Men’s and Women’s Swimming head to MWC Meet shaved

The Grinnell Men and Women’s swim teams are heading into the Midwest Conference (MWC) Tournament this weekend at Lawrence College in Appleton, WI to defend their titles as Conference champs.

The Mad Ducks and Dawgs prepared for the meet, in part, by tapering, a training technique used in track and swimming.

“Over a period of two to three weeks, the total yardage will come down and intensity comes down, so it’s allowing their bodies to re-energized and recharge, building up their glycogen stores. So hopefully by the time they get to conference they’re completely rested and ready to go,” said Head Coach Erin Hurley.

From left to right, Sam Sherwood ’12, Kelly Bruce ’12, Joe Sinwell ’12 and Max Fulgoni ’12 enjoy their final King of Hearts dinner in the Dinning Hall. Contributed

The technique yields a visible effect on the swimmers. “You may notice that we get a little bit crazier, a little more energy, a little bubblier, [during taper] because our bodies are starting to recover after 6 months of wear and tear,” said Team Captain Morgan Bober ’12.

The Women’s team is building momentum as the season nears its end. Claire Williams ’13 just set an American record for the 1000 freestyle in her division of the Paralympics with a time of 11:57.25 and Team Captain Kelly Bruce ’12 just broke the school record in the one-meter diving by 1.9 points with a score of 277.50.

“Many people have been swimming really well and feeling really great, and that’s absolutely the kind of attitude you have to have going into this. It sets a certain tone, just really amps people up, and really gets them going,” Bober said.

The Mad Ducks have high hopes for Bruce going into the MWC conference tournament.

“What I hope for [Kelly] is that her best meet is yet to come. That’s a great way to go out as a senior. She put in all the hard work. Hopefully her scores and her video tape will get her to Nationals and beyond conference,” said Coach Hurley.

“As a senior, I really just want to do everything to the best of my abilities, go out with a bang, and see what I can do,” said Bruce.

The women’s team is going into the tournament with a focus on performing their best on an individual level.

“We’ve tried to put our focus less on winning conference and more on swimming really well individually, so we’ve sort of set ourselves a goal of trying to get 100 percent personal best times,” Bober said. “That being said, we obviously really want to win and are going to do everything we can to do so, but it’s a sport, you know, it doesn’t always go the way you want it to.” The men’s team also has a positive attitude going into the conference tournament. Last year, Michael Brus ’14 finished fourth at the NCAA Division III National Championships in the 200 backstroke and Coach Hurley and the Team Captains have high expectations for him again this year.

“We’re shooting for those automatic cuts for him to get him back to Nationals and do big things there,” said Coach Hurley.

“He’s so great; his attitude’s the best. He never talks about himself, he always talks about the team first which is great for one of your best swimmers to do, put the team first. But even then, he’ll succeed in the water this weekend, and probably go to nationals again,” said Team Captain Joe Sinnwell ’12.

The Mad Dawgs are aiming to send a men’s relay to nationals this year.

“They only pick 16 relays in the country to go. So I think our best probability would be the 800 freestyle relay and the people looking to be on that are Michael Brus [’14], Tom Lankiewicz [’12], Joe Lytle [’14], and Ethan Drutchas [’12]. I think if they go 6 minutes 50 seconds, which is about 7 seconds faster than they did last year, they could do it, but it’s going to be tough,” Hurley said.

“We’re pretty comfortable that we can get a B-cut, and hopefully send that relay [to Nationals],” Sinnwell said.

The men’s team is on a conference tournament-winning streak of 10 years, Sinnwell thinks the men have what it takes to win conference again this year.

“We’re one of the only teams that can fill out the whole roster of 18 swimmers who score and the seven who swim for exhibition. The exhibition team is going to try to out-score an entire team somewhere else in the conference, so hopefully we can raise the level of competition in the conference by dominating this year,” Sinnwell said.

Both the men and women’s teams will swim this Friday, Saturday and Sunday, Feb. 17-19 in the Midwest Conference Tournament at Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisconsin.

New Budgets Cause Senator Feud

Joint Board passed the Spring 2012 Budget with overwhelming support on Wednesday, despite a lengthy and heated debate on the $25,000 allocated to Films for the spring semester. It was a stressful start for new SGA Films Chair Phillip Brogdon ’12, who was confirmed earlier in the meeting.

“Something’s got to be done about Films,” said Senator Max Farrell ’12, who calculated that SGA is paying $50 to $70 per movie viewer, given low attendance at events and high screening fees.

Senator Tom Van Heeke ’12 proposed that SGA slash the budget for Films and save the money, instead of overfunding an outdated department. Natalie Pace ’14 asked Joint Board to consider donating the money to charities in the Grinnell community. Both of those suggestions met vehement opposition.

“We don’t actually know how many people attend these events,” said Administrative Coordinator Alex White ’12, disputing Farrell’s shaky math. “We don’t sell tickets—the events are free. You can’t come up with a per viewer cost.”

“SGA does not decide its income,” said Scarlet and Black Editor-in-Chief and recently declared SGA presidential candidate Solomon Miller ’13, explaining the importance of the student activity fee. “Joint Board’s job is to spend almost all of that money to meet the needs of the student population as efficiently as possible.”

VPSA Chris Dorman ’12 tried to reach a compromise. He said that unhappy senators should focus on “what a films committee should look like in the 21st Century,” by proposing solutions for low event attendance, not slashing budgets.

Farrell, Van Heeke, and Ryan Creps ’12 were the only three senators who did not vote to approve the budget.

In his report at the start of Joint Board, Dorman recounted the start of a new project for the Dining Hall—the quest for Nutella. Because the hazelnut chocolate spread is protected by licensing laws, it cannot be purchased for use in the JRC. However, student demand has convinced the chefs to work on their own recipe. They hope to discover the perfect blend of hazelnut and chocolate sometime soon.

SGA President Gabe Schechter ’12 spoke in favor of Senator Sam Mulopulos’s ’14 proposal to have better cooperation and coordination between Joint Board and Grinnell’s security forces.

“So much crap was going on [last semester] that I couldn’t believe it,” said Assistant Director of Security Russ Motta. “It seemed like we couldn’t get it under control. . . . We were not pleased with last semester, either, so we are happy that you guys are paying attention and want to work with us.”

The proposal was passed with all voting senators in favor and two abstentions.

Student involvement and attention will be especially needed in the next few weeks. The Student Initiative Committee reminds Grinnellians that initiative proposals are due today at 5 p.m. Voting on those proposals and amendments to the SGA Constitution will occur on Wednesday, Feb. 22. Also, Schechter encourages all Grinnellians to comment on the administration’s new off-campus alcohol policy by following the link on the homepage of Pioneer Web.

“If you don’t show interest this time, they don’t have to extend the opportunity next time,” he said.

Finally, Presiding Officer Peter Aldrich ’15 ended the meeting with an unapologetic explanation of his “hard ass” attitude, following Farrell’s frequent tedious taunts in Joint Board and the pages of the S&B.

“I’m paid to enforce Robert’s Rules,” said Aldrich. “That’s exactly what I’m going to do.”

New VP Bagnoli on Admissions

On Feb. 6, President Kington announced Joe Bagnoli as the new Vice President for Enrollment and Dean of Admission and Financial Aid. Bagnoli joins Grinnell after serving as Dean of Enrollment and Academic Services at Berea College. The Scarlet and Black interviewed Bagnoli so that students could get to know him and his new position.

What are your duties going to entail in your new position? As Vice President for Enrollment and Dean of Admission and Financial Aid, I have been assigned organizational responsibility for the departments of Admission and Financial Aid. As a member of President Kington’s administrative team, I will also participate in Strategic Planning and operational initiatives at Grinnell.

What are some of your thoughts about Grinnell? I see in Grinnell, a college eager to express its raison d’être through the students it seeks to serve—a place committed to excellence with clear goals for student learning and achievement. I see a culture rooted in the liberal arts tradition that finds relevance in social action. Grinnell is a place where committed faculty, staff, and students comprise a community of learners determined to make a positive difference in the world. In short, it seems to me that Grinnell is a college that deserves to attract a diverse cross-section of the most promising students in the US and beyond.

Do you see yourself making any changes to Grinnell immediately? If so, what are they? I learned recently that applications to Grinnell are up this year. That is a testimony to the work already being done at Grinnell to bring the College to the attention of a wider audience of qualified prospects. While I have been fortunate to be part of successful teams in admission and financial aid at two institutions, I am not one who believes that successful programs in these areas can simply be airlifted from one campus to another. We will work together to identify opportunities for operational adjustments at Grinnell that will put important resources and information into the hands of those charged to recruit, enroll, and award financial aid to new Grinnell students. I am also particularly interested in the role of the website, current students, print publications, and financial aid in the assembly of new classes of students, so I hope to work closely with others on campus in each of these areas. I believe in measuring the effectiveness of investments made in admission and financial aid and anticipate establishing a system of data collection and analysis that will guide the work of these areas for years to come.

What strengths and experiences do you see yourself bringing to Grinnell?

When I read the job description for this position, I felt like the work I had done over the past twenty years had prepared me to do what Grinnell and President Kington identified as essential for a new Vice President for Enrollment. At Berea, we have dramatically increased the percentage of minority students and those strongly qualified to engage a rigorous academic and required work program. Of course, because Berea exclusively serves low-income students, I feel equipped to identify and meet the needs of the most deserving students with limited financial resources. I also believe in the mission of Grinnell and recognize that there is great value in all diversity, including diversity of socioeconomic class.

How has your time at Berea shaped your ideas on financial aid and admission? At Berea, I have come to appreciate the importance of congruence between what teaching faculty and college administrators seek from enrolled students and what financial aid and admission offices do to construct classes of students that respond to institutional identity and priorities. It is important to understand whom the College intends to serve so that we can effectively assess the capacity of the financial aid and admission office to attract those students. I believe financial aid is a tool to permit deserving students an opportunity to fulfill their dreams. I have heard that the decision to attend Grinnell is made by some students based upon the fact that they receive the best financial aid offer from Grinnell. I suspect that Grinnell students would say that there are many equally or more important reasons why they are satisfied with their choice upon matriculation. Berea’s greatest successes were realized once we came to understand that students would not choose to attend simply because we were the low-cost-leader.

Is there anything you’d like the students to know about you? I love working with college students! I am receptive to any and all ideas students have for how they might be involved in the process of student recruitment. At Berea, we developed a Student Marketing Team and hired several bloggers and marketing assistants who serve as credible sources of information to prospective students. I’m eager to work with enthusiastic Grinnell students who want to share with prospective students what they love about Grinnell. Come find me!

New Group Discusses Grinnell Identity

On Sunday, Feb. 12, the athlete-based Pioneer Diversity Counsel hosted an open discussion about campus unity in JRC 101.

“The goal of the organization is to challenge issues on campus such as diversity, not only by the color of the skin, but also by social class,” said Ki Harris ’14, president of the Pioneer Diversity Counsel. “We are trying to integrate the voice of the athletes into the rest of the campus. We want to have conversations with people we do not know, interact with them, and find out what is going on campus.”

Opeyemi (Ope) Awe ’15, one of the organizers of this event, expressed her hope for the near future.

“Over the next four years, I want to remake what school spirit means here at Grinnell in a variety of ways, both athletically and academically,” Awe said. She views Grinnell College as lacking team spirit and unity.

“Imagine your friends are going to big state schools or Ivy schools. They are always talking about the great things that their schools are doing, like ‘my team won this’ or ‘my professor did this amazing research’. And all these things are going on here at Grinnell, probably more so than most other institutions, but we never talk about it.” Ope said, “I’ve been working with Ki [Harris], Jordan [Young], the RLCs, and people in SGA to try to see what campus unity means here and if what we are doing is feasible. Also, what we hear from this conversation is will be part of our efforts in formulating the plan (of enhancing campus unity).”

A few seniors spoke out about their experience and views on the issue of campus unity.

“A lot of people recognize divides between several groups, primarily concerning where you live on campus. There is also a seeming divide between athletes and non-athletes,” said Matt Rosenbaum ’12. “However, I do not think it is necessarily the worst thing because people are friends with people who have similar characteristics, similar affinities, and who enjoy certain activities. But I also think it is important to mention campus unity: we all love Grinnell; we all came here for a certain reason. That is what I attribute to GC pride; we all chose to come to this small campus in the middle of nowhere.”

In terms of sports teams on campus, Rosenbaum admitted that the majority of the campus does not go to any of the games. “So there is a level of unity that we all need to subscribe to, and we all need to cheer each other,” Rosenbaum said.

David Opong-Wadee ’12 talked about physical division on campus.

“In some part of the campus, like South Campus, there are alternative concerts, DJs, etc. that are catering to that population over there versus Harris being over here even though everyone eventually flows to Harris on Saturdays nights because there’s nothing to do in the middle of the cornfield. I think people find where their friend groups are after their first year and get comfortable with where they live and continue their life. For example, people on South Campus make friends with other people on South Campus and athletes want to live closer to the gym. I think it makes sense,” he said. “And I do not think that’s a resource issue because whenever somebody does something on the national level or represents Grinnell outside, it goes on the website and there’s a immediate response by the campus to highlight whatever success that individual has.”

In the following small group discussion, people raised questions and shared ideas with others.

“The purpose is to foster open discussion about how we as Grinnellians view unity on campus,” said Jordan Young, ’14, the vice president of Pioneer diversity counsel said.

Police Confront Students in Lyle’s Pub

Two Saturdays ago, a Grinnell Police Officer entered Lyle’s Pub, checked several students’ IDs, and left without citing anyone inside the pub.

The police officer originally came into the pub looking for several students who he had seen smoking and drinking on the grass in front of the JRC. When the police officer approached the group of smokers and drinkers, they fled inside the building.

As the officer approached the JRC, another student was leaving the building holding a can of beer, and the officer cited him for a minor in possession before the officer went into Lyle’s to look for the other students, according to Sargent Chris Wray.

Even though it is uncommon for the police to come into Lyle’s and question students, it is legal, according to RLC Dan Hirsh.

“It’s completely within their rights, and it happens at most places outside of school,” Hirsh said, explaining that Lyle’s is a public place and the liquor license gives the police the right to uphold the drinking age. That being said, this is the first time this year that police have come into Lyle’s uninvited, according to a student.

Grinnell Advocates

Over the last few weeks, the Domestic Violence Alternatives and Sexual Assault Center (DVA/SAC) trained students and staff on campus to talk about sexual assault at Grinnell. The program, as well as the education, will be growing and evolving as communication between students, advocates, and DVA/SAC continues.

Photograph by Avery Rowlison The program started about seven years ago in 2005. It was founded as a peer advocacy program by a recent alum who worked as a Grinnell Core fellow in DVA/SAC Marshalltown and by current students. They saw the need to have something specifically for on-campus assaults and abuse. DVA/SAC trained faculty, staff and students as on-campus advocates. What was not in the students’ proposal, however, was for them also to be able to be advocate for the four counties in which DVA/SAC operated. However, this was the only way that DVA/SAC trained. Thus, the advocates for campus also included the four county area, which included some restrictions.

“The student advocates wanted for students on campus to be able to know who they were, have a website, and do education in order to be totally accessible. We were forbidden for those first six-plus years to have any kind of publicity, any kind of open education, or to have the advocates named in any public way,” said Dean of Religious Life Deana Shorb. “What has happened is that we have noted being anonymous isn’t really working for us anymore. We’re at a point on campus that we need a really active, engaged, and known group of peer advocates.”

Shorb and Susan Sanning, Community Service Coordinator, found out that it is possible, within the legal bounds of Iowa, to have an advocate group that is known and that serves the campus specifically. That is what students had expressed interest in for the education, for improving students’ experience on campus, and all of those pieces of being an advocate. The Iowa Coalition Against Sexual Assault (ICASA) in association with DVA/SAC came out and did some training with the 15 student advocates that were already trained for specifically campus-based advocacy.

“Last week we weren’t sure that we would be able to continue our relationship with DVA/SAC, but we had a meeting with them in their offices, and it looks like we’re going to be able to negotiate to work together,” said Shorb. The biggest changes that have taken place are that the advocates will be known publicly and the training will be Grinnell College campus specific. The advocates are still trained to answer calls and deal with situations in the four county areas. They also are trained how to advocate for victims in the legal system and go to court with victims if necessary. What is being worked out and discussed at the moment is how the Grinnell advocates will be able to take this training and apply it specifically to the Grinnell College campus.

“We will determine what this program is going to look like and how it is going to work with DVA/SAC, as in what pieces will they have ‘veto’ power over, so to speak, and pieces we will maintain control of, as the conversations and communication continue,” said Sanning. “We will also be listening to students on campus to see what they think we need for the program, which will be key.”

They are working with RLCs, because Grinnell has a transparency group that is looking at campus climate issues around sexual assault transparency for faculty, staff, and students. The listening sessions will be in order to involve the advocates along with listening to what is said and deciding how they can then address the issues that are seen arising throughout the student body. There will be several listening sessions and will hopefully be an ongoing process starting where the students feel the group of advocates is most needed.

“First, we’d like to take the pulse of the campus in addition to the 15 advocates who we’ve been talking to, so that we can have diverse voices telling us what they think has been going on,” Shorb said. “What students have shared so far was not surprising to us. We’ve certainly heard in the counseling and advocacy that we do, that acquaintance abuse and assault as well as date rape is taking place on campus.” On Monday, Feb. 20, the Grinnell advocates will be having a conversation and listening session for students interested in sharing their ideas about the new program. Everyone is invited and encouraged to attend and contribute.

Movie Exposes Meat Culture

“Each dollar we spend supports a series of actions…if you want to change the whole system, you need to go to that farmers’ market and you need to pay that farmer,” said Graham Meriwether, director of American Meat.

Meriwether spoke on Tuesday as part of panel composed of members of the agricultural community following a screening of American Meat.Other members of the panel included Robert Bahrenfuse of BandBFarms in Grinnell, Chris Ely, co-founder and chief executive of Apple Farms Organic and Natural Meat, and Kayla Koether, a Grinnell senior who’s family has been farming in Iowa since the 1850s.

Photograph by Joey Brown

American Meat, which had it’s world premiere in July of 2011, focuses on the meat production industry, particularly at the agricultural level. The documentary examines the current standard methods of production in chicken, pork, and beef while placing these methods within the context of industry- wide movements and the global economy. The film is critical of conventional agriculture, citing its methods as responsible for the decline of the small farm and the small town. Despite its criticism of conventional methods, the film was compassionate towards conventional farmers.

“There is no good agriculture, no bad agriculture,” said Meriwether, during the panel discussion. “Farmers are simply doing what they have to to keep their families going.”

In contrast to the critical view American Meat casts on conventional agriculture, a more positive view is cast on new, alternative methods. Joel Salatin, of Polyface Farm, is prominently featured in the films examination of alternative agriculture. Salatin was also featured in Michael Pollan’s The Omnivore’s Dilemma, which served as inspiration for American Meat. Alternative methods used by Salatin include such original inventions as the “Pigerator” – a composting barn model that incorporates the natural behaviors of pigs and cows – and the “Egg Mobile” – a transport for chickens which allows farmers to diversify land use by livestock species. Due to its progressive methods, Polyface Farm has also become an educational hub, playing host to college groups, as well as putting on a field day that attracts people from all over the nation.

Based on Salatin’s model, the film argues that there is sufficient acreage to service America’s demand for meat, however there are not enough farmers, though there is a growing number of young people entering the realm of alternative agriculture. To document this influx of young people into the agricultural industry, Meriwether is planning a series of video portraits on young farmers across America. “We need to look for more young farmers from small liberal arts schools,” said Robert Bahrenfuse. In addition, the panel said Salatin will be a speaker at Grinnell on the seventeenth of April.

Mock Trial Argues way to Nationals

After placing 3rd at Regionals, Grinnell’s Mock Trial A team is headed to the Opening Round Championships (ORCS) at Washington University in St. Louis on March 16th.

“ORCS is like the playoffs,” Michael Horecki ’12 said. “The top 7 teams there will advance to nationals.”

Grinnell’s team is no stranger to the national stage of competition—three years ago they competed and performed well, even beating Brown University. Jessi Addison ’12 was the only first year on the team.

“[Beating Brown] was sort of our crowning achievement,” Addison said. “It’s not every day that a tiny liberal arts college like Grinnell goes against an Ivy League and wins.”

The team can expect more tough competition in March when they head to Wash. U.

“Loyola, Drake, the University of Iowa and other institutional powerhouses will be there,” Horecki said.”But we have a very strong team. It’s going to be fun to go up against really competitive schools…they’ll push us to the next level.”

The 7-person team now has 5 weeks to prepare for the tournament. They say they are focusing on consistency and exacting their courtroom etiquette to minimize the possibility of judge intervention and an early loss.

ORCS is the capstone of a successful year for the Mock Trial squad. Despite not having a coach or administrative advisor, recruitment was successful and 6 first years joined. This depth will help minimize the impact of 5 seniors graduating. However, despite the new recruits, the team has a reputation among the Mock Trial community for being quite small and informal.

“Historically Grinnellians have been among the scruffiest- looking at tournaments,” Addison said. “Male attorneys have had untrimmed beards and big hair.”

Despite the aesthetic informality, the team is known for its fair play.

“We’ve won the Sportmanship award 7 out of the 8 past tournaments,” Hornecki said. “In Mock Trial there’s a lot of room to bend the rules and get away with it. Grinnell’s defining trait is that we’re nice and we play by the rules…and we still win.”

Two first years, Peter Bautz and Juli Toia, will accompany the five fourth years to ORCS.

“I think it will be interesting, I’ve been to national tournaments in high school but never in college,” Bautz said.

“[Going to ORCS] is really exciting,” Toia said. “I’m ready to experience the higher level of competition. [But] it’s not just about winning, it’s about having fun while playing other great teams.” Carrie still so damn scary

Horror films of today are filled with teens, gore, or nudity. They tend to be teen slashers or faux docu-horrors, like the widely popular Paranormal Activity series. Carrie, adapted from a novel by American Horror writer Stephen King, was first released in 1976. Carrie was, and still is, considered a huge success in the horror genre. It grossed thirty times its budget in profits and received four nominations, including two Oscars. It was so successful that it set the trend of adapting Stephen King novels. Shortly after Carrie, many other King novels were made into films, such as Christine, Salem’s Lot, and The Shining.

One of the reasons Carrie is so widely popular is that it isn’t just your normal run-of-the-mill horror. It doesn’t rely on cheap scares or killers with masks. The film revolves around Carrie, a teenage girl who is constantly bullied in her senior year of high school. Carrie’s schoolmates constantly reject her because her extremely religious mother never guided her socially, leaving Carrie socially inept. In one scene, Carrie gets her first period, but since her religious mother never informed her about menstruation, Carrie thinks that she is dying. She runs towards her classmates with blood on her hands begging for help. Carrie later learns that she has telekinesis. After a cruel prank at prom, she uses it to make sure she is never bullied again.

Not only did Carrie begin the Stephen King book-to-movie craze, it also shot the people involved to success. The director, Brian de Palma, was virtually unknown prior to Carrie. Nowadays, he has films like Scarface, Carlito’s Way, Mission Impossible, and many others. Sissy Spacek, who plays Carrie, and Piper Laurie, who plays Carrie’s mother, were nominated for Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress.

No matter if you’re a first time watcher or a cult follower of Carrie, you will be thrilled and engaged. Carrie is able to effectively use its eerie soundtrack to enhance every scene from creepy to edge-of-the-seat terror. So take your friends this weekend to enjoy this cult classic.

KDIC revamps and rakes in rewards

Conventional wisdom says that people, in general, don’t listen to radio anymore. Sure, there will always be those who, with their horn-rimmed glasses and vinyl collection, could stand in for Ira Glass given the opportunity, but when it comes to music these days, dotcoms like YouTube and Pirate Bay have replaced labels and downloadable podcasts are the new talk shows. It makes one wonder: why would anyone listen to radio anymore? Jordan Bell-Masterson ’12, station manager of KDIC, is not trying to fix all of radio, but he seems to have found the answer to that question for our local station.

Daniel Kisslinger ’14 is responsible for bringing interviews with artists like Lupe-Fiasco to the KDIC airwaves. Photograph by Emma Sinai Yunker “[KDIC] could have survived for another few years just floating along,” Bell-Masterson said, “but SPARC was cutting funding and probably rightfully so, ’cause the station wasn’t doing much of anything. I felt like there was a lot of wasted potential there. A lot of people were putting on good shows and a lot of staff were doing good work, and it was going unrecognized because the quality wasn’t there and when it was there, KDIC just wasn’t a big enough presence on campus for anyone to take note.”

The main goals Bell-Masterson held for the station can be stated simply, he wants to professionalize and revitalize it. At the beginning of last semester Bell-Masterson and his staff of 21 students instituted several changes ranging from training, to paying and critiquing DJs, to creating targeted play lists for open air time and revamping the website.

They have also expanded their services: KDIC now provides DJs for Harris parties and other music powered events. In fact, last semester, only one Harris party was not DJ’ed by a KDIC DJ. KDIC also partnered with Lyle’s to throw a Superbowl party. And if all that wasn’t enough, for the purpose of just getting the station identification out there, graphic designer Chris Gallo constantly designs posters featuring new content.

“We do posters on a biweekly basis,” Gallo wrote in an email. “KDIC is constantly publishing new and original content, whether it be album reviews, interviews with different artists or photography from concerts that have come through campus. As a station, we want an ad campaign that reflects this new attitude and constantly reminds students that we are producing new material.”

The changes seem to have had a drastic effect.

“For the top show, before it was getting ten listeners,” Bell- Masterson said. “Top shows now get 50, 60, 70 listeners. We’re getting new advanced metrics now where we can tell not just who’s tuning in but who is staying for at least a 15-minute session so we can get an idea of retention rate.”

From Claire Griffith ’12’s Mravalzhamier (folk music from the Caucusus and Balkans) to Karinou Mboka-Boyer ’14’s The Mis(x)fit Show (an hour of fire and announcements to get us ready for the weekend) to Erica Hauswald ’12 and Jackie Blair ’12’s The Jerica Blauswald show (Based off NPR’s All Things Considered, the show brings you new music across all genres and incorporates interesting facts about the artist), KDIC is a reflection of students’ varied and often eccentric interests.

“You’ve got a mix of pretty much everything, and I would say everything but country, but Matt Rosenbaum [’12] and Ryan Creps [’12] are going to be on the air in a week or two,” Bell-Masterson said.

And changes are still being made. Joe Harris ’14 was recently hired to restart KDIC’s sports broadcasting programming with the goal of covering every home sports event. Bell-Masterson feels that there is definitely a sense that KDIC is making some serious, fundamental changes and that this momentum will continue.

“We have a lot left to do and, … given what I know about my younger staff, they are going to do a hell of good job,” Bell- Masterson said. “One thing that has really energized us [this year] was that Daniel Kisslinger [’14] has done ridiculously good work in getting interviews. And when he got the Lupe Fiasco interview…it said to us, ‘look at the kind of impact we can make, if we only try here.’”

Kisslinger, who had a show last year as a first-year, works as both a DJ and Studio Director. His show, Erasing Boundaries, is entirely interview-based and after working this past summer at a radio station back home in New York, Kisslinger found ways to contact and interview some pretty impressive names. But what impresses him is the commitment and willingness of the staff and DJs to do the work necessary to make KDIC better. Interviewing major artists and getting recognition for it, is a different feeling and it’s hard to say which one Kisslinger appreciates more.

“For all intents and purposes, we started from scratch this year,” Kisslinger said. “This station was a non-factor in a lot of ways. So to get to where we are now, which is the jumping off point for all the other million things we can do…As much as you can do in one year, when it’s a continuation…it’s incredible.”

And Kisslinger has played a major role in making KDIC professional. The Lupe Fiasco interview was just one of many and people outside of Grinnell are starting to take notice. For instance, Matthew Santos, who is also featured on Kisslinger’s show and often plays with Lupe, stopped by Grinnell College because it happened to be on his way and he knew Kisslinger’s show was credible.

“Matthew was just driving back from Des Moines to Chicago so he just hopped off I-80,” Kisslinger said. “It’s like the only convenient thing about being where we are.”

Fans are taking notice, too. When Kisslinger, in conjunction with fellow DJs Annie Pigott ’12 and Dane Haiken ’12 interviewed They Might be Giants, the band tweeted that they would be on KDIC. As a result, a fan in Australia tuned in, caught the last ten minutes and emailed the station to see if he could download the taping of the show somewhere. KDIC has not yet uploaded every show’s podcast up, but the project is in process and, at any rate, Kisslinger has been posting his interviews to his own site.

“That kind of thing could have never happened before,” Bell- Masterson said. “But now we’re starting to get that kind of notoriety, get that kind of pull and the possibilities are endless.”

asobi seksu strobe lights thursday night

Brooklyn-based band Asobi Sesku mesmerized Gardener Lounge on Thursday night. The hour-long set was carried by Yuki Chikudate’s doting warble and James Hanna’s symphonic guitar.

“Concerts decided to bring Asobi Seksu to Grinnell because of their stellar live reputation and pop sensibilities,” Pooj Padmaraj ‘13, Concerts Chair, said.

Asobi Seksu in Gardner on Thursday. Photograph by Carl Sessions

This reputation was upheld at the show. Yuki connected to the students right away when she prefaced the performance with a Japanese heralding. After this, the young Grinnellians were eager to follow her. When she raised her tambourine-wielding hand in the air she seemed to conduct a room full of air puppets, swaying to the distorted keyboard and wall of guitar.

There were times when Asobi Sesku dipped into a drifting akin to , but every time the tempo slowed and Nikes were coming into the eyes’ gaze, Yuki’s croon revived the pop.

Opener Apteka set the ambiance with face melting songs “Gargoyle Days” and “Striking Violet”.

It’s been said that good dreams are simultaneously exciting, relaxing, soothing and a little tingly on the spine. If conjures hectic dreams, then Yuki and James did well Thursday night.

Dobrow brings humanism to sport

This week, Writers at Grinnell featured Marty Dobrow, the author of the non-fiction books “Knocking on Heaven’s Door: Six Minor Leaguers in Search of the Baseball Dream” and “Going Bigtime: The Spectacular Rise of UMass Basketball.” His books and many of his shorter pieces deal with a side of sports that we rarely see on TV. He talked to the S&B about what it means to be a sports writer, our love of storytelling, and the surprisingly cutthroat world of minor league baseball. Writer at Grinnell, Marty Dobrow, Grinnell professor Dean Bakopolous talk sports after Dobrow’s reading, Thursday. Photograph by Connie Lee

You could be classified as a sports writer, but clearly there’s more going on there. Is there a difference between a sports writer and a literary writer? Can the two coexist? I guess I bet my life and my career on that they can coexist. In some circles people think about sports writing in a pejorative sense. I certainly don’t. Some of the best writing out there deals with sports; some of the worst writing deals with sports also. It’s a haven for clichés. The focus for a lot of people tends to be about statistics and money, the winning and losing. Obviously, the games are fundamental, … but for me it’s always been a way into something deeper. It’s a great forum for exploring societal issues. It’s an environment in which you can write about race and class and gender in ways that are not abstract, and because you can tap into this huge caring people have about sports. I like to tap into that vein because it’s something people care so much about. Maybe we shouldn’t step away from it and it seems absurd, people getting so emotionally invested in the Patriots or Giants winning a game. … I’ve ultimately come not to judge it so much; I think we care about what we care about, and that people who are athletes are not more heroic or more moral or less heroic or less moral than other people.

You focus on individuals, and often individuals in the minor leagues, or on something like the University of Massachusetts basketball team, for example. You don’t focus on heroes or heroic qualities—what angle does that give us that’s unique? On some level, I like my sports served small. At the biggest level, there are problems with access, there are problems with exclusivity, there are problems with finding real and deep stories. I remember the first time I ever covered a major league baseball team at Fenway park was back when Roger Clemens was pitching for the Red Sox, and I was so excited about this prospect of showing up and going to Fenway—the press pass, going to the press box, watching this game and going down the elevator to the hear the immortal words of Roger Clemens. And I went back up to the press box and started transcribing, and it was just so striking to me what drivel it was—I’ve interviewed so many high school kids who are so much more eloquent and thoughtful. Not to denigrate Clemens, but like a lot of professionally athletes at the top level, he’s really packaged. Writing about minor league baseball, there you have the opportunity to have deep access. People are not so jaded…And just beneath it [the MLB] there’s that place of yearning that is so much connected to good storytelling…I sometimes think about it as being about the “anguish of almost.”

Do you approach your work as a sports writer or as a writer just going into the world? I don’t know what label I would necessarily put on it, but I guess it’s human interest through sports. It’s a familiar language and vocabulary for me. I just try not to get lost in the inanity of it. A lot of this stuff is just very ephemeral. But it matters—you go into any high school gym on a winter night for a basketball game, you can’t help but be impressed by how much caring there is. That’s one of the reasons I like it so much. But the deeper stories are in the personal stories. … And sports does bring together groups within our society in a way nothing else does—it pulls together people from different races, different classes, different backgrounds.

Do you find those players experiencing the “anguish of almost” in the minor leagues, want to be mythologized like the heroes, or are they happy being who they are? I don’t know that they’d term it that way, but they want to get to the big leagues for a few reasons. One, it’s the iconic dream. A lot of their self-esteem from a very young age has been tied into athletic ability—it’s a big measure of who they are, or they think it is. There’s no escaping the fact that the arrival at the great stage carries with it some incredible rewards. You look at the disparity in pay between the top level minor leaguers—people who have been playing five or six years there—often they’re still making under $20,000 a year, whereas the first year minimum major league baseball salary is close to $470, 000. The average is over three million. So what you have is that the disparity in talent is razor thin—if it exists at all—and yet the disparity in compensation is gargantuan. It’s unlike almost anything else in our culture. Near great doctors are doing pretty well, near great baseball players, not so much.

You also write about things that aren’t sports—do you take a different approach to that kind of writing? I think it’s the same. Sports [writing] is a comfortable terrain for me…but I don’t find it’s really very different. I’m always just looking for the great human-interest story. I think narrative is a fundamental part of the human experience, it’s almost wired in. I don’t want to over psychologize it, but it’s just a fact—and this is not breaking any news—that life is difficult. There’s no such thing as an easy life, and the good stories are about confrontation with difficulty in some form. Sports is one place where that happens.