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.”

“Every few years, the number of dishes that are fully usable [no cracks or chips] gets too low to work in our system, so we have to do a periodic reorder,” explained Dick Williams, Director of Dining Services.

After nearly six years in the JRC, it was time for new plates. These new plates with their unique colors had some students worried that the colors were designed to be appetite suppressing. However, Williams explained that was not the case, and that the colors were chosen to complement the existing stir-fry dishes and the Dining Hall decor.

A majority of the rumors focused on the dishware’s powers to limit student’s food intake due to their perceived smaller size. However, these rumors are completely false. The size of the plates and bowls, the size is to promote efficiency for the workers in the back, not limit food intake. The new bowls also stack better, which makes moving the dishes easier for the Dining Hall workers.

“Students are always free to eat as much as they want,” Williams said. “Having one size of bowls and plates makes everything in the back more efficient.”

The Student Initiatives Committee informed Joint Board that an ice rink on the north end of campus should be completed by the end of the weekend. After the conclusion of finals, it is expected to stay intact over winter break, as long as a tarp is put in place. Although there are currently no ice skates available, Joint Board believes that students will still find plenty of ways to have fun. Senator Max Farrell ’12 suggested that students attach butcher’s knives to Nikes. Senator Ron Chiu ’13 advised all students to experiment carefully.

In the midst of hell week, VPAA Wadzi Motsi ’12 said that students should talk to their professors if they are overwhelmed by stress, instead of resorting to academically dishonest practices, saying, “Strategize, don’t plagiarize.” She also reported that Grinnell’s faculty voted to approve the Midwest Conference’s new rules, allowing coaches to more aggressively recruit student athletes.

President Gabe Schechter ’12 discussed the College’s plans to begin work on an image overhaul. Schechter specifically illustrated Grinnell’s problem by pointing out that Macalester calls itself as a school with an international outlook, when “Grinnell has more international students than them, but we struggle to advertise it.” A firm will be hired to do research on opinions of the school, which will even include a survey of perspective students. Schechter stressed that they would be using “the most powerful statistical tools” to deliver results for Grinnell.

The only budget was for the SRC’s trip to Ames for workshops and events on gender identity and social justice as part of the MBLGTAC Conference. The ridiculously long acronym had a ridiculously approvable budget—it was passed unanimously.
Senator Sam Mulopulos ’14 withdrew his sponsorship of a resolution against Bob’s Underground after declaring that Bob’s had actually stayed in the black this semester, defying years of debt.

VPSA Chris Dorman ’12, who was celebrating his birthday by wearing a snappy pink dress shirt with a neon pink cowboy hat, reported that the dining hall will create a better “sauce station,” thanks to buffalo sauce fans Holden Bale ’12 and Eric Mistry ’14. Dorman also added that the Grille will begin selling eggs to students, so that bakers do not need to make the trek to McNally’s.

To conclude the meeting, Presiding Officer Aldrich was forced to leave the room for the vote on his confirmation for next semester. His presence was the only thing restraining the beast that is Joint Board. Immediately, Mulopulos bolted under the table (for reasons that are still unknown to this reporter) and Senator Joe Engleman ’14 “moved for a state of anarchy.” Schechter, who had assumed Aldrich’s responsibilities, stated that the chair would only entertain “comments or questions made in a suggestive tone.” Somehow, Aldrich was eventually confirmed in a vote of 15-2-2, and the meeting was adjourned.

From left: Emily Baselon, David Plotz and John Dickerson enjoy a Millstream while discussing politics at the Harris Center on Wednesday. Photograph by Roni Finkelstein.

Students, faculty, staff and visitors filled the Harris Center, with some travelers from as far as California and Alaska to hear the show. Executive Producer Andy Bowers introduced the members of the podcast by telling a bit about the foundation of the Political Gabfest podcast in 2005.

“In the beginning, it was me just reading news articles, which got rather dull,” Bowers explained. But he wanted to get away from the conventional talk show after realizing that “political talk shows are too constrained.” With this in mind, Bowers tried to simply recreate the conversations that he heard all around him, in the office and the bars after work.

“At Slate,” he continued, “you can hear really honest arguments in the hallways, whether on or off air.”

The three main topics of the discussion, held in the Harris Cinema Center included the approaching caucuses in Iowa, recent speeches by President Obama and a peculiar Supreme Court case involving former vice-president Cheney, a Secret Service arrest and a shopping mall.

“Newt, Newt, Newt” was a centerpiece of discussion in regards to the caucus campaigns, with his recent popularity rising far above the other key players fighting for the Republican nomination. The trio however, couldn’t see the appeal, with Plotz remarking that Newt has “written more books than he has had wives.” Dickerson also remarked, “if there is one consistent thing, it is that people do not like Romney.” But , they concluded, there is still a lot of campaigning left to be done, something that may benefit more moderate candiates like Romney.

Discussion then moved onto Obama, asking if there is anything that he can do to regain the widespread popularity he held with the youth during the ’08 election. Bazelon didn’t seem to think so, equating Obama’s popularity to a high-school crush.

“You can only have that first love once,” Bazelon said. However, she still stated that during a recent address of Obama’s, “I felt myself wanting to believe in it again.”
The main conversation finished with the case currently under consideration by the Supreme Court of a Colorado man suing several members of the Secret Service, claiming that his 2006 arrest following an interchange with then Vice President Dick Cheney violated his constitutional right to freedom of speech. Bazelon, the legal expert of the group, took the reins of the discussion, with Dickerson chiming in with his age-old wisdom, “Don’t touch the Cheney.” While the question of who will win is yet to be the decided, perhaps the most interesting component was the discussion of whether the secret service deserves absolute immunity. Absolute immunity is the inability for an individual to be sued for their actions related to their position, a status conferred on the president, amongst others.
The Gabfest concluded with a portion referred to as “Cocktail Chatter,” in which each member of the discussion brought up a topic to share from popular culture, beginning with an embarrassing email dealing with a romantic relationship gone awkwardly wrong that unfortunately found its way onto the gossip site, Gawker.com, which was introduced by Baselon. The panelists got the audience involved during this part of convesation first asking whether who prefers to turn down a second date by actually giving an response or by simply ignoring the unfortunate situation and sending no response. The audience was divided on the question, but was in unanimous agreemt on the second question, on whether it is better to recieve the rejection or recieve no news. Everyone, it seemed, preferred to recieve the rejection rather than be left in the dark, a fact the panelist noted as “eerie” in its universality.

After a brief discussion on the educational argument in favor of in-class doodling brought up by Dickerson, Plotz finished with an analysis of the symbolic significance of 19th century facial hair trends and college facial hair, which was partially prompted by an audience member dressed as Abraham Lincoln and the various hairstyles he encountered during his visit to campus.

The discussions elicited a lively response from the audience, who cheered, laughed, booed (a little bit) and lined up at the end of the discussion to pose questions to the panelists. Spectators especially responded to the candid, casual style of the conversation.
“They are very engaging with the audience, and it was cool to be in on the taping,” said Kathy Andersen ’13. “I really like the attitude they have of being able to talk freely about their views.”

As part of their visit to campus, Slate staff members participated in several other events around campus, beginning Tuesday with a career talk led by Erin Nichols ’02, a Software Engineer for Slate and the magazine’s most direct connection to campus.
At noon on Wednesday, Plotz and Bowers participated in a fairly informal conversation about careers in journalism, covering topics ranging from the increasingly multi-media nature of the field to the difficulties of making a living as a free-lance writer.
Despite the intense competition for a small number of well-paying positions and the sometimes grueling nature of the work, Plotz stressed the benefits of a career as a journalist.

“It’s a hard profession,” Plotz said. “But of course there’s a huge upside, which is that you work with interesting people, you do interesting things, and you can write about … things that you think matter.”

Plotz, Bazelon and Dickerson also led a pre-Gabfest discussion with a group of students from Totino-Grace High School in Fridley, Minn., who drove five and a half hours to see the event, as part of their AP Government class.

“They have been listening to the Gabfest since the semester started in August,” said Ann Carroll, the class’ teacher. “So, when we found out they were coming to Grinnell we emailed and [Director of the Rosenfield Program] Sarah Purcell … was gracious enough to have us come down.”

If you missed the live taping, Wednesday’s podcast will soon be available at Slate’s website, www.slate.com.

“We’re working with the Grinnell Police Department to solve this and a lot of the other cases,” said Director of Campus Safety & Security Stephen Briscoe. “A lot of thefts have been occurring. I haven’t crunched the numbers yet, but it seems like it’s going to be a record year.”

Willa Akey ’15 of Loose 1st and her roommate had a wallet and camera stolen from their room on Thanksgiving Day. She said that they left the door unlocked for only a couple of hours.
“[That the thefts happened] was disappointing,” Akey said. “It’s frustrating that people would so something like this.”

Matt Lewis ’14 of Read 1st and his roommates were also victims of theft over the break.
“We left for break and thought we had locked the door,” Lewis said. “But we ended up not actually locking it. The door was open when we got back, and the TV and Wii had been knocked to on the ground. The thief took about 20 bucks.”

Security believes that many thefts from the semester have gone unreported. Lewis’ roommate Quinn Underriner ’14 believes that students should not be afraid to report any theft.
“We’ve been spreading awareness about the thefts and trying to make sure that people know what’s been going on,” Underriner said. “It’s important to make sure that everyone feels safe coming forward about things that have been stolen from them—even if those things are potentially incriminating, you can still communicate.”

Michael Cermak ’14 who knows Lewis and Underrinner as well as another student who was robbed on Halloween night, can’t believe how often the break-ins seem to happen.
“It shocked me, cause I would never expect that,” he said. “Especially since it wasn’t just that [Lewis and Underinner] were robbed, but from what I know the people who robbed them just trashed their room. That’s even more surprising to me.”

But Cermak has taken some precautions to keep himself protected.

“I’m more worried, I don’t leave my computer in visible space when you open the door anymore.”

Campus Security stresses the importance of community awareness to combat the thefts.

“Grinnell has always been an open community, but we have to realize that we are not all that separate from the overall society, and that crime is associated with society,” Briscoe said. “Students should lock their valuables, and if anyone has any information they should either call or email me.”

additional reporting by Michael Schoelz

President Raynard Kington joins Mona Ghadiri '11 nd Katie Suchor '11 Photograph by Avery Rowlison.

“You cannot step twice into the same river,” said Paula Smith, quoting the philosopher Heraclitus. “I think Grinnell College has a core value and identity as an institution, but it is also an ever-changing place. I believe that the Grinnell that you stepped into is very different from the Grinnell that you step out of.”

Smith mentioned the updates of the new buildings, the diversification of academics and the replacement of faculty members.

“There was President Russell Osgood when you stepped in, and President Raynard Kington when you step out,” Smith said.

Smith also pointed out that the strategic plan is at its halfway point, and the College is finding the new direction.

“You want to stay connected and see where Grinnell is going to flow from here. The Grinnell that you attended now is becoming one of the chapters. We are going to be watching you as well, and stay connected with you. Grinnell College is going to take pride in everything you accomplish now, as an alum,” Smith said.

Kelly Maynard, as the commencement speaker, compared the tumultuous times in which the students of the French Revolution and the graduating Grinnellians find themselves.
“You are also special people, in a sense that you are graduating at this moment of tremendous flux,” Maynard said during the ceremony. “As a global community, we face on the economic instability, environmental crisis, dire food shortages, outrageous wealth disparity and inequalities based on gender, race, identity and sexuality. But you know much as well as I do that Grinnell trains students to be responsible citizens in the world.”
President Raynard Kington made a short speech about his views on a liberal arts education and his confidence in the graduating students.

“Our foundational strategy is to provide superb liberal arts education, and prepare students to make a difference in the real world,” he said.

Then he quoted an alum’s comment on strategic planning: “the opportunity to think deeply about important things and to debate with friends and teachers who have thought just as deeply, and reached differing conclusions, embodies the beauty, the importance, and the uniqueness of a liberal arts education.”

The students, on the other hand, are going to face the opportunities and challenges of the real world. Laura Garcia ’11.5, a philosophy major who is graduating this semester, is thinking of both jobs and graduate school.

“I’m applying to graduate schools next year, so I’m looking for jobs in between this period, and hopefully I’ll get one,” she said.

Lily Cross ’11.5, who is also graduating in the fall semester, is looking for a job.
“I do want to go back to school to get my master’s in GWSS or sociology, but I just don’t feel like doing it right now,” Cross said.

Although ready to face the tough challenges of “real world,” Cross also expressed her love and gratefulness for Grinnell College.

“There’s so much respect among students in Grinnell, and we are given a lot of responsibility,” she said. “Other institutions that I’ve gone to are kind of like a continuation of high school, but in Grinnell, we are really learning critical thinking skills. This is a wonderful place.”

The Alumni Engagement working group of the strategic plan wants to open the digital floodgates, letting former students pour back into the world of Grinnell.

“[Alumni are] an incredible, intellectual, knowledgeable resource for all of us,” said Beth Halloran, Vice President of Development and Alumni Relations and chair of the committee.

The main change that Halloran and the other committee members want to see is a Grinnell-run online network for alumni. They call it G-Harmony, as a working title, and want it to be starkly-improved from the widely criticized Loggia, the current equivalent.

G-Harmony would include a database of all Grinnellians (alumni, students, professors, and staff), searchable by location, career, hobbies, interests and maybe other characteristics. This would solve the most common complaints about the Loggia, that it’s hard to manipulate and often outdated.

Maria Elena Higgs ’12, the SGA representative on the committee, says such a website will be useful for alumni, especially those who just graduated.

“Having an easy way to connect to alums is so appealing,” Higgs said. “You have a contact with someone in that industry or in that town, and it just makes the process of moving so much easier.”
The committee presented this idea and others at two open forums on Monday.

“We want to engage multiple constituencies, including alumni, at the same time,” member Doug Cutchins said at the first.

They agreed to focus on three themes: intellectual exchange, advice and mentoring, and service. All of these should happen among alumni, between alumni and students, and between alumni and faculty and staff, according to Cutchins.

G-Harmony will help achieve all of these by facilitating an online community of alumni who don’t need to meet in real life.

“[It’s] the foundational structure from which everything else will flow,” Halloran said.

Everything else refers to an array of other proposals, including an online video-streaming network, alumni convocations, a Grinnell book club, an adopt-a-student program, and an alumni-taught week of lectures during Winter Break.

The video stream would be a Grinnell YouTube channel, or something like it. Women’s Basketball Coach Kate Gluckman, a committee member, researched what such a channel could do for Grinnell.

“[A YouTube channel is] a way to broadcast what’s going on on campus, but also provide a platform for alums to share their ideas.”

Other schools, like Harvard and Brandeis, have active sites that allow their graduates to stay connected. Grinnell hopes to incorporate some ideas from these sites, but uniquely allow any Grinnellian to post content, according to Gluckman.

Recordings of sports events are one example she gave of a type of video that would be available to anyone.

“We’re thinking about alums, but as a recruiter for Women’s Basketball, that would be really helpful for me as well,” she said.

The video stream meshes well with another proposal: convocations by alumni, for alumni in Grinnellian hubs. Alumni living in cities with lots of other Grinnellians could give convocations to each other, about their work or expertise, continuing the intellectual exchange they grew accustomed to in their college days.

Furthermore, these speeches, as well as on-campus convocations and MAP presentations, could be posted online. Any alumna could watch speeches that take place in Grinnell, Chicago, or London.
According to Gluckman, these gatherings would allow graduates to meet each other.

“Not only can there be intellectual exchange, but also networking,” she said.

A similar program proposed by the working group is to have a massive Grinnell book club. Alumni could join students, professors, and staff in reading a designated book. Discussions could be fostered on-campus, in online video chats or forums, or, again, in alumni hubs. This would give many Grinnellians a common reference and would foster more exchanges of ideas.

Another idea is for alumni to adopt incoming students. Maria Higgs knows what this would be like—she participates in a similar program with St. Mary’s Church in town, and, along with another student, was adopted by Dorothy Palmer ’62.

“Every now and then I’ll get a random package of cookies in the mail or a good luck card,” Higgs said.

Palmer also hosted Higgs for Thanksgiving last year, and has actively stayed in touch with her.
Alumni won’t have to live near Grinnell. They can talk to their students by phone or online, send care packages, or stay involved in any other way of their choosing, according to Higgs.

Alumni may also find an opportunity to interact with students in person, in a new J-term (January-term) during the last week of spring break. Details aren’t set, but students may have the chance to come back from break a week early to hear lectures from a variety of alumni.

“It involves bringing alums back to campus and making people realize this idea of a Grinnell family,” Higgs said.

Carter Newton ’77, President of the Alumni Council, likes the idea of bringing alumni to campus while students are still there (reunions occur after the school year ends).

“It’s all about establishing relationships,” Newton said.

Would alumni want to come? Newton thinks so. Those that he speaks to regularly encouraged the College to do more.

“Alumni Council is just thrilled that alumni engagement is part of the strategic planning process,” Newton said.

At the noon open forum, Associate Professor Shanda Kuiper, Statistics, responded to the committee’s statistic that only about 60% of alumni attend any of their reunions.

Kuiper asked if research had been done to find out what factors determine which alumni stay involved with the College and which don’t. Kuiper thinks this could be a step forward in understanding what can be done to reach more people.

“We market to the people who we know well,” Kuiper explained in an interview. “It’s not going to improve our alumni relations if we focus on the people who we already engage.”

According to Halloran, the College doesn’t have data to answer that question.

Newton, who doesn’t often see Grinnellians near his home in Galena, IL, wants to make sure that new programs aren’t just accessible at alumni hubs, but can connect alumni wherever they live.

“How can Grinnell College become a better conduit?” he said, describing the committee’s task.

For this reason, Halloran emphasizes the value of putting these programs online.

“We’re being mindful of the fact that we have an international alumni base and we have to create products for that,” she said.

The “blue sky idea” phase of the strategic plan is ending soon, so any further ideas for the alumni relations working group should be emailed to [sp] or a member of the committee by the end of the semester.

The previous installment of this series describing the Post-Graduation Success working group can be found here: Strategic Plan Update: Post-graduation success.

Reverend Billy of the Church of Stop-Shopping throws his hands to the mountaintops that shouldn't be mined. Photograph by Nate Powell-Palm.

Reverend Billy, who has recently become a vocal supporter of the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) movement certainly had a lot to say, sharply criticizing a culture where our focus only extends as far as the next item we want to buy.

“We have to help each other learn to make very fundamental/basic changes in our communities,” Billy said. “The big banks and corporations … must be quickly … disempowered, and replaced by …direct democracy [and] community institutions.”

Much of the “sermon” was devoted to the undue influence that large companies have on our day to day lives. Reverend Billy’s remedies were somewhat sparse, if varied. True to its name, the Church of Stop Shopping dubbed Black Friday as “Don’t Buy Anything Week,” and will be staging a campaign against the consumerism associated with the holiday season. However, the Church of Stop Shopping warns against many sins within the American financial system.

“We were very involved with Bank Transfer Day, at Bank of America … [and] we had a big demonstration. The choir sang, and I preached,” Billy said. “They shut down the B of A though. They locked the doors! I guess they were afraid of us.”

One message that the Reverend expounded upon was that the change they sought wasn’t about policy. “It’s not programmatic, it’s systematic,” repeated Billy multiple times throughout his speech. And the changes that he believes will be necessary are both far-reaching and close to home.

“We have to start living over … we have to discover ourselves, how basic the changes are, how fundamental the changes are, that we need to make,” Billy clarified. “The community dynamics of generosity has been defeated for a long time by corporations, and what we’re discovering now is … the first thing to do is not have legislation that can become policy in Washington D.C.”

Billy practices what he preaches—the entire event involved an enormous amount of walking amongst the crowd, as well as involving the audience as a whole.
With boisterous outcries of “Occupy-elujah!” Reverend Billy got his parishioners off of their seats and into the streets of Grinnell. The performance ended on a powerful note, as Reverend Billy stormed up the aisle of the church and took the show on the road, literally. Intrigued members of the audience spilled out the chapel’s doors after Billy to find out where the wandering preacher had gone.

As any newly converted member of the Stop Shopping Church could tell you, all present could feel the Spirit (or at least their breath) in the air as they listened to the call to buy no more Christmas presents. Elise Gallant, who will graduate at the end of the semester, was just one of many who was moved by Preacher Billy’s dynamic performance.

“I thought that Rev. Billy did a really good job of connecting some of the disparate threads within the Occupy movement, specifically addressing the need to create a definitive set of propositions and tenets [for the movement],” Gallant remarked. “This movement is not about policy making, it is about lifestyle change, and burgeoning new ways of thinking about the world that are outside of the scope of needing to buy something to make yourself happy.”

“I thought that the adjustments that the landlord made would prevent trespassers,” Eagan said. “But they were innovative and found a new way to break in.”
Eagan believes the door was pried open, because he discovered a screwdriver near his door and a side panel was ripped off. Speakers and videogames were stolen from his room.

Theft at Grinnell this year is at an all-time high. There have been close to a dozen break-ins on and off-campus.

“I was mildly concerned with the thefts on campus,” Eagan said. “But then my house was broken into, and it bothered me…I would say now that I’m irate.”

After the third break-in Eagan’s roommate moved out all of their stuff. They are now living at a different location.

Eagan has a message for those who wronged him.

“If you’re stealing something, don’t you lose a lot of the joy of the material because you didn’t earn it? How much fun will a videogame be that you didn’t work for? If I could say one thing…turn yourself in.”

Photograph by Mary Zheng.

McCarthy came to Grinnell through the planning of Morgan Bober ’12 and Erica Seltzer-Schultz ’12, with collaborative efforts from the Rosenfield Program, the Center for the Humanities, the Peace Studies Program, AJust Grinnell, and the Religious Studies Department.

He started the lecture with a moment of silence—a time for everyone to reflect upon the acts of violence that man has committed. Following the silence, he asked the audience, “Can you teach peace like any other academic subject?”

McCarthy believes that peace should be taught in schools the same way algebra or biology is taught. He believes the teachings of peace are something all students should experience to have a well-rounded education.

Not only can peace be taught, McCarthy believes, but aggression too. He believes American culture tends to promote competition and acts of aggression rather than peace and negotiation.

“We know about the men and women who protect the peace, but not about the men and women who make the peace,” McCarthy said.

He also considers capitalism and capitalistic teachings to be negative impacts on a young child. He is disturbed by games such as Musical Chairs and Spelling Bees because they encourage competition between individuals and their peers and distinguish one winner with everyone else being losers.

“That’s capitalism: Get all you can and knock the others down,” McCarthy said.

Instead of promoting competition, McCarthy advocates for education to be enjoyable and free of fear. He believes there are two types of learning: fear-based learning and desire-based learning. Most teachers, including the majority of professors at Grinnell, teach with a fear-based style opposed to a desire-based teaching style.
“There are two types of professors at Grinnell,” McCarthy said. “Those who want power over you and those who want power with you.”

McCarthy hopes all professors become professors who want power with you and encourages students to take a stance against the professors who want power over you. He encourages Grinnell students to peacefully come together and protest to show their dislike of homework and exams. This is not simply because Grinnell students do not want to do work; this is because Grinnell students want to learn by desire, not fear.

“When you go to power by yourself you agonize, when you go to power with a group, you organize,” McCarthy said.

He also compared Grinnell students to being customers and Grinnell College to be the suppliers. He advocates the customers to demand a new type of product; he advocates for students to demand a better-funded Peace Studies Program and even have a Peace Studies major.

He stated that Grinnell’s goal as a college should be being able to say, “Come to Grinnell: We’re going to teach you how to be peacemakers” and that a Peace Study major “would turn Grinnell from a good school into a great school.”

McCarthy believes that with peace, “We may not always see eye to eye, but we can always talk heart to heart.”

Keith McHnery speaks on the power that food security can have on the peace processes of the world.

Throughout his talk, McHenry shared humorous anecdotes about his experiences protesting. From dressing up as an army general selling baked goods in order to buy an airplane, to getting arrested for giving food to the hungry, to traveling around the world to spread the message of Food Not Bombs, McHenry has gone through a variety of endeavors to promote his cause.

Food Not Bombs started when McHenry and his friends, “became concerned when Reagan became elected that he would divert funding from education, healthcare, and social services to the military and that this would cause a crisis.”

When one of the group was arrested while protesting, the group of friends began selling baked goods to raise legal funds. In addition to selling these baked goods, they also helped someone move. It was during this move that they found a poster that resonated with their mindset.

“The poster read, ‘Wouldn’t it be a beautiful day if the schools had all the money they needed and the air force had to hold a bake sale to buy a bomber?’ So we went out dressed as generals and sold our baked goods in Harvard Square and the Boston Commons. It seemed to work really well and was a great way to spread our message that country was moving in the wrong direction,” McHenry explained.

The group would go on to hold other protests and provide food to the homeless and anyone else who wanted it. When they got in legal trouble for giving away food, the resulting media exposure helped push their message worldwide. McHenry and his friends were astounded by how the movement grew. Food Not Bombs has provided food around the world, from weekly meals worldwide, to being among the first to respond to Hurricane Katrina, to helping organize the kitchens of the Occupy Movements.

McHenry remarked that he was impressed with the Occupy Movement protests and was glad to see how similar in structure it was to Food Not Bombs. Like Food Not Bombs, Occupy has no formal leaders and comes to decision by group consensus. In addition, McHenry was glad to see that Occupy, like Food Not Bombs, is dedicated to nonviolent social change.

In an interview, McHenry explained what students at Grinnell and everywhere can learn from his experiences.

“Eight college students in their early twenties can think of an idea, and as long as they keep it focused and simple, it can become something that go around the world that thousands of people can participate in. It just shows how much hope there is, that a college student with a few friends and an idea can make something that thirty years later could have an impact on people, changing their lives around the world. It doesn’t take money or being a special person, it takes having this good intention and sticking with it, then it can go worldwide.”

And that, as is commonly said, is food for thought.

Contrasting a downward trend in emergency room visits over the past three years, these current numbers bring to light what some students and administrators believe is an alcohol abuse problem on campus. Despite student concerns that this increase will encourage the administration to impose restrictive alcohol policies, President Kington and members of Student Affairs believe the burden is on students to change their attitudes and lower the numbers.

“It worries me that the recent experience expresses a trend in the wrong direction,” President Raynard Kington said. However, he believes students can handle it on their own.

Since the College began keeping track of alcohol-related hospitalizations in fall of 2008, the Harm Reduction Committee has recommended measures to control dangerous drinking behavior, such as wrist-bands for all-campus parties to identify those of legal age, eliminating quarter beer night at Lyle’s pub, alcohol education programs and the creation of the Hall Wellness Coordinator student staff position. An important aspect of each of these precautions is that the administration wants to rely on students regulating themselves under self-governance.

Before this semester, the harm-reduction approach appeared to be working. During the 2008-2009 academic year, emergency room visits fell from 14 during the fall semester to three in the spring term and stayed low until now.

“From what I’ve seen, the alcohol policies in recent years generally have worked,” Kington said. “But we need to constantly reassess them to make sure they still work. As a matter of principle I’m supportive of policies that are consistent of our self-governance values.”

Despite the liberties that the administration allows student to have when it comes to drugs and alcohol, if the problem worsens, according to Vice President of Student Affairs Houston Dougharty, the administration will have to step in.

“We can’t, as a college, from both a liability perspective and out of concern for a student’s well-being, stand by if those types of events result in a large number of students or even any students putting themselves in harm’s way,” Dougharty said. “It wouldn’t be in any shape or way or form be our first choice, we really want students to address it themselves.”

Chris Dorman ’12, Vice President of Student Affairs for the Student Government Association, and co-chair of the Harm Reduction Committee, believes there is an alcohol problem on campus, but he says relying on the hospitalization records paints a false picture of the drinking culture at Grinnell.

“I honestly believe that first-year students have more trust in RLCs and are making more calls,” Dorman said. “If there are more calls, there are naturally more hospitalizations.”

However, Dougharty disagrees and claims that RLCs, security and paramedics examine the student’s condition before sending them to the hospital.

“There have been times when RLCs and campus safety have been called to help someone who has had too much to drink and they don’t need to make the call,” Dougharty said. “On one hand we are very pleased that folks are reaching out when they feel someone needs help, and at the same time we think that the students reaching out for help has been fairly consistent.”

Whether that’s the case or not, it is just one way we assess the drinking culture, according to Dorman. He believes that when assessing the effect of alcohol on campus, students and administrators must look at it from several factors, not just emergency room visits. One of his ideas is to examine the dorm damages each weekend alongside the medical and legal reports Student Affairs looks at each week.

At Joint Board this week, there was talk that Student Affairs strictly enforce the wristband policy, better guaranteeing that alcohol will only be served to those over 21 at campus-sponsored events.

Thomas Neil ’14 agrees with Dorman and thinks that student affairs should tally the amount of money and time Facilities Management(FM) spends on cleaning up after parties.

“The fact that someone has to clean up your vomit is really de-humanizing to the person cleaning,” Neil said. “This is a way to show people how we can be more respectful towards facilities management.”
A FM worker who wished to remain anonymous thinks that at times the partying goes too far.

“Sometimes what we clean up after the weekend can seem a bit excessive and disrespectful of us,” the staff member said. The FM employee also thought that evaluating student damages post-parties would be tricky, since the fines vary at the discretion of FM staff members.

By any metric, some alcohol abuse assuredly happens every weekend, and that is the problem we’re attempting to solve. Stephanie Brown, Lead Physiologist and Director of Student Health and Counseling Services (SHACS) believes that the problem stems from the students depending too heavily on alcohol as a way to relax from the stressful week.

“I think there’s a failure of self-governance at play here,” Brown said. “Students are not getting involved and holding other students accountable for their behavior, and helping each other recognize when enough is enough.”

Imagine yourself a freshman during NSO, walking into a room labeled “Campus Employment Office.” You need a job for work-study, to save for the future or to earn pocket money for the weekends. Maybe you realize that working as a Technology Consultant (TC) would help prepare you for your dream job as a political analyst, but maybe not. Maybe you’ve never heard of TCs. Regardless, you’re in luck.

A staff member behind the desk hands you a list of all campus jobs, but she doesn’t stop there. She asks you about your skills, your goals, your schedule and refers you to three jobs that fit you best. She tells you when they hire, how competitive they are and how to apply.

You exit into the Center for Careers and Opportunities, the new building on campus that also houses the CDO, the Offices of Social Commitment, Community Engagement and Off-Campus Study, and advisors for graduate school tracks. Sophomores and juniors look for summer internships or programs they can get involved in during the school year. Seniors dash unashamed from the CDO with newly-approved resumes to hunt down Doug Cutchins and complete their Fulbright applications.

These are two of the “blue sky ideas” discussed by the Post-Graduation Success working group of the Strategic Plan. Co-chaired by Director of the Faulkner Gallery Lesley Wright and CDO Director Mark Peltz, the Post-Grad group started by surveying the current opportunities for students.

“It quickly became apparent to us that one thing we’re lacking is coordination,” Wright said.

Hence the consolidation of staff to help students place themselves in the outside world.

“A lot of students want to know, ‘What are my options?’” Peltz said.

Peltz believes a central location paired with a centralized list of campus jobs would help students think about how their experiences at school prepare them for jobs after college. But the committee takes care to define success more broadly. After a contentious first meeting, they settled on the definition, “Students and alumni possess the knowledge, skills, experiences and connections to achieve their self-defined goals for their lives’ work.”

One way the committee hopes to realize this is by enabling current students to learn from alumni, something at which Professor Mark Montgomery, Economics, hopes the College will vastly improve.

“It seems like … a vast pool of untapped goodwill,” said Montgomery, who led the last strategic plan and now sits on the Post-Grad committee. “[Alumni] all seem to have this huge hunger to connect with the students.”

The recent update on the strategic plan sent in an all-campus email notes that the consolidation of job-related office would complement an idea from the Alumni Engagement working group to establish a contact point on-campus for alumni who still want to involve Grinnell in their lives. This is one model for better connecting students to alumni.

Another, more debatable discussion on campus that the Post-Grad committee hopes to resolve is the idea that Grinnellian ideals are incompatible with business, investment or other types of for-profit work.

“There’s long been a sense that Grinnellians disdain for-profit enterprise,” Montgomery said. “Lots of alums will … feel that the College will under-appreciate their contribution to society, whether it’s true or not.”

Though some students do express this disdain, especially in the era of Occupy protests, the committee seems resolved to encourage students and alumni to bring their Grinnell education to wherever they think they should go.

“Who better to be leading corporations and being involved in finance than people with Grinnell ethics?” said Andrea Conner.

SGA Joint Board discussed this subject during their Nov. 9 meeting at the urging of President Gabe Schechter. Most Senators saw value in holding jobs that earn a lot of money, noting that even social justice needs to be funded.

“[VPSA Wadzi Motsi ’12] bluntly explained that you can only save the world if you can afford to pay for it,” the minutes read.

Others at Joint Board disagreed, citing flaws in the system and the effects of being rich on a person.

Professor Montgomery identified another reason Grinnell needs to prepare its students for the workforce.

“International students, after a year in this country post-graduate, they have an option: get a job, go to graduate school, or get booted out,” Montgomery said. “Faced with the idea of being thrown out of the country, they have been pretty successful about finding jobs, but … my sense is … most of them would say, ‘I had to do that myself.’”

Moving forward, the Post-Grad committee will survey students about their opinions on the private sector and what messages they’re getting from professors, administrators and their peers. The Post-Grad committee held two open forums this week. Suggestions from the community included mandating (or at least offering) a capstone class for seniors, paralleling the idea of tutorial, to prepare them for graduation and bringing back or replacing the second-year retreat to get students thinking about their future earlier.

The previous installment of this series describing the Teaching and Learning working group can be found here: Strategic plan update: Teaching and learning.

One student, and son of well-known “farmer Naylor” from “The Omnivore’s Dilemma”, reiterated a tone of the symposium but based his comments on personal experience.

“You want to know one way industrial agriculture has destroyed the land,” said Dylan Naylor ’13. “You see these vast cornfields on either side of the highway and realize that they are all just one plant or another, and there used to be plenty of species all over. Now there’s just corn or soybeans out there because we spray the fields with herbicides to kill all the other species.”
Beyond the problem of monoculture, the meat processing aspect of corporate agriculture entered the discussion in the second day of the symposium.
On Wednesday in ARH 102 a film was shown entitled “A Little Salsa on the Prairie.” The film documents a drastic change in the ethnic composition of Perry, Iowa. In the early ’90s only 47 Latinos lived in the town, but by 2007 the town was almost 25 percent Latino. The Tyson meat packing plant attracted a mostly Spanish-speaking workforce from as far as Central America.
The film featured one interview where Latin-Americans were described as “suspicious” and displayed some of the Perry community’s resistance to the changing demographics. Members of the Grinnell community, like Theatre Professor Emeritus Sandy Moffett, embraced the demographic change, but attempted to implement a model to counter the trend of industrial agriculture. His farm sells grass fed beef to the Phoenix Café in Grinnell, and a number of other buyers.
“I have been farming for 10 or 12 years consistently, but off-and-on for much longer than that,” said Professor Moffett. “It’s an ‘avocation’ with me and not a vocation. Mostly I’ve been interested in prairie restoration and conservation more than strictly farming, and I sell my products to whoever wants grass-fed beef.”
On Thursday afternoon in JRC 101, Jay Walljasper, a contributing editor to the National Geographic Traveler, offered an alternative solution to the impending food crisis. He suggested an idea targeting the ever growing field of cooperative agriculture called “the commons.” After expected silence from the audience, he prompted the crowd to define for themselves what “the commons” are exactly. Though an ancient form of societal cooperation, this term has little meaning in today’s average vocabulary. Walljasper offered his interpretation.
“Community ownership is a good model since land is a resource in which everybody has stake,” said Walljasper. “So I can get out of town safely—we are not talking about collectivizing the land like Soviet Union because that was an abject disaster.”
Speakers and audience members at the symposium hinted at the need for a communal project.
“The problem is corporate agriculture, or maybe attitude—the common perception is that our problems are too big to solve,” Moffett said.
According to Naylor, for the Midwest to survive, everyone involved needs to come together. He urged people not to solely blame farmers.
“It’s not the case that farmers are oblivious to how their methods harm the land, it’s just that feeding your family is more important,” Naylor said. “The system does not give farmers much of a choice but to exploit the land to squeeze it for dollars.

Farming is the lifeblood of Iowa. From both an economical as well as cultural perspective, farmers have raised this state from swampland and prairies to the most productive agricultural ground in the world. However these resources have ultimately been lost, due to abuse by the modern agricultural system. According to every scholar, farmer and writer and activist who shared their perspectives and work this week, if we are to preserve the agricultural resources that the Midwest has left to offer, American citizens need to engage nothing short of an agricultural revolution.

With the experience of reporting around the world for 20 years, how do you look at the Midwest differently? What kind of perspective did your international journalism bring to you?

Compare it to other societies—that’s what you can do. I have lived in other cities, where ancient cities and societies had to reinvent themselves. Every place is founded for some sort of economic reasons: ports, mining towns, factories towns. That’s the economic reason why the city is there in the first place. And after a while this changes. It always changes. Trade goes away. Farms consolidate. And when that happens, the place has to reinvent itself if it is going to survive. When Newton was founded, it was a Maytag town, and Maytag has gone away. Newton, if it is going to survive, has to reinvent itself. Well, the Midwest is going through this for the first time. We have been farming in the past hundred of years. Now we have to reinvent ourselves. I have seen this happen in other societies. I have seen other cities that had to do this 10 or 20 times. I just know that you have to do this, not just slide away into the back water.

You mentioned in your book that the Midwest is failing the challenge of globalization. Could you tell us about your observations as well as the solutions that you propose?

We have been living on the invention from one hundred years ago for the past hundred years. All the great ideas from Fredrick Maytag, John Deere, Henry Ford, built this incredible economy and civilization that we had here. And now that’s going away and all is under challenge from globalization. What we do, especially the routine manufacturing, has gone into the global economy. It’s not going to be done here anymore. This is a terrific challenge to our economy. No, we are not doing a very good job of it. Isolated cities are doing OK—Chicago is doing fine; Minneapolis is doing OK; Des Moines is beginning to come back. But we haven’t yet figured out what we are going to do for a living now. And we have to do it—that’s the challenge. How can we get good jobs? How can we keep smart young people here? How can we provide a good standard of living? We have not figured that out.

You’ve got to get jobs. Jobs are the whole thing. People are going to stay only if there are good jobs out there. College students are only going to come back if there are good jobs for them to come back to—jobs that make them use their head. There’s a lot of talk about making towns attractive by building parks, bars, coffee shops—these are all parts of it. But basically you have to have good jobs here—jobs that use your skills and education; jobs that pay decent wage; and jobs that help to create a decent society. Obviously that leads to the question: what kinds of jobs are we talking about? Service jobs? Are we going to recreate manufacturing? Is this going to tie to agriculture, bioscience or green energy? This is the debate right now. I wish I could give a recipe, but I can’t. A lot of people all across the Midwest—not just here, but in Ohio and in Michigan— are debating about this issue: how can we recreate the society?

What does the heartland mean to you? What does the Midwest mean to you?

First off, it is really hard to define. I was talking to a woman this morning—she didn’t think that Ohio is a part of the Midwest. But I do. It is kind of a squishy concept—everyone knows where the South is; everyone knows where New England is. But the Midwest? I say, economically, it is the part of our country that has always done two big things for living, which are heavy industry and intensive agriculture. This is the traditional breadbasket of the United States. Secondly, it was originally founded by a wave of immigration, mostly from Northern Europe and from North England. Catholic and protestant. Certain outlook on life. Hard-working. Devoted to education. Religious. Very serious. Little dull, sometimes. That’s who we are. Since then, we have taken people from all around the world, mostly the great migration from the South from World War I on. And of course, we have tremendous wave of Hispanic immigrations.
Basically here is the Midwest character—it is steady, hardworking, serious, real beliefs in education, beliefs in community, not very imaginative sometimes. Not like California where everybody gets new ideas. We get something and we stick with it. We like the steady turning of the seasons. We work hard. We don’t handle change very well.

Do you think such character affects how we deal with the challenges right now?

Absolutely. We got people who used to work for Maytag saying: “We did a good job. I showed up every morning. I did what I was supposed to do. Now they take my job and I do not understand it.” Out west in California, people say: “Now the job is gone—what are we going to do?” Here we say: “There’s the job gone and now I am going to dig the grave and jump in.” It is a lack of imagination.
Now you go back to these early guys— Maytag, Deere and Ford—they had great imagination and they were Midwesterners. Somewhere along the line we lost that. We need a shock. I wrote the book as a wake-up call. I want it to hit them over their head and say: “Hey folks, we got a problem.” And shortly after the book came out, the recession came. I think people have realized now. People have realized that the time is different.

Finally, how do you perceive the role of Grinnell College and its students in the time when Midwest is facing big challenge?

Too many colleges exist as some sort of intellectual island without much connection to the surrounding towns. I see this in a lot of colleges around the Midwest. How can we give students a stake in the towns so that they would want to stay and use the terrific education that they are getting here to work for the area? How much does Grinnell use the town and the surrounding territory as a laboratory? What you’ve got here is a whole society, absolutely influx, absolutely changing. Until recently, there was no college or university in the entire Midwest that even taught one class on the Midwest. My point is that we are a definable region, like the South, that we have a common history and a common economy. There is no attempt being made to understand the Midwest as a region. Just recently, Monmouth College has set up a center for Global Midwest Studies but they are the only one. I would say that for Grinnell to get more involved with Grinnell, the Poweshiek County and the Midwest is to study it.

“For me it’s one of the greatest ways for Muslim students to come together and to show other people what Islam is about,” said MSA organizer Fatemeh Elahi ’12.

Eid marks the end of the Haaj, which is the pilgrimage to Mecca, and the beginning of the Muslim lunar calendar. Also known as the Festival of Sacrifice, the event commemorates the story of Abraham and his willingness to sacrifice his son, Ishmael, after receiving a message from God.

“For me one of the most important parts of the story is that Abraham seeks council with his son first and that Ishmael shares his father’s faith,” said Mustafa Hammouda, a local resident who attended the dinner. “Yet when Abraham goes to sacrifice his son, as the knife is on his neck, the angel Gabriel arrives and says that they have demonstrated their faith and that they should sacrifice a goat instead.”

In keeping with the story, many Eid celebrations serve goat or lamb.

“It was really important for us to have meat to go along with the story,” said Mariam Asaad ’14, another member of MSA.

The lamb is an important symbol of Eid, both in the way it is treated and the meal that it provides. The organizers arranged to purchase a lamb from B and B Farms run by Barney Bahrenfuse and Suzanne Castello. B and B Farms raise grass-fed, free-range, humanely raised meat.

“Its an honor to be involved, it draws us into a new tradition and it’s wonderful the way that a very different mood had been created tonight. It’s transported us,” Castello said.

“Eid a great way to connect with the students,” Bahrenfuse concurred.

Bahrenfuse and Castello provided the lamb, but another local community member prepared it. MSA reached out to local restaurateur Kamal Hammouda, owner of the Café Pheonix, who took responsibility for cooking the main dish.

“I processed the lamb,” Hammouda said. “The story for me is about faith and that’s really what the whole season is about. To me this day is about reflection on life and what it means.”

“Kamal is the Muslim Student Association’s Prayer Leader so he’s always been very involved with us and helpful with all of the Eid celebrations we’ve had in the past,” Asaad said.

Indeed, the cuisine was a major draw for the dinner, which quickly sold out of tickets.

“The food was delicious!” said attendee Noah Tetenbaum ’12.

Other than lamb, MSA served traditional South-Asian foods catered from the Taj Mahal restaurant in Cedar Rapids. The banquet included yogurt salad, samosas, daal, malai kofta, vegetarian biryani rice, naan and kheer, which offered many students a taste of home.

“The majority of the reason why I came is because away from home you feel deprived of your culture and care about it more,” said SGA Assistant Treasurer Raghav Malik ‘13. “This is not about religion, it’s about culture to me.”

Eid is about spreading good faith and sacrifice. Traditionally the meal is divided up into thirds, one third for the family, one for friends and one for charity. This year the MSA chose to donate to Islamic Relief USA.

“We decided upon Islamic Relief because we know it’s doing a lot of hands on work in Somalia,” Asaad said. “We also wanted to donate to them instead of other charities because, let’s face it, in the West, Muslims don’t really get great publicity and on our part we just wanted to draw attention to this great and credible charitable organization.”

After the dinner, many attendees began dancing in the Quad and some members of MSA offered henna tattoos to the guests.

“I was very pleased that at the end they thought about having a dance and they made it possible for people to participate,” said Professor Mervat Yousseff, French and Arabic. “This is what I think religion should be about, it’s another time to celebrate, not just a celebration of one group. What makes it a celebration is that you have other people participating.”