Angela Voos, co-chair of the strategic plan, states these as being: “to address the core areas that the board has established, to address the vision that President Kington has for Grinnell College – that is, for it to be an institution that is adaptive and responsive to an unknown future, to make sure that students are prepared for the futures they will experience and to create a strategic plan that is true to our mission and core values.”

Voos goes on to explain the current status of the Strategic Plan.

“Current work on the strategic plan is focused on developing a narrative around the five or six overarching themes that have emerged during the first semester.  After the working groups have considered these narratives and added ideas under them that they see as essential, the next step will be to consider the strategies that have risen to the top of the list and make decisions for implementation.”

A central goal of the strategic planning process is to create more flexible infrastructure to adapt to a changing world. President Kington supports the goal of strategic planning process to foster a culture of innovation and flexibility. “It is a given that institutions that are flexible and innovative will have a strategic advantage in the long-term,” Kington states.

Throughout this process, the Strategic Plan has remained committed to transparency, and for this reason, a working group on transparency was formed to accompany the other five working groups.

“We are trying to be as inclusive as we can and also as open as we can,” Voos said. “It turns out that it is very hard to keep everyone informed. Things move very quickly and it has been a bigger challenge than I thought just to keep all the lines open.”

However, there are a couple of easy ways Voos cites to keep up-to-date on the latest strategic planning news. Visiting the website www.grinnell.edu/future can help to explain the strategic planning stages and its current progress, and the email address [sp@grinnell.edu] goes directly to Voos’ inbox, to which you can direct all questions, comments or concerns about the planning process.

“It is pretty exciting given what this campus has come up with,” Voos said. “I think that they have raised the level of the planning process. It feels like they are taking the core of the experience that Grinnell students and faculty and staff have and raising it to a new level.”

Although there are varying perspectives on the strategic planning process, it is important to mention some of the seemingly basic, but perhaps most essential ideas discussed. As Kington states, “No matter what happens in the future, we want to get better at connecting with our alumni and helping them to remain connected to the school and to each other.”

And that is something I think we can all agree on as the Strategic Plan moves forward to meet its big deadline in June 2012.

In your column, you mention that the Republican presidential nomination race is very different this year. Could you explain that difference?

What I think is unusual of this race in the Republicans in 2012 is what we saw in the Democrats in 2008. There is no Republican establishment left. There is no Republican establishment from the establishment, and there is no old guard among the old guard. The importance of this is that there’s no one to step forward and say “this is enough” or “this is our candidate.” For centuries, the Republicans always had such figure, but they don’t have them anymore. This isn’t so unusual. For the Democrats in 2008, you have Hilary Clinton, who was the candidate of establishment. She had support from a former president, all the big labors, and special interest groups – what we considered the Democratic Coalition, but yet she was repudiated. And Barack Obama won. So the Democrats went through this four years ago, and the Republicans are going through it now.

What factors led to this “wither of the establishment”?

It is hard to know exactly what they were. But part of that was the emergence within the Republican Party of people who are willing, and in some cases, eager, to question the prevailing ethos of the Republican Party, which is the support for business. Gingrich raised the question of the character of capitalism, the Republicans’ long-term allegiance–this allegiance to big business dates to 1896. What we have here are the Republicans asking questions about business and capitalism, that the Democrats would like to ask but don’t dare, using words that Democrats would like to use but don’t dare. It is a remarkable evolution for the Republicans, and a remarkable situation, as we go forward.

Speaking of the criticism to capitalism, do you think the Occupy Movement contributed to that change?

I think the Occupy Movement provided the Republicans the language and the vision. It is an irony, because what the language and idiom was against Republicans like Mitt Romney. It is odd to think that conservatives, such as Gingrich, would have used that language, but in fact they did. It is hard to say, but I do wonder what language that Gingrich would have run on, if the Occupy Movement didn’t provide the vision and vocabulary that has been a part of the American conversation in the last six months. The Occupy Movement contributed to the political landscape in the most unpredictable way. You would have thought that it would have affected the Democrats, but in fact, it affected the Republicans.

Indeed we have observed many changes in the Republican nomination. What are the changes on the Democrats’ side?

I think what the Democrats are doing now is standing back and allowing Republicans to fight amongst each other. It’s a great rule in politics – don’t get in the way when your opponents are destroying each other. Gingrich has been hurting Romney, so maybe this is good – but, on the other hand, maybe the whole Romney issue will get poised, rather than being discussed in September and October. We don’t know the answer to that question right now. The interesting thing is that the Republicans were examining their candidates’ life, which they had never done before.

But the supporters for the Democrats are changing right now. For example, you mentioned in your column that the blue collars are leaning towards the Republicans right now.

Indeed, the blue collar workers have been part of the Democratic coalition since 1936. But now blue collar workers, by a small margin, favor the Republicans. This is a huge change of character of our politics. It has changed the whole picture. As a result, when Obama is building his coalition for election for 2012, it is all mixed. It is no longer the Democratic coalition for three quarters of the century. So we have, in both parties, great upheavals.

How does that play out in the larger picture, especially in a time where partisan opposition is so strong?

Yes, we have a lot of people opposing each other, and we also have the coalitions in both parties shifting. But at the same time, we haven’t talked about geography. The South was the bulwark of the Democratic victory in the 1930s and 1940s all the way through the 1960s. And now we saw as the Democratic South is fairly solid for the Republicans. So we will have to see, geographically, how this works out as well, because the geographic factors are shifting just as dramatically as the economic factors are.

Tomiko Brown-Nagin presents her book "Courage to Dissent" last Tuesday, Jan 31. Photograph by Joanna Silverman

Oxford University Press recently published your book, Courage to Dissent, “A work about lawyers, courts and community-based activism during the Civil Rights Era,” according to Virginia Law’s website. What personal experiences gave you the inspiration to write this book?

That is a very good question, and I would say a couple of things. First, I grew up in South Carolina, which is a state that has a deep racial history. As I grew up, I was among one of the first students to attend a desegregated school after Brown vs. Board of Education. That was in the early 1970s. So I grew up interested in civil rights and the law at a very early age. I wanted to be a civil rights lawyer from a very early age, but as I made the decision to attend a small liberal arts college—Furman University I am sure similar in many ways to Grinnell—I immediately fell in love with one of my history professors and just wanted to be her. So I had this torturous choice about whether to go to law school or to get a history degree, and a long story short, I applied to both and therefore didn’t make a decision, thinking that the graduate schools could decide for me. But that did not quite work out. As I continued with my schooling, I came to realize that out that there is not actually tension between being a lawyer interested in civil rights and being a historian. And I joined both of these interests in my book, which is a social history, but it is also a history talking a lot about the passage of the law. The point of the book is really to consider how the cases impact the people; I am most interested in how people experience the law.  When I talk about Brown vs. Board of Education, my perspective is, well, what actually happened before Brown. That is the framework that I used for talking about all of the cases [in the book].

Do you find it difficult to balance your work between pursuing your interests in law while including a historical perspective?

It is probably because I am so interested in issues of policy and present issues that I did choose to be a law professor as opposed to – let’s say a history professor. In regards to your question, like in all areas of life, it can be an important issue to properly allocate time; but on the other hand, I do have a particular job and most of my energy is geared toward scholarship and teaching my students. To the extent that I am able to do things like write about op-eds or reports, that is something that I will do, but that takes up much less of my time.

I understand that you worked under Judge Robert Lee Carter for some time and I am interested in that experience and also how working as a litigation associate has affected your work today. What types of things did you learn while you served in these positions?

Yes, I worked for two judges, Judge Robert Lee Carter being one of them, and he actually just passed away and it happens that I wrote a tribute to him. What I learned from that, in a nutshell, is professionalism; simply what it means to be a professional. And let me just say a word about the judge. What I took away from my experience with the judge is that it is really important to project yourself and to try to see the other side of current events. There are some people who are so bombastic and so convinced that they are right that they cannot do that very well. Some of those people make fabulous policy trial lawyers, but not necessarily law professors or your everyday run of the mill lawyers, so balance is important. I also learned how to be respectful of all types of people, and that working hard is important. These are basic things, needed in all walks of life, but it was very important for me to see a person who was so successful project these fundamental values.

Well, okay, Pennington and TV crews might be a bit of a stretch but we do have Janet Stegman representing the Boston-based architecture firm, Stegman & Associates on campus and she met with various administrators, faculty and students to discuss future changes for the residence halls several times on yesterday and Wednesday.  For the most part these discussions were directed at brainstorming ideas for campus residency improvements and get an impression of the state of the college’s housing options.

“The meetings are about what types of housing options students are interested in,” said Vice President of College Services, John Kalkbrenner. “As the college renovates residence halls, we want to add features that students want.”

One of the biggest concerns for the college in all of its upcoming construction projects is accessibility.  In addition to the residency halls, the Forum and Burling Library are both facing substantial changes.  The S&B will examine the options for those projects and the possibility of constructing wind turbines in the upcoming weeks. But for the meetings with Stegman & Assoc. concerning the residence halls, equal access took center stage.

“There was a resounding consensus from everyone on the planning team that our residence halls need to be more accessible,” said Travis Greene, Dean of students. “They have met with faculty, students and staff, with people who would make sense from a disability perspective, FM perspective, curriculum perspective,”

But in order for the accessibility concerns or any type of renovation for that matter to be addressed, the college would have to find a place to house students while the changes were bing made. One option discussed would involve making an “East E,” or a dorm north of Rathje, replacing the parking lot.

“If a new dorm were built it would act as swing space, while other dorms are renovated,” said SGA President Gabe Schechter.

Left open to future discussion was the style of dorm, and suggestions varied from something similar to the apartments in cowles to something entirely different.  A less ambitious plan would involve purchasing more off-campus houses and relocating students there.

The renovation ideas were even more varied. Some stressed that we need more of large-event spaces like in Loose or Younker, and should aim for larger lounges. Others asked for study spaces within the dorms with white boards and table space, advocating for dorms with a more academic atmosphere.

“This meeting was for asking the questions: what kind of community do we want to form in each dorm?” said Schechter.

Underlying those discussions are questions regarding more institutional changes, such as plans to increase or decrease the student body.

“The 1,600 mark that we are at right now is just fine, we don’t get any great economic benefits from making it larger,” said Schetcher. “We might want to shrink it a little bit so that we could have more flexibility for where to place students.”

Stegman and Greene both expressed a desire for student input especially in these early stages when nothing is concrete. Currently, the plan is for Janet Stegman come back three or more four times this semester. The process will be slow moving, partly because there will be a combination of options considered and partly because many of the South and North dorms have not been renovated since the ‘70’s.

“This will be a huge undertaking, considering that many of our dorms are approaching 100 years old,” said Green. “We are due for a complete overhaul of the residence halls.”

“There are all types of different bacteria on campus,” Shill said.  “We felt it was a great opportunity to scrub the weight room from top to bottom to make sure there was no risk to anyone.”

FM closed and cleaned the Bear Athletic Center weight room for two days following the discovery of an undisclosed bacteria. Photograph by Kathlyn Cabrera

Facilities Management made the actual decision to close the weight room for two days, taking advantage of the fortunate timing during winter break.  Dean of Students Travis Greene confirmed the presence of bacteria and added that no more information would be released due to federal privacy laws regarding medical records, and stressed that this was an isolated incident.

Since the cleaning, Shill has not seen the bacteria in question come through her office. On the other hand, she has seen several other preventable illnesses and urges everyone to take steps to keep himself or herself healthy this flu season and thoroughly wash their hands, keep coughs covered, and avoid touching your eyes, nose and mouth.

In related news, SHACS will no longer be excusing students from classes for minor illnesses starting this semester.  If a student is going to miss a class, they must communicate with their professors to make up any missed work.

In Spring 2011, there were five first-year senators. Although the final results of the Spring 2012 election are not yet known, Joint Board will likely include a larger number of fresh faces. Of the 31 candidates for senator, 10 were first years—more than from any other class. The biggest bloc will be concentrated on East Campus—all three of their senators will be first years.

“Ope Awe [’15] and Bonnie Brooks [’15] have been elected so far, and either Riley Mangan [’15] or James Tiffany [’15] will win the third spot up for grabs in today’s runoff [for East senator],” SGA Administrative Coordinator Alex White ’12 wrote in an email. “All four candidates were first-years. That is certainly unusual. In a completely unscientific fashion, I’d say first-years were more involved than usual.”

“It’s great to see first years getting so involved,” said Ron Chiu ’13, Loosehead Senator. “It will be interesting to see how they interact with the other senators and Cabinet.”

Those interactions will likely be positive. Peter Aldrich ’15 joined Joint Board as Presiding Officer halfway through the semester, and despite some initial opposition, his tenure has proven to be successful. Now, Aldrich will not be the only first year in the room.

Some of the first years running for senate reported that their personal connections to current members of SGA encouraged them to run.

“Basically, I saw a bunch of my friends run for SGA last semester, and they did really well,” said Varun Nayar ’15, who was on the ballot for JaMaLand’s run-off election. “I decided to attend a bunch of Joint Board meetings at the beginning of the year. I realized that it is good place to start, if I want to be involved in SGA in the future.”

While many of the candidates may be new to Grinnell, they are very familiar with the concepts and workings of student government.

“I was involved in my high school, as secretary for one year,” said Nayar. “It was one thing that I knew that I wanted to do when I came to this school.”

In their campaigns, the first years focused on most of the issues that have been discussed in Joint Board in the past. Concerts, Bob’s Underground, and the Dining Hall were common topics on posters. However, SGA President Gabe Schechter ’12 hopes that the large number of first years indicates an influx of “new and creative ideas.”

“It’s always good to see a balance between experienced senators and first years,” said Schechter, who started in SGA as a freshman senator himself. “I look forward to seeing how they will contribute to SGA, and what changes they will help make on campus during this semester.

Full Election Results:

East (3):
Bonnie Brooks ’15 Elected
Ope Awe ’15 Elected
James Tiffany ’15 Run-Off
Riley Mangan ’15 Run-Off

CND (3):
Max Farrell ’12 Run-Off
Molly Miller ’13 Run-Off
Natalie Pace ’14 Run-Off
Nathan Forman ’15 Run-Off
Pat Comparin ’13 Run-Off
Sam Offenberg ’14 Run-Off

Clangrala (2):
Cynthia Amezcua ’14 Run-Off
Dylan Gray ’14 Run-Off
Tom Van Heeke ’12 Run-Off

Smounker (2):
Jacob Washington ’15 Elected
Sam Mulopolous ’14 Elected

Loosehead (3):
Alex Krempely ’13 Elected
Christian Loggins ’12 Elected
Ron Chiu ’13 Elected

Jamaland (2):
Brian Silberberg ’14 Run-Off
Douglas Anderson ’15 Run-Off
Varun Nayar ’15 Run-Off
Will Jackson ’13 Run-Off

OCCO/OCNCO (3):
Tyler Banas ’13 Elected
Kelsey Scott ’13 Elected
Robin Wetherill ’12 Elected

Students carried signs and presented a letter to the Monsanto Corporation on behalf of organic farmers at Tuesday's protest. Photograph by Emma Sinai-Yunker

“Monsanto has had a huge monopoly for a long time,” said local farmer and Grinnell College library assistant Chris Gaunt, “and it just so happens that there is one in Grinnell. We’re really here today in solidarity with the whole group of organic farmers facing Monsanto in New York.”

“We’re here, and we’ve reached out to other Occupy groups in Iowa to say, ‘Look, we’re here in support of the Organic Seed Growers and Traders,’” added Grinnell alum and Occupy Grinnell front man Aaron Wagner ’99.

The suit tells Monsanto to keep their GMOs out of organic farm areas, so that (largely natural and unintentional) contamination will cease. Monsanto genetically engineers seeds for the most common crops grown in Iowa such as corn and soy. These genetic alterations to the plant’s genome can allow them to be directly sprayed with herbicides and not be affected.

Monsanto primarily produces and sells these patented genetically modified plants so farmers who buy the seeds will then purchase Roundup, the most commonly used herbicide, which Monsanto also produces. When pollination happens and accidental cross-breeding occurs with local organic farmers, there are two serious side effects. The first is that the local farmer can no longer call those contaminated crops organic. The second is that this same farmer now has patented crops growing in non-company property, which can be viewed as theft.

“Once you learn about Monsanto’s business practices, it makes you want to get involved,” said Elle Silverman ’15.

Occupy Grinnell members, including locals, students, and even some farmers, gathered outside of the JRC just before noon. They performed a couple of ‘Mic-Checks’ in hopes of grabbing the attention, and maybe the attendance, of students as they headed into the Marketplace for lunch. Anticipation was high for people as they waited for the signal to head to the Monsanto Plant.

“I’m here is solidarity with Occupy Grinnell, but also with the movement to specifically Occupy Monsanto. As a new Iowa resident and long time supporter of organic crops and food, I feel like it’s really important for farmers to have the option to decide what kinds of crops they are growing,” said Maisie Dolan ’15. “The fact that Monsanto has genetically modified crops that are affecting the organic crops is unfair, unjust, and it needs to change.”

The group arrived in a caravan of cars, one painted with the words “Monsanto = Greed.” They were greeted by yellow vested Monsanto employees and directed to the appropriate place for their protest. One officer of the law was present, but it was evident on both sides that the event was intended to be completely non-violent.

“I really excited for the chance to protest against Monsanto here in Iowa and become more connected with the town and the farming community than just our little Grinnell College ivory tower,” said Devon Gamble ’15.

Signs were handed out to anyone willing to hold one, and the group chants began almost as soon as people had stepped out of their cars. After some time of holding signs and chanting, it became time to read the Occupy Grinnell letter addressed to Monsanto CEO, Hugh Grant. The group gathered in a circle, accompanied by the Monsanto employees. The letter stated that Occupy Grinnell was by no means against the Monsanto employees, just against the

contamination of organic farms caused by the companies, and the lawsuits that accompanied the cross-breeding of seeds.

The day after the protest took place Occupy Grinnell members met in the Drake Public Library for a debriefing and conversation about the protest and letter delivery.

“I have friends who work for Monsanto and whose parents farm on Monsanto fields. We want to make the point very clear: we are not against local Monsanto employees and contracted farmers. We’re very specific with this concern, and it is just that Monsanto stop intimidating organic family farmers,” said Aaron Wagner. “There’s room for both to coexist in Iowa, as Iowa moves toward an increasingly diversified food supply. It’s important that organic farming stays an option, and Monsanto should support organic farming in the state.”

First of all, we bear our name in solidarity with the larger Occupy movement, which asserts that the abuses of power on Wall Street have gone on too long and it needs to be “re-occupied.” It is this idea that, last fall, united people all around the country and the world—and Grinnell is no exception. Since our inaugural General Assembly (G.A.) over two months ago I have had the pleasure to meet and make friends with Grinnell residents of all ages and occupations (no pun intended) whom I doubt I would have met otherwise. At a typical G.A. the assembly is less than half Grinnell students.
In early December, just before winter break, the Occupy Grinnell General Assembly gathered to read aloud and ratify the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Huddling in the cold, we took turns each reading an article from the Declaration and having it repeated with the “people’s mic.” Did Wall Street perk up its ears, acknowledge the error of its ways, and pledge to stop its methodical economic subjugation of the populace once and for all? Of course not. But a group of outraged individuals got together to acknowledge the extent of Wall Street’s abuses and find strength in each other, and I think that in itself is valuable. At small occupations all over the country, moments like these are occurring regularly. This is an incredible thing.

One of the aspects of Occupy that has drawn the most criticism—its decentralized nature—is what appeals to me most. This is because I think it allows a given occupation to adapt to and address local issues. In New York, OWS has lent its considerable weight to raising awareness about the NYPD’s unfair “stop-and-frisk” practices, in which 97% of men “randomly” searched for weapons are black or Latino. Occupy Baltimore is occupying a vacant lot on which the city plans to build a $100 million youth jail as part of its “Schools not Jails” campaign. All over the country, in areas urban and rural, the Occupy our Homes movement is defending homeowners from unfair foreclosures.
Which brings us to Grinnell. Last month the Occupy Grinnell General Assembly decided to undertake an issue close to home: the ongoing harassment of organic farmers by the Monsanto Corporation. Earlier this week, we led a direct action at the Monsanto plant right outside of town in solidarity with the plaintiffs in a lawsuit challenging Monsanto’s right to genetically trespass on organic farmers’ crops. We had about 40 people—Grinnellians and allies from Des Moines and Cedar Valley—show up at the Monsanto plant and mic-check a letter to Monsanto’s CEO in support of organic farmers. Al Henderson, the Monsanto Grinnell plant manager, has agreed to meet with us. There are Monsanto facilities outside of small towns like ours all over the Midwest. This is a chance for rural occupations to really make a difference.

I am pleased that there is such overwhelming support for Occupy among my peers; I think it’s a movement with the potential to actually affect change in a system which I believe is broken, and that’s why I’m a part of it. It is by nature a participatory movement, and to me getting involved with a small rural occupation is just as meaningful as getting involved with a large urban one. The cornfields are not free of Wall Street’s reach. To quote a phrase you might have heard: We are all the 99 percent.

In this past month, the Arizona school system halted the teaching of ethnic studies throughout the state. Following Arizona law SB 2281, courses that “are designed primarily for pupils of a particular ethnic group” and “advocate ethnic solidarity instead of the treatment of pupils as individuals” are illegal. According to the New York Times, if the Tucson Unified School District fails to comply with this law, the education system could lose more than $14 million in state funding. While Arizona’s appalling situation may not seem comparable to that of Grinnell’s, we must question Grinnell’s commitment to social justice as it relates to race and ethnicity.

Although classes such as Race and Ethnicity in America, Traditions of Ethnic American Literature, and Intro American Studies and Colonial Latin America have become a standard at Grinnell, due to the large amount of material and history these courses are forced to cover, they still only provide a general scope of ethnicity studies.

When will ethnic studies be at the forefront of our academic experience instead of at the end of our textbooks? The creation of an ethnic studies department would engender discourse on specific groups and help breakdown stereotypes. Professor Leung’s Asian American Studies class was over-enrolled this spring, bringing the initial total to 31. Clearly there is an interest in this field of study. At our peer institution Colorado College, their race and ethnic studies aims to actively study and understand the “meaning, nature, and enduring significance of race.” These same goals can serve as examples for what a department at Grinnell could attempt to accomplish.

As a liberal arts institution that aims to prepare men and women “in life and work to use their knowledge and their abilities to serve the common good,” the instability of minority-centric classes will only reinforce an unbalanced, unegalitarian education that propagates euro-centric values.

Why buy heirloom seeds? Jordan Scheibel ‘10, one of the Community Garden’s original founders and a member of Imagine Grinnell explained their versatility.

“For the home gardener, heirlooms make more sense. They taste better, there’s more variety, and they are more interesting,” Scheibel said. “With hybrids, there’s about two to three to choose from; with heirlooms, there’s a lot more range.”

He also noted that heirloom seeds can be harvested and replanted, as opposed to hybrids that need to be replanted each year.

The different packages include “Big Salad Bowl” (a lettuce mixture, Isis Candy Cherry tomatoes, French Breakfast Radishes, and Bushy Cucumbers), “Container Magic” (Silvery Fir Tree Tomato, Swiss Chard Five Color Silverbeet, Empress of India Nasturtium, and Purple Dark Opal Basil), “Kids Favorites” (Two Inch Strawberry Popcorn, a Sunflower Mixture, Purple Podded Pole Bean, and Moon & Stars Watermelon) and “Pizza Party” (jimmy Nardello’s Pepper, Genovese Basil, Italian Heirloom Tomato, and Greek Oregeno.)

40% of the proceeds will go to Imagine Grinnell and the Community Garden and the other 60% to Seed Savers to support their seed preservation work. Seeds can be purchased through February 20th and will be delivered by mid-March.

“We’re encouraging people to order through our website at imaginegrinnell.org,” Scheibel said. “While this fundraiser may not raise enough to make the Community Garden self-reliant, it brings us closer to a sustainable future.”

Moon is physically and emotionally set in a fictional suburb of Detroit in the midst of a socioeconomic decline, a setting he draws from his own childhood experiences. While describing his writing process and his experiences at Grinnell, Bakopoulos speaks as a successful novelist, but the young boy from industrial Michigan occasionally shows through.

“It would be nice to make it in Hollywood, you know, send some money home to your ma,” Bakopoulos said.

Moon focuses on a rust belt community in which one by one, all of the men desert their failing businesses and walk out of their families’ lives. Their abandoned boys are forced to fill the fathers’ shoes with the constant, unstated worry that one day they will follow too closely in their fathers’ footsteps and walk out. The novel’s critique of the Michigan community speaks to Bakopoulos’s larger views about society, and the end of the American dream.

These views about American society and life in the rust belt are clearly influenced by his family background. Bakopoulos places particular importance on the story of his immigrant grandparents who carved out lives for their family working blue-collar jobs in the Detroit area, in contrast with his experiences growing up.

“You really needed to fight … so you had a future, so you excelled at something that got you out of there and away from the auto industry,” he said about the mentality of his youth. “I think we lost something profound when we got rid of all our manufacturing jobs and took away that social mobility to increase profits.”

In his novels, Bakopoulos incorporates his lament that society has gotten deeply corporatized and consequently that people have become detached from a sense of community. He considers Moon, published in 2005, something of a harbinger.

“It’s one of the first novels to capture what was happening, … that we were really saying goodbye to something, … and I like to think that this book really anticipated [the end of the American Dream]”

It is because of these beliefs that Bakopoulos came to Grinnell in the first place. Though he recognizes Grinnell’s large endowment as somewhat of a financial shield, he praises Grinnell as an institution for taking into consideration Grinnell’s values, not merely profit, when making decisions. “There seems to be an increasing openness to making decisions that are not simply based on monetary return,” he said. “There is an appreciation for distinctiveness, smallness and authenticity.”

Similarly, in the town of Grinnell he finds that the people put significant value on independent businesses and developing with strategy and purpose. He was particularly happy that the reading was held in the Pioneer Bookshop.

“It is a valuable part of the community, an independent bookstore with a great selection.”  He contrasts this with Detroit, where development is operating with a sense of panic and blindness, just trying to turn a profit without a clear vision of how.

Bakopoulos sees a great deal of importance in towns like Grinnell, towns with values that differ from the values of corporate America. “[…] even though everyone doesn’t always agree here, there is a lack of apathy in the College and in the town that is the beginning of imagining a better future.” He hopes that the reading was a step in bringing together the campus and the greater Grinnell community.

“There is a different ethic in the way things are done here,” he said. “I’ve been very impressed with the leadership of the school, and I think it is the job of the students to be critical of the school and to always keep an eye on it.”

The Grinnell English as a Second Language (ESL) program is a volunteer organization aimed at having volunteers teach and play with kids who go to Marshalltown’s Woodbury Elementary School, a bilingual school where the students are taught in both English and Spanish. Grinnell ESL was founded two years ago by Viridiana Moreno ’11 and Luis Vallego ’13, current co-leader, with the help of Grinnell’s past Rabbi, Howie Stein.

“This idea came out because we saw a need in this community,” Vallego said. “Most of the kids are from poor, immigrant backgrounds, and their parents work all day. These kids don’t have someone to be a mentor to them.”

The Hispanic population in Marshalltown has been on the rise since the 1990s, making up an estimated 15% in 2010 according to the Times-Republican. Despite the Swift & Co. meatpacking raids in 2006, the Marshalltown community still attracts newcomers in search of employment. Many of the Hispanic families are recent immigrants belonging to the working class, with varying levels of English fluency. As such, the value of ESL programs, such as that of Grinnell, cannot be overlooked.

Every Saturday morning at 9:00, ESL volunteers drive to Marshalltown to devote two hours to engage with the kids. The first hour is generally dedicated to something academic, such as a science lesson, the reading of a story, or a presentation of countries around the world. The second hour is dedicated to a recreational activity such as sports, arts, or crafts. During this time, the volunteers have the chance to form personal relationships with the kids and become mentors to them.

“The kids really look up to us,” said Enrique Romero ’15, a volunteer. “You start relating to them and making an impact on them. They really appreciate it, and it is very personally rewarding. You get energized.”

Lorena Ulloa ’15, the group’s current co-leader, agreed with Romero on the value of volunteering with Grinnell ESL.

“Sometimes [the kids] really open up to you about their personal lives; stuff you wouldn’t expect them to know about,” she said. “You can really learn from them and also advise or help them.”

The Grinnell ESL volunteers are a diverse group of students with many different majors and interests. They are able to expand the kids’ knowledge and inspire them by utilizing their Grinnell education and encouraging students to challenge themselves. “Most of the kids have small dreams, like working at Walmart,” said Biva Rajbhadari ’12, another volunteer.

“We tell them about college and give them something to hope for,” Vallejo said.

Lee Plisch poses with her various quilts in her store Cornerstone Quilts, located on Main Street. Photograph by Roni Finkelstein

Her shop, Cornerstone Quilts on Main Street, relocated last month from Newton, Iowa. The store is filled with everything from squares of colored fabric to threads of every color to spectacular quilts that Plisch crafted herself.  Each of the quilts displayed in her store is unique in its use of color, texture and pattern. There are reconstruction quilts from the Civil War and the 1930s, and more modern pieces, such as “The Edward Scissorhands.”

When designing her quilts, Plisch employs creative decisions that produce quilts with much movement.

“I don’t stick to a whole lot of rules,” she said. “I mix all different kinds of fabrics, and all different kinds of textures.”

The creative license in quilt making is what Plisch enjoys most about her art. “It’s the creativity that I love,” she said. “I mean I love it from start to finish. There isn’t a part of it that I don’t—from picking the pattern, to the fabric, to piecing it, to quilting it, to finishing it.”

To Plisch, both the process of making quilts and the final product are very valuable.

“I think every quilt has a story,” she said, “it was grandma’s or I bought it, I started it—somebody else finished it.”

Plisch believes the quilt’s connection to narrative derives from its past use. Quilt making used to be a necessity, as quilts served as the main blankets on the bed. They have also been historically tied to heritage and for this reason, Plisch believes quilts still represent comfort and human connection.

Plisch aims to transfer her creative passion to others by teaching classes at Cornerstone Quilts. Her classes include beginning and intermediate quilting classes. Recently, Plisch has been trying to reach out to more people and cater to their individual artistic interests.

“[People] want to do home dec., bags, baby stuff,” she said. “They’re not necessarily quilters. So we’re trying to reach to those people too.”

Plisch has therefore been in the process of developing the range of courses offered, and expanding the kinds of products sold in her store. For example, she has ordered yarn for customers who enjoy knitting and crocheting.

Moreover, many of her new classes incorporate an aspect of social-change, in particular to accommodate younger customers.

“[The college-student] age group is coming up and wanting recycling [projects],” she said. “Going green is really important. So were doing a lot more that has to do with recycling.”

Plisch has designed courses in which her students learn to make mittens out of old donated wool sweaters, and vests out of men’s suit coats. Additionally, there are groups that come in to Plisch’s shop to work with donated materials on service projects, such as making quilts for nursing homes and hospitals, and pillows to be sent overseas.

As part of her expansion, Plisch will construct a workspace on the second level of her shop. She plans to put donated sewing machines, fabric and art books in the room for anyone to use free of charge. She hopes that with this change, more Grinnell College students who typically do not own sewing machines will be able to join the quilting, sewing and knitting community, and have the opportunity to share her passion.

“There’s nothing more wonderful than getting a gift of a quilt,” Plisch said.

I want to begin our discussion of the Super Bowl by first getting on a soapbox about the halftime show. As we all know, it retreated from any edginess in its performers following Janet Jackson’s infamous “wardrobe malfunction,” but starting last year the Super Bowl seems to be leaning towards more contemporary bands. To woo youth and baby boomers alike, this year brings us Cirque de Soleil, Nicki Minaj, M.I.A., LMFAO and Cee Lo Green joining star performer Madonna. Madonna made an interesting comment for those who might tremble at that set of wild whipper-snappers in the Indianapolis Star on Thursday. She said her father was excited about her doing a big Super Bowl spectacular because “He’s the personification of Midwestern values.”

Ugh. I hate when people act like my region is another country or something. People on the coasts get offended for no reason, too. Madge seems so defensive, as though her edgy persona from literally thirty years ago might still be enough to offend an imagined prudish Midwestern audience. Allow me, as a Midwesterner, to say that I am not afraid that 53 year-old Madonna is going to offend me. For one thing, she has a financial interest in avoiding shenanigans like she pulled at the 2003 VMAs when she kissed Britney Spears (and Dirrty-era Christina Aguilera, who never gets any credit for also being kissed). She’s using the half-time show as a mass-market shill for her probably terrible movie, W.E. It’s supposed to be better than Swept Away, but worse than Die Another Day. Occupy halftime!

As for the actual game, which seems to occupy about a quarter of the total Super Bowl broadcast time, I’m not particularly excited. I know I’m supposed to catch rematch fever and get all excited about David Tyree’s helmet catch and Plaxico Burress catching the game winner, but I don’t care about the rematch. Perhaps the only superlative for this year’s game is that it features the two most laconic coaches in the league. In last year’s game we had a classic battle between the elite offense of the Green Bay Packers and the overwhelming stopping power of the Pittsburgh Steelers. This year however, the New York Giants and New England Patriots aren’t the best at any one thing. The Patriots rank second in passing yards and total offense, while the Giants rank eighth and fifth respectively in those categories. The Giants were third in total sacks, and the Patriots were second in passes intercepted. In stats guru Jeff Sagarin’s computer ratings, the Patriots rate as the best team in the NFL. Sagarin has the Giants at number five, behind New England, New Orleans, San Francisco, and Green Bay. The Patriots have a statistical edge.

However, in their regular season meeting, the Giants shocked the Patriots at Gillette Stadium 24-20 thanks to an Eli Manning touchdown pass to TE Jake Ballard with 15 seconds left. In that game the Patriots out-gained the Giants 438 yards to 361 but Tom Brady had three turnovers (two interceptions and one fumble). Surprisingly, the Giants’ ballyhooed defensive front was only able to get to Brady once, with DE Jason Pierre-Paul recording the sack (linebacker Michael Boley also had a sack). If the Giants are to have any chance of winning, they need to disrupt what Tom Brady wants to do and force him into bad throws and turnovers. Pierre-Paul’s colleagues on the line will need to give him a hand in creating some chaos in the backfield. Fellow DEs Justin Tuck and Osi Umenyiora are quite capable of pressuring from the edges. They will need to play exceptionally well to cover for their mediocre secondary, which ranked 29th in the league in passing yards allowed per game.

It would appear from the yardage totals in their previous meeting and the Patriots’ edge in many statistical categories that the smart money is on New England. In fact, Vegas favors the Pats, but only with a -3 spread. But after watching New England struggle against the Baltimore Ravens, I’m far from sold. Brady was far from Brady-esque, throwing two picks, while the Pats defense gave up 306 yards to Joe “Pretty” Flacco (A$AP!). The Patriots looked very beatable against Baltimore. Brady and his receiving corps are dangerous, but with Brady and lethal TE Rob Gronkowski both nursing injuries, they are not at full strength. Perhaps, to borrow a sportscaster cliche, they are not playing their best football right now.

On the other hand, Eli Manning and his triumvirate of receivers are totally synced up after torching Green Bay and San Francisco for over 300 yards through the air. Hakeem Nicks, Victor Cruz and Mario Manningham will carry that momentum into the Super Bowl and torch New England’s secondary, too. Eli Manning’s arm and his receivers’ ability to break tackles in the open field will overwhelm the mediocre Patriots defense and the Giants won’t be penalized for their anemic rushing attack. I think the game will be close and probably a shootout, which ought to make it fun to watch even if there’s not any particularly interesting contrast in styles. The Giants d-line forces Brady into a red zone interception with less than a minute to go and that’s the difference:

New York Giants 35, New England Patriots 31.

Surprise Super Bowl MVP: Victor Cruz.

Length of half-time show: six hours, forty-three minutes

Kunal’s Korner:

Super Bowl Sunday, one of the classic moments of every year. Honestly, the Super Bowl makes me prouder to be an American than any other holiday. Everything America is about: football, consumerism, gluttony, celebrity worship, all on full display during the Big Game. There’s no spectacle quite like it, and whether the game ends in dramatic fashion or in a full-fledged blowout, the Super Bowl is bound to leave lasting impressions on all viewers.

The obvious question is, “Who do you like?” Predicting the winner of the Super Bowl is a crucial part of the whole process. Only two fan bases actually get to experience the joy of having their team play for a championship, so predicting the winner is how most people build somewhat of an emotional attachment to either team and become emotionally invested in the game. This matchup, the New York Football Giants vs. the New England Patriots, is a real dandy. I’ve gone back and forth a lot over the last 10 days in deciding which team I think will win this game, and in the end … I like the Giants. As a Redskins fan, it really hurts me to say that a team that the REDSKINS BEAT TWICE in the regular season is going to win the Super Bowl. However, the fact remains that the NFL Playoffs are just like any postseason tournament, and the Giants come into the Super Bowl with seemingly all of the momentum. The fact that the Giants have been playing at a higher level recently than have the Patriots, combined with the fact that the Giants do more things well than the Patriots, combined with the fact that everybody has a sneaking suspicion that Eli Manning has Tom Brady’s number (in the same kind of strange way that Paris had Achilles’), combined with the fact that Peyton’s last memory of Indianapolis could be seeing his little brother walk off the field with one more Super Bowl Championship than he has, is too much to ignore – G-Men are going to win!

The key to this game is going to be time of possession. Both offenses can get down the field, and put up points in a hurry. In my opinion, the team that puts its defense in the best possession to be successful will win this game, and that means sustaining lengthy drives to keep the other offense off the field. The Giants were dead last in the NFL in running the football during the regular season, but they have run the football pretty effectively during the postseason. I think that the change of pace in the backfield they possess with Bradshaw and Jacobs gives them a leg-up on the Patriots in that category, but quite frankly, I do not think any running back is going to steal the show at Super Bowl XLVI.

Both teams possess fairly average run defenses, but their inability to stop the pass is what has really haunted them all season. In the case of the Patriots, it is understandable; New England has been playing with a patchwork secondary all season long. The Giants’ pass-defense struggles are a little bit harder to diagnose. Sure, they were dealing with injuries on the defensive line all season, but they still got after the quarterback plenty. Some may argue that the Giants were forced to blitz more when they were not getting as much pressure from their front four, leaving them much more exposed on the back end, but I’m not sure how much I buy into that. It seems to me that the Giants’ secondary, while extremely athletic, is just young and inexperienced, and too often its poor-decision making leads to big plays down the field. This situation sounds ripe for a Tom Brady masterpiece, but the Giants’ pass-rush is firing on all cylinders right now, and who can forget how much Justin Tuck and co. neutralized Brady back in 2008. The Giants, if they can keep Vince Wilfork from getting pressure on Manning up the middle, should be able to exploit the size, speed and overall skill advantage of their receivers on the Patriots’ defensive backs. I know that the Patriots possess some matchup nightmares of their own with the trio of Welker, Gronkowski, and Hernandez, but Gronkowski looks like he might not be 100%, and quite frankly, neither does Brady. Golden Boy suffered a slight shoulder separation in the AFC Championship Game, and while it is tough to say how much the injury impacted his mediocre performance against the Ravens, we can certainly speculate about how much it will affect him in the Super Bowl, especially if the Giants are able to get some hits on him early.

Whichever team is able to keep their quarterback upright the longest will win this game, and I suppose that I have more faith in New York’s offensive line to neutralize the opposing pass rush than New England’s. If Eli can step up in the pocket, I see no way in which the Patriot’s ragtag secondary can stay with the Giants’ elite receivers. I foresee Eli, Hakeem Nicks, and Jason Pierre-Paul all having outstanding games.

Score — New York Giants:  27  New England Patriots:  21

MVP –  Eli “2X Super Bowl MVP” Manning.

“When Russell Osgood was here as president, I’d never met the guy and he sent me an email kind of out of the blue,” Head Track Coach Will Freeman said. “He had just started here, and he said ‘what would it take to host major national events here?’ Now we weren’t even in the process of planning [The Bear] at the time, but that sort of prompted the whole discussion.”

The email led to an in-person meeting.

“I remember laying out on a napkin, drawing it over coffee at the Forum—that’s the first time I’d ever met him—what the design of the track would really need to be like and that’s the way they built it, on that footprint,” Freeman said.

The college placed a bid to host the National Championships before the Fieldhouse was even completed.

“[The bid] was all based on drawing and renderings and then we were selected just before we came into the building itself,” Freeman said. “So, [it was] a little bit of a gamble and we were up against a couple of schools that had just finished facilities.”

According to Freeman, Grinnell’s bid benefited from several factors.

“I think what sold it was the community, what it had to offer, and the support of the administration,” he said. “It was pretty clear we thought we could do a pretty good job of this if we had a chance. “

Grinnell had one more asset on its side in Freeman, currently in the last year of his four-year stint as the Chair of the NCAA Division III Track and Field/Cross Country Committee, a position that has given him plenty of experience with National Meets.

“It’s a huge advantage. He really understand that it takes to put on a meet,” said NCAA Intern Paul Gagne ‘10, who has been heavily involved in the organization of the meet.

When the bid was accepted, Freeman found himself experiencing a range of emotions.

“It was wonderful, scary, you know, but wonderful,” Freeman said.

Coach Freeman believes Grinnell will be representing more than just the town.’

“It’s not just a feather in the cap to the school but it’s a chance to bring people to Iowa,” Freeman said. “It’s not too often that Iowa gets these kinds of thing.”

In order to properly showcase Iowa, Freeman thought of somebody who would be especially good at representing the state.

“I thought why not invite the Governor, thinking you know, he’s busy, he’s probably not going to want to come to this banquet the night before the event starts,” Freeman said. “Then I got an email from him: he’s coming.”

Planning began in the Fall of 2011 with arrangements for food, a television broadcast and other aspects providing plenty to tackle. Extra bleachers are being brought it to accommodate up to 1,400 people. Darby Gymnasium will be converted into a check-in and warm up center while the Auxiliary Gym will be used as an athlete lounge and “Championship Cafe.”

The NCAA requires an admission fee for the National Meet, however President Kington decided to allocate money for student tickets. Roughly a week before the meet, students, faculty and staff will be able to pick up a ticket free of charge that they can then exchange on the day of the meet for a wristband valid for admission for both meet days.

“We’re very fortunate that our President recognizes the fact that our students, faculty and staff don’t normally pay, so he’s volunteered to give us a certain allotment of tickets to give to students, faculty, and staff that want to attend,” said Athletic Director Greg Wallace.

Students should not worry about a shortage of tickets, as long as they get them early.

“As long as we have enough people come early in the week, he will definitely up that amount of money and buy more tickets if that interest is there,” Gagne said.

Last year’s meet hosted athletes representing over 80 schools and this year’s will have similar numbers. The meet will require many volunteers to run smoothly and Grinnell students are encouraged to come out and help. Shifts will be kept short at four hours and if you volunteer you will be given free admission with no need for a ticket. Students interested in volunteering should attend one of three meetings on Feb. 9 at 4:30 p.m., 5:30 p.m. and 8 p.m. in 205F of the Bear Athletic Facility.

“There are some doubts about our ability to host this meet because of the size the town that we’re in and were here to prove that despite some difficulties that arise … we are a place that can put on the best Indoor Track Nationals ever. That’s really been the goal since day one,” Gagne said.

Though the team was projected to finish seventh in the conference before the season started, the squad has proven the critics wrong. They look to compete in the Midwest Conference (MWC) tournament for the first time since the 2003-04 season.

“We have great senior leadership this team,” said Head Coach Kate Gluckman. “Meg Huey [’12] and Ashley Jeannin [’12] have worked hard to create a competitive team atmosphere and to hold their teammates and themselves to a very high standard. On the court our defense has been tremendous and has allowed us to contain teams to well below their average scoring levels.”

Huey extended her double-double streak to five in an 87-67 victory against Knox on Tuesday with 18 points and 13 rebounds, to go along with four assists and four blocks. Just prior to the game, Huey was named to the D3hoops.com National Team of the Week.

Michelle Briggs ’13 notched her fourth consecutive double double with 18 points, 10 rebounds, and added seven blocked shots. Rebecca DeGroot ’14 scored a game-high 21 points while Toluwaloju Alabi ’13 was one rebound away from a double double with 15 points and nine rebounds.

The Pioneers have won seven of their last nine games to improve their overall record to 10-7 and conference record to 9-4. They currently rank third in the Midwest Conference standing.

“It’s been a breath of fresh air [to win games],” Huey said. “We’re less accepting of losing now. I wouldn’t call it swagger, but we have this new confidence now. We expect to win now instead of hoping to pull an upset.”

“Everyone comes to practice ready to work,” DeGroot said. “We know these next few games are going to make or break our chance of making it to conference so we have to get after it in practice and leave it on the court after.

DeGroot has provided a spark in Grinnell’s scoring attack, leading the team in three of the last five games.

Despite the surge in offensive output, it is the defense that has been putting numbers on the win column. In the past nine games, opponents have averaged just 50 points per game while shooting below 28 percent from the field. Grinnell’s squad averaged almost seven blocks during the same span.

“Our defense is definitely what’s winning the games for us,” Huey said. “We’re getting defensive stops, which lead to good offense. Right now, we’re clicking as a team; we have a lot of people contributing both on offense and defense.”

The squad has played some exciting games that went down to the wire. Margin of loss for the four conferences losses are just 18, with two losses to Carroll, each by two points.

While the Pioneers seem to be well on their way to finishing the season with a winning record for the first time in eight years, they are not looking ahead of themselves. Improvements must be made to reach the Conference tournament, and eventually win the championship.

“We continue to struggle with turning the ball over,” Gluckamn said. “This limits our shot attempts and gives our opponents opportunities for transition offense, which is hard to guard.”

“We need to keep our eyes on the prize, stay in shape, and execute on both defensive and offensive ends,” DeGroot said. “We also need to remember to come out strong the second half because we tend to lose momentum from the first half.”

While the Pioneers have been riding on a great momentum, they also know that the season is not over and they are not in the Conference tournament, yet.

“Nothing is guaranteed until we play our last regular season game and we know for sure that we are in the Conference tournament,” Coach Gluckman said. “We have a number of expectations for this team but instead of setting end-of-season expectations, we like to focus on daily goals and game goals. A team can lose focus if all we think about is the end of the season. We expect to be competitive in every remaining game and when we play to our ability, we will be successful.”

The team will go on the road this weekend to play Ripon on Friday and St. Norbert on Saturday.

The décor in the house coordinates well with the swords; although magic isn’t technically part of Dagorhir, “Magic the Gathering” cards lay scattered throughout. “Half of us play ‘Magic,’ half of us play ‘Settlers of Catan’ [a board game].” said House Coordinator Eric Tjossem ’1d. A few minutes later, Svea Drentlaw ’13, a Dag guest, took a seat at the kitchen table, and immediately asked if anyone would play “Magic” with her while three other Dag House residents attempted to assemble a gigantic board of “Settlers of Catan”.
“It doesn’t need to be in a hexagon shape!” Mariya Shapiro ’11 complained. Traditionally, Settlers of Catan boards are set up hexagonally.

“Crispy Hexagons!” Taylor Smith ’14 burst out. Crispy Hexagons are the cereal staple of Dag House; they’re like a grocery store brand generic version of “Crispix”.
Not to be outdone by Smith’s spontaneity, Drentlaw, a music major, erupted into the George Gershwin song “Summertime” as others continued to assemble the board.
The Dag House living room represents similar loving disorganization. Both front corners are layered with Dag equipment while Soae swords are piled in a small laundry bin.
“Those swords aren’t battle-ready yet.” Tjossem said, as he pointed to the swords in the bin. “They still need to have covers sewn for them.”

For a sword to be eligible for combat in Daghorhir, it has to be deemed soft enough that it would not hurt anyone and a cloth cover must be sewn on. Sword-preparation is a community responsibility. “Usually someone just picks some up and starts working on it,” Tjossee said. “We haven’t done that in a long time. We need to get organized about that.”
The living room coffee table is home to a collection of “Sci-Fi Classics” that included such gems as “The Mesa of Lost Women,” “Piranha Piranha,” and “Evil Brain From Outer Space.” For Smith, the experience of watching these films is one of his favorite parts of living in Dag House. The table also boasts a faded-golden horn sound exits the horn through a dragon’s mouth. Its golden fangs hang down extended beyond the rest of the horn’s body.

“That is the dragon horn,” Smith explained. “It summons dragons. It’s our backup defense against a zombie attack.” Two pieces of paper titled “Zombie Attack Strategy” hang on the wall between the kitchen and the living rool.

“We need to have a meeting about our zombie defense strategy for this year,” Tjossem said.

Dag House is fully equipped, weapon-wise, for a zombie attack.. “The board itself is just full of things the RLC gave us, but the thumbtacks are battle axes,” Tjossee said, before removing a. crowbar from the clutter beneath thedcentrally-located board.

“We also use this to fight zombies,” he said as he proudly displayed it.

When they’re not involved in some sort of battle, Dag House likes to eat. “We have Stir Fridays,” Cory Brooke-deBock ’13 said. Stir Fridays are the meal after Friday 4 p.mM sessions of Dahorhir. “Well, sometimes we don’t make Stir Fry, we make other things,” Tjossem explained.

Like Sword Fry?

Tawil spoke about Iowa’s rich history as a hub for Muslims. The Mother Mosque was established in 1934 and is now denoted a historical site. The mosque hosts interfaith dialogue and has a community of supporters that extends beyond just the Muslims of the area.

Youssef, who moved to the United States twelve years ago for graduate school, did not at first recognize that her experiences here were influenced by the fact that she is a Muslim. Eventually, however, the effects of living in a place with a small Muslim community caused her to realize that religion was an inescapable part of how she was perceived and how her own experiences America were shaped.

“I somehow talked myself into thinking that my experience is defined more by being an Arab woman…but trying to dismiss religion as an identity marker didn’t work,” Youssef said. “I remembered that I do wear my religion on my head.”

Youseff noted the difficulties of living in an area where Muslims account for a small minority.

“I found my experience as a Muslim in Grinnell to be very different. It’s friendly, but it’s lonely,” Youseff said. “I still miss the call for prayer, the night prayers in Ramadan. You can’t find that here. Above all I miss the intellectual exchange among ordinary Muslims who are critically examining issues and social phenomenon from a religious perspective. I miss debates about religion without being expected to defend Islam.”

Hammouda, who’s been settled in Iowa since 1989 and in Grinnell since 1995, feels at home in Iowa and cherishes the diverse community and variety of opinions and beliefs.
“I found Iowa to be a great place to raise a family. Do I miss the larger community? Not really. I feel that I have a community,” he said. “One within which I have a great comfort level and a lot of support.You can talk about religion as openly as politics here and that is something you don’t always find in larger Muslim communities.”
One thing that Tawil, Youssef and Hammouda agreed upon is that despite the fact that they stand out as Muslims, they have never, not even in the aftermath of 9/11, felt threatened by members of the surrounding community.

Youssef recalled an instance when her car broke down on an Iowa highway and a stranger drove her all the way to South Dakota so that she could catch an appointment on time. Tawil mentioned how volunteers from the community helped out when the 2008 floods caused the mosque’s basement substantial damage. Hammouda had a friend and a pastor stop by after 9/11 to show their support for him and his family and make sure that they were not being harassed.

“These were just two examples of the many ways that made us realize we had found home,” Hammouda said.

Tawil echoed Hammouda’s appreciation for Iowa.

“Muslims in Cedar Rapids have never felt that they have a problem being part of the community. We are part of the community and it is a part of us,” Tawil said.

“I oftentimes tell people it’s not hugely uncommon for someone to go on an international teaching or volunteer experience and not have it be what they were hoping for it to be,” explains Doug Cutchins, Director of Social Commitment. “… It’s all about the match. But I don’t think anyone could have been successful in [McVeigh’s] opportunity. It fell apart on him.”

Jake "Stoney" McVeigh '11 and Pat Stuchlik '11 stay "so fly" in Seole, Korea last fall. Contributed.

McVeigh’s story starts where many seniors are beginning right now: vetting programs, weighing the challenges posed by one program against those of another. An ’09 alum and member of the Grinnell football team recommended HandS Korea—an English teacher recruiting agency in South Korea to McVeigh. HandS Korea is a small recruiting agency, but they place 700-900 teachers a year and have been around for just under a decade. They found McVeigh a placement in a new Hagwan, a Korean private boarding school. After researching the school and seeing nothing out of the ordinary, McVeigh applied, interviewed and then signed a yearlong contract and left the United States on Sept. 26 of last year. However, once he arrived and started working, he quickly noticed some strange things about the school in which he had been hired to teach.

“I arrived Sunday, observed class Monday and started teaching on Tuesday with the supervisor,” McVeigh said. “But there were things that were odd to me but I had nothing to compare it to. It was a new school and they told me, ‘Oh we had to move from our building and were trying to find a new spot, so we’re in this hotel temporarily.’ But it kind of made sense, because it’s a boarding school and people have to live on campus. Also, [I only taught] technically one [20 year-old, female] student that was paying tuition and my Boss’s son [who was 18].”

For six weeks, McVeigh lived in a hotel, teaching his two students and passing the time with them, his supervisor, and a Chinese national who was hired to teach Chinese.
“All of my meals were made by my supervisor,” he said. “It became very mundane and redundant; I felt very isolated.”

McVeigh rarely saw his boss, whose English name is James, the man who owned the school and had hired him. As the six weeks went on, James was increasingly absent from the hotel, and McVeigh would later find out that nobody knew James’ exact Korean name, and that the Hagwan he owned was actually in his son’s name. The hotel was nice but in a secluded area, and nothing was in walking distance. McVeigh did meet with other ’11 Grinnell graduates for a 10/10 celebration, and in the early weeks he was able to travel around a little and see a country profoundly different from the frozen fields here in the Midwest.

But in the hotel, McVeigh knuckled under, hoping that the things he heard about his missing boss—that he was looking for more students, finishing up, and finding a new building—were true. They didn’t dissuade his growing realization that the relationship between his supervisor and his boss was increasingly tense; neither did it undo the biggest red flag—he wasn’t getting paid.

“My thinking was, as long as I get paid, I can stick this out,” McVeigh said. “If I get paid I’d be able to go out and travel and do what I want on the weekends. But I was trying to be very conservative with my money until I got paid. And I eventually ran out over the six weeks [waiting to get paid.]”

McVeigh was told that by Nov. 1, he would receive his first paycheck and be reimbursed for the cost of the plane ticket to Korea, which was in McVeigh’s contract. The hotel, too, was concerned about the school’s ability to pay. The date came and McVeigh had not even been asked for account information. McVeigh talked to his supervisor, whose English name is Jennifer, and despite her open feuding with James, she told him not to worry and to wait just a little longer. McVeigh also called the recruiting agency, HandS Korea.

“They called Jennifer because they had worked with Jennifer before at a different school, and one of the employees at HandS Korea trusted that she was being completely honest about the situation,” he said. “They told me to wait it out and give them a chance to get more students. But two days later, that’s kind of when everything happened.”

McVeigh’s story will be concluded in next week’s issue of the Scarlet & Black.

Much like its title and cover art, the opening songs of Queen Mary are a little hard to parse at first. But as it grows on you, what started as discord gradually opens up into a very unique and unforgettable sound. Those familiar with Isaac Brock—the lead singer/songwriter of Modest Mouse—will instantly recognize his influence on Wolf Parade’s sound from the producer’s seat. Think “The Lonesome Crowded West,” but with less country twang and with the howling fury turned up to 11. It’s clearly a very emotional album, but one that owes its stylistic debts more to 19th Century Romanticism than teen angst. In a way, it’s almost fitting that the band fashioned their debut as an apology for breaking the ballroom doors of an ocean liner (the titular Queen Mary) in a violent séance. Now if that’s not rock and roll, I don’t know what is!

Wolf Parade use their guitars to produce a sort of percussion that is at once loud, driving, and elegant in its simplicity. The synths on “I’ll Believe in Anything” sound like a Commodore 64 as interpreted by Crystal Castles: fun, cheeky, and cool at the same time. This sound creates the perfect complement for Boeckner and Krug’s wonderfully disjointed falsetto. To call it “singing” almost misses the point, as Wolf Parade succeed at conveying raw sound and emotion as much as poetic meaning. While the words are at times a little hard to make out, there’s lyrical complexity buried within Queen Mary that rewards repeated listening. It’s a great record for both the start and end of a good night in that regard. No easy trick, but it makes Queen Mary something to definitely fist-bump along to either with friends or in private.  While their songwriting can get bit tedious and intense at times, Wolf Parade earns their right to self-indulgence by channeling their manic energy into an album that rocks out consistently from beginning to end.

The Highlights:

-”Shine a Light”

-The dueling aristocarast in the music video for “I’ll Believe in Anything”

- Great for sloppy sing-alongs

Charlie Kessner '12 and Sofia Tedesco '14 co-teach Monday night's capoeira class in the Bucksbaum dance studio. Photograph by Emma Sinai-Yunker

Capoeira emerged as a product of Afro-Brazilian slavery circa 1500 AD. At its inception, it is believed to have been a martial art disguised as a dance, a cunning tactic employed by Brazilian slaves to seize their freedom from their unsuspecting masters.

“Once it was established as a focal thing of the slaves in Brazil, Capoeira became a lynch pin for a whole movement of cultural expression … as a new Brazilian identity,” Charlie Kessner ’12, co-president of Grinnell College’s Capoeira group said.

Under the Portuguese, Capoeira faced a long ban. During this period, the reputation of Capoeira was conflicted, as the Capoeiristas who used their lethal ability to free themselves tended to turn to crime. However, over the course of its own history and that of Brazil, Capoeira has found a new place in society.

“At the turn of the twentieth century, there was kind of a spark of a new direction for it,” Kessner said, “where there were a few masters who wanted to practice it more recreationally and then bring about another movement in cultural identity for Brazilians.”

With globalization, Capoeira has spread in popularity beyond Brazil. In the United States, Capoeira began to intrigue American martial artists in the 70s. Today, at Grinnell and around the world, Capoeira is better thought of as a game.

“It’s probably the most friendship-based martial art. This is definitely the most cohesive martial art, also because we don’t have set kata like other martial arts do,” said Sofia Tedesco, ’14, Capoeira co-president, in comparison to other martial arts in which she has been involved.

Capoeira has adapted to its large and multicultural following by implementing features more familiar to “Eastern” martial arts. Capoeiristas, after entering the larger community by initiation at an annual “bautizado” (baptism), gain a belt to which they attach shorter cords as they progress. Also, capoeiristas are more recently organized into schools. Participants in a uniquely communal and giving art, capoeiristas who have attained the maximum cord level begin to teach others, as a “professor,” “mestre,” or, most adept of all, “contra mestre.”

Grinnell’s group is also involved in the grand tradition of Capoeira, sharing an affiliation with a celebrated contra mestre Ninja and Cornell College’s large capoeira group. Members are privy to what Charlie Kessner calls, “a large support network,” the inviting and caring community that surrounds Capoeira and its practice. A certain playfulness abounds among capoeiristas, as demonstrated by the monikers among those nicknamed, like those of contra mestres, “Ninja” and “Tanque” (Tank). The movements of Capoeira itself still today seem to be disguised behind a light-stepped dance, peppered with dodges and kicks and punctuated by cartwheels and handstands.

Perhaps the most ingratiating aspect of all is Capoeira’s versatile appeal to peoples of a broad array of interests. Tedesco recounts how she began Capoeira in her first year at Grinnell, drawn by a previous interest and participation in martial arts. For Tedesco, Capoeira’s innate camaraderie and fluidness provided a new avenue for her life at Grinnell.

“It became an expression, and, honestly, really good homework relief,” she said.

Kessner, on the other hand, began to practice Capoeira in middle school. Now, he enjoys its strong musical component most of all, his experience informed by his interest in musical ethnology and his majors in Music and Anthropology.

Inviting others to share in this dynamic art form, Tadesco said of the group, “Practices are Mondays from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m., no experience necessary, Bucksbaum dance studio.”

“It’s good fun, it’s a good aerobic exercise. Don’t be intimidated by it; it’s really a beautiful thing that more people should do,” Kessner said.

Dancers, martial artists, those interested in Capoeira, or anyone who “just wants to know how to move” is welcome to join this remarkably friendly group at their own pace and bring whatever passion they want in their encounter with Capoeira.

Returning to Bridesmaids, the film (starring Saturday Night Live’s Kristen Wiig, who also co-wrote the screenplay with Annie Mumolo) more than delivers on its promise of Apatowian revelry, happily laying thick layers of sexual humor, bodily fluids, and painfully awkward social misfortune over what boils down to a fairly sweet, though not particularly original, rom-com storyline about love, friendship, and rediscovering one’s confidence.

The film focuses on the story of Annie Walker (Wiig), a 30-something Milwaukee resident going through a personal crisis. The small bakery she owned and operated recently went out of business, and her boyfriend (and former business partner) promptly dumped her, leaving her in a dismal state, both financially and existentially. She lives with a British brother and sister (who seem intent on fulfilling the criteria for world’s worst possible roommates) and works at a jewelry store—a job she only got because her mother is the owner’s AA sponsor.

To complicate things further, Annie’s lifelong best friend Lillian (played by SNL alum Maya Rudolph) becomes engaged and asks Annie to be the Maid of Honor, a role she is initially more than happy to fulfill, but which ends up placing her in a volatile situation, as she competes for Lillian’s friendship with the rich and beautiful bridesmaid, Helen Harris (the inexplicably familiar Rose Byrne).

What follows is the humorous chronicling of Annie’s downward trajectory to her own personal “bottom” and subsequent attempt to re-invent herself, win back her best friend, and get the proverbial guy (a Milwaukee cop played by the characteristically likeable Irishman Chris O’Dowd).

Not a lot of surprises here, both in terms of structure and ultimate resolution, but a solid script and a talented cast serve to keep the story moving when it inevitably lags or the jokes miss their mark.

Both Wiig and Rudolph (easier to appreciate the more years separate her from her rather unfortunate days on SNL) do a fine job of balancing the serious and comedic elements of the plot. But the real laughs come from the characters that surround them, most notably Melissa McCarthy’s bawdy bridesmaid, Megan (a role which just earned her a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress—no easy feat in comedy), and Jon Hamm’s caddish playboy, Ted.

These two, along with the rest of the cast (with the exception of the half-heartedly vilified bourgeois Barbie doll, Byrne, whose main problem is unfortunately just not being particularly funny) make this a solid comedic effort. Though probably not deserving that buzz that surrounded it last spring and far from on-par with the stuff of Apatow’s early years, Bridesmaids provides a heartfelt message, a love story anyone could get behind, and enough laughs to keep you interested.

After countless attempts at forming bands, Alex Karaba and Dan Dellandunl came to the conclusion that they are at their best when playing together. They complement each other in a way that listeners feel any addition to the band would be unneeded, and even detrimental to the quality and type of music produced.

Slow Animal has been compared to bands such as Wavves and Bummer Sanders. Their mix of punk, pop, garage, lo-fi and fuzz combine into a mixture of sounds that will please the ear of anyone looking to go wild. With their upbeat tempos and fuzzy lyrics, a dance party is sure to follow them wherever they go.

Their frantic instrumentation sounds like its riding on the waves of youth. Feelings of rebellion and defiance take control as the listener losses themselves in the music. Their garage-band style paints a picture of a late summer night party on the beach with a group of rebellious teenagers dancing around a roaring fire. Head banging and a mosh pit will be a guarantee.

Cymbals crash at an ever-increasing rate as the mindset of everyone is slowly turned into a mentality of letting go. It is easy to imagine the performers lose control of reality and get sucked into the infectious melodies of their music themselves. Their interactions with the crowd enriches the experience to one where you are not only a listener, you are a part of the music. Classes, teachers, and the week will leave your mind as you become not only one with the music, but one with the experience.

Once the listener is hooked into the music, Slow Animal even further hypnotizes them with a unique mix of what can only be described as vocal humming.  Between choruses, they resemble bands like the Beach Boys and The Beatles and use a mixture of noises and rhythms to create a bridge connecting the different parts of the song. Your head starts swaying back and forth as you peacefully await the next chorus to take you away once again.

As they continue to play, this band will only continue to gain popularity.

Andy Lange '13's Smith Gallery exhibit highlights the subtle importance of life's various Tight Spaces. Photograph by Kathlyn Cabrera

He states “What I am investigating with the show is what can all be done with a very small palette, this is the main thing that I’ve done throughout the show. I think the title really ties into the theme of tight spaces in that I find that in making a work of art if I don’t give myself some sort of parameters it gets very daunting and the message often gets muddled. I think if you give yourself very few possibilities you are able to do very interesting things with those very few pieces and that’s what I’ve tried to do throughout the show.”

Lange explains that his interest in very limited parameters began in his introductory Art class with Professor Kluber.

“I started doing work in a similar style in Introduction to the Studio, during our unit with Adobe Illustrator. I was really fascinated with doing parametric design, where you set really strict units or rules for yourself before you begin a piece,” Lange said. “The cube form which is on the card advertising the show is what I used to make all the two dimensional pieces there.”

Architecture has been a long-time passion for Lange and he is now working on translating different forms throughout different art mediums.

“I am really interested in architecture—that’s what I plan to do after college—so space is something I’m really interested in exploring through my work. I took sculpture this past semester, so I really worked to try to translate so of those two dimensional concepts into three dimensional pieces, which I think the paper on the floor really does the best. It is literally one form that is repeated over and over again to make a very organic shape” said Lange.

Lange attended a six week art program this past summer that solidified his interest in architecture as a career. “I saw a flyer in the studio for an architecture program, so I applied and got to do the program. It’s called Career Discovery, it is a six week architecture program that is designed to replicate a master’s program to help participants figure out if that is something they want to do later on,” Lange said. It was the hardest thing I’ve ever done; I practically lived in the studio for the whole summer. It did however definitely make me develop a passion for architecture and working in the studio, doing lots of hands on work.”

Lange’s show calls much needed attention to the small and “tight spaces,” that get overlooked due to their simplicity. “I’m really trying to show what you can do with simple things and the beauty in simple spaces. I think often times when people think of something they think the more complicated it is the better it is. I think an example is that you could think a dish with one hundred ingredients is the better than a recipe with only five, but that isn’t true and that is something I’m trying to convey. I want to highlight the significance of the little unit that can be overlooked.” Lange said.

Lange’s show will be on display until Friday, Feb. 3, 2012.