Volume 133 Issue 1

Arts

Opinions

The S&B reviews Frank Ocean's new album "Blonde"

Sports

“The whole Ultimate team saw me scream and trip, but no one saw the squirrel."

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Joshua Tibatemwa '19 returns after representng Uganda in the Olympics

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the

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Scarlet & Black August 26, 2016 • Grinnell, Iowa

Volume 133, Issue 1

thesandb.com

Administration amends campus Grinnellians prepare for general election alcohol policy and 10/10

By Emma Friedlander friedlan@grinnell.edu Students received a special campus memo from President Raynard Kington on August 1 announcing that a number of new alcohol-related policies will be implemented in the upcoming 2016-2017 school year.

Although alcohol use has long been a common conversation topic among Grinnell students and administration alike, these changes have put an official stance on the discussion.

These policies, which aim to reduce the prevalence of alcohol in campus culture, were crafted

by Andrea Conner, Associate Vice President for Student Affairs and Mike Latham, Vice President of Academic Affairs.

“We’ve been looking at these issues for several years now,” Kington said. “Every year we’ve been asking ourselves, how are we going to compare to our peers?

Are we doing everything we can to ensure the Grinnell experience is what we want it to be?”

The policies were informed by data and recommendations from Grinnell’s Task Force on Residential Learning, the National Institute for Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, expert consultation, sexual assault prevention research and Grinnell’s 2015 spring survey and legal requirements.

The policies are comprised of four major changes: providing substance-free housing for every student who requests it, restricting

the use of alcohol in campus lounges, training servers for campus events and revising campus traditions that feature alcohol consumption. One of the most notable changes is the reconstruction of 10/10, an annual tradition wherein students travel around campus drinking alcohol at designated locations.

“For the hundreds of students that don’t attend the party, it’s not community building or unifying,” Conner said of 10/10. “There’s always something after the 10/10

party that we can’t be proud of. I would be really excited to see a student or young alum be asked about their favorite tradition at Grinnell and have their answer be something other than a couple of alcohol related parties.”

The decision to replace 10/10 is influenced by the new policy’s increased control of alcohol in campus lounges. Conner noted that previous regulations did not

By Teresa Fleming flemingt17@grinnell.edu

>> See ALCOHOL, page 2

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The alcohol policy changes add new controls to drinking in campus lounges, affecting annual traditions like 10/10.

Bookstore finalizes downtown move

By Michael Cummings cummings@grinnell.edu For most Grinnell students, the new school year means moving into a new living space, but over the summer, the College’s two bookstores also found themselves moving into a new space: downtown on Main Street. The change came after decisions were made to tear down the on-campus bookstore to make way for the new Humanities and Social Studies Complex (HSSC).

College administration and bookstore employees decided to merge the campus bookstore with the Pioneer Bookshop, previously located downtown on 4th Avenue, to eliminate redundancy.

“We thought, well, we don’t need two stores downtown, so we moved both [to the new location] together,” said Cassie Wherry, manager of the bookstore.

Wherry noted that moving all of the books, apparel and other items from building to building was not easy, but that they were able to spread the move out.

“We actually started packing up things [early] as we didn’t need them, because we knew we were moving by … March … so we packed up the things that we knew we were done with,” Wherry said.

Wherry also noted that the Bookstore did not do all of the moving themselves.

“We had a lot of help, which was good, but it was still pretty physically demanding,” she said, adding, “We used C&K moving to help us move.”

While many students have expressed concern that the bookstore will be unable to provide the same level of services from its new location as it did when it was located on campus, Wherry said that plans are in place to ensure Sunday Congressional Candidate Monica Vernon with Martin O'Malley JRC 101, 5:30 p.m.

Follow us on twitter @thesandb

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The new location merges the on-campus bookstore and Pioneer Bookshop.

While the electoral fervor on campus may have waned since the Iowa caucus last February, some students are still finding opportunities to participate in the national election.

National Council Vice Chair at College Democrats of America and the President of College and Young Democrats of Iowa, Austin Wadle ‘18 charters new campus organizations and acts as a liaison between the nationally elected executive board and our chartered state federations.

“We are working to make sure that we get [the] message out and show that Democrats are the party of progress and smart government.

The GOP are clearly not the party for young people, whereas Democrats are the party that do not want dictate which restroom a gender nonconforming person like myself can use,” Wadle wrote in an email to the S&B. Wadle encourages Grinnell students to get involved in local politics in addition to voting in November’s presidential election, reminding them that because Iowa is a swing state their votes will have a significant impact on the White House, Congress and local government.

“I am really excited about the Democratic State House candidate here in district 76, Jake Tornholm,” Wadle wrote. “He’s a social worker from Williamsburg and is actually married to a Grinnellian, Erin Nicholson ’99. He’s really committed to the progressive policies Grinnell College students really care about, like making sure public schools are fully funded across the state and raising the minimum wage here in Iowa because he’s seen the good that these policies could do for the people in his community and across the state.”

Students can also take part in the political process while remaining on campus. Anna Schierenbeck ’18 is

the co-chair of Campus Democrats, a group which is working to register students to vote and generate excitement about the upcoming election.

She also highlighted the importance of participating in local elections.

“Iowa, according to a lot of polls, is currently the only state that’s actually in a dead heat between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton,” Schierenbeck said. “And I know that a lot of the narrative we’re getting right now – which is honestly very true for a lot of states – is that Hillary is leading by double-digits and is on her way to pulling a landslide, but that being said we don’t want to be a state that goes for Trump. Especially given the legacy of voting for Obama twice. That would be embarrassing.”

Schierenbeck noted that the base of local support for Trump makes sense, given Iowa’s tendency to elect conservative politicians like Governor Terry Branstad. She encourages students to get involved with Campus Democrats, whether it be canvassing in town or on campus, registering voters, or even entering voter registration data.

Schierenbeck also acknowledges the disappointment students might feel that presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders failed to win the Democratic nomination, despite the success he encountered in the Iowa caucus.

“I think that it’s important to recognize where people are frustrated, but I also do think that given this two-party system and the fact that really only two party candidates are viable, and especially given that Iowa is so close, the [Democratic Party] does need all the votes it can get, to even make that incremental change that we need,” Schierenbeck said. “I think that [Clinton] has heard what Sanders supporters want, and she’s going to take it into account, and she is the best option to put those policies into places, versus someone who could be the last president. Not to be so extreme, but rule of law is really at risk. It does feel like the end of days.”

Incoming class update

students get the service they need.

“We have delivered the reservations that people wanted to buy online from us, and they were given the choice to pick up in the store or pick it up in JRC,” Wherry said. “Because we thought there would be a pretty high volume, we decided to have a room [in the JRC] so that the mail room didn’t have to take the brunt of it all until next Monday. Not only are we selling textbooks online, but we sell notebooks and pens and pencils and calculators, more and more things we’re putting online so that throughout the year what students want they can order it online, and it’ll come.”

The new location opened on July 5, but a more formal opening ceremony is planned for early this semester because so few students were in Grinnell in early July.

“We’re going to have our grand opening on September 16, which is the Friday of Family Weekend,” Wherry said, “So we want to have prizes and activities and just a lot of fun – cake, there’s always cake, the ribbon cutting, that kind of thing.”

Additionally, Wherry said she hopes that students will utilize the new location as a place to come hang out or study, adding that bookstore employees are planning events to this end.

“We’re open until 7 at night on Thursdays, and then all day 9 to 5 on Saturdays, so we thought maybe we could do some stuff where … students might like to come hang out.”

Wherry noted that although they are happy with the new location, the move is only temporary.

“The plan is for us to be in this location for just three to five years … then we’re going to move into the Broad Street location where they’re expanding off into what we call the zone of confluence,” Wherry said.

Whatever its location, Wherry emphasized that the bookstore looks forward to continuing to be a resource for students.

“We just really want people to come down and visit us,” Wherry said, noting that the new location has free College Wi-Fi r students who wish to stop by.

As the class of 2020 puts the finishing touches onto their new dorm rooms, the admissions department of Grinnell has been gathering informational data on the College's newest class.

Overall, the college felt slightly short of some of the goals for the incoming students, leaving the incoming class with 16 fewer students than the previous class.

The S&B has compiled many of the statistics that together portray some aspects of the class. We went out of the way to include numbers depicting their extra-curricular interests as well as various other demographics.

All of these numbers are still unofficial until the College can confirm that all the students who were expceted this year actually arrived. The College will then report that information to the National Center of Education Statistics.

Monday Gallery talk: Glimpses Faulconer Gallery, 4 p.m.

Tuesday Town Hall on new Alcohol Policy Changes JRC 101, 11 a.m.

Wednesday "Building Local Food Systems: Two Case Studies, California and Iowa" JRC 101, 4 & 7:30 p.m.

By Eva Lilienfeld lilienfe17@grinnell.edu

According to Joe Bagnoli, Dean of Admission, the number of students with dual citizenship, domestic students of color and international students compose more than 50 percent of the class.

"As I like to say, there is no majority," Bagnoli said.

Over the course of the next year, the College will redirect the money that was previously used to pay the recruitment fees for the Posse program to recruit domestic students of color to Grinnell.

The College also increased the amount of financial aid given this year. Bagnoli credits some of this to an overall rise in Grinnell's comprehensive fee and therefore a greater need. However, the board will continue to review the College's needblind policy in fall 2018. >> See 2020, page 2

Friday

"Portraits of Nature in Iowa" Burling Gallery, 4 p.m.

Arts 3 | Features 4 | Sports 5 | Community 6 | Opinions 7

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

Official statistics on Alcohol policy overhauled the class of 2020 Town hall meeting to follow

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Continued from Front Page

percentage of students who are first generation college students

adequately protect against underage or dangerous drinking at campus events. The new regulations also aim to streamline the process of hosting a lounge event.

“We had no institutional regulations in place to ensure that alcohol was not being consumed by people under 21. percentage of [2020] attended public Thankfully, we have a lot of privacy as high schools a private institution, but kitchens and lounges are public spaces,” Conner said. “We hope that the use of alcohol agreements skyrockets. Some of my percentage of domestic students of staff in the last week or so have been color working to streamline the alcohol agreement process so that it’s not an states obstruction for people to continue to represented socialize.” on campus Student Government Association with [2020] states represented in the class of President Anita Dewitt ’17 stated that [2020] although further alcohol restrictions were inevitable, she wishes students had more input. Dewitt reported that she and other SGA members had little communication with the administration during the creation of the policies and that Conner warned them of the changes only a couple of days before the official announcement. average SAT score, an increase from the 1390 SAT average from [2019] “The administration knew it was a liability to keep doing these things,” Dewitt said. “They said, ‘We talked percentage to students about they want,’ but the who did percentage who bottom line is if something happens community did student to the students while they’re here and service in government in they don’t have these policies in place high school high school and people don’t know about them, [the administration] can get in a lot of percentage that were trouble.” were varsity athletes Despite Dewitt’s disappointment in high school in the administration’s practices, she is optimistic about the SGA and student body’s ability to implement positive change going forward. She believes that the committee of students tasked with deciding on a different event for 10/10, which will be comprised of members from SGA, Weekend, Ultimate Frisbee, Concerned Black Students and other campus groups, will come up with an exciting and productive event.

“I would really like to see the new 10/10 be played as a sort of community service thing. Community service is Relative to the financial aid awarded to other class years, the class of 2020 saw something that nobody is going to show an increase in need-based assistance. up to blazed. If we do something in the community I think people will be a lot less subject to alcohol … It’s going to be tricky but I have a good amount of faith in the students,” Dewitt said.

Other students have expressed

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$

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"As I like to say, there is no majority"

Joe Bagnoli, Director of Admissions

similar concerns about the new policies’ specific restrictions not effectively preventing dangerous drinking practices. One such student is Dylan Ambrosoli ’18, a previous Student Advisor [SA] for Clark Hall who chose to discontinue his student staff role in the upcoming school year.

Last spring, Ambrosoli hosted a campus event called “The Funeral for Self-Gov?”, a mock funeral which provided a venue for students to discuss the current state of Self-Governance at Grinnell. Originally called “The Funeral for Self-Gov,” the administration required Ambrosoli to add a question mark to the official title in order for the event to proceed.

“My overall concern would be where people will end up drinking,” Ambrosoli said of the new policies.

“This is a sort of reactive policy rather than a proactive policy. Ultimately it’s not going to affect students’ decision to drink, it’s just going to affect where and how they drink. My concern is that by removing more public spaces and lounges, [drinking] might enter into people’s rooms, which would lead to antisocial behavior, or it could enter into more off campus events, where there will be less immediate response from various sorts of response services.”

Kington and Conner recognize this potential consequence, as well as the need to put more protections for offcampus incidents in place.

“We previously had one program where a training session was issued to off-campus residents. We need to expand that program pretty dramatically so that folks have opportunity to learn about resources or know that they can contact campus security or the RLC on-call about an off-campus incident,” Conner said. “We have some work to do in this area to make sure that’s not an unintended consequence of these policy changes.”

The special campus memo also rearticulated the introduction of regular walkthroughs in campus residence halls

by Community Advisors (CAs). When this new CA duty was announced last spring, it resulted in wide speculation of what the walkthroughs would entail and whether they might compromise the relationship between CAs and their residents.

“Nothing that the CA would confront would ever result in a punitive measure,” Conner said. “We solely expect that with their good training and

the respect of their peers, their moments of intervention on any issue should be successful … There’s no expectation to call the police.”

This new CA responsibility requires additional training and, Dewitt expects, additional time commitment and pressures for the CAs. “Andrea Conner came and talked to [the CAs] so that they can ask questions specific to their role in the alcohol policies. A lot of what she said is that [the walkthroughs] are to their discretion,” Dewitt said. “They also now have on-call procedures, and I just know it’s going to be a lot of work.”

Dramatic policy changes governing student behavior have naturally fueled conversations about the current state of Self-Governance at Grinnell College.

When asked about what increased restrictions mean for Self-Gov, Kington expressed that the problem is not a reduction of Self-Gov, but instead a wide misinterpretation of what SelfGov means.

“It’s about community responsibility, not just privileges,” Kington said. “This is really about that: a responsibility to care about other people and act as a community to do what you can to promote a positive healthy experience for your peers. That part of the Self-Gov concept is often ignored.”

Ambrosoli, informed by his role conducting public conversations on Self-Gov in the past, doubts the extent to which Self-Gov is prioritized by the administration when making these decisions.

“When I was working on the funeral event, my alumnus faculty advisor posited to me, ‘Has Self-Gov ever not been dead at Grinnell?’ which was his initial takeaway. He thought that during his time at Grinnell SelfGov was already pretty dead, and given what’s changed it’s become even more dead,” Ambrosoli said. “I think that Self-Governance, probably around the time that we were arriving at Grinnell but definitely now, is more of a marketing buzzword than something that’s super important in and of itself.”

The new policies are official, but their implementation is only just beginning. President Kington will host a Town Hall Meeting to allow students to learn more and discuss opinions about the policy changes during the 11 a.m. community hour on Tuesday, Aug. 30.

New center champions language learning

By Emma Friedlander friedlan@grinnell.edu Students studying a foreign language can look forward to an enhanced academic experience this fall. Previously an academic support office, ARH 228 has been transformed into to the Language Center. The project was spearheaded

by Belinda Backous, Learning Specialist for Academic Advising, and Claire Moisan, Director of the Alternative Language Study Option.

Their idea for a center goes back five years, when Moisan became interested in joining language study with academic support.

"By having a space, we have more of an identity.

Giving visibility legitimizes language study."

Claire Moisan “I oversee all these languages tutors, and for four, maybe five years, I’ve been talking with academic advising about how it would really make sense to bring these two programs together,” Moisan said. “For example, all the chemistry and physics tutors are overseen under a science learning center. The writing mentors are in the writing lab. So it makes a lot of sense.”

By providing a specific space for peer tutoring and language labs, the language faculty hopes to provide a more immersive and accountable tutoring resource for language students.

“Two years ago, if you were a language student and struggling, you would have gone to academic advising and been assigned a tutor.

Then the two of you would go off and meet, and whatever would happen would happen and nobody would

know,” Moisan said. “Now, with our consolidation and collaboration, we can call a lab where the peer tutor, in addition to the foreign language teaching assistant, is also there to provide service. What this language center will be is a space for all that language peer tutoring.”

The Language Center will primarily serve as an office for the five foreign language teaching assistants (FLTAs) and a space for peer tutoring, as well as some event programming. Previously, FLTAs were housed in a closet-like, windowless room on the second floor of ARH. They shared one computer desktop among the five of them and found difficulty providing academic support from this space.

By moving to ARH 228, language faculty hopes to make language study more visible and accessible.

“There was nobody in there,” Moisan said of ARH 228 before its renovation. “It was just faculty going in and picking up their mail.

You know, faculty can do that in a windowless space, and they can do photocopies in a windowless space, but we really needed more room for the FLTAs.”

"... having a double major with a language makes you all the more interesting in the post-gradate experience."

Claire Moisan Moisan and Backous acquired funding from the Arthur Vining Davis Foundation, an organization that provides philanthropy to educational causes. The funding was used to move a photocopier, printer and faculty mailboxes out of ARH 228 and secure new furniture, desktop computers and a large television. Although the space remains plain, the

The Language Center will be a space for language immersion and cultural experiences as well as peer tutoring. plan is for students and language assistants from each language department to adorn the room with decorations specific to each language. This personalization will further serve the goal of promoting a strong, colorful identify for language study at Grinnell.

“By having a space, we have more of an identity. Giving visibility legitimizes language study,” Moisan said. “In the greater American society and greater American academic landscape, languages are often seen as something that you can just pick up, not as a legitimate course of study in and of themselves.

At Grinnell, it is delegitimized to a certain extent in that if everyone gets too busy, that’s the first thing they’re going to drop. When a

biochem major can’t fit French in anymore, they’re going to drop French. But what our alums tell us is that having a double major with a language makes you all the more interesting in the post-graduate experience,” Moisan said.

Although the Language Center has been in the works for years, it still requires further development to become fully realized. This includes establishing the center as a permanently staffed and funded program. It also requires further implementation of the center into the new Grinnell Institute for Global Engagement, a program that manages off-campus study, international student affairs and global learning opportunities.

The Language Center will join

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these offices in the forthcoming Humanities and Social Studies Complex, commencing construction this spring.

“The next steps are really creating a center, in the sense that a center has a director and a budget and is not just two people working their tails off to do some of extra work,” Moisan said. “[David CookMartín, Director of the Institute for Global Engagement] is currently working on what this global learning institute is going to look like . . . it makes sense in this huge new building that we bring these things together where the classes and faculty will be. I think at Grinnell we have a unique opportunity to bring all these offices together and really collaborate.”

Arts

Edited by coghlann17@grinnell.edu

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Frank Ocean rises from the dead with "Blonde"

By Steven Duong lduongste@grinnell.edu A few days ago, I received a text from an old high school friend informing me that Frank Ocean had dropped his first album in four years.

His follow up text read: “f**k apple music here’s a dropbox link lmao.”

I immediately drove home and spent the next hour locked in my bedroom in a scene reminiscent of my early high school days. I crawled under the covers, flipped the lights off and plugged in my worn-out Apple earbuds, this time putting on something called "Blonde" instead of my old faithful "Channel Orange." As soon as I had listened through the entire thing once, I sat still in bed for a good fifteen minutes before feverishly texting my friends to share each and every thought and feeling that had found its way into my head in the last hour. Some of these texts were deeply emotional and intimately revealing about my life. Others read something like: “YO THAT BEAT SWITCH ON NIGHTS IS LIT THO.” Was the wait worth it? That’s the question I got most from friends who hadn’t yet listened to the album. Was the wait worth it? Four years. Four, long, long years of Franklessness, replete with mysterious website changes, false release dates, the occasional feature (PABLO!) and the casual yet complete destruction of fans’ hopes and dreams. With that said, was the wait worth it? Another one of my

texts: “FRANK I FORGIVE U FOR EVERYTHING LET'S GET BACK TOGETHER PLEASE.” It’s hard to describe the impact "Blonde" had without explaining what "Channel Orange" means to me. It’s a record that has been with me for four years, a soundtrack that permeates every old friendship, every strange transitional period, every budding relationship I’ve been a part of since it came out. Every time I hear "Channel Orange" again, I feel as if I’m thumbing my way through a very familiar book; a collection of snippets and vignettes of people I know both nothing and everything about. It’s a surreal experience, absorbing the stories of what amounts to the L.A. bourgeoisie over and over again, hearing Frank masterfully channel the sometimes overwhelming, sometimes blunted emotions behind their beautifully broken lives and loves.

If "Channel Orange" is a book of short stories, "Blonde" is a memoir.

Instead of telling us a story about super rich kids, Frank is one on “Nikes,” slicing his way through the dreamy beat with his piercing, pitched-up vocals, delivering lines about fake friendships and relationships tainted by the pitfalls of success. "Blonde" dives headfirst into the glitter-filled, digitally magnified decadence of contemporary youth, but this time, Frank’s life and identity take center stage. About every word he croons, raps, speaks, sings and exudes Frank Ocean. In the four years I’d spent lis-

tening to one of his albums on repeat (as well as one mixtape), Frank had traveled the world, written at least two full album releases’ worth of songs, recorded music in a dozen different cities and grown further into his identity and his music, which was already uniquely moving by the time he was 23. On "Blonde," he sings frankly and self-assuredly about his sexuality, his fame and success and his drug use, even directing these lyrics to his mother on “Futura Free.”

"Blonde" reflects the confidence of an artist who knows himself better now than he ever has before.

On the album, Frank flexes his ability to be absolutely devastating yet absolutely necessary on any and every song, from “Ivy,” a shimmery, smooth track where he laments on nostalgia and past love, to “Solo,” a simple, keys-backed instrumental strewn with bravado-laden lyrics about marijuana, acid, sex and being alone. The production on the album lacks percussion in a lot of places, making many of the songs feel dreamy and kind of empty until Frank’s voice suddenly flashes into being like a spotlight and holds you close while you begin to fall apart.

That voice has never failed to unearth old scars in me, to strike veins deeper and richer than anything else in me, and this is no exception on his newest project. Frank has always been an emotional powerhouse and a vivid storyteller, but that’s not what matters most on "Blonde." The moments that really shine through are the deeply confessional ones, the lines that dig as deep into Frank himself as they do into you.

I’ll leave you with one more text I sent in the wake of Blonde: “DAMN 3STACKS W THE FEATURE BUT WHERE’S KANYE THO??”

CONTRIBUTED

After a four year wait, Frank Ocean is back on the scene after releasing "Blonde" last week.

See Grinnell through Saunders' lens

By Jon Sundby sundbyjo17@grinnell.edu

CONTRIBUTED

Ken Saunders' photos will be on display in Burling basement now until

For years, Grinnellians had seen Ken Saunders II working around campus in Facilities Management until he retired last year.

But they knew little about his other line of work as a prolific nature photographer. Ever since he bought his first camera when he was just seven years old, Saunders has been attempting to capture the beauty of the flora and fauna in his home state of Iowa and all around the nation. Now, this part of his life has finally come to campus.

“Portraits of Nature in Iowa” is a collection of photos by Saunders that will be shown in the basement of Burling Library from now until Oct. 15. All the pictures were taken within a forty-mile radius of Grinnell, with many of them being captured just five miles away in Jasper County. The photographs are all close range shots of Iowan animals, bugs and plants in their natural environments. Attached to each picture is a lengthy description of the subject, covering every-

thing from their territorial range, to their eating habits and even their historical significance. “[Saunders] is, in addition to being extremely talented with his camera, also meticulous. He is very careful about his information. His write-ups are … very well-crafted and very informative,” said Jon Andelson, director of Prairie Studies at the College, who originally proposed the idea of the exhibit to Saunders.

Quiet and humble by nature, Saunders has never publically shown his art. Andelson first approached Saunders about the idea after the two saw each other at a photography workshop conducted by Grinnell’s campus photographer Justin Hayworth. At first Saunders was dismissive of the idea, but he slowly warmed up to the prospect of an exhibition and soon was sending Andelson dozens of high-quality pictures.

“He came over with a flash drive full of photographs and a couple of us sat down and said ‘we love that one, and that one, and that one; how are we going to

choose?’” Andelson said.

The exhibit also shows off Saunders’ technical side, as each picture is paired with an extensive list of details about the camera.

Not only the model and make of the camera is given, but also information about the shutter speeds, ISO brightness, aperture size and even the type of hinge on his tripod. It’s almost like Saunders is trying to push the viewer to go out and attempt to recreate the picture themselves.

And maybe he is. In his own biography written for the exhibit, Saunders explains that one of the goals of the exhibit is to inspire future generations to take care of the land, so that new hikers, backpackers, kayakers and especially photographers, will be able to take the same enjoyment from the Iowa prairie that he currently does.

Although not one for the limelight, Saunders will come back to Grinnell on Friday, Sept. 2, to both talk a little about his pieces and to simply meet with all the students and faculty who have enjoyed his work.

Alumni produce feature film "Saint's Rest" in Grinnell

By Keli Vitaoli vitaoli@grinnell.edu This July, Grinnell was transformed into a movie set while “Saints Rest,” an independent modern-day musical, was filmed on location throughout the town. Titled for the infamous coffee shop, every scene in the movie was shot in Grinnell. The movie was directed by Noga Ashkenazi, a Grinnell alumna, and co-written by Ashkenazi and fellow alumna, Tyson Stock.

It was awesome because there is not a lot of film production on campus, so to see an alum actually doing it and making it happen was really cool for me to know I could also ... make these connections Melissa Fandos '17 In her request to the town of Grinnell to block off nine spaces on Broad Street for filming, Ashkenazi refers to the film as her “love song to Grinnell.” The film centers around two sisters from the town.

One goes on to become a Broadway star while the other stays behind to run Saints Rest and grows resentful.

The two attempt to reconcile the summer after their mother dies.

Sam Cox, owner of Saints Rest, was approached by the film crew in January to discuss filming that would occur in July. While at first the request was only to close and occupy her coffee shop for two days, that quickly spiraled into a request

for one week, July 7th to the 14th.

“There was a little negotiating there,” Cox said. “There’s a lot of people that we are a big part of their day, seven days a week. And you don’t want to lose customers, but at the same point you want to supportive of the creative process, so it’s just a big risk.”

While they used the space, Cox claims the crew did not use most of the existing furniture and when she came back the place was, “tore up from the floor up,” with most of her furniture ending up in the kitchen for the duration of the shooting. Cox did provide the crew access to her coffee beans, an offer they happily took her up on, and her dog, Toby, did make an appearance.

“I love the movie Mystic Pizza, but I have yet to take a drive to Maine visit Mystic Pizza,” Cox said. “But if it brings us to the foreground, then good for us.”

Melissa Fandos ’17 and Grace Lloyd ’16 were two of the production team hired from the PioneerLink intern search. Fandos was the movie’s second assistant director and Lloyd headed the Makeup and Hair department. Lloyd commented on the balance between appreciating the town in the film and disrupting the lives of the inhabitants to do so.

“The thing is the film is both honoring Grinnell and just using Grinnell, and that’s a fact, and that’s a fact of any film I think,” Lloyd said. “The film itself is a very beau-

tiful portrayal of Grinnell, but the process of filming it was definitely rough.”

The film shows off the beauty of Grinnell and also the beauty of the College itself with a scenes being shot on campus “We did a few scenes near the train tracks by South Campus by Mears, and it was cool to see the campus on film – it looked really good,” Fandos said. “We also shot a few in the loggia on North Campus and the campus looked so beautiful.”

For Fandos, it made the dream of being involved in film production post-Grinnell seem more attainable even with the College’s lack of film production courses.

“It was awesome because there is not a lot of film production on campus,” Fandos said. “So to see an alum actually doing it and making it happen was really cool for me to know I could also do this and make these connections.”

The film drew in a lot of big name talent with the two lead actresses, Hani Furstenberg and Allie

Trimm, being current Broadway stars, and the third, Dana Ivgy, holding two Israeli Film Academy Awards for Best Actress. It also features current and past Grinnell students as extras, and even Crosby, a regular attendee at campus events, makes an appearance.

With hopes for acceptance in Sundance, the film will be shown across Israel, home to Ashkenazi and two of the lead actresses, in select cities in the United States and make a premiere where it all started in Grinnell.

CONTRIBUTED BY GABRIEL PATINO

"Saint's Rest" was written and produced by Grinnell alumni and was filmed in Grinnell this summer.

Features

4

edited by bohlkeli@grinnell.edu

There and back again: Grinnellians' journeys

Jeff Li

HANNAH BOGGESS '18 NSO Contributed

Sarah Cannon '19 and Leah Harris '19, after their road trip from Grinnell to Los Angeles this summer. They made many stops along the way, including Rocky Mouihtain National Park and the Grand Canyon.

By Megan Tcheng tchengme@grinnell.edu This past week, Grinnellians across the globe left their hometowns behind and headed straight for the familiar fields of Iowa. As students bid farewell to their families, their friends and their freedom, many boarded planes and ventured tens of thousands of miles above sea level to reach their final destination.

A select group of students, however, decided to forgo the monotony of TSA lines and baggage carousels by trading in their boarding passes for car keys.

A very nice park ranger started explaining to two children the necessity of bringing water. I was very tempted to walk up to the park ranger and let him use us as examples for what not to do.

John Clark '19 With trunks filled to the brim and gas tanks topped off, determined students carved their paths across the country. For some, their trip passed by in an uneventful interlude of intersections, pit stops and quiet country roads. For others, however, their cross-country trek was marked by a more interesting series of events.

Three Grinnell students, fresh from their continental travels, agreed to share their road trip experiences.

John Clark ’19, a Los Angeles native, traveled one of the farthest distances. With his father as his roadside companion, the two clocked in over 25 hours of driving during their weeklong adventure. To

sweeten their long shifts in the driver’s seat, Clark and his father made a series of stops at national parks along the way. In Utah and Colorado, the pair hiked through Bryce Canyon, Canyonlands, Arches and the Rocky Mountain National Park.

In Canyonlands National Park, however, there was a low point.

“My dad and I went on a nine to ten mile long hike and we didn’t bring nearly enough water,” Clark said. “It was 94 degrees out so we both got really dehydrated by the end of it. After finishing the hike, we drove to the Visitors Center. While we were gasping for water, a very nice park ranger started explaining to two children the necessity of bringing water. I was very tempted to walk up to the park ranger and let him use us as examples for what not to do.”

Unlike Clark, Lydia James ’19 and Jack O’Malley ’17 sped through their road trips in less than one day.

Pausing only for two short naps and the occasional pit stop, O’Malley spent 23 hours on the road as he traveled from Massachusetts to Grinnell.

Driving for so long does some really strange things to one's state of mind. Being stuck in a car alone with nothing but music and podcasts and my own thoughts made me slip into this bizarre rhythm where time didn't matter.

Jack O'Malley '17 Reflecting on his whirlwind road trip, O’Malley wrote, “Driving

for so long does some really strange things to one’s state of mind. Being stuck in a car alone with nothing but music and podcasts and my own thoughts made me slip into this bizarre rhythm where time didn’t matter, and I was existing solely to move this car and most of my possessions across the country.”

James, in contrast, focused on finding ways to cope with the monotony of her time on the road. Using a series of tricks, including drinking caffeine, blasting music and turning up the air conditioner, James managed to fight through her solo 14 hour drive from Atlanta, Georgia.

That much time in my car can start to feel like an eternity.

Lydia James '19 James, however, admitted to the downsides of traveling alone. “On the way up here, I stopped at a rest stop to call my roommate Cassidy to tell her when I was arriving but also just to hear another human voice …

That much time in my car can start to feel like an eternity,” she wrote in an email to the S&B. Sharing her words of advice to future drivers, James continued, “It's a really exhausting process to push this all in one day … For anyone doing a similarly long trip, I definitely suggest doing it with other people if possible.”

Taking into account the trials and tribulations of their cross-country adventures, Clark, James and O’Malley all seem relieved to have made it to their final destination.

As O’Malley concluded, “In the end I made it back and slept immediately upon impact with my bed.”

8:00 a.m.—Wake up to “Let’s Get Lost” by Carly Rae Jepsen — always studying for Pub Quiz [fempire].

8:40 a.m.—Get a call about NSO; arrive to the JRC sweaty and flustered. Consider drinking a Coke, but decide it’s too early for so much corn syrup.

8:45 a.m.—Change my mind and get the Coke anyways. Thx @ spencergrill.

8:46 a.m.—Cry about the lack of large iced cups. #neverforget 9:00 a.m.—Prep for the NSO activities of the day (aka organize 1000 glow sticks and answer passive-aggressive emails).

11:00 a.m.—Abuse my awesome golf cart privileges and drive home to Haines.

11:10 a.m.—Drive first-years (“Can you take us to the Joe Rosenfield Center?”) in the golf cart.

11:12 a.m.—First-years get out of the golf cart. They are kind of dazed after experiencing my reckless driving. Didn’t crash though, so they should feel lucky.

12:27 p.m.—Lunch in the D-Hall — weep about the missing soft-serve machine and drink more Coke.

2:04 p.m.—Burst into tears in the JRC (not like that’s a first) after a first-year yells at me because their personalized schedule is messed up.

2:06 p.m.—Spend more real (non-dining) dollars on another Coke and pull myself together. Send an email to the first-years with their new personalized schedule info.

3:32 p.m.—Give [vitaioli] megaphone privileges and hear her screaming at first-years (“IF YOU HAD TO BE ON A REALITY TV SHOW, WHICH WOULD IT BE? WHAT WAY DO YOU LIKE YOUR EGGS PREPARED?”) during pal-a-palooza.

4:18 p.m.—Daydream about my bed. Try to send emails while watching Cutthroat Kitchen (it doesn’t work).

5:24 p.m.—Show up late to a meeting with my assistants to get ready for the rest of the night. They pretend not to notice how frazzled I am and do everything I ask them to do without complaint. #blessed 6:09 p.m.—Go to dinner (thx Student Affairs for the full meal plan during NSO). Feel simultaneously rejuvenated and slain by cheesy baked potatoes.

7:30 p.m.—Go to Harris to run mics for a Community Values Session.

Awkwardly squat while the first-years answer questions.

8:50 p.m.—Drive the golf cart across Mac Field in the dark; see my life flash before my eyes when I go over a bump.

9:21 p.m.—Check in at some events and listen to “Hands to Myself” by Selena Gomez on repeat while I drive in the golf cart.

10:07 p.m.—I’m running on a lot of adrenaline (from NSO or the amount of Coke running through my veins?), so [nashclar] pierces my ear; [schieren] tries and fails to pierce the other ear.

11:29 p.m.—Try to steal the aux cord and play top 40 hits; fail.

12:16 a.m.—Watch Bachelor in Paradise (rip Izzy and Vinny) with [nashclar], [goldmanm], [schieren], and [tonachel] while playing Tinder.

1:48 a.m.—Online shop instead of going to bed. Buy face masks because #treatyourself.

2:06 a.m.—Fall asleep; sweetly dream of the Minnesota State Fair.

Edited by yangstev17@grinnell.edu and mettleca@grinnell.edu

Sports

5

Fall Sports Preview: Go Pioneers!

By Steve Yang yangstev17@grinnell.edu

As the 2016-2017 school year kicks off, so too does the fall sports season, which combines high hopes and superb talent in the pursuit of athletic excellence in the next few months. Among the dominant teams, it’s hard to pick out one that stands out so much more than the others, but we have taken the opportunity to highlight each of them below.

Go Pioneers!

Editor’s Note: A full athletic calendar for all these teams can be found at http://pioneers.grinnell.edu/calendar. aspx

Men's Cross Country Next Competition: Sept. 3, 2016 at Dutch Invitational Forecast: The men’s cross-country team is expected to do quite well in the fall 2016 season, according to a preseason coach’s poll. The poll predicted the team to win the Midwest Conference title, which would be their twentieth in the last three decades. Beyond achievement on the course, however, the men have also been outstanding in representing Grinnell on the All-Conference academic team, with sixteen members (the most in the Conference) qualifying for the honor.

Led by long-time Head Coach Will Freeman, the Roos will be competing next on Saturday, Sept. 3 in Pella at the Dutch Invitational and later at home on Sept. 10 in the Les Duke Invitational.

Last year, Grinnell finished second out of twelve schools and will be looking for a better repeat performance with return runners Pieter Hansen ’19, John Lennon ’19 and Matthew McCarthy ’17, among other standouts.

Women's Cross Country Next Competition: Sept. 3, 2016 at Dutch Invitational Forecast: Led by Head Coach Evelyn Freeman, the women’s cross country team will be returning a significant number of promising young runners who placed consistently last season, such as Emma Zimmerman ’18, Emma Luhmann ’18 and Alosha Southern ’17.

Their talents do not go unnoticed by their fellow teammates.

“Going into the season, I think a lot of returning runners knew we graduated a really fantastic class of womyn,” wrote Meta Williams ‘18 in a message to The S&B. “With that said, I could not be more excited by the group of womyn we have this year. Emma Luhmann, Emma Zimmerman, Alosha Southern and Whitney Teagle are up for big seasons, but beyond them, I think we have a very deep, healthy team this year.”

Last year, the team placed fourth at the Les Duke Invitational. In addition to their running abilities, 23 athletes qualified for the All-Conference academic team last year.

A coach’s poll taken in the pre-season shows that the women are expected

to perform very well in the conference, and are anticipated to place second behind St. Norbert’s College. However, Williams is aware that it will not be easy sailing from here on out, which means they will be giving it their all.

“The conference will be tough, but one thing that our team has going for us is that we're smart runners, we're dedicated runners and we're coached so wonderfully,” she wrote. “We have absolutely no doubts that, come October, ‘the hay will be in the barn,’ and we'll be ready to go.”

Women's Tennis Next Competition: Sept. 3, 2016 at University of WisconsinWhitewater Forecast: The women’s tennis team will be looking to improve on last year’s 15-9 record, the seventh-highest number of wins in the program’s history. Led by Head Coach Paige Madara, the team has already been selected by Midwest Conference coaches to win the 2016 Midwest Conference title. The title quest will start on Saturday, Aug. 27 versus Augustana College at home, with another match the next day at Saint Ambrose University.

The team is strengthened by an outstanding number of returning players, including Syndey Banach ’18, Amelia Cogan ’19, Judith Fan ’19, Lily Hamilton ’19, Anushka Joshi ’18 in both singles and doubles roles.

Football Next Competition: Sept. 3, 2016 versus St. Olaf Forecast: With new Assistant Coach Scott Brade joining the football team as an offensive coordinator and all of the offensive and defensive lines returning, the Pioneer football team is both veteran and young. Offensive lineman Matt Medrano ’17 wrote in an email to the S&B that the O-line “will do a strong job protecting our new quarterback, Tony Bergida ’18.”

Medrano wrote that Bergida “has looked good all camp,” and he expects him to “shock the conference and make plays down the field.”

On the other end of the field, all defensive line starters and a majority of the linebackers are returning as well, which establishes high hopes that the team will exceed expectations this season. After a disappointing 2-8 season last year, Head Coach Jeff Pedersen and his team are looking to leave a mark this season with big plays all season long. Other stars include Ryan Slager ‘19, who finished last year ranked 3rd in tackles in the country, and additional leadership will come from the team’s in-season captains who will be announced on Friday. Their first game of the season will be on Sept. 3 at home against St. Olaf College.

Men's Soccer Next Competition: Sept. 1st, 2016 at Coe College Forecast: The men’s soccer team has high hopes this year to make it to

the conference tournament and beyond, led by Head Coach Brian Jaworski and captains Josh Lavin ’17, Major May ’17 and Antonio DiMarco ’18. The team is also looking to draw on “an immediate impact from its first years,” according to defender Jeffrey Li ‘18, and to combine tidiness on defense with a strong attacking core. For reference, the men’s attack scored an average of 2.47 goals per game in contrast with the opponents’ 0.88 goal per game average, a trend that they would definitely like to see continue.

Although the team is coming off back-to-back seasons of disappointment on missing out on the conference tourney, its cast of returning players reinfused with strong new talent has a great opportunity to improve on its 7-3-0 winloss-draw record. They will play Luther College at an exhibition on Saturday, Aug. 27 in Decorah, Iowa.

Women's Soccer Next Competition: Sept. 1, 2016 at Simpson College Forecast: The women’s soccer team, which boasts 20 All-Conference academic team members, will be looking to improve upon their record from last season with a group of experienced senior leaders “ready to take on big roles on the team,” according to co-captain Carolyn Silverman ’17. Surrounded by a large and talented group of firstyears, there are high hopes to exceed the team’s preseason rankings and qualify for the conference tournament.

With Head Coach Kirsten Koester at the helm, the team’s first match will be at home against Wartburg on Saturday, Aug. 27. Silverman added that the team is “all on the same page on what it means to be a part of Grinnell Women's soccer and have the same goals which are to win the conference, host the tournament, and win the tournament to

Women's volleyball is looking to improve its season from 2015. move on to regional play.”

This has led to better practices, which will hopefully produce better results in the long run for the team and through to the conference tournament.

“Because we are all on the same page, our practices have been really productive, and we are making strides toward reaching that goal everyday,” Silverman concluded.

Women's Volleyball Next Competition: Sept. 2, 2016 versus Hamline University Forecast: Enjoying a huge influx of new talent combined with experienced seniors like Evelyn Weidman ’17 and Olivia Fromm ’17, the Pioneer volleyball team is “hoping for a better season than last year, and our schedule this season looks promising to that effect,” according to Weidman. Although the previous season’s 2-19 record was disappointing, new Assistant Coach Scott Chaney will join Head Coach Jackie Hutchison in guiding the team towards better performances both at home and away.

Weidman is optimistic about the team’s options, and counts teammates Emily Friedman ’19, Margaret Giles ’18 and Sydney (Tink) Vrecenar ’18 as

JEFF LI

a familiar part of the Pioneers’ effort at attaining more wins this fall. The team will test its mettle next at home against Central College in an exhibition game on Saturday, Aug. 27.

Women's Golf Next Competition: Sept. 3, 2016 versus William Penn University Forecast: Having limited out with six first-place votes as voted on by league coaches to win the Midwest Conference golf championship, Grinnell’s women’s golf team will defend its title with a few rounds at the Mount Mercy University Invitational in Cedar Rapids on Sunday, Aug. 28. A majority of the team’s core golfers are coming back, accompanied by two new first years from Belgium and Chicago.

“We did pretty well last year and our goals this year are mostly to cut down our stroke average and qualify for nationals, other than having a good time and just building as a team,” Anisha Agarwalla ’19 wrote in a message to The S&B. Coach David Arseneault will lead four returning all-conference players: respective champion and runner-up Vidushi and Vrishali Sinha (both ’19), Sam Nakahira ’19 and Samanike Hengst ’18.

XIAOXUAN YANG

The women's tennis team practices on Wednesday before their next match against the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater.

Tibatemwa '18 represents Uganda in Rio Olympics

By Steve Yang yangstev17@grinnell.edu

ing the kind of effort they put into their events. I did get the chance to watch quite a bit of athletics. No cool autographs to speak of.

Having just returned from carrying Uganda’s national flag at the 2016 Rio Olympics and competing in the 50m freestyle, Joshua Tibatemwa ’18 has taken part in the greatest global sporting gathering in the world. The S&B’s Managing Editor Steve Yang ’17 messaged Tibatemwa to discuss Rio, swimming and his fondest memories of the Olympics.

What goals did you have before the Olympics? Would you say you met those goals in the pool?

Honestly, my first goal was to simply make it to the Olympics.

The second was to do a good time. I was about half a second off my best time so not so disappointing, but I do wish I had cut it down. I still enjoyed myself immensely though.

The S&B: Can you tell me about the Olympics? (Opening ceremony, festivals, Olympic village, other athletes?) What did you enjoy the most?

What swimming goals do you have for the future? Do you see yourself competing in Tokyo in 2020?

To be honest, from this point on I just want to enjoy a normal college swimming experience. It was great to compete at Rio, but it took a lot of mental energy throughout the year, and I figure I’m up for a break. As for Tokyo, who knows.

Ask me again in 3 years.

Joshua: The Olympics were wonderful though from what I heard they were quite different from previous Olympics, probably because they were the first ever to be held in South America. I really enjoyed getting to see just how normal world class athletes are in their free time. [The] Opening Ceremony was unique and quite a spectacle. The warm welcoming nature of Brazilians was by far the best thing about the Games.

Tibatemwa carried the flag for his home country, Uganda ,during the Opening Ceremony at the Rio Olympics.

How did it feel to represent your country as the flag carrier?

Can you describe that moment?

TThe gravity of the situation did not hit me until after the open-

ing ceremony. I did not even know I was going to be the flag bearer until two days prior to the opening ceremony. Thus, despite being slightly anxious I enjoyed myself

and just well…waved the flag.

What was it like being among the best athletes in the world?

Did you have the chance to watch

Contributed

any other events? Any autographs?

It was a humbling experience to compete against them know-

As far as competing as a Pioneer, did travelling to the Olympics change your perspective in any way? How will it impact your upcoming races this season?

One thing I learnt is you can’t rely on strength alone. Technique trumps strength. So I think that’s what I’ll be focusing on this upcoming season.

Community

6

Edited by carhartl17@grinnell.edu

Election madness in Iowa continues into the fall

By Michael Cummings cummings@grinnell.edu For all the insanity of this 2016 Presidential Election cycle, Iowa at least has seen a respite for the past few months. After being flooded with candidates in the early months of the cycle leading up to Iowa’s first-in-the-nation caucuses, the state has been largely left alone since February. But this has started to change in the past month, as the Democratic and Republican National Conventions marked the transition from the primary season to the general election campaign.

Iowa’s status as a relatively “purple” state — one with a fairly balanced mix of Republican and Democratic voters — means that both major party tickets will be hitting the state hard in the months leading up to Election Day. The race in Iowa between businessman Donald Trump and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will be close by all accounts.

RealClearPolitics, a website which aggregates polls to put together election predictions, lists Iowa as one of eight toss-up states along with states such as Ohio, Missouri, Florida and Arizona.

However, their current average of Iowa polls shows Clinton with a very slight lead — 42.0 percent with 40.5 percent for Trump.

Statistics blog FiveThirtyEight also projects an advantage for Clinton, with their polls-only model predicting as of Aug. 24 a 67.9 percent chance of Clinton carrying Iowa’s six electoral votes. However, the projected percentages of the vote that each candidate will win are much closer — in the range of 46 percent for Clinton to 43 percent for Trump.

It is clear that the candidates are taking the close race in Iowa very seriously. Clinton has visited Iowa

once since securing the Democratic nomination, on Wednesday, Aug. 10 when she held a rally at Lincoln High School in Des Moines. Trump has also made several visits to the state since he secured his party’s nomination, including one stop in Des Moines on Aug. 5 and a swing through Eastern Iowa at the end of July.

The presidential candidates themselves aren’t the only ones campaigning in the state. Trump’s running mate Governor Mike Pence, R-IN, has campaigned in Iowa as well, hoping to use his status as a strong social conservative to win over Iowa’s large evangelical population. On the Democratic side, Senator Tim Kaine, D-VA, Clinton’s running mate, made headlines with a surprise visit to the Iowa State Fair, where he greeted voters accompanied by Secretary of Agriculture and former Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack.

While most media attention has gone to Clinton and Trump, several third party candidates running for President have also been focusing on Iowa. Libertarian Party nominee Gary Johnson, Green Party nominee Jill Stein and Independent Evan McMullin have all collected the requisite 1,500 signatures needed to get on the ballot in Iowa, as have candidates for the Constitution, New Independent, Socialism, Legal Marijuana Now and Liberation Parties.

Additionally, Stein, who has focused her campaign on winning over supporters of Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT), plans to hold a rally on Sunday, Sept. 11 at the Iowa Capitol Building in Des Moines.

The Presidential Election is far from the only race affecting Iowans this cycle. Other notable races include long-time Republican Senator Chuck Grassley’s reelection bid, the race for the House of

Jeffrey Li

The Republican office in downtown Grinnell features prominent political figures in the state.

Representatives in Iowa’s First District, in which Grinnell is located and hotly contested State Senate and State House races across the state.

In the Senate race, Grassley is going up against former Lieutenant Governor Patty Judge, who is campaigning hard against Grassley’s refusal as Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee to hold hearings on President Obama’s Supreme Court nominee.

To this end, she has billed herself humorously to voters as “the one Judge Grassley can’t ignore.”

Grassley has easily won reelection every time since he first joined the Senate in 1981, and while his reelection seems likely, political ratings organization The Cook Political Report downgraded Grassley’s seat from “Solid R” to “Likely R” for this race, showing growing discontent among Iowans with Grassley’s actions in Congress.

In the race for Iowa’s First

District House seat, incumbent Republican businessman Rod Blum, part of the Republican sweep of 2014, is up against former Cedar Rapids councilwoman and former candidate for Lieutenant Governor Monica Vernon. Blum is considered by many to be the most vulnerable Republican in Congress, considering the district’s Democratic tilt and concerns about a “Trump effect” harming Republicans down the ballot.

Vernon, who has been campaigning hard against Blum around the district, will visit Grinnell on Sunday, Aug. 28 at 5:30 p.m. in JRC 101. She will be accompanied by former Maryland Governor and former Democratic candidate for President Martin O’Malley.

In local elections, State Senator Tim Kapucian and State Representative David Maxwell, both of whose districts include Grinnell, are up for reelection.

Both incumbents are Republicans, and they are being challenged by Democrats Dennis Mathahs and Jake Tornholm, respectively.

With all of these elections affecting the Grinnell community, campaigns are planning to hit the town hard in the coming months.

The Republican Party has already opened a campaign office in Grinnell, complete with a cardboard cutout of Ronald Reagan, located downtown on Main Street. The Democratic Party has plans to open an office in the coming days on Fourth Avenue in the location previously occupied by the Pioneer Bookshop.

While this cycle has been plagued by unpredictability, one thing is for sure: candidates from all parties, up and down the ballot, are going to be all over Iowa in the coming months, leaving the state’s political vacation following the Caucuses far in the past.

Tearing it up in Central Park: A new page for the town center

Contributed

Examples of the water feature show the interactivity of the planned park. park aimed to make it more attractive and usable for the people of Grinnell.

New features include a stage in a contemporary prairie style architecture, a picnic shelter with restrooms and a public fireplace, new sidewalks, improved lighting and more benches.

There will also be a new water feature and a plaza with water jets that the public can run through in the hot weather.

"It’s going to be a destination that people from surrounding areas and towns will come and take a look at."

Mayor Gordon Canfield

Contributed

A mock up of the plans for Central Park.

By Mira Braneck braneckm@grinnell.edu Construction that has been developing all summer in Central Park is set to conclude on Nov. 1, bringing a variety of new features and attractions to the downtown park, including a water feature.

The project is part of a mission envisioned by the city park system task force. Local citizens joined with city staff to develop a plan to better the nine parks in the park system of Grinnell.

The Central Park project will be the final project envisioned by the task force.

Mayor Gordon Canfield hopes that the improvements will

MOVIES AT THE STRAND

bring more people to the park.

“People just didn’t use the park.

Everybody admired it … well, why do you have a park? To improve the quality of life, give people things to do, places to go. Pleasant, safe, nice surroundings. But you have to have a reason for them to want to come,” Canfield said.

With that in mind, the plan for the

KUBO AND THE TWO STRINGS

3D: 9:10 p.m.

Showtimes: 3:50pm, 6:45pm A small child finds out his parents are very powerful and must develop his acoustic guitar skills to fight evil.

The jets will light up at night as well.

The project was funded through a combination of state grants and private donors, according to Canfield.

“A huge amount of money came from private donors,” Canfield said.

About 600,000 dollars were raised in a two month period. “That tells you that people really want to see the park change and progress.”

“There has been some controversy over [the Veterans’ Building],” Canfield said. “There is a group of people that are on the Veterans’ Commission

SAUSAGE PARTY Showtimes: 4:10pm, 7pm, 9pm Food expecting religious enlightenment undergo severe disappoinment when they discover humans eat them.

that want to keep the building. There’s another group of people in town that would rather not have the building there … so you have two opposing forces.”

Some believe that because the building needs a great deal of work it should be closed. The building needs new plumbing and has had issues with asbestos in the past, according to Canfield. However, the question of whether or not to keep the structure will be decided in November 2017, when a referendum on the ballot will ask the people of Grinnell if they are willing to incur a 41 cent per 1,000 dollar tax levy in order to renovate and maintain the building. The tax would raise approximately 125,000 dollars, according to Canfield. If this tax is not passed, it is likely that the building will be knocked down.

While construction is set to be completed Nov. 1, the park will be completely done come late spring after the final landscaping touches are completed.

“It’s going to be a showplace, when it’s all done,” Canfield said.

“It’s going to be a destination that people from surrounding areas and towns will come and take a look at.”

LIGHTS OUT Showtimes: 4pm, 6:30pm, 8:50pm

A woman's institutionalized friend comes back to haunt her by doing creepy things in the dark.

edited by sundbyjo17@grinnell.edu

Opinions

STUDENTS SPEAK NSO Edition While watching the first years flock to the High Street this week, all of us here at The S&B began reflecting on our own awkward NSO learning experiences. After talking to students around campus, we learned that embarrasing first-year moments were ubiqutous, and decided to gather some of the best stories and publish them anonmously.

1008 threw a party the first night of NSO and I tripped, rolled down their hill and shouted to the whole party, “I’m not that drunk!”

I fell asleep outside of the dining hall during Spring Waltz, on the tall tables. My friends found me curled up like a cat.

I was at Gardner and had these big hoop earrings in. Later I was twerking and they fell out, and I called for everyone to stop dancing so I could find them. I found them.

I got sick with mono, which is bad enough, but then I also had to email my entire acting troupe, because we had just had our cast party where we all make out, and tell them that they all probably needed to get tested.

NSO was the first time in my life I was able to drink as much as I wanted. So I started manning the keg one night at a High Street party and got a little too drunk. My friends wanted to take me home but I started yelling at them “I know what you’re doing!” Then my friends wrestled me to my bed, where I promptly puked on my laptop.

Interviews by Jon Sundby, [sundbyjo17] Photos by Jeff Li, [lijeffre]

I was walking across Mac field when a squirrel jumped in front of me and I screamed and tripped over myself. The whole Ultimate team saw me scream and trip, but no one saw the squirrel.

Two weeks into the year I got sick with the flu. I was laying in bed one day and I got up to get some water, but ended up becoming really nauseous and vomiting all over my roommate in his bed.

One weekend I was with my teammates but we didn’t have any alcohol. We were playing poker and wanted to put something on the line. So we decided that the person who lost had to do a “Leezy” (naked lap). I went all in on a hand and then “Leezied” all around Rose.

Like to write?

Got some thoughts?

Well, you're in luck The S&B is looking for columnists!

Please send to [sundbyjo17]: • A short summary of your column theme • 1 ready-to-go 700 word column

9

Arbitrary Analysis

Male Birth Control

the

Abstinence

Back Page

GUM Condoms

"The best thing since the front page!"

Volume 133, Issue 1

Photo of the Week

1. The Fempire Strikes Back 2. No Anal Gals!

3. Sets with the Lights ON

Like what you see?

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

Jeff Li

Res Life staff pose for a selfie with the class of 2020.

Pub Quiz Winners

Snedge

This week, Jon Sundby '17 polled students asking: Self-Serve or Soft-Serve

Social Calendar

Friday 4 p.m. Welcome Back reception @Bucksbaum 131

Grille

Saturday​ 1 p.m. Neverland Auditions @Bucksbaum 154 8 p.m. Hyptonist Dr. Al Snyder @Harris Concert Hall

or

DHall

check us out:

thesandb.com

Staff Shoutout Shout out to Steve Yang '17 and Candace Mettle '19 for stepping up and taking a last minute shot at the Sports section this week!

@thesandb /scarletandblack thesandb.com @newspapr

RANTS & RAVES:

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]

Ceilings

Clean n' Tidy

Trauma is actually real

Shoo fly, don't bother me

I strolled into town to see the bookstore today. Once we were there, my eyes gravitated to the ceiling.

The exposed beams and voluminously textured ceiling engulfed me into this new space. My trip downtown was still a quick one, but reminded me how calming it can be to just look up and notice how aesthetically luscious ceilings can look.

I'm finding glory in the little things

These first years are perhaps the most respectful first year class I have ever witnessed. Our house had a huge party this week and the only vandalism that befell our beautiful space was self-inflicted by our own house members. Thanks to everyone for not stealing our stuff and/or puking in our corners.

Dear U Chicago, I continue to be baffled by the concept that students who request trigger warnings are too sheltered to confront real life when the very concept of trauma presupposes an experience of immense pain and suffering, those time-honored building blocks of real life. They're living real life when they wake up every day and enter a world that breaks them and then mocks them for being damaged.

I woke up one morning in Grinnell to find FIFTEEN BUG BITES on my ass. I don't know what these mosquitos have against me, or for me, but next time I would prefer a more evenly-spaced array or chronic itch spot.

$imone Down$ '17

Grateful Host '17

Teresa Fleming '17

Lily Bohlke '19