The Scarlet and Black

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The S&B reviews Carly Rae Jepson's new album, "Emotion Side B"

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“Watch for that nice weekend and get out and do something."

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Check out the S&B's staff editorial on the College's new alcohol policy

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the

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Scarlet & Black Volume 133, Issue 2

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September 2, 2016 • Grinnell, Iowa

Monica Vernon, Martin Town Hall discusses alcohol policy O’Malley visit Grinnell

By Regina Logan loganreg@grinnell.edu Over 100 people filled JRC 101 on the evening of Sunday, Aug. 28 to hear from Monica Vernon, Democratic nominee for Congress in Iowa’s First Congressional District, and former Gov. Martin O’Malley.

“We’re really excited to have them here to promote Democrats up and down the ballot,” said Austin Wadle ’18, co-chair of Grinnell’s Campus Democrats, in their opening statement. “Grinnell is a part of a very important swing district that will help us take back the House of Representatives.”

A recent poll commissioned by her opponent, incumbent Rep. Rod Blum (R) shows Vernon down by 7 percent. If elected, Vernon would become the first woman to repre-

also wanted to lend his efforts to Vernon’s campaign while in Iowa.

Introducing Vernon, O’Malley praised her courage and determination as a leader throughout her political career.

“She had the guts to step up in an uphill fight and run as Lieutenant Governor for Iowa with Jack Hatch,” O’Malley said. Commenting on Vernon’s time as Mayor Pro Tempore of Cedar Rapids during the flood of 2008, O’Malley continued, “She had to pick people up of the mat, shake your neighbors, remind them that they’re still a strong people and they’ll come through this and come through this together.”

Before turning the mic over to Vernon, O’Malley stressed the importance of becoming involved in this year’s election cycle, both on

XIAOXUAN YANG

Austin Wadle '18 introduces Martin O'Malley and Monica Vernon. sent Iowa in the House of Representatives.

O’Malley has been in the area campaigning for former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, but

the local and national level.

“If you’ve never been involved in a campaign before, get involved >> See Vernon page 3

SARAH RUIZ

JRC 101 was packed with students, faculty, staff and community members alike for Tuesday morning's town hall.

By Michael Cummings and Emma Friedlander cummings@grinnell.edu & friedlan@grinnell. edu JRC 101 played host to two town halls on Tuesday, August 30.

The first, at 11 a.m., held by College administration in order to discuss Grinnell’s recent alcohol policy changes, came in an effort to promote dialogue and answer students’ questions about the changes, which have left many feeling angry and confused. The second, at 7 p.m., was student-only and served as a forum in which student voices could respond to the earlier town hall as well as the policy changes overall.

The first town hall began with statements by President Raynard Kington and Andrea Conner, Vice President of Student Affairs. They addressed each of the new policies, including guaranteed sub-free housing, regular walkthroughs by residence life staff, mandatory registration of parties in dorm lounges and the reconstruction of alcohol-focused traditions like

RLC staff faces overhaul

By Emma Friedlander friedlan@grinnell.edu Grinnell College Residence Life welcomed five new Residence Life Coordinators [RLCs] to campus this school year, replacing all five RLCs who left the position last year. The need to fill almost all of Grinnell’s RLC positions in one hiring season was unprecedented and required a lengthy hiring process that began in the spring and carried into the summer. With an entirely different Residence Life staff, Grinnellians returning to campus have needed to adjust to their new RLCs and other changes to residence life.

“Typically, an RLC position is an entry-level position, and it’s usually between one to three years.

The fact that four of them left simultaneously – that was really unusual,” said Joe Rolón, Director of Residence Life. He states that the

RLCs left for varied personal and professional reasons.

Although the College went through interviews with 30 different candidates last spring, many candidates who were offered the position turned it down to instead take positions at larger universities.

By July, all five positions had been filled, and despite the difficulties, Rolón is confident that the new group of RLCs will bring needed diversity and change to Grinnell.

“It’s important to me that the RLC staff is reflective of the students,” Rolón said. “It’s important to have diversity, but particularly diversity of thought.

Last year I was the only person of color and the only male in residence life staff. Now there are more males, but they’re from diverse backgrounds.”

The new RLCs include Elijah Genheimer for Loosehead, Adam

Gilbert for Younker, Paul Gorelik for CaNaDa, Natalie Juarez for Clangrala, Leah Reuber for LaKeRoje and Brittainy Foley for Jamaland. The RLCs led programming and training sessions for first-years during NSO, but many non-first-years feel as if they do not know their RLC and thus are not comfortable going to them as a resource.

“I don’t know my RLC. I don’t know what their name is and I don’t know what they look like. So I don’t want them in my living space,” said Ella Williams ’19 in response to RLC walkthroughs of dorms at a student-only town hall on the College’s new alcohol policies last Tuesday.

John Gallagher ’17, a Community Advisor Mentor [CAM] for Jamaland, acknowledged that contact between RLCs and their residents has been limited and encourages students to take the time to get to know and communicate with their RLCs. “The RLC is one of those positions that the students might not interact with as much, depending on who they are. Some of my students still don’t know their RLC, but hopefully they will take the time to get to know them,” Gallagher said.

“In the first couple of weeks it’s hard for non-first year students to know them. But they’re going to hold programming, so hopefully over time there will be a relationship.”

Gallagher also recognized that some communication issues

ALICE HERMAN

>> See Residence Life, page 2

The College was required to refill all new RLC positions this school year.

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

Friday Diversity and Inclusion talk from Intercultural Affairs Candidate JRC 209, 4:15 p.m.

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Watson & Fulbright Happy Hour CLS, 2 p.m.

10/10. Conner then laid out the three-pronged approach for the administration’s implementation of these policies, which include open communication, assuming the best of others’ intentions and adjusting the policy if necessary. The floor was then opened up for questions.

Justin Leuba ’18 asked the first question, which addressed the fear that the changes would only move drinking into more harmful environments such as dorm rooms and off campus.

Two Town Halls took place in JRC 101 to discuss new alcohol policies. Photo by Jeff Li. Two Town Halls took place in JRC 101 to discuss new alcohol policies.

“I definitely agree that the College hasn’t been doing enough in terms of providing a good context for safe and harm-reductive substance consumption, not only for the individual but for the community at large,” Leuba said. “I think that by creating impediments to consuming alcohol in common spaces, [the

administration is] effectively pushing it into private spaces such as dorm rooms, such as houses off-campus, which is fundamentally not harmreductive.”

The administrators were adamant that there is no evidence that those concerns were valid.

“This has been raised repeatedly for 15 years at least in conversations about preventing alcohol use in college … there’s actually no evidence base that that in fact happens regularly,” Kington said in response.

Ella Williams ’19 brought up specific concerns about the possibility of a heightened police presence on campus.

“I would like to talk about the broader implications of this policy and put it in a context outside of Grinnell, specifically with the RLC and Campus Safety walkthroughs,” Williams said. “Whether you mention it or not, that will inevitably lead to increased Grinnell Police presence on campus, and I feel like any time >> See Town Hall page 2

Dissenting Voices addresses College sexual assault policy

By Francess Dunbar dunbarfr@grinnell.edu Each year, Grinnell College’s New Student Orientation (NSO) provides incoming first years with an educational workshop on sexual conduct. The workshop has drawn ire in the past for presenting insensitive skits on different sexually charged scenarios, and though it has been overhauled in the past few years, some students claim it still does not do enough to accurately represent the problem of sexual assault at Grinnell.

Dissenting Voices, a student group committed to ending sexual violence, addressed disappointment with NSO’s sexual assault education by hosting a tabling event in the JRC last Sunday, Aug. 28. For two hours, they engaged students in a discussion about the reality of sexual assault on campus and handed out fliers with information and articles specific to Grinnell as part of a “Disorientation”.

“It was – and continues to be – all about sex positivity, which is great and important. But there's an immediate jump to 'and here's the conduct process' with no discussion of the realities of Grinnell,” said Michelle Risacher ’17, a member of Dissenting Voices who has attended the NSO sexual respect talk for the last four years “It's so irresponsible not to Tuesday Global Politics of Migration and Refuge Symposium kicks off JRC 101, 5:30 p.m,

say 'This happens here. This is a problem you and your friends will

"It's so irresponsible not to say 'This happens here. This is a problem you and your friends will experience."

Michelle Risacher '17 experience.'”

Dissenting Voices believes that presenting the full picture of sexual assault at Grinnell, including the investigation being conducted by the Office of Civil Rights, is particularly important this year, as policy reform threatens to change the way alcohol is used both on and off campus. Some believe these changes put the incoming class particularly at risk, as first years who choose to drink are pushed out of the dorms and into houses owned by people they may not know.

“There were a number of times where you just saw a look go across someone's face like, ‘what?’ Stuff about the OCR investigation. That should be common knowledge, but it's kind of glossed over,” said Halley Freger ’17, another member of Dissenting Voices.

Dissenting Voices also aims to create an institutional memory regarding sexual assault and alcohol policies. By teaching first years about the College’s past policy missteps, they hope to keep the administration accountable on >> See Dissenting Voices, page 3

Tuesday Ratboys/Dowsing Gardner, 7:30 p.m.

Features 5 | Arts 6 | Community 8 | Sports 10 | Opinions 11

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Students, administrators address policy changes Two town halls fuel discussion

SARAH RUIZ

President Raynard Kington addresses questions about the alcohol policy.

Continued from Front Page you are increasing police presence on campus you are responsible for the trauma that can inflict. I’d like to talk about this in the context of our militarized state of police in this country and how that will disproportionately affect students of color, trans students and I’d like you to be accountable for that.”

In response, President Kington stressed the importance of following the law, while affirming his awareness of possible biases of police officers.

“All I can say is we have no exception to the law,” Kington said.

“I know we think we’re above it but we’re not actually. You know, all we’re talking about is complying with law, and promoting healthy behaviors. Believe me, I’m as attuned as anyone in this room to concerns about police brutality …

I have two little black boys that I have to raise, that I have to talk to all the time about these issues.”

Students were not the only ones who expressed concerns, although they were responsible for fourteen of the fifteen questions asked.

Professor Samuel A. Rebelsky, Computer Science, brought up one of the causes for alcohol abuse on campus – academic workload.

“Andrea [Conner], you mentioned that this is part of a constellation of actions recommended by the task force,” Rebelsky said, “I’ve looked at that

constellation, one of the things that it doesn’t seem to address is the student workload and stress that some of the drinking is clearly in response to. We’re expecting our students to work 12 hours in each course, minimum, and many are working 20-hour a week jobs, and doing extra-curriculars. Is there a group on campus that is talking about this workload actively?”

In response, Michael Latham, Dean of the College said that students should be looking for healthier ways to relieve stress than drinking.

“My hope, to be honest, is as we think about workload, as we think about ways in which students seek to relieve stress, that not only do we have questions about the magnitude of workload, we have questions about how students can study smarter as opposed to always studying harder,” Latham said. “But I think there are also other ways to relieve stress, so I think broadening the extent to which students are capable and encouraged to think of other ways to relieve stress is also one of the things we have to do.”

At the second town hall led by SGA president Anita DeWitt ’17 that evening, student leaders from SGA Cabinet, ACE, residence life and other campus groups convened with concerned students to discuss the policies. The conversation largely focused on the current livelihood of Self-Gov, with

students expressing varied views on what Self-Gov means, its role in the alcohol policies and whether the concept is still active at Grinnell.

DeWitt also took the opportunity to clarify that a committee comprised of only students will reconstruct 10/10, though the committee has not yet been formed.

While many expressed the belief that the administration has limited Self-Gov at Grinnell, others stressed the need to remind students that Self-Gov also means respect and harm reduction in the Grinnell community, not only freedom in their own actions. Students also discussed concerns related to the implementation and practice of the new alcohol policies, especially the mandated walkthroughs.

“I don’t want campus security walking through my floor at any time of day when I’m not expecting it. I don’t want some stranger old man walking through my living quarters – that doesn’t make me feels safe, that makes me feel very unsafe,” Williams said. “I was at party the other night and there were a couple of CAs doing walkthroughs in the hallway. But they had cookies, and they were very much just making sure everyone was safe and okay.

It was one of the most incredible things to see. These policies sound so harsh, and I think they are when they’re implemented by strangers that we don’t know.”

Some students who had been present at the morning’s town hall expressed dissatisfaction with the administration’s conduct.

“Something I found really upsetting about this morning’s town hall was the lack of dialogue on the administration’s part,” Williams said. “I thought that a lot of very important comments and questions were said by students and faculty but I didn’t feel like any of them really got an adequate response from the administration.”

Following the town hall, SGA compiled a list of the changes students want to see, including informing the student body of major changes during the semester instead of breaks, involving more student input, addressing mental health causes for alcohol abuse and improving relationships between RLCs and their residents. With this resulting list of remaining questions and concerns, the conversation between students and administration may be far from over.

Residence Life switches up staff

Continued from Front Page

between RLCs and students are often due to a lack of understanding about Grinnell culture. He hopes that related problems can be handled through dialogue rather than frustration.

“Grinnell is a unique place for students and staff. We might have a different culture than people are used to – we’re all about trying to educate anyone that’s new on campus, whether they’re a first year or RLC, about ways to hold conversations on campus, words to use on campus that are inclusive of everyone,” Gallagher said. “Everyone is going to come from somewhere different, so my hope is that we can make this as educational as possible. When we just call people out and get mad instead of educate and try to make things better, we’re not going to be as productive.”

Still, some students, CAs and other students have expressed disappointment with RLC’s conduct toward students. Alleged incidents include RLC ignorance of preferred gender pronouns, misogynistic behavior towards students and insensitivity during NSO training.

“In a mental health training, talking about suicide signs, awareness and prevention, most of the CAs were moved by the anecdotes,” said an anonymous north campus CA. “Then they would look over at the RLCs and they were all smiling at their phones. It’s small things like that where we’ve noticed them being disrespectful, and things like eye rolling. I’ve heard [those complaints] from a few different

people.”

Gallagher is also aware of these incidents, but again stresses that they should be solved through communication and student patience.

“Be willing to say ‘this is something that bothered me,’ or ‘at Grinnell this is one thing that we do.’ Like ‘we use pronouns when we introduce ourselves,’ or ‘we do something else that they may not do elsewhere.’ Not that it’s better or worse, but this is something that’s part of Grinnell’s culture.”

The presence of a new group of RLCs is especially contentious because it is simultaneous with the arrival of new alcohol policies on campus. Smounker RLC Adam Gilbert, whose position includes a focus on harm reduction, wrote the new alcohol agreement for lounge parties and played a significant role in implementation of the new policies despite only arriving at Grinnell this summer. Still, Gilbert is confident that his prior experience in student affairs at other institutions prepared him to manage these changes.

“With my part in harm reduction with Jen Jacobsen, we wanted to make sure that the process was as easy for students as possible. We tore apart the old alcohol agreement website,” Gilbert said. “I want to simplify it even further, and for the future, that’s going to be something that we try to implement. The policy overall hasn’t really changed that much – from a harm committee standpoint, we want to make sure that parties that happen in lounges don’t turn into large parties

Jen mentioned that the students haven’t been asking the right questions about the restrictions that the alcohol policy’s presenting.”

Regarding the lack of communication between RLCs and their residents, Gilbert expressed his hope that students feel open to getting to know their RLCs and seeing them as a resource.

“I’ve been encouraging students to come by my office and chat. I want to increase awareness of what a great resource the RLC can be,” Gilbert said. “A lot more people are interested in my dog than anything I do workwise.”

To improve retention rates of RLCs in the future, Residence Life is easing some of the RLCs’ responsibilities and improving their professional and social lives at Grinnell.

“This is the first year that we have student staff on call – that’s never happened before. A lot of what RLCs were responding to at Grinnell are not the responsibilities of RLCs at other institutions,” Rolón said.

“We’re focusing on the role of RLCs as educators, so they have their own programming. I think having people starting out at the same time will help the social aspect. What I’ve seen this year that’s different from past years with the RLCs is that many of them will interact socially with other staff members outside of residence life, which I think helps retention … I’m hoping that now they’ve gone through training and NSO, they can immerse themselves in the Grinnell experience.”

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

College founds Institute for Global Engagement Professor Cook-Martín chosen to lead new Institute

CONTRIBUTED

David Cook-Martín spearheaded the Institute for Global Engagement.

By Ronnie Ruse rusevero@grinnell.edu Following recommendations that the College should foster and promote international education from the Global Grinnell Task Force and American Council on Education, the College has introduced the new Institute on Global Engagement. Under the leadership of Professor David Cook-Martín, Sociology, the Institute aims to create an integrated central hub to enhance global education at Grinnell.

“To do what we wanted to do, which is to really pull in everything international under one roof, we needed a different organizational structure, and that's the Institute for Global Engagement,” Cook-Martín said. “When you have a central hub you can be much more effective in stewarding the resources that we have, making sure people are aware of them and have much more access to them.”

The new Institute will cover many areas formerly managed by the Center for International Studies, including courseembedded travel, off-campus study and global learning program tutorials. It will also work to offer a variety of new programs that will enhance a student's global perspective in a more effective way, such as alternative language study options.

Cook-Martín hopes that exposing students to different viewpoints will cultivate a mindset of engaging with others.

"When you have a central hub you can be much more effective in stewarding the resources that we have, making sure people are aware of them" David Cook-Mart ín

“We want to push people to question parochial ideas, … ideas that you have because you are in one place and you assume that those ideas apply everywhere,” he said.

Furthermore, Cook-Martín seeks to curb the negative effects of perceived isolation on campus.

At a small college like Grinnell, it is easy for a student to be caught in the “Grinnell Bubble” and forget about the outside world.

“One of the things I want to ensure that we do is that we make more visible the many ways in which we are connected to the rest of the world,” Cook-Martín said.

He accepted his new position this summer, noting that along with his new position comes numerous responsibilities.

“You can create an institute and say that we want it to do all of these things, but someone has to own it some point. Someone has to take charge of it and make sure that we stay on task and accomplish the many goals that were set out by the task force,” Cook-Martín said.

Cook-Martín believes the creation of the Institute and his full-time position as director will make it easier to develop programming that is fully engaged on a consistent basis. He also recognizes the role faculty play in encouraging global education, both through their curriculum and through research with students. He hopes his background as a faculty member will lend a new perspective to the position.“It was important that [the head of the Institute] also be a faculty member,” Cook-Martín said. “Global critical education is very much driven by faculty and the participation of faculty.”

"We want to push people to question parochial ideas ... ideas that you have because you are in one place and you assume that those ideas apply everywhere."

David Cook-Mart ín Of course, Cook-Martín readily acknowledges that the hard-working staff of the institute make global education at Grinnell possible. At the Institute he will work together with eight other staff members to help students at Grinnell explore a full range of international options.

One of the major challenges students face is lack of information about global education. Despite a sometimes overwhelming list of travel options, there are many students who are still unaware of the various international programs offered at Grinnell. The Institute is one way to close the information gap.

Additionally, Cook-Martín encourages students to visit the Institute for Global Engagement and share their suggestions.

“A lot of the ideas that have turned into programs have often come from faculty and students working together on something and realizing that there’s a gap, or that they wanted to participate in something that wasn’t offered here on campus.”

Students looking for more information about international programs at Grinnell can stop by the Institute for Global Engagement, located on the first floor of the Jesse Macy House, or check out the Institute’s website at h t t p s : / / w w w. g r i n n e l l . e d u / global/institute.

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Patty Judge announces education policy

By Isabella Kugel kugelisa@grinnell.edu As November’s general election draws closer, the senate race in Iowa continues to heat up. Democratic candidate and former Lieutenant Governor Patty Judge, who was recently endorsed

by President Barack Obama, is campaigning against incumbent Republican Senator Chuck Grassley.

One of the ways Judge is appealing to voters is through an education plan announced on Aug. 24. The plan proposes strides toward higher education accessibility, including renegotiating student loan debt, offering two years of free community college and increasing federal need-based academic grants. Following the announcement of her education

plan, Judge held roundtable discussions on Aug. 25 with educators and students in Des Moines to express her solidarity and commitment to helping students make college more affordable.

"To the extent Democrats can tie candidates like Grassley to Trump, it will hurt him."

Peter Hanson This plan supports the recently released United States Department of Education policy changes, which notably expanded the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program. These changes loosen stipulations on the type and age of applicants who can apply for loan forgiveness for their federal direct

loans, decreasing the fiscal burden on those who dedicate themselves to public service.

“Working families in Iowa want to believe that their children can have access to an education.

Young professionals want to start their career without a mountain of debt,” wrote Anna Schierenbeck ’18 of Campus Democrats in a letter to The S&B. “I’m excited to see Grassley answer to Iowans for his choice[s] this November.”

Grassley has been publicly scrutinized for his refusal to hold hearings for Judge Merrick Garland, President Obama’s nomination to the Supreme Court.

Professor Peter Hanson, Political Science, said that the divisions Donald Trump has created in the Republican Party could potentially hurt Grassley.

“To the extent Democrats

can tie candidates like Grassley to Trump, it will hurt him … It is Grassley’s race to lose, but he could be defeated and there is a chance. I would say it’s an outside chance, but its real,” Hanson said.

"Working families in Iowa want to believe that their children can have access to an education."

Anna Schierenbeck '18 Judge aims to break gridlock and obstruction in Washington.

For her, securing the Iowa Senate seat might lead to working towards policies that effectively continue help students in a time when the rate of a college education is rising faster than any other section of the United States economy.

Additionally, Obama’s Pay as

You Earn Plan, an income driven debt repayment plan that relieves student loan stress, has seen budding success in recent years.

Since Senator Bernie Sanders emphasized the case for affordable college education during his primary campaign, there have been many similar calls from other politicians. Judge has one such proposal for refinancing student loans.

The refinancing process would allow for interest to be renegotiated to the current lower rate, but currently this process only exists for certain types of home loans.

Increasing parameters for needbased financial aid and simplifying the application process is also on the Department of Education’s agenda, although some of these changes will not take place until late 2017.

CONTRIBUTED

Democratic senate candidate Patty Judge held a roundtable with college students in Des Moines to find out what changes students want to U.S. education policy.

Vernon, O'Malley speak in JRC 101

Continued from Front Page in the next 72 days … by getting involved in Monica’s campaign you can not only make history here in Iowa, you can make history for our country, and you can make our country a better place for yourself,

"I ... encourage all of you to run early for something and get involved. But if you don't do it by a certain point, don't give up."

Monica Vernon and your kids and your grandkids.”

Throughout the next 30 minutes, Vernon discussed her upbringing and her involvement in public service. Vernon attended the University of Iowa before going on to start a small market research business while raising three daughters. She cited her experience as a market researcher, in which she identified the current conditions and needs of individuals and families, as something that qualifies her for Congress. It was during her work as a researcher that Vernon stumbled upon the quiet but significant issue of homelessness in Iowa, particularly among women and children.

“Experts were saying that ‘we don’t have a homeless problem,’ because they expected them to be laying out on the streets,” Vernon said. “What is happening was that they lost their homes … when [a] family would split up, they ended up — many times it was the woman — whoever was left ended up way in debt. They ended up moving in with family and friends. And you’re just one squabble away from ending up in your car.”

Recognizing the large-scale community issue at hand, Vernon gathered people and worked to fund and found the Madge Phillips Center, a homeless shelter for women and children. However, Vernon quickly realized one shelter would not be able to solve the statewide problem.

“When women and children go in to homeless shelters, they can only stay 90, 120 days … that’s just three or four months … so I started looking into affordable housing in Iowa and started working on that,” Vernon said. “I also realized that these women were under-trained and underemployed, so we worked together with the community college and organized labor. One thing led to another and I was working with about half the board and commissions in our community, and I decided that the real action was at our city council.”

Vernon went on to serve eight years on the Cedar Rapids City Council, where she chaired both the Council’s Community/ Economic Development Committee and the Metropolitan Planning Organization. She offered particular advice for the diverse crowd of college students and adult community members.

“I … encourage all of you to run early for something and get involved. But if you don’t do it by a certain point, don’t give up.”

Vernon spoke about raising the minimum wage to a living wage, achieving equal pay for equal work and paid family leave, providing accessible and affordable education and reforming existing student loans as central issues in her campaign.

But she also spoke about the general importance of voting “I can’t do any of it if we don’t get good Democrats elected, if you don’t help me get to the house.”

Campus Democrats are working on bringing to campus other political figures to campus such as Patty Judge, the Democratic candidate for United States Senate from Iowa.

“We are doing everything we can to make sure students are informed and active in phone banking and door knocking in the greater community and registering their fellow students,” Wadle wrote in an email to The S&B. “Students should email [democrat] to find out specific volunteer opportunities.”

Dissenting Voices holds "dis-orientation" Students offer revisionist version of NSO Continued from Front Page the issue. One problem they are currently working on is the lack of mental health resources for those who have been assaulted both on and off campus. Rev. Deanna Shorb, who works with Grinnell Advocates, agrees that the College needs to do more.

"I believe that the institution Grinnell College is not doing what we need to do to provide psychological support for victim survivors."

Deanna Shorb

“I believe that the people running our counseling center on campus are doing the best job they can with the support they're getting from the institution,” Shorb said. “I believe that the institution Grinnell College is not doing what we need to do to provide psychological

support for victim survivors, for would-be respondents and for this entire college community. They're understaffed, they're overworked and we're not doing what we need to provide support in the prairie.

We don't have it on campus, and we don't have the resources to send them off. We know that, we've known that for more than two years.”

Shorb stresses that the fault lies not with the medical personnel in SHACS but instead with the administration for not providing adequate funding to support victims.

“They can't move this college to spend the money it needs to spend.

And many of us have been trying to persuade that it's essential we do that. It concerns me that we might build buildings with the knowledge that we may not have students well enough to go to classes in them,” she said.

"It's hard to go up and say 'we are doing something wrong. We are failing you.

We are failing your peers.

And we have consistently been doing this.'"

Michelle Risacher '17 Moving forward, the leadership of Dissenting Voices would like firstyears to take an active role in reforming campus. The group estimates they talked to around 50 students, but hope the information will spread throughout the class of 2020 and that the College will be more transparent during future orientations.

"It's a hard conversation to have in a room of first years,” Risacher said. “It's hard to go up and say, 'we are doing something wrong. We are failing you. We are failing your peers.

And we have consistently been doing this.'"

JOHN BRADY

Dissenting Voices held a tabling event in the JRC to address remaining student questions on sexual assault.

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Features

Edited by bohlkeli@grinnell.edu

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Back to school with funky fall outfits #lookgoodfeelgood

Ariel Nelson '17 has a thought process while getting dressed in the morning that is definitely #relatable.

"I was feeling like I didn't want to wear real clothes, ‘cause I don't really like real clothes anymore. So I was like, I'm going to put on leggings and a shirt, and then I was like, … I don't want my butt to show. So it was basically comfort and function over anything else."

Her accessories bring the outfit to another level, resulting in the perfect example of her self-described "comfortable-chic" aesthetic.

Alitza Shutt '18 turns the window-filled Spencer Grill into an even brighter place. "I'm known for smiling, like, all the time … Looking good always makes me happy. When I look good, I feel good."

Her boyfriend, Roland Roger ’17, compares Shutt to her favorite animal, the quokka, which "sleeps 20 hours a day and always smiles."

There is one exception — a time when Alitza doesn’t try to #lookgoodfeelgood.

"My fashion doesn't happen during Hell Week. During Hell Week I slack, and that's when the sweatpants come through."

By Mira Berkson berksonm@grinnell.edu

#relatable

ELLEN SCHOENMAKER

ELLEN SCHOENMAKER

#ordinaryintoextraordinary

#fundays Bardan Sigdel '19 aims to be confident and outspoken, and his clean-cut style mirrors that.

He makes a button-down and slacks look as effortless as a t-shirt and sweatpants (which he only breaks out on the weekends).

"This morning, I'm feeling super chill, like, I see a lot of people stressed because it's Monday, but I actually love Mondays. It's been a great day." Maybe we could learn a thing or two from Bardan about how to make Mondays #fundays.

ELLEN SCHOENMAKER

Shaun Duncan '18 combines several simple pieces together to create a #photoready fashion statement.

"I was like, well, camo goes with anything … and I just got these Sperry's, but I had to get them in black because, you know, black can also go with anything, so I just like things that go with anything, at least today."

Shaun has the power to turn #ordinaryintoextraordinary.

"There's so many things that could be used in a dope way that in a normal context are not really dope."

ELLEN SCHOENMAKER

Grinnell's chapter of Dagorhir battles in a friendly and fun way

XIAOXUAN YANG

Students battle each other with foam weapons every Tuesday and Friday.

By Alosha Southern southern17@grinnell.edu Not every club would describe themselves as appearing like a bunch of crazy idiots, yet this is exactly how Matt Steege ’17 describes Dag. Steege, a longtime member of the Dag Club serves as a leader and Master of Various Things to the club that meets regularly to battle one another

to the fake death with foam swords.

“We’ve got a bunch of people with ridiculous foam weapons and we run around and hit each other like crazy idiots,” Steege said. “The rules are boiled down to that you’ve got a certain number of limbs; you can only lose a certain number of limbs and if you do, you’re out of the game for a time period,” Grinnell Dag is one chapter of

a national organization, Dagorhir, named for a “Lord of the Rings” inspired medieval re-enactment battle-game dating back to 1977. Bryan Weise, creator of the original Dagorhir, was inspired by The Lord of the Rings series, but according to the organization’s website, Dagorhir literally means “Battle Wars.”

Some chapters are more serious than others, and Steege insists that Macy House was once Dag House for a few years. Students who were active members of Dag elected to live in the house and the close proximity, as well as ideological differences about how the club should be run, created a lot of intra-organizational drama.

“From what I understand, there was a lot of emotional upheaval and factionalization,” Steege said of the era of Dag House. “It became this weird situation where something that’s inherently dumb fun became taken more seriously than it should have been. A lot of interpersonal relationships got mixed up into it in a way that wasn’t okay.”

Steege credits the Dag’s leaders during his first and second years at Grinnell for welcoming more students into the organization. The club’s appeal had narrowed during the years of Dag House because of a “clique” mentality, but now more students than ever are participating in fighting sessions.

“This past Friday, we had our first session of the year, and I’ve personally never seen a normal Tuesday or Friday session that had that many people who were participating actively,” Steege said. “It was also an almost even split [gender-wise]. Neither of those are things that would have happened seven or eight years ago, or even four years ago.”

Alongside Steege, there are many other students who make sure Dag functions. There are three Masters of Various Things, one for each color of weapons used. Each are responsible for teaching new members how to make and use either the red, blue or green weapons.

Dag’s biggest event of the year is its Field Day, which it hosts on cam-

pus in the spring. Upwards of 60 to 80 students from nearby Dag chapters travel to Grinnell for a day of fun and fighting. Many alumni attend Field Day to relive their time launching faux bows and arrows on Mac Field as well as visit with old friends and new students.

“There are people that I met here when I was a first year, and they were seniors, but I’ve seen them every year at Field Day,” Steege said. “It’s a lot of work and a lot of organization, but ultimately, it’s just about people coming out, seeing each other again.”

This year, Steege is hoping to expand Dag’s horizons beyond campus.

The club is considering attending larger Dag events at other campuses, but what is most important to Steege is that students are coming out and having a good time.

“We are thoroughly unpretentious; it’s actually in our rules that we’re not allowed to be pretentious.

You don’t get to do this everywhere, or most places even. For me, it’s just about having a really good time with some really good folks,” he said.

El Callejón or "The Alley" is an avenue to friendship

HUNG VUONG

Esquivel, Hernandez, Perez and Matthews have been friends since their first year at Grinnell. Although they do sometimes get on each other's nerves, it's been so far, so good at El Callejón, or "The Alley."

By Philip Kiely kielyphi@grinnell.edu Contrary to its name, “El Callejón” or “The Alley” is located on the intersection of two roads of average width. Jose Esquivel, Bryan Hernandez, Gabrielle Matthews and Armando Perez, all ’17, form the long-standing group of friends that occupies 933 High School.

“We’re all really weird,” Perez said, a sentiment echoed by his friends.

That weirdness likely comes from the length of their friendship. Esquivel and Hernandez have been friends since middle school and were both nominated to apply for the Posse Foundation, bringing them both to Grinnell. Perez joined Esquivel and Hernandez in the LA Posse their first year, and Matthews’ membership to DC Posse ensured that the four met early as first-years. Their overlapping friend groups have helped keep them close every year.

Because all are fourth-years, they were able to secure a house, but recommend that anyone considering off-campus housing start looking early on. Moving in together wasn’t entirely smooth either, as the group faced logistical challenges including tricky keys and a non-functional stove.

In terms of non-logistical challenges, some of their friends were concerned about the viability of the plan.

“A friend was worried about us liv-

ing together,” Hernandez said, explaining that he and Perez often needle each other. “I push Armando’s buttons … he does it, too.”

“We love and hate each other,” Perez added.

Despite the difficulties, all four pals love living off campus. “It gives us an opportunity to disconnect from school,” Esquivel explained. “When you live in dorms you can’t escape,” Perez said, but he said the group is not isolated from campus either, because “[they] can see Main from here.”

Living in the house has strengthened their friendship even further, because they spend so much more time together than they have in the past.

Matthews said that “housemate bonding stuff … just eating together,” has led to the new closeness and Perez pointed out “walking to classes together” as one of those bonding activities.

All four enjoy living in the house, but each has their own favorite quirk.

From the “dad chair,” a light blue upholstered rocking chair, to the narrow stairs, to the frustrating system of locks, a dozen details create a worn but warm atmosphere about the house.

After just a week, Matthews found that they “feel comfortable in the entire house. It feels like you are actually doing life stuff but school isn’t your life. It’s definitely better and more comfortable than living in a dorm.”

The house offers many opportunities not found in the dorms. “We can make authentic food from home,” Perez said, pointing out empanadas as a recent

attempt.

Another thing brought from far off-campus is the name “El Callejón.”

“The Alley” is named for the narrow streets that run behind the childhood homes of Esquivel and Hernandez.

“It reminds us of home,” Esquivel explained. “Back in LA, you could go there and buy a bunch of really cheap stuff.”

To get to their house, Perez, Esquivel, and Hernandez drove 25 hours from LA to Grinnell together. Despite this constant closeness, everything is “so far, so good” according to Esquivel. Perez claimed that “it feels like forever,” but in a good way.

Esquivel looks past any disagreements or differences of opinion. “We connect because we are different,” he said. Hernandez agreed, saying, “we just click.”

The group is indeed disparate, made up of Posses located across the nation from each other. The four have diverse interests, with majors ranging from Sociology and Gender, Women’s and Sexuality Studies to Economics and Spanish.

The group serves as an advertisement for the benefits of living away from campus. “Living here is like living with a big family,” Esquivel said, which was met with groans from the other three. He justified himself by citing the “sense of community.”

The other residents do share his sentiments, however. Of his three housemates, Hernandez said that they are “the best people I could have here.”

6

Arts

Edited by coghlann17@grinnell.edu

Carly Rae Jepson releases "Emotion Side B," deep tracks you can dance to

By Hannah Boggess, Clare Nash & Anna Schierenbeck boggessh@grinnell,edu, nashclar@grinnell. edu & schieren@grinnell.edu The first time we listened to “Emotion Side B” was exactly as it should be listened to — ladies only road trip, windows down, speakers bumpin. The 8-track album is made up of songs recorded and cut from “Emotion’s” initial release in June of 2015. It’s unusual for a smaller artist (especially one widely considered a one-hit wonder) to release more songs from an album that wasn’t commercially successful, but Carly has inspired a cult following that turned out in droves to her world tour, and she released these tracks in response to fans’ enthusiasm. Don’t let the “B-list” misnomer scare you; they don’t feel like anyone’s second best. These songs are all certified bangers.

“Side B” fits right into the

jam, while “Higher” has the opposite effect; its Madonna-inspired pop vibes make us believe in love again.

You may not think of Carly as a Capital-A Artist, but that's why we, and a lot of other people ... love her. Carly isn't trying to impress anyone or be the coolest girl in the room.

If you’re reading this and still rolling your eyes at Carly from her “Call Me Maybe” days, here’s what we have to say: first of all, that song is great. Second of all, you’re not cool. You may not think of Carly as a Capital-A Artist, but that’s why we, and a lot of other people,

(@2016 @pub quiz) love her. Carly isn’t trying to impress anyone or be the coolest girl in the room.

And even though these are actually good songs*, that’s not the point.

Dismissing her because you consider her fan base to be a bunch of teenage girls is just lazy. Sorry not sorry if these songs are too basic for you; the themes they touch on are meaningful and important, even if they feel clichéd. On the first listen, we cringed a little at lyrics like “all the roses in the garden fade to black,” but her vulnerability and candor throughout “Side B” make up for where Carly might be lacking in original lyricism. “Cry” feels

like a diary entry in its intimacy and honesty, but it doesn't romanticize tough problems in real relationships. Carly doesn’t need GWSS111 to confront toxic masculinity.

Her tracks are honest and approachable; we can picture her dishing up some goss with us over $3 wine from Hy-Vee. "Side B" is the perfect soundtrack for an unironic and unapologetic girl group.

We'll listen to it while we do face masks and watch reality TV, but it'll also be playing in the background when we're cramming on Burling fouth .

“Side B” is the perfect soundtrack for an unironic and un-

apologetic girl group. We’ll listen to it while we do face masks and watch reality TV, but it’ll also be playing in the background when we’re cramming on Burling fourth.

But being a basic bitch isn’t a prerequisite for loving “Side B.” You can jam to “Body Language” without sacrificing your imported cold brew and wire-framed glasses.

“Side B” is for everyone because bangers are a universal language.

Carly Rae Jepsen is inspiring and empowering and at times, even a Capital-A Artist. If nothing else, listen to this album to study up for Pub Quiz — and call us when you find yourself singing along.

If you're … still rolling your eyes at Carly from her "Call Me Maybe" days, here's what we have to say: first of all , that song is great. Second of all, you're not cool. special place in our hearts where “Emotion” lives, snuggled in with Fergie’s “Fergalicious,” Beyoncé’s “Diva,” and Nicki Minaj’s “Super Bass.” Carly’s new album is Capital-R Relatable, with lyrics like “let’s be honest, no one else can take me there/but I don’t care,” “romance is fine/pour me some wine” and “I call you my lover/you call me your friend.” The 80s-inspired synth pop smoothly blends deepcut confessionals with hype beats; each track allows you to dive into your feels while still giving you the chance to dance them away. “The One” reminds you of the time your casual hookup wanted to DTR. When the roles are reversed and you’re foiled while trying to put a ring on it, the next track, “Fever,” is perfect for crying in the shower.

“First Time” opens “Side B” with a feel-good breakup

CONTRIBUTED

Despite the lack of commercial success of her album "Emotion," Carly Rae Jepson released "Emotion Side B" last week, an album comprised of songs originally cut from her album released this June.

:Hai-Dang Phan and Rick Barot do with me having absorbed all the resources that I need to evaluate my own poems, and if it does not succeed, in my own mind, I would just be happy to write the next poem.

At the poetry reading later at 8 p.m., what work will you two be reading?

Phan: I’m going to read poems from my working manuscripts for my first book. A lot of the poems are already published, so I decided to read two new, longer poems that I believe will be important to the book.

Barot: I’m going to read poems from this book, Chord, and also some new poems.

XIAOXUAN YANG

Poet Rick Barot addressed students in JRC 209 along with Professor Hai-Dang Phan at the first Writers @ Grinnell event of the semester.

This semester’s Writer’s @ Grinnell kicked off on Thursday with a joint round table Q&A featuring Professor Hai-Dang Phan, English, and Rick Barot. Although he may be more well known to students for his work as a professor, Phan’s work has been published in the Boston Review, The New Yorker, and Bennington Review all within the past year. He is also preparing to publish his very first poetry book. Rick Barot is the director of the MFA program at Pacific Lutheran University. He has published three books of poetry. His most recent book, Chord was just released last year. Barot has also received multiple fellowships and awards, most recently a poetry fellowship from the Guggenheim Foundation. The duo shared their experience as poets at the interactive roundtable event on Thursday, Sept.

1, at 4:15pm and later gave a reading of selected poems at 8pm. Phan and Barot sat down with the S&B’s Quynh Nguyen to discuss inspiration, process, and form.

The S&B: How different do you

think poetry is, as a medium, from other mediums like fiction or, say, nonfiction?

Phan: I mean, there can be very long poems as well. But the key difference, I think, is the musicality and the shaping of poems. Like for Rick’s poems, they can be more on the side of being essayistic.

Barot: I have friends who write fiction and nonfiction. Listening to them talking about their process, I feel like, and this can be a bad analogy, they are training for marathons. I think poets tend to be sprinters; you get an idea, a spark, and you go. And you can run out of breath within a few days or a few weeks. Whereas, if you’re writing a novel, or even a short story, you have got to measure the energy output that you use, knowing that it’s a longer project.

So in term of the process, sprinting is very different from running long distance.

Talking of spark, where do you often get your inspiration from? Is teaching also a source of your inspiration as you interact with the

students?

Phan: Often times, so much of it is reading for me. I read something, and the initial impulse is to respond to it. Sometimes, just being in the world, hearing a clip of language. I mean, there are so many things that can be a spark of its own. And opening yourself, and your senses, your mind, your cognition to those can lead to a lot of good writing.

Barot: I guess I can answer that question by saying that one of the things I tell my students is to notice what you notice, on any given day, and ask why. Because the things that you notice are very particular to you. Obviously, inspiration can also strike in terms of some information, or phrases, or surprises that you encounter.

However, it is also just about how you notice things and ask why you notice them over something else.

Ask yourself, why do you notice that Coke can on the ground today when it seems so absurdly ordinary? What if that image or that thing is a trigger for a deeper thought or concern that I might have? A spark does not have to be anything interesting by itself,

but it is interesting that you notice it at all.

You mentioned in the roundtable event that you imagined being the first reader of your poem instead of aiming for a particular audience when writing. So, after forming a poem to its final stages, do you show it to anyone as a kind of revision and reference?

Phan: It does feel vague to decide if one poem is almost done. But I do have one reader I share with. Part of the reason is to open up a kind of feedback mechanism. We talked about revision as re-seeing and it is just helpful just to have a set of eyes look at your poem and have them tell you what they notice. Sometimes knowing that is very useful because the prescriptiveness helps. But in the end, it is you who decides what to do with the poem.

Barot: I think that has changed over time. Earlier on, I used to have a group of people, friends of mine, who I would share my work to. I don’t do that anymore, and not because I’m arrogant. I think it has to

Would you want to send any words of advice to rising poets or just simply, someone who wants to start writing poems?

Barot: Here is one piece of advice that everybody always gives: read a lot, and read everything. The way I would complicate that advice is pay attention to the things that you don’t like, and really ask, why do I read Michael Palmer’s poems and I don’t like this. Ask yourself from an analytical, and critical standpoint: what is it about this work that doesn’t resonate with me, so you can start to map out your value system, in relation to the things that you don’t necessarily prefer. Because we are living in this culture that is a thumbs up or thumbs down culture, so saying I don’t like that is very intuitive. But start to ask yourself why you don’t like that, and you have created for yourself a learning situation out of something that could have just been ‘I don’t like it’.

Phan: Students here are really busy, right? Classes, social life and everything. If you are writing poems, stories, fiction, do not wait to find time but make time for your writing, even if that’s just 15 minutes a day to make writing a part of your every practice. I think that also means paying attention to what you notice because other than that, your energy is just gone.

Barot: Writing does not just include writing. It can be when you read somebody else’s poems. That’s part of the process.

Arts

Edited by coghlann17@grinnell.edu

7

STUDENTS SPEAK Summer Binge-Watching Edition While some see summer as an opportunity to spend time outdoors swimming and bbq-ing, most use their extra free time to sit in the air conditioning and spend some quality time with their Netflix accounts.

The S&B surveyed students in the Grill to see what Grinnellians were binge watching this summer.

TV Show: Game of Thrones “Best 60 hours I’ve spent in my life.”

- Annie Casey '17 TV Show: Crazy Ex Girlfriend “I recommend it to any good Jewish-­American Princess with a sense of self-deprecation.”

-Mara Rosenberg '17

TV Show: American Horror Story: Hotel “Spooky in a very safe way.”

-Matt Henzy '17

TV Show: Bones “It’s not the best quality, but I like the character dynamic.”

- Zoe Grubbs '19

TV Show: Survivor “It’s all about strategy and manipulation now.”

- Anna Schierenbeck '18

TV Show: Criminal Minds “Dark and twisty with bad science.”

-Jamie Schafroth '17

TV Show: RuPaul’s Drag Race “It’s educational and has good moral message.”

- Nelson Schicke '18

TV Show: Stranger Things “It will fuck up everything you think about. Also an amazing cast of kids under 13.”

- Donna Fintzi '18

Interviews by Abraham Golden, [goldenab] Photos by Alice Herman, [hermanal]

Community

8

Dogs let loose at Grinnell public pool to celebrate summer '16

The Too Many Strings Band reflects on Iowa State Fair experience

By Rojina Sharma sharmaro@grinnell.edu

ALICE HERMAN

As the Grinnell Mutual Family Aquatic Center prepared to close for the summer, they opened their gates to the four legged section of our population. Pets were allowed to swim in the pool last Wednesday, August 31 to signal the end of the summer and give the canines a chance to cool off. Humans were allowed to join their dogs in the pool up to their knees, but swimming was restricted to dogs. Some humans broke the rules and joined their pets in the pool. Admission for dogs was ten dollars, while humans got in for free. All humans had to come equipped with their own poop scooping gear and keep an adamant eye on their furry friends.

Celebrate 100 years of National Parks

By Merlin Mathews mathewsr17@grinnell.edu The National Park Service (NPS) celebrated its centennial on Aug. 25. Established during President Woodrow Wilson’s term by the National Park Service Organic act, the NPS’ stated goal is to preserve sites both natural and manmade for the enjoyment and education of future generations.

In keeping with its founding philosophy, the NPS chose to celebrate a hundred years of service by looking ahead to the next hundred years. A major focus of the centennial celebration is encouraging people to explore the national and state parks in their area.

While Iowa doesn’t have any national parks – though it is home to a national monument, a national historic site and two national historic trails – it isn’t lacking for state parks. From Ledges State Park to Maquoketa Caves State Park, there’s a wide range of fascinating landscapes to explore.

The closest state park is Rock Creek, which features 100 camping sites, miles of multi-use trails and an enormous reservoir that can be used for canoeing, sailing and fishing. Rock Creek is a popular destination both for Iowans in general and for outings hosted by the Grinnell Outdoor Recreation Program (GORP.) During the first two weekends of this semester, GORP took interested students out to Rock Creek for introductory canoe training. David Zeiss, the faculty director of GORP,

says that around 50 or 60 students show up per weekend. GORP runs canoeing trips throughout the school year, and Rock Creek is a

"Watch for that nice weekend and get out and do something" David Zeiss common destination.

Zeiss also anticipates several biking trips in Rock Creek this year.

“The trail out there is real nice – it keeps people off the road, so that’s a nice safety feature,” he said.

GORP used to offer sailing trips at Rock Creek, but have transitioned to offering biking trips instead due to the relative shortness of sailing season, a lack of student interest and the high cost of sailing equipment.

One of the longer canoeing trips offered several times a year

by GORP ends at Palisades-Kepler State Park, near Cedar Rapids.

Palisades-Kepler frames the Cedar River, and in addition to being an excellent canoeing destination, also features hiking trails which Zeiss recommends, and river bluffs, which he says are “neat to see.”

According to the Iowa Department of Natural Resource’s page on Kepler-Palisades, visitors to the park can also expect to see a wide range of flora and fauna, including songbirds, wild turkeys and innumerable wildflowers.

Maquoketa State Park has hosted the occasional GORP spelunking expedition. Maquoketa contains the most caves of any Iowa state park,

from the massive Dancehall Cave to the aptly-named Dugout Cave.

The park is also home to both aboveground and underground limestone formations and trails, a restored prairie and an experimental oak savanna restoration. For people who are interested in the park but unable to withstand the challenges presented by caving, the Interpretive Center offers a video tour of the park.

While traveling with GORP gives you the benefit of experienced guides, if you prefer exploring on your own or in smaller groups, GORP also rents a variety of outdoor equipment for individual excursions to members. Each member can check out enough equipment – canoes, tents and sleeping bags, among others – for up to two people. The membership fee is $20 for the whole academic year.

As for when to plan your trip, those of us who have seen several seasons in Grinnell can testify that there’s a huge difference in climate between summer and winter.

On some winter days, leaving the warmth of the indoors can seem a terrifying task. especially in Iowa.

But Zeiss maintains that there’s no one season that’s best for visiting the state parks, especially with winters becoming milder..

“Obviously winter can get pretty cold,” Zeiss said. “[It’s] easy to get in a mode where it’s winter, we can’t go outside and do anything.

But I think the reality is we get a lot of weather that’s reasonable for walking and hiking in the winter.

You gotta kind of play it by ear – which makes it harder for us to plan trips – but I think on an individual basis, watch for that nice weekend and get out and do something.”

The S&B sat down with Professor Sandy Moffett, Theater, Professor Robert Cadmus, Physics and Professor Mark Schneider, Physics to discuss their recent performance at the Iowa State Fair with their band, the Too Many Strings Band. A Grinnell favorite, the Too Many Strings Band is a mainstay at Saints Rest and other spots around town. Continuing their streak of performing for a larger, state wide audience, the Band traveled to Des Moines to perform at and take in the Iowa State Fair.

S&B: Can you tell us a little about your band? (How it came to be, where you normally perform, what kind of music you play?)

TMS: We’re often referred to as Too Many Strings, but we want to refer to ourselves as a string band.

So it’s the Too Many String Band.

I think it started as just kind of a once-every-other-week-get-together-and-sing-along-with-each-other.

I do pin most of this as happening sort of around 1996 or so that we started actually playing.

We play at the Mayflower [retirement] home, which we enjoy a lot because there’s an enthusiastic group there and they’re quiet and they pay attention. We do that three to four times a year. We also play at Windsor Manor, typically once a month. One thing I’m happy about is that we don’t get paid for any of this kind of stuff. Often people want to get rid of some of their money and we divert it all, usually, to the Heifer International Project. So I like to think we’re a little philanthropic organization, as well as a musical organization.

We’ve played at weddings, we’ve played at funerals, we’ve played for a Red Cross fundraising once.

We play at all of the retirement centers from time to time. We do

"We also sing songs ... that talk about the problems we have in the country and the injustices that need to be sung about" Too Many Strings Band

S&B: Will you perform at the State fair again?

TMS: I think we’ll probably do it every year, as long as they’ll have us.

"We’re trying to represent this older way of just having fun" Too Many Strings Band S&B: Do you have any upcoming performances that you are excited about?

TMS: On Sept. 11 there’s going to be an event in … the Community Arts Center. There’s not going to be a concert or anything, just people who are going to be joining in and singing along. Students will be

Members of the Too Many Strings Band pose with Democratic presidential nominee and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. ad hoc performances on campus, maybe two, three times a year depending on who wants to have us.

We also like reunions. That’s one of our favorites.

"First year we did have to send in some recordings so that they could vet us to decide whether we were going to be a complete embarressement " Too Many Strings Band From top left: Ledges State Park in Madrid, Palisades Kepler in Mt. Vernon, Rock Creek in Kellogg and Maquoketa in Maquoketa, Iowa.

TMS: One of the things that’s nice is they have sound people there who make sure you actually can be heard over all the noise that’s going on. That’s nice. Generally, people are sitting in an audience whereas in a lot of other places we play, other stuff is going on.

When we do fundraising things, it’s often associated with a dinner or something where we’re kind of background music. So people were actually there listening to us. And they also had an open space in front and people got up and danced, which was great! But we also like intimate things where the people are close and sort of involved and maybe singing along. I think we tend to like those more than ones where you have a big space with a whole big audience who are out there some place. And if you have people close, you don’t even need all that electronic help.

CONTRIBUTED

S&B: Why did you decide to perform at the Iowa State Fair?

TMS: We just thought it’d be fun.

We’ve performed there for five years, and we’ve been on two different stages, but for the last three years, we’ve been on something called Pioneer Hall, which is an indoor venue with lots of other stuff going on. It’s not a big deal. I mean, we weren’t playing in a huge stadium with thousands of people and lights coming down. First year we did have to send in some recordings so that they could vet us to decide whether we were going to be a complete embarrassment.

CONTRIBTUED

Edited by carhartl17@grinnell.edu

S&B: How was this performance at the state fair different from your performances on campus and around town? What was the best part of the experience?

enthusiastically welcome to that!

S&B: Is there anything else you’d like us to know about the band and your music?

TMS: It’s just been a real gift to be able to do this, and to continue to do this for as long as we have. It’s always fun. Anytime I talk to people about doing this, I talk about how wonderful music is because you can continue to do it, at any level, all your life. Back in the old days, music was something people did in their living rooms and their front porches, and they didn’t worry about whether it was perfect.

They just did it for fun. We’re trying to represent this older way of just having fun. We play a lot of original songs that Sandy and Betty have written. A lot of their songs have to do with small town Iowa, and even the ones that they didn’t write have a tendency to gravitate toward Grinnell-type songs, which is why I think we fit into the state fair well. We also sing songs like “Strangest Dream” and “Promised Land” and “Deportee” that talk about the problems we have in the country and the injustices that need to be sung about. Rarely do these songs have a particular political orientation, but they always have a human rights orientation, and these are things we all feel pretty strongly about.

Community

Edited by carhartl17@grinnell.edu

Flooding in North East Iowa damages water treatment plants

Farmers Market now accept SNAP program

By Zane Silk silkniha@grinnell.edu The Grinnell Farmers Market has just introduced a new program that contradicts the common image of markets as the domain of hipsters and yuppies; it has started accepting payment for all vendors through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly and still commonly referred to as food stamps. This decision, spearheaded by the Grinnell Chamber of Commerce, which has been organizing the roughly forty year old market for the past twelve years, is intended to help low-income residents in the area access fresh produce and other food items from local farmers and vendors. Before the implementation of the new program on Aug. 25, only two vendors at the market accepted SNAP individually through a State of Iowa program.

“That’s part of our challenge – to find the people who are SNAP recipients and make sure that they’re aware that they now can come to market" Rachael Kinnick “We started researching this program about three years ago, when one of our vendors brought it to us and said, ‘hey, can we do this market-wide?’” said Rachael Kinnick, the Chamber Director and the person in charge of managing the market.

It turned out that it was not possible to certify the entire market through the state, and so the initiative stalled.

“It really wasn’t until … Dubuque farmers

The program also has the added benefit of allowing the market to accept credit and debit cards, for which a $1 fee per transaction will be charged.

“We incur a cost for every transaction that we do, and for the SNAP transactions we’re not able to pass that on to the customer,” Kinnick said. Luckily, “Grinnell College jumped onboard as a program sponsor of this endeavor and really helped us get it up and running in the sense of a financial commitment to make sure that we’re able to do it not just this year, but really sustain it long term.”

Kinnick is hopeful about the program and has reason to be. Data from the Dubuque market shows that implementing the same program led to a substantial increase in sales. Nonetheless, she acknowledges that it will be difficult at first to attract SNAP recipients to the market.

“That’s part of our challenge – to find the people who are SNAP recipients and make sure that they’re aware that they now can come to market,” Kinnick said.

“Mid-Iowa Community Action, which is one the larger service groups, they actually come and glean product at the end of every Thursday market, so they’re fully aware of it and they’re highly encouraging their clients to come out, it’s just a matter of time,” said Ann Brau, a vendor with the Compass Plant CSA farm and the volunteer manager of the market on Thursdays.

The Grinnell Farmers Market, which takes place on Thursdays and Saturdays, borrowed a payment system used by other markets that accept

SARAH RUIZ

The Grinnell Farmers Market is open on Thursday and Saturdays in Central Park. market … started working directly with the [United States Department of Agriculture] at the federal level to implement this program, and it was then that we learned that this was a possibility,” Kinnick said.

Dubuque implemented a market-wide SNAP payment system in May 2015, and by the fall, Kinnick was seriously looking into the application process. She worked through the winter of this year to complete the lengthy application, and once it was submitted in March, the application took two months to be approved.

“Then we actually applied for another program through the Farmers Market Coalition, which helped us get the cost of some of the items that we had to purchase rebated back to us, and that process took another 60 days, and that’s kind of where our timeline got further and further into the summer, but we decided to go ahead and launch this year, even though we were more than halfway into the farmers market season,” Kinnick said.

9

SNAP benefits, whereby customers buy tokens at a central booth with their SNAP Electronic Benefit Transfer cards or credit or debit cards, and use those tokens to buy food from the vendors. Vendors then have to return the tokens, for which they are reimbursed. The vendors went through training to accustom them to the token system, and most were happy to be part of making the market more accessible.

“A couple of them are a little reluctant just because it’s new and it’s different and there’s always some of that,“ Kinnick said.

One week and two markets into the program, Kinnick and Brau are unable to confirm that SNAP recipients have used the token system to purchase food at the market, but they remain cautiously optimistic that interest will pick up.

“We knew that it would take a while for folks to know that it was an option. We’ve had a lot of people ask when were rolling it out, so we hope that they’ll all come back here in the next couple weeks,” Kinnick said.

CONTRIBUTED

Flooding shut down waste water plants this past week in northeastern Iowa.

By Calvin Tang tamgcalv@grinnell.edu Thunderstorms and heavy rain have plagued Iowa and the Midwest for the last few days, with the water levels seen to cover houses and even short buildings. Decorah, Bluffton, Fort Atkinson and Spillville all reported heavy rainfall, and the Turkey River approached a record crest. Residents of northeastern Iowa found it hard to sleep through road closures and forced evacuations. Although water supplies and water treatment plants sustained light damage, some systems may develop complications later on.

"Many of the cities that were hit were all too familiar with the circumstances, as they were affected by flooding in 2008" The flooding has recently claimed one victim as of last week, as mentioned in The Courier. The victim was a driver and managed to dial 911. While authorities were able to find the car, the body wasn’t found until it was too late.

Multiple agencies have been called into action to help with the relief efforts and to provide aid to those who are in need.

The Department of Natural Resources (DNR) is among the responders and is continuing to provide aid. “[We] first got called that systems were impacted on Aug. 24,” said Amber Sauser,

an environmental specialist for the DNR. “The following counties were issued disaster proclamation by the governor: Bremer, Chickasaw, Allamakee, Clayton, Fayette, Howard and Winneshiek,” Sauser wrote in a follow up email to The S&B. Fayette County was one of the more seriously damaged.

“At this moment, the water and waste water systems, and primarily the waste water systems [have suffered] predominantly short term damage” Amber Sauser In spite of the damages caused to housing and businesses, waste water and water supply systems were also effected by the flooding.

Three waste water treatment plants (WWTP) situated in Elma, Alta Vista and Fort Atkinson are reported to have been inundated with water.

Fortunately, these damages were mostly short term, and repairs will be made in a timely fashion. However, the costs for repairs were considered quite heavy.

“At this moment, the water and waste water systems, and primarily the waste water systems, [have suffered] predominantly short term damage,” Sauser said.

Most of the systems appear to be back online with only a couple requiring partial disinfection. WWTPs in Spillville and Protivin were unaffected by the flood, and the treatment plants are up

and running.

Other systems and storage such as the ultra violet (UV) disinfection system and aerated lagoons in Waucoma and Spillville were impacted, although the extent of the damages may not be clear until weeks or months later.

“Some of them had damage to the UV disinfection system, and often times, they don’t know immediately how long the systems are going to last … two weeks from now or a month from now it could go out and then at that point they may need to replace it, so some of them may still have what could be long term damage,” Sauser said.

Despite the partial disinfection in only one channel, most of these systems normally run with one channel, and therefore, most of UV disinfection systems remain operational.

Many of the cities that were hit were all too familiar with the circumstances, as they were affected by flooding in 2008. Fortunately, no underground storage tanks or animal feeding systems were impacted, and so the damage is certainly mitigated, Sauser explained. The DNR will continue to provide support to face any upcoming issues, and the Parks and Recreations Department will continue to facilitate recovery for their infrastructure.

Looking ahead, the DNR will most likely participate in the clean up operation as well, helping to dispose of any waste, such as sandbags, that may have been deployed during the flood.

County unemployment rate rises

By Jeman Park parkjema@grinnell.edu Unemployment rates are a critical metric for college students given their relevance for future job prospects. Poweshiek County has consistently outperformed United States averages, posting a consistent sub 4 percent rate of unemployment for the past year, until this August, when the county posted a 0.2 percent increase.

“We are very comfortable with where the unemployment rate is at” Laura Mannat Laura Mannat, Head of Marketing and Economic Development for Poweshiek County, is not worried.

“We are very comfortable with where the unemployment rate is at,” Mannat said. “Businesses here are

Movies at the Strand

expanding, adding additional employees, adding additional products or services.”

The majority of the additional growth for the county has come from already existing businesses.

Other Iowa counties may be more concerned about unemployment increases due to their dependency on a sole industry. However, due to its wide range of industries, including manufacturing, construction and education, Poweshiek County is unlike most rural Iowa counties.

Employment fluctuation is common within the county due to seasonal industries. Currently, the median earning in Poweshiek County, $39,959, remains slightly below Iowa and nationwide averages of $41,652 and $44,178, respectively.

The increased necessity of higher qualifications may lead to higher me-

BEN HUR

3D: 3:50 p.m. 9:20 p.m.

Showtimes: 6:30 p.m.

A remake of the original about a guy whose brother sucks.

dian earnings in Poweshiek County.

“Seasonal unemployment in the agriculture industry and construction happens pretty often" Laura Mannat Overall, Iowa experienced a 0.1 percent increase in unemployment, similar to Poweshiek County. According to Mannat, the agriculture industry, one of the most prominent industries in Iowa, has recently experienced slow growth. However, due to Poweshiek County’s economic diversity, she remains unconcerned.

“Seasonal unemployment in the agriculture industry and construction happens pretty often. They’re laid off in the winter, but rehired in the spring, so we’re not too worried,” Mannat said.

FINDING DORY

Showtimes: 4:10 p.m.

The sequel to Finding Nemo, this time the fish have lost an entire family and must enter human territory again.

“The state is focusing on finding the people with the right skills for the positions that are open" Laura Mannat

Mannat expressed minor challenges in filling certain open positions, where higher qualifications are necessary.

“The state is focusing on finding

WAR DOGS

Showtimes: 4 p.m. 6:45 p.m., 9:10p.m.

Two bros decide to buy and sell guns in the Middle East and learn the situation is more complicated than it seems.

the people with the right skills for the positions that are open. They are working with community colleges and technical colleges to get them skills necessary for the jobs,” Mannat said.

According to the Iowa Workforce Development group, 7.9 percent of individuals are underemployed in the Poweshiek County area.

Sausage Party Showtimes:7 p.m., 9 p.m.

Food expecting religious enlightenment undergo severe disappoinment when they discover humans eat them.

Sports

10

Edited by mettleca@grinnell.edu

Meet the new Pioneer coaches

HUNG VUONG

ELLEN SCHOENMAKER

Football Assitant Coach Scott Blade has extensive experience coaching at different levels of football, from high school all the way to Grinnell College.

FOOTBALL

Tennis Head Coach Paige Madara is eager for the season to start as soon as possible.

TENNIS In the past few weeks, the incoming first years have not been the only new arrivals on campus. Paige Madara has succeeded the long-serving Andy Hamilton, who has become the Director of Athletics of the College, as head tennis coach.

Previously an assistant coach at Washington and Lee University, Madara described the transition to head coach as a demanding challenge that has pushed her to take on new responsibilities. However, thanks to previous exposure, she has settled in well into the Grinnell community, calling it a wonderful opportunity.

"We got our first team win of the year, which is always good to get under our belt."

Paige Madara She had to settle quickly with the women’s tennis team already having competed at a meet held at St Ambrose.

“It went well,” Madara said. “We got our first team win of the year, which is always good to get under our belt.”

Madara has been involved with tennis throughout her life, starting from an early age and going on to compete at the National Collegiate Athletic Association Division III level for Washington University in St. Louis. Yet she never planned on becoming a coach.

“I fell into coaching by accident while I was getting my graduate degree and just decided that it was the career path for me,” Madara said.

"I fell into coaching by accident while i was getting my graduate degree and just decided it was the career path for me.'

Paige Madara Madara discussed her goals for the upcoming season.

“Winning the Midwest Conference again,” Madara said.

“The men have quite a streak going on, and we would like to keep that going, and the women are also building a streak of their own.”

By Tommy O'Donnel

New Grinnell College assistant football coach Scott Brade will serve as co-offensive coordinator, with a focus on quarterbacks and running backs. Brade, a native of Bad Axe, Michigan, has 13 years of college football coaching experience, which has taken him all over the country. Most recently, he was the head football coach at Feather River College in Quincy, California.

"With our numbers, we're having to be good football players on both sides of the ball.

Scott Brade Brade started coaching while in college, after an injury ended his football career during his first season at Alma College. Following the injury, Brade became an assistant coach at nearby Alma High School. After graduating, he earned a Master’s degree in physical education from Western Michigan University and began coaching all over the United States. Brade’s experience, he says, will help him the most at Grinnell.

“I have worked with young men from various backgrounds and places,” Brade said.

This season, Brade hopes to use his experience to improve the Pioneers in terms of wins and losses, but also in personnel management.

“We’re looking to be more competitive than the last year or two,” Brade said. “With our numbers, we’re having to be good football players on both sides of the ball. In some positions, where usually there are two or three backups, we may only have one.”

He also noted that he and Head Coach Jeff Pedersen will have to constantly maintain a dialogue about how to use the players they have in creative ways.

Aside from football, Coach Brade enjoys spending time with his wife and children, hunting, fishing and riding around Grinnell on his new bicycle. He expressed his gratitude for the opportunity provided by Pedersen and Director of Athletics, Andy Hamilton.

“The community is outstanding,” Brade said. “I’m grateful for the opportunity that both Coach Pedersen and Andy Hamilton have given me at [the] College.”

The football team begins its season on Saturday, Sept. 3 against St. Olaf. Kickoff is at 1:00 p.m. on Rosenbloom Field.

By Jackson Schulte

SARAH RUIZ

Women's volleyball assistant coach Scott Chaney has high hopes for the team.

VOLLEYBALL Scott Chaney is the new kid on the block as the new assistant coach to the women’s volleyball team.

Not only is he new to Grinnell College, he is also new to the sport of volleyball. Initially, he began his career as a football coach.

A couple of years afterwards, he became the volleyball coach to the Collins-Maxwell Baxter school district in Iowa, where he developed his volleyball coaching skills.

“I kind of cut my teeth on the high school road,” Chaney said.

"When you coach for a high school, you get stuck with what you have. Here, you actually get to build a team, and you get to envision the future."

Scott Chaney He credits his smooth transition into the sport to lots of studying and his experience as an athletic coaching major at the Ohio State University and William Penn University.

Chaney welcomes the challenge of coaching at the college varsity level, an opportunity that he believes will allow him to be more proactive in the sport.

“When you coach for a high school, you get stuck with what you have. Here, you actually get to build a team, and you get to envision the future,” Chaney said.

This year, he hopes to recruit five new players.

Beyond recruitment, Chaney wants to build a legacy of strong

"I kind of cut my teeth on the high school road" Scott Chaney

players and hopes to quadruple the number of wins the team had last year.

Chaney lives with his wife Jayn in Newton with their dog Cooper and cat Kip.

By Julia Echikson

Running to the future

Southern looks forward to another successful season

By Abraham Golden goldenab@grinnell.edu

summer training, and so we do expect really big performances from them, too. Last year, we graduated three of our top seven runners, but I don’t think that’s even a big concern because we have so many women who are ready to step up to the plate and take their place.

With her last year at Grinnell looming, women's cross country captain, Alosha Southern '17, aims to continue enjoy every last moment being a student athlete. Abraham Golden '20, writing for The S&B, interviewed Southern to talk about the legacy of the College 's women's cross country team.

The S&B: Best moment while running?

AS: I've been running for a long time, and it’s hard to pick one moment. I would say one of the best moments at Grinnell was my first year when we won our conference by one point. It was a really emotional moment, and it was a special season because it was my first collegiate season.

The Scarlet and Black: It’s your last year as a student and an athlete. How does that feel?

Alosha Southern: Sometimes I feel like it was just yesterday that I was a first year. It’s kind of unbelievable to me that this is my last year at Grinnell. But it’s exciting too, and I feel very excited to be one of the leaders on the cross country team.

" … we have so many women who are ready to step up to the plate and take their place."

Alosha Southern

"If you can’t figure out why you love it, maybe you should be doing something else."

Alosha Southern

The S&B: How’s the team looking so far?

AS: The team looks really good. We had a pretty impressive class of first years this year, they all look pretty good, so we’re excited to see them develop as the season goes on. I feel it’s very likely that a few of them are going to be our top scorers. We also have a number of second and third year returnees who really excelled during this past track season and through their

The S&B: Any pre­- meet rituals that you engage in?

AS: The women's team has a LOT of special rituals we do. They include putting temporary tattoos all over your face/body (the sparkly flash tats are really fun), … and then we spray each other with glitter before the race.

Alosha Southern smiles as she discusses the women's cross country team

ELLEN SCHOENMAKER

The S&B: How do you balance the workload of being a student and a varsity athlete?

AS: It’s constantly a balancing act, and I don’t think I have perfected it by any means. You just have to take it one day at a time.

I do sometimes feel like I’m a chicken running around with its head cut off, but I enjoy everything that I do, and I think that’s what’s important. That’s why I don’t feel like I’m burnt out.

The S&B: Favorite part of the sport?

AS: Getting a chance to be with all of the women on the team and spending time with them and laughing with them. They’re such a wonderful community, and I really do feel inspired by them every single day.

The S&B: What upcoming event should we be on the lookout for?

AS: Our only home meet of the season is the Les Duke meet, and that is on September 10. We usually get great support on campus, and it’s a fun way to spend the morning.

"Try to make time for yourself and take a few minutes to take about why you're doing all the things you're doing" Alosha Southern

The S&B: Last thoughts/ comments?

AS: Grinnell can be a stressful place, and try to find time for yourself and take a few minutes to think about why you’re doing all the things you’re doing. If you can’t figure out why you love it, maybe you should be doing something else.

Edited by sundbyjo17@grinnell.edu

Staff Editorial As reported by The S&B last week, President Raynard Kington and his administration are overhauling one of the biggest campus traditions of the year, 10/10, over concerns that the night is responsible for an increase in alcohol abuse, vandalism and sexual misconduct. As of now, the holiday will be replaced by activities not focused on alcohol, which the administration expects will placate the student body.

For years 10/10 was a drinking holiday, but one that claimed to have the overarching, ostensibly positive goal of campus bonding. The night was a time when students would step out of their comfort zones and talk to everyone around them, whether they lived on North, South, East or off-campus, whether they were first or fourth year, philosophy or biology major.

Admittedly, even with its best intentions, the tradition was a booze-soaked affair. This led to a host of issues, not the least of which was the exclusion of Grinnell students who didn’t participate in the drinking aspect of the event. The College may indeed have needed to change 10/10 in order to curtail some of the day’s negative side effects, but the best way to address this is with the input of the full campus community. The administration never consulted the student body about these changes and even SGA was relatively powerless in the process. It’s not the fact that these changes are taking place, but rather the way they are taking place that is concerning to all of us at The S&B and should also be of concern to every Grinnellian.

The restructuring of 10/10 is just the latest move in a longstanding drive towards neutralizing self-gov. Earlier this summer, Kington sent out an email that outlined other changes to the College’s alcohol policies, which included restrictions on alcohol in dorm lounges and the commencement of walkthroughs. In his email Kington said that Grinnell was “behind the norms” in our alcohol policies, and that he needed to enact these changes quickly in order to ensure the health of the community. Although it is clear that the campus is dealing with a score of issues connected to binge-drinking, we at The S&B believe that many of these issues have deeper roots and should be addressed

through increased access to mental health treatment. Perhaps if the student body had input in the decision-making process, there would have been less of a focus on punitive measures and a more balanced approach to solving these issues would have emerged.

Perhaps the most interesting part of the email, however, was how Kington addressed the matter of self-gov. Insisting that self-gov is not dead, he proposed a series of town halls and focus groups to “redefine” what selfgov means. In another interview with The S&B, Vice President of Student Affairs Andrea Conner says that the administration has “tried year after year to correct what the college believes is a misperception of self-gov, which is 'I will govern myself and the college will not intervene.'" Both of these statements are emblematic of the narrative the administration has painted of the student body: that we use the concept of “self-gov” as a way to justify selfish misconduct. But is that really how Grinnellians view selfgov? Kington talks about how responsibility to the community should be the core component to self-gov, and he is absolutely right. Yet, this responsibility flows naturally from the privilege Grinnellians have, supposedly, in governing ourselves. Self-gov is about caring for our campus community, it is about respect and it supports right conduct.

But, in addition, self-gov is the simple concept that we Grinnellians have a voice in the formation of the rules, traditions and values that guide our college and influence our daily lives.

In “redefining” self-gov, the administration risks stripping the concept of its real power and reducing it to a meaningless phrase that looks good on a college brochure. Then, like many other schools, they can cancel a campus event, make sweeping policy changes with little input from the student body and need not feel the slightest twinge of hypocrisy.

But if they choose to highlight the concept on our website, discuss it in recruitment literature and proudly proclaim at admissions events that the principle of self-gov sets Grinnell apart from its peer institutions, perhaps they should start listening again.

Opinions

11

Letter from the Administration Dear Students, Many thanks to those of you who have engaged with College leaders about the student experience outside of the classroom. Last year alone, you may have attended one of the six Town Halls, or four open sessions with the Task Force on Residential Learning, or dozen focus groups and meetings with leadership groups. We appreciate your engagement and participation in the ongoing conversation about what it will take to improve student life on campus.

I’m proud to work at a campus that involves students in consultation and encourages students to participate in every level of college governance.

"We know that these changes are only one step in a complex series of improvements that need to be made."

As you know, a variety of intersecting concerns (academic stress, mental health, substance use and abuse, sleep, racial climate, sexual misconduct and loneliness) have been converging in ways that negatively affect student well-being, which affects retention and success. For example, exit interview data from students who opted to leave Grinnell displayed a struggle to find a social niche, prospective students and their families report discomfort around Grinnell’s “party culture” and the 2015 data from the National College Health Assessment returned some concerning statistics about the campus environment around mental health as well as the individual and community impacts of substance use. To tackle these issues, a public health approach suggests that we must work at multiple levels, ranging from individual to interpersonal to institutional levels. Innovative steps had been made in recent years to partner with

students to increase our efforts to improve student life, especially around harm reduction, active bystanderism and violence prevention. But these efforts have not been enough mitigate risk and ensure the safety and well-being of our students. Therefore, President Kington — with the support of the Board of Trustees — announced a variety of changes to our alcohol policies and protocols, effective immediately.

The Student Affairs staff got right to the tangible work of preparing to implement these changes. We spent the last few weeks writing policies for the Student Handbook, took steps to improve the alcohol agreement process (including creating a “fast track” for small events under 20) and created strategies to reduce obstacles toward completing the alcohol agreements. We also earnestly considered whether to simply ban all events the weekend of 10/10, as some colleges have done, or instead, whether to convene a group of student leaders to replace it with a new tradition, less focused on alcohol, that could be truly unify-

"To tackle these issues, a public health approach suggests that we must work at multiple levels, ranging from individual to interpersonal to institutional levels" ing and community building (we chose the latter).

As we turn the corner from policy change toward implementation, my colleagues and I (including Residence Life, Campus Safety, the dean of students’ office and the rest of Student Affairs) are eager to keep lines of communication open with students. We’ve been working diligently to prepare for a smooth implemen-

tation, but this is an iterative process. We’ll be talking with you, paying attention and ad-

"Change can be difficult in higher education, especially at an institution like Grinnell" justing when necessary We will put forth the effort to demonstrate our good intentions and earn your trust.

Some students are under the mistaken impression that the College believes this is the comprehensive and complete solution toward student success and well-being. Quite the contrary. We know that these changes are only one step in a complex series of improvements that need to be made.

For example, we recently announced a significant increase to our counseling operation, and there are more improvements on the near horizon.

And, the Task Force on Residential Learning intends to cooperate with the Council on Diversity and Inclusion on their year-long process of surveying campus climate and creating a comprehensive diversity plan. We are growing and transforming the Campus Safety department, and providing more training for our staff around implicit bias and trauma-informed response.

Furthermore, the Task Force on Residential Learning has 33 other recommendations that we are eager to focus on and create innovate solutions to tackle our most challenging problems.

Change can be difficult in higher education, especially at an institution like Grinnell that so deeply values tradition.

I’m confident that by working together we can make change and improve the experience for future generations of Grinnellians.

Andrea Conner Associate Vice President for Student Affairs

Letter to the Editor: Policies will aid campus health

Dear President Kington and Associate Vice President Conner, I write as an alumnus and proud Grinnellian to express my deep gratitude and appreciation to you for taking action to curb and control alcohol use at Grinnell. It is testament to the College's renewed interest in the health and well-being of the students in its care, and I applaud your efforts.

I suspect that you might encounter some resistance from the student body to the new policies (if The S&B is reporting accurately on the matter). You might even receive feedback from young alumni about discontinuing certain "traditions."

So, as an alum myself, let me state unequivocally that I have many fond memories of my time in the prairies of Iowa, and none of them are from alcohol-related events at the College.

Instead, I remember stimulating seminar discussions, hours spent in research on the fourth floor of Burling, proofreading my papers while sitting at the Forum, working on theatrical productions in Bucks-

baum, watching sunsets in a cornfield west of town, eating downtown at Pagliai's, long drives in the rolling hills and so much more.

Full disclosure: as a non-drinker (then and now), I chose not to attend events at Grinnell that included alcohol. In fact, I almost never attended social events, given the long hours I studied and worked, but I also intentionally avoided these events as I became aware that certain "traditions" (10/10, Block Party, etc.) focused so heavily on alcohol consumption. Now, do I feel that my college "experience" was somehow lessened or incomplete because I did not drink — or attend alcohol-focused events? Not at all!

Quite to the contrary I loved my time there so much that I stayed to work for the College for a year after my graduation. Grinnell is near and dear to my heart.

During my time as a student (2001-2005) and as an employee (2005-2006), I was aware of significant alcohol use on campus and in off-campus student residences that was inconsistent with good

The Scarlet & Black Editors-in-Chief Managing Editor News Editors Features Editor Sports Editor Opinions Editor Copy Editors Photo Editor Graphics Editor Business Manager Honorary Editor

Teresa Fleming Eva Lilienfeld Steve Yang Michael Cummings Emma Friedlander Lily Bohlke Candace Mettle Jon Sundby Mira Braneck Keli Vitaioli Jeff Li Lica Ishida Jenny Dong Steve's Mom

sense, College policy, and state law.

I was disappointed that some of my peers, many of whom were brilliant in class discussions and projects, made such poor decisions after hours. I remember the year I spent as a Student Advisor, during which I had to deal with vomit in the hallway bathrooms in the middle of the night more than once.

I am writing to you today because I believe I was part of a "silent minority," or at least an often-overlooked group, of non-drinkers on the Grinnell campus each year.

While I never (knowingly) met another non-drinker, I am convinced that a tangible percentage of students to this day elect not to drink. To this end, I am delighted to learn that you will guarantee substance-free housing to any student requesting it.

I believe that you as administrators have an obligation to look out for the best interests of all students. Grinnellians are intelligent, talented, and accomplished from the moment they first arrive on campus. However, at the age of 18,

and even by 21, they are not capable of making the best decisions — research into the frontal lobe of the brain is quite clear in this regard. I am acutely aware of it as I prepare to begin my eighth year of fulltime teaching. I have encountered young people of all ages, from undergraduates down to adolescents, who make bad choices and often suffer unfortunate consequences.

I hope that the current generation of Grinnell students on campus will recognize that you are taking these steps not only because of liability and other legal concerns, but also, and more importantly, to protect the health of the students and to promote better decisionmaking, thereby supporting the College's broader mission of guiding, advising, and preparing young people for success.

Thank you very much for your time. I wish all of us a smooth start to the academic year.

Kind regards, Anonymous Alum, Class of 2005

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 upon request. 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. The deadline for publication in Friday’s paper is Wednesday of the same week.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.

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.

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Volume 133, Issue 2

Photo of the Week

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

Mountains in Cochabamba, Bolivia "La Llajta"

SOFIA MENDEZ

Arbitrary Analysis Pub Quiz Winners

Ass Mirrors

Full-body Mirrors

Snedge

1. The Fempire Strikes

Back 2. Bagels n' Cox /Too Much Pressure 3. In God We Thrust

This week, Philip Kiely '20 polled students asking: High Street or Sexy Feet

Social Calendar

Friday

JRC

2 p.m. Fulbright/Watson Happy Hour 4 p.m. Opening Reception: Ken Saunders @ urling Library 5 p.m. Women's Volleyball vs. Hamline @Darby Gym

Saturday​

12 p.m. Women's Soccer vs. Augsburg @Soccer Complex 3 p.m. Men's Soccer vs. Albion @Soccer Complex 10 p.m. SGA Harris

Like what you see?

ARH

Staff Shoutout

or

check us out:

Shoutout to Steve Yang '17, Mira Braneck '19, Keli Vitaioli '19, Michael Cummings '18, Emma Friedlander '18 for working mid-week!

@thesandb /thescarletandblack thesandb.com @newspapr

Rants & Raves:

Feces on the floor

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]

Angry Actress

Know your space

Where is the onion salt?

Dat A$$ Doe

I am infuriated by the comments Latham made at the town hall regarding alcohol. When presented with the idea that students abuse alcohol because of workload stress, Latham ignorantly stated that students need to seek alternative ways to relieve stress such as joining a sports team or working on a theatrical production. As a devoted member of Grinnell theater, I can vouch for the insane amount of stress that comes with working on a show. Instead of spewing uninformed and insulting excuses, Latham and the administrative team should actually acknowledge the legitimate stress students are under and provide concrete support!

Angry ASM

SGA gave us the opportunity to organize through the student-only town hall. AND WE WASTED IT. It's totally fine to get some questions answered that you did not want to ask in front of administrators, but we don't really need to spend nearly 2 hours talking about the exact status of self-gov. All I'm saying is if you go to a town hall, try to be aware of your surroundings and the time/space you're taking up. Is what you're saying really contributing to the conversation?

Dear Dining Hall: I was sorely disappointed when I returned to campus this semester and found that the onion salt was missing from the spice rack. I hoped that it was only temporary, but alas, its absence persists. To make matters worse, there are TWO separate jars of thyme mocking me with their abundance every time I check back.

Of all the bathrooms on campus, the ones in Noyce are definitely top tier. As a social sciecne major, my day is not complete without a quick pit stop in the toilets with the best useless feature Grinnell has spent their endowment on thus far — the Ass Mirrors.

Fun and cheeky and a perfect addition to any Snapstory. 10/10. Would pee again.

UGH '17

Michael Cummings '18

Keli Vitaioli '19