Cart your laundry to Maytag to save money, time

Taking your clothes to Maytag Laundry and Tanning is a good life choice. The attendants are friendly and helpful, and the room is well lit, well organized, nicely decorated and brightly colored. Since all the machines go through a deep cleaning each night, they all work well and are mold- and mildew-free, so your clothes get really clean.

Maytag Laundry and Tanning features a warm and friendly atmosphere to laundry-washers. Photo taken by Avery Rowlison.

In Maytag Laundry and Tanning, there are twenty commercial washers that can wash one load of clothes at a time and cost $2 per cycle, six maxi-loaders that wash the equivalent of four loads at once and cost $4.25 per cycle, and two mega-load washers that wash the equivalent of six loads at once and cost $5.50 per cycle. There are twenty small commercial dryers that are slightly larger than those in Grinnell residence hall laundry rooms and five large commercial dryers that are enormous. The cost of drying for both types is $.25 for six minutes. There are also two tanning beds, if you happen to be seeking the T in GTL.

The large capacity, high efficiency washing machines get clothes spotless without the damage of a top-loading machine. They also finish a cycle in less than fifteen minutes. The time per cycle of their commercial grade top-loading machines is comparable to that of the machines in residence hall laundry rooms. The dryers usually take thirty minutes to dry a load, even in the large commercial dryers that can accommodate a lot more clothes than the normal sized dryers can.

There is also little to no competition for the machines at Maytag. They have an adequate number of both washers and dryers to fulfill the needs of a busy clientele. The turnaround is fairly fast, so even if you have to wait, which is unlikely, it isn’t for long.

Though the Laundromat is two miles away from campus and it takes time to pack up your laundry and get there, the time to wash and dry is much less than it takes to launder clothes in the residence hall laundry rooms, and your clothes end up much cleaner. However, you will probably need a car to get there since laundry can be heavy. Once you’re there, though, it is well worth the effort.

The laundromat offers some great amenities besides laundry. There is free wireless internet, arcade games, television, a change dispenser, a soap, bleach and softener dispenser, magazines, clean counters on which to fold your clothes, tables at which to relax, drop-off and ironing services and a student discount rate for college students.

The drop-off service is great for students with busy schedules. For a certain rate, students can drop off their laundry and they can pick it up that same day, at which it will have been washed, dried and folded for them. The Laundromat provides all of the necessary materials, including soap and softener.

Luckily for students, the discount rate is significant. They offer $.50 off a cycle for the one-load machines, so instead of paying $2, Grinnell students pay just $1.50 a load. If students drop off their laundry, they pay $.79/pound rather than the full $.99/pound rate.

The free wireless internet and tables are conducive to doing homework while waiting for a laundry cycle to finish, and the Laundromat offers a relaxed and quiet atmosphere. In addition, Maytag will soon be offering a laptop bar that will host ten users, complete with outlets for each person.

Darren Saunders, a Maytag customer, says he does his laundry there because it’s clean, quiet and he doesn’t have fight for machines. He also likes the security of having an attendant present to watch over the Laundromat.

“Even if you have to step out to run some errands, you know your laundry is safe,” he said.

This location has been open for about seventeen years and under its current owners for nearly six of those. Historically, it hasn’t received much business from the College. Recently, Ashley Rubendall, the manager of the Laundromat, has been trying to advertise more at the college to increase business.

“I think that if college students knew more about the services we offer, they would want to take advantage of them,” she said.

The Laundromat is open seven days a week from 8 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. and is located at 805 West Street, right next to Fareway. Arts Center hosts local student show

Throughout the month of March, the Grinnell Area Arts Council is hosting a show at their newly renovated building downtown. The gallery exhibits works done by Grinnell Middle School and High School students.

The Arts Director of the Grinnell Area Arts Council, Judy Arendt, welcomed visitors to the show.

“This is our first time hosting this show … it has traditionally been in the Mayor’s Art Gallery, which used to be up in the Community Center,” Arendt said. “When we opened this space about a year ago, we took a lot of the shows that were in that gallery and hosted them.”

Gallery space is comfortably divided, with the middle school art to the left and the high school art surrounding the main space.

The works featured throughout the exhibit vary in theme. Students from the high school were each allowed to submit one piece, after approval from their instructor. Students from the middle school were allowed more freedom in what they could submit.

Media that were used include paint, pastel, photography, ceramics and pencil. The middle school students’ display includes many color wheels and grayscales, along with more personal pieces from their sketchbooks. Themes that run throughout the work of the high school students are pastel pieces of feet and hands, photographs of nature, and self- portraits.

One particularly interesting piece hangs on the far wall. This drawing features blue feet with green toenails, and the piece plays with perspective, proportion and foreshortening. Around the high school art exhibit are other, similarly drawn hands.

Another interesting aspect of this gallery show is a photography collection that combines many small square images to form three photographs of leaves, with colors moving from greens to autumn reds. Ceramics pieces of seashells, alphabet letters and pots lined the walls and are set on white podiums throughout the area.

Overall, the gallery space does a great job of exhibiting young, local talent and is an aesthetically pleasing and free downtown detour for cash-strapped college students.

The Arts Council has refurbished this space in the old Stewart Library building downtown in hopes of exhibiting as many of the town’s arts and theatre events as possible.

“When Drake Community Library [was] built, our board was in conversation with the city of Grinnell,” Arendt said, “and they negotiated the Grinnell Area Arts Council to rent us this space. We have been in existence in this building since December of 2009.”

Current offerings include after-school art classes for children from kindergarten through fourth grade, summer arts camps, foreign language courses and adult workshops. Additionally, the Center hosts shows and readings from resident artists, as well as other local and regional artists and performances. Molly Rideout ’10 is currently the Residency Coordinator and Administrative Assistant for the program.

“This space is used for all sorts of things. You can hear the kids screaming downstairs, so that’s our Studio 4 class. We have the art shows. You see the remnants of the Waiting for Godot production. I personally run the Grinnell Artist Residency,” Rideout said. “So we encompass all number of activities.” The Arts Council is planning an elementary art show this coming May.

“We’ve had a few more [projects] recently such as Community Band, which is soon going to be under our umbrella,” Rideout said.

This art show featuring local students will remain in the gallery until Mar. 24. Gallery hours are 12–4 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, 1–4 p.m. on the weekends or by appointment.

Local high schooler finds no limits at the College

Even though Patrick Lopatto, son of Professor of Psychology David Lopatto, is already well known in Grinnell College’s Math department, he is just a senior at Grinnell High School, set to graduate in May.

Lopatto has applied to a variety of colleges, including Grinnell, but hasn’t heard back from any of them yet. Although he isn’t sure about where he will find himself next year, he does know that he wants to pursue a degree in math.

Professor Marc Chamberland and Grinnell High School senior Patrick Lopatto researched together last summer and co-authored a paper of their findings. Lopatto is one class away from completing a math major at Grinnell College. Photo taken by Avery Rowlison.

“I want to go to a four year university and study math,” he said, “I just don’t know where yet. I’ll get my letters in two or three weeks.”

Here at the College, Lopatto has taken Calculus I, Calculus II, Linear Algebra, Differential Equations, the Putnam Problem-Solving seminar and Foundations of Abstract Algebra. Currently, he’s taking Field Theory and Foundations of Analysis, which are both 300-level courses.

“Yes, I am one class away from finishing the math major as a high school senior,” Lopatto confirmed.

Lopatto said he began taking math classes at the College as a sophomore in high school, when he ran out of classes to take at his high school. “It just seemed like the next thing to do,” he said.

He enrolled in the Advanced Scholars’ Program the College offers to local high school students, and quickly progressed through the classes. It is not abnormal for high school students take Calculus I or II at the College, but they rarely take higher-level math courses.

Among Lopatto’s accomplishments at Grinnell College is a published paper that he co-authored with Professor of Mathematics Marc Chamberland this year, after spending the summer researching the topic. Though Professor Chamberland was away for the summer, he and Lopatto outlined the work to be done, looked up references, and made a conjecture.

“Then he [Lopatto] dug into some of the nasty algebra stuff,” Chamberland said. “It was basically just trying to bang out and algebraically manipulate stuff around and get things in order, which is the nasty part of the paper.”

The topic arose from research that Professor Chamberland had come across done by a Canadian mathematician named Simon Plouffe who made conjectures about odd powers of pi and the Riemann Zeta Function. He wanted to further look into the subject and thought it might be something a student could do. “I thought it might be a project that Patrick might find interesting, so I showed it to him, and he [did think] it looked interesting, so we started working on it together,” Chamberland said.

The duo was able to take Plouffe’s conjectures and pair them with research done by an Indian mathematician named Ramanujan to create an expanded formula for all odd powers of pi. Plouffe had used a computer to come up with his conjectures, so Lopatto and Professor Chamberland used the program Maple to refine, double check, and typeset their formula.

“We were able to replicate what he saw and push it a little further,” Chamberland said.

Lopatto said that he has had a great experience with the Math Department here at Grinnell and that if he is accepted to the College, he will definitely consider attending.

“I definitely would [consider it], it’s exceptionally cheap since my dad is a professor here, and there’s the tuition remission, so that makes it exceptionally attractive,” he said.

Besides the math competitions he has participated in with other Grinnell students, Lopatto also plays the trumpet in the orchestra on campus and plans to continue to pursue music in college.

“You know, there are other departments besides math,” he joked.

Lehto & Wright bringing genre-bending music to town

This Saturday, Lehto & Wright will be performing their signature combination of Celtic/American folk and progressive rock at the Grinnell Arts Center. The duo consists of John Wright (acoustic guitar, bass guitar and vocals) and Steve Lehto (acoustic and electric guitars and vocals), while the percussionist, Matt Jacobs, is an occasional additional member.

Lehto & Wright have built an enviable reputation in their home state of Minnesota, but have not yet spread significant influence across the United States. This duo/trio has released seven albums so far, with the latest being “Children’s Songs,” as well as several solo projects.

The musicians admit to have a large spectrum of influences, including Miles Davis, Richard Thompson, and a number of pioneers of progressive folk. Their music, however, transcends each genre it uses as background (including Celtic, jazz, pop, folk, progressive rock) and synthesizes them in a challenging and sometimes surprising manner, thus toeing established boundaries to create a unique musical experience.

Lehto & Wright draw upon traditional Irish and English tunes and tradition, but combine them with some heavy rock and American folk, which makes their music very unusual and different from most things you have heard before.

Their songs vary from quiet and dreamy with acoustic guitar to more aggressive songs with heavy bass and percussion. What makes some of their songs particularly interesting are unexpected transitions between these different moods. In “East Virginia Blues,” for example, they start with slow chords that develop rapidly and are followed by strong percussion, bass guitar and unexpected vocals that give way to progressive rock elements.

Seeing as Lehto and Wright are both acoustic guitarists, many of their songs, such as “Skewbald,” emphasize that instrument in a very captivating manner. Other pieces, like their arrangement of “Of Time and Rivers Flowing,” are reminiscent of finding consolation in nature–“So many homeless sailors, so many winds that blow. … The gods of moving waters will tell us all they know.”

Lehto & Wright have been called “masters of their stringed instruments“ and their vocals sound great combined. Percussion is a brilliant addition to guitar chords—it gives strong character to their songs, creates the right atmosphere for heavier rock and makes their tunes sound more effective, like in “The Silver Tip.”

Lehto and Wright are brought to Grinnell by Voertman Event Series this Saturday, March 12 at 7:30 p.m. The concert will be held in the Grinnell Arts Center, and the tickets are available at the Arts Center, McNally’s, Brown’s Shoe Fit, or at the entrance on Saturday. Prices are $10 for adults, $8 for seniors and $5 for students.

This extraordinary trio is surely an interesting choice for your Saturday evening—if nothing else, the variety of their songs and instrumental exibitions guarantees enjoyment to all musical enthusiasts and lovers of good sounds.

Men’s tennis plans to continue MWC domination

With strong senior leadership, the Grinnell Men’s Tennis Team has continued a phenomenal start to the season. Despite losing teammate Bloun Zhang this season to sickness, the Pioneers laid a smackdown on Carroll University and Central College on Saturday, Mar. 5. Juan Perez ’11 led at the No.1 position in Grinnell’s 9-0 win over Carroll and 8-1 decision over Central. Perez teamed up with Dmitriy Glumov ’11 to also win at the No. 1 doubles spot in both matches. Martin Dluhos ’12 posted two wins at No. 3 singles and two more at No. 2 doubles with Colin Johnson ’13. Strong team dynamics played out well. Dmitriy Glumov '€™11 returns a serve during a drill during practice in the Bear Fieldhouse on Tuesday. Photo taken by Andrew Kelley.

“Everyone seemed to be extremely focused that day,” Perez said. “We knew it was our first conference match of the season and we wanted to make a good impression on the conference overall. Therefore, we had a great week of practice and I think that paid off at the end.”

Head Coach Andy Hamilton also credits the depth of the team

“Against Carroll and Central our depth really carried us, especially since we did not play our strongest lineup due to sickness on the team. I was proud of the way our substitutes stepped up and played,” he said.

Their stellar performances against Carroll University and Central College were just one link in what has been a chain of strong matches this season. The Pioneers also bested Westminster College, 8-1 and aced Truman state 9-0.

“We went into the Truman State match unsure of our opponents,” said Dylan Gumm ’11. “Our entire team played very well and it was great to get a win over a Division II team.”

This week also marked the second time in three weeks that Grinnell College has had the Midwest Conference Men’s Tennis Performer of the Week. Glumov was named this week’s Midwest Conference Tennis Performer of the week, three weeks after Perez was named Midwest Conference Men’s Tennis Performer of the Week in the first week of the season. Perez has now tied the school record for singles victories in a career. Eli Best ’07 had 90 wins between 2004 and 2007.

Overall, Perez has also been a stand-out contender this season.

“Perez is the best tennis player during my 30 years at Grinnell,” Hamilton said. “As a nationally ranked player coming out of the fall, he took his training over winter break seriously and he is off to a great start this season. Right now he is hitting the ball well and playing with a lot of confidence.”

On the accomplishment of first MWC Tennis Performer Perez is modest. “It feels nice. It is nice when other people recognize that you have accomplished something on the court,” he said.

Looking into the homestretch, the netters hope to stay and capture the Midwest Championships.

“I think right now the team is working hard to win conference,” Gumm said. “Our win over Carroll was the first step toward accomplishing that goal.”

“Our goal every year is to do our best in the Midwest Conference, the penultimate for us is winning a league championship,” Hamilton said. “What we are doing in the early part of our season is all about preparing us for Midwest Conference play.”

The Pioneers hope to continue their win streak this weekend at home, when they host St. Norbert College at 9 a.m. and Cornell College at 5 p.m. on Saturday, Mar. 12 and Augustana College on Sunday, Mar. 13, all in the fieldhouse. Baseball lost all that power, plays small ball

Last weekend Grinnell’s baseball team braved a tornado threat and the mucky mud of March to play three games in Fulton, Missouri. The team went 1-2. Saturday found the squad losing 1-4 to Buena Vista University. On Sunday, they fell to Westminster University 8-9 and then beat Buena Vista 3-2 in their second game on Sunday.

T.J. Goetz '14 focuses hard on hitting a ground ball during indoor practice in the Bear Fieldhouse Wednesday night as head coach Tim Hollibaugh, right, looks on. Photo taken by Ben Brewer.

In the second game against the Buena Vista Beavers, the Pioneers rallied from a 2-0 deficit with three runs in the sixth inning on a two out RBI double by Greg Suryn ’11, a wild pitch that scored Mike Bogard ’12 and then an error that brought in Matt Blumenreich ’13, which proved to be the winning run. The Beavers were a superb early test for the Pioneers, as they are the Iowa Conference pre-season favorites.

The team played a closely contested match versus their host Westminster on Sunday, where they outhit them 16-9 and mounted a 7-1 lead. The Pioneers saw strong performances from Michael Goldfien ’12, Suryn and Mike Nodzenski ’12, who each had three hits. They also had a flash of Jackie Robinson-type play when Drew Davis ’13 stole home in the first. Still, the relentless Blue Jays pecked away at the lead with two runs in the fourth, three runs in the fifth and two more in the eighth for the victory.

The biggest adjustment for the team throughout the weekend was getting used to not using BESR bats and being restricted to BBCOR rating bats. The team will be using Tpx Omahas, Louisville Sluggers and a few using Easton Surge Division III officials decided to adopt this new protocol to protect pitchers from being hit on comeback liners. As a result, there will probably be a serious reduction in offensive output. The adjustment could turn out to be a Division III Baseball pitchers’ new best friend.

“With the new bats I think overall pitchers might see their ERA dip down a little bit, and there will be a lot of pressure on pitchers to field bunts and make plays, be quick, have good footwork on the infield,” Bogard said.

The team will look to improve their offense in the games ahead as they continue to develop and understand what different game situations require.

“We got to get better on offense, we’re young so we were anxious. We have some experience, but not as much as other teams, so we had some guys who were pretty excited about their first chance to compete,” said Coach Tim Hollibaugh.

Grinnell also shows quite a bit of youth in their pitching as they have six underclassmen in their rotation. This will make for some growing pains, but the team is confident that their youth will mature quickly.

“Our pitching over the weekend was good, but our relief pitchers have to be confident that they can throw breaking balls across the plate rather than around it,” Hollibaugh said.

In addition to the challenge brought on by playing with a new bat, they had to cope with the graduation of Paden Roder ’10, Brian Sollo ’10, Chad Tadabuki ’10 and Nate Pierce ’10, all starters last season. Considering a good portion of the offensive production last season came from those bats, the team is facing a drop in power. To counter this, they will adopt a small-ball, Minnesota Twins mentality.

“Last year we hit two homers per game, in the first three we didn’t hit one, so we don’t have as much power but we are more athletic and definitely have more ability to bases,” Hollibaugh said.

The team will also look to expand on the strong defensive showing they put on in Fulton, an area that was a concern at times last season. This is something that the team will also have to focus on, as they may not score as many runs with their hit-and-run and bunt type offense. The bats will also produce slower grounder, requiring the infield to be quicker in their responses.

“We have a very quick team. We have Drew Davis ’13 in center and Kainoa Inafuku ’14 at short, who are both lightening quick. So we will be playing more of a small ball steal bases type game, then a power ball one,” Suryn said.

The Pioneers will hope to draw on their success in each area of the game in the 14-game Spring Break trip in Florida. Though, before the first game on March 20 against Amherst, the team has a home game Mar. 16 at 3:30 p.m. against William Penn.

During their Spring Break trip the team will play a host of tough competition including several top Division III schools and the Division I Dartmouth College. They will have to rely mightily on their youth to mature quickly and fulfill their potential.

“I want to see the maturity of our younger players and how we can keep it together, as we will be playing teams that will mostly have juniors and seniors,” Suryn said.

While the team prepares themselves for the trip with the mindset that they will win every game, they know that it could be quite the opposite. Regardless, the team will continue to live by their mantra, which is to trust in their ability, and know that if they have competed and beat the top competition before, they can do it again.

“We have to be relaxed and patient, with the schedule we have we could come back 2-12 in Florida for all we know because of who we play,” Hollibaugh said. “But the whole goal is to get better game by game, so that by the time we hit Conference we are ready to play.”

Kramer’s got a fever and the only cure is more hoops

*Cough, cough, cough.* Oh hello there, dear reader. I didn’t see you come in. Please, come a little closer, and join me on the settee. Oh, not too close—you see, I’ve been stricken with a mysterious malady these past few days, and I don’t see it going away for at least a month. Surely my plight is not unusual on this campus, where disease spreads like Cortés sneezing in Tenochtitlan. So be forewarned—March Madness is coming, my friend. Perhaps soon you’ll catch it too. Don’t try to take this bug to the health center either, because a little brown paper bag of generic pain-killers won’t cure what ails me, and, *cough, cough, cough,* soon you. Read on and watch some college hoops this month for immediate relief, and if that doesn’t work, I suggest you go to a Bracketologist for a full diagnosis.

This Sunday the NCAA Tournament Selection Committee will release the bracket for this year’s tournament, and much like Seth Green circa 1998, I can’t hardly wait. Why did Melissa Joan Hart have such a minor role in that movie, by the way? She was a teenage witch, man. She explained it all. Nobody could mess with her. Nobody has time to watch all eleventy thousand games (rough estimate), so that’s why I’ve created the following convenient March Madness companion of which teams will be a panacea for your aching, syphilitic (or is that just me?), hoops-loving body. Take twice daily, preferably with a meal.

Men Among Boys

Several teams who are already tournament “locks” are lucky enough to have the sort of star-studded line-ups that put even a Charlie Sheen coke party to shame. Others might boast only a single freakishly talented individual, much like, say, a Charlie Sheen interview with the dreadful Piers Morgan. Except I’m not saying their teammates are dreadful. Anyway, memes aside, here are the six teams that are always going to be entertaining if for nothing else that the exceptional play of a few guys who will almost definitely hear David Stern call their names in June.

The Arizona Wildcats feature a man who is frequently projected as a potential first overall pick in forward Derrick Williams. Williams is averaging 18.8 ppg and 8.2 rpg and ranking first in the nation in Ken Pomeroy’s offensive efficiency ratings for players used in at least 28 percent of their teams’ possessions. Williams also passes the eye test with flying colors. He is exemplary at moving without the ball, he can drive on you and he has some very slick post moves. He also unleashes dunks meaner than Frankie Muniz’s Twitter feed. Seriously, check out some of his work on YouTube, because it is filthy. Like, Muniz filthy.

The hated—by me and other sports fans with taste—Kansas Jayhawks are, as usual, loaded with NBA talent. The center of attention for the Jayhawks this year has been junior forward Marcus Morris, who averages 17.3 ppg and 7 rpg. While I personally think Morris is a totally classless individual (it says something when your Google search suggestions include, and I am not making this up, “Marcus Morris elbow” “Marcus Morris ejected” and “Marcus Morris flagrant foul”), the guy can put the ball in the hoop with authority and is a surefire first-round pick. His twin brother Markieff is only a step behind Marcus and also looks like an NBA player, though he could slip to the second round. Sophomore forward Thomas Robinson is so athletic he could be the best of the Kansas interior players when all is said and done. But, he’s still a work in progress. Even less ready but equally talented is freshman point guard Josh Selby, who has needed some time to adjust to the college game but oozes with potential. I’d also like to take this opportunity to ask Kansas fans how glad they are that C.J. Henry will be using up a roster spot for two more years. Hope Xavier was worth the one year. At least the Jayhawks made a great tournament run last year like they always do, right? Well, I guess I should ask Ali Farokhmanesh about that …

Ohio State is a lot like Kansas, only likeable. Freshman forward Jared Sullinger of the Buckeyes does the work of both Morii in the post, which is why he’s also in contention for the first overall pick. Sully must listen to a lot of Waka Flocka Flame, because the dude goes hard in the paint. He’s averaging 17.3 ppg and 9.7 rpg, but is helped by junior guard William Buford, who has the size and the range to be a first rounder as well.

Other notable stars include the Kentucky Wildcats’ freshman PG Brandon Knight and freshman forward Terrence Jones. Jones averages 17 and 9 like Morris and Sullinger, but he also averages two blocks and a steal. The Texas Longhorns’ Jordan Hamilton and power forward Tristan Thompson are both elite talents, though Hamilton needs to improve his shot selection. The North Carolina Tar Heels also have a pair of future NBA players in PF John Henson and the pride of Ames, IA, Harrison Barnes. Barnes had a fairly pedestrian start to his season but has come on lately to improve his draft stock.

Up or Down?

The team that will probably warrant the most discussion on Selection Sunday is the BYU Cougars. Led by sharp-shooting guard , BYU was a dominant force earlier in the season with wins over Arizona, UNLV (twice), San Diego State (twice), and bubble-dwellers Saint Mary’s, Utah State, and UTEP. There was talk of Jimmer for the Naismith award and as an NBA lottery pick. In the typical progressive, color-blind fashion of the liberal media, Jimmer has been compared to some of the greatest White basketball players ever, like (who was taller and way better), Adam Morrison (taller, same skill-level), Mark Price (faster, better passer), or J.J. Reddick (this one is spot-on). But then the wheels came off on March 2 with a blowout home loss to New Mexico, a team that went 8-8 in the Mountain West and likely won’t make the tournament field. That loss came in the wake of the suspension of sophomore power forward Brandon Davies.

As you will recall, Davies was suspended for the season for violating the BYU Honor Code by having premarital sex with his girlfriend. Despite the national media’s repeated invitations for somebody, anybody, to get indignant about this, in a shocking display of tolerance for both sex and crazy religious rules, few pundits took the bait. The kid made a mistake by violating a code which he agreed to follow, and is now being punished according to that same code. As reluctant as I might be to credit an institution that doesn’t even allow coffee or tea, much less lovely, delicious beer, BYU handled the situation correctly.

With Davies gone, the Cougs are clearly a different team. He was the team’s leading rebounder with 6.2 per game, as well as the third leading scorer, chipping in 11.1 ppg. Without Davies, BYU’s roster boasts only one player taller than 6-8. They will struggle mightily against teams with a strong interior presence and will live and die with Fredette and Jackson Emery’s jump-shots, and taking a lot of jump-shots with only one dude who can for you is a risky proposition. The Cougs deserve a good seeding, probably a two or maybe a three seed, in the tournament based on their body of work. But they will not be able to live up to that seeding if they have an unfavorable matchup in the second round with a 7 or 10 seed that rebounds well, like perhaps a UCLA with Reeves Nelson.

Quick Hits:

Several teams have a strong enough body of work throughout the season to still merit tournament selection but have been stumbling of late. Villanova is the most striking example of such a team. The Wildcats have dropped their last five games, including a loss to conference doormat South Florida in the Big East Tournament. Another group of Wildcats stands in stark contrast to those of Villanova. Kansas State is one of the hottest teams in the country right now after starting the reason ranked 4th and imploding down the stretch. KSU’s Wildcats won six in a row before falling to a desperate Colorado Buffaloes team on Thursday, including wins over Kansas, my own Missouri Tigers, and at Texas. The St. John’s Red Storm also come into the tournament with a lot of momentum, having won ten of its last 13 games, including wins over Duke, UConn and Pitt.

Also of note, after Marquette’s wins over Providence and West Virginia, the Big East has essentially locked up a record 11 tournament bids, thus maintaining its college hoops hegemony. In my opinion, providing a dominant, entertaining brand of basketball is the least this conference could do after they sent friggin’ UConn to the Fiesta Bowl against the Oklahoma Sooners. That’s not a knife in a gunfight, that’s a comb in a gunfight. I can only hope the B-East doesn’t develop the arrogance with which SEC football stinks so pungently.

Lastly, it’s nearly impossible to predict the Final Four right now because you never know which regions teams will be seeded in and some Championship Week drama could shift things further, so here are five excellent teams that I think have a good chance to make the Final Four: Ohio St., Pittsburgh, San Diego State, Texas, and, my sleeper pick, Kentucky. These teams should help that case of the Madness clear up by April 4. *Cough.*

Concerns arise concerning pool accessibility

In 1990 the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) became law, seeking to ensure that people with a disability would have access to public space. Any building created after 1990 must adhere to its regulations. This past summer the College celebrated the completion of a spectacular new athletic center, including a 50-meter by 25-yard pool. Since the pool’s completion, however, questions have arisen about the pool’s compliance with the ADA. The pool lift inside the new Russell K. Osgood pool. Photo taken by Sophie Fajardo.

At the heart of the ADA is the concept of “reasonable accommodation,” which seeks to honor the rights of people with disabilities while protecting institutions from unreasonable, and often very expensive, demands. In budget-cutting times, deciding what is reasonably accommodative can be a daunting task.

“We have made great advances with this new facility. To the best of my knowledge, we are ADA compliant,” said Head Swimming Coach Erin Hurley. “However, I hope we will explore how we can be even more inviting to people with disabilities, keeping in mind the economic pressures we all are facing.”

Assistant Swimming Coach Tim Hammond echoed Hurley, saying, “We meet them [ADA regulations], whether or not that’s sufficient.”

Claire Forrest, a third-year English major and active participant on the swim team, believes that the new facility, while much better than the PEC, has flaws that can make getting around the pool a challenge. Forrest, who uses a motorized wheelchair, expressed gratitude to Jennifer Krohn, the Accessibility Committee and Facilities Management for working so hard on mobility issues. Just this past fall, the College constructed a permanent ramp at the entrance to Mears Cottage, which has made it a lot easier for her to get inside.

Unfortunately, Forrest finds the pool less accommodating.

“I love the facility and it’s been great to swim in it, but there are design things, such as raised thresholds, that don’t have a lot of function, and they just make it difficult to get over in a wheelchair.”

One threshold has been removed from the wet corridor to the pool, but others remain.

“If I use the bathroom or shower I kind of have to pop a wheelie,” Forrest said. “And when I’m on my scooter and I’m ready to leave the locker room, I usually ask a teammate to hold the door, because especially when you’re exiting, it’s really narrow and almost every time I get stuck.”

Chris Dorman, another member of the swim team, complained about the lack of automatic door openers inside the facility. Conventional doors are often too heavy for people who use chairs or scooters.

“When I learned about this, I couldn’t believe it,” Dorman said. “Claire is extremely independent and doesn’t rely on anybody to help her, but we are a team of 80 students, so someone is going to help her. However, that shouldn’t be the rationale. In a brand new facility, everyone should be able to move easily.”

Despite these problems, Forrest contends that the pool area is generally manageable for her.

“There are things that they have done, such as the chair that lowers into the shallow end and the set of stairs, that are good.”

“I’ve been to lots of pools and I’ve seen a lot worse,” she continued. “On the whole, I think [the pool] does really well. I think when you plan a design, though, you have to be conscious of the building’s full range of users. I can manage it, but it’s not just about me. Anyone should be able to use it—the elderly, children, people with more significant impairments,” said Claire.

Pat Comparin ’12, who uses a power chair, makes just this point.

“Claire can do it, but I can’t,” he said.

Collectively, Hurley, Forrest, Comparin and Dorman all applaud the many accessibility improvements at the College, but still recognize that more could—and should—be done.

As of now, there are no plans to install electronic doors in the pool area or locker rooms.

Dr. Western returns to discuss mechanisms for building peace

The professor of “Peace and How to Achieve It” is back. At least he was for a brief period this week, during which David Western, Assistant Professor of Humanities and Political Thought at Valparaiso University, reconnected with former students, faculty and engaged in a discussion on Wednesday night in which he, Professors Dobe, French and Delmenico all spoke on their perspectives on achieving peace and how their respective fields of expertise may be applied to the continuing conversation. Former Grinnell Professor David Western spoke in Faulconer Gallery on Wednesday afternoon about the continual struggle for peace even in post-conflict societies and was joined by a panel of Grinnell College faculty. Photo taken by Avery Rowlison.

Western began his presentation by relaying a story in which a questioning individual confronted a Hindu Swami who was presenting on the topic of peace himself. Western said that through his research he sees two different schools of thought when it comes to peace studies.

“The questioning man wants to find a plan or a means for eradicating the problems of the world and arranging the structures of our lives to suit a preordained sense of what a just society ought to look like. The second—the swami—seems to be suggesting that life is inherently more messy than that, that the human condition is one of trials and tribulations…” Western said.

Western asserted that the construction of peace needs to be both an emotional and empathetic endeavor but must also be coupled with a more formulaic approach that may look something like an engineering project.

“Just like we ask, ‘What materials do I need to build this bridge,’ or some other construction project, so do we ask, ‘What institutions of structures are best for constructing social conditions for peace,’” Western said.

Much of Western’s work focuses on finding patterns of peace building in post-conflict Northern Ireland and he spoke about how, while peace may be highly studied, deconstructed and explained, the people doing this activities are not the ones deciding current international peace moves, or the ones supply dictators or rebel armies with semiautomatic weapons.

“I think Johan Galtung… is pretty much the great grandfather of peace studies,” Western said. “Galtung takes a three-prong approach and says peace is the absence of there kinds of violence: direct violence, which is violence from overt physical harm; structural violence, which is political economic and social oppression; and cultural violence which is cultural norms that legitimate or encourage direct or structural violence.”

However, as Western explained, people like Galtung do not necessarily call the shots and the often the most effective way to help put peace into action is by getting close to the big players, such as the United Nations and the United States government. Despite their obvious concentration on peace building, Western mentioned that the closer one looks at entities such as the UN and US government, the more one comes to realize that the main emphasis of their work is to transform troubled, post conflict societies to resemble western nation states.

In Northern Ireland, the factors that led to such a violent and divided population are complex, but certain observations about their violence have allowed for the development of an especially grass-roots model of post conflict peace building. On the one hand, the conflict was about the governance of Northern Ireland. Catholic republicans sought to have Northern Ireland incorporated into the greater republic of Ireland. Many Catholics saw the presence of Protestants as the remnants of colonialism.

“The conflict in Northern Ireland was simply a clash between two identity groups living side by side that had developed norms and identities that defined each other as enemies, and not as groups that can work together to fashion a common, collective fate,” Western said.

Western explained that one of the first steps of peace building in Northern Ireland was for Catholic republicans to accept that their culture can survive within a British Northern Ireland and that the British culture that Protestants live by is not necessarily an essential threat to their existence. The process followed a similar pattern for the ‘British’ citizens of Northern Ireland, the Protestant Unionists.

In Northern Ireland, members of the Catholic community who have been to jail are often idealized by a militant culture of male youths. Western said that one of the greatest leaps in the peace making process was when these ex-urban soldiers began to organize on the streets for unity and to foster non- violent discourse between Catholics and Protestants. By identifying with a hero who was now showing the power in meeting with “the enemy” and taking a stand against violence, these leaders are showing that it is possible for a few members of one generation to cultivate the next generation for a cause of non-violence.

“In motions such as these, the Northern Irish have been moving away from norms and identities that encourage violence to norms and have been, thought creativity and courage, reshaping their own identities and norms to encourage more peaceful cohabitation,” Western said.

Western concluded his presentation by contending that the real process of making peace is to bring in as many collective negotiating tools and models as possible.

“…If we want peace in the world we must also be negotiating our identities, our relations with others, what meaning and worth we ascribe our beliefs and those of others—and we must always be choosing identities and norms of peace, cooperation and, I am going to say, caring or learning to care for others as well,” he said.

Students & refugees share experiences

“One cannot prepare to be a refugee. You come here and you try to learn a new language, a new custom, a new culture. You come here with a sense of loss. You’ve lost everything; especially, especially your dignity,” said Bosnian refugee Zeljka Krvavica.

The five keynote speakers who spoke on the first night of Drake University’s The World at War: Conflict and its Consequences Conference were strikingly different in a multitude of aspects—in complexion, height, mannerism and cultural background. Yet while they came from different parts of the world, they all left their home countries to seek refuge in Des Moines, Iowa.

“They told me I was to be placed in Des Moines, Iowa. And I thought to myself: Where is Iowa?” said Sudanese refugee Joseph Malual, eliciting chuckles from the audience.

Malual was born in Southern Sudan to an agropastoral family. The Sudanese Civil War resulted in 4.5 million displaced persons and 2 million deaths. After being displaced in Khartoum and Ethiopia, Malual was finally offered an opportunity to be settled in the United States in 1999.

“But I love Des Moines, now. People here are very nice,” Malual said. “I came here and for the first time, I was able to think to myself what I would do tomorrow, or the next year, or the next two years.”

The four other speakers recounted similar narratives. After years of war, terror, and poverty, they recalled that they received the initial news of resettlement in Iowa with a mixture of relief and slight perplexity. Yet they all expressed gratitude in finding a new home and community here.

As the presentations progressed to a question and answer session, the atmosphere began to resemble a supportive community that embodied the Iowa in which refugees found relief and comfort. Many of the audience members were refugees themselves and the session became an assembly of encouragement and advice for one other. “Joseph, I just wanted to thank you for your comment where you said that you came here and realized that you could think beyond today, and into tomorrow. Thanks to you, I now realize that the American dream is not only the opportunity of a better tomorrow, but the American dream is having the opportunity to know that there is a tomorrow,” a refugee from the audience said.

“Mone, I see that you only immigrated to the U.S. two years ago. Your English is amazing. I just want to offer you something someone said to me when I first came here as a refugee and was struggling to learn English: just because your words may be a little broken, does not mean your thoughts are broken,” an audience member said to Mone Aye, a 21-year-old refugee from Thailand who was the most recent immigrant and the youngest speaker of the panel.

Another refugee from the audience asked the speakers: “I struggle with identity. What can I do to remember who I am while assimilating in this culture?”

Malual quickly stood up to respond. “When I was getting my U.S. citizenship, I had to ask myself: What does that mean? What am I giving up? It does not mean you have to give up your native land. I am a U.S. citizen, yet I am tied to Sudan. That means we go to HyVee, buy the same food everyone else does, and when we get home, we turn it into something completely different!” Malual said, emphasizing the solidarity between himself, a Sudanese, and the inquirer, a Bosnian, with the pronoun “we.”

“It was interesting hearing about people’s individual experiences,” said Najma Osman ’12, a Grinnell student who participated in the conference. “We always hear about the general impact, but listening to the personal narratives was powerful. As a refugee myself, it was interesting to hear the ways other refugees were giving back to the community; the community meaning the community of refugees in the United States and also their communities back home. Joseph talked about his community of Sudanese refugees raising money here in the U.S. to give back home. They are using their privileged status here to give back to their native countries.”

The conference not only highlighted the community of people suffering genocide abroad, of struggling refugees in the United States, and of local refugees gathering to uplift each other within the confines of the conference room, but it invited non-refugees to participate in that community as well.

“Acceptance and sponsorship from the mainstream is essential,” Krvavica said. “Help a refugee with English. Take them to a doctor. Make then feel more comfortable. An amazing sponsor can work miracles. You can change a refugee’s life.” Q&A: Caroline Tushabe on homophobia in Uganda

This Tuesday, International Women’s day, Caroline Tushabe, a professor at the University of California-Riverside and native Ugandan gave a talk on the colonial origins of homophobia in Africa.

What is the state of the 2009 Anti-Homosexual bill [which makes homosexuality punishable by death] in Uganda? The president declared the bill an international affairs problem, so he advised members of parliament to go slow on it. So, we don’t know what’s going to happen to it. We don’t know if it’s going to die out slowly. We don’t know about this parliament that was voted on February 18 is going to reselect the question. So we don’t know.

How is that constructed, the idea that colonization brought homosexuality? Well it’s not the construction that colonization brought homosexuality; it’s a fact. Because before people who were colonized, like in Africa, and I use the word sub-Saharan but that’s actually not a good word to use because people use the words, global south, whatever it is that they use now. There were people who practiced what is now identified as homosexuality—so there are people engaged in same-sex erotic desires and relations, but they wanted to identify as homosexuals, which means that their practices, or their love relations, were not condemned; they were not prohibited. So when you take that into account, and then now you have an authority, which means colonial authority, that comes in and says “We are condemning homosexuality.” But they come with the idea of how they understood homosexuality from their homeland, from Europe. They’re using what they’re bringing in, which is difference and is new and it is not the same as what they find in those cultures, because they condemn those cultures as uncivilized. So to be civilized they have to drop their own cultures and then begin to adopt what colonizers introduced. So they take on like a Christian moral code you know: sex outside of marriage is a sin, right? If you have sex, that is not intended for reproduction of children, that is against God’s values. So that’s how you come to understand the introduction of homosexuality by colonialism.

But now over time, that condemnation of homosexuality becomes a norm. Yes, and that’s happening today also in foreign policy. So when you think of HIV/AIDS, for example, you go to the hospital and treatment would not be based on what your sexual orientation is, what religion you have, what region you come from, your height, your weight. But Bush’s policy of ABC, which means abstinence until marriage, being faithful, condoms as a last resort, came as a condition with aid towards HIV/AIDS. So that means people had to interview you before they give you treatment. So they interview you, ask you your sexual orientation. That wasn’t necessary because they wanted to make sure that they meet everybody’s needs based on their sexual orientation, but it was to sort out who are heterosexuals and who are homosexuals. If you are homosexual, what happened in Uganda was that they would not treat you, but they would also call the police and the police would take you to jail. So then you can see how a practice can come very easily when it is attached to social policy.

Certain groups don’t have money; they don’t have the political leverage to influence the government. Some of the homosexuals in Uganda, as you said, are powerful and wealthy, but they are very few so they don’t have enough numbers and political power to really make an impact, to organize, and to be a political force. I don’t know if I would tie it in that sense. I was giving that example as in the U.S and for me personally, I am against that kind of organizing. First of all, to separate yourself from your community, because this is a colonial condition: that you separate from your community and adopt an identity. So that is very complicated because taking on this identity, for example of gay or lesbian, forces you to discard other identities and other ways of forming yourself, of knowing yourself, in that community. And once you’ve taken this identity, you have to work within the parameters of the government, of the definition of what a person is, of what a group is, of whatever it is. To organize yourself, to prove to the government that you are people, you are human beings who actually deserve the rights of protection.

So I am against that, because first of all you are living in this vicious cycle of lobbying, and lobbying isn’t only taking words, it takes money. So why should we be raising money to give to politicians to put in their own pockets, when we also at the same time vote for them, vote them into office, to do the work on our behalf? So I am against that. That’s one reason why I’m against adopting an identity.

I think that organizing ourselves as lesbians and gays forces us to take on identities while discarding our own identities. When you opt for organizing yourself based on identity, you must also be people who have money and the time, to approach your counterparts in other countries, to raise the money. But it’s not that people don’t have money, it’s that it’s a waste of money. Why should we be giving them the money to do the work they were voted to do in the first place? So I think that there has to be revision of how democracy works. I just don’t know whether that can happen in the U.S. People seem to like the way it happens, but for me I don’t think it’s an effective way for us. Technology consultants troubleshoot norms

The Grinnell College Technology Consultants, comprised of roughly 100 students, is harder to get into than the college itself.

“We hire in the fall, we hire in the spring, and we get hundreds of applicants,” said Karen McRitchie, Information Technology Services. “We got 100 applicants for this spring and there were only ten positions, which was good for us, but it’s hard to turn people away.”

Boanne MacGregor '12, left, and James Ng '12 discuss how to resolve a presenting problem on a student computer at the Helpdesk on Tuesday morning. Photo taken by Aaron Barker.

The program is highly popular for a number of reasons—students do not necessarily have to come to the program with technological expertise, but will gain experience in a variety of tech-related fields from working at the help-desk to systems management, and because being a TC can be a lot of fun.

“Throughout the year we have TC bonding events like the pumpkin farm, we had bowling once,” said Shitanshu Aggarwal ’11, the Systems Manager for the TC’s internal network. “At the end of every class year there’s a picnic at Karen’s home and the graduating TC’s get golden disk awards.”

McRitchie bought the “awards” online in bulk from Ebay.

“They’re old-fashioned 5 ½ inch floppy disks that we spray paint gold,” McRitchie said.

“We had a pub night and there’s an origami sumo wrestling thing coming up,” said Sunanda Vaidheesh ’12, TC administrative coordinator.

The TC’s also engage in entertaining and extremely helpful activities, which involve the broader campus community. “When the first years come in during NSO we do a whole weekend of basically a giant help desk and are out in the dorms helping the new students and their parents get hooked up,” McRitchie said. “They [TC’s] wear propeller beanies and tie- dye shirts that are really brightly colored… so we’ve gotten to be known as the beanie team.” Aside from picking pumpkins and fixing first-year’s computers with the wind in their hats, members of the TC program also, as their name would indicate, coordinate and facilitate the use of technology on the Grinnell Campus.

“The TC program essentially exists to help all the students on campus, and professors and everyone who uses computers to use technology better,” Aggarwal said. “So anyone who has questions—anything related to technology—it doesn’t have to be campus computers specifically, it could be any technology: phones, computers, printers, internet, anything. The idea is the TC are here to help.”

Part of being in the program, especially at the leadership level like Vaidheesh, is thinking of new ways to serve the campus community.

“We’ve started a new tech support shift,” Vaidheesh said. “So now you can i.m. a TC anytime between twelve noon and ten p.m. … TCs are basically there to answer your minute by minute questions.”

Recently, the TC’s stepped in to solve the tricky technological situation, which kept KDIC from streaming its radio shows online.

“Thank God for them, or KDIC wouldn’t be online or alive right now,” said Kelly Musselman ’11 KDIC Station Manager.

But the TC’s aren’t just out to fix broken modems, they’re also interested in malfunctioning norms through the new Women in Technology group.

“We started it last semester and that’s a field I’m really interested in,” McRitchie said. “Being a woman in technology in a male dominated field… it’s a way I thought of first of all trying get more women in the TC program, that’s one of the goals, because we only have about 30% right now. The second part of that was also to educate, to let students know that there’s other jobs in technology besides programming. I think a lot of people associate computers with programming and not the educational piece, you know there’s a lot of fun stuff to do in technology without actually becoming a programmer.”

From helping frantic students re-boot their laptops to advocating the entrance of women into a historically male- dominated field, the technology core is here to help.