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September 9, 2016 • Grinnell, Iowa
Volume 133, Issue 3
thesandb.com
College bathrooms provide free pads and tampons Student activist Rebekah Rennick inspired action
SOFIA MENDEZ
Academic building bathrooms now contain free menstrual product machines. By Emma Friedlander friedlan@grinnell.edu As menstrual activism has become more and more of a hot button issue, Grinnell has taken action by providing free menstrual products in its academic buildings. Over the summer, machines that charged 25 cents for pads and tampons were replaced with free machines. Steps to initiate this change were taken after Rebekah Rennick ’18, frustrated with lack of access to menstrual products, picked locks on several of the machines last September. Rennick wrote an article on her actions in the Grinnell Underground Magazine and subsequently received national
attention in the Huffington Post and Inside Higher Ed. Although Rennick initially faced possible punishment, the administration instead decided to implement the changes she was asking for. “There was discussion of punishment, which didn’t end up happening, I think in part because it had gotten so much visibility,” Rennick said. “To punish me would have been a more negative perspective of the College than they would have wanted. … I think it’s something that had to go through, especially after it got picked up. … It’s really easy to not be held accountable if there’s no one watching you. And there were
definitely people watching.” After hearing Rebekah’s story, Dan Davis ’16, last year’s Student Government Association (SGA) President, decided to take action to make menstrual products free in academic buildings. “I started talking to [President] Raynard Kington and Andrea Conner [Vice President of Student Affairs] and both were very receptive to what I was laying down,” Davis said. “They weren’t always quite sure where the money was going to come from, so that was their biggest skepticism. But both seemed to be on board for the supplying of said products. It was a little painful throughout the year — sometimes the conversation would get lost and I would have to bring it back up again. But for the most part, there was not a lot of pushback.” Davis began conversations with Kington and Conner in late September 2015, a couple of weeks after Rennick’s story broke. The planning process continued until the end of the 2015-2016 school year, due to intermissions in the conversation and initial hesitancy from Facilities Management (FM). “[Rick Whitney, Director of FM] wanted to know the added cost of labor,” Davis said. “The amount that people were actually taking from a machine when you had to pay for them was pretty much negligible, so FM workers
wouldn’t have to take time out of their day to throw more tampons in because no one was taking them out. Now that we’re offering free tampons, that might change. He was saying there are 35 machines and if it takes 10 minutes to restock each machine twice a week, that all adds up. … FM works on union contracts, which means they have to add things to the contract.” The greatest obstacle in the way of securing free pads and tampons was finding funds. Davis explained that all budgets are allocated a year in advance, so in order to enact swift change, SGA needed to locate free, unrestricted money. This was found in a combination of unallocated SGA and presidential funding. SGA and President Kington each paid for half of the cost of the new machines, while FM agreed to pay for future upkeep costs. “FM received a shipment of the 35 machines April 1, 2016, and they were installed this summer,” wrote Summer White, SGA Treasurer, in an email to The S&B. “FM and SGA both contributed 7,350 dollars to the total cost of 14,700 dollars on April 11, 2016. FM agreed to cover the cost of supplies and maintenance going forward. There is no hard policy on this. It was simply a series of conversations and verbal >> See FREE PADS, page 2
Development and Alumni Relations sees higher fundraising
Gifts to the College reached a new record this fiscal year
By Philip Kiely kielyphi@grinnell.edu The Office of Development and Alumni Relations and the Office of Communications announced in August that monetary commitments have increased 15.5 percent over last fiscal year (FY16). These gifts total 26,973,773 dollars, a 3.6 million dollar increase from last year. “The College continues to find new ways to share its story,” said Shane Jacobson, Vice President of Development and Alumni Relations. This message is resonating with alumni. In FY16, Grinnell received gifts from 245 alumni who had never given previously. The College is also connecting to the rest of the Grinnell community. Of the 11,375 gifts the College received, only 7,098 were from alumni. Parents, friends of the College, faculty and staff made up the other group of givers. One large factor in the recent increase in giving has been Scarlet and Give Back day. On April 7, 2016, a challenge grant from an anonymous donor paid one million dollars to the College after 3,376 individual donors gave on the same day. Regardless of monetary amount, gifts of all sizes play a role in supporting the College. “There is no such thing as a small gift,” said Milliana Zonarich ’17, a student manager for Phonathon, an organization of 30 students who call alumni and parents throughout the year asking for donations to the College. “Every gift … directly helps students,” Zonarich said. “There’s this feeling that you can’t give unless you’re going to get a building named after you.” Saturday/Sunday Prairie Meanders CERA, 12-6 p.m. (busses from campus every half hour) Follow us on twitter @thesandb
Bats bite back
By Keli Vitaioli vitaioli@grinnell.edu Bats settled in Grinnell’s dorms and College-owned houses before the semester even started. The nocturnal creatures snuck into the residences through holes in vents, ceilings and closets. This led students to attempt to capture and release the animals, and, for the unfortunate few, a round of rabies vaccinations. Cherie Li, Mariam Nadiradze and Jinlin He, all ’19, were spending the night together in He’s room in Art House on Aug. 13 when they were awakened by an unexpected guest.
“I was awake when the bat was crawling under the door,” Nadiradze said. “That was scary. I was feeling like I was about to fall asleep, and at first, I thought I was dreaming this. But the moment I saw that figure come under the door and go up into the air. … I just screamed.” After waking her roommates for the evening, Nadiradze opened the door and released the bat into the hallway. There, they ran into Anna Warm ’19, who was attempting to clear another bat from her room next door. Warm called Campus Safety the next day. “I trapped one in my Tupperware and then threw the Tupperware out the window,” Warm said. “And then the one in [He’s] room we chased out with a broom.”
"I've never had butt shots before, but here we are!" Anna Warm '19
SYDNEY HAMAMOTO
Phonathon workers play a critical role in raising money for the College by calling Grinnell alumni and parents. In reality, the median gift last year was 150 dollars. Zonarich also emphasized that the College does not just ask for money. Alumni donate the four T’s: time, talent, treasure and ties. Phonathon is responsible for reaching out to the majority of those associated with Grinnell. They solicit gifts from alumni, while also offering alumni a chance to talk with current students. When giving, a donor has the option to specify how they want their money to be spent. “You can give to whatever you want to,” Zonarich said. “Any team, any student organization, anything. You [have the] ability to be creative with where you want to send your money. It is like saying ‘this is something that I really appreciate, Grinnell’ and saying it directly.” In fact, the amount of control
donors have over their gifts is part of the reason why gifts are needed in the first place. “The endowment isn’t a piggy bank or a checking account,” Zonarich said. The money in the endowment is a collection of small funds, each with its own purpose. She gave folk dancing in Indiana as an example of the esoteric activities that there are dedicated bequests to. The endowment does a lot to fund the day-to-day operations of the school, but is only a part of the three-legged stool that supports the college. These three legs are endowment, net student revenue and charitable gifts. “They all have to be in balance, otherwise the stool tips over,” Zonarich said. “Gifts right now is a lot smaller than we want it to be, so we’re relying too heavily on the endowment.”
However, if the current trend continues then balance should be achieved. “We currently sit at the middle of our peer group in terms of alumni participation rates, and so I think it tells me we have more room to grow,” Jacobson said. “The best practice in higher education is to have a six — or seven — or eightyear fundraising campaign where you attempt to raise significantly more resources for students … and faculty,” said Jacobson. The senior administration, president and board of trustees have recently decided that Grinnell is ready to have its first such comprehensive campaign in over 20 years. A group of high impact donors have also advocated for the campaign, which will officially begin in a couple of years. Once it begins, the campaign is expected to last 10 years.
Tuesday Question, Persuade, Refer: Suicide Prevention ARH 120, 11 a.m.
Tuesday Bridging East and West with Music Composer Chen Yi Bucksbaum 7 p.m.
Friday We Just Need to Pee: Situating Trans Bodies in Public and Legal Discourse JRC 101, 7 p.m.
Across campus in Younker Hall, Nathaniel Zhu ’19 dealt with his own bat. “It was about three in the morning,” Zhu wrote in an email to The S&B. “I heard faint flitting and screeching in the hallways. Having nothing better to do, I went out to check what it was. Turns out it was a bat who had gotten in and could not get out.” Luckily, Zhu is no stranger to bats. He had become certified as a bat catcher while teaching Chinese at a summer camp. “The place we stayed at had a bat problem, so they certified all the counselors,” Zhu wrote.
"I emailed my RLC the first time, and he said, 'Maybe you should try to keep your windows closed and your door shut. But we were already doing that." Anjali Jha '19 “Since I am a certified bat catcher by Concordia College under the jurisdiction of the ACA (American Canine Association), I decided to catch the bat. I caught it without much difficulty with my waste bin.” >> See BATS, page 2
Saturday
"How to Survive a Plague" showing ARH 302, 4 p.m.
Features 3 |Sports 5 | Community 7 | Arts 9 | Opinions 11
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Bats on campus Continued from Front Page Zhu, Warm and He were comfortable trying to rid their bats, but it came with a cost. They were required to get nine rabies shots each. SHACS recommends that if a bat is in the same room as a person while they are asleep, the person should get rabies shots because bites from a bat’s small teeth may not be apparent on site, and the possibility of rabies left unattended is deadly. The College is paying for rabies shots for all students who are at risk of contracting the disease
"I saw that figure come under the door and go up into the air … I just screamed." Mariam Nadiradze '19 due to bats. “I’ve never had butt shots before, but here we are!” Warm said. This wasn’t the last appearance of bats in Art House this semester. There were a total of four found in the house in the past three weeks. “We don’t have access to the basement, but we suspect there might be a nest,” He said. “According to [Campus Safety], they are going to make [the dorm] bat free, but we haven’t heard from them yet.” Nadiradze and Li were involved in two more bat incidents in their own triple on the third floor of Smith. Both times, the bats were found first in the room of their roommate Anjali Jha ’19. The first incident in Smith was the night Jha arrived, right before classes began. She called Campus Safety and alerted them to the bat’s hiding place in her closet. After performing a quick sweep, they determined it wasn’t present and left. However, Jha found the same bat roosting in her closet the next day. The second time a bat appeared in the triple, the bat flew from Jha’s room, into the common room and
into the hallway of Smith, where Campus Safety later caught it.
"Don't kill them. They are actually super important to our ecosystem." Rebekah Rennick '18 Jha believes there is a hole in her closet the bats are using to enter her dorm. She has since attempted to check the dorm thoroughly for potential bat-openings and cover holes in her vents and pipes. No one from Facilities Management or Campus Safety has since checked in on the security of the room from bats. “I emailed my RLC the first time, and he said, ‘Maybe you should try to keep your windows closed and your door shut,’” Jha said. “But we were already doing that.” This is not the first time bats have appeared in campus housing. Rebekah Rennick ’18 witnessed bats both in Dibble fall of 2013 and in Eco House in fall of 2014.
"We don't have access to the basement, but we suspect there might be a nest." Jinlin He '19 “Within the first week of moving in [to Eco House], we had three bats and another three the following week,” Rennick said. While it may be surprising to have a flying mammal in a living space, Rennick advises they are not to be feared, and students should refrain from harming them. “Don’t kill them. They are actually super important to our ecosystem, and they are more scared of you than you are of them,” Rennick said. “Hopefully you don’t have to get rabies shots.” Campus Safety declined to comment about the presence of bats in school housing.
News
Edited by cummings@grinnell.edu & friedlan@grinnell.edu
Molly Schintler talks real food Many groups on campus work towards improving Grinnell's food system. For a long time, however, their battle has seemed impossible. Little administrative support has meant that students can only accomplish so much despite their best efforts. That all changed this summer when Molly Schintler was hired as the College's first Real Foods Coordinator. This week, The S&B's News Editor Michael Cummings ’18 sat down with Schintler to discuss her new position and her goals for the College. The Scarlet and Black: Your official title is Real Foods Coordinator. What exactly does that mean? Molly Schintler: "Real roods" are foods that nourish the planet and all people. As a Real Foods Coordinator, I am here to bring more foods … that nourish all people and the planet to campus, specifically the Dining Hall but also Bob's, the Spencer Grill, Catering, and then [to] educate … and bring people together around these foods. Beyond campus, also connecting to the community. The food system that we're a part of here at Grinnell on campus is part of a much bigger national, really global, food system. … There's a lot of work that needs to be done in the Grinnell community and the wider state of Iowa and regional food system. S&B: What have you've done in your life that led to you taking on this role? MS: I graduated from the University of Iowa. … I studied theatre and international studies and really nothing to do with food systems. Well, I shouldn't say that. Nothing overtly to do with food systems. But my studies did center around focusing on systems of oppression, so class, race and gender being three of the main ones, and the thing about the food system is we all eat, so if you're wanting to change unjust, inequitable systems, a great way to do that is to find common ground, and I think food's
that common ground. So after college I worked at a farm-to-table restaurant in New York City. … I farmed for a couple of years after that at Stone Barn Center outside of New York City, and then came back here to Iowa. I knew that farming wasn't forever for me, it just doesn't play to my strengths, but I wanted to stay working in food systems, and I specifically wanted to address some of the real reasons why I was drawn to working in food systems, which was acknowledging the role that race and class and geography play in the food that we have access to. So I served for two years with Food Corps, which is an AmeriCorps program. In short, they bring the farm to the school by connecting kids to real food and helping them grow healthy. S&B: You are the first person to hold the position of Real Foods Coordinator here at Grinnell. Can you tell me about why the College decided to establish this position? MS: It's my understanding that students and staff really started to recognize that … food is political. Different people were feeling passionately about the food system here at Grinnell for differing reasons. And through the Real Foods Challenge, which is a national movement for college campuses to commit to 20 percent real food by 2020 … students organized themselves and went all the way to the President's office, and they were really pushing for Grinnell College to sign on and commit to 20 percent real food by 2020. The College has yet to sign on to the Real Foods Challenge goal, but they did create the Real Food Coordinator position, and it is certainly my goal that we can achieve 20 percent real food by 2020. S&B: What has your experience on the job at Grinnell been like so far, where have you seen success and what has been challenging? MS: I'm a firm believer that in all you do, you stand on the shoulders of the people who come before you,
ELLEN SCHOENMAKER
Schintler takes on the new Real Foods Coordinator position.
and stepping into this role at Grinnell has been a very positive experience for me ... I felt a lot of support from Dining Services already. Starting next Monday — oh, this is exciting — all of the tofu in the dining hall, so approximately 6,200 pounds of tofu a year, will be shifted from a producer that was sending us their product from — actually I don't know where. Far away. I didn't know the producer; I wasn't really familiar with the source of their soy beans. But we're shifting to Old Capitol Food Company. They're based in Iowa City, and they've been around for about a little over a year. Even though their product will be slightly more expensive for the Dining Hall, they're willing to absorb that cost because they know they really are showing that they stand behind the types of foods that my position is trying to promote. S&B: Looking to the future, what do you hope to have accomplished one year from now? MS: Clearly Grinnell College does things very well. I'm a big proponent of doing well, but then always doing better, and going beyond doing good by making things fair and making them just, not just good. I hope within a year that we've made significant progress toward creating a more just… food system here at Grinnell, and also within the community.
Free Pads and Rosenfield symposium features immigration experts Tampons at Grinnell much aid the country receives, and how they allocate those resources that they have. One of the important things to take into consideration is, as a major refugee host country, Jordan is dealing with strains on their health sector, with strains in their schools. Their streets are more crowded, they have a problem with water allocations, they are worried that there isn’t enough water to go around because of the large number of people they’ve agreed to take in.
Continued from Front Page
commitments.” Although students and administration alike are happy with this progress, they still believe there are further changes to make. SGA’s initial proposal requested a free menstrual product machine to be installed in male-gendered and non-gendered bathrooms, as well as female-gendered ones. When Davis graduated last May, they left with the impression that this aspect of the plan would be implemented as well. However, FM ultimately decided to not support this request.
"... there are many other options that could make them feel comfortable and connected to their bodies, instead of feeling such senses of abjection." Rebekah Rennick '18 “The initiative that we did not support is providing additional feminine product vending in male-gendered (multiple fixture) restrooms, where it never existed,” wrote FM director Rick Whitney in an email to The S&B. “Although we are open to providing such products in non-gendered, singleoccupancy restrooms, it is atypical to do so, given the lesser volume of patrons and expense of the vending units.” Moreover, Rennick hopes that the College takes further steps in promoting alternative menstrual products access and awareness. “I would love to see Collegesubsidized alternative menstrual products. Pads and tampons don’t work for everyone, and they do have an environmental [impact],” Rennick said. “We grow up, we start menstruating, we’re given the options of pads and tampons. So many people go their entire lives without realizing there are many other options that could make them feel comfortable and connected to their bodies, instead of feeling such senses of abjection."
XIAOXUAN YANG
Rawan Awar presented a talk on refugees in Jordan last Tuesday. This week, the Rosenfield Program and the Institute for Global Engagement hosted a symposium called the Global Politics of Migration and Refuge. The symposium featured a large number of expert, alumni and refugee speakers who offered differing perspectives on this contemporary issue. One of the speakers, Rawan Awar, a doctoral student in sociology at the University of California, San Diego, gave a talk called "Shouldering the Refugee Burden: Jordan and the Global Refugee Crisis." The S&B's Graham Dodd met with Awar to talk about her experience with immigration and the refugee situation in Jordan. The Scarlet and Black: What's your academic specialty? Rawan Arar: My dissertation work as a sociologist is on refugee reception and international immigration. S&B: What is the nature of your work with Jordanian immigrants? RA: So I am a scholar, so my primary goal is to understand what’s happening on the ground and compare it to the literature so that I can help create theories of immigration, and more specifically theories that relate to refugees. So specifically, I look at Jordan as a major refugee host country. I don’t really look at Jordanians that are migrating, mostly what I do is look at refugees that are coming to Jordan. In that case, I’m interested primarily in the Syrian refugee crisis, and that has to do with people fleeing Syria and looking for a safe place to stay, and they cross the border and come into Jordan.
S&B: Can you give a short summary of the situation in Jordan? What are the concerns and major events? RA: The Syrian war started in March 2011, and since then, refugees have crossed over into Jordan as well as other neighboring states. Over 90 percent of the Syrian refugees actually currently live in Jordan, Lebanon or Turkey. According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), which is the major UN agency which deals with refugee hosting, there are about 655 thousand Syrian refugees. However, according to the Jordanian government, they say that there are about 1.3 million Syrians there that they don’t identify as refugees. So they might be including Syrians that migrated before the war, people who came and did not seek refugee status within the HCR for whatever reason. S&B: Why doesn’t the Jordanian government identify these Syrians as refugees? RA: Really I would say that if you want to be very specific, you want to look at the UNHCR numbers which say that there are 655,000 Syrian refugees, but if you want to look at what the Jordanians say, the 1.3 million Syrians includes refugees and non-refugees. The point there is there is a distinction between citizens and noncitizens. So people who may not be considered refugees, under whatever mantle, may still have an effect on a society that is taking on a large number of refugees. Here the numbers game is really important because numbers affect how
S&B: Could you give us more information on your background? RA: I’m Palestinian-American. I have dual citizenship in Jordan and the US, so I also identify as a Jordanian. I guess I have a multitude of identities based on where I grew up and where my family is from. I grew up in San Antonio, Texas, where I went to high school and did my undergrad at UT San Antonio. … I then went and did my Masters at UT Austin in Women’s Studies, and I spent a year there taking classes. My second year I was a rotary scholar. As a rotary scholar, I moved to Jordan and worked with Iraqi refugees in 2009 and 2010. After that, I moved to Northern Ireland, and I worked at the Irish School of Ecumenics, which is peace and conflict resolution through religion. I was a visiting scholar there. I ended up working on a project that looked at how the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is incorporated in politics in Northern Ireland. Then I started a Ph.D. program at UC San Diego, which is where I currently am. I’ve been researching refugees since 2009, so it's a topic that, intellectually, I find very exciting because it brings together, first and foremost, issues of human rights, and we are dealing with a real problem that we need people to think about and try to find solutions for, and, at the same time, it also engages some very important concepts that relate to the sociology of international immigration and political sociology. S&B: What do you think is going to happen in Jordan in the future? What is the worst case scenario, and what would you like to see happen? RA: One of the things I was most impressed with in Jordan was the way that Jordanians who are working with refugees are doing so, especially people who were graduating college and
looking for jobs around the time that the refugee crisis happened. These people are the ones who ended up getting jobs working in the camps or working with NGOs, and I didn’t really think about that role very much before being there and being on the ground, but I met some absolutely incredible people who have dedicated their lives to helping the Syrian refugees through work and, also, they do it on their personal time. … The dream is always that things will calm down and that people will be able to come home. If I can look into the future and hope for something for the people that I talk to, I think that’s what they want. And I think that the people in Jordan are working really hard to take care of their own citizens as well as the people that are displaced. S&B: Can you compare the way the EU and Jordan have handled the refugee crisis? Are there lessons either side could draw from the other? RA: I think the EU is a big place, and we’ve seen a lot of different ways in which the refugee crisis has been handled. I think one of the things that really struck me was during one of my interviews with a Jordanian citizen, because I conducted interviews with citizens, refugees and government UN officials, they said we always thought the West was supposed to be this beacon of human rights, but where are the human rights when we are the ones hosting a large number of refugees? But by the same token, I’ve seen people in the EU who are working so hard and actually innovating the way that we deal with refugees on a global context. S&B: Do you have any final thoughts you’d like people to keep in mind? RA: I think language is really important, and I think it's really important that we don’t make victim synonymous with refugee. Nobody wants to always be characterized as a victim, because sure these people have gone through a difficult time in their lives, but they want to contribute, they want to be respected for their thoughts and ideas, just like anybody else. So I think that, when we are thinking about the refugee crisis, it’s really important to also question what it means that we are constantly framing it as a crisis and victims that just need constant aid.
Features
Edited by bohlkeli@grinnell.edu
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Alum Charlie Eddy '16 appears on Irkutsk "A Free Heart"
Siberan women fight for Eddy's heart
By Emma Friedlander friedlan@grinnell.edu For fans of “The Bachelor” who find last season’s Ben Higgins too boring and next season’s Nick Viall too desperate, Grinnell’s own Charlie Eddy ’16 offers a different sort of bachelor to fawn over. The campus was abuzz last week with news that Eddy, who graduated in May with a degree in Russian, has resurfaced in Irkutsk, Russia — as the star of a Bachelor-like reality TV show called “Svobodnoye Serdtse,” or “A Free Heart.” Clips from the program available on Youtube and Instagram show Eddy getting a makeover, jamming on the balalaika and bestowing flowers upon his lucky contestants, 11 local Irkutsk women vying to be his wife. These videos are circulating among students, faculty and staff alike — even those who have never seen the bachelor before — all eager to see more and more of Eddy’s search for love. “We’d heard a rumor here and there, but it seemed kind of preposterous,” said Professor Todd Armstrong, Russian, on how he learned of Eddy’s TV gig. “Patrick [Armstrong ’18] forwarded me the In-
stagram, and that’s when it broke in the department. We shared it around, and everybody was watching it — that was on Wednesday. By Friday I had students sending me all the clips.” The video clips are available on the Instagram and Youtube accounts for ‘Utrenniy Kokteyl' or “Morning Cocktail,” a daytime television program in Irkutsk that features “A Free Heart.” Thus far, four segments are available on Youtube, with more forthcoming as Eddy continues to narrow down his choice of mate. As convincing as the reality show may seem, Eddy likely got the gig through his experience in Russian theatre. Last year, Eddy received the John Mohan Russian Study Award, a grant that allows Russian majors to pursue study in the Russian-speaking world while at Grinnell or after graduation. Eddy used his award to study at the Raikin Conservatory for Performing Arts in Moscow, an exclusive acting school to which he was invited. This followed his study abroad experience at the Moscow Art Theatre during his third year, where he studied performing arts. “I think he had established
some contacts in Moscow … through the acting world and through the theatre world,” Armstrong said. “In Russia, the theatre world is very small — everybody knows everybody. I don’t know how he got invited or recruited for this role, but clearly it worked, and it took off.”
"I don't know how he got invited or recruited for this role, but clearly it worked and it took off." Professor Todd Armstrong, Russian Although Eddy was originally established in Moscow, Irkutsk — where the show takes place — is a very different city. 2,600 miles and five time zones east of Moscow, Irkutsk is set firmly in Siberia, where Russia’s European and Asian influences meet. “While [Irkutsk] has a traditional Russian culture, it also has a unique cultural context,” Armstrong said. “It’s remote, so it has a less western feel to it. It’s not Moscow, it’s not the center of Russian culture. It is provincial, and in Russia, provincial means something
different than in America.” Stella Gatzke ’17, a Russian major who spent a semester abroad in Irkutsk via the Middlebury School in Russia, was also able to shed some light on Irkutsk’s cultural context. “It’s not European at all. It’s in the middle of Russia and towards Mongolia. You can definitely see that Asian influence,” Gatzke said. “They always say that Russia is 90 percent white people, but there were a lot of Korean immigrants and Chinese immigrants. It wasn’t anything like St. Petersburg and Moscow.” When watching clips from “A Free Heart,” Gatzke especially noticed the evident Russian gender roles playing out between Eddy and the contestants. “Gender roles were the main thing that jumped out at me,” she said. “Russian gender roles are a lot more traditional than ours are. It’s the woman’s job to find a man. There are actually a lot more women than men in Russia … but dating shows like that are pretty popular. My host had one that she liked to watch with me.” Armstrong also picked up on the traditional Russian gender roles
at play in the show, noting that the depiction was likely a combination of Russian culture and the nature of reality dating shows. “It really does play into our gender stereotypes about Russian women and Russian men and those relationships,” Armstrong said. “You know, they’re all feeding him, they’re all singing to him. All of those things, which are kind of schmaltzy from our perspective, are sort of normal there — although they probably appear schmaltzy there too.” Despite Eddy’s unique use of his Russian major, the department is thrilled with his success and hopes to use “A Free Heart” and Eddy’s connections in Russia to strengthen Grinnell’s Russian program. “What the Russian SEPC would like to do is to set up a couple of public viewings,” Armstrong said. “Especially if we get to where he’s choosing [his wife] — everybody wants to know. We’re also showing clips in our classrooms because it’s great language exposure, the context is very clear. Students can see some language in action in a really unique way, so it’s a really exciting moment for us as a department.”
concert was his debut show — the first time he’s performed in front of Grinnellians, and only the second time he has ever performed in front of an audience. “[The supportive nature] of Grinnellians is nice, because you don’t feel that much pressure as a performer, which helps you connect with the crowd and perform better,” Sandberg said. “It’s a very real concert; they have a sound check and two really cool people setting everything up, [and those people] know what they’re doing.” The Wellness was up next. The band — a five-person ensemble consisting of Nathan Calvin ’18, Jacob Getzoff ’18, Justin Leuba ’18, Michael Owusu ’17 and Corey Simmonds ’17 — was formed last semester by Owusu and Simmonds. Simmonds describes their sound as “somewhere between funk, rock and RnB … [with] blues in there.” Getzoff, Leuba and Owusu are FreeSound managers this year, and Simmonds is Concerts Chair, so The Wellness was particularly struck by the initiative Brooks and Curiskis have taken in establishing Tiny Dorm. “As FreeSound managers,” Owusu commented, “[Artis and Ronan’s dedication] is all that we’ve ever wanted. They are breaking an expectation that it’s someone else’s responsibility to host a show.” Ella Williams, or Squirrel Flower, really enjoyed this edition of Tiny Dorm. She was especially appreciative of an audience-member who took the initiative, when she was asking for financial support for her upcoming EP, to take off their hat and pass it around to col-
lect money. “I made like 30 dollars, which makes a difference. It was so heartwarming to see because it’s free music, and it’s more of a community than musicians playing to make money, but when people are in need, [others] help them, and that’s incredible; that’s Self-Gov,” Williams said. When asked what sets Tiny Dorm apart from alternative music outlets on campus, everyone agreed: Self-Gov. “Artis and Ronan are two pillars of the music community, and they’re leading and demonstrating [Self-Govw] by example,” Leuba said. Sandberg agreed that Tiny Dorm has helped foster a collaboration between the music scene on campus and what many students have been focused on lately, selfgov. “Tiny Dorm was set up with the idea that through self-governance, we can make amazing music happen. We’re going to put on concerts in these tiny spaces that people call home, and we’re going to be respectful. Tiny Dorm is different because it’s not a public space; it’s someone’s space,” Sandberg said. At the end of the day, Tiny Dorm has created another unique and fun forum for students to share their music and their talent on campus. “Tiny Dorm [encourages] people — who are or aren’t musical — to host a show in their own space,” Owusu said. “[They become] involved in the student music community and what they want the music on their campus to be.”
Tiny Dorm Concerts put self-gov in music
HUNG VUONG
Ronan Brooks, Artis Curiskis and Erhaan Ahmad, all '18, turned a joke into a campus-wide music forum. By Cassidy Hilburn hilburnc@grinnell.edu It’s a Saturday night, an hour before Harris. Many Grinnellians, rather than getting ready to go out, stand in respectful silence, waiting for their classmate to finish tuning her guitar. On Saturday, Sept. 3 in Food House, a crowd of students found a worthwhile pregame alternative: something called a Tiny Dorm concert. This wasn’t the first such phenomena. Tiny Dorm is a student-run concert program started spring semester of 2016 by Erhaan Ahmad, Ronan Brooks and Artis Curiskis,
all ’18, as a “student concert, for students, by students, in a student’s space,” as Brooks described. The idea actually came out of a joke, which ended up being so successful the trio decided to keep the program running, closing out spring semester with six Tiny Dorm shows. “What if we threw a spoof of NPR Tiny Desk in our dorm?” Curiskis said. The idea expanded into a way to broaden the music community on campus. They set a goal to move Tiny Dorms around on all three areas of campus and off-campus. “We never made it to East Cam-
pus [last year] though!” Curiskis said. “We’d really, really love to.” With Ahmad off-campus for the semester, Curiskis and Brooks have stepped up as a two-man team running the program, with Curiskis in charge of outreach, set lists and locations, and Brooks setting up show and audio functions. Saturday’s show was opened by Emmett Sandberg ’18 with a couple of folk-style songs. Next, The Wellness, a five-person student band, played a set. Finally, Squirrel Flower, the name under which Ella Williams ’19 performs, closed the show. For Sandberg, the Tiny Dorm
Features
4
Edited by bohlkeli@grinnell.edu
Bring your bargaining chips to the Bargaining Team meetings
SARAH RUIZ
Alec Doss, Cory McCartan and Rachel Bass, all '19, members of the Union of Grinnell Student Dining Workers, currently negotiating with the College for better wages and conditions. By Mira Braneck braneckm@grinnell.edu Students are getting more than they bargained for in the Dining Hall this semester. The Bargaining Team, part of the Union of Grinnell Student Dining Workers, is currently in negotiations with the College to advocate for better working conditions and wages for dining hall workers. The team, comprised of eight union members, was formed at the Union’s first meeting on Sunday, Sept. 3. Members were able to either nominate other members or to self-volunteer to join the team, which decides bargaining strategies and negotiates directly with the College. “At our meeting, members did vote as a whole to set a target for what they were going to go for and what they were willing to accept,” said Cory McCartan ’19, president of the Union. “We are looking for a significant increase in wages, given industry standards, rates that students at other similar colleges and universities [receive].” Students may have noticed stations closing in the Dining Hall and longer lines, due to an insufficient number of staff. The shortage of workers at the dining hall is another issue the Union hopes to address. “We’re also looking for ways to increase retention by offering higher pay for those who stay longer,” said McCartan, “and ... with increases in tuition and inflation, increases in wages.” The first in-person bargaining meeting
between the College and the Bargaining Team was held Tuesday, Sept. 6. The Bargaining Team met with representatives from Human Resources, the Student Employment Office, and outside counsel that the College chose to bring in. The Union initially proposed a base wage of $10.12 an hour, which “works out to 5 percent of Grinnell's comprehensive fee if you work a standard 300-hour year,” McCartan wrote in an email to The S&B. “According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average wage for the kind of work we do in the dining hall is $10.26. That's skewed high due to how the BLS defines certain categories, but once you've adjusted for factors like the number of people employed in each sector, the average wage is still $9.74,” wrote McCartan. “In our proposal to the college, we also proposed wage tiers where an employee would earn an additional $0.20 per hour after working 300 hours, another $0.20 after 600 hours, and so on. ... We also proposed that the base wage be increased yearly in proportion to the increase in Grinnell's tuition and fees. This is because work study is part of a student's financial aid package. If the college raises tuition, that shouldn't make it harder for students to work to help cover the cost.” Caitlin Richter ’19, a Union representative, said “the College brought the number $9 an hour” to counter the team's offer. The union has since come down from $10.12 to $9.90 an hour, according to McCartan. “I think that there’s going to be a little bit
of meeting in the middle ground, but I definitely think that we will be getting close to what we want,” said Michael Hewitt ’20, a member of the Bargaining Team. Even if student dining hall workers did not formally register for the Union, they are still represented by the Union. “Every student who works in the dining hall, and some non-students, are represented by the Union,” said McCartan. “Because this is the United States, you can’t be forced to be a member of an organization that you don’t want to be [a part of], so of course, membership is voluntary. We encourage everybody. Because Iowa is a right to work state, we can’t impose fair-share fees or dues to those who don’t join the Union.” However, the Union does not impose dues on any of its members. The Union is advocating for high school employees and support staff to be included under the terms of the contract, as well as student workers. “The College is in disagreement about who is covered,” said Alec Doss ’19, Union Vice President and member of the Bargaining Team. “They believe that basically just students and maybe supportive employees should be covered.” Grill and catering workers are not represented by the Union, though they are welcome to join. “The College would not be contractually bound to raise wages for them. They might decide that it makes sense, but that’s not something we’re bargaining over — we’re not legally allowed to bargain over that,” McCartan said. “[Representation is] something the Union could explore in the future.” One grill worker has joined the Union already. Currently, less than 10 percent of Dining Hall employees are actually unionized. “Out of the 263 people who are actively working shifts in the dining hall right now, we have 24 who are currently unionized,” said McCartan. “We’d love to see something like 95 percent of dining hall unionized [as members] ... realistically ... a number like 60 or 70 percent wouldn’t be that surprising.” “It’s tricky in Iowa where you can basically freeload off of what the union does for you without having to actually do anything, but we hope that by having no dues and being transparent and democratic that we’ll entice people to join,” McCartan said. “Currently it is a small but growing minority.”
Students make the most of rooms, both big and small
CONTRIBUTED
Nora Coghlan '17 made the most out of a small single, using tapestries, lights and wall decorations. By Rojina Sharma sharmaro@grinnell.edu New school year means new first years, new classes and new friends, but it also means new rooms. Setting up a new room, decorating it and simply making it feel more familiar and welcoming has its own challenges, but trying to do so when there is very little space to work with can often be a lot harder. “I ended up giving up my desk, and we put the refrigerator underneath it, and so we have this random chair that floats around,” said Jordan Hamilton ’19. “We have a rug that fills up most of the space. We have some tapestries. We have a ton of string lights lining the rim of the room. If you put the actual lights off, and you put those on, it’s much nicer, and you don’t notice how small the room is. I really like it.” “[My room last year] was smaller than it is now, but my roommate had his bed lofted, so it didn’t feel as small.” said Chrysolite Loglo ’19, who has a bigger room this year — one that’s better able to cater to the needs of two people. “I think my roommate and I are people who like a lot of personal space, so we sort of divided the room down the middle, and we each live separately on our sides,” Loglo said. Despite the fact that his room this year is a lot smaller than it was last year, Sj Kim ’17 enjoys the freedom that comes with having a single. He likes not having to worry about disturbing or getting in the way of a roommate. He is also not that disappointed with the very little extra space he has in
the room. “I try to fit everything inside my closet or under my bed, keep my things organized and make the room look cleaner,” Kim said. Daniel Hwang ’18 is very pleased with the large double he has this year. Reflecting on his experience last year in a very small single, he said, “I didn’t have enough room to decorate it at all. I didn’t really live [in the room]; I only went there to sleep.” Hwang believes the extra space in the room has played an enormous role in making him feel more comfortable staying and studying in the room. He also likes the idea of living with a roommate. “I guess I prefer company,” he said.
"If you put the actual lights off and you put [string lights] on, it's much nicer and you don't notice how small the room is." Jordan Hamilton '19
Brian Sands ’19 hasn’t encountered any drastic difference in his living experience simply because of the size of his room, which is bigger this year than it was last year. “Honestly there isn’t too much of a difference because I spend almost all of my time in bed. But we can more comfortably fit a bunch of people in our room, which is nice because both my roommate and I like to entertain,” he said. “[One difference] is just that now when I let dirty clothes pile up on the floor, they are more spread out, so it gives the illusion of cleanliness.”
ELLEN SCHOENMAKER
PHOEBE SCHRECKINGER '19 8:30 a.m.—Hold down power button for 5 seconds. The machine is starting up. 9:00 a.m.—Grab reserve battery pack, you never know. 9:15 a.m.—We find our Hero among her contemporaries. Bustling and buzzing — they are getting ready for another day at the hive. 9:30 a.m.—Pretend to drink cup of coffee. If they see you participating in familiar, commonplace activities, they won’t question a thing. The hours progress. 3:00 p.m.—“Go” to the “bathroom.” 4:00 p.m.—Why is Adam Sandler Here? [sandlerad] 4:01 p.m.—[sandlerad] hands me a small package and disappears in a cloud of blue smoke. 4:15 p.m.—I trip and fall. Hm. That was embarrassing. I use the remote control [sandlerad] gave me to rewind the situation. This time around, I see the banana on the ground before it destroys me (and my image). Wow what a day! *short circuits* 5:00 p.m.—Sitting in public, I accidentally activate my touch screen features. Now that was a close one. 5:30 p.m.—Oh look, a penny. 6 p.m.—You guys go ahead … I’ll grab dinner later … *replaces battery pack* 7 p.m.—Pencils, papers, rapid movement. 8 p.m.—*tips fedora* 9 p.m.—Twiddle my thumbs. 10 p.m.—Thumble my twids. 11 p.m.—Wash the grime of the day away. 11:11 p.m.—As if I’m gonna tell you. 11:30 p.m.—Prank people. 12 a.m.—Tap routine … a new day.
Sports
Edited by mettleca@grinnell.edu
5
Soccer faces toughest season yet By Jon Sundby sundbyjo17@grinnell.edu
Before the teams even had a chance to break in the leather on their cleats, both the Grinnell Men’s and Women’s soccer squads found themselves facing some of their toughest competition of the season. The Women’s team lost 4-0 against the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) powerhouse Augsburg College on Saturday, Sept. 3, while the Men’s team fought a hard battle against Albion College in Michigan, only to lose 3-2 in the last half. While the results were disappointing, both teams utilized the full extent of their lineups and emphasized the crucial performances of their younger players over the weekend. Driving down from Minneapolis, the Augsburg Women’s team was fresh and ready for their first game of the regular season. Augsburg hails from the competitive MIAC division, which houses some of the nation’s top-ranked Division III teams, and immediately, the Pioneers noticed the high level of their opponent. “The pace of the game [was] pretty fast, pretty physical,” said co-captain Nora Sahel ’17, while reflecting on the match. “Augsburg is a really disciplined team. Their passes are really good. They almost never gave up the ball to us when they got possession.” Sahel and her co-captain, Carolyn Silverman ’17, did find a little bit of hope in the fact that during the game, a large number of Pioneers received time on the field, with some being forced into positions that they had not played in a while. Towards the end of the first half, Grinnell’s goalkeeper Polly Carr ’18 dived to save a ball, only to find an Augsburg striker connecting with the rebound at full speed, catching her in the face. Carr left the field with a concussion and an
uncertain return date. In her place, Regan Kasprak ‘19, usually a leftback, put on the gloves. Despite the long stretch of time outside the net, Kasprak had a strong performance, letting in only one goal during the entire second half. “Not only did [Kasprack] step in, she made saves. She made four or five good saves. Really did a good job in punting, distributing the ball, overall just very impressive,” Sahel said. The Men’s team, while also experiencing an injury-tinged loss on Saturday, had a slightly more positive outlook on their performance than the women. Albion also plays in a highly-competitive conference, and this showed during their strong, precision-focused match. Albion’s midfield easily wove through the Pioneer defensive line at very thin points, and their strikers took advantage of to sink two shots into the back of Grinnell’s net. But despite what the scoreboard showed, Captain Antionio DiMarco ’18, saw a different picture of the game. “The craziest thing was, even though we were two-zero down, we were still maintaining better possession and we were creating better chances,” said DiMarco. The Pioneers’ efforts began to pay off towards the end of the game. Kyle Buse ’20, a fresh firstyear, sunk a beautiful shot into the upper-corner of the goal right before halftime, giving the team something to help raise their spirits. Coming out onto the pitch in the second half, the players knew that a victory was within their reach. “If you’re going to be losing a game, you don’t want to be losing 1-0, you want to be losing 2-0. Because, what happens is when you’re losing 2-0 and you get a goal back, you have way more momentum within the team, than if you’re losing 1-0 and pull it even … So you’re still fighting tooth and nail for that second goal,” said DiMarco.
MINH TRAN
Antonio DiMarco '18 battles valiantly for the ball against Ripon last season.
The streak continued for the Pioneers when right back Noah Fluharty’19 got fouled on in the goalie box and received a penalty kick that Nick Brule ’17 cleanly put away. This tide of momentum suddenly stopped, however, when Grinnell’s star midfielder, Francisco Sanchez-Conde ’18 was taken off the field with a high-ankle sprain. Lacking their glue in the midfield, Grinnell floundered for a few minutes and started flooding the field with change-ups and substi-
tutions in order to keep Albion on their toes. But this last-ditch strategy did not push Grinnell to another goal and the Albion strikers were once again able to place a winning ball into the corner of the net. Despite the loss, DiMarco was proud of the team and was especially excited about the play he saw from this year’s dynamic first year class, which he labels as “the best incoming class” he has seen at Grinnell. “It’s disappointing,” said DiMarco. “But there’s that silver-lin-
ing that guys who have never played in Division III before are stepping up and making the plays that we need to be competitive against a powerhouse.” Both the Men and Women’s have games over the weekend, with the men’s team hosting Hamline University on Saturday and then heading off to Buena Vista University on Sunday. The women will be heading to Grand View College on Friday and Buena Vista University on Sunday.
Cross country concentrates on home meet By Moises Herrera herreramo@grinnell.edu
Once every year, the Men's and Women’s cross country teams host the Les Duke invitational. It is the one meet that allows them to showcase their weeks of training and their talents at home. This year the Les Duke invitational will be held at the Grinnell Country Club this Saturday, Sept. 10 at 10 a.m. for the men and roughly 10:45 a.m. for the women. The months leading up to this race have been incredibly strategical. “Cross country is a season of 25 weeks of which 12 weeks are in the summer. The summer is about training to train and the fall is about training to race,” Head Coach Will Freeman wrote in an email to The S&B. Freeman wrote that cross
country is a summer sport that continues in the fall. The team trusts each other to train on their own during vacations so they return as one cohesive unit. “There’s a lot of solidarity knowing that my teammates are out there running,” said Matthew McCarthy ’17. “Cross country starts at the beginning of June, and if you are not thinking about the season during the summer, then you will be late to the game.” Now that the runners have returned to Grinnell, they have entrusted Freeman with their training. Despite having the team run successfully at the Central College
"There's a lot of solidarity knowing that my teammates are out there running" Matthew McCarthy '17
Invitational this past Saturday, Sept. 3, Freeman admits that the meet was a workout for the student-athletes, given that back-toback weekend races rarely have such optimal outcomes. “We want to get our bodies used to running difficult workouts but not in an all-out pace,” McCarthy said. Gray Krewson ’19 agreed that pacing and working up to longer runs is an important part of starting the season. “It’s good practice for the race, and it’s good for the psychological aspect of running in an 8K race,” Krewson said. This Saturday, however, the team will pull out all the stops. They run against Carleton College, Central College and Wartburg College, which are all top teams, according to Freeman. All these teams have also been on an upward
trajectory in recent years, so Grinnell needs fast times to secure a top spot. Although it will be a tough meet, it will be more important to perform as a team than to win individually. “I’m just trying to go out and run with my friends, run with my teammates. It’s more important to run as a team and get a quality team score than to try and break your [personal record],” McCarthy
"Our goal is not to win the meet, however, if we do that would be terrific." Coach Evelyn Freeman said. Much like their counterparts, the Women’s team has also been training all summer. They keep in contact through emails and running websites to ensure they are all getting their workouts in and keeping
up the pace. “You don’t want to be the teammate that doesn’t work all summer and isn’t helping push the team in the fall,” said Cary Carson ’19. “In this way, we see the importance of summer training and how it can very much be as important as the actual season itself.” The Women’s cross country coach, Head Coach Evelyn Freeman, echoes the Men’s coach objective of this upcoming meet. “Our goal is not to win the meet, however, if we do, that would be terrific,” Freeman said. “Our specific goal for the meet is to build off what we did for the race at Central. Instead of sticking with our running partners at tempo/threshold pace for two miles, we plan to run this way for only one mile. After that, they are to get into race pace and try to maintain throughout the rest of the race distance, which is now 6K. This race will provide even more information about how to tweak the weekly training and what we need to work on for our race plan next time.” Carson ’19 has been recovering from a summer injury but despite her less-than-optimal condition, she believes her teammates have the capacity to do well for the season. “As a team, we are pretty prepared. We aren’t at our peak fitness, but that’s okay; since this is our first race, and we have the entire season ahead of us,” Carson said. As per tradition, the Women’s cross country team will compete by running with a trail of glitter at Grinnell’s Country Club at 10 a.m. on Saturday, Sept. 10.
"I'm just trying to go out and run with my friends, run with my teammates. It's more important to run as a team" Matthew McCarthy The Pioneer runners prepare for the upcoming meet.
CARYN MCKECHNIE
Sports Women's golf smashes school record, prepares for successful season
6
Edited by mettleca@grinnell.edu
By Ronnie Ruse rusevero@grinnell.edu The eight members of Grinnell’s Women’s golf team started off the season strong, winning their first two games, and in last week’s home game against William Penn University, even breaking the school record. “[We broke the record] by one shot, but yeah we broke the school record,” said golfer Anisha Agarwalla ’19. “I had my Grinnell career best this weekend as well, so that was good.” Co-captains and twins Vidushi Sinah ’19 and Vrishali Sinha ’19 have been shooting the team to victory. Vidushi won the home game tournament, while Vrishali placed first at the team’s first game of the season at the Mount Mercy Early Bird Classic. They hope the team can continue their winning momentum in their upcoming game at the Wartburg College Invitational.
"You don't need to be broad and tough. We still have muscles, we still work out to keep yourself in shape for the season. It's a different kind of endurance." Sam Hengst '18 “I think Wartburg is going to be the toughest competition we’ve had so far this season, so it’s going to be interesting to see how we place,” said Vrishali. “But I think our team is in good shape right now. I think it’s the best shape we’ve been in.” The players also talked about their goals for the upcoming season, both for the team and individually. “Golf is kind of an individual sport. ... We’ve all kind of got our own goals going into the season, but just playing the best we can is the goal. We’ve won [Midwest] Conference the past four years in a row now, so we’re hoping to keep that streak up,” added Sam Hengst '18. Other team members view the individual aspect of golf as one of the main attractions to the sport as it forces a player to carefully consider each alteration she makes. “There’s so much intricacy to the game
SOPHIE BANEGAS
Vidushi Sinha '19 celebrates her win at last year's Grinnell Invitational. and so much precision that’s required,” Agawalla said. “There’s a new challenge every time you play. Your body is not the same as it was yesterday. There’s something you did differently the next day and you have to make an adjustment. I don’t know whether I’d say I like the unpredictability, but I like
"I think our team is in good shape right now. I think it's the best shape we've been in." Vrishali Sinah '19 the challenge that comes with it.” Other golfers feel that the game challeng-
es them not only physically but mentally as well. While other sports may require sprinting or heavy lifting, Sam Hengst believes
"Golf is kind of an individual sport... we've all kind of got our own goals going into the season, but just playing the best we can is the goal" Sam Hengst '18 golf is a mental game more than anything. “You don’t need to be broad and tough,” said Hengst. “We still have muscles, we still
work out to keep yourself in shape for the season because that can affect your distances, but it’s a mental game for sure. ... It’s a different kind of endurance.” Though many may dismiss golf as a resort sport with a slow pace, many of Grinnell’s women golfers consider the course a place for both focus and relaxation. “I really like it because I feel that the course is a place where I can distress,” said Vidushi. “It’s a place away from all the pressure of studying and maintaining your grades. I just feel really content when I’m playing. It’s kind of an escape for me, and I love it.”
Women's tennis is ready for the season Building goals on and off the court
which I think surprised them and was good. We also played St. Ambrose College and beat them 8-1, so it was good to build our confidence with that first winning match.” After playing St. Ambrose College, the team went up against and tied with Coe College, who had
"Every match was competitive, which I think surprised them and was good." Lily Hamilton '19
beaten them in the first round of nationals last year. “That was kind of a good indicator of where we are at right now in the season. It gave us some motivation to strive ahead and not just match up with them, but also beat them,” Hamilton said. With only 12 players, the team graduated three of their starting lineup players and added two firstyear players.
"It gave us some motivation to strive ahead and not just match up with them, but also beat them." Lily Hamilton '19
SARAH RUIZ
Lily Hamilton '19 hits the tennis ball with force during practice. By Graham Dodd doddhenr@grinnell.edu The Grinnell women’s tennis team is preparing for competition at the Midwest Conference, their first with the new Coach Paige Madara since she came from Washington University in St. Louis and Wash-
ington Lee University. The team has changed their training routines and set new goals in preparation for the season. “We have both on-court goals and off-court goals,” said team Co-Captain Rachel Tappe '19. “A short term goal of ours is beating St. Norbert, which we play this
weekend. One of the long-term goals we have is making it to the second round of nationals. We also have off-court goals such as become a closer and more supportive team, which I think we've already come close to achieving.” The team has already competed in two matches and a scrimmage
since school began, with a mixed bag of results. “We had two matches and a scrimmage a couple of weekends back,” co-captain Lily Hamilton ’19 said. “One of which was against Augustana, which is a very good program. We lost to them 1-8, but every match was competitive,
“Last year, we had six freshmen, four of whom play in the lineup right now,” co-captain Anushka Joshi ’18 said. “We only have two seniors. So we will have a young team this year of mostly second-years, but it looks promising. Usually, the team doesn’t perform as well in the beginning of the year, and then by conference, we are really good, but this year the team already looks super promising from the beginning.” The team’s next game is against Lake Forest College on Sept. 10 at 9 a.m. “We’ve definitely set a goal to beat Lake Forest,” Joshi said. “Throughout the course of last season, Lake Forest won one more set in matches, which determined them as the winner, which is a very frustrating way to lose the conference title. This year we are very set on beating them.”
Community
Edited by carhartl17@grinnell.edu
Break in at comic store results in 1,600 dollar loss
7
Eco-Performance class prepares to present at CERA
By Louise Carhart carhartl17@grinnell.edu
Professor Lesley Delmenico, Theatre, talked to The S&B over email to discuss her short course Eco-Performance, co-taught with two professors from the University of Warwick in the United Kingdom. Professors Baz Kershaw and Susan Haedicke introduced students to the concept of “Prairie Meanders,” a project that combines local and global approaches to environmentalism. The final product of this course will be on display at the Conard Environmental Research Area starting on Sept. 10 from noon to 6 p.m.
SARA RUIZ
Patrons at Multiverse Comics and Games were asked to be on the lookout for the stolen cards as the police continue to search for leads. By Julia Echikson echikson@grinnell.edu The Grinnell police responded to an open door complaint at the downtown store Multiverse Comics and Games on Aug. 28. Thieves had forced open the front door by kicking it in and shattering the door frame. Upon closer inspection inside, the robbers had only stolen more than 300 dollars of cash and 1,300 dollars worth of cards from the game Magic: The Gathering.
"He also specializes in the something that is not really common here in Grinnell” Sergeant Chris Wray Magic: The Gathering is a “fantasy based game,” said the store co-owner Stephen Jacobs. “You cast spells, and there are creatures that you use to attack your opponent. The object of the game is get your opponent’s life total, which starts at 20, down to zero.” A player must build a deck of 60 cards to participate. As it is a "collectible card game," cards can only be obtained through buying random assortments or trading them. Players are immersed in a culture of exchanging and re-selling cards. Despite being founded more than 20 years ago in 1993, the game is still thriving. As of last
year, it boasts an estimated 20 million players, was translated into 11 different languages and has a professional tour. Some cards have become collectible items worth as much as 6,000 dollars. The perpetrators were only after Magic: The Gathering. Other valuable items in the store weren’t touched. “In the ways of electronics, there’s a touch screen television that’s easily worth 300 bucks,” Jacobs said. Unlike the stolen electronics items, stolen Magic cards are easily sold in legitimate markets. “A lot of the game shops will buy a single card from customers and give them store credit or just give them cash. Once the cards get into somebody else’s collection, there’s really no way to know if they are somebody else’s,” Jacobs said. Jacobs doesn’t have faith that police department will solve his case. “It’s not anything against the police department,” he said. “Unless you catch them in the act or catch them trying to sell it afterwards, it’s almost impossible to get [the perpetrator].” Sergeant Chris Wray of the Grinnell Police Department is heading the investigation and acknowledges that his team has no suspects. “[We are] not close to making [an arrest],” Wray said. But he is not giving up.
“With the video surveillance … we hope we will be able to at least identify a suspect or suspects,” Wray said.
“Unless you catch them in the act or catch them trying to sell it afterwards, it’s almost impossible to get [the perpetrator]” Stephen Jacobs
Jacobs has his own theory. He believes that the thief was a customer but not a regular. “They knew where everything was at, and they targeted the Magic cards specifically. It feels like somebody who’s been in the store to at least see where the things are,” Jacobs said. Wray is in agreement with Jacobs regarding the identity of the perpetrator. “[They] knew [Jacobs] had these specialized gaming cards. He also specializes in the something that is not really common here in Grinnell,” Wray said. The community around the game is a close knit one. “A lot of guys from the community have come together to help us out, even people we don’t know. Some of the regular guys offered us money,” Jacobs said. Wizards of the Coast, the company that produces the game, has pitched in by sending promo cards to the store.
Scarlet and Black: How did Grinnell become involved with Baz Kershaw and Susan Haedicke? What is their background? Professor Delmenico: I have known Baz and Susan for some time from conferences and walked the Meadow Meander that Baz installed at Warwick University [in England] during the International Federation of Theatre Researchers' conference in 2014. Baz had also previously created these ecological performative events in Devon and Leeds in England and in Berlin. At that conference, I suggested that Baz might want to create a meander at the Conard Environmental Research Area (CERA), since we have a Midwestern "meadow on steroids" in the form of our CERA prairie. When he arrived here this fall, Baz's comment when first seeing our prairie was simply, "Wow!" This project has been generously supported by funding and work from sources across the campus, and particularly by the efforts of Elizabeth Hill, CERA's manager. S&B: Have other projects of Kershaw and Haedicke's involved students and a course like at Grinnell? LD: They have previously worked primarily with graduate students at Warwick University to create the meander there. S&B: What ideas has the class risen in regards to the intersection of performance and ecology? LD: That's a wonderful question, and I think that the answer needs to come out of what meander walkers discover as they per-
form their walks and engage with the patterns they're tracing in the prairie, the richness of the prairie itself and encounters with installations along the way. The project is called an "Open Secret," and it's about those individual discoveries. There are no actors performing for visitors, but visitors enacting their walks in the prairie. (Because visitors walk IN the prairie for the most part, rather than along mown paths, it's important to dress for that kind of walk: long pants, closed shoes, socks that pull up of the bottoms of pants, sunblock, a hat.) S&B: How has CERA been modified or impacted by this project? LD: With Elizabeth Hill's guidance, we have tried to minimally impact the prairie on a permanent basis. Most paths have been walked rather than mown, and there will be nothing left there for long. In the Dam Prairie, the grass has proven to be very resilient and tends to spring back shortly after being walked on, which has made keeping a path visible there challenging. But we've worked on it. S&B: Why did you and Kershaw and Haedicke choose CERA for a class on site specificity? LD: As a rich environmental site that, with its migration patterns linking the local to the global, CERA beautifully exemplifies the complexity of ecological systems. S&B: Will the art be permanent? LD: After the Open Days on Sept. 10 and 11 from noon to 6 p.m., the installations will remain up until Nov. 1. There will be mailboxes left outside the classroom building with instructions for walking, the Open Secret packet and a place for visitors to leave feedback about their meandering experiences. S&B: What do you hope this project will impart on viewers and visitors? LD: The opportunity to slow down and really engage senses, the physical experience of walking the pattern of one of earth's ecological features and the willingness to be surprised by discoveries about the environment along the way. Maybe a sense of delight about being in this beautiful place?
Wind energy to increase in Poweshiek By Regina Logan loganreg@grinnell.edu The Poweshiek County Board of Supervisors will hold a public hearing on Monday, Sept. 19 to discuss selling three to five acres of land to MidAmerican Energy. MidAmerican Energy serves around two-thirds of Iowa and nearly 1.5 million people across Iowa, Illinois, South Dakota and Nebraska. The company has committed itself to being a leader in renewable-energy and “developing sustainable, climate-friendly solutions to meet customers' energy needs, while keeping costs reasonable and affordable,” according to the MidAmerican Energy website. Its parent company, Berkshire Hathaway Energy, has signed on to the American Business Act on Climate Pledge. By the end of 2016, MidAmerican intends for wind energy to account for approximately 48 percent of their energy production, and by 2017, own “more than 4,000 megawatts of renewable generation capacity,” enough to cover over 50 percent of its retail load. The land, owned by Poweshiek County, would be used to establish a building for storage, operations and maintenance, and it would employ 25 staff.
“The county still has roughly 100 acres of farm ground on the south edge of Montezuma,” said Poweshiek County Board Supervisor Larry Wilson. The board intends to sell the land to MidAmerican. The public hearing will be held to hear any objections, concerns or commentary regarding the sale. Wilson anticipates significant community benefits from the potential sale. “The property tax produced from this won’t come along for a few years,” Wilson said, “[but the tax] will probably bring in the neighborhood of an additional two million. It’ll bring significant tax revenue to the schools and the county as well.” Money that the county receives would be used “mostly for infrastructure,” Wilson said. “It will be a pretty significant addition to the tax base.” Professor Jim Swartz, Chemistry, and a former member of the Iowa Energy Center Advisory Council, also foresees a positive reception from the community, both of this sale and general wind energy efforts in the community. “The conversation around wind energy is quite different in Iowa than in many coastal cities,” Swartz said. “At the general population level, there has been a lot of support for wind energy as a renewable source. The agricultur-
Movies at the Strand
al community has been very positive about it. … It takes very little land, farmers can farm around it and they get income from leasing to companies that own and operate the wind turbines. That income doesn’t go up and down like farm income. … It’s a kind of constant.” Swartz is confident there will be little objection to the construction of a windfarm and the impact it will have on the landscape. “In some places, people worry
FLORENCE FOSTER JENKINS
Showtimes: 3:50pm, 6:30pm, 8:50pm An old woman is convinced she can be famous so two young men try to help out.
about [wind farms] polluting the landscape,” Swartz said. “There is very little land in Iowa that is really natural, it’s highly cultivated. … I think people are more used to a man-made environment. I think there has been more resistance to it on the East and West Coasts.” Iowa is currently a national leader in wind and renewable energy production. According to the United States Energy Information Administration, Iowa leads the country in wind energy
DON'T BREATHE Showtimes: 4:10pm, 7pm, 9pm A "found footage" movie that's probably not as good as the "Blair Witch Project."
production. The state produced more than 30 percent of its electricity from wind energy in 2015. And last week, the Iowa Utilities Board approved project Wind XI, a MidAmerican wind energy project that the American Wind Energy Association says will be the nation’s largest. The Poweshiek County board hearing, open to the public, will be held on Sept. 19 at 9 a.m. in the boardroom of the county courthouse in Montezuma, Iowa.
THE BFG Showtimes: 4pm, 6:345pm, 9:20pm An adaptation of the Roald Dahl classic, this movie follows a child on her adventures with a giant.
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Edited by carhartl17@grinnell.edu
Grand Opening Friday, September 16
Ribbon cutting at 9:30am. Refreshments, prizes, drawings and contests throughout the day until 5pm. Win your Spring 2017 Textbooks! Enter to win starting on Saturday 9/10 Drawing will be held during the Grand Opening on 9/16.
On Sunday, September 11 at 4:00 p.m.
the Grinnell College Center for Religion, Spirituality and Social Justice will sponsor a musical program designed to encourage reflection and hope. College Organist Linda Bryant will be joined by Rob Clower, Bagpipe, Nancy McFarland Gaub, Violin, as we remember the events of 15 years ago and other acts of terror that have marred our world and taken innocent lives.
The program will take place in Herrick Chapel, 1128 Park Street, Grinnell. It is free and open to the public.
The Cultural Films Committee presents
“Viva” Sunday, September 18 - 5:30 p.m. - JRC 101 Panel discussion following screening with: -Prof Alfredo Rivera (Art History) -Prof John Petrus (Spanish) -Jaclyn Abing ‘17 -Frank Barca ‘17 -Armando Perez ‘17 -Nelson Schicke ‘18
Cuban themed dinner buffet included!
Arts
Edited by coghlann17@grinnell.edu
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Serena Hocharoen's "it's a (body)!" opens in Smith Gallery By Teresa Fleming flemingt17@grinnell.edu The Smith Gallery began this semester’s set of student created shows with Serena Hocharoen’s “it’s a (body)!,” a series of paintings, drawings and zines that bridge the gap between physical and technological experience. “It’s a show about feelings, both physical and emotional,” Hocharoen said. “I feel like some stuff is lost in the technological world, like we don’t sit down and feel how it is to have a hand that touches things. It’s kind of weird.” I feel like some stuff is lost in the technological world, like we don't sit down and feel how it is to have a hand that touches things. It's kind of weird. Serena Hocharoen '17 While Hocharoen’s work addresses ambivalence about technology, her process is notably oldschool. Each of her pulp paintings and colored pencil drawings are done on handmade paper created by Hocharoen herself. She built on a summer internship experience working for Cave Papers in Minneapolis to hone her skill at a laborious production technique, which involves beating the paper for five hours. Hocharoen said the lengthy process pays off, resulting in a final product with a unique texture.
“The longer you beat the fiber the shorter the fibers get, and then the more transparent and … the easier it is for the fibers to bond to each other,” Hocharoen said. “So that makes the paper more transparent and more tough, and so I used colored pencil on these, and if you look at them, you can see the surface.” But working with handmade paper also poses a unique set of challenges. Hocharoen noted that her choice of paper also placed some limitations on her creative process. “I was going to use ink to do it, and it would not work because the paper’s just so sensitive, and they’ll crinkle at any sign of humidity, so some of them have already started to crinkle up because it’s humid outside,” Hocharoen said. “I’m much more careful, which is a really good thing, because planning is important. Planning isn’t something I’m really good at, so it helps me find that process. I think it just makes it more special, because you can’t find this paper at the bookstore. It’s really special to work on handmade paper, because each sheet is individually made, sometimes for a specific drawing.” Hocharoen’s exhibition builds on her experience producing the zine “Spaghetti Teens,” which has been on hiatus for the past few
months as Hocharoen’s efforts were focused on assembling “it’s a (body)!” The show features a display of zines that reflect on relationships with technology. “I’m used to making zines, and I think without those the show would not have been tied together so well. I like making zines and
giving things away for free, and especially giving art away for free,” Hocharoen said. For Hocharoen, producing zines alleviates some of the pressure associated with creating artwork for exhibition or publication. “I think having zines just makes me want to make as much as
CARYN MCKECHNIE
Serena Hocharoen's '17 "it's a (body)!" opened in Smith Gallery this week.
Artist Profile: Josh Anthony '17
Josh Anthony '17 considers himself a newcomer to the art world, but has already created work that is fresh and thought provoking as it meditates on the commonplace. Anthony sat down with the S&B's Keli Vitaioli to discuss process, progress and the potential of his art in the future. The S&B: How did you get started as an artist, and why do you keep making art? Anthony: See, I don’t know about
the word artist. I don’t have anything against the word, it’s a fine word, but it feels a little strange in the context [of] me. I don’t know if I would call myself an artist. This “art stuff,” this making things, I wasn’t really into it before college. It was really just my dad that used to be super into it, so he would do my projects for me in school. So he kind of introduced me to the stuff, and I was here, and I was like I can’t write papers, I suck at it, it’s just not
possible,” she said. “For 'Spaghetti Teens,' I’ll have a theme and I’ll make a bunch of art pertaining to that theme, and maybe I won’t use all that art, but I’ll have all of this art. It gets you into the mood for creating things. And you should create things even if they’re bad, it’s good practice.”
going to happen. So I was looking for a class that was more hands on and physically involved. I took [Introduction to Studio Art] kind of on a whim just to see what happens and intro was … just a super good class. The professor I had, Professor [Matthew] Kluber, he obviously played a major role in the fact that I’m now a studio major, just [like] all the people in the art department. It was the people in that class, the members of the art department, all of that who have just continued to be so helpful and supportive — so that’s what keeps me going. I feel like … it’s the people that keep me going, honestly. The classmates you have are super important. Making things together with other people is super important — even if it’s not collaborative. … Without them I don’t think I would keep doing it. S&B: What’s your process like? Do you go into a piece knowing what you want to do, or do you develop your ideas as you keep going? JA: This is one that I’ve really struggled with. The thing was, I mostly tended to work in sort of a preplanned way. I would want to have as much of it planned out in my mind as I could, and then the rest was just this execution process to make some physical representation of the plan I had in my mind. I think that it can be helpful, for me, to work in that way sometimes, but I would spend a lot of time sitting and just thinking about things as opposed to actually doing them. And that would make me start later, and not actually get involved with the material [which] are not necessarily good things — it just stopped being fun. It would physically hurt my brain, and I was like this isn’t fun anymore. … I want to switch it
up and be more open and not necessarily have a strict plan and kind of see where things go. Hopefully I can work out a nice balance. S&B: Do you have a favorite piece that you’ve done? JA: Of mine? Oh god. … I don’t know, that’s so incredibly difficult to answer. S&B: Was there any work that was really fulfilling to finish? JA: There was a series of prints that I’ve done that I tried to recreate the color of my best friend’s coat from memory, and I would go in the studio every day and see if I could recreate that color. I didn’t have a reference — I just wanted to see if I could match it to my memory, and that was a fun experience.
There was a series of prints that I've done that I tried to recreate the color of my best friend's coat from memory, and I would go to the studio every day and see if I could recreate that color. Josh Anthony '17 S&B: What were your favorite art courses at Grinnell? JA: I think the most fundamental class [was] definitely [Introduction to Drawing], because drawing was definitely something I thought I could not do. And I still struggle with it immensely, but it just radically altered my perception. And Lee Running’s seminar last semester — I got to work collaboratively with my best friend Sarah Hubbard [‘17], and it was a tough experience … definitely a super worthwhile, super rewarding experience. I was just really enjoying myself, and I had massive amounts of help from everyone. It made me aware of how innately you need to depend on people even if you aren’t working jointly on one thing. S&B: Who are your inspirations
as an artist? JA: In terms of other artists, it all started off with [Mark] Rothko’s work. The funny thing was I saw it in person, and it’s still insanely good, but I just didn’t resonate the way I thought I would. Gerhard Richter, another artist, just oh my gosh. He does these insane paintings, like, he did one of his uncle in his Nazi outfit, like, you’re painting your uncle in a Nazi outfit. He said he paints to empathize with people, and I was like, wow, that’s insane that makes so much sense, and I kind of want to do that a little bit. Another big inspiration is Agnes Martin. I’m not too familiar with her work, but just her lifestyle, like, she moved to New Mexico and just lived there without electricity and plumbing and made paintings. As far as the people who keep me going, it’s the people immediately around me — family, friends, professors, everyone in the art department. The people are super important. S&B: What would you do if you weren’t doing art? JA: Realistically, I don’t know. I feel like the experiences I’ve had in being a studio major have fundamentally altered me. … I’ve got a list of dream jobs I’ll never be. I want to be a racecar driver, but that’s probably never going to happen. S&B: In five years, what do you hope for yourself and your art? JA: I just want to keep making stuff. Honestly, I’m very scared that I’ll stop. I was talking to Running and she thinks a lot of it is just showing up every day and doing something every day. ... Hopefully in five years, even if I’m not painting things for galleries or racing around the world, I’ll still be able to be involved in art in some way."
Xenia Rubinos promises fresh sound in Gardner this Saturday By Halley Freger fregerha17@grinnell.edu
Xenia Rubinos will grace Gardner Lounge on Saturday, Sept. 10 at 9 p.m. to deliver an evening of music that will make you think and feel. Over the summer, Rubinos released her second album “Black Terry Cat” on Anti- Records. The album opens mysteriously — with a 30-second song. Vocals reminiscent of scatting layer over minimalist bass and a simple drumbeat. Upon first listen, you might begin to think, “What album am I about to listen to? Is this a jazz album? R&B? Noise?” Just as you get comfortable, the song ends abruptly. If you are looking for neat classifications, Rubinos is not the artist for you. Although often mislabeled exclusively as “Latin music” due to her Puerto
Rican and Cuban heritage, Rubinos navigates those identities in relation to her personal experiences and Rubinos's music is full of layers, not only of sounds, but also of meanings. The stand out track "Black Stars" combines the personal with political, and even the astronomical. larger political events in a way that requires a totally new sound. The second track on the album is aptly titled “Don’t Wanna Be.” Her powerful voice effortlessly switches between styles. At one moment, it is sweet and crooning, the next intense and percussive, and then it rings in a haunting, Björklike bellow. Rubinos’s music is full of layers, not only of sounds, but also of meanings. The standout track “Black Stars” combines the personal with political, and even the astronomical. Originally, Rubinos wrote
this song about the last conversation she had with her father before he died of Parkinson’s disease. But for Rubinos, this emotional experience was also tied to a larger context of current events. The song also explores the current state of police brutality and the work of the Black If you're looking for neat classifications, Rubinos is not the artist for you. Lives Matter movement. Rubinos reimagines a black star as one that has died, but whose light continues to shine. Ultimately, you may not initially understand what sort of album “Black Terry Cat”, is, but any listener can tell it is important. Squirrel Flower, the ambient folk project of Grinnell’s Ella Williams ’19, will open for Rubinos. If you like Joni Mitchell, you’ll love the way Ella’s dreamy voice hovers over her guitar.
CONTRIBUTED
Xenia Rubinos will perform in Gardner this Saturday at 9 p.m.
Arts
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Edited by coghlann17@grinnell.edu
Ratboys and Dowsing kick off Grinnell Concerts By Halley Freger fregerha17@grinnell.edu Grinnell Concerts hosted its first show of the semester on Tuesday, Sept. 6 as Ratboys and Dowsing kicked off what is sure to be an exciting fall lineup. Ratboys started off the night with an energetic set of garage-infused indie folk. Though the name Ratboys may inspire thoughts of some dudes who live in a sewer, Julia Steiner, a powerhouse musician whose sweet voice commands attention, fronts the "Whether it's a song about the inequality women musicians face or growing apart from a friend, their music has a refreshing levity to it. " band. Ratboys began their set by playing through tracks off of their latest album "AOID" in order. As the night went on, they mixed new material with songs that show off their range of subject — one song was about Arthurian literature, another was about being a “lady rocker.” While the band played, they seemed very serious — intensely concentrated on their instruments. They kept their eyes closed and sometimes mouthed along with the lyrics. Even they were susceptible to the captivating nature of the music they play. Although they may look and sound very serious, their music is also
playful. When Julia introduced a new song called “You’ve Changed,” about her friend’s resistance to play along with a joke, she explained “she would have done it like six months ago.” Julia had tried to “ice” her friend — a game when one friend hides a bottle of Smirnoff Ice on someone who then has to chug the whole bottle when it’s found. Whether it’s a song about the inequality women musicians face or growing apart from a friend, their music has a refreshing levity to it. Dowsing followed up Ratboys’s set with their brand of fast, fun pop punk. Before playing, guitarist Eric Hunter Czaja announced that he has a master degree (in urban planning!), so he’s had enough of school. Although the band kept the mood light throughout their performance, they played through their set like emo machines, barely breaking between songs. Their high energy was contagious as they skillfully plowed through a selection of their newer material. At one point, an audience member requested “Midwest Living.” a song off their 2012 release “It’s Still Pretty Terrible,” and they briefly took a moment to remember their parts before playing the unrehearsed song. Something about this particular album — it’s brooding yet determined lyrics, Midwest themes and partially screamed vocals — feels especially perfect in the context of Grinnell. Honestly, is
there anything more emo than going to school in the middle of cornfields? Although Ratboys and Dowsing have very different sounds, they are no strangers to each other. Not only are they both from Chicago, but they
share a member. Will Lange plays the drums in Dowsing and the bass in Ratboys. By the end of the night, he was drenched in sweat after pulling a Springsteen and playing for about two hours straight.
This week, Ratboys and Dowsing are releasing a split 7 inch on Topshelf Records and beginning a European tour together. They’re going straight from our little Gardener basement in the middle of Iowa to Poland.
GARRET WANG
Ratboys and Dowsing filled Gardner on Tuesday night.
Brazilian Percussionist Cyro Baptista to perform in Herrick By Abraham Golden goldenab@grinnell.edu Renowned Brazilian percussionist Cyro Baptista and his band Banquet of the Spirits will fill Herrick Chapel with a unique ethereal sound at 7:30 p.m. tonight, kicking off the first of this year’s Public Event Series hosted by Conference Operations and Events. Baptista was chosen to open Banquest of Spirits is less a band and more a window into a forest glade filled with some of the most highly regarded percussion artists of all time.
CONTRIBUTED
"Banquet of the Spirits" will perform in Herrick Chapel today at 7:30 p.m.
the Event Series by a group of three faculty members and two students. After reviewing 25 artists, the team focused on Baptista, who would promise engaging jazz music with a world influence. Banquet of Spirits was ultimately chosen for their relative accessibility and abundance of energy. “We want [people] to come
throughout the year, so we want to start with something that’s fun and energetic,” said Rachel Bly, Director of Conference Operations and Events. Banquet of the Spirits is less a band and more a window into a forest glade filled with some of the most highly regarded percussion artists of all time. What is remarkable about their music is not the perfection of their performance, per se, but rather the sheer diversity of sounds that are packed into each piece. One minute, you hear a bird song, the next a piano, then drums, and finally a smattering of string instruments that sound more like lutes than guitars. Soon, you’re busy relaxing into the sublime flow that Baptista created. Come for the bird noises and stay for the imaginative instruments that belt out some of the best jazz performed by a musician alive today. Tickets are available at the box office in Bucksbaum until 5 p.m.
EatChewAlive, a unique ode to Iowa By Merlin Matthews matthews17@grinnell.edu An exhibition of the works of John Schlue titled “EatChewAlive” opened at the Grinnell Arts Center last Thursday, Sept. 8. “EatChewAlive” features nine paintings with oil paint and acrylic felt on canvas. Schlue’s work came to the Grinnell Arts Center through Stephen Beck ’14, who grew up with Schlue in Belle Plain, Iowa. While Beck and Schlue originally only planned to exhibit the work in their hometown, Beck offered to take “EatChewAlive” on tour around Iowa after a successful opening night. The Grinnell Arts Center is the latest stop on the show’s circuitous journey. The Grinnell Arts Council often features the works of artists from central Iowa. This creates a bigger draw for community members.
“I never felt overly disconnected from Iowa. When I make work, it’s always in the back of my mind,” he said. Schlue also believes that this work will make more sense to people from Iowa, as it is heavily grounded in his Belle Plain background, particularly the quilting traditions of the Midwest. “[Quilting is] something you kind of grow up around and are sort of confronted with,” he said. Several of his family members, including his aunt, are quilters, and he says that both of his children received handmade quilts when they were
born. The practice of quilting is, for Schlue, tied into both his family history and the history of Iowa as a whole. “It’s got this really neat, sort of historic, dialogue with the "I never felt overly disconnected from Iowa. When I make m work, it's always in the back of mind." John Schlue '14 Midwest.” “EatChewAlive” invokes quilting not only in the use of patterns, but in the scale of the paintings. The canvases are enormous, many taller than the average human. Between the size and the way that the
patterns draw the viewer in towards the center of the canvas, it’s easy to feel like you are being eaten alive. The size of the paintings was partially influenced by Schlue’s workspace. “I had a studio where I could make big paintings and make a lot of them at the same time,” Schlue said, so size wasn’t a limiting factor. But another aspect that influenced his decision was the effect that such massive canvases can have on the viewer. “Any time you get above human scale, … it sort of takes on a whole different element to the work
and how you experience it. It’s enticing,” Schlue said. Schlue’s work promises to draw you in, fill you with Midwestern sensibility and nostalgia in a unique way and spit you right back out. "I didn't realize how important it would be, or how impactful it would be on me [to have my art exhibited in my home state]" John Schlue '14
“It’s a little quirky, it’s fun, but it’s also a little intimidating, it’s a little frightening,” Beck said.
It's a little quirky, it's fun but it's also a little intimidating. It's a little frightening. Stephen Beck '14 “It’s easier to get a draw if people know the artist,” said Erik Jarvis ’12, who oversees the Center’s building and events. “The community tends to prefer and more heavily support local [artists].” For Schlue, there is a personal aspect to having his work in central Iowa as well. “I didn’t realize how important it would be, or how impactful it would be, on me,” he said of exhibiting his work in his home state. He’s lived outside of Iowa since 2003, but he’s never thought of himself as being from anywhere else.
CARYN MCKECHNIE
John Schule's "EatChewAlive" opened at the Grinnell Arts Center last Thursday, Sept. 8.
Edited by sundbyjo17@grinnell.edu
Progressive Minds, Trashy Mouths The story of class in the United States has largely been an untold one, especially the history of the white, working poor. They have been colloquially known by a variety of names throughout the ages: scalawag, clay-eater, redneck, hillbilly and the ever-present designation of being “white trash.” This history is a hard one to escape, especially if you are born into it. Even today, being “white trash” is not only undesirable, but worthy of shame. The tropes of this group — bad teeth, obesity, mullets, pick-up trucks and a dysfunctional home life — are associated very closely with the classist history of the United States. According to Nancy Isenberg, author of the 2016 book "White Trash," the formation of rigid socioeconomic structures in the American South that were designed to maintain slavery also led to horrific violence and oppression against poor white people that has largely been swept under the rug. Even today, the white working poor are patronized, vilified, hated and blamed for any number of social problems. Even at progressive Grinnell College, classism is on full display in the way we interact with the town and the wider rural American community. It’s an uneasy balance between town and gown that we easily forget. The tendency towards elitism here reveals itself in a variety of ways, not least of which is the constant admiration for our endowment. Even in my short time here, I have heard more disgustingly paternalistic dialogue from 20-year-old liberal arts students than from the bourgeois at the country club. Classism rears its ugly head everywhere. The poverty rate in Grinnell currently hovers around 17.4 percent, well above the statewide rate of 11.9percent and the nationwide of 14.3 It’s the conversations in the D-Hall about some “idiot townie” and whatever yokel nonsense he was up to in his “pick-em-up truck.” It’s the Instagram captions about how beautiful the sunset is here — even if you have to come to Iowa to see its splendor. It’s the young man in my political science class who insinuated Donald Trump’s supporters would have trouble protesting if there was drama at the RNC because they “are illiterate.” It’s the complaints about how frightening small-town life is because of its supposed lack of ame-
nities. If one can’t survive without a Chipotle, why come to Grinnell in the first place? We don’t even live here year-round, so chances are, we can handle a respite from our precious burrito bowls. Ultimately, though, the elitism of our student body manifests itself in the belief that the lives of Grinnell’s townsfolk are somehow up for mockery because they are different. After all, they’re just “white trash.” We need to consider the impact that class has on opression in our own backyard and especially on our own behaviors If we Grinnellians are to consider ourselves “progressives,” we cannot with clean conscience condemn racism, sexism, transphobia and the dozens of other pathological hatreds in our society only to endlessly judge people on the basis of class. Not only is it sheer hypocrisy, but we are contributing to the same problems we claim to fight. Every time we belittle the working poor in Grinnell or elsewhere, we are doing progressive causes a disservice by demonizing an entire group of people on the basis of their class. It is this unchecked disdain that has birthed disgusting politicians like Donald Trump, who use the class discontent of poor white people to further his own political ends. Modern racist ideology in practice is often the child of right-wing populists, who mutate class discontent into hatred through their rhetoric. Every time we belittle people as “white trash,” we are playing into racist hands. Per official State of Iowa statistics, the poverty rate in Grinnell currently hovers around 17.4 percent well above the statewide rate of 11.9 and the nationwide rate of 14.3. The “Grinnell Bubble” is a real phenomenon. We revel in our shared politics and our cozy and impermeable liberal arts island. We go wild for our selective acceptance rate and U.S. News and World Report college ranking. Our specialty courses here set the agenda for a lifetime of study in graduate schools nationwide. But in this isolated mentality, we have has done little more than erect a sturdy class barrier between the City of Grinnell and the College, one that hurts us both. If we truly want to repair relationships and create a more just world, we need to consider the impact that class has on oppression in our own backyard and especially on our own behaviors.
Opinions
“You’re not even in Des Moines, right? So you’re in the middle of nowhere?” When that frustrating question inevitably comes, it’s easy to mention the friendly people, the excitement of presidential campaigns or the quality education that Grinnell provides, but the reason I came to Grinnell started much, much earlier than that. It began with Laura Ingall Wilder's’ “Little House on the Prairie” novels, a romantic recollection of childhood and life in the upper Midwest during the 1870s and 1880s. For a little boy growing up in the mall-lined suburbs, there was nothing more beautiful to me than gathering honey or catching fish out of small streams to feed your family. Heart swollen with admiration, I did my best to imitate Laura and Pa; joyously eating sticky amber sap from different redwood trees at the playground while pretending it was honey, (bad idea — too many questions from teachers) or whacking a long stick at a pile of rocks, pretending I was pulling up fish left and right (also a bad idea — many more questions from teachers). There was nothing I couldn’t do without imagination; I scared away bears and conquered long cold winters, even in the sunny and tame foothills of the San Francisco Bay Area. As I grew older, my admiration for Laura Ingalls morphed into Calvin of “Calvin and Hobbes fame,” then Harry Potter and later protagonists like Huckleberry Finn and Ned Stark. I still fished though and developed a serious, yet short-lived, interest in falconry, but the limitations of suburbia gradually eroded my memory of the little house on the prairie. When college applications began, I had to seriously consider where I would go for the next four years, which many said would be “the best four years of my life.” I knew a few specifications I had right off the bat; I wanted to go to a small, liberal arts school that wasn’t in California. I also learned from prospective student tours that I didn’t want to go to school on either coast, as I reasoned that I would likely spend plenty of time near a beach after graduation. And then I visited Grinnell, the “Jewel of the Prairie.” Just like that, the happily nostalgic memories of childhood came flooding back; Laura and Ma and Pa dealing with all sorts of hardships and mishaps, but ultimately pulling through with grit, warmth and the American spirit. Grinnell had all that; the spirit of
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Little College on the Prairie the Pioneer, of settling into the great unknown, though I do not mean to ignore the problematic nature of the notion of the “uncharted frontier.” And I loved it, every single minute of that visit. I wanted to live on the prairie and to hear the stories of farmers who have lived here all their lives and folks who were just passing through Iowa like the Ingalls did all those years ago. Where others saw nothing but cornfields, I saw the deer and turkey-covered foothills that I had dreamt of marching through as a young boy, gun in hand, boots in the snow, foraging for my family. During that visit and throughout the past four years, there has been no shortage of amazing professors, fishing buddies and incredible families who treat me like one of their own. It hasn’t been easy, but I’ve never lacked for opportunity to live out the outdoorsy dreams of yesteryear at this little college on the prairie.
In this column, I’d like to take you on a whimsical tour of the highs and lows of every year I’ve had at I did my best to imitate Laura and Pa; joyously eating sticky amber sap from different redwood trees Grinnell, on what I’ve learned about myself both inside and outside the classroom. It will be a figurative and literal tour of heart and heartland. The same spirit Laura Ingalls evoked with her words inspires it, and I hope that in some small way, I can give back as much as I’ve received. “As you read my stories of long ago, I hope you will remember that things truly worthwhile, and that will give you happiness, are the same now as they were then. It is not the things you have that make you happy. It is love and kindness and helping each other and just plain being good.” -Laura Ingalls Wilder
Anarchy, Discord and Hope?
Before seeing “The Purge: Election Year” which aired this July, you might want to familiarize yourself with the preceding film, “The Purge: Anarchy.” While it does have its faults, in general I find the second movie to be an interesting installment in the series, and maybe even an improvement upon the original. The film takes place in a fictional United States, where the Founding Fathers first promoted the “Purge” as a traditional and annual day for the country. During “Purging Day,” which lasts 12
hours, all crimes are legal — including murder. “The Purge” series is built on an interesting premise; when the United States allows all crimes and killings, will it suppress society’s criminal urges? And if so, at what expense? As the second installment in the series, “The Purge: Anarchy” does not have to spend time explaining the concept of the purge, and instead can delve deeper into how it affects society. This is shown through an expansion of the setting from the original movie. In the first movie, the film focuses around one household, but “The Purge: Anarchy” highlights a social experiment, as members of several classes and races have to come together to survive. In this sense, “The Purge: Anarchy” is often considered an improvement
The Scarlet & Black Staff Editors-in-Chief Managing Editor News Editors Features Editor Sports Editor Arts Editor Community Editor Opinions Editor Copy Editors Photo Editor Graphics Editor Business Manager Staff Writer Honorary Editor
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upon the somewhat unoriginal and stale flow of the first installment. In fact, the original “Purge” was a huge disappointment when it was released — with such a promising premise, directors instead decided to conform to the cliché home invasion theme coupled with average acting from the cast. In “The Purge: Anarchy,” tension and fear is built up throughout the plot. The frequent wide-shots of the group wandering around the city suggest foreboding and suspense rather than a sense of freedom. This is due to the mise-en-scène of empty streets and dimly lit corners, which allow for the dominance of darkness. The terror is gradually constructed through uncertainty. It's hard to tell where and when the main characters will encounter the murderous groups that are hungry
for blood. This uncertainty is what keeps the group members, as well as the audience, perpetually on edge. Even when the background is then confined to an apartment room, the temporarily peaceful atmosphere soon turns out to be just an illusion to further emphasize the constant risk of death that they are all facing. Nowhere is safe. Only running provides a chance of survival. The aggressors’ masks used in the movie serve to display the horrific nature of humanity’s innermost impulses and hatred. People who come from different backgrounds and classes all become equally barbaric when they hide their identities behind these masks. Interestingly, however, the rich people who participate in the purge don't wear masks. The contrast between these
two groups, the oppressors and the oppressed, is highlighted in this sense. In the end, those who are privileged have no need for masks, as no one objects to their violence. “The Purge: Anarchy” is a decent movie that has made some positive improvements on acting and storyline. Although the climax can be a bit unsatisfying for some, I thoroughly enjoyed it, as well as the film as a whole. The open ending (in some aspects) of the movie accurately reflects the unsolved conflict between social classes and leaves room for the next movie of the franchise, “The Purge: Election Year.” While I would not recommend “The Purge,” “The Purge: Anarchy” is actually a good choice if you're interested in seeing the next installment of the franchise.
SPARC Policy The Scarlet & Black is published on Fridays by students of Grinnell College and is printed by Times Republican of Marshalltown. The newspaper is funded in part by the Student Publications and Radio Committee (SPARC) and also relies on advertising revenue to cover operating costs. All publications funded by SPARC are copyright of SPARC and cannot be reproduced elsewhere without specific written consent from SPARC. Contributions The Scarlet & Black welcomes story ideas from students, faculty and other members of the town and college community. If there is any story that should be covered, please email newspapr@grinnell.edu or visit thesandb.com Send letters to the editor via email at newspapr@grinnell.edu or mail them to Box 5886. The author’s name must be included, but letters can be published anonymously in certain occasions upon request. Letters will be printed at the discretion of the editor. The deadline for publication in Friday's paper is Wednesday of the same week. The opinions expressed in this section do not necessarily reflect those of the editorial staff. The S&B reserves the right to edit any and all submissions. Advertising Advertising inquiries should be directed to the business manager, Jenny Dong, who can be reached at sandbads@ grinnell.edu or by mail at 1115 8th Avenue Grinnell College Box 5886, Grinnell, IA 50112.
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Volume 133, Issue 3
Photo of the Week
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Got a backpage-worthy photo? Submit it to [sundbyjo17] and earn $5 for contributing a winner!
YIMIN WU
Arbitrary Analysis Pub Quiz Winners
A squirrel explores the early morning in Grinnell
1. The Fempire Strikes
Scarlet Got Back Harris???
Snedge
This week, Mira Berkson '20 polled students asking: Mainstream Celeb or Indie Hottie
Back 2. Phallus in Wonderland 3. Seperation of Church and Taint
Like what you see?
Disney Bangerz
Social Calendar
Friday
JRC
2 p.m. Fulbright/Watson Happy Hour 7 p.m. "Finding Dory" @Harris Cinema 7:30 p.m. Cyro Baptista @Herrick Chapel
Saturday
12 p.m. Football vs. Trinity Bible College @Rosenbloom Field 3 p.m. Men's Soccer vs. Hamline @Soccer Complex 10 p.m. Xenia Rubinos and Squirrel Flower @ Gardner
ARH
or
check us out:
Staff Shoutout
Shoutout to Lica Ishida '19, our graphics editor, for all the time she puts into our illustrations ... plus for that beautiful picture she drew for page 11!
@thesandb /thescarletandblack thesandb.com @newspapr
Rants & Raves:
Heartland Harris
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]
Menstruation Nation
Musical Stares
Bleeding in Bucksbaum
Thank you Dining Hall!
Shout out to students who advocated for free menstrual products! Mercury Retrograde has left me with a three week long period and an overdrawn bank account, and your tampons are the only thing standing between me and a total descent into swamp woman madness. Here’s hoping to see them in all gendered bathrooms soon!
As an employee of Lyles and die hard fan of trivia, I want to make it clear that I love pub quiz. The part I don't love is when the dreaded music category page appears, and my friends stare at me when the smooth indie music blasts through the pub. I don't know music other than Broadway, and that's totally my fault, I get it. But the blank faces of friends staring at me, wondering why I'm not participating, forces me to want to drink (another root beer)! You keep doing you pub quiz music category, and I'll keep crying over my 3.5/10 score.
The only thing I looked forward to during my mid month crisis was the satisfaction of a free tampon ... but no. There are none at all in Bucksbaum. Someone please tell me why Bucks doesn't have any but Noyce does. Disappointment from inequality. Panic from period.
Last week, I complained in this space about how I missed the onion salt on the spice rack. Less than a day after my complaint was printed, the onion salt had returned to its rightful place. Thank you, Dining Hall, for being so attentive to the desires of students! That does not go unrecognized!
-Teresa Fleming '17
-Nolan Boggess ’19
-JDong '17
-Michael Cummings '18