Volume 133, Issue 21.

Community

Features

What do community members love most about Grinnell?

Arts

T.G.I.F., a student band, is a funk R&B group

DJs plan techtonica Gardener

page 5

page 8

page 4

the

Scarlet & Black Volume 133, Issue 21

April 14, 2017 • Grinnell, Iowa

Occupy 8th, Dissenting Voices and GCSA protest at admitted students programming

CONTRIBUTED

Students from Dissenting Voices, Occupy 8th and Grinnell College Student Action protested in front of admitted students.

By Jon Sundby sundbyjo17@grinnell.edu This Sunday, April 9, as prospective students entered the JRC, they were greeted by more than just name-tags and free coffee at the Welcome desk. Right across from the Laurel Leaf Lounge stood students holding bright yellow signs which read “Plagiarism = Expulsion, Rape = ?” and “Grinnell College doesn’t care about mental health for students of color.” The protest was the product of a coalition between the groups Dissenting Voices, Occupy 8th and Grinnell College Student Action (GCSA), who all wanted to gain the attention of the administration, which they say has been unresponsive to the concerns of students and even to their legal obligations.

The location and time of the protest was meant to be provocative, as it was close and visible to prospective students, a group which the administration cares deeply about.

“It actually came from an idea from my mom,” said Leah Barr ’18, a member of Dissenting Voices. “I was talking with her about ... the sexual assault problem at Grinnell, and I was wondering what ways would hit the hardest, and she said ‘what would affect the trustees the

most?’ Together we talked about how enrollment was something that could bring more attention to the issue.”

"The goal of the protest is not to discourage students from coming here, these [written demands] are the goals ... this is the goal, and any sort of symbolic gesture that is needed to accomplish these goals is worth it."

Halley Freger '17 “One of the reasons why we wanted to hold an event that would capture the attention of the trustees is that in the past we have met with the administration with our aims and goals, and it doesn’t seem to go far.

So we wanted to think of a different approach that would push this issue further,” Hanky Song ’17, another member of the organization, added.

The coalition wanted the protest to be a surprise, lest the administration made moves to dampen its effect. Indeed, Sarah Fischer, Director of Admissions, said she was a little startled at first about the student’s actions, but then decided to go over with some colleagues and speak with the protestors.

“We wanted to know more about their side of the story,” Fischer said.

“I’m relatively new to the Grinnell community, so it was interesting to me to learn about what their needs are and … where [they believe] the administration has to do a better job in addressing these issues.”

As the group was a coalition of three different organizations, these issues originated from a widerange of recent student activism.

Dissenting Voices used the platform to argue for three of their most important policy goals: minimum sentences for student rapists, the hiring of an independent, fulltime Title IX coordinator and the establishment of a fully-staffed women’s center.

“It’s basically a call for a minimum outcome,” Halley Freger ’17 said. “When someone is found responsible for nonconsensual intercourse, for that act, the minimum outcome should be defined as expulsion.”

As 90 percent of campus rapes are committed by repeat offenders, Dissenting Voices sees the establishment of this minimum outcome as not only a justice issue, but one of safety as well. They say that allowing rapists to stay on campus not only re-traumatizes the victim, but makes the threat of >> See Organizations page 2

Conflict in Syria contextualized by professors

By Lily Bohlke & Eva Lilienfeld bohlkeli@grinnell.edu lilienfe17@grinnell.edu

a mandate under French control, while Palestine and Iraq were British mandates. In 1946, Syria became an independent nation, and France

began to remove their troops. The process of gaining independence was rocky, as the French were >> See Professors page 2

Friday Grinnell Symphony Orchestra Sebring-Lewis Hall, 7:30 p.m.

Friday Stand-up Bob's, 8 p.m.

Though Syrian communities have been around for a long time, Syria’s national identity is only around 72 years old. Since 2011, the country has been involved in a civil war with Sunni rebel groups, ISIS, Al Qaeda affiliates and Kurdish forces up against the Alawite authoritarian Assad regime. All sides of the war have committed human rights violations and contributed to the mass refugee crisis that has only been worsening in rewcent months.

Last month, the United Nations led Geneva peace talks on Syria, but no agreements have been reached and the fighting continues.

Historical Background Before World War I, Syria was a province of the Ottoman Empire.

In 1920, when the Empire was split into mandates, Syria became Friday The Edge of Seventeen Harris Cinema, 7:15 p.m., 9:30 p.m.

Follow us on twitter @thesandb

thesandb.com

Dining Hall Union protests for fair wages for all workers

By Alice Herman hermanal17@grinnell.edu

This Monday, April 10, the Union of Grinnell Student Dining Workers (UGSDW) and the student organization Union Labor Advocates (ULA) protested Grinnell College’s exclusion of high school student employees from a pay raise negotiated by the Union last year.

The Union, which was created in response to what UGSDW president Cory McCartan ’19 called a “pattern of understaffing and a lack of accountability on the side of the students,” was initially met with skepticism by Dining Services employees. One employee and student, Charlotte Richardson-Deppe ’19, released an op-ed in May 2016 opposing the creation of the Union in which she cited the Union’s inability to protect full-time Dining Services staff, whose work shifts are not covered by the UGSDW. In recent communications with Grinnell College and the student body, however, UGSDW has emphasized the importance of inclusivity for College staff not currently enrolled in classes: “From the start, it had been our goal ... to include not just college students, but anyone who worked the same kind of jobs [in our contract].

Because it shouldn’t matter what kind of person you are, just that you’re doing the same kind of work,” said McCartan. The comments came in

response to what UGSDW treasurer Quinn Ercolani ’20 called “a blatant violation of the contract” by the College for declining to increase the hourly wages for high school employees who work the same shifts as their college student co-workers.

Kelly Edgington, a Marketplace supervisor, commented that “high school workers are very dependable.

I’m glad that the Union is fighting for them to get the same wage ... my feeling is they’re doing the same job as the college students standing alongside them, and they should be paid the same wage.”

The UGSDW contract, negotiated last year, states that the College “recognizes the Union as the exclusive representative of all employees of Grinnell College Dining Services who regularly work in one or more of the following shifts: Afternoon Service/ Utility, Baker’s Helper, Beverages…”

— the list includes 40 shift titles, many of which are held by employees not enrolled at Grinnell College. In “Article IV: Wages,” the contract states that “Employees covered by this Agreement shall be paid a base hourly wage of $9.25 per hour.” This wage reflects a raise of $0.75 from the previous wage for employees working under the shift titles listed in the contract.

Earlier this semester, it was brought to the attention of UGSDW representatives that high school students had not been included in the >> See Student union page 2

100 year old "Peace Rock" exhumed near construction site

Students participate in an archaeological dig for the Peace Rock.

By Nora Coghlan & Jon Sundby coghlann17@grinnell.edu sundbyjo17@grinnell.edu

SARAH RUIZ

When local historian Byron Hueftle-Worley came across an article detailing an explosion on Grinnell’s campus, it naturally sparked his interest.

“Dynamite seems to be the agent used by the attacking party, judging from the sound of the explosion which awakened the inhabitants of North Grinnell at a late hour that night,” read the S&B article from April 22, 1914.

The target of the blast was something referred to as the “Scrap Rock,” which, according to the article, was “considerably diminished in size and marred as to beauty.”

Hueftle-Worley had just stumbled upon a forgotten piece of Grinnell history that had the potential to be explosive.

“I was researching another historic question that has nothing to do with this, but that involved going through the old papers and skimming every article … and I came across a mention of a dynamite blast on campus … so I read it. But I didn’t know what a ‘scrap’ was, didn’t know what a ‘peace rock’ was,” Hueftle-Worley said.

By going through more archives of the S&B from around the turn of the 20th century, Hueftle-Worley soon learned more about this mysterious “scrap.” A college tradition dating from the 1880s, he describes the event as a “semi-sanctioned wrestling match”, but with a harder edge. Each year, on a day in September, men of the first year and second year classes would come to face each other on the lawns outside North campus, for a challenge that served to test the physical caliber of each class. Reportedly, if the first years won, they couldn’t be hazed for the rest of the year — a prize which certainly infused the match with spirit.

But with so much pride and masculine energy wrapped up in the event, the “scrap” couldn’t be contained to the manicured lawns outside Gates Tower. What began as an afternoon of wrestling soon took on a larger aura of mischief, as the underclassman upped the ante of the brawl.

“Wrestling matches, fighting matches, guerilla warfare in town, poisoning students with bromine and tearing up the steps of the school gymnasium, the stone steps, to lock in the guys who were in the building. >> See "Peace Rock" page 2

Wednesday Artists@Grinnell Jen Lewis: Destigmatizing Menstruation Falcouner, 4 p.m.

Thursday "The Ethics of Public Scholarship and the Digital Liberal Arts" JRC 101, 7:30 p.m.

Sports 4 | Features 6 | Arts 7 | Community 9 | Opinions 11

News

2

Speaker discusses Muslim identity

SOFIA MENDEZ

Khurram Hussein spoke on Islam in global conversations this week.

By Saiham Sharif sharifsa@grinnell.edu Khurram Hussein, a professor of religious studies at Lehigh University, came to Grinnell on April 11 to deliver a lecture entitled called “Can the Muslim Speak?” He proposed that discussion of Muslim identity should not be restricted, moving from one end of the simplistic ‘good/bad’ dichotomy to the other. Hussein discussed the fact that Muslims and other marginalized groups are shoehorned into existing under one identity, but he worked throughout the talk to discuss this in a way audiences could understand.

Hussein’s universal reach was evident before he began his speech.

Caleb Elfenbein, religious studies, who specializes in Islam and Middle Eastern History, introduced Hussein.

Elfenbein shared an anecdote from when he and Hussein met long before the talk. It was at an academic conference and they read each other’s research. Elfenbein, after reading Hussein’s paper, shared that he felt as though “[he] had written to me.”

Hussein humorously injected, “Not really.” One could find this type of sarcastic humor permeating his speech

as well.

Hussein began his lecture with a purposely inflammatory statement. “In the immediate aftermath of the events of 9/11 Muslims everywhere were possessed by a strange jubilation.”

He went on to discuss various Muslim groups who supported the attacks and opposed American values — he said that Muslims in Beirut and East Jerusalem rejoiced at the events of 9/11.

Given his sarcastic sense of humor and the conspicuous absurdity of the statement — surely, few Muslims could take pleasure in terrorist attacks — it seemed as though Hussein was building towards a sarcastic joke.

Instead of delivering the punchline, he asked a sobering question “Was Islam hijacked by extremists or were Muslims themselves in the grip of an evil ideology?”

To the chagrin of the audience, he continued to share negative portrayals of Islam, reading a passage from the popular novel “The Reluctant Fundamentalist,” in which the main character, a young Muslim man, becomes disillusioned with America and surprisingly finds himself taking pleasure in the events of 9/11. All of

this suggested a defense for negative views of Islam.

Yet he immediately countered his previous case defending negative views of Islam by quoting an unlikely figure, George Bush. He quoted a line from the speech Bush gave immediately after 9/11, that “Islam is a religion of peace.”

As Hussein brings up, Bush in this speech upholds that Muslims are Americans. Their coexistence is not a contradiction, although many today would argue otherwise.

“Empathy comes with a price,” he said.

Hussein went on to talk about the kind of empathy that unconditionally demands believing in the good of the group. “[Muslims] must profess [their] professed peace.”

At the crux of his speech, Hussein brought together common dialogue surrounding Muslim identity, including the loaded phrases “religion of peace” and “religion of violence.”

Hussein himself took the word “peace” to task. As a Muslim, he shared that he disliked the idea of Islam being called a “religion of peace.” He borrowed from Gandhi, who persistently affirmed that he was not a “man of peace,” but rather a “man of action.”

By presenting popular portrayals that force Muslims to exist in a space where they are either good or bad, Hussein elucidated the constraints placed on Muslim identity. At the end of his speech, he asked the audience to avoid the “either/or” dichotomy. His speech, constructed to dissuade the audience from siding with either end of this spectrum, provides an outline for engaging with others in a way that will elevate discussions of Muslim identity.

Student union protested lower wages for high school workers

Continued from Front Page negotiated pay raise and the Union proceeded to file a grievance with the College. To file a grievance, the Union is required to first contact a Dining Services supervisor, and if the grievance is not settled by the supervisor, then the Union may contact the director of Dining Services. In the case that a dispute cannot be put to rest with upper management, the grievance moves along to a neutral arbitration board comprised of faculty and SGA members.

According to Ercolani, the grievance did not proceed as stipulated in the contract. “They refused arbitration, which was a blatant breach of contract. And under the National Labor Relations Board standards, this can be considered both ‘failure to bargain in good faith’ and ‘making unilateral changes to the contract without consulting the other party,’” Ercolani said. “So once that happened, we realized we couldn’t work within the grievance procedure anymore. We tried that, we have this set up with the College for a reason, and they said no.”

The College’s spokesperson on the issue, Vice President of Human Relations Mary Greiner, wrote in an email to The S&B that “when the student union representatives recently asked to include high school students in the union membership, the College

turned to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) for clarifying guidance regarding the group's membership definition and eligibility of high school students thereunder. The

Harty, whose practice focuses on employment litigation, collective bargaining, contract administration and labor arbitration.

Greiner wrote on Monday that

MAHIRA FARAN

Dining Hall Student Union advocates for high school workers' wages.

NLRB has not yet responded to this inquiry.” Because the NLRB had not yet responded to the inquiry, Greiner wrote, the College did not allow the grievance to move on to arbitration.

The Union has since filed a complaint with the NLRB claiming that the College has violated the contract by not including high school students in the Union-negotiated pay raise and refusing arbitration.

The College will proceed with the assistance of labor lawyer Frank

“there is no animosity between the College and the student union,” which Ercolani confirmed. Still, one fulltime Dining Services employee noted that Dining Services employees do not perceive the College as unionfriendly: “Quite frankly — I don’t think the administration would like it if we unionized ... it’s too bad, we have people who have a hard time raising the family, budgeting their money — and there’s many people who work two jobs just to make it go.”

Edited by bohlkeli@grinnell.edu & braneckm@grinnell.edu

Organizations came together to protest administrative actions

CONTRIBUTED

Students protest administration's lack of response to sexual assault on campus.

Continued from Front Page sexual violence all the more real for people at Grinnell.

“Another positive change that [might result] from this change would be that rapists would understand that there are concrete consequences to their actions, and hopefully this would deter sexual violence from happening,” Song said.

"Another positive change that [might result] would be that rapists would understand that there are concrete consequences to their actions, and hopefully this would deter sexual violence from happening."

Hanky Song '17 Additionally, the group wants to make some structural changes in the way that the Title IX department is organized. As of now, Angela Voos, who is the Title IX coordinator, is also the Vice President for Strategic Planning, two positions that Dissenting Voices say are in direct contradiction with each other.

“You have to follow the money,” Barr said. “It makes financial sense for the Title IX coordinator to be wrapped up in the president’s office because part of the president’s job is fundraising and image control. So if you have full control over which rape cases become publicly known ... the image is protected.”

“And this is where the conflict of interest comes in ... right now she is simultaneously doing VP of strategic planning, which is all about the image,” Song added.

Furthermore, the group wants the College to establish a women’s center, as many peer institutions have done, which they say could be a place where more discussions and organizing around gender-based issues could occur.

Besides Dissenting Voices, Occupy 8th and GCSA also were part of the protest, and they too presented demands to the administration. GCSA is the student group responsible for the recent ‘Divest Grinnell’ movement that has gained a following amongst both students and alumni. To promote this goal, the group advocated for a promise from Grinnell that they would sell off their 100 million dollars worth of investments in the fossil fuel industry.

Occupy 8th is a relatively new

group comprised of three women of color who collaborate with other student organizations to promote the recognition of the important role women of color play in progressive movements, as well as to advocate for changes that focus on supporting racial diversity. For this event, they pressed the administration to conduct a national search to hire culturally-competent therapists at SHACS. “This goal isn’t something that maybe we were thinking about in our own meetings, but it definitely falls under the branch of things we are establishing our group to be. So, I think for us, we want to work more and push this issue further,” said Hazel Batrezchavez ‘17, a member of Occupy 8th.

As for the prospective students themselves, tour guides say that they seemed to be both interested in, but also a little apprehensive of, the protest. Admissions told tour guides to address the protest, but to also place it within the frame of a history of activism at Grinnell.

“One thing they made clear is that we should talk about it actually, because you don’t just let something like that sit,” Anna Schierenbeck ‘18, a tour guide, said. “So they told us to talk about the history of protest at Grinnell and to acknowledge that the administration was letting them stay there, instead of at other schools where they would be pushed out, which is an interesting approach ... and they said to be honest, they said ‘don’t lie about sexual assault

"[Admissions] told us to talk about the history of protest at Grinnell and to acknowledge that the administration was letting them stay there, instead of at other schools where they would be pushed out, which is an interesting approach."

Anna Schierenbeck '18

at Grinnell.’”

And while there was some talk amongst the current student body that this protest was to warn prospective students away from Grinnell, the organizers say that was not their intention.

“The goal of the protest is not to discourage students from coming here, these [written demands] are the goals ... this is the goal, and any sort of symbolic gesture that is

Geothermal wells on Mac Field to provide energy to HSSC building

MAYU SAKAE

The College is drilling geothermal wells to provide energy to the HSSC.

By Kate Irwin irwinkat@grinnell.edu Grinnell students returned from spring break to find the perimeter of Mac Field surrounded by a fence and covered in mechanical equipment. To many students, this new construction site was a surprise.

To compensate for the loss of Mac Field for intramural sports, such as Ultimate Frisbee, Facilities Management has been working with the Athletic Department to find a new place for teams to practice.

The area they found is east of the softball fields, making it accessible for student use. Unfortunately,

Mac Field will not be usable as an intramural field until the fall of 2018, due to the growing season of the grass.

Currently, Mac Field is under construction for a geothermal well field for the Humanities and Social Studies Complex (HSSC). The new HSSC will be heated by these geothermal wells, as will several other buildings on campus. Mac Field was selected, as this is the only area of land on campus that is large enough to install the necessary amount of geothermal wells in order to properly heat the HSSC. "The whole idea is to make the HSSC as environmentally friendly as possible, so we're using geothermal technology," Rick Whitney, Vice President of Facilities Management, said.

Geothermal technology is incredibly environmentally friendly.

It allows for heating and cooling to happen simultaneously, making the process extremely efficient. It uses around half the amount of energy as

a traditional system.

The project is already underway, as several wells have currently been placed in Mac Field. There will be underground lines between the HSSC and the well field and this construction will begin towards the end of this April. There will also be an underground vault that will be finished during the later months of summer.

Soon after the construction finishes, the restoration of Mac Field will begin. In addition to the standard restoration process, a grade will also be established, making water drainage more efficient.

The idea to use geothermal technology is one example of the College enacting its commitment towards sustainability. "[The idea to use geothermal technology started due to] the design of the building and our pursuit of being as ecologically friendly as we could with this large facility being almost 200,000 square feet," Whitney said. "We wanted to be sure we were

doing as little to the environment as we could."

Facilities Management has also partnered with Alliant Energy. Alliant Energy calculated that the amount of geothermal energy would save the College at least $250,000 a year.

According to Whitney, a lot of input went into the creation of this project. A building committee that consisted of administrators, faculty and students worked with the architect to make sure that the plan lined up with the goals and mission of the College.

But while the project has generated a lot of buzz, geothermal technology is not new to Grinnell's campus. The College’s natatorium also utilizes this technology, but for a different purpose. There, geothermal technology is employed to dehumidify the air, which takes a considerable amount of energy.

"This [geothermal technology] has been working really well and this is what gave us the confidence to take this bold step," Whitney said.

News

Edited by bohlkeli@grinnell.edu & braneckm@grinnell.edu

3

"Peace Rock": the road from "College Scrap" to exhuming history

SARAH RUIZ

Professor Roger Vetter, music, digs for the "Peace Rock," which has not seen daylight in over 100 years.

Continued from Front Page Then the guys in the building breaking out a window to get out and continue to fight, which did not make the College happy. Nor did the poisoning with the bromine make them happy either,” Hueftle-Worley said, recounting the myriad ways in which students celebrated “scrap” season.

Unsurprisingly, many of the administrators, faculty and students were unhappy about the “scrap.”

Broken bones and minor injuries were a staple of the tradition, but one year, in an incident that made the front page

of national newspapers, a freshman was “disfigured for life” after some sophomores decided to “smoke him out” of a barn he was hiding in using bromides. This incident, and news that a man had actually died at a Wisconsin school in a similar tradition, prompted the College President John H.T. Main to give a stirring speech in chapel, rallying against the evils of the “scrap.”

“The two classes very quietly decided not to hold the scrap, and to do something to commemorate that.

So several hundred people, apparently, were gathered on campus to watch the fight. Instead [the students] came in with this handcart with a rock on it, singing a song they had written for the event,” Hueftle-Worley explained.

The rock the students brought in was thereby dubbed the “Peace Rock,” or “Scrap Rock,” and was placed on campus as a memorial to the peace that the two classes had forged. Some of the upperclassman, however, didn’t appreciate this turn of events, and consequently took out their frustration on the young monument.

Several acts of vandalism were committed on the rock, the first being the painting of the granite boulder with red paint, the second the infamous dynamite blast that set Hueftle-Worley on the trail and the third and final act, the burying of the rock. Although John Whittaker, anthropology, says that many people at the time must have known where the rock was buried, it was never dug up. An article published in the Grinnell Herald on April 28, 1914 predicted that the stone would remain buried in the earth with “little hope of resurrection … entertained even by those who believe most faithfully in the significance of the fallen monument.” Consequently the

“Peace Rock” and its story were lost underneath the ground.

That is, until now.

On Saturday, April 8, Whittaker, Hueftle-Worley and several students broke ground near the commencement stage behind the McGough construction trailer.

“Byron has poked around here over the years hoping to find the thing, and so now that this area is going to be torn up for the new landscaping, we figured it was time to do a proper excavation,” Whittaker said.

With the help of University of Iowa Professor Glenn Storey the team made use of a ground-penetrating radar, a tool that surveys the grounds with radio waves to search for irregularities. The team discovered a large anomaly in this corner of the quad, an anomaly that Whittaker assumed to be the Peace Rock. Photo evidence compiled by Huefte-Worley also confirmed that this should be the Peace Rock’s resting place.

But after several days of digging, the team came up short. Despite digging 50 centimeters into the earth where the radar indicated the anomaly, there was no sign of the historic stone.

Just as the team was ready to call it quits, Hueftle-Wortley thought to try

sticking a probe into another direction: right underneath the concrete sidewalk.

“Byron thought he’d stick the probe that we have in some other places, we’ve been probing around trying to find it. So he poked it there and it looks like it was something hard, and we’ve dug a quick little exploration, and it looks like the right kind of rock,” Whittaker said.

On Thursday, April 12, McGough construction helped uproot the sidewalk, revealing the Peace Rock in full. Whittaker hopes to have the rock fully exhumed by Monday, finally restoring the symbolic monument to its rightful place above-ground.

“It’s been a long process and now we’re going to have to excavate more, but it will be more rewarding now that there is something there,” said student archaeologist, Leah Harris ’19.

And so after 100 years, with the blood and sweat of many Grinnellians past and present and a little bit of luck, the Peace Rock will once again remind the campus community of the “scrappy” history of the student body.

“It’s been good training for the student; it’s been fun for me,” Whittaker said. “It’s an exciting opportunity and it’s such a fun story that should be told.”

Professors provide background on recent events in Syria Continued from Front Page hesitant to leave, but eventually they withdrew completely, leaving a new government to develop.

Michel Aflaq, a Syrian Christian, formed the Arab Socialist Ba’ath Party, which advocates for a single Arab state. Aflaq, part of a Syrian minority, wanted to focus on a unified Arab identity, rather than religious factions, according to Professor Caleb Elfenbein, religious studies.

By influencing the military of Ba’ath’s politics and staging coups, Hafez al-Assad became president of Syria in 1970. Many Syrians had been disillusioned with the previous government and believed in Hafez al-Assad.

During this time, Professor Kathryn Kamp, anthropology, worked on her dissertation in Syria. Studying Middle Eastern architecture, Kamp spent her time there asking to see the inside of stranger’s homes, photographing their property and mapping their living rooms.

“Under Hafez Assad everyone was very, very nervous about any political discussion because people disappeared,” Kamp said. “Everyone knew there was no freedom of speech or freedom of expression and the government would do terrible things to large segments of the population as, for example, massacres in Hama in the early 80s."

During Hafez al-Assad’s presidency, he weakened the power of other government officials, giving himself ultimate power over the country. The Islamist uprisings taken on by Sunni Islamists were an attempt to reduce his rule and reign dignity as a country. In 1982 there was a massacre in the Syrian town of Hama. Hafez al-Assad blockaded Hama, killing somewhere between 2,000 and 20,000 Syrians.

Syrian security and intelligence was dominated by Alawites, a subgroup within Islam with which the Assad family are members.

Kamp describes the difference between Alawites and other Muslims as analogous to the difference between Mormons and other Christians. Both subgroups represent a minority subgroup that has separated from the larger religion, and some may view Alawite as too religiously different and of a separate religion.

“I suspect that the minority status of Assad and the Alawites who have dominated the power structure, especially in the military has made it even more important for them to hold onto power,” Kamp said. “I could see that if you are part of an identifiable minority that has been in power for a long time and has abused the majority, the notion of just freely giving up power would be very scary.”

After his death, his son, Bashar al-Assad succeeded him, and continued the harsh policies of his father’s rule.

According to Elfenbein, the successful integration of this authoritative style of rule was in

part due to being what was “in effect a colonial state in the mandate system.”

“Syria had for decades a really vibrant middle class that had members of different religious communities, really well educated population, and over time in part because of authoritarian politics, that middle class that was so essential to a thriving civil society degrades.

And in that setting, it makes it almost impossible to maintain the sense of Syria being a coherent entity,” Elfenbein said.

The lines between Syria, Iraq and Turkey were not as clearly drawn when they were all part of the Ottoman Empire. Elfenbein spoke about the draws from the northwest part of Syria to Turkey, and the draws in the eastern part of the country to Iraq.

“This is not to say there weren’t communities that straddled those lines, but we’re sort of seeing in the dissolution of this place, we’re seeing history in a way come back to life because the creation of Syria really did create the political geography of the area and we’re seeing that fall apart,” Elfenbein said.

"Military action is not the answer. Massive military aid to rebel groups isn't the answer either, that's just going to get more people killed."

Professor Wayne Moyer, political science

The combination of the religious conflict between the Alawites and the Sunnis in combination with a competition for natural resources and a famine led to the breakout of the civil war.

“The situation in the early years of this century was considerably complicated by a very major drought and crop failures in much of the country,” said Professor Wayne Moyer, political science. “That meant a lot of rural farmers were forced into the cities, and there was inadequate food and that led to demonstrations against the Assad regime which he put down ruthlessly, which then led to the uprising and led to the civil war.”

The Current Situation Human rights have been completely violated in a huge way in Syria. More than 400,000 people have been killed and millions have been displaced. Many refugees have fled to Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey.

In Jordan and Turkey, according to Moyer, refugee camps are incredibly restrictive, prohibiting refugees from working and discriminating against them in day to day life as well as in the justice systems.

Mervat Youssef, Arabic, also explained that more than a humanitarian crisis, the question about where refugees go also poses economic problems. When people flee Syria to other countries, like Egypt, one of the economic consequences is rising real estate prices.

“So even if you are not interested in humanity, you will still be affected,” Youssef said. “For me personally, the issue is not about the rising prices of real estate. For me personally, it is about people who are driven away from their homes and livelihood, people who are dying.”

Ultimately, it is hard to say what action could be taken to reduce the suffering in Syria. According to visiting professor and Polish war correspondent Konstanty Gebert, religious studies, there is not a consensus in the international community about what actions should be taken.

“In Bosnia it took three years, but there is no doubt in anybody’s mind that international intervention ended the Bosnian War and that it could have been done three years earlier with the same very low price,” Gebert said.

Gebert identifies the two major concerns in Syria as ending the war and reducing the flood of refugees leaving Syria. However, besides all the political implications, even if Assad could be toppled, the political and religious climate would mean Alawites would want to flee as refugees.

“The Assad regime is the only guarantor of political security for the Alawites, so we’d have an Alawite refugee flux replacing the Sunni refugee flux we are dealing with right now,” Gebert said. “A … regime change would mean making a deal with Russia. The problem is that I can’t imagine a deal with Russia that would be palatable.”

“Okay so we think someone is a butcher, we have to do something about it. Ok, what about the people who are being butchered by the butcher? There is a ban on accepting the refugees. I’m not sure I am understanding this the way I am asked to understand this,” Youssef said.

“These are cities of hundreds of thousands of people living in tents for extended periods of time, inadequate schooling for kids, so that’s where we can do a lot more,” Moyer said. “We can admit more to this country, we can give more aid to refugee camps and organizations that work particularly in Turkey, and Lebanon and Jordan.”

Russia, which has economic and military ties to the Assad regime, aided the Syrian government in bombing Aleppo last fall, in an attempt to rid the city of rebel forces.

In addition, Iran is trying to gain influence in Syria by aligning itself to the Assad regime, as well as is Hezbollah, an Islamist militant group from Lebanon.

“The Iranian regime is Shi’ite of course, [and] the Alawites aren’t Shi’ite but they’re certainly closer to the Shi’ites than to the Sunnis.

So the Assad regime, with Russian and Iranian support, and also with assistance from Hezbollah, which is also Shi’ite, has got the upper hand,” Moyer said.

Many, however, also note that the suspected involvement of Russia in the most recent presidential election also raises red flags about

the reasons behind Trump’s decision to take military action.

“I’m a taxpayer and that bothers me,” Youssef said. “I don’t want to see money being spent to kill people.

I know that the military is essentially but I don’t want it to be offensive. I want it to be a defensive military. …

I don’t see these things as successful.

We’ve tried it before, it doesn’t work.”

Youssef’s mention of military action in the Middle East refers to American involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan during George W. Bush' presidency. She said that military involvement with a country — even if it’s in the short-term interest — will only hurt in the long-term without an exit plan.

When President Obama was in office, he refrained from getting involved militarily in Syria. In 2014, the US was involved in airstrikes, along with five Arab countries, against ISIS. Moyer suggested that Obama could have set up no-fly-zones; however, that became impossible when Russia got involved in bombings of Syria because it would have entailed direct military confrontation with Russia.

Obama did send aid to some rebel groups unaffiliated with Al Qaeda, but Moyer suggested he may have hesitated to do more after much of it got into the hands of groups who were affiliated with Al Qaeda.

The opposition to the Syrian government, although all against the Assad regime, are not united, according to Moyer.

“Some of the strength of ISIS is that for many people ISIS is seen as the defenders of the Sunnis who are oppressed by the Assad regime.

Will you be able to really overcome ISIS in the area as long as the Assad regime is in power? I’m sure there are many Sunnis who see ISIS as their only real proposition, too,” Moyer said.

An important question left unanswered is what foreign nations including the US can do. Moyer emphasized trying to relieve suffering for refugees, but in terms of ending the civil war, successful prospects are unclear. To Elfenbein, the decision of whether or not to intervene militarily has to be a “moral determination.”

“Military action is not the answer. Massive military aid to rebel groups isn’t the answer either, that’s just going to get more people killed,” Moyer said. “There are rumors that Trump was trying to work out some kind of arrangements, work a deal out over Syria, we would relieve the pressures to get rid of Assad and they would help fight ISIS, the grand bargain to improve relations.

I think that’s hard now after the US launched the missile attack last week, but I think working for better relations with Russia both depends on better Russian behavior in Syria as well as in Ukraine and in Europe in general, so I’m afraid that we ought to condition any deal we make with Russia. They’re doing much more to reach some kind of settlement with Syria. That’s as much as I think we can do at this stage of the game.”

March

2011

August

2012 march

2013 August

2013

Protests erupt throughout Syria

Obama says chemical weapons would have "enormous A gas attack kills 26 people, in northern Syria. The U.N. does not identify a culprit Obama says he will consult congress but lacks congressional support

September

U.N. Security COuncil demands Syria destroy all

DECEMBER

U.S. and Britain end "non-lethal" support to northern syrian rebels after islamist groups seize free syrian army bases

2013 2013

january

2014

U.N. holds Geneva peace talks but they fail because syrian government refuses to transition

August

Hundreds suffocate from sarin missiles in rebel-held suburbs of Syrian capital

September

2013

U.S. and five arab nations launch airstrikes on ISIS

august

OPCW-UN joint panel confirms use of chlorine deployed out of helicopters. chlorine gas can be classified as chemical weapons depending on use

2013

2016 February

Russia and China veto un resolution authorizing sanctions against syrian government's chemical weapons use

april 4

At least 58 people are killed in what doctors say could be a nerve gas attack on the town of Khan Sheikhoun in the rebel-held Idlib province.

Victims show signs of suffocation, convulsions, foaming at the mouth and pupil constriction.

Witnesses say the attack was carried out by either Russian or Syrian Sukhoi jets. Moscow and Damascus deny responsibility.

april 6

U.S. fired cruise missiles into syria as first direct american assault on syrian government and "vital national security interest"

2017

2017

2017

Community

4

True Grinnellian:

By Kate Irwin irwinkat@grinnell.edu

Edited by vitaioli@grinnell.edu

Drunken drivers in Iowa likely to be repeat offenders

By Keli Vitaioli vitaioli@grinnell.edu

Amy Brown has lived all over the world, yet she decide to settle down in the small city of Grinnell in the middle of Iowa.

Brown has only been a resident of Grinnell for six years since she accepted a position at Burling Library with the College, but in that time she has become very involved with the community and watched the town develop before her.

"Grinnell seems to be like one of the lucky towns," Brown said. "when we moved here in 2011, we had driven through other places where there were a lot of things closed ... but I noticed Grinnell had a lot of shops open."

Brown values her ties with the community. She aims to shop local to support the townspeople. She is currently a member of the local quilting guild, an activity that helped her make friends and have an immediate connection to the town when she first moved to Grinnell.

Grinnell’s quick connections and neighborly attitudes resonate with Brown. "If you need anything, someone knows somebody," Brown said.

Brown grew up in a military family and has lived all over the country and the world.

"I came to Iowa in ninth grade.

And we picked Iowa because it's where my mother is from," Brown said.

Brown then followed in her father's footsteps and joined the military when she was 18. Ever since she was little, Brown has moved from place to place.

While enlisted in the military, Brown met Jerry, the man she would soon marry. They were married right after Brown's time in the military was up. Both Brown and her husband knew they wanted kids, and they realized they wanted to raise them in the Midwest. But Brown couldn't stay settled in one place long, and she knew it was time to move to a new place.

MAHIRA FARAN

Brown found a home in Grinnell, more specifically in Burling.

"I had itchy feet because I was so used to moving, even though I was content and had family [close]. Because both my husband and I lived abroad as children, it was really important that we expose our kids to that," Brown said.

Her children had such a positive experience overseas, so they decided to continue living overseas. Brown notes the positive impact of their international travels, as "it had a profound effect on them."

Brown wanted her children to be global citizens. "I don't know if they could have had that if I stayed in Oskaloosa, Iowa," Brown said.

After their second time in England, Brown felt it was time to move back to the Midwest. Brown was deciding between living in Des Moines or Iowa City, two places with very different atmospheres from Grinnell. "I wanted to be a little bit more close to Target," Brown added with a laugh.

Brown's friend from Oskaloosa recommended Grinnell to Brown, mostly because of the College. "[I was told] you're going to meet people from everywhere, every race, every religion. And that Grinnell was a perfect and [I would] love it," she said.

Brown made the decision to move to Grinnell without knowing much about the town. After doing research on the College, President Kington and how liberal the school was, Brown knew it was right for her.

Brown began working at Burling in 2012 and she has been working for the college ever since.

"Everything lined up and I was lucky," says Brown.

Grinnell College has also influenced Brown and her family. Her children were inspired by the small liberal arts school and have attended other private liberal arts colleges.

Moving around has made Brown very open to change. "I know that in five years I could be somewhere else," she noted. Brown tends to go with the flow and tries to not plan out too much of her future — after all, she may be traveling the world soon. about the physical environment, having been to a lot of other places.

The other plus of Grinnell is actually its location too,” Van Dyke said. “It’s an hour, give or take, to Iowa City, Ames, Des Moines, Cedar Falls for cultural events that you just can’t support in a town this size. It’s not an impossibility to drive an hour and see some of those things.”

Community Speaks:

Last week, the Des Moines Register published an extended piece continuing their analysis of drunk driving records in the state of Iowa.

The analysis took into account the more than 203,000 Iowa intoxicated driving records from 2005-2016, and uncovered harsh numbers quantifying the real threat repeat drunk drivers pose to the safety of Iowans.

John McCartney’s death on April 4 is a particularly poignant case. The 82 year old was struck and killed in a drunken driving incident

by Kurt Shivers, who was later convicted of vehicular homicide while intoxicated. This is not Shivers’ first arrest for Operating While Intoxicated, OWI, — it was his ninth.

The Register’s investigation of Iowa Judicial Branch data shows this is far from uncommon. Nearly onethird of drivers charged with vehicular homicide while intoxicated are repeat offenders. Similarly nearly 20 percent of the 132,000 motorists who had been charged with OWIs were also repeat offenders.

Grinnell’s record with repeat OWI arrests is equally as surprising.

Between 2015 and 2016 there were 56 OWI arrests. Of these, 23 arrests, or 41 percent were of drivers who had previously been arrested for an OWI. The problem of repeated drunk driving has plagued Iowa for years.

Complaints on the current OWI legislation range from the sentencing being too short to the rate of license revocation being too low. The Register’s report found Iowa’s sentencing laws for drivers caught repeatedly drunken driving to be more lenient than other states.

In the case of McCartney’s death, the incident may not have occurred if Shivers had served his full sentence for his eight OWI conviction. Instead, he was released early, and was back on the road in only eight and a half months.

“There comes a point with these repeat offenders where everyone collectively needs to look at this and say this isn't working," said Des Moines Police Chief Dana Wingert on the state of drunken driving in Iowa in an interview with the Des Moines Register. "Whether it's the courts, the [Department of Transportation] — everybody needs to come to that same conclusion — that the incentives we put in place to not re-offend did not work or are not working.”

Senate Bill 444 is now going before Governor Terry Branstad, and its sponsors hope that it will make those with an OWI think twice before reoffending. The bill introduces 24/7-sobriety legislation. This would require those convicted of OWIs to go through a check-in program where twice daily they would attend a check in facility to ensure their blood alcohol content does not exceed 0.025, and in the case of a failure they would be placed in jail for 24 hours with potential further charges brought against them. Branstad is expected to sign the bill into law.

According to the Des Moines Register analysis, including the National Traffic Safety Administration’s studies, the rate of repeat drunken driving is increasing in Iowa.

A 1995 study showed that 21 percent of intoxicated drivers convicted in Iowa during a six-year period were repeat offenders. The national estimate found one-third of drivers arrested or convicted were repeat offenders.

In 2014 Iowa surpassed the national average, with 35 percent of OWI convictions belonging to repeat offenders, while nationally the average was 30 percent.

The 24/7-sobriety bill aims to create harsher enforcements on drunk driving convictions, with the goal of enforcing drunken driving regulations and increasing road safety in Iowa.

What do you love most about spring in Grinnell?

April is almost halfway over and here in Grinnell, on and off campus, spring is in the air. That and the continued hope for no more snow. The S&B's Steve Yang went into the community to find out what it is that Grinnellians are most excited for this season.

“I feel that when the sun is out, people are just happier. It’s just like, a more fun place to be when people are happy.”

-Kylie Smith (pictured left, with sister Aubree) right)

“My favorite part of spring, being that I work in a flower shop, is the new variety of flowers that we get in.”

-Bethany Stratford

“Being able to walk outside without getting too cold.”

-Nick Leedom

“My favorite part of spring is sun, especially at Grinnell and the trees starting to bloom.”

- Elvira Nurmukhamedova ’19

“My favorite part of spring is the beautiful colors and the flowers.”

-Ashley Peakright

“Enjoying the nice weather and hanging out with friends.”

-Joseph White PHOTOS BY HELENA GRUENSTEIDL

Movies at the Strand

FATE OF THE FURIOUS

Showtimes: 3:40 p.m. 4 p.m., 6:30 p.m., 9:20 p.m., 9:50 p.m.

3D: 7:00 p.m.

Beautiful eggman Vin Diesel plays a man who wants to go really fast but this time he?? Betrays his family??

THE BOSS BABY Showtimes: 3:50 p.m., 6:45 p.m., 9 p.m.

This Baby Means Business.

BEAUTY AND THE BEAST Showtimes: By The Time This Publishes, This Movie Will Be Gone Watch Hermione fall in love with and probably make out with a water buffalo.

Features

Edited by kielyphi@grinnell.edu

5

Pioneer Weekend encourages student innovation

CONTRIBUTED

The Bail Abolition Network would provide bail support for communities.

By Zane Silk silkzane@grinnell.edu Last weekend, Grinnell College hosted the third iteration of Pioneer Weekend, which is an innovation competition that seeks to build entrepreneurship and leadership skills among students. This year's nine teams, consisting of 33 students, in to-

tal competed for a top prize of $2,000 and a scholarship for the University of Iowa-sponsored Venture School program. The event was sponsored by the Wilson Center for Innovation and Leadership and organized by Mark Schwabacher ‘17 and Ajuna Kyaruzi ‘17, along with Katie Herbert ‘20 and Jeman Park ‘20.

“Students in teams of two to five

work towards turning an idea that they pitch on Friday into a final presentation that they present on Sunday.

So Friday they meet up, people give ideas, Saturday they get mentored by some alumni and professors, and then they work on it all day Saturday, they do some research. Then on Sunday they present it and prizes are won,” Kyaruzi said.

This year, the judges for the event were Pete Brownell, the CEO of the Poweshiek County-based Brownells, which manufactures gun parts and accessories; Dave Tominsky, the manager of the Iowa Startup Accelerator and Diane Marty ’92 who owns a social enterprise consulting firm in Kansas City, Missouri.

The winning idea the judges chose was The Bail Abolition Network, a consultancy firm that would address the issue of high bail costs by helping communities create local bail funds and advocate for bail policy reform. Dylan Ambrosoli ’18, Nathan Calvin ’18, Nomalanga Shields ’18 and Myles Becker ’19 comprised the team. Second place, which came with a $1,000 check, went to We-Tinerary,

a trip-sharing platform for connecting students travelling to the same location and thereby reducing their costs. Finally, third place and $500 was awarded to Why Eye Care, a proposed a business built around leasing lasers to opticians performing cataract surgeries in an effort to make the procedure more affordable.

The first Pioneer Weekend was organized in 2014, but the event was not hosted again the following year. Then, in 2016, Kyaruzi sought to revive the event, and she brought Schwabacher and two other students on board to help put it on. Now in its second year since being revived, Kyaruzi and Schwabacher are hoping that Pioneer Weekend becomes an established event that takes place annually for years to come.

“We want to promote the idea that when you leave Grinnell you don’t necessarily have to join something that someone else has started, you can go out there into the world and start it on your own. And one of the really positive effects of this is that it connects people to resources that we have right here in Iowa, such as the Iowa Startup Accelerator,” Schwabacher said.

“A really unique aspect of the event is the Wilson Leadership Council, which is a bunch of alumni that are meeting during that weekend, come in and act as mentors with the groups … They are alums who come back who are working in venture capital, or own their own companies, and each of them will meet every team and share their opinions,” Schwabacher said.

Unlike purely networking events, Pioneer Weekend was a chance to meet people in an environment that is much less contrived.

“It’s really natural with alumni and with the judges, because you’re there and you’re there for a reason… you’re there to sell something that you’re passionate about and that you spent all weekend working on, so they’re a lot of great dynamics,” Schwabacher explained.

Next year, Herbert and Park will hopefully take the reins and Pioneer Weekend will shift to the fall so that it can be incorporated into a course on entrepreneurship and also so that the organizers can follow up with the teams throughout the year and connect them with resources.

Background Noyce: Professor Susan Villarreal

By Andrea Baumgartel baumgart1@grinnell.edu “I focus on aspects of behavior that impact an organism’s life, and try to understand why they’re behaving the way they are,” said Professor Susan Villearreal.

She is an entomologist who has started teaching Bio 150, 240, and 252 this year and is developing a brandnew Forensic Entomology course.

Among other exciting projects, she is working to complete and curate the insect collection at Conard Environmental Research Area (CERA), Grinnell’s 365-acre field station of restored prairie.

“At the end of the summer, I want to have a complete, curated insect collection and examine how, for example, in one part of CERA there’s an old growth field—let’s look at the insects out there and see what species are inhabiting that area, and see how its composition differs from, say, the forest or managed plot areas,” Villarreal explained. “I hope to have [the collection] to be very applicable for all sorts of uses that people will have in the future.”

Villarreal has studied a wide range

of topics, from looking at molecular tools to manipulate mosquito-mating behavior (ideal for disease control), to characterizing the complex mating duets of Scudderia pistillata, a katydid local to parts of the Midwest and Eastern U.S. “Insects have so much diverse, weird and fun behavior—and they manage it all with very rudimentary stuff. Basic neuronal stuff, but they’re able to do wildly complex things. The more you probe into it, the more you find,” Villarreal said.

Currently, Villarreal focuses on the pre-mating behavior duets, or acoustics, of Scudderia pistillata.

Along with other acoustic insects, Scudderia pistillata have their own, distinguishable, species-specific sounds. The male calls at night in the summer and the female gives a response.

But things get complicated—fast.

First, these calls have specified, quantifiable time sequence. The female doesn’t call back immediately, but waits for a brief time before making her own call—a slightly delayed response.

Second, each Scudderia pistillata male has his own idiosyncratic call.

And with so many males calling at once (the chorus), this leads to competition amongst the males all vying to be chosen by the female. This choice—the pre-mating decision of the female—is Villarreal’s main research goal for this upcoming summer. “[I use] microphones to play different calls to the female and listen to her response, as well as the way that she changes in terms of what she’s paying attention to. This one male might have this type of call and this other male has a slightly different call—does she have a preference for one above the other? Who she chooses in the environment tells us key things about the interactions of the chorus,” Villarreal said.

Villarreal also studies the huge physical and acoustic interactions within the katydid chorus. Because the katydids need to make themselves both audible and distinguishable, “You get so many elaborate singers and variation.”

Sometimes, when males get too close, they’ll fight—wing-flipping and leg kicking galore. But since having a chorus of males is more audible, and therefore advantageous, it rarely gets more violent than that (for katydids,

Limelight: T.G.I.F

CONTRIBUTED

Jasper Cole-Kink ’19, Silas Hammel ’19, Ian Donaldson ‘20, Jamal Preston ’19, Lauren MacKenzie ’19 and J’Remi Barnes '19 comprise T.G.I.F. They will perform their blend of R&B and pop on April 22 and April 28.

T.G.I.F is a student band making a name for itself in the Grinnell student music scene. Jasper Cole-Kink ’19 on drums, Silas Hammel ’19 on bass, Ian Donaldson ‘20 on piano and Jamal Preston ’19, Lauren MacKenzie ’19 and J’Remi Barnes '19 on vocals draw from a wide variety of musical backgrounds and blend into a funky R&B group. This week, The S&B’s Philip Kiely sat down with the band to find out what makes the metronome tick.

The S&B: How did you get T.G.I.F started?

Jamal Preston: J’Remi and Silas shot the idea around of starting a band, but we never actually did it.

We were all shooting around the idea and then one day we decided to actually do it.

Lauren MacKenzie: J’Remi knew that I was musically interested since last year, when we met. We had hung out a couple times and done music stuff in Bucksbaum, and then one day he just comes up to me at work in Dhall and says ‘Lauren, are you free at 8 tonight, come to 'Free Sound.’ I walked into joining a

band, I didn’t know that it was happening until I was halfway through meeting everyone.

Silas Hammel: I would add that we brought Ian [Donaldson] in because he was in the Latin American ensemble playing with me, so that’s how we pulled him in.

The S&B: How did you settle on a name?

SH: Our name has kind of gone here and there. First it was ‘Funk Trump,’ reflecting our political convictions, then it became ‘TGI Funky,’ like ‘Thank God it’s Funky,’ now just for consistency, we want to get it out there that our name is T.G.I.F. or, individually, we are ‘The Funkies.’

The S&B: What is your group's style?

SH: We draw from a huge range of musical influences, we come from different backgrounds in that respect. Our repertoire seems to have been pop, a lot of R&B, some rock, and we’re starting to develop our own style as we write original songs.

Our last set was entirely original ar-

rangements. Others were written, arranged, etc. by us. So, we’re starting to create our own style, which I would describe as ‘Pop R&B.’ Jasper Cole-Kink: In terms of drumming I take a lot of influence from 70s R&B stuff but also modern U.K. club music and electronic, just in terms of weird rhythms and stuff.

J’Remi Barnes: I’m fairly new to writing, I don’t think I have an individual style. You just write what you feel. The songs that I’ve been working on recently, it’s been very sappy love songs. For the band style … we draw from a wide range of musical backgrounds.

The S&B: What sort of shows do you play?

SH: We do seek to have a lot of energy at our shows, this is a live show band, in a sense a party band. We’re trying to produce a very specific emotional response, we want people to let loose and enjoy themselves … we want people to be moving, standing, singing, dancing, it’s a participatory style of music.

JB: We played at prairie before … it was a very serious concert. That wasn’t our best concert, in my opinion. Not saying that we weren’t on our A-game, but the environment did not match what we wanted to do.

JCK: I just want to bring the funk and make sure that people have a good time.

The S&B: What do you see in the future of the band?

SH: We are looking for exposure.

We’re trying to build a set list of things we can do. We want people to know who we are, to recognize our songs.

JP: We’re hoping to build on [the Free Sound Community] as well, sort of cultivating that community.

Once The Wellness is out the door, someone has to cultivate the community.

SARAH RUIZ

Professor Susan Villarreal is an entomologist specializing in mating rituals. at least).

What makes a female katydid choose one particular male over the other? Again, the answer lies in the calls.

Every time a katydid sings, it rubs its wings together—think Zzt-zztzzt! But the length of these Zzt’s! can increase or decrease. Villarreal has found that the females seem to prefer males who have the longest calls, and believes that female preference is one of the ways in which species-specific calls develop. In the katydid’s case, female preference has put selective pressure on these calls to become longer

in duration. Although, when Villarreal tried playing unaturally long calls, the females didn’t show a preference— sticking with species-specificity.

All of these sounds are going to be making their “voices” heard very soon.

“It’s something all around us, but we often overlook it,” Villarreal said.

“Start looking out for all of the spring sounds. The spring peepers [frogs] are starting now—they’re the first vocalizers besides birds. Then the spring crickets pop up, and then as it gets warmer, the cicadas, katydids, tree crickets.”

Get to know your SEPCs: Economics

CONTRIBUTED

The economics SEPC oversees student affairs in Grinnell's largest major.

By Lily Bohlke bohlkeli@grinnell.edu The Economics SEPC, a group in equilibrium, has high supply and high demand at the same time. Noah Sebek ’17, Muhamad Sami ’17, Evelyn Weidman ’17, Dylan Ambrosoli ’18 and Anushka Joshi ’18 comprise the SEPC, which works together to give input to the Economics hiring processes, get to know professors and build community within the major.

“I really like the research aspect to it, and I talked about becoming [closer] with professors and figuring out where their interests lie. That’s not exactly what we do, but I think I’ve been able to use that to influence what we actually do,” Sebek said.

“A lot of it has been wanting to get more involved and have a student voice in the department,” Weidman added.

“I just wanted to be a part of the economics department. I had some ideas, related to finance, that I wanted to share with people,” Sami added.

The SEPC members all agree that being involved in the hiring practices is valuable as interested students. Not only do they get to voice their concerns and the concerns of other students, but also they get to interact with potential professors.

“We get to sell ourselves. Once

we actually have candidates to campus, often they’re interviewing at 20some other places as well. How can we convince them Grinnell is a cool place? We are the students that they see and we try to convince them we’re cool and representative of the Econ major as a whole,” Ambrosoli said.

“We’ve had candidates say this is the only school where they actually talk to undergrads. It is kind of a unique way to get them thinking about how Grinnell is different, and about student initiative and student involvement,” Weidman added.

“We try to reach out to a large sample of [students], and really get a lot of viewpoints,” Sebek said. “We know what people want, and what we can get.”

As representatives from the largest major on campus, the Economics SEPC enjoys a sizable budget to plan study breaks, events like bowling and the Economics picnic.

Some of their recent events included an Econ Department Pub Night to mingle with professors and students informally, Econ lunches to talk informally about economics and a Dari Barn run to allow majors to engage with each other.

Ambrosoli has begun to plan a “bowling league, or at least a couple of lanes of bowling going — things in town that we can do in groups.”

Sports

6

Edited by carhartl17@grinnell.edu

Fitness Center town hall begins process of increasing inclusivity

sarah ruiz

John Gallagher '17 leads a discussion this past Tuesday. The QAA has worked to develop goals to increase the outreach and inclusivity of the Fitness Center.

By Lucia Tonachel tonachel@grinnell.edu On Thursday, a group of over fifty students and athletic directors gathered in Loose Lounge. Leaders of Queer Athletes and Allies (QAA) and Student Athletes Leading Social Change (SALSC) collaborated to co-host a Fitness Center Town Hall, with the aim of engaging a diverse group in a discussion about how to make the Fitness Center more welcoming and inclusive.

“The issues about the weight room have just always been floating around and we’ve kind of been hearing them from everywhere for a very long time and there was a specific request from students to do something about the

weight room and making the fitness center more inclusive,” said Polly Carr ’18, a co-leader of QAA and member of the women’s soccer team.

John Gallagher ’17, also a QAA leader, underscored this point, adding that “it was a relatively universal thing” for students to express concerns about inclusion at the Fitness Center.

Gallagher runs track and field for the Pioneers and sees the value of fitness resources for the whole of the Grinnell community. QAA leads inclusion talks with sports teams, “to start a conversation about what inclusion looks like,” Carr said.

Karin Yndestad `17 explained that the event was organized with the goal

of “trying to make sure that we would be creating a space where people who don’t necessarily feel comfortable in the weight room can say ‘I don’t feel comfortable’ and talk about the reasons why that might be.”

Yndestad is the third QAA co-leader and a member of the women’s cross country team. Despite their best efforts, however, most attendees were athletes.

“I really hope people come away feeling a lot of support from athletes on campus. I was really excited to hear people were really invested despite not having faced some of the same concerns themselves,” Ynestad said. “It’s still in my eyes, a success, because people in this room will continue the conversations.”

“[we are] trying to make sure that we would be creating a space where people who don’t necessarily feel comfortable in the weight room can say ‘I don’t feel comfortable’ and talk about the reasons why that might be” Karin Yndestad '17 Students attending the town hall were split randomly into small groups by index card and instructed to begin by identifying one thing the fitness center did well and one area in which it could improve. Ground rules for dis-

cussion further helped set a respectful and productive baseline. Small groups then moved into discussions about what students identified and possible solutions, each led by a student facilitator from QAA or SALSC. The event ended in a large group discussion, which helped concretize common themes across discussions.

"Some suggestions included a p-card reader for the second floor, relocating some of the lifting racks and platforms and providing more information about work out routines and general gym how-tos."

Common concerns included the experience of walking through a crowded weight room to reach the upstairs cardio machines, absence of supportive information about gym etiquette and the intimidation which may arrive with an entire sports team practicing in the Fitness Center. Some suggestions included a p-card reader for the second floor, relocating some of the lifting racks and platforms and providing more information about work out routines and general gym how-tos.

Ben Cooprider, Assisant Athletics Director, and Holly Roepke, Assistant Athletic Director and Coordinator for Diversity, Inclusion, and Student Programming, were also in attendance.

Not only symbolizing the support of the Athletic Department for such

conversations, Cooprider and Roepke spoke to the power of the conversation.

“Please come talk to us,” Cooprider said, sharing his personal contact information in earnest.

“You have a responsibility when you leave this room, share this. Find five people outside this room and have this conversation,” Roepke added.

Throughout the discussion, one theme was clear: everyone wants the Fitness Center to be as inclusive as possible and the turn out provided evidence for the motivation to make this desire real.

QAA and SALSC will compile a list of concerns and suggestions to share with other members of the Athletic Department this week, to initiate changes as soon as possible.

“The issues about the weight room have just always been floating around and we’ve kind of been hearing them from everywhere for a very long time and there was a specific request from students to do something about the weight room and making the fitness center more inclusive” Polly Carr `18 If you have any comments, concerns, ideas or questions to add to the ongoing discussion, please email [qaa].

Jerry Jones and marijuana: the NFL has a PR problem

By Louise Carhart carhartl17@grinnell.edu In the wake of multiple scandals involving National Football League (NFL) players concerning domestic violence, drug use and murder, Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones pushed for relaxation of league rules. At a recent owners-only meeting, Jones proposed that the League end punishments for players that test positive for marijuana, while also stepping back from investigating off-field incidents.

Just as the NFL uses pop stars like Beyoncé and Lady Gaga to present themselves as in touch, they must also consider how they present themselves in terms of criminal tolerance.

The NFL is known for player protection, even when faced with legal pressure. In the case of the New England Patriots’ Aaron Hernandez, head coach Bill Belichick expressed his support for Hernandez as he was under investigation for, and eventually convicted of, a double murder in 2012. The Baltimore

Ravens’ Ray Rice was originally handed a two-game suspension for a domestic abuse incident involving his now-wife Janay Rice. While this was eventually overturned, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell announced the suspension in a press conference where he expressed that he believed the punishment fit the crime. These instances are two high profile examples in recent years of an epidemic of harboring and supporting criminals.

Jones, who has owned the Cowboys since 1989, is notorious for raising eyebrows and pursuing success at all costs. He has been criticized for making himself the face of the team and outspending all other teams in the NFL. His proposal to ease testing for marijuana comes at a time when four of his own team members are facing punishment for testing positive for the drug. His move to abolish testing is clearly advantageous to the Cowboys and gives Jones a better chance to begin the 2017 season with a full roster.

This is good motivation, but the change would not be able to take place unless agreed upon by the owners, the NFL and the Players’ Union.

In the case of the New England Patriots’ Aaron Hernandez, head coach Bill Belichick expressed his support for Hernandez as he was under investigation for, and eventually convicted of, a double murder in 2012.

While ending marijuana testing may reflect the current changes in policy across the country, the true issue behind Jones’ suggestions is the roll back of NFL investigations.

The NFL has suffered bad press for years. It has been unable to both stop crime from becoming common and adequately punish perpetrators.

Ending NFL investigation into offfield incidents would only serve to plunge the League into a deeper hole, causing it to lose legitimacy with certain demographics.

The 2017 season will start in September and Jerry Jones will still own the Cowboys, but that does not mean the League must accept business as usual.

There are those who believe that the NFL should not interfere with the personal conduct of their players, especially when events play themselves out off the field. The argument that claims regulation and investigation of off-field activities cross privacy lines does not consider the hold the NFL has over the American, and international, public.

Football remains the most popular sport in the United States, with the Super Bowl drawing huge numbers

of viewers. Just as the NFL uses pop stars like Beyoncé and Lady Gaga to present themselves as in touch, they must also consider how they present themselves in terms of criminal tolerance. Jerry Jones does not speak for the entire League, but his actions are indicative of a prevailing culture. The 2017 season will start in September and Jerry Jones will still own the Cowboys, but that does not mean the League must accept business as usual.

SOPHIA MENDEZ

The National Football League has suffered from a public relations problem for years, prompting many commissioners, owners and players to take action.

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Award winning author and musician James McBride visits campus

HELENA GRUENSTEIDL

James McBride visited campus this week, participating in a round table Q&A session, and a concert/reading on Thursday night.

James McBride is an award winning author and musician. His memoir “The Color of Water” was a New York Times bestseller, and his latest book “The Good Lord Bird” won the 2013 National Book Award for Fiction in 2013. This Thursday, McBride sat down with a group of students to talk about music, research and finding your story.

How do you find a story?

Most good stories that I like center around some sort of explosive event that pushes conflict into the world.

That world can be of a person or the world in general. Whatever fragment of those you want to grab is where you might want to think about beginning. But some stories don’t begin where you expect them to begin and often you choose a character to focus on, and that character might not be the one to walk you through that story. In terms of entry point of the story, you look for the conflict and work your way into the story in the most compelling way possible.

How has writing changed over time that you can’t write all of your research into a novel?

If you can engage the reader with your talent, you can sustain taking two pages to describe the house, if there’s a character who moves it from one place to the next. I think readers are still engaged in books.

I think books are still very popular.

I think the attention span of readers now is not what it once was, and also some of that is driven by television habits of Americans, which

is pathetically huge. I don’t own a TV so that’s always helped me …

Why pollute your mind? If you are a cynical person at the age of 22 or 23, you should probably stop writing right now. Because cynicism will destroy your creativity. It’s okay to be skeptical, skepticism is important, but cynicism is toxic to the good writer. Yes, the book has been done before but you haven’t done it. Yes, the story has been told before but you haven’t told it. Yes, the experience has been lived before but you haven’t lived it. You don’t need to tell everything. Don’t try to push everything on the page because what happens with the advent of the computer, is we find books that are created like this. The writer starts at the top of the story, and then they get stuck, and start inserting, and it starts growing from the middle.

You’re a jazz musician as well, so I was wondering how those different types of artistry inform each other?

Well, to be honest, I never really think about it too much because then you start thinking about it and dissecting the process. … Jazz involves

learning a set of musical principles that you have to learn in a classical, twelve-ton, Western form of music.

And after you learn that there’s a certain set of rules you have to learn to follow, and then certain structural forms that create songs. After you know that, you push in with what you have. Storytelling in the written form, or in the televised form, involve certain structural elements, so you have to study those structural elements really well before you can express yourself, and know it well enough before you can fool around a little bit. So I don’t know that one informs the other, there is an improvisational quality to writing, where you have to call in the angels and you know when you have it, except the problem is with fiction as with music, it looks great when you finish it and then you go back the next day and think, ‘why did I do that?’ The trick is to just shove forward and what I do, my writing process, is I write the first 30 pages or so in longhand, and then I type it, fool with it, check it out a little bit and push forward. If I feel the top of the book is not right, then I’ll rewrite it and I’ll keep rewriting it until I know

the foundation of the story is solid.

You recently wrote a historical novel. Was it fun to write?

The research was difficult. The research is the hardest part, the writing is easy. … I’ve been writing a long time. At my age, I’m just trying to have fun. You need to be like a ventriloquist. … You can’t let the audience see your lips move. And as a writer, you have to sort of let them think it’s easy. Of course, it’s not easy. I haven’t worked in 30 years. There’s going to a job, and there’s work. I’ve had many jobs, but I haven’t worked, because I like what I do. I mean, if I wrote scripts or something I could make a lot of money, but I basically do what I like doing. I would encourage that for you and I’ll close with that, but when you graduate from here, you’ll be under pressure to make a lot of money. You have to like what you do, and if you like what you do making $20,000 a year, you are much richer and much better off than someone who hates what they do and makes $139 million a year.

- compiled by Lily Bohlke

Campus DJs to perform this Friday at Techtonica

By Candace Mettle mettleca@grinnell.edu “Enjoy the moment and dance.”

Those are the words of advice from Hameedullah Weaver ’17 to students interested in Techtonica this Friday, April 14. Along with Jenkin Benson ’17, the two have revitalized an ever-present, but underground, student led music event. As underclassmen, they attended Techtonic Gardner in spring 2014 and were blown away.

That year had been the last time that an all-electronic and publicized music event showcasing student DJs had been held, until now, rebranded as “Techtonica.”

Weaver and Benson felt inspired to restart this event to preserve its legacy and give other student DJs the chance to perform.

“A lot of times at [the College], if you try to play stuff that’s unfamiliar to people’s ears they don’t want to hear,” Weaver said. “At house parties, you have to play top 40s. [Techtonica] gives students the chance of expression to play whatever they want and have people be receptive and dance to it.”

Weaver began his DJ career during Block Party after a student asked him if he would like to DJ for the rest of the night at his house. However, his in-

terest in music began in childhood. He credits his interest to his family who played genres from reggae to hip-hop, and his hometown of Chicago, the birthplace of house music.

“That same summer after Block Party, I downloaded Virtual DJ,” Weaver said. “I’ve always been interested in DJing but at [Block Party] I realized that I really liked this feeling, so I wanted to do it more.”

Benson, who goes by Yung San Pellegrino, had a similar experience.

In high school, Benson had produced music, usually in the rock genre with a guitar, but based on his location he could not find people who shared the same level of interest.

“I had a laptop and I [realized] you can only compose so much on guitar, so I got computer programs that produce tracks like electronic music.

Eventually I started beats and synth pop and hip hop instrumentals and it was a natural progression.”

Benson also has used his skills to add to campus culture.

“I’m kind of an anxious dude and when I was at parties they weren’t always the most comfortable thing for me,” Benson said. “I love music and I made music, so I thought that I might as well add to the party.”

Weaver is new to composition but because of his interest in DJing, he felt

comfortable starting to make his own music.

“It’s only recently that I’ve been really developing the craft of making my own music,” he said. “I’ve been listening to other people’s music and I thought that if they can do it, I can do it, to so that’s what inspired me to make music.”

The lineup will feature Benson, Weaver, Jack Marchesi ’20 and Deniz Sahin ’20, who will share an hour and Juliet Torres ’19, who had actually encouraged Weaver to push for an event to showcase students.

Torres, aka “Uncle J,” also hails from Chicago and has been influenced by its music scene. Attending college has encouraged her to become an amateur DJ and to share her favorite sounds. Techtonica will provide the opportunity for Torres to perform her Chicago-based style, rather than purely conform to what partiers want.

In her first year as a student, Torres DJ’ed for Harris parties. Like Weaver and Benson, most of her experience DJing has come from providing music for parties. Since then, Torres has developed her craft.

“Honestly, I didn’t know that I could be good at DJing and that I had a niche for it,” Torres said. “I have a good way of figuring out what beats sound good together and I didn’t fig-

Busdriver & Waldo to grace Gardner

By Halley Freger fregerha17@grinnell.edu Grinnell Concerts is back this weekend with the first concert since spring break. What a perfect way to kick things back into gear with two distinctive and accomplished rappers: Busdriver and Waldo.

The concert will be in Gardner Lounge this Saturday at 10 p.m. following Drag Show. LA’s Busdriver has had an expansive career. He began rapping at the age of nine and joined his first rap group in response to the 1992 Los Angeles Riots at the age of thirteen. Since then, he has put out eleven solo full-length releases.

His most recent mixtape “Thumbs,” exemplifies his ability to seamlessly blend different sounds. The opening track “Absolutions in the Hottentot Supercluster” combines Busdriver’s insightful lyricism with a humming lo-fi hip-hop beat. On this particular mixtape, Busdriver’s lyrics are explicitly political, exploring issues of race and class in the United States. Though

2015 was a great year for explicitly political hip-hop, such as Kendrick Lamar’s “To Pimp a Butterfly,” but “Thumbs” stands out as a mixtape that combines both the historical, with references to people such as abolitionist Olaudah Equiano, with the poetic and personal. On “Great Spooks of Enormous Strength,” he explores the constant threat of being a black man, referencing current events such as militarized police. In one critical lyric, delivered in his iconic fast-paced flow, he puts a spin on the Pledge of Allegiance by stating, “buying power indivisible, under God.” The album features many of his frequent collaborators such as milo, Mono/Poly, Kenny Segal and Fumitake Tamura.

Busdriver is unafraid of collaboration, from groups to features to remixes. He has experience as part of the famous open-mic workshop Project Blowed, but he has also taken on projects such as a remix of a song by math rock band Tera Melos.

In true 2017 fashion, Busdriver’s current project is a podcast. In FR/

BLCK/PR Radio, Busdriver combines political and social theory with atmospheric soundscapes to create complicated episodes such as “The American Theatre of The Real & The Nazi Party.” By combining lecture, samples and music, Busdriver has created a smart, haunting series that also serves as a glimpse into the kind of research and thought behind his lyrics.

Michigan-based rapper and founding member of the hip-hop collective AGO Waldo will join Busdriver on Saturday. Another experienced rapper, with seven projects under his belt, Waldo continues to set the bar even higher which each project. On his most recent 2016 album “Ever Be Wonderful,” named in reference to the Earth, Wind & Fire song, Waldo combines soulful and hardcore hip-hop in a delicate blend.

It is exciting to finally bring Waldo to Grinnell after he was originally scheduled to play a show last semester. Don’t miss him with Busdriver this Saturday at 10 p.m. in Gardner.

CONTRIBUTED

Busdriver and Waldo will perform on in Garder at 10 p.m. Saturday.

ure that out until now when I was able to discover new music that I hadn’t known about before college.”

The DJ culture at the College, although burgeoning, has helped her grow as an artist.

“I want to learn how to scratch in the future and use turntables, which is really expensive,” she said. “Prior to DJing, I didn’t know it is so technology based. Most DJs use computers whereas before you used vinyl records to scratch and make music which is super cool but the learning process has been really hard.”

Although the DJ community at the College has been very supportive, Torres has encountered some students who didn’t recognize her talent. Torres does not know the root cause of her peers disbelieve in her abilities—

most likely a combination of race and gender.

“I remember there was a Gardner I had been asked to DJ and they put me at the 11-12 slot,” Torres recalled.

“These two other guys were DJing and they wanted to play in my spot. When I refused, they said ‘well you are not a DJ.’ While I was DJing in my slot, they were like looking behind my shoulder like I didn’t know what I was doing.”

Weaver, Benson and Torres hope that students will be receptive of the work they have done at Techtonica.

“This is an event [where] … you’re coming to dance but also to hear songs that you may have never heard before,” Benson said. “[Techtonica] is an experience and a performance.”

MAHIRA FARAN

Benson (left) and Weaver (right) organized Techtonica.

Godspell opens at Grinnell Arts Center

By Andrea Baumgartel baumgart1@grinnell.edu Go see Godspell. Seriously.

From its through-the-roof vocals woven alongside intricate choreography by Amaris Bates ’18, to expressions painted in bliss and fear, to colloquial asides midst an almost ridiculous seriousness, Godspell is hyperbole in a bottle; a color-loaded rocket soaring through its own little universe that you won’t want to leave after its inevitable end. As you sit, enraptured in the nook-like Loft of Grinnell’s Arts Center, you will forget all the worlds in which you exist—save for this one.

Directed by Nolan Boggess ’19, the musical opens with a spot-lit Jesus (played by the vibrant Lizzy Hinman ’20) locking in the room with the words “I am most in majesty, in whom no beginning may be and no end.”

Then, one by one, all cast members file in for the opener, an unfathomable conglomeration of multi-paced lyricism that reflects both the philosophical and religious distances the characters experience in the beginning.

Throughout Act One — an experience infused with self-aware hippie-dippy genuineness — these teachings morph the once-poles-apart disciple figures into a collective, “woke” entity. However, the audience is plunged into a whole new arena once Act Two arrives, when Judas (played by the captivatingly earnest Sam Stickels ’19) ultimately betrays Jesus.

There is so much more to Godspell than this extremely simplified synopsis, but the experience cannot be translated; it is made for the stage and the stage alone.

“I’ve loved Godspell since I was

a little kid. I grew up in the Catholic school system, so I’ve always kind of been obsessed with the Catholic, Christian musicals” said Boggess, with a smile. “So when this whole directing thing fell into my lap — I had acted before, but never directed — I thought, ‘what’s something I can bring to Grinnell?’ and Christianity isn’t really talked about and it’s just a fun musical that I love, so I chose it.”

In his version, Boggess mixed inspiration from the Broadway revival performance and the movie.

“We were going for that bohemian-junkyard-getaway feel, and we have all the classic tone shifts and face paint, but the way we’ve done the costumes, the blocking, [staging it] in this round, alley-like theater with seats on both sides, makes it feel as if it’s happening all around you. I think that brings to the table a really unique, immersive experience,” he said.

Godspell is the second show that the College has performed in the Loft (located downtown, on the top floor of the Arts Center) and it is entirely student-run—the production team, director, costumer, scene design, lighting design and stage manager are all students. Even the band is entirely composed of students, including some from Grinnell High School.

“Obviously it’s religious-themed, but a lot of us aren’t even religious,” said Victoria Robinson ’18. “It’s just all about bringing people together.”

It’s a musical that is able, somehow, to reach the ends of all the spectra; an escapade inflected with zaniness, feeling, and most of all, joy.

Godspell will take place in the Loft Theatre in the Grinnell Arts Center from April 13-15 at 7:30 p.m.

Edited by mettleca@grinnell.edu

The New Brumaire:

Opinions

Media Warhawks

It is harrowingly American to fawn over and exalt war. For most my life, the United States has been engaged in several neo-imperialist military conflicts, escalations and occupations across the Middle East that have all been guised as an expression of America's strive to foster international liberal democracy and quell the spread of jihadist terrorism. While the American public's approval of ground troops and invasions fluctuates, Americans are either content or unaware of the United States' aggressive, neoliberal international economic policy and drone warfare.

With the post-modernity following WWII came a near full desensitization to war. The Cold War and its ideological descendent, The War on Terror, have accustomed the American people to a state of political being aptly deemed by Gore Vidal’s "Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace," as a policy of continuous military activity and public exposure to said activity through mediums like television and the internet. America's reserved acceptance of militarism did not just form of its own accord; state apparatuses aligned with the political elite have long be a major tool of justifying and, in turn, valorizing America's gruesome imperial presence, most notably through news media.

History repeats itself. News programming helped to validate America's post-9/11 crusade and once more the media class has already begun to sell the American public another conflict in Syria. Just last week Brian Williams, a man so enamored with the concept of on-the-ground war reporting that he lied about being violently engaged in Iraq, invoked Leonard Cohen and described the firing of over 50 tomahawk missiles as “the beauty of our weapons.” The New York Times, The Guardian, The New Yorker, The Atlantic, The Washington Post, CNN, NPR, and many others have already published pieces both implicitly and explicitly calling for American military intervention into Syria, a decision that as history proves in Afghanistan, Libya, and Iraq would only be disastrous and further destabilizing. In an era of exaggerated fear of "fake news,"

the real pressing issue seems to be warmongering assessments from news outfits that fiercely want to preserve America’s hegemonic façade of moral high ground.

All these publications and news programs, the purported resistance to Trumpism, pivoted immediately as Trump reverted into a typical federal warhawk, sickeningly praising his stalwart condemnation of the Assad regime's possible usage of chemical weaponry. In an instant, President Trump went from a Putin-puppet fascist to a true American executive moved by his sympathy for the Syrian people. In America apparently, one is not ‘presidential’ until they use missiles to kill people. Center-left American popular media, despite their proclaimed allegiance to facts, is in no way the resistance to Trump's horrendous policies. If anything, The New York Times, MSNBC and others need Trump – they need the success story of his transformation into a presidential figure, and they will have no qualms with portraying a war as just and necessary to construct that narrative.

"The real pressing issue seems to be warmongering assessments from news outfits that fiercely want to preserve America’s hegemonic façade of moral high ground."

The American center-left establishment and its media arms pride themselves as the enlightened and progressive alternative to the GOP's draconian ideals, but both sides of the aisle remain tyrannically in sync in regards to their distressing foreign policy. What the Democratic Party cannot seem to grasp is that war precludes progress. How can wealth and power be distributed to the marginalized if billions upon billions are being funneled into cluster bombs and botched drone strikes? If the editors of the Huffington Post and Vox and etc. want to truly resist hard right ideology and its refuting of fact, they should reject falsely legitimized wars and take an absolute stance in opposition to militarism. Anything less is insufficient.

9

The R(ead)sling List:

The Marriage Plot

The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides hit close to home. The novel begins with the senior collegiate year and graduation of three characters – Madeline, Mitchell and Leonard – and follows the trio through their first post-college year.

Like Eugenides' other novels, The Marriage Plot takes place in a particular time period, which informs the book's tone; in this case, the tone pulls into the 1980s. The tense Reagan-era backdrop, compounded with the end-of-college premise and heavy Victorian literary tropes all made my choice of novel feel somewhat like kismet. Despite this, by the end I could not decide whether I actually liked the novel.

The Marriage Plot is beautifully written and at moments incredibly self-aware, though at others moments, it falls disappointingly short. Eugenides has a gift for getting inside of his characters' heads, changing the narratorial voice to match their inner monologue. This is particularly important because the novel divides between the points of view of three characters. Eugenides’ ability makes the third person narration for each of these characters distinct, dancing between narrator’s judgment and intense sympathy, is testament to his skill as a writer.

To voice not only a character demographically similar to himself, but two others with vastly different experiences of gender and mental health, makes the novel a fascinating read. Yet, there are aspects of the story which trouble me.

"Madeline and Leonard, on the other hand, both read as more fully-fleshed out characters."

Primary among my difficulties was that I found myself unable to sympathize with Mitchell, who seems to be the semi-autobiographical hero of the tale. Each

character embarks on, in one way or another, a listless post-graduation journey. For Madeline and Leonard, their journey is a deeply personal, emotional and interrelational one. For Mitchell, it is literal: he travels around Europe and India thinking alternately about religion and his "love/lust" for a version of Madeline that he has constructed in his imagination. Mitchell is at his best when he is thinking about God and being a slightly strange religious savant. Yet his character as the personification of the male gaze interrupts these moments of philosophical brilliance. Several female characters in the novel repeatedly point out this character flaw in what seem to be Eugenides' attempts at correcting Mitchell's sexism. These attempts might have had more success had the characters from which they sprung been presented as anything more than annoying-but-pretty pseudo-feminist girl-women with penchants for hair flipping. Thus, while it is Mitchell who undertakes a literal pilgrimage of soul-searching, the result of which is the novel's ending, his supposed transformation feels contrived.

stereotypical male character – obsessed with sex and convinced of his own intellect. Yet in Leonard's case, Eugenides makes no halfbaked attempt at reform, choosing instead to focus on the rise and fall of Leonard's lithium-regulated moods and giving the reader a beautifully intimate view into his mind.

Thus, The Marriage Plot presents a conundrum: a set of sometimes (or, in Mitchell's case, mostly) dislikeable characters, wrapped in the pretty packaging of Eugenides' skillful writing.

"Each character embarks on, in one way or another, a listless post-graduation journey. For Madeline and Leonard, their journey is a deep"Eugenides’ abili- ly personal, emoty makes the third tional and interperson narration relational one. for each of these For Mitchell, it is literal..." characters distinct, dancing beI chose a Cabernet Sauvignon (Trapiche 2014) to accompany The tween narrator’s Marriage Plot because I needed something predictable, about which judgment and I could decide. When most people of red wines, they think of intense sympathy, think Cabs; they're ubiquitous. They are is testament to his also often a safe red choice, and this Trapiche is the prototype of a good skill as a writer." Cab: mild, with a comforting heft Madeline and Leonard, on the other hand, both read as more fully-fleshed out characters. I may be biased towards Victorian-loving English major Madeline (I myself am a fourth year who recently completed a MAP on Victorian Literature), but I am able to forgive her mistakes and her sometimes grating immaturity because her character arc feels realistic. Leonard is, like Mitchell, a sometimes-disgustingly

to it, and notes of cherry and blackberry. It is not one-dimensional though, as some Cabs can be; hints of cedar and tobacco accompany the fruity notes. It was exactly what I needed to counter my anxiety over graduating and over my inability to make up my mind about Eugenides' novel.

Wine: Trapiche 2014 Cabernet Sauvignon, $10 at McNally's Non-Alcoholic Alternative: Try the London Fog at Saint's Rest (black tea, foamed milk, vanilla).

Staff Editorial: Our commitment to journalism

In times of turmoil, The Scarlet & Black staff finds it imperative for media outlets to provide comprehensive and objective expositions on current events. To do so requires publications to decide on whether they prioritize sales over informing their readership. As publications have chosen revenue, they have sensationalized the news to the point of disrespecting victims of strife and alienating parts of the public. Our staff aims to connect current events to and include the wide range of voices found on our campus community. In turn, we appreciate any constructive criticisms from readers who feel as though we have not maintained our goal.

The S&B staff felt it was imperative to address this issue after we noticed a bombardment of sensational reporting by many publications. Within pieces meant to present news, journalists have included their own viewpoints and misconstrued the fact of the matter. From failing to call white supremacists terrorists as they commit violence

against citizens of color, to portraying victims of sexual assault as people who caused their own harm to representing victims of police brutality as “thugs,” publications have failed the public as they use misleading language when dealing with sensitive issues. For the most nuanced issues, publications that view themselves as trustworthy have the duty to use language rooted in journalistic accuracy.

"Our staff aims to connect current events to and include the wide range of voices found on our campus community."

Although it is easy to consider the College as a bubble, we come to the College from various back-

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Teresa Fleming Eva Lilienfeld Lily Bohlke Mira Braneck Philip Kiely Louise Carhart Nora Coghlan Keli Vitaioli Candace Mettle Michael Cummings Jon Sundby Sarah Ruiz Jenny Dong Steve Yang Andrea Baumgartel Zane Silk Aaron Weerasinghe

grounds that affect our interactions on and off campus. Even when we remain within our so-called bubble, we must care about what happens outside of it. This is why The S&B wants to take the opportunity to report on nuanced issues, to distill the news and contextualize it for our local readership.

In addition, The S&B staff condemns publications’ use of gruesome and invasive photos of victims as props to heighten the audience’s interest. Photos and videos can provide necessary evidence of wrongs committed against victims. However, we encourage journalists, activists and anyone using social media platforms to distinguish between shock value and informing the public. We understand that sometimes the line between the two blur, but to be a legitimate publication and inform the public on current events, writers should keep in mind the intent of their work before publishing.

Is the point of journalism to sell papers, or to inform an audience?

"However, we encourage journalists, activists and anyone using social media platforms to distinguish between shock value and informing the public."

Media outlets can support good reporting by passing the pen to the people affected by current events.

When reporting on sensitive issues without doing so, journalists often let their biases show in their final product. Yet, encouraging affected individuals to speak is easier said than done—many people affected by controversial issues cannot or

may not want to speak on their experiences. We also cannot assume that individuals from the same demographic share identical experiences. The voyeuristic approach that many reporters have taken distorts the context of the issues they cover.

Journalism should expose conflicts, but to do so effectively, journalism must include and appeal to those directly involved. Therefore, journalists must confront their own biases and present news as respectfully as possible.

The S&B works to serve our community. If at any time you feel we have not reported on an issue that is relevant to community members or have failed to properly contextualize an event, please let us know. As student journalists, we welcome learning opportunities. In that spirit, we welcome anyone who expresses interest in writing, whether it be for reporting on events on campus to penning editorials. Our paper can only be as strong as the commitment of students’ engagement with current events.

SPARC Policy The Scarlet & Black is published on Fridays by students of Grinnell College and is printed by Times Republican of Marshalltown.

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the

Back Page Volume 135, Issue 21

thesandb.com

"The best thing since the front page!"

Photo of the Week

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

This is like that scene in Aristocats, but with dogs.

Arbitrary Analysis Social Calendar

Punching Fascists

bees Apple % 36

11:00 a.m. Kinetic Sculpture Competition @ Bucksbaum Rotunda

ARH

check us out:

3. Aaron Is Elbow Deep In My Asshole

TGI F rid 46% ays

Staff Shoutout

To the Anne Frank Center demanding Sean Spicer to resign.

Keep on fighting against people who deny the horrors of persecution.

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 [mettleca]

Friends of Grinnell Ghosts

shoutouts to the sun and sky for being true MVPs and providing us with some vitamin You spelled Gandhi two different ways in D. (and a belated thanks to Connie for hangyour front page article last week. ing the surrogate sun last week!)

-Meghna Ravishankar ’17

2. Separation of Church and Taint

TGI F rid 64% ays

or bees Apple % 54

@thesandb /thescarletandblack thesandb.com @newspapr

DEAR S & B

1. Finnegan's Waked Beans / Cultured Adults

JRC

Saturday​

Rants & Raves:

Pub Quiz Winners

This week, Mira Berkson '20 and Jon Sundby '17 polled students asking: Applebees or TGI Fridays

7:15 p.m. The Edge of Seventeen @ Harris Cinema Center 7:30 p.m. Grinell Symphony Orchestra @ Sebring-Lewis Concert Hall 10:00 p.m. Techtonica @ Main Hall Gardner Lounge

Like what you see?

Punching Passengers

Punching Bags

Snedge

Friday

ALEC WOOD

-a grateful third year

Hydration

Question:

Buying a Zojirushi bottle has been life changing. Its ability to keep anything hot and cold for at least like 12 hours is kind of abnormal but it's so perfect that I don't care.

Also, its color (lavender-pink) and sleekness is so aesthetically pleasing and I'm all about cute looks.

Why has Dhall moved around the trays to the entrance rather than keep them spread out? I don't really use them but I would like an explanation.

-Candace Mettle '17

-foodie

Pu Ba