually deters people from reporting. It can also interfere with having a finding of responsibility.” Because the academic conduct process has a lower standard of evidence, there is less certainty when convicting individuals of assault than in a criminal trial. For Grinnell’s Title IX office, this means that a broader range of outcomes must be offered to cover a broader range of possible misconduct. “The more serious the act, the more serious the outcome, and I think we’re pretty clear on that. But I still think there needs to be a range, because every case is different,” said Angela Voos, Title IX Coordinator. Voos’ comment was in response to the question of whether a broad range of outcomes should also be offered when the respondent is specifically found
SOFIA MENDEZ
Housed as always at 1432 East Street, Campus Safety saw many changes this year, including to its name. By Megan Tcheng tchengme@grinnell.edu On any given night, Grinnell College’s Campus Safety officers can be seen making their evening rounds across campus. Donning new red, polo uniforms, the College’s safety force tends to fade into the background of campus life. In the past year, however, the Department of Campus Safety has taken on a series of extensive changes, all aimed to develop and improve the treatment of safety at Grinnell. Perhaps the most obvious change to the department is its new name. Previously referred to as the Office of Safety and Security, Campus Safety introduced their newly simplified title at the start of the school year. Community Advisor Mentor (CAM) John Gallagher ’17 reflected on the significance of the change. “It may seem like a small name change, but, at the same time, I think Campus Safety serves a very different purpose here on campus
than it does at a lot of [other colleges]. Many larger schools have their own police departments, which are responsible for bigger issues of security. Here, though, we need to focus on primarily on safety,” Gallagher said. Altogether, Campus Safety’s plans for improvement reflect a desire to strengthen their presence on campus and offer more dependable resources to the community. Gallagher reflected on his preexisting relationship with Campus Safety as a residential life CAM. “[Security’s] goal is to uphold the safety of the community, which is in line with what a [Community Advisor] is supposed to do,” Gallagher said. “For CAs and CAMs, they are the next line in the process of getting students safe. I call them whenever there is a problem that feels bigger than what I personally can take on.” Andrea Conner, the Vice President of Student Affairs, shared a similar perspective on the
impact Campus Safety makes at the College. “[Campus Safety’s] most important role is to do what they can to keep our students safe. Sometimes that means responding to situations that directly relate to our students, and sometimes that means trying to prevent criminal activities in individuals who are not a part of our campus community,” Conner said. The majority of the department’s recent developments focus on improving Campus Safety’s preexisting role on campus. Such changes are a direct result of the security review process undergone by the College last October. Conducted by Margolis Healy, an external consulting firm, the comprehensive review identified a range of potential departmental improvements. “While the goal of [Campus Safety] has not changed, the College is still investing a lot of time and resources into improving >> See CAMPUS SAFETY, page 3
Car burglaries rampant in Grinnell By Philip Kiely kielyphi@grinnell.edu Last month, the Grinnell Police Department (GPD) received fifteen reports of cars being burglarized. This recent rash of thefts has prompted an investigation from the GPD. “It’s something we take very seriously, we’ve allocated resources to look into it. … We do our best to investigate it and to ultimately find those at fault,” said Officer Joe McMillen, the investigator for the case. The majority of the cars that were broken into were unlocked and had valuables
clearly visible. “It’s a crime of opportunity. Individuals go out to look for vehicles that are unlocked with valuables in plain view,” McMillen said. As with most car burglary sprees, the perpetrators have been taking items such as cell phones, cash, electronics and computers, as well as anything else light, valuable and easily visible. Car burglaries are a year round problem, and the number fluctuates. “We go in spurts. We’ll have, it could be one individual, could be a multitude of individuals, they are successful once so they want to repeat that success,” McMillen said. Because of the opportunistic nature of the thefts, they tend to
happen during warmer months when more people are already outside. “They’re outside already, and walking down the road, and they see a car that’s unlocked with a laptop in it, … they see that opportunity and take it,” McMillen said. The recent string has been similar to most. The police responded to fifteen reports and are using the information collected to try to crack the case. “As with any crime, there’s always an investigation and each investigation is pretty unique unto itself,” McMillen said. >> See CAR BURGLARIES, page 12
Each year, Grinnell College publishes an Annual Security Report and an Annual Fire Safety Report. Often called the Clery Report, the release of this information is mandated by the federal government in compliance with the Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act. This year, the report was compiled a bit differently than in past years. In 1986, a young woman, Jeanne Clery, was raped and murdered in her dorm room at Lehigh University by another Lehigh student she did not know. In response, her parents, Connie and Howard Clery, founded the Clery Center for Security on Campus, according to the organization’s website. They brought their fight to Congress in 1990, and Congress subsequently approved the Crime Awareness and Campus Security Act, which was later renamed the Jeanne Clery Act. Since its founding, the Clery Center has been fighting for college campuses to be transparent with its students, families, faculty and staff about crime that occurs on or near campus. Today, the Clery Center provides services related to crime transparency on college and university campuses. They train officials and advocate for policies to support the creation of transparent and safe communities for students. The purpose of the Annual Security and Fire Safety Reports is to give the campus community information about what is going on around them. It also allows prospective students and faculty to consider safety as a factor when deciding whether to come to Grinnell. “For some families, as they’re considering differences between a pastoral environment like Grinnell and an urban environment that’s high crime or an institution that’s experienced a lot of criminal activity, it can bring reputational differences,” said Andrea Conner, Vice President of Student Affairs. The Security Report contains crime statistics, policy statements and procedures for carrying out security precautions. The Fire Safety Report includes fire statistics as well as policies related to fire safety. From year-to-year, the administration works to improve policies based on legislation passed and other various sources of input. Conner says there has been an overall improvement to Campus Safety; for example, the addition of a Coordinator of Compliance to oversee tasks related to the annual reports. “There are so many areas of compliance, and Clery is the primary one. There lot of [other] compliance things we do behind the scenes, like complying with state law around fire drills and other regulations. Before, it was absorbed through other [people]’s work, and now there’s a [point person],” Conner said. Some crime statistics remain static, while some fluctuate over time. “One that we specifically had looked at was arson. … That went from 11 in one year to zero,” said Jennifer McAlexander, Coordinator of Compliance for the Office of Campus Safety. “If there are repeat offenders, it could be [the case] where that person is no longer on campus.”
>> See MANDATORY MINIMUMS, page 2
Saturday Fall Fest Across campus, all day
>> See CLERY, page 3
Monday "Mixing it Up In/with Codeswitching" JRC 101, 7 p.m.
Follow us on twitter @thesandb
Tuesday
Workshop: Mindset Matters: How Mindset Impacts Learning JRC 209, 11 a.m.
Wednesday Access Grinnell Brown Bag: Disability Etiquitte JRC 225, 12 p.m.
Friday Fall Break begins 5 p.m.
Arts 4 | Election 6 | Sports 8 | Features 10 | Community 12 | Opinions 13
News
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Edited by cummings@grinnell.edu & friedlan@grinnell.edu
Grinnell Prize winners announced Organizations receive awards for service
XIAOXUAN YANG
President Raynard Kington awarded the Grinnell Prize to Diana Jue Rajasingh and Jackie Stenson. Rajasingh and Stenson won the Grinnell Prize for their work in co-founding Essmart, an organization which helps small, remote villages in developing countries gain access to life-improving technologies such as solar powered flashlights and improved cookstoves. The Grinnell Prize was also awarded to Luna Ranjit ’00, whose organization Adhikaar seeks to aid Nepali immigrants in the United States.
Harrison and Trish hold voter registration marathon
California bill introduces mandatory minimums
Continued from Front Page
responsible for penetration without consent. Reverend Deanna Shorb, Deputy Coordinator for Confidential Response and Support and Advisor for Grinnell Advocates, believes that the College’s response to convictions should be stronger and more uniform. “It’s absolutely true that every case is different, … but I believe that there still may be a way to categorize,” Shorb said. “If the [respondent] is found responsible for sexual assault, it is not too much to ask that that person isn’t here until the other person graduates. Period. What has caused a little bit of a hiccup with that in the past has been … if the complainant takes a semester off and the outcome decision is being made based on the complainant’s graduation year, that could also be problematic. We’re not providing what I understand to be required by the Campus Safety Act and Title IX, which is a safe learning environment.” Sexual assault cases are inherently more charged and personal than other crimes, making them difficult to approach in a formulaic or uniform manner. The treatment of sexual assault on the criminal level must contend with this sensitivity, as must administrators on the institutional level, when adjudicating sexual assault. “Navigating crime issues, particularly sex-related crime, is always difficult because a cold rational analysis often feels unsatisfying. Making good decisions requires us to place some monetary value on each crime we prevent and that is an inherently uncomfortable proposition,” Lee wrote. “One must be respectful to the individual experiences of victims while recognizing that both societal costs and due process for the perpetrator must be considered.” The question as to what extent the adjudication process should also aim to reform or benefit a sexual assault respondent is a question at the college level as well. Outcomes primarily concern the victim-survivor’s safety and healing, but may also consider a reform process for the perpetrator. Nonetheless, some consider it unreasonable to
advocate for survivors at Grinnell, that the institution’s approach to sexual assault always improves when regulated on the government level. “I don’t think this institution, and in fairness any institution, would be doing it right if there weren’t regular federal guidelines and acts. It is only because of the feds that academic institutions have stepped up. I’ve seen a difference between how students are helped and heard now and a few years ago, when students certainly were not,” Shorb said. “Unless and until the federal government has mandatory outcomes for academic communities for respondents, we will not. Until the federal government mandates outcomes for sexual assault, I don’t think academic institutions will. The possibility of litigation from respondents and/or their families is far too great.” Shorb explained how in 2011, a Dear Colleague letter from the Office of Civil Rights finally required all institutions to have a Title IX coordinator. Grinnell, like other institutions, scrambled to fill this position, a challenge since very few people had proper training or experience in this field. At Grinnell, Angela Voos filled the position temporarily while she also worked as the President’s Chief of Staff and the Vice President of Strategic Planning. Today Voos still holds these positions, although the national standard calls for a full time Title IX coordinator. Nevertheless, Shorb contends that since the federal government has required Title IX staff and training, the College’s approach to sexual assault has vastly improved. This improvement over the last few years was also aided by the redistricting of response for sexual assault and domestic violence in Iowa. “That was actually the best thing that ever happened to the Advocates program. Crisis Intervention Services out of Indianola is a great partner,” Shorb said. “They do the trainings as mandated by state institutions. When they train our advocates, which is 30 to 32 hours, they then give the confidentiality umbrella for our advocates. Those folks have meant that advocates have come into a new era.”
welcome back perpetrators of sexual assault, regardless of the results of any reform-based tests or standards. “I, being one of the person who advises [student survivors], actually don’t know what we’re requiring respondents to do if they’re suspended before they come back,” Shorb said. “Some experts may understand what reform might look like, if there’s healing or changing possible for a respondent. But otherwise, I think it is the responsibility of the institution not to reintegrate or welcome back someone who’s been found responsible. I don’t know how in good conscience we do. … What is the standard for being able to come back at all to this community? There has to be a community standard.” Currently, some possible Title IX outcomes, although not all, require respondents to fulfill certain tests or standards before returning to campus. “We have mandated a number of different medical responses. Assessments for mental health, alcohol and drug use, anger management, are different things that we’ve mandated and [the respondent] has to satisfy before they can come back if they were suspended,” Moschenross said. “They have to go through a process of communicating with different agencies on our campus, through SHACS or whatever, to satisfy that they can be on campus again in a safe way. That would be not appropriate for some cases, but in other cases [it’s been implemented].” Despite the separation between the criminal and institutional processes, Shorb believes, after years as an
Title IX coordinators Voos, Moschenross and Bailey Thompson, Deputy Coordinator for Case Management, however, believe that state and federal processes should instead be informed by performance at the institutional level. “My opinion is that the criminal system should actually be influenced by our system. We give our victimsurvivors as much agency and autonomy as they can,” Thompson said. Voos added that the autonomy provided by the conduct process at Grinnell and other institutions has allowed victim-survivors to more effectively use both systems. “I think that Title IX in the educational world has raised the bar for the criminal system,” Voos said. “Victim-survivors are having more confidence to come forward and use both systems. That’s pushing both systems in a very good direction. More transparency, better adjudication, more information, better invention.” Despite supposed improvements at both the institutional and criminal level, students and administrators alike recognize the demand and need for more transparency in outcomes for sexual assault. “We certainly have in the last four years segued into a much better process … but I still think it is ok for students to want a better understanding of outcomes,” Shorb said. “I think anger is ok, but if we’re trying to work together to figure out what appropriate outcomes might be, we need a dialogue, not a shouting match."
JEFF LI
Students register others to vote outside of the Spencer Grill in the JRC. By Candace Mettle mettleca@grinnell.edu Professor David Harrison, French, and Professor Barb Trish, Political Science, registered dozens of Grinnell students to vote at a non-partisan voter registration drive yesterday in the JRC. The duo hoped the drive would incentivize students to register early before Election Day, as well as check their registration status. “A couple of things have made me think that it’s especially important to get registered in advance,” Trish said. “When you have a volume of new registrants, it makes [voting] a really hard process and for the people who are
trying to run the contest.” Trish also recommends registering early in order to bypass legal requirements enacted by the Iowa Secretary of State that may get in the way of casting a vote. “I just thought in order to stay above problems on Election Day, let’s make it a big deal now.” As Professor Trish is the head of the Program in Practical Political Education (PPPE) and the Political Science Department of the College, it seemed natural that she would organize this event. However, she attributes much of the planning process to Harrison. “I mentioned [to Harrison] that I want to do something this year, he said
he had been thinking about how the College really needed to do something [for the election], too. He has been the real energy behind [the voter registration drive],” Trish said. For the students who do vote, Trish strongly encourages them to realize that there is even more to do. “Political parties in the US — Democrat and Republican — have ongoing operations," Trish said. "The rules for 2020 are going to be battled out over the next three years or so. If you’re just going to check in for one contest, you’re subject to what somebody else decided to put in place [for 2020]. If you’re not sure if you want to vote in this election, when will you ever be sure?”
BCC discusses black experience at Grinnell
JEFF LI
Emma Friedlander friedlan@grinnell.edu The Black Cultural Center (BCC) held a discussion called “POC at a PWI” on Thursday. The discussion was led by Laika Lewis ’17 and Jordan Brooks, Assistant Director of Intercultural Affairs. It aimed to offer a space for people of color at Grinnell to talk about what it’s like to be enrolled in a predominantly white institution. “We got to talk to a lot of first years about how to navigate as a person of color in a predominantly white institution,” said Anita Dewitt
’17, SGA President and one of the speakers at the event. “How do you find a mentor? Who are your allies? Especially from my experience, when I came to Grinnell all of the computer science professors were white and there were no black music professors. We gave advice, like that I declared both of my majors with department chairs because I knew both of those people would have my back and advocate for me on that front when I had other professors. … There are a number of students who never interacted with white students before they got to Grinnell and vice versa. … We also even talked about professors
setting different standards for you because you’re a person of color. Lewis spoke to this idea that she was always told a great writer until she was with a black professor who said ‘Your writing’s not as great as you think it is, maybe it’s because they just always have these lower expectations for you because you’re a student of color.' … We also talked about code-switchingb and what you use spaces for. I have to go to CBS [Concerned Black Students] to decompress in a way, it’s very comforting to see people like you in a family of sorts. But how am I going to act when I walk out of that room?”
Edited by cummings@grinnell.edu & friedlan@grinnell.edu
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Campus safety refines its Clery report reveals changes at College role on campus Continued from Front Page
Continued from Front Page “[Campus Safety] is an important part of the infrastructure of the institution and it needs attention. We feel really thrilled to be able put to this work in
"We're just catching up to what is appropriate for a modern campus safety program." Angela Voos, Vice President of Student Affairs and improve the department.” Current plans to strengthen the role of Campus Safety within the College community include the addition of new staff positions, updated training for security officers and technology
updates to modernize the department. Specifically, in the past year, Campus Safety has hired three new safety officers, with plans to add two more security officer positions. By increasing the security staff from six to 11 working officers, the department will be able to ensure that three safety officers are on campus at any given time, with at least two on call and one serving as a dispatcher. “These staffing changes will allow for more coverage and a quicker response times. All community members will also experience a more consistent experience when they talk to a dispatcher,” Conner said. “Even so, we’re just catching up to what is appropriate for a modern campus safety program. It’s above where we’ve been, but there’s still a lot of room for growth.”
The Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) increased the policy expectations included in the report in 2015. While reviewing the statistics and making sure all the necessary components of the report were in place, McAlexander said they meticulously inspected numbers of cases of sexual assault to make sure they were in compliance with the VAWA, the Clery Act and the Title IX office. “I’m sure your readers will take note of the slight increase of reports for sex offenses and a couple of the categories,” Conner said. “Generally speaking as an institution, we seek to create an environment where people can come forward to tell us about what they’ve experienced. So while an increase in these statistics is always concerning because it means individual human beings are
experiencing trauma, we certainly appreciate the increase in reporting when it means folks are seeking services and support.” To compile the Annual Security Report, Campus Safety looks through in-house reports as well as Residential Life reports and anything that may already be documented. Next, they query Campus Safety Authority (CSA), which is people who have been provided by the government to serve as another source of crime reporting. Lastly, they request reports from local law enforcement of any crime that has occurred within a mile of campus. “We’re stretching almost all the way to the Glove Factory now because of the government’s regulations. Reasonably contiguous to your campus is within a mile. Because we have purchased new property and the bookstore is further off-site, it’s stretching our main
campus on the area we are reporting,” McAlexander said. Not only does the College have to report on its main campus in Grinnell, but statistics are also required from the Conard Environmental Research Area (CERA) and the Grinnell-inLondon program. “Things we would maybe have to respond to in an emergency may not been something they would think of preparing for because it’s just different. It’s interesting to take the Clery Act and apply it to your overseas campus and what does that look like and how does that work,” McAlexander said. According to Conner, the 71-page document is proof that the institution follows with federally mandated standards in security and safety. “It’s important for the community, the public, to know what our campus is like,” Conner said. “It’s a good thing that our institution complies
College releases federal drug and alcohol regulations Grinnell particulars differ from national standards By Zane Silk silkzane@grinnell.edu Grinnell College students received an email informing them of the typical sanctions for drug and alcohol policy violations on Sept. 29 from Sarah Moschenross, Dean of Students. The list of repercussions struck some as surprisingly lenient. Particularly noteworthy was that in the email, the sanctions for both the first and second instance of student possession of marijuana for personal use included no mention of police involvement. However, Moschenross clarified that template required in the email did not fully capture the College’s policies. “If we saw marijuana or paraphernalia in a person’s room, we would still call the police just like we would if we saw hard drugs,” Moschenross said. “It doesn’t give us an opportunity in this template to say that if we
know about a person using it, it’s different than if we see a person with the drugs.” Under the federal government’s Drug Free Schools and Communities Act, the College is obliged to release an annual notice to students, staff and faculty indicating the health risks, disciplinary sanctions, laws and treatment programs available in regards to the illicit use of drugs and alcohol. According to the federal Clery Act and Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act of 2013, the College also must annually release security and fire safety reports, which were published the day after Moschenross’ email. Another problem with the federally mandated template is that while there is a column for fines, Grinnell College does not apply fines for any of the violations
listed. “We believe in a conduct system that’s non-punitive, and to assess fines to students would be a punitive conduct response. It’s not a best practice, and it disproportionately hurts people in low-income categories,” Moschenross said.
"If we saw marijuana or paraphernalia in a person's room we would still call the police." Sarah Moschenross, Dean of Students “That column about fines is there because that’s what a lot of colleges do,” said Jennifer Jacobsen, Assistant Dean of Students and Director of Wellness and Prevention. In terms of police involvement,
the College makes a distinction between cases where staff simply have knowledge of drug use and cases where staff come across visible evidence of illegal drugs or paraphernalia. The commonly imposed sanctions in Moschenross’ email apply more to the former cases than the latter. “This is just saying these are the possible outcomes — it could involve police, it might not, it might involve suspension or it might involve a drug abuse evaluation,” Moschenross said. “So these aren’t black and white, I apply this to that — it’s all contextual. So if we find out a person is using hard drugs that doesn’t mean we’re going to call the police, but we would if we saw it in a room, just like with marijuana.” A new addition to the notice this year is mention of Marijuana BASICS, which is a
brief motivational interviewing intervention program that is being piloted at the College in cases of marijuana use. Marijuana BASICS is modeled after Alcohol BASICS, a program for cases of alcohol abuse that is now its second year at the College. Also new this year is Ever Fi, which is replacing My Student Body as the online educational program for incoming first years on the topics of alcohol, drugs and sex. “[Ever Fi’s] more culturally aware than what we were using with My Student Body,” Jacobsen said. “[Ever Fi] doesn’t ask you to indicate whether you are male or female, it actually gives kind of the whole lovely, broad spectrum of how people might chose. It just reads a little more Grinnell. … It doesn’t assume that every case of sexual misconduct is going to be in a heteronormative context.”
Arts
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Edited by coghlann17@grinnell.edu
Artist Profile Helen Lant '18 is a studio art major who works primarily in three dimensional art: ceramics, sculpture and welding. The S&B's Candace Mettle sat down with her to talk about style, inspiration and using art for activism. The S&B: What type of art do you do? Helen Lant: I haven’t really landed on one specific medium yet, but so far I’ve really enjoyed 3D art, particularly sculptures and ceramics. Last year I took a sculpture class and I really enjoyed both welding and woodworking. I feel like with 3D art I get to fully extend my creative ideas more fully, more so than with 2D art. So really I’ve just been focusing on 3D art. The S&B: You mentioned how you were interested in sociology. Do you think that’s one of the reasons why you’re drawn to 3D art, or is there stuff that you’ve learned from sociology that has inspired your interest? HL: Currently, not really. I find that right now, I … like to work non-representationally with my art. [I] like making really abstract shapes out of things and … deliberately trying to separate my art from any kind of direct message because in a way that sort of ruins art for other people. If you know, the artist has posted a long paragraph about what this represents and what this means. Art is important for other people because they can take away their own meaning from it but in the long term I think [sociology] really has [impacted my art] because I’m starting to formulate what I want to do after school and I’m really interested in going into art therapy which is basically using art … with drug addicts and people who have been in prison to put them in touch with a more emotional side of their body, and to just get shit out. They’re starting to pop up in prisons, so I’m really interested in being an art therapist in a prison down the road sometime. The S&B: You kind of touched upon it, but do you have a distinctive style? HL: I think I do. People describe my work as very Elven a lot, a lot of curvy lyrical lines [and] sort of, plant like things. I’ve been in ceramics [and] we’re working on these huge
jars that are supposed to be completely covered in detail, so I’ve been doing like these swirly designs over the jar. It’s really fun, but I guess that I’ve been really thinking a lot about the concept of an artistic voice. People are always chasing that, but in a way, [I] don’t really want to find mine because I feel like once you’ve find it, you’re sort of locked in to like speaking with that voice. I feel like I want to be able to branch out more and more as I develop my skills. The S&B: What inspires your work? HL: This is going to sound weird, but Lord of the Rings has been such a big inspiration for me artistically. I think just the movies in particular — just looking at how detailed and aesthetic every single thing in the movies are, the costumes and the set. They’re just so beautiful and detailed and a lot of it is metalwork and woodwork and so those have been just sort of an inspiration point for me visually. [I’ve also been inspired by] different artists like the artist Andy Goldsworthy. He does … natural art that is very easily washed away. He’ll build a wood sculpture in the middle of the ocean and within hours the tide would have taken it away but that complete acceptance with nature is really cool and I find that I am really inspired by nature in a lot of my work.
welding. How is it like to be interested in it as a woman because to me it seems like a very masculine type of art. HL: Yeah I totally agree! I remember feeling like a total badass when I was learning how to do it and just like this Norse god controlling electricity. It was definitely a … confidence building thing to do because I remember that it was the very first thing that we did in our sculpture class. I wouldn’t necessarily say it’s as hard as it looks, but it’s a very tricky thing and it’s very dangerous and hot and you have to wear all of this gear … it’s a great starting point to go on to easier things.
The S&B: If you could have participated into any art movement, what would it have been? HL: Wow … that’s a good question. I feel like that’s kind of a difficult question as a woman because there’s so many awesome art movements that happened in a day when like I would not have been taken seriously or been allowed to speak. I guess … I really like the Dadaist movement … [I like] a lot of collage and they used trash to make art. I remember learning about it in intro to art history and I really loved the resourcefulness of it during a time of war, but again in a time when I wouldn’t be taken seriously. The S&B: You said you were interested in
Come write for The S&B >> come to JRC 220 >> at 2 p.m. on Sundays >> get paid
Arts
Edited by coghlann17@grinnell.edu
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Quintero to present Laramie Project Project Jon Sundby sundbyjo17@grinnell.edu Eighteen years ago today, Matthew Shepard, a 21 year-old gay man, was found tied to a fencepost, bloody and comatose, outside the town of Laramie, Wisc. Having simply accepted an offer for a ride back to his apartment from a bar the previous night, Shepard was instead robbed, beaten, tortured and left for dead in the Wyoming countryside. The gruesome incident provoked a fierce national and international reaction, and soon, much of the world knew of Shepard’s story. And almost two decades later, his name is still not forgotten, having in death become the focus of the famous play, “The Laramie Project.” Shepard’s story will be told once more this weekend, in Flanagan Theater, through an adapted play by Grinnell’s own Craig Quintero, Theatre and Dance.
"We like to think of the Laramie Project as this historical drama, as an event that happened 17-18 years ago, but we're still in the same boat. That violence, that tension is [still] simmering " Craig Quintero, Director Quintero’s production is entitled “The Laramie Project Project”, and is a slimmed-down, refocused version of the original play. Moises Kaufman’s initial script is comprised of a series of monologues, based off
of hundreds of interviews his theatre company conducted with residents of Laramie following Shepard’s murder. While the driver of the plot is Shepard, Kaufman strays from a straight telling of the story, and part of the play is actually a reflection on the project itself and the process of researching, writing and creating the production. Although Quintero recognizes the merits of this approach, he’s reformatted his own script to focus more on Shepard himself, and the lessons we can find in his tragedy. “I wanted to have the focus on Matthew. I didn’t want it to be about writing a play, I didn’t want it to be about navel-gazing and ‘me as the author and creator.' I think that these are important questions to ask, but I think that being more direct and dealing with how we, as an American culture, view homosexuality, how we view religion and faith… and to make that the focal point,” Quintero said. It’s not only Quintero’s script, but his setting too, that is stripped down and minimalist. Held in the small, black box Flanagan Theater, Quintero worked with artist Josh Black to create a set that’s completely surrounded in plywood, and brings the actors, the crew and the audience into an intimate proximity. “We wanted something really stark and simple. Something that could create a mood, but also was really just more of a frame for the performers to perform,” explained Quintero. The performance is entirely monologue, a dramatic departure
SOFIA MENDEZ
Jinlin He (front) and Joey Robertson (back) play Catherine Connolly and the judge respectively. from Quintero’s other work, which is usually image-based and sparse in regards to lengthy dialogue. Yet, in this piece too, Quintero is trying to create something beyond the words. Through the starkness of the set and production, the loneliness of Shepard’s situation and the pain of the townsfolk are transmitted to the audience and a somber, contemplative spirit emerges. Although incredibly powerful, this style of performance is not easy, and the actors had to work a lot to refine their impressions. “[Quintero]’s not a straightforward director. So it’s a lot of experi-
mentation. It’s a lot of thinking about images and movement and really getting to the heart of the piece…everything that we do, the objective is to make it as real as possible,” said Lauren Fenton ’17, who plays multiple roles in the production. Even though we live in an age now that’s arguably more accepting of the LGBTQIA community than in Shepard’s time, Quintero still believes that showing the play now is as important as ever. He sees the anger and fear that’s swept through the country on the back of Donald Trump’s rhetoric as a frightening stumble back towards the same at-
titudes that were responsible for Shepard’s death. He hopes that the audience will come out of the performance ready to reflect on this anger and the attitudes that collectively can lead to tragic outcomes. “We like to think of the Laramie project as this historical drama, as an event that happened 17-18 years ago, but … we’re still in the same boat. That violence, that tension is [still] simmering,” said Quintero. Tickets for the Laramie Project Project are available in the box office in Bucksbaum. Performances are Thursday, Friday and Saturday at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m.
Callie and Caroline Smith spice up Herrick By Halley Freger fregerha17@grinnell.edu
HUNG VUONG
Callie and Caroline Smith concert rock out on the Herrick Chapel stage. Their concert was one of the few to take place in Herrick this semester.
Perhaps you don’t imagine Herrick Chapel as the cool place to be on a Thursday night, but last night it was. Callie kicked off the night with a captivating set of her experimental electronic music. She layered various kinds of dialogue, music and sounds into a textured cacophony of samples. She even added live vocals with her powerful voice. After Callie, Minneapolis based singer-songwriter Caroline Smith and her band performed a high-energy set that included music off of her album “Half About Being a Woman” and a few brand new songs. Although Smith has roots in indie-folk, her solo work in which she sings and plays guitar, is inspired by 90’s R&B and neo-soul. During an instrumental moment in one of her songs, she chatted with her backup vocalist and good friend Mina Moore. The fun, improvised dialogue was reminiscent of something from a classic pop group like the Shangri-Las. Smith also performed an exciting cover of Alanis Morissette’s classic “You Oughta Know.” This song fit perfectly into Smith’s personal set in which she often reflected on her past romantic relationships.
Solange Debuts "A Seat at the Table" after eight year hiatus Last Friday, Sept. 30, Solange Knowles released her third album “A Seat at the Table,” her first album release in eight years. Solange is like your friend’s cool sister that you admire from afar, and long to be, even though you’ve only interacted with her a few times. It took a Spotify Discover Weekly playlist from roughly two years ago for me to figure that out. I consider myself up-to-date on pop culture icons, but I had never really listened to Beyoncé or Solange until their newest albums, respectively “Lemonade” and
"Solange has produced, direted, written, acted — pretty much worked as an omnipotent, artistry goddess — to create the greatest album of the year, probably one of the greatest of this century thus far ." “A Seat at the Table,” came out this year. As many can agree, 2016 has forced a large part of this nation to discuss aspects of the black experience — the positive parts, and the negative ones. For the majority of
“A Seat at the Table,” Solange exhibits the intimate parts that fall through and in between this polarity.
"The album is soul. Not just because of its genre, but because each song exhales a personal history rooted in suffering and beauty ."
The album is soul. Not just because of its genre, but because each song exhales a personal history rooted in suffering and beauty. To get this full experience, I urge listeners to play the album from start to finish. The songs on the album flow as smoothly as a creek; to interrupt the flow would mean destroying nature. The interconnection of tracks makes it so that one cannot even imagine breaks in between; they fit seamlessly together and only after 20 minutes have passed do you realized you’ve listened to eight tracks instead of one. “A Seat at the Table,” seems to have three distinct progressions of emotions: the first one being conflict
and grief, the second, empowerment through retroactions, the final, prideful acceptance. The transitions between each section are subtle and poignant, meditative and powerful. Most importantly, it makes you want to move. Not necessarily as gracefully as “Cranes in the Sky,” (song number four from the album) but definitely in a way that allows your spirit to explore territory outside the confines of the body. The album opens up with the anthem/lullaby, “Rise,” and the listener is welcomed to a world where the black community and allies tell their beautiful children and
each other to lift themselves up and prepare themselves for what is next to come. Originally debuted during the premiere of the biopic on Bessie Smith called Bessie, Solange dedicated the song to Ferguson and Baltimore in light of the protests that happened as a response to police brutality. Instead of highlighting the anger that many felt (and, to be honest, the uncivilized anger that the media wanted to exhibit), Solange decided to reflect on the inner sadness that burdened all those affected. Although it is almost impossible to pull out the best tracks of the album (because each one is truly spectacular), “F.U.B.U. (For Us, By Us),” featuring The-Dream & BJ the Chicago Kid, is another one of my favorites. Beginning with a passionate interlude by Master P, the song is a little bit more upbeat than most of the others, with the inclusion of a cool, sassy saxophone rhythm. Still, it perfectly encases the frustration, pride and alienation of being a black person in a world that loves
to criticize and underestimate black existence. Solange plays into the hard image of black artists by taking a short break from coy prose to using colloquial and profane terms, such as “nigga.” Nonetheless, the minimalist style supports the song, and it’s just as brilliant as “Rise.”
"A Seat at the Table" encourages people of all colors and backgrounds to pull up a chair and have a frank discussion on race. As a black woman, it made me (re) affirm and learn to appreciate my identity."
All in all, “A Seat at the Table” encourages people of all colors and backgrounds to pull up a chair and have a frank discussion on race. As a black woman, it made me (re)affirm and learn to appreciate my identity. Solange has produced, directed, written, acted—pretty much worked as an omnipotent, artistry goddess— to create the greatest album of the year, probably one of the greatest of this century thus far. Take note, world. By Candace Mettle
Election
6
Edited by carhartl17@grinnell.edu
iowa at the polls With early voting in Iowa already open, the S&B investigates the counties in Iowa that hold the greatest power in congressional races.
districts to watch District 1
(northeast Iowa) 2014 candidates: Rod Blum (R): 51% Pat Murphy (D): 48% Population in 2015: 763,903 Registered Unaffiliated: 204,451 Registered Democrats: 176,964 Registered Republicans: 150,197
By Louise Carhart carhartl17@grinnell.edu The first Congressional district race in Iowa between incumbent Republican Rod Blum and Democrat Monica Vernon is now considered a tossup by the Cook Political Report, one of just 24 tossups out of all 435 House seats. A recent Loras College poll showed Blum with a seven-point lead, with 45 percent over Monica Vernon’s 38 percent. However, the poll also said that 16 percent of voters are undecided. The first Congressional district generally leans Democratic and voted 56 percent for President Obama in 2012. The Blum campaign asserts that Repre-
“I think back last Spring or as soon as the nomination came out in June, it was considered vulnerable. … Iowa’s a pretty competitive state generally so that’s not surprising.” Professor Barb Trish
Cook Partisan Voting Index: D+5
District 3 (southwest Iowa) 2014 candidates: David Young (R): 52.8% Staci Appel (D): 42.2% Population in 2015: 770,819 Registered Unaffiliated: 177,984 Registered Democrats: 175,948 Registered Republicans: 184,810 Cook Partisan Voting Index: Even
sentative Blum is safer than the Cook Report believes. “The First District has far more Democrats than Republicans, yet the polling shows that Congressman Blum leading this race. Our campaign has been ahead in four straight polls, including the last three showing us in the lead by seven, seven and sixteen points respectively,” said Spokesman Daniel Sunne. Professor Barb Trish, Political Science, said that the race is close because, despite Blum’s incumbency, Vernon is a strong and well-known candidate in the district. “Vernon is a strong candidate, I mean she she’s known to voters because of her run in 2014 as lieutenant governor candidate,” Trish said. “Blum came in [during] a year that was kind of a Republican wave in Iowa. Democrats did very poorly; it’s hard to know how much he benefitted from that sort of Republican push.”
Blum was elected in 2014 in a wave of Republican victories that allowed them to gain control of both houses of Congress. Blum is a former businessman from Dubuque who started a small software company. In Congress, Blum has cast himself as an outsider and gone against the Republican leadership. His first vote in the House was to oppose Republican John Boehner’s speakership. Blum has supported various efforts to change the way Congress treats itself. He started a caucus of members of Congress who support term limits, ending the Congressional pension system and co-sponsored bills to end lawmakers' access to first-class air travel and luxury car leases, according to an article in USA Today by Susan Davis. Monica Vernon, who visited campus in September, is a current Cedar Rapids City Councilwoman, where she has served for eight years. She has helped to coordinate Cedar Rapids recovery from the 2008 Iowa Floods. Prior to becoming a member of city council, Monica Vernon was the founder and president of Vernon Research Group, a market research firm. She also worked in higher education and as a reporter for The Gazette, a newspaper serving the Cedar Rapids area. Additionally, she organized efforts to raise money to build the Madge Phillips Center for homeless women and children in Cedar Rapids. Blum has also come under fire for his spending on mass communication while in office. According to the Des Moines Register, he spent 425,365 dollars last year on mass mailings to constituents and other forms of communication, more than any other member of Congress, taxpayer money that some argue could be spent in better ways. Blum said in an article for the Register this money is part of his budget, which he is allowed to spend at his discretion and that his mass communication has benefits for constituents. “It’s important to understand that members of Congress receive roughly the same
Meet the Democrats
Patty Judge • Economy: Supports equal pay for equal work, a $15 minimum wage and paid family leave • Education: Supports increased access to pre-K and modernization of public schools • LGBTQ Equality: Supports legislation to end bullying and discrimination
jacob tornholm • School Funding: Believes the Iowa's schools need more than the legislature is provides • Medicaid: Opposes Governor Branstad's privatization of Medicaid from first hand experience as a state DHS employee • Mental Health: Opposes Governor Branstad's closing of two state mental health facilities
iowa state senate
Iowa by the numbers
51%
12%
the competitive quality of it,” Trish said. “I suspect that the Democrats are pushing hard for [the] Latino vote. There are strong pockets of Latino populations in the district including Marshalltown.” “I mean this is an interesting district because it doesn’t have that uniformity like, say the district that Steve King represents in northwest Iowa that’s just very very conservative” said Trish. The Vernon campaign was unavailable for comment.
u.S. house of representatives
• Education: Supports increased government subsidization of higher education • Health Care: Believes the poor state of mental health resources in Iowa is unacceptable • Water Quality: Believes water in Iowa is too polluted, and that we have an obligation to clean it up
chance that Hillary Clinton will win Iowa's 6 electoral votes
Professor Barb Trish
• College Affordability: Supports allowing students to refinance loans at lower rates, increased access to Pell Grants • Equal Pay: Believes it is unacceptable that women still make less for doing the same work as a man • Renewable Energy: Supports investment in wind and solar power
dennis mathahs
of requested absentee ballots in Congressional District 1 have been returned. Of those returned, 59% have been from registered Democrats, 21% from registered Republicans and 19% from voters registered with a third party or no party.
"It's important to understand that members of Congress receive roughly the same budget allotment each year. Within that budget, representatives are free to choose how those resources are allocated.
monica vernon
u.S. senate
27.7%
budget allotment each year. Within that budget, … representatives are free to choose how those resources are allocated. … It’s absolutely true that we’ve chosen to devote a significant amount of resources to communicating with our constituents,” the article reported. “Constituents constantly come up and thank me for keeping them informed. They want to know what is happening in Washington and we communicate closely with them so they can hold Washington accountable.” Professor Trish also said that there are many external factors that made Blum’s seat vulnerable. “I think back last Spring or as soon as the nomination came out in June, it was considered vulnerable. … Iowa’s a pretty competitive state generally so that’s not surprising.” The district’s relative diversity is another reason it is competitive. “I think there’s pockets in the district of both strong Democratic support and strong Republican support and that probably helps
Iowa state house of representatives With roughly 1600 students, Grinnell College makes up 9 percent of Poweshiek County's 18,000 people
1168 residents of Poweshiek County voted in the primary elections. Of registered Republicans, 7.19% voted, and 18.11% of registered Democrats voted.
margin with which Grassley is expected to win his Senate seat
5%
of the state house district 76 population are Grinnell students
Election
Edited by cummings@grinnell.edu & friedlan@grinnell.edu
7
voting guide
With early voting in Iowa already underway, the S&B investigates the counties in Iowa that hold the greatest power in congressional races. Need to register to vote on Election Day? You can register at the polls! You’ll need to bring a proof of residence. This includes: • Water bill • Pay stub • Housing agreement that will be made available to all students. Keep an eye out for correspondence from Andrea Conner on how to access this document before you vote. Still, it’s a good idea to register to vote ahead of time: • You don’t need an ID or proof of residence to register to vote ahead of time • Poll watchers could challenge your proof of residence on Election Day • Allows you to vote early, avoiding potential delays or obstacles on Nov. 8
• Go to Iwillvote.com: This website provides all necessary information, from telling you what you need to register to actually sending you the voter registration form • Email democrat@grinnell.edu: Regardless of your affiliation or intention, they will help you get registered to vote • Find Campus Democrats tabling outside of the Dining Hall. They frequently hold events where they can register you to vote. To fill out a voter registration form, you need: • The last four digits of your social security number OR an Iowa drivers’ license number OR and Iowa non-driver ID form. • The physical address of your dorm (not your campus PO box or dorm name). If you’re not sure, Campus Democrats can tell you the physical address of your dorm or project house
Want to register to vote in Iowa? There are a couple of different ways:
Why should Grinnellians care about voting
down ballot in Iowa? • Mental health: Governor Terry Branstad recently closed 2 mental health institutions in the state, meaning pressures on prisons, colleges and other mental health resources are at an all-time high • Minimum wage: Iowa’s minimum wage has been $7.25 since 2009, which was the last time Iowa had a democratic majority in both chambers and a democratic governor. Minimum wages laws are being passed on the state, not the federal level Curious about the back of the ballot? Here’s what you need to know: • The back of the ballot is comprised of races for non-partisan boards and judge retention • The Poweshiek County Ag Extension Council: 4 people are running for 4 spots • Soil and Water Council: 4 people running for 3 spots. 3 incumbents and one new politican.
where to go
If you live...
On campus North of campus East of campus West of campus South of campus
• Budget: First priority creating a balanced budget for the state of Iowa • Education: Believes in funding Iowa's schools at an acceptable level considering the state's budget • Water Quality: Iowa should investigate water improvement practices before taking rash action
iowa state senate
The Judges Mark Cady
rod blum • Term limits: Supports term limits for all members of the U.S. Congress • Education: Believes the Federal Government should have very limited role in education issues • Agriculture: Opposes regulations created by organizations like the EPA on agriculture
united states house of representatives
tim Kapucian
4
1 grinnell
3
2
congressional
results 2014
dave maxwell • Infrastructure: Supports improvement to Iowa's infrastructure system • Education: Wants Iowa to regain its status as number one in the nation in education • Believes Iowa state government has grown to an unacceptable level, and should be reduced
Iowa state house of representatives
presidential results 2012
Meet the
u.S. senate
districts
republicans
• Environment: Believes that the EPA has imposed too many restrictions on farms • Health Care: Opposes ObamaCare, but does not believe it can be repealed • Supreme Court: As Senate Judiciary Chair, has not held confirmation hearings for nominee Merrick Garland
congressional
...then vote at
Elks Lodge West Side Elks Lodge West Side Elks Lodge West Side Elks Lodge East Side Fairgrounds North End
chuck grassley
Iowa At a Glance
Every eight years, Iowa Supreme Court justices come up for retention. Voters simply vote yes or no on whether each justice should remain in office. This year, three justices are up for retention.
First appointed by Governor Terry Branstad as an Associate Justice in 1998, he has served as Chief Justice since 2010.
daryl Hecht
Appointed in 2006 by Governor Tom Vilsack, Hecht worked in private practice for 22 years prior to joining Iowa's court system.
brent appel
Appel was appointed by Gov. Tom Vilsack in 2006. He is a graduate of Stanford University and the University of California, Berkeley.
Data and information compiled from: Iowa Secretary of State, various campaign sources, Politico, The New York Times, Cook Political Report, FiveThirtyEight Information compiled by Louise Carhart, Michael Cummings, Emma Friedlander, Eva Lilienfeld
8
Sports
Edited by mettleca@grinnell.edu
Winter teams prepare for season MEN'S BASKETBALL
SWIMMING AND DIVING
The Grinnell men’s basketball team is ready to begin their 2016-2017 season, starting with their first practice on Oct. 20. They plan on improving on their customary model, and will be lead by team captains Julian Marx, Nicholas Curta and Michael Porter, all ’17. In addition, Coach David Arseneault Jr., has returned to the College from the D-leagues, the minor leagues of the NBA. “The plan is to keep what has made us successful for years and years the same and just see if we can continue to build on that,” Arseneault said. The team lost nine members from last year, but six firstyears make up most of the gap.
The swimming and diving season officially began, marked with their first practice on Oct. 1. The team has a little over a month to practice before their first meet on Nov. 5 against Luther College. But the greatest drive for many of the athletes isn’t one particular meet or rival school — it’s personal improvement and the improvement of the team as a whole. Chloe Briney ’17 mentioned that one of the big goals for the swim team this year is beating the team records that were set a few years ago that have yet to be broken. “I just think that’s fun because you’re competing against your team and history,” Briney said. Despite the team's relatively good history, Assistant Coach Tim Hammond does not want to focus on doing well at each meet. Instead Tim Hammond, the assistant coach of the swim team, explains that expanding the team’s focus beyond a specific event creates a more compelling environment for the athletes. “If we were to only focus on winning conference or only focus on beating one particular team … I think we would miss out,” Hammond said. “Encouraging the development and achievement of personal goals gives everyone something to work for.” And that’s very important for the overall success of the team. Hammond and Summer White ’18 both stressed the importance of a personal commitment to success. “To be a good diver, you have to be athletic, and you have to want to be a good diver. You have to want it,” White said. Hammond has a similar viewpoint. “It takes … dedication to improve, because they need to train both inside and outside of practice.” Focusing on individual goals can inspire that dedication and drive to improve. “When we focus and support each other’s goals, I think it makes our whole team successful,” White said. by Merlin Mathews
GARRET T YANG
The basketball team runs through a play during one of their first practices of the season. “We have a lot of talent on this team, we have a lot of character. I think as long as we play hard and play together I think that we can have a really good season,” Marx said. The team will continue to run “the system,” a strategy used since the mid-1980s. “The system” involves rotating players every 35 seconds. This makes sure that players are fresh, but the system requires a deep roster. “We try to play as many guys as possible, and we try to sub in every 35 seconds while pressing and playing with high energy,” Marx said. Grinnell is the only team in their conference that runs “the system.” The team also focuses on 3-point shots and high-energy, intense playing which gives the team a unique style. This strategy is a familiar contrast to D-league basketball for Arseneault. “I’m just excited to be back in Grinnell, as a former student-athlete at Grinnell, and former coach at Grinnell, it’s good to be back in the place that I consider home,” Arseneault said. The team has its first game Nov. 15 against Wartburg College and its first home game Nov. 19 against Silver Lake College. “I hope the school comes out and supports [the team]” Marx said. by Philip Kiely
ELLEN SCHOENMAKER
The women's team gather around head coach Erin Hurley during practice.
WOMENS BASKETBALL As women’s basketball prepares for their upcoming season, they will use the success of the past year to propel themselves forward to a hopefully similar campaign. Faced with a tough schedule, the team has prepared on and off the court in the off season in the hopes of improving on their previous accomplishments.
GARRETT YANG
The women's basketball team works on shots during practice. “This year is different because everybody has one more year of experience, and teams in our conference know that any game against us is going to be competitive. We have to expand upon last year’s goals, as well as develop new ones in order to have a successful season,” wrote Daria Guzzo ’19, in an email to the S&B. Moving forward, threats in the conference include Cornell College. “I am most excited to play Cornell again this year. We went 0-3 against them last year (once during the conference tournament), and I know we all have had Cornell in the back of their minds while training. Our team always seems to be up for a challenge, and that is certainly what Cornell gives us every time,” Guzzo wrote. Off the court, the team has been training through lifting programs, speed and agility sessions and open gyms that help improve on fundamentals and increase team bonding and communication. This communication and unity are incredibly important to the team, as they hope to put forward a group that is able to perform when it matters and develop to the best of their abilities. As for this year, goals, improving on their past season and continuing their success is important. “I want to see our team go to Conference Tournament again this year. It was a great experience last year, but there is still more work to be done! I want to see our team build on the momentum we had at the end of last season because we definitely thrive off energy,” Guzzo wrote. by Louise Carhart
SAAC hosts kids' Fall Fest
Sports teams treat kids to pumpkin carving and cider By Candace Metlle mettleca@grinnell.edu A few sports teams from the College, led by Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC), will host a community event, “Fall Fest,” on the track field on Saturday Oct. 8. Not to be confused with the new 10/10 event of the same name, the SAAC sanctioned Fall Fest is meant for elementary and middle school aged kids. Cara Bresnahan ’19, the new track representative for SAAC, has been the head in conceptualizing, organizing and executing this event. For its first year, Fall Fest will host a race. Afterwards, the kids will participate in autumn themed events, such as pumpkin carving, corn-hole and hot chocolate and apple cider drinking. Once the activities end, the kids will be encouraged to watch the football and men’s soccer game that will both be hosted on campus. For its debut, Fall Fest will be held by the track, cross country and men’s tennis teams. “We’re trying to in the future make [Fall Fest] bigger and get more of the community involved,” Bresnahan said. “This way, we’re creating a relationship between the community and athletics.” Community outreach is one of the purposes of SAAC. All sports team at the College are required to complete and participate in three community service projects throughout the year. Although SAAC pertains to the College and all the institutions that are associated with it, the organization as a whole is affiliated
with the National Collegiate Athletic Association.
"[SAAC] is a good way to build a community, not just in one particular team, but within all the teams when we are supporting each other and when we are doing these events" Cara Bresnahan '19 Bresnahan came up with the idea of a children-oriented event after speaking to Elinor Hanley ‘18, the former track representative to SAAC. To get on SAAC, one must be recommended by a player from their sport. Each team is allocated one representative. “[Hanley] had mentioned trying to do an event with kids, and I also love working with kids, so we thought of an event that involved kids and the community and all these elements together. The other element of SAAC sponsored events that Bresnahan
"[Hanley] had mentioned trying to do an event with kids, and I also love working with kids, so we thought of an event that involved kids and the community and all these elements together." Cara Bresnahan '19
CONTRIBUTED
When not hosting Fall Fest for kids, Aidan Healey ’17 races around the track during the spring season. wanted to exhibit through Fall Fest is its ability to connect sports teams together. “In general, I think [SAAC] is a good way to build a community, not just in one particular team, but within all the teams when we are supporting each other and when we are doing these events,” Bresnahan said. In particular, completing events through SAAC has helped bond the track and cross country into one team, which Bresnahan believes is the true makeup of the running sports here at the College. “We could get both of our teams [track and field] together through
community service and kind of create more of team bonding experience before January, when the track season starts,” Bresnahan said. Bresnahan also believes that SAAC has had a positive impact on the sports culture at the College. “Here, sports and athletics are not the main focus, but to have other students with that sports background is nice. [SAAC] is trying to create a community among student-athletes.” One way that SAAC bridges the divide among student-athletes is through the Pride Cup challenge. Pride Cup is a points game in which teams try to get as many other stu-
dent-athletes and students to attend their home games, community service projects and other events. “The idea I think behind it is to get more people at sporting events, you need to get more student-athletes at those sporting events,” said Bresnahan. She also adds that bringing student-athletes in turn may encourage friends of student-athletes to come. Bresnahan has also noticed a strong turnout from community members. To learn more about SAAC and future events, read the Campus Memo, visit their Facebook page or turn out to games!
Sports
Edited by mettleca@grinnell.edu
9
Men's Tennis compeats in USTA/ ITA tournament By Reed Cassell Essex essexree@grinnell.edu Last weekend, the Grinnell College tennis team went to compete in regionals, against teams in the middle and upper Midwest. Jose Coloma '19 described it as a “fun weekend.” Coloma, a second year tennis player at Grinnell, got furthest in this tournament on the College’s team and made it to the quarter finals. Coloma did not initially think
" It can be strenuous at times … but it’s nice to know that the team will be in good hands." Tommy Pitcher '17 he would be able to play, due to an ongoing shoulder injury, but he was happy that he felt good enough to play. He lost to Carthage, but he was very proud of the way he played, and how his teammates played throughout the tournament. “The team in general had some pretty tough matches,” said Coloma “but everyone gave their best, and I was pretty proud of them actually. Everyone was cheering for me when I was the only one still playing, so it was fun.” Coloma may have made it the farthest, but both Tommy Pitcher
'17, and Cole Miller '17 made it to the round of 32, with Coloma and Pitcher getting to the quarterfinals for doubles together. “For me personally, that was my best performance ever,” said Pitcher about the tournament, “I think one of my favorite things [about it] is that we were 14 players, which was a lot more than most teams, so it was really fun to see everyone play and compete really hard.” Pitcher, a fourth year, remarked that one of the reasons he would come back to the College after graduation would be to see the tennis team. Currently, the team is composed of four fourth years, one third year, six second years, and nine first years. “It can be strenuous at times … but it’s nice to know that the team
" The team in general had some pretty tough matches, but everyone gave their best." Jose Coloma '19w will be in good hands,” said Pitcher, and he did include that he is very pleased with the performance of the team as a whole. The tournament last weekend wrapped up the tennis season for the team, but they will pick up their
CONTRIBUTED
Tommy Pitcher '17 prepares to slam the ball at the USTA/ITA Tournament. next season in the spring without their fourth years. “[Next semester] we’ll be playing two matches a week,” Coloma said about the spring season. “[We will play] on Saturdays and Sundays against specific colleges, and their [opposing colleges’] team meets, so whoever gets five out
of nine matches wins the meet. So that’s pretty exciting because it’s like a team tournament instead of an individual, you play with your whole team.” Both Coloma and Pitcher seem very excited for next semester, and very pleased with how they did and how their teams did, and seem much
more focused on the next semester goals for tennis than their own personal victories. Although it's the end of the semester, they will keep practicing in loose schedules to stay in shape for next semester. They are excited to start the spring season and to continue playing as a team in tournaments together.
Intramural sports cultivate competition and wellness
SARAH RUIZ
Intramural leaders Sam Galanek '18, Maisie Lewis '19 and Ben Binversie '17 have worked hard to revitalize intramurals at the College. By Merlin Mathews mathewsr17@grinnell.edu For students who want to enjoy the physical activity and camaraderie of sports without the stress of varsity leagues, the College’s Intramurals program may have the solution. The program draws students from a wide range of athletic backgrounds, who come together out of a common desire to participate in sports that range from indoor soccer to billiards. Sam Galanek '18, one of the student directors of intramural sports, says that participating in intramurals
has positive ramifications for many aspects of life at Grinnell. “We talked about it at the beginning of this year [and said] that if we had to brand the intramurals, we’d say that they provide an outlet to be competitive, but also cultivate physical and in some cases mental wellness,” he says. “It creates an atmosphere in which people can have fun and be outside and engage in physical activity,” he added. Maisie Lewis '19, another student director, added that the positive environment of intramurals also makes them a great wellness activity.
“Everyone comes and they just sort of let go a little bit after classes and it’s a nice way to chill out a little bit before dinner, spend some time not thinking about school,” Lewis said. “Everyone’s happy to be here.” Intramural leagues, unlike varsity leagues, do not involve off campus competition. This removes some of the stressors that can prevent people from participating in athletics. Intramurals don’t require the same time commitment — or generate the same pressure to excel. With intramurals, skill level is less important than willingness to participate.
“A lot of people I know feel like they don’t want to participate in sports because they have a sense of anxiety about being bad at the sport or the activity,” says Ben Binversie '17, the third student director of intramurals. “In a lot of cases, people are excited for more people to show up,” Binversie said, because the more people show up, the more fun the games are. This isn’t to say that competition is nonexistent. All three student directors mentioned that indoor soccer is highly competitive and Binversie and Galanek also cited basketball as a particularly competitive league. But in intramurals, the stakes of the competition are much lower. “It’s fun to be competitive in things that don’t have as many consequences as the classroom or a varsity sport,” Galanek said. The competition can be a way to blow off steam, rather than an additional source of stress. “It’s nice to have a different arena where you can choose to be as competitive as you like or as relaxed as you like,” Binversie said. The unique blend of competition and relaxation can be part of the draw for students who have previous experience with playing sports and for current varsity athletes. Intramural leagues aren’t a lesser form of varsity sports — they are a league of their own. Intramurals also have the potential to foster all kinds of relationships between people who might otherwise never have met. “I met a lot of my friends from [participating in] sand volleyball my first year. And I think that it’s just been a great way for me to connect
with people from other parts of campus, students in other class years and just people who I wouldn’t otherwise have met,” Lewis said. This potential for cross-campus connections between people of different majors, social circles, class years and other all too dividing groups is one of the great benefits of intramural sports. Of course, this only works if people sign up. “We’re really trying to increase our participation this year,” Lewis says. “The more people get involved, the more fun intramurals are for everyone.” “I’m a big believer and proponent of play and sports, generally, as a positive part of everyone’s lives. Even if they don’t believe that they’re the most athletic person in the world,
" If we had to brand the intramurals, we’d say that they provide an outlet to be competitive, but also cultivate physical and in some cases mental wellness." Sam Galanek '18 they can still participate in intramurals and garner the benefits,” Binversie says. Currently, the only intramural leagues running are golf and sand volleyball. Indoor soccer and racquetball will begin after fall break, to be followed by billiards, badminton and ping-pong. To participate in intramurals, visit IMLeagues.com and find Grinnell or download the REC*IT app.
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Edited by bohlkeli@grinnell.edu
All Worked Up Employment is a huge factor in the lives of Grinnell's students. Not only do students think about the impending so-called real world jobs that exist after Grinnell, but many students work while undergraduates as well. Students work to gain experience for their post-Grinnell lives, but they also work to earn money to supplement tuition and personal expenses. There are many job options for Grinnellians, from Dining Services to off campus serving jobs at the hippest local restaurants. This week, the S&B conducted an investigation into the ins and outs of student employment and student jobs. By Lily Bohlke & Mira Braneck bohlkel@grinnell.edu & braneckm@grinnell.edu A big part of coming to college is learning how to balance classes, extracurriculars, a social life and for some, a job. Although school is all students’ priority, many students also prioritize work on and off campus in order to pay for living expenses. There are numerous options for students to choose from, including on campus employment like Dining Services and off campus work, like Prairie Canary. About half of Grinnellians have clocked in at a regular job on campus this semester. An estimated 800 students have logged more than ten hours since the beginning of the semester, according to Mark Watts, Human Resources Training and Student Smployment Coordinator. Another 140 have worked less than ten hours and are not considered regular workers. Josie Sloyan ’18 had her first “real” job upon arriving on campus as a first-year. “There was this sort of need to prove yourself, like that first job feeling and feeling like you have to normalize it really quick,” she said. Sloyan notes a difference between the daily lives of students who work and students who don’t work. “It’s going to affect the way that you go about your day and how you’re allotting your time and what you’re doing with that time,” Sloyan said. “I think
when you normalize it ... it’s always really jarring to hear people say that they don’t work. I think it does add a lot of stress in your day. People don’t really think about it. They’re just like, ‘yeah this is the week.’” Some on campus jobs are not well known — only select people know they even exist. Ryan Betters ’18 is an assistant animal technician for animals in the basement of Noyce. He takes care of rodents — the psychology mice and rats and biology mice — and sometimes, he takes care of two species of frogs, lizards, cockroaches, snails and minnows. Each day, Betters checks animal welfare, food and water levels, cage cleanliness and overall animal well-being. He works around 12 hours per week, but he is able to pick his hours. “You need to go in every day, but you can go in at any point,” Betters said. “I like working alone; I’m usually the only person down there.” This job requires an employee who is responsible and reliable. Betters said that in the past, there has been a high turnover rate for this job because it only takes one mistake to be let go. “There are animals that were direct results of professors’ grants. Those grants are reliant on these animals being taken care of,” Betters said. Other jobs are still not well known but perhaps enjoy more company, rather than to those who spend time perusing Noyce. Sadie Tristam ’17 is a Grinnell House monitor and welcomes guests to campus. Grinnell House was constructed in 1917 and was the home to all of the college’s presidents from 1917 to 1961. These days, the “handsome Georgian building, an almost pure example of that style,” hosts visitors to Grinnell, according to the College’s website. Some past guests have included Presidents Harry Truman and Dwight Eisenhower. According to Tristam, being a Grinnell House monitor is one of the best jobs on campus — especially for students who have to work off campus to supplement their incomes. The monitors live in Grinnell House, and they need to be on the first floor of the house for 20 hours each week. Sometimes they may need to do some cleaning or take out the trash, but they often have free time. “You’re [able to] get your homework done in the time that you’re scheduled to work,” Tristam said. “If a guest comes in, you greet them — it’s a great chance for networking too because the people that stay there are usually alums or people who are speaking here. … It’s basically just being there.” And then there are jobs that are visible, but have a small staff that’s able to do meaningful work. Christine Hood ’17 is an executive co-coordinator for the Wellness Lounge. She started at the Wellness Lounge as a board member her first year, after realizing that her job swiping cards at the Bear offered less fulfillment than the Wellness Lounge position could. “I personally have had a lot of experience with mental health throughout my family, my friends, my own personal experiences,” Hood said. “I’ve found that when you actually do take time for yourself it usually does help.” The Wellness Lounge hosts study breaks and events, often coordinating with other groups on campus. One weekly event is Tea Time, which happens every Tuesday with free tea, brewing and sometimes extra small events — for example this past week lounge leaders organized a terrarium-making workshop. At the Wellness Lounge, Hood works around 7-10 hours per week. However, she is able to somewhat make her own schedule, so it varies. Often, students opt to work off campus instead of settling only for on-campus jobs. A student’s time working off campus does not count toward the 20 hours per week limit on work at the college itself. Prairie Canary, one of the hip restaurants in town, often hires college students. Currently, around 20 out of the 40 workers at Prairie are students. Students are requested to be available for five shifts and work a minimum of three, which comes out to a minimum of about 12 hours per week.
940 students are ea rning hours so far this y ear 800 students work regularly
"I don't walk in the door on day one and know everything I need to know to be a good library director . ... I hope ... student workers are learning new skills, learning interesting things." Mark Christel, Librarian of the College
“We do hiring all year long, depending on how many staff members we have and how many people we’re losing,” said Tyler Zhorne, front of house manager of Prairie. “We’re super flexible. For example, I’m on salary, so if we were short staffed on servers, I’ll just work server so that we’re covered on all bases.” For employers, there are valuable aspects as well as challenges to employing students, who often prioritize school work and class sched-
Students who work Dining Hall: in Dining Services:
342
Catering:
267 24 Spencer Grill:
77
Students who work Students who work in Mail Services: in Libraries:
44
55
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Edited by bohlkeli@grinnell.edu
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Grinnellians balance schoolwork with paid work The College's on campus employers enjoy dedicated students committed to their jobs, while students enjoy the hard work and effort on their employer's part, each trying to benefit each other. Meanwhile, the Union of Grinnell Student Dining Workers has been fighting for higher wages, and they have acquired new policies surrounding pay for Dining Services. ules. The College’s libraries are dependent on students, and sometimes students progress in their library careers to take on more advanced roles. “Some of our students are driven to become library professionals or archivists. So they’re dedicated; they’re here 10 hours, but they’re learning every time they’re working, too. Many of them offer really exceptional service by the time they’re juniors of seniors,” said Mark Christel, Librarian of the College. Not only are the libraries dependent on students, however, but the libraries also intend to positively impact students in their careers and futures in library-related work. “I don’t walk in the door on day one and know everything I need to know to be a good library director. I need to keep learning every day on the job. I hope we’re working to scaffold things so that over a career or three or four years, student workers are learning new skills, learning interesting things,” Christel said. At the college’s libraries, students are limited to working 10 hours a week. Although such a limit makes it so many students need to be hired, the training and investment in a full-time staff member is much greater than for additional students. “Money wise, we employ a lot of students because we don’t have to provide benefits, which is a substantial cost,” said Michele Behounek, Manager of Access Services. “Our student staff is essential for the day-to-day operations — we couldn’t stay open [without them] because we’re open 110 hours a week between the two libraries.” Some of these workers have to work on campus as part of their financial aid package. The College cannot estimate an accurate number of student workers that work as part of their financial aid package, because some students choose not to have a job. However, a lot of students who work do so to pay part of their tuition through workstudy. If a student works eight or nine hours a week, that student can expect to earn about 2,200 dollars during the academic year, according to the College’s website. This number is a typical expectation of work-study financial aid in terms of how much a student will contribute to their tuition through working on campus per year. This eight to nine hours per week expectation stands if the student puts 100 percent of their earnings towards their work-study. Students do not have to put all of the money that they earn towards their work-study balance. They can opt for a certain percentage of their paycheck to go towards their tuition with the rest to their pocket, or for 100 percent of their earnings to go straight to the Office of Financial Aid and towards their tuition. Many students on campus work more than the eight to nine hours a week, in order to help support themselves as well as pay towards their tuition. “Federal work study usually goes straight to the school. It’s hard … for you to earn any income when you’re on a federal work study, you usually have to be working more than 20 hours, especially with the pay grade,” Hood said. One of these student-workers is Sloyan, who works at the Grill and with catering. She works eight hours of work-study per week, as well as four to six hours per week off campus at Pagliai’s, a restaurant in town. All of her on campus earnings go straight to tuition, as do a portion of her off campus earnings. I s a a c Mielke ’18, a mentor in the Economics Department and a tutor in the Math Lab, works nine hours a week as part of work-study. He also sees a difference in his days compared to those who do not work. “I just have less free time ... probably [have more stress].” For many on campus, working and contributing this way to-
"Federal work study usually goes straight to the school. It's hard ... for you to earn any income when you're on a federal work study, you usually have to be working more than 20 hours, especially with the pay grade." Christine Hood '17
wards tuition is just part of the everyday grind, the same as going to class and heading to Burling to do homework. “I feel like as a work-study student, you really don’t think about what it’s like to not be one,” Sloyan said. “It’s just sort of a matter of course.”
Dining Hall Union Update The Union of Grinnell Student Dining Workers (UGSDW) became one of the first unions of undergraduate employees in the nation to ratify a contract with a private institution when they voted to instate a new contract last Tuesday, Sept. 27. The contract, which was settled upon after their bargaining team met with the College, was approved in a 33 to one secret ballot. The contract includes an experienced pay package. The base wage for all Dining Hall workers was raised from 8.50 dollars per hour to 9.50 dollars per hour, with a 25 cents raise for every 110 hours worked and a maximum wage of 10 dollars per hour. Student leaders start with a base wage of 10 dollars per hour, and can earn up to 10.75 dollars per hour based on hours work in a similar scale. There were few points of disagreement between the Union and the College, but the disagreements that did arise were worked through. “By listening to both sides, we were able to meet and sometimes change how we looked at things,” said Union President Cory McCartan ’19. Sticking points included how to notify new hires of the existence of the Union and wages. “The College said that really, the problem comes down to students working one shift a week, and it’s barely worth the money to train them, ... so we said ok, if we can go down to a lower base wage and have this larger experience pay package, that could work really well for everybody involved. It was definitely a cooperative process.” Going forward, the Union is focusing on the practical implementation of the contract and getting more Union members. “Our first priority is making sure that the contract is implemented and get more people signed up and part of the union,” said McCartan. There was a lot of controversy surrounding the creation of the Union last year. Many students felt that it should include the career staff and non-student workers of the Dining Hall. “It’s against federal labor law to have people who are supervisors and have the power to hire and fire people in the same bargaining unit as the people that they are in charge of hiring and firing, because then there’s worry that they would use their power to influence the union. But as I understand it, the Marketplace supervisors do not directly supervise or sort of have complete firing and hiring decisions over the career staff,” McCartan said. Regardless, McCartan said that the UGSDW does not have the resources to appropriately represent full-time, non-student workers. “For career staff, if they hypothetically went down the road of wanting to unionize, it’s not unlikely that they could face a lot harsher resistance,” McCartan said. “We wouldn’t feel very comfortable trying to protect and help them unionize if we couldn’t offer the same sort of support that a more traditional union could.” The new contract does include a no-strike clause, which some may see as taking away leverage from the Union that it would potentially need. However, McCartan said that nostrike clauses are commonplace, and that a binding arbitration process is included in the contract, should disputes arise. The arbitration process will allow for the dispelling of conflict. “The arbitrator is just supposed to look at the contract and labor law and decide what the fairest and right legal outcome is,” McCartan said. “The arbitration panel is drawn from elected student government and faculty members.” The Union and the College are currently compiling a list of 20 potential panel members. The list, comprised of faculty and Student Government Association elected officials, will be deemed mutually acceptable by the College and the Union. If a dispute should arise, and the parties go into binding arbitration, five members will be chosen randomly from the list. Then each side will strike one name from the five, and a panel of three members will hold a hearing.
"We're confident that if we have more outreach, we'll get more members."
Cory McCartan '19, Union President
Student Thoughts "We averaged it out and comes to around 16 dollars an hour. There's no other job on campus or in town you're going to get that. Even if financial aid would have covered it, you're off campus, in an awesome historical house."
Sadie Tristam '17
"When I got here, it was sort of like my first real job. There was this sort of need to prove yourself, like that first job feeling, and feeling like you have to normalize it really quick."
Josie Sloyan '18
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"Rabbit Hole" shown this weekend By Megan Tcheng tchengme@grinnell.edu
The Grinnell Community Theatre, in conjunction with the Grinnell Area Arts Council, will open its production of "Rabbit Hole" today. The Pulitzer Prize-winning drama, written by renowned playwright, David Lindsay-Abaire, will take place at the Loft Theatre on Broad Street next to the Art Center. Featuring a six-member cast, including Alex Mitchell ’17 and Isabel Cooke ’16, the production will run for a total of two weeks, with performances each Friday, Saturday and Sunday for the duration of its run. In preparation for the Rabbit Hole’s opening night, The S&B's Megan Tcheng sat down to chat with the production’s director, Brian Mitchell. The S&B: You have had an extensive career in the arts and, in particular, have made a collection of significant contributions to the world of theater here in Grinnell. How did you first get involved with the Grinnell Community Theatre? Brian Mitchell: I moved here from Cherokee, Iowa in 1995, and I was very involved in the theatre there. So when I moved here, I looked to get involved. My first show [as a director] was a production called "The Best Christmas Pageant Ever" and, being the naïve, young director I was, I took all the kids that tried out. That factored out to 35 plus kids. The [experience] was definitely a little overwhelming for me. [During the show,] I learned a lot about myself and a lot about theater … and I learned not to direct again until I was truly ready for it. The S&B: You are the director of the upcoming production of Rabbit Hole, which will be opening this coming Friday, Oct. 7. What inspired you to take on this specific play?
BM: I saw "Rabbit Hole" at the Iowa Thespian Festival for High Schoolers around 4 years ago. I knew nothing about the show before they drew the curtains, but [the production] pulled me in from the beginning. It starts off very humorous, but … as the show goes on, you find out that the young son of the married couple has died. They are past the raw emotion and instead are in a period of depression, roughly eight months after the fact. The show is really about how these two people, who have been through so much, work their way back to each other. So many people use comedy to deal with the hardships in life and that, in turn, makes the characters more believable and relatable. It really resonates. The S&B: What was one of the biggest challenges for you and the cast during the production of "Rabbit Hole?" BM: First and foremost, casting was a challenge. Another challenge is that the actors themselves are busy. For example, the actor that plays Jason is currently on the homecoming court at the high school. So, this coming Thursday night, he will be going through the parade, waiting to see who becomes king and then rushing to get to rehearsal on time. A lot of that is taken into account when we set up our schedule, but it’s still a challenge. The S&B: How do you hope the audience will experience and interact with the production? BM: First off, the nice thing about this production is that the theatre itself is very small. We’re only going to be having around 55 people per performance, so [the audience members] will literally be able to reach out and touch the actors at specific points in the play. You’ll get to experience their emotions very clearly and feel their pain. It’s a very intimate theatre, but this is a very intimate play.
Edited by carhartl17@grinnell.edu
Get cultured this weekend: Book Festival held in Iowa City
By Louise Carhart carhartl17@grinnell.edu If you’re looking for an excuse to get off campus this weekend and avoid the 10/10 fallout, there’s no better place to head than Iowa City for the annual Iowa City Book Festival. Running from Oct. 4 to Oct. 9, the Festival is held every year in various locations throughout the City. Iowa City holds this Festival to celebrate the place of literature in its history and the continued importance of books to the City. “As the only [United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization] UNESCO City of Literature in North America, Iowa City is known as a place that values and celebrates literature. That makes it easier to book a festival. Authors know they will be treated well and will interact with some of the best audiences in the world at our festival,” wrote John Kenyon, the Festival director in an email to The S&B.
“No matter your tastes, you should be able to find something that appeals to you. And, it's all free and open to the public.” John Kenyon Hosted by the organization Iowa City UNESCO City of Literature, the Festival honors the strong literary tradition present in Iowa. How did Iowa City come to be designated as a City of Literature? The strong and continued presence of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop at the University of Iowa, as well as the multitude of other programs and literary institutions made Iowa City a worthy candidate and recipient of the award. As for this year’s Festival, a great number of events promise to entertain visitors and keep the literary spirit of the City alive. “We have Pulitzer Prize winners in Robert Olen Butler and Leonard Pitts Jr., we're giving our Paul Engle Literary Prize to Roxane Gay, we're
CONTRIBUTED
Author Bonnie Jo Campbell speaks at last year's Festival at the Prairie Lights Bookstore. debuting [University of Iowa] grad Nathan Hill's first novel, we're partnering on events featuring Angelo Volandes, Suki Kim, Andrea Wulf and more. It's a long list of highlights,” Kenyon wrote. All of these events will be featured prominently alongside a book fair that visitors can peruse in the hunt for their next read. In addition to the planned programming and the fair, there is a portion dedicated to the “First Folio” exhibition of Shakespeare’s work. Earlier in the fall, one of the “First Folio’s” of Shakespeare’s work was on display at the University of Iowa Main Library. The fair will honor this historical artifact with some dedicated programming. “Because the ‘First Folio’ was here in September and is now gone, we only have a small bit of programming related to it, with a presentation by Adam Hooks, curator of that exhibition locally, talking about his book, ‘Selling Shakespeare’ and Emily Martin discussing art books related to Shakespeare,” Kenyon wrote. “However, though the ‘First Folio’ is gone, the exhibition around it remains, and it is a fascinating look at some pieces of the University of Iowa's own collection, which includes a ‘Second Folio’ and many other rare works. So those coming to town for the festival definitely should take in that exhibition at the University of Iowa Main Library.” Although the “First Folio” drew
a large amount of visitors to the Main Library in September and the exhibit undoubtedly will continue to be popular, the Book Festival is continuing to rely on its strength as one of the premier literary festivals in the country. “Given the strength of literary programming in Iowa City, each year seems to bring something new and exciting. This year was no different,” Kenyon wrote. Visitors looking to fully experience the Festival should head to their website in order to gain an idea of what might be of interest to them and what the main events are taking place the day they visit.
"Given the strength of literary programming in Iowa City, each year seems to bring something new and exciting. This year was no different” John Kenyon “Visiting www.iowacitybookfestival.org and really spending some time with the schedule and the author bios is a great way to start. With more than 100 presenters at more than 50 events over six days, we feel there truly is something for everyone,” Kenyon wrote. “No matter your tastes, you should be able to find something that appeals to you. And, it's all free and open to the public.”
Uncle Bill's Farm is a fall wonderland By Keli Vitaioli vitaioli@grinnell.edu I was overwhelmed with nostalgia and excitement during my trip to Uncle Bill’s Farm in Grinnell this past week. The farm is open for prime pumpkin picking season Sept. 14 through Oct. 30 and offers a return to those classic Midwestern fall afternoons from childhood spent gobbling down candy apples and begging my mom for the biggest pumpkin my arms could lift. “Uncle” Bill Owen purchased the farm five years ago and has added many attractions to take the experience to a new level. Beyond the classic corn maze, tractor ride and apple cider donuts, Owen’s farm offers a corn pool where you can make a corn-kernel-angel, a goat feeding area featuring a Golden Goat Bridge, giant jumping pillows for adults and children alike and even a peacock. The farm caters well beyond just the Grinnell area, marketing itself as a perfect halfway point between Iowa City and Des Moines. “We just had a couple of sisters that started off in Chicago, and they were headed to the zoo in Omaha, and they needed a place halfway in-between,” Owen said. “That happens quite a bit, somebody east and somebody west — they choose us as a spot to meet their families.” I began my trip with fellow S&B staff member Megan Tcheng ’19 with a greeting from the three resident cats, all basking in the fall air in the barn market area. After a quick rundown from Heidi More, Owen’s partner in life and farm-running, on the remaining tractor departure times for the day, we were released, candy apple in hand, onto the farm. The farm goes all out for pumpkin season, featuring an abundance of hay bales and face-in-hole options from smiling jack-o-lanterns to spooky cats. Our first stop was to feed the Facebook-famous goats — check them and their overalls out on Uncle Bill’s Farm’s Facebook page. Buddy, Sandy, Pipi and Sookie all come to Uncle Bill’s Farm from the herd of Daryl
SOFIA MENDEZ
The homecoming parade for the Grinnell Newburg Community High School wove its way through Grinnell this Thursday to celebrate the beginning of the home football season and culminating in the naming of homecoming king and queen with the homecoming court looking on.
CONTRIBUTED
Anyone looking for a fall escape should consider heading three miles South of campus to Uncle Bill's Farm. Morrison. Each year, Owen chooses goats for the farm before the season and gets them certified by the Health Department and the Department of Agriculture. All four goats are currently pregnant, and Owen is anxiously awaiting their kids — pun intended. Next was the chicken coop with a variety of breeds, including the beloved fluffy Silkie chicken. There were a pair of chickens Owen refers to as “rebels” that evaded the coop enough that they were free to roam the farm throughout the day and be chased by the stray child that crossed their path. The six-acre corn maze was next. Tcheng and I assumed that the 30 minutes before the tractor ride was more than enough time to tackle this maze as we were no rookies, but we definitely ended up cutting it close. The corn stretched well above our heads and took me back to being a kid racing through the maze with no concern for getting to the end. After 20 minutes, Tcheng and I resorted to the age-old right-hand-to-wall trick my mom had taught me many a fall ago — it worked like a charm. We emerged from the corn maze just as the sun was setting, with nine minutes to spare before the final tractor ride left for the day. Uncle Bill takes the tractor out every hour, on the hour, around the entire farm, stopping
at the corn maze over the hill and the ten acres of pumpkins. The view of the surrounding pumpkins with the donkey and mini pony grazing in the distance was idyllic. Tcheng and I discussed with our nine-year-old tractor companions the coolest jack-o-lantern possibilities, deciding on a snowman made of not one, but three pumpkins. The tractor ride was the perfect end to our day as we both picked perfect dorm-sized two-pound pumpkins. All together the whole trip cost us just 18 dollars, which was incredible for all of the attractions we were offered. I was reminded of similar trips back home that would’ve come out to 50 dollars plus. For Owen, the best part is the joy the children come away with. “I just love the farm. It’s my home, so I get to decorate my home,” Owen said. “When the kids come out, and they enjoy themselves, and their parents are running around saying, ‘oh look at that, oh look at that,’ it’s really neat because they’re admiring something that I did. It makes me proud.” The farm is open 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Sundays. Admission is seven dollars on weekdays and 10 dollars on weekends. Outside of pumpkin season, the farm is available by request for events such as weddings or corporate outings.
Car burglaries on the rise in Grinnell Continued from Front Page One thing that is consistent about all investigations is that public assistance is essential to solving the case. Reports of all break-ins, reports of suspicious behavior and preservation of evidence are all vital to building a profile of the perpetrator. “It all depends on the public’s assistance,” McMillen said, “[if] you’ve been the victim of a burglary from your vehicle or a theft from your vehicle, don’t touch the scene, don’t disturb it and call law enforcement right away.” There is a lot that people can do to protect their property from burglary. Parking in lit areas, locking cars and removing valuables all significantly reduce the risk of a burglary. “The most important thing, that if people did would probably end [burglaries from cars] overnight, is to lock their cars and remove their valuables,” McMillen said. The appeal of car burglary is its easiness relative to other crimes. “People go in, it’s quick, easy in easy out, and they get maybe 500 dollars worth of valuables in any given night,” said McMillen. However, the penalties are severe. Entering a car with the intent to deprive the owner of property is an aggravated
misdemeanor, punishable by up to two years in prison. If over 1,000 dollars is stolen, the crime becomes a felony. Additional charges apply if the perpetrator damages the car, and as many thieves commit the same crime multiple times, the charges stack. “You could face multiple charges, each time, in fact, you enter a vehicle would be a car burglary,” McMillen said. Likely, multiple sentences would be served concurrently. However, for that to happen, the perpetrator must be apprehended. Because thieves often burglarize multiple cars, evidence from one report can solve multiple. “We might have evidence in one vehicle that might solve all of them,” McMillen said. “There may be evidence in the vehicle whether it is fingerprints … [or] other physical evidence that’s left behind that once it’s disturbed we lose it forever.” It is also important to report the crime. “Crime overall is underreported,” said McMillen said. Between public assistance and police investigation, the perpetrator or perpetrators may be apprehended soon. If not, colder weather should slow burglaries from cars as there will be less people out on the streets.
Edited by sundbyjo17@grinnell.edu
Guns, Germs, Steel and (Arrows):
A Hunter's Holiday By Steve Yang
Fall is “the” holiday season. Everybody knows that trick-or-treating takes place at the end of October, or that Christmas is on December 25, or that Thanksgiving-themed gluttony can only happen when red, yellow and green leaves carpet the walkways. When I studied abroad in London last year, I had the chance to see how England celebrates these holidays, like Halloween (All Hallows Eve) or Christmas (Christmas). But there was one holiday that I missed so badly, it drove me wild with cabin fever sitting in a third-story flat. If you’re an avid reader of this column, I think you can guess what it is. For outdoorsmen in Poweshiek County and all around Iowa, there’s another special day in mind, which brings together the festivities all on one overwhelming day of splendor: October 1. On this day, numerous hunting seasons kick off: waterfowl hunters in the South Zone (the primary delineator is Highway 30, and Poweshiek County is south of it) have the chance to throw down a coffin blind in a cornfield, surround themselves with big plastic decoys and try to serenade some geese. For those in pursuit of slightly more colorful game, one can lay out wood duck (woodies) or mallard decoys on open water and quack them in, hailing migratory flocks with an assortment of different calls. Looking for a slightly bigger bird? Congratulations, you’re in luck! Grab a chair, cover your face with some brown-and green-colored paint and get your bow ready for some wild turkey. They’re active, loud and looking for a good time, so you might just get lucky. It’s October, after all, when dreams come true. But what if you’re sick of staying on the ground this whole time? Yep, it’s October 1, so anything is possible. You can climb into a tree, covered in summer foliage-colored camouflage and wait for that big buck or doe you’ve been seeing on your field cameras all this time. Grunt, snort, wheeze and rattle your way to success, but stay safe and strapped to those trees. Also, take the time to look up every once in awhile: if you’re staring too often at the ground, you’re gonna miss the beautiful foliage. (Shout out to Cassidy Peterson ’17 for a mutual appreciation of foliage). If you’re not a hunter or even slightly interested in hunting, I can see why this day sounds quite blood-
thirsty and gory, and why this column can seem like a heavy-handed glorification of killing. (Yes, I have watched Bambi, and Open Season, but not the 3 sequels to Open Season. But have you seen Steven Rinella’s MeatEater, or Time Magazine’s cover story on the need to lower deer populations?) Hunting is more than killing, in the same way that fishing is not just catching: it’s about the preparation as much as it is about the pursuit. It’s about eating “tag soup” as much as it is about getting lucky. Countless hours spent scouting, trimming and maintaining are all but invisible come October 1, except in the hearts of hunters. In my opinion, hunting is equal parts the camaraderie as it is the solitude, providing ample time to ponder one’s relationship with the wilderness like a better-armed Thoreau. If Walden took place in Iowa, I imagine that Mr. Thoreau would have a lot of memories like mine, pondering his mortality and how precious body heat is when it’s twenty degrees below zero and you can’t even move a muscle to stay warm. Of course, the point of this column is not to persuade you to take up hunting. If you do, that’s great, but if you don’t, I understand that there are hundreds of good reasons not to. My goal is to shed light on a tradition that (believe it or not) many Grinnellians partake in, but also as a way of reminding my parents why my grades will likely start to dip in October and November. And speaking of Grinnell, I would argue that there are few things more stereotypically “Grinnellian” than hunting: fresh/local/organic/humanely raised meat, licensing funds going directly to conservation efforts and an extraordinarily active opportunity to learn about the community around you. Several Grinnell alums are prominently placed in fields (no pun intended) that are directly related to or are funded by hunting. I have heard repeatedly that back in the day, Poweshiek County was “the” hot spot to hunt for Chinese ringnecked pheasant: entire wings of our local motels were designated for hunting dogs and the revenue hunters brought in was a major boon to the economy. So you’ll probably start seeing a lot more camo clothing in Grinnell in the next three months. Remember: on October 1 and for approximately the next 90 days, camo is like the wrapping paper on an outdoorsman’s Christmas, Halloween and Thanksgiving combined. Happy October 1!
Opinions
13
Life During Wartime:
The Disenchanted "Deplorables" By Max Fenton
With the presidential election a mere 31 days away, Hillary Clinton seems to be the consensus candidate. She enjoys the endorsement of dozens of major newspapers and hundreds of public officials, moderate Republicans are looking to her as a savior from their party’s nominee and she has been hailed for an unparalleled lifetime of public service. Her opponent has received the endorsement of racist, right-wing fringe “news organizations,” is a chronic liar, tax cheat and has never served in any elected office. Nevertheless, Trump stands a real chance of being elected to the presidency of the United States. As of the time of my writing, FiveThirtyEight gives Trump a 25% chance of being elected. Their polling aggregates suggest he will win Ohio and the great state of Iowa. It leaves open the possibility to him flipping other swing states in favor of the Republican Party in the month before the election. But how did this happen? Certainly in any functioning democracy, there would be no question as to who voters should elect if only to prevent the alternative. But the caveat is that we do not live in a functioning democracy. The reason that Trump still has a decent chance of winning and was selected in the first place is entirely symptomatic of the structural problems within the Republican party that prevent it from being truly democratic. Republican politics are still a rich white man’s game. Vested interests in political structures from the local to the national party level are intended to prevent more extreme party elements from making their voices heard, and solidify the technocratic powers-that-be in the cozy status quo. Eventually, however, these fringe elements of the party grow strong, feeding on the racist and reactionary ideology spewed by their chosen candidate. This time, that candidate happened to be Donald J. Trump. The most extreme right-wing elements of American society — white supremacists, alt-righters, conspiracy theorists and whoever else fits into the so-called “basket of deplorables” loved his “anti-establishment” bonafides and rheto-
ric and saw him as their avatar in defying the larger party structure. With the reactionary hijacking of the Republican party complete, the years of discontent from suppression exploded into the firestorm of contemporary Republican politics. In spite of the drama at and during the lead-up to the convention, any attempts to stop him ultimately failed.
"Republican politics are still a rich white man's game." Though Trump’s success with fringe elements of the Republican Party can be explained, why is he succeeding with the party base? The answer lies in the inherent undemocratic principles of contemporary American politics that isolate us from political discourse. The first problem is a lack of effective opposition to the two-party structure. The dominance of Republicans and Democrats, and the disarray of the Libertarians, Greens and all other third parties, ensures the stagnation of American politics. Because Trump has cast himself as the “true” change candidate, people who are disaffected with the political system flock towards him. Isolation from the political system has bred contempt among American voters that is ultimately expressed in support for Donald Trump’s anti-establishment brand. Republican politics is a game of
competing elites. In their political machinations, they abandoned the blue-collar white voters that were the party’s most loyal supporters. Party luminaries took in vast amounts of money from vested interests with a complete disinterest in the affairs of the party base. In other words, they took the base for granted. As the Republican agenda strayed further from supporting this group, blue-collar white people saw a party hostile to their interests and wanted a candidate who seemed to care about them. In his populist, anti-immigrant, pro-protectionist rhetoric, Donald Trump electrified these abandoned people into his most loyal supporters. In failing vast segments of their voter base in favor of their own profit, party leadership cultivated the ideal environment for the tragic demagoguery of today. The success of Donald Trump is not a failure of democracy — he is a failure of the undemocratic practices in the current system. The American people have been failed by a political process whose very nature prevents change. In destroying any hopes for an effective opposition and becoming subject to the political games of powerful forces, the American people have been largely removed from their political system. Change is urgent, and I hope inevitable. Democracy is, after all, supposed to be rule by the people. But reading this column can only do so much for you — the real power is in going out and making your voice heard.
This Crazy Life: Facing failure and adjusting expectations By Ian Stout In my experience, structuring out one’s life path event by event is akin to writing up a Pirate’s Code. On one side of this analogy, we’re writing a Code of Conduct for a host of sea raiders and expecting them to sit down and parley. If I’m writing down a detailed life plan, I might be ignoring the fact that life is a tumultuous storm of coincidence. In both cases, our stress over future prospects takes control, cumulating in a document that disregards our present circumstances. The documents are more like guidelines, really. To represent my analogy in reality, I spoke with two men working at Grinnell College, both of whom have considerably more experience with this whole ‘life’ thing than I do. I asked them a very simple question: how did you end up here? By chartering out the interviewee’s life path, I wanted to discover the types of circumstances that influenced their career choices. With guided questions, I had the interviewee picture themselves as Pocahontas sitting in her canoe,
floating down towards the precipice of two major life choices (note: all quotes in this article best read out loud in a Grandmother Willow voice). First I spoke with Professor Daniel Reynolds, German, (no relation to the Imagine Dragons front man). Reynolds originally studied economics at Georgetown University. Reynolds spoke to his personal experience with a changeable life plan. “[During my undergraduate] I never thought about a career in academia. I started in economics knowing I wanted some kind of international contact, but I had no clear idea about how that would come about…but I think my study abroad experience in Germany changed everything for me.” He then elaborated on this experience and discussed how it changed his self-perspective. “I went there studying economics, and I just loved my life in Germany. I had an amazing experience in Germany. There, it was a set of circumstances that influenced me. I think it was just feeling kind of disenchanted with the
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subject [economics] I had chosen.” As someone who has also studied abroad, I know firsthand that immersing oneself in another country can dig up prospects for new life passions. I highly recommend the experience for anyone who feels lost in the sea of life. A new start in another country can be exactly what you need to discover yourself. But enough about myself. Let’s talk about our esteemed elders. To discover more about this thing we call life, I spoke with John Leris, a supervisor at the Spencer Grill and Presentation Cook at the Dining Hall. Leris had a more straightforward path than Reynolds. “I did what I always wanted to do. I was building ever since I was a kid, and I build houses, I got into construction when I was fourteen and did that until I was thirty,” Leris said. His experiences were not easy, though. Leris elaborated on the perspectives life had given him through those working years. “When you’re young, you have a
lot of learning to do, and I made my own share. [Building] is a bit like life — you make miwstakes and you learn from them. Don’t let disappointment in life get you down, just build up from it.” A common trend in both discus-
"Don't let disappointment in life get you down just build up from it." John Leris, Dining Hall sions was the need for flexibility. Reynolds spoke about the merits of new workplace experiences, and how they could give us new insights if we keep our minds open. “What I learned from [my time abroad in Germany] was that being open to opportunities to expose yourself to new things is extremely important. You don’t have to know where it’s going to take you. We have our ideas about careers, but until you actually have a job, it’s tough to predict the day-
to-day basis.” Leris agreed with this observation. He added that learning from the mistakes we make in life was an equally valuable trait. “You can make [mistakes] make you stronger. But you can’t figure that out immediately when you’re eighteen to twenty-one. It takes time.” Overall, what I discovered from these conversations might make some Pocahontas fans rather disappointed. We as human beings rarely face a choice between two equally tantalizing options laid bare before our feet. It seems instead that these ‘life roads’ look nothing like bends in a river. Growth opportunities appear more frequently as small details in our environment, crucial seconds in time that only a flexible mindset is prepared to perceive. Passion is a lesson we realize through our own mistakes. Here’s the crux of what I, and my interviewees seem to be saying: don’t fear failure. Embrace it with open arms and learn from it.
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. Advertising Advertising inquiries should be directed to the business manager, Jenny Dong, who can be reached at sandbads@ grinnell.edu or by mail at 1115 8th Avenue Grinnell College Box 5886, Grinnell, IA 50112.
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Volume 133, Issue 7
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MICHAEL CUMMINGS
The ephemeral Grinnell spirit takes it's physical form in Grinnell Lake at Glacier National Park.
Arbitrary Analysis Pub Quiz Winners
Snedge
1. The Fempire Strikes
This week, Mira Birkson '20 and Keli Vitaoli '1 polled students asking: Tim Kaine or T-Pain
Back
JRC
11 a.m. GHS tailgating party @ Pioneer Bookstore 1 p.m. Workshop with National Theatre Institute @ The Wall 7 p.m. 2019 Bonfire @ Bonfire pit outside Norris 10 p.m. KPOP Party @ Gardner
Saturday
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ARH
11 a.m. Tristen Ud @ JRC 101 1 p.m. Fallfest @ Mac Field 1 p.m. Men's Soccer v. Knox College @ Springer Field 3:30 p.m. Women's Soccer v. Knox College @ Springer Field 5 p.m. 10.10 Dance Party @ Gardner 10 p.m. 10.10 Dance Party @ Harris
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Staff Shoutout
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Shoutout to Deanna Shorb and Rob Cabelli for being honest, kind yet radical advocates for the wellbeing of students on this campus.
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Stranger Things and Parks and Rec crossover: I die
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]
Let's be tolerant Grinnellians Huge thanks to the profs and students who organized the voter registration tabling this Thursday. I know many people have felt harassed and shamed (dare I say bullied?) by the methods used in the voter reg. and early vote initiatives on campus these past few weeks, and Thursday’s event was a wonderful counter to that! In the name of democracy, can we please lay off the bullying from now on?
I lost my shit this week when Ben Schwartz (Jean-Ralphio Saperstein on Parks and Recreation) posted an Instagram video with his biological father, Steve from Stranger Things. From the first moments of my binge-watching Stranger Things over the summer, I was obsessed with the likeness between these two ridiculous men. That the internet confirmed my favorite TV show crossover theory confirms my undying love for everything -Emily Ricker '18 that is media. Emma "What about Barb?" Friedlander '18
Social Calendar
Friday
2. Cuck My Shit Up Fam 3. Pubic Undercut
Rants & Raves:
Fallfest
Oktoberfest
Halloween
Thanks Blair Kamin! Going to a school without a formal journalism pogram means most of our learning comes from activities like The S&B and visitors coming to campus. Getting the opportunity to listen to the Chicago Tribune's Architecture Critic Blair Kamin and talk with him afterwards was incredible. It must be tough to remain humble and helpful for young journalists when you have a Pulitzer, but he made it work! Eva Lilienfeld '17
A Disheartened Donor While I understand the motivations and pressures guiding the administration's decisions, the recent changes have left me feeling pretty bitter as a recent graduate. I donated to the college every year as a student, but I did so to support the unique Grinnell which upheld self-gov despite pressure for the college to adopt more strict policies similar to most peer institutions. It was the campus culture that helped make me who I am today. And it makes me feel disconnected from the college to see the freedoms that I saw as so essential to self-gov slowly chipped away at. The more the college governs for you, the less significant governing yourself becomes. -Joe Lohman '14