The College vows to not penalize applicants with a history of protesting

This past Monday, Grinnell College released a statement stating that applicants’ participation in protests would not impact decisions in the admissions office. Part of the statement read, “We would never penalize a prospective student for peaceful public protest. Indeed, we reward students in the application process who have used their voices to address important social problems.”

Although students on campus and alumni from the class of 1968 petitioned the Grinnell College to release a statement of this nature, Joe Bagnoli, vice president for enrollment and dean of admission, said that the release was not in direct response to these calls to action, and that he wrote the draft on Friday, Feb. 23. Rather, Bagnoli tried to use this statement to directly address the concerns that applicants and parents across the country may have about how their engagement in peaceful protests could affect the chances of their admission to Grinnell College.

While the release of this statement was not in direct response to actions from students and alumni, Bagnoli still stressed his support for Grinnell College community members that were concerned and active about this issue.

“I think we were reassured by the interest and concern that everyone in our community [expressed]. I was glad that our concern about this for prospective students was shared by our student community, by our alumni. I think it would be fair to say we were in this together. We were all interested in communicating this message to prospective students,” he said.

Many other institutions, including Boston University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), have released such statements following the tragic school shooting in Parkland, FL. Unlike the statement by Grinnell College, however, theirs specifically reference peaceful protests in response to gun violence.

According to Bagnoli, the word choice was meant to be more general and all-encompassing of involvement in all types of peaceful protests.

“Because conditions can vary dramatically from event to event, I wanted to make it clear that on the face of it, simply deciding to protest in defense of or as an objection to a particular social issue would not, in and of itself, dissuade us from offering someone admission,” Bagnoli said.

By this logic, he concluded that the statement would be more representative of the College’s values if it did not directly mention one type of protest but was broad enough to speak to a range of issues.

“I didn’t want to make it about one particular issue, because there are so many worthy causes to defend,” Bagnoli said. “It was a concern for those who were not necessarily asking, but who were wondering. Even though the number of people inquiring about it was relatively small, we were concerned about those who might have questions and not ask.”

Bagnoli argues that a value of Grinnell College is social engagement and activism, and this is something that Bagnoli felt was important to make explicitly clear to prospective students.

“We felt it was important to clarify our position on this. Our first reaction might have been, ‘of course we aren’t going to penalize you on this, this is who we are as an institution,’ but we can’t presume that everyone would understand what our position would be, so we felt it was important to make it more explicit,” Bagnoli reiterated. CBS showcase to call for action from the student body

By Zoe Fruchter [email protected]

Concerned Black Students (CBS) will host their annual Black History Month Showcase, tonight from 7 to 9 p.m. Although the date is March 2, CBS events coordinator Autumn McMillan ’20 has termed the date “February 31” as a nod to the leap year and to celebrating a full Black History Month. The Showcase will feature singing, acting and dancing as well as other performances by members of the CBS community.

Dixon Romeo ’16 founded the Showcase in 2015. According to McMillan, Romeo intended the event “to showcase the abilities of the Black community … and the myriad of ways that Blackness can present itself.” However, “Over the years [the Showcase has] developed into more of a talent show celebrating Blackness, … incorporating different elements, whether it be using [the Showcase] as a platform to push a certain message or using it as a platform for us getting together and being free without having to be censored.”

McMillan explained that the CBS organizing committee aims to focus the showcase around a specific theme. CBS’s theme for Black History Month as a whole is “Celebrating Blackness: United in our sameness, strengthened by our difference.” The theme for the Showcase is more specific: FUBU, an acronym meaning “For us, by us,” referring to art created by Black people for Black people.

“This year there’s been a big change as [CBS President] Simonne Carlton ’18 wanted [the Showcase] to have a complete storyline giving it a theme, giving it intentionality, giving it purpose, so that it’s not just ‘Oh look what we can do,’ but it’s actually sending a message from the Black community,” McMillan said.

McMillan hopes that CBS can reach a wider audience of Grinnell students through the event, as she feels many of the struggles faced by Black students at Grinnell go unnoticed by the majority of the student body.

“The goal of the showcase is to have a larger turnout for this year in hopes that we can reach more ears and [attract] a more diverse audience so that we can push the agenda of CBS which is that we want our spaces and we want to have control of those spaces and we want to be in the room with the administration when they are making decisions [about those spaces],” McMillan said. “The issues that are facing the CBS community are so insular. No one really knows about them unless they’re a part of the community. It’s unfortunate that none of our peers know about the struggles we’re facing on campus.”

Concerned Black Students met in the Grille in 2017 to discuss issues that affect the Black community, which in turn affect the student body as a whole. Contributed.

In addition to more substantive struggles, McMillan noted that organizing the event proved to be challenging due to the busy schedules of the members of the planning committee. While the Student Government Association is funding the event in full, committee members faced “deadlines, applications, papers [which] created a lot of obstacles for us with the nuts and bolts,” McMillan said. “But at the end of the day I’ve been involved with theater for almost all my life and I know that if there’s a show to be had, the show will get done.”

McMillan’s theater background will come into play at the Showcase, as she organized her own performance featuring a mixture of step dance and spoken word performance. McMillan is excited about the combination of history, innovation and collaboration that the performance represents.

“I’m starting a step team here and I was the captain of my step team in high school so [step is] near and dear to my heart. This year we are borrowing a step from one of the member’s old squads and layering spoken word on top of that. So it’s going to be a performance art piece.”

McMillan noted other exciting acts such as a standup performance by Tyler Williams ’19 and Michael Lee ’18. She added that she was extremely excited for an act by Errol Blackstone ’20, which will be a performance of the song “Sandcastles” from Beyoncé’s “Lemonade” album.

“I’m so ready for it,” McMillan said. First of the class of 2022 admitted

By Kelly Page [email protected]

As spring rolls around, Grinnell’s admissions office has begun to assemble the class of 2022. 184 early decision students have already paid their deposits and confirmed their place in the incoming class, and 427 students have been admitted through the College’s early notification program and are preparing to visit campus on Sunday, March 4.

The nature of admissions at Grinnell has changed in the past few years. The College has attracted a larger applicant pool this year than it did just a few years ago, possibly because of admissions efforts to increase the school’s visibility online, the strategic recruitment of prospective students, improved campus visits, a more streamlined the admission process and an emphasis on the school’s individually-advised curriculum.

“In 2011 we had fewer than 3,000 applications for admission and we exceeded 7,000 this year, so we just have more people applying for admission, and those who are applying are especially well-qualified,” said Joe Bagnoli, vice president for enrollment and dean of admission.

In the 2010-2011 school year, 2,969 students applied to the college, with an admissions rate of 43.20 percent. In 2013-2014, 3,979 students applied with an acceptance rate of 35.1 percent. For 2015-2016, 6,414 students applied with an acceptance rate of 25 percent, and for 2016-2017, 5,850 students applied with an acceptance rate of 29 percent. This past year, 7,345 students applied for spots in the class of 2022, further demonstrating the upward trend in admissions since 2011. The acceptance rate of the school has risen in the past two years, from 20 percent in 2016 to 29 percent last year. Bagnoli attributes this to competition from other prestigious schools. When students that Grinnell admits through regular decision commit to other colleges, it forces Grinnell to admit more students to take their places.

“The admission rate has gone up at the same time that the academic credentials of admitted students have increased, so my sense is that as students applying for admission at Grinnell are more competitive for admission at even more selective institutions, that a smaller percentage of them elect to attend Grinnell. Every year we end up competing against places like the University of Chicago or Brown or Williams or Amherst,” Bagnoli said.

Bagnoli says he thinks an underlying reason that more students are applying to Grinnell than in previous years is the elimination of a necessary supplemental essay on the Common App four years ago. The College has begun to send email requests for optional supplemental essays well after the submission of the Common App, asking students about why they want to go to Grinnell, an attempt to assess their interest in the school.

The early acceptance program that brings regular decision students to Grinnell’s campus before they receive admissions decisions from other colleges is part of the College’s efforts to convince their regular decision admits to choose Grinnell over other colleges that accept them.

“We find that a visit to Grinnell is an important factor in their enrollment decision, so we like to give them the opportunity to visit us before they have committed to visit every place else. We go out early with a portion of our offers for regular decision in order to spread out the options for campus visits,” Bagnoli said.

Bagnoli mentioned several other strategies to get students to apply to the College.

“We have increased our investment in digital strategies. We have made improvements in admissions publications and to our website. We’ve made improvements to our campus visit program so we’ve seen an increased rate of students who visit campus who then apply for admission,” Bagnoli said.

In conversations with The S&B about their decision to attend the College, several students who have already committed to the Grinnell class of 2022 said that their on-campus visits sealed the deal.

“Once I was there, I fell in love with the amazingly supportive atmosphere and the freedom I’d be able to have with a small, liberal arts college like it. I decided to apply early decision that night because I knew that Grinnell is where I wanted to be,” said Ben Peppers ’22.

Jax Seller ’22 also decided that they wanted to attend the College after a visit to campus.

“When I went for a visit everyone was really welcoming and the whole tour and panel went really smoothly and it set the bar for other colleges. I don’t think there were any questions I had that I couldn’t get pointed to someone to answer,” they said.

Other already-committed students were attracted mainly by the individually-advised curriculum, coinciding with what Bagnoli says has been an increasing emphasis in admissions publications on Grinnell’s “boldly individualized approach to learning.”

“I did more and more research and I found out about [Grinnell’s] dedication to social activism and its open curriculum and I fell in love with that and so I got into contact with some students and talked to them and applied ED2,” said Andy Kenly ’22.

Claire Pollard ’22 was also excited about the individually- advised curriculum, saying, “I chose Grinnell because I wanted to go to a respected small liberal arts college with an open curriculum that had a good acceptance to medical school. I also really like the idea that I could double major in two disciplines that aren’t commonly connected: biology and religion.”

Bowen Mince ’22 echoed this excitement about being able to take a variety of classes at Grinnell, saying, “I chose Grinnell because I wanted a place where I could pursue hard sciences and still explore humanities classes. That’s why I really like the open course curriculum.” Several LGBTQ students were excited to be in an environment that accepts and affirms their identities. Many students were also attracted by the school’s tradition of social activism, while others cited Grinnell’s unpretentious atmosphere as a reason for attending.

Kenley cited Grinnell students’ lack of emphasis on prestige as a reason for applying early decision.

“At the East Coast liberal arts colleges like Williams or Swarthmore, everyone talks about prestige, and the pretentiousness comes along with prestige, and when I looked at Grinnell it didn’t seem like people were pretentious about going to Grinnell,” he said.

Finally, many incoming students said they were impressed by the responsiveness of admissions staff.

“Grace [Lloyd ’16, admission counselor] was one of the reasons [I applied]. Whenever I emailed her she responded to me and told me everything I wanted to know,” said Xindi Sun ’22.

The Class of 2022 will be assembled within the next couple of months from the many students who applied, consolidating a new group of Grinnellians, diverse in their origins and reasons for attending the College. Inside practice with the women’s water polo team: student-led practices teach the basics but remain competitive The S&B is going inside sports practices to get a glimpse of what Grinnell student-athletes are actually doing at the Bear in the afternoon. We sent writer Quan Tran’21 and photographer Elena Copell ’21 to scope out women’s water polo practice.

It’s hot. It’s humid. It’s water polo practice at the natatorium.

This week, I caught up with the women’s water polo team to see how practice is run. At first glance, it seems that the water polo team’s presence looms in the shadows of various swimming and diving records and championships. Alongside other pool- based programs with such a well-known history, it’s easy to think that water polo is just a club activity. That is, until you watch them play.

The women’s water polo season is very short, having only two meets and a conference tournament. With practice only about a week in, today the team captains Shannon Ellery ’18 and Camille Hall ’19 spend the first half an hour of their practice, which lasts from 5 to 6:30 p.m. every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, going through basic rules and formation setups. The point is, as captain Ellery said, to familiarize them with the game.

“A lot of our players have never had water polo experience or … seen water polo played before. So we had a little powerpoint to [help them] learn more about the game,”

It is usually said that water polo is just like soccer, but underwater. And in many ways it is. At the far end of the natatorium, near the diving boards, lies a whiteboard on which the team draws out tactics and assigns match-ups. Finally, at 5:50 p.m., they go into the pool and warm up with a couple laps of freestyle and backstroke. The warm-up scene looks very much like a synchronized swimming practice.

While everything was going on, the captains were taking the goals out and placing them in the water. After warm-ups ended, the players started shooting practice. Again, it’s quite similar to a soccer penalty shootout practice. Ellery gave out instructions to players on how to execute their finish better after every shot. After a while, as the clock was about to strike the 6:00 mark, the most exciting part of any practice began: scrimmages.

As much as the team is about tactics, the scrimmage today was more about letting players find their zone. Unlike soccer, water polo positions, except for the goalie, are more interchangeable and more involved on both ends of the pool. After a breathtaking swim-off for the first possession, everybody was locked in. Even though nobody was keeping score and there was only one referee, formations and match-ups were still intensely deployed.

At one point, a goalie made one amazing save, beating a 3-on-1 counterattack in the process. At another point, tension was going so high that a player was ejected. The scrimmage was everything one could have asked for from a practice session.

For a team that isn’t officially sanctioned as a varsity team by Grinnell’s athletic department, the women definitely made a strong case for why they should be. Throughout the practice, senses of discipline and organization were crystal clear, from the players to the captains. Such a competitive culture definitely stems from Ellery, who was also the swimming team’s captain over last winter. Nevertheless, holding such a role on the water polo team does put her in unchartered waters. Without an actual coach, the team is responsible for traveling and accommodations by themselves.

“In my second year, the athletic department absorbed the club sports, including water polo, into it. I think since then it’s been a lot easier to organize hotel rooms and transportation. … Still, it’s a very different role compared to being a captain of a varsity team since it is a much more administrative role on the water polo side,” Ellery said. The scrimmage lasted until the near end, when they had to carry the goals out of the pool to make room for diving class afterwards. Even though the game was intense, the team didn’t forget to save an extra five minutes to discuss and encourage each other. Such practice, to Ellery, is very vital to team’s chemistry and individual performances.

“We like to scrimmage a lot because it’s a good way to combine all the skills. It’s easier to just pick up [a] ball and shoot it, but it matters more when you have someone who’s guarding you and you have to swim around and make space,” Ellery said.

Senior-led track teams show promise for outdoors in their performance at the Midwest Conference Championships

Emma Zimmerman ’18 and Mikayla Fujiwara ’20 were key contributors on the women’s team last weekend in Ripon. Contributed photo.

By Quan Tran [email protected]

Last weekend, both women’s and men’s track and field competed in the annual Midwest Conference Indoor Championships at Ripon, Wisconsin. Despite finishing seventh and eighth in the team standings, respectively, both teams produced outstanding individual results which make their upcoming transition from indoor to outdoor much more promising. Particularly, Emma Zimmerman ’18 and Joel Baumann ’18 had career-best times in the 5000-meter and 800-meter events, respectively.

The women’s side enjoyed success on both days of competition. On Friday, the sprint medley relay team consisted of Lynn Nguyen ’20, Yolana Martin ’20, Rebecca Villa ’21 and Ally Cottrell ’21, and finished third with a time of 4:28.02. Even more impressively, on Saturday, in the distance medley relay event, Madeleine Breunig ’20, Gwen Holtzman ’19, Cottrell and Mikayla Fujiwara ’20 finished second at 13:02.12, only four seconds away from the win. Fujiwara also added a third-place finish in the 3000-meter event at 10:47.45.

Zimmerman finished second in the 5000-meter run field at 18:27.33. With this feat, the senior put herself in third place in the Grinnell women’s track program’s history. Women’s track Head Coach Evelyn Freeman doesn’t hide the astonishing fact of Zimmerman’s achievement, calling it a “gutsy performance.” Nevertheless, Zimmerman, in an email to The S&B, kept a very humble tone.

“It’s definitely special … and [exciting] when I have a successful 5k performance since [it’s] my favorite indoor event,” Zimmerman said. “At the same time, I realize there were parts of my race where I could have pushed harder or strategized better, which makes me excited to keep working on this event during outdoor.”

On the men’s side, Joel Baumann ’18 had a breakout performance. He, along with teammates Sean O’Reilly ’19, Kevin Anderson ’18 and Matt Lieberman ’21, finished third in the distance medley relay with a time of 10:37.77. Later on that very same day, Baumann placed third in the 800-meter run at 1:59.31, despite having to race from a slower heat. Speaking of Baumann’s individual performance, men’s track Head Coach Will Freeman expected nothing less from Baumann.

“He’s been showing in workouts that something big was going to happen … and [it did]. He’s going to be even better outdoors and could win it all,” Will Freeman said.

Baumann, however, seems to be enjoying more from his team’s holistic performance, putting more emphasis on team chemistry and contribution from his teammates. “My second year I was on a distance medley relay team that [actually] won the conference. But in terms of how the team raced, [it] felt a lot more fun to be on [this team] because I felt like I contributed more. We were all kind of individually solid runners as opposed to [being] carried by one individual,” Baumann said.

With such performances as the teams transition themselves to the outdoor season, Evelyn Freeman is very optimistic in spite of the early challenges. In her 38th season as a coach for the Pioneers, she is no stranger to the fact that Grinnell’s indoor season is shorter than other programs because the College starts its spring semesters later than most other places.

“We were at a little disadvantage compared to the rest of the conference teams since practices start so late for us, but we were really surprised and excited with how well both teams did at conference,” Evelyn Freeman said.

Will Freeman also commented on the shortness of indoor track season, saying, “We don’t trivialize the indoor conference meet, but we also recognized we’re not where we’ll be in May.”

The track and field teams have about a month off from competition before outdoors is in full swing. This month of preparation for outdoors might just yield even more exciting performances come April and May. Rueter’s Digest: The United States’ gold medal in , like it or not, is one for the record books

The United States’ men’s curling team won gold at the Olympic Games in Pyeongchang, South Korea recently. While it might seem funny on the surface, sports columnist Sam Rueter ’21 admits: gold is gold, no matter the sport. Contributed photo.

By Sam Rueter [email protected]

Like many Americans, I watched exactly zero minutes of the 2018 Winter Olympic Games based in Pyeongchang, South Korea. However, last week, in between my frequent visits to ESPN and PioneerWeb, I couldn’t help but notice the many headlines triumphantly touting America’s “dominance on the ice.” After I remembered that NHL players weren’t allowed to play in the Games and thus our U.S. Men’s hockey team couldn’t be the object of this near-universal praise, it dawned on me that our great nation had finally conquered its final, unexplored athletic frontier: curling.

Curling, for those like me whose cable packages don’t include obscure winter sports, is something akin to “ice bocce.” Players take turns sliding stones along the ice towards a bullseye, while their teammates furiously sweep to give the object a direction and speed. The goal is to have your teams’ stones closest to the center, and this fact adds a layer of strategy to a competition that may quite possibly be conducted in a semi-inebriated state.

It only takes one look at our gold medal-winning men’s curling team, who defeated Sweden in the finals, to understand the atypical nature of America’s newest sports icons. , , , Joe Polo and all look like they would be more comfortable starring in a Rogaine commercial than winning medals on the world stage, and I will admit that I briefly mistook George for my sixty-something Uncle Chip.

Despite this, these men are extraordinarily talented in their chosen profession. From the fifteen seconds or so of video that I have seen, their broom skills stick out as being particularly world-class. They display the same vigor and dexterity that my roommate Ryan Chang ’21 used to sweep up Younker Lounge after Sweater Party.

Although the American team defeated the Swedes in the final, a 5-3 defeat of Canada in the semifinals was arguably the biggest upset, as the Canadians had won gold in the last three Olympic Games.

Following a lackluster overall performance in which many U.S. stars failed to medal, it felt good to see our country finally stick it to our neighbors up north, whose progressive health care, high quality maple syrup and handsome prime minister consistently put us to shame.

Despite a top finish, the curling team had their fair share of unsavory Olympic moments, with skipper John Shuster singled out for his mediocre performance and controversial leadership style. In the early rounds, his timing was off, producing tosses with no accuracy whatsoever.

All jokes aside, these curling giants perfectly encapsulate one of the coolest things about the Olympic Games — that is, they give us the chance to witness and celebrate athletes whose hard work, dedication and talents are often underappreciated or largely ignored.

For a country where four or five sports have a monopoly over most viewership and cultural capital, it is refreshing to see deserving athletes receive their fifteen minutes of fame.

While in all likelihood these curlers will eventually fade into the background of public consciousness, their accomplishments shall stand the test of time, carved into the very same Olympic record books as the gold medalists in track and field.

Baseball begins its regular season this weekend in St. Louis

The baseball team enters the season with high expectations. They starts their season this weekend. Photos by Hung Vuong.

By Jackson Schulte [email protected] The Pioneer baseball season is underway, with the first tournament of the year coming up this weekend in St. Louis, MO. While baseball is a warm-weather game, the team has been practicing since the first week of the semester, utilizing the fieldhouse to escape frigid temperatures.

Head Coach Tim Hollibaugh is in his 23rd season at Grinnell now. Hollibaugh is as tuned-in as ever as the team prepares for a tough schedule.

“We’ve got one of the top ten toughest schedules in the country,” Hollibaugh said. “This group has really high expectations, but I’m trying to keep them focused on this first weekend. [This weekend] we play two really good teams, and we’ve got to win that tournament. If we take that approach, of trying to win the weekends that we do compete, I believe everything will take care of itself.”

This weekend, the Pioneers take on the University of Chicago and Illinois Wesleyan, two teams that, it’s safe to say, are predicted to have good seasons. Luckily, Grinnell’s Pioneers have a lot of return talent from last season.

Hollibaugh is particularly enthusiastic about the returning pitchers.

“We have a majority of our pitching staff,” he said. “We’ve got an ample number of arms with experience, some great first- years.”

One of those returning arms belongs to Sam LaMotte ’20, last year’s Midwest Conference Newcomer of the Year. LaMotte thinks that his experience will be a big advantage this year.

“I’d say the biggest difference between this year and last year is that I know what to expect when I get in the games,” LaMotte wrote in an email to The S&B. “Every hitter that we see in college baseball is one of the better hitters that we saw in high school baseball, so understanding that you do not get a hitter off was a big adjustment [last year].”

Ravi Levens ’19, an infielder on the team, echoed much of what Hollibaugh said regarding the quality of returning players this season.

“Our biggest strength this year is our depth,” Levens wrote in an email to The S&B. “We have a lot of players this year which I think most people have noticed, but this means we have three even four really talented guys at each position, which is nice to see.”

Ideally, their tough out-of-conference schedule will result in them being fully prepared for their conference opponents.

“These guys want to win a conference championship, and it’s just a matter of balancing academics and still being able to compete,” Hollibaugh said.

The Pioneers have a tough schedule, certainly, but the team appears up for it.

“I’m always excited to play home games, I really enjoy playing on our home field in front of friends and family,” Levens wrote. “I think our last home series against The University of Chicago stands out to me. We’ve never played them at home before and it will be a fun way to close out the regular season.”

The coach and the returning players alike gave abundant praise to the team’s first years.

“The best part of practices has been seeing the improvements that everybody has made from the fall, especially with our first-year players,” LaMotte wrote. “Being a college athlete is a big adjustment from being a high school athlete and seeing how the younger guys have adjusted and improved has been fun to watch.”

With many returners, the entire Pioneer team should be fun to watch this season. Their first home game is on March 10 against the University of Wisconsin-Superior.

Athlete Spotlight: Shults’s fast-paced spring Andrew Shults is transitioning to baseball season after posting impressive performances on the indoor track team during the first half of the semester. He travels to his first baseball tournament this weekend in St. Louis. Photo by Mai Phuong Vu.

By Lily Seibert [email protected]

For the past three years at Grinnell College, two-sport athlete Andrew Shults ’19 has participated in both indoor track and baseball, achieving highly at both and garnering the praise of his coaches, teammates and fans. In order to stay in shape for each sport, Shults must often attend two practices per day during the time period in which the seasons overlap, in addition to handling a challenging academic course load.

Despite the difficulty, Shults’s identity as a two-sport athlete has been one of the most formative aspects of his Grinnell experience.

“When I was thinking about colleges and thinking about schools, I really wanted to go to a school that allowed me to do as many extracurriculars that I was interested in,” Shults said. “I wouldn’t be able to do that at a lot of other schools. I remember I spoke to [Head Baseball Coach] Hollibaugh about it when I first got here and he was totally on board.”

Three years later, Shults has completed his third collegiate track season, placing second in the 60 and 400 meter dashes in the conference meet. With the track season over, Shults can look to the next chapter and focus on the baseball season.

“It feels good to have that conference and then get right into baseball this week,” he said. “It’s kind of like, having track first gives me the ability to have competition and to stay active. It keeps me doing something and is a good trajectory into baseball, which starts the weekend after.”

In terms of the coming season, Shults and the rest of the team look to build on the success of their past couple of seasons. In addition to getting new talent from the first year class, the team retains several veteran leaders who hope to guide the next generation. With the combination of experience and ability, Shults has full confidence that the team will be a force over the next few months of competition.

“I feel like the team has the most depth that it’s had since I’ve been here,” he said. “And so I’m really excited to see how the lineup is going to shape up, see who steps up.”

Although taking on two rigorous sports at one time seems physically and mentally taxing, Shults feels that each one helps feed into the other, allowing for maximum results. All of his hard work devoted to sprinting on the track has influenced his approach to baseball, making him a dangerous threat on the base-path and in the outfield. Rather than swinging for the fences, Shults contends that his role aligns more with getting on base and wreaking havoc on the pitchers by stealing bases and eventually coming around to score. “Doing track helps me get better at baseball, especially when you’re in the middle of the season and everyone’s wearing down,” Shults said. “Getting that extra fitness in at the beginning of the year really pays off.”

He attributes his ability to manage several responsibilities to staying organized and keeping track of everything on his plate. In addition to planning his schedule for the semester out ahead of time and writing down each of his deadlines, Shults emphasizes the importance of prioritizing his activities and finishing tasks in a timely manner.

Despite his individual success, Shults’s main goal remains team-oriented.

“I know personally I really want to win the Midwest Conference Tournament,” he said. “We’ve come real close so many years. That’s my number one goal right now. We definitely can do it, we’ve just got to take it one game at a time.”

Horoscope: The Signs as Talking Heads Songs

Aries: Houses in Motion

Taurus: Love -> Building on Fire

Gemini: Wild Wild Life

Cancer: Take Me to the River

Leo: Burning Down the House

Virgo: Heaven Libra: Once in a Lifetime

Scorpio: Making Flippy Floppy

Sagittarius: Psycho Killer

Capricorn: Found A Job

Aquarius: This Must Be the Place (Naive Melody)

Pisces: Life During Wartime

— Sister Aurora Impulse

Dusty – March 1, 2018 Letters to the editor: Trip Kennedy ’68 and President Kington on gun politics

Dear Dr. Kington,

Thank you for your letter of Jan. 12 in response to mine of Nov. 12, 2017.

I am, perhaps needless to say, disappointed in your response. Permit me to bring two matters to your attention which might help you better understand how profoundly inappropriate it is that the College accepts Mr. Brownell’s money. The first goes to the source of his wealth and the second to what might be considered his politics. But context is important. Grinnell has always been a learning community dedicated to the creation of a better world.

There is an argument, albeit a decreasingly compelling one, that hunting is a harmless, even a wholesome activity. Shotguns and hunting rifles might thus be thought of as tools to be used in this pursuit, analogous to fishing tackle.

Handguns, on the other hand, have only one purpose, that being to take human life. Military-style rifles fall, quite obviously, in the same category. The taking of human life is not an unfortunate by-product of the existence of such weapons, it is their very reason-d’être. The legality of an activity does not establish its ethical content. Mr. Brownell’s money has been made by selling and distributing murder weapons. This activity is not only contrary to the creation of a better world, it contributes directly and unavoidably to the creation of a worse one. Mr. Brownell’s money has been made in a manner that undermines Grinnell’s mission.

On the question of Mr. Brownell’s politics, it is clear, although it may be less so from within the United States, that what might be called the gun lobby has one essential message, that being that society cannot defend its members from the forces of chaos. First, in advancing this line as the leader of the NRA, Mr. Brownell is disseminating both a lie and a self-fulfilling prophecy. Second, this line is fundamentally hostile to the very notion of community, which is also at Grinnell’s core.

Anything that Mr. Brownell might do that would seem inconsistent with his rejection of both truth and the very idea of community can only be understood as profoundly disingenuous. Grinnell gains nothing by extending a fig leaf of respectability to such a purveyor of socially corrosive disinformation.

I understand that Mr. Brownell’s money is being used by the College for a worthy purpose. However, there can be no doubt that the New England abolitionists who founded Grinnell would have refused money from slave traders, no matter the good use to which the money might have been put. They would have understood that the ends never justify the means.

On the question of divisions that may exist within the College and in the broader community on questions related to firearms, I can only say that I never knew Grinnell to follow the path of least resistance. My Grinnell has always taken the principled stand. I look forward to being able to rejoin our community of donors when you advise me that the College has revisited and reversed its earlier decision to accept Mr. Brownell’s money.

Sincerely,

James S. (Trip) Kennedy ’68

Dear Mr. Kennedy,

Thank you for taking the time to share your views with me on Grinnell College’s relationship with the current president of the National Rifle Association, who is a member of our local community.

Personally, I firmly believe that the political power of the NRA distorts American democracy and needs to be countered. However, many of my neighbors disagree with me. The proximity of such divergent political and social views in a town like Grinnell, while challenging, is fundamentally beneficial to our educational mission, as long as we can engage in civil conversations and refrain from dehumanizing those who do not agree with our own views.

I know Mr. Brownell and his wife to be concerned parents, engaged citizens and active members of our local community. As much as l disagree with Mr. Brownell’s stands on gun policy, he and his wife have a genuine concern for our community that makes it possible for us to have constructive conversations, and even to work together for positive change in other policy areas. The Ignite Program, which their gift initiated four years ago, is one of the ways they have helped to make the Grinnell community a better place to live and raise a family.

The Ignite Program brings local preschool and elementary students to Grinnell College for a day of student-led learning. Participating students take courses in both conventional and unconventional subjects taught by Grinnell College students. The program helps to make the idea of higher education in general, and the academic resources and opportunities of Grinnell College in particular, better known and more accessible to members of our community. The Ignite Program does not advertise the NRA, nor is it funded by the NRA, either directly or indirectly.

Regarding your concern about the possible use of handguns by faculty members, if any faculty member brought any kind of weapon to campus, we would take immediate disciplinary action. However, we have no way of knowing whether faculty members own or use firearms off-campus, and in any event the College would have no right to take any kind of official action regarding any legal off-campus gun use.

Thanks again for reaching out. I appreciate your passion and engagement, even if we disagree on specific courses of action.

Best regards,

Raynard Kington Sexplanations: Monogamy and active bystanding

Sexplanations is an anonymous Q&A column about sex, sexual health, sexuality, gender, relationships and the promotion of respect at Grinnell College. Questions are answered collaboratively by the Sexual Health Information Center (SHIC), the Stonewall Resource Center (SRC) and the Office of Wellness and Prevention. If you have a question or comment, submit it anonymously at https://goo.gl/forms/36C5fLe9DeRdi48k2 or email [howeemil].

I’m not sure if I want my next relationship to be monogamous.

— Monogamous Conglomerous

I feel this is almost a cliché for a lot of queers at Grinnell. I imagine it has to do with the fact that when forced to rethink relationships in terms of family, friends and lovers, we question and sometimes reject assumed standards like monogamy in relationships. Bigots will say it’s because queers are flitty sex-mongers who can’t do white middle-class family structures, to which I say, yes, thank you for seeing me! But that’s not everyone.

Much work done when questioning monogamy is critiquing hierarchies of relationships. Why can’t friendships be just as intimate and interdependent as relationships we distinguish as romantic? It’s important to know that the process of questioning how monogamy does or does not function in one’s relationship is where the magic happens, not in whether one chooses to practice monogamy. Monogamy does not necessarily evince heteronormativity or assimilation, and non-monogamy is not a morally superior position — both are prone to toxicity and liberation.

You may want to consider whether you feel non-monogamous or polyamorous, meaning one is open to having multiple partners (NB: “poly” as shorthand for polyamorous has been critiqued by Polynesians for co-opting their identity term). And to get there, you’ll probably need to dig deep into what differences you draw between friendships and partners — time spent? sexual intimacy? romantic feelings? interdependency? And then there’s the other unpacking: what are sexual intimacy or romantic feelings to you? These questions are so hard. Why are they so hard?!

How has being monogamous affected your relationships with people besides your partner? Are friendships at all devalued? Do you feel more willing to connect with people honestly and openly when there are preset limits on possible sexual intimacy with those people?

It’s hard to be something other than monogamous. Particularly when one’s potential dating population seems small to begin with, bringing in non-normative relationship structures can elicit intense feelings of undesirability and loneliness. If that happens, remember that you are choosing non- monogamy/polyamory to be able to connect more deeply with people you care about — it’s worth it. It’s also hard to enter a relationship with monogamous folks hoping they’ll change their mind. I wouldn’t count on that happening, but questioning what monogamy means in monogamous relationships can be magical for learning how each partner thinks about intimacy, needs and ways of connecting. I hear a lot of people say that they’re too jealous to be non-monogamous. Okay, that’s fine, but jealousy happens in non-monogamous and polyamorous relationships too. In those cases, it’s about using the recognition of jealousy to explore its roots — unmet needs, uncomfortable power imbalances — and that’s something everyone can do.

Last weekend at Harris, and someone came up and started dancing on my friend without their consent. I asked my friend to go to the bathroom with me so we could get away. How can I be an active bystander if that happens again?

— Bewildered Bystander

Hey Bewildered Bystander,

Actually, you were an active bystander in that situation! Although we may think about active bystanderism as something that you have to be confrontational and loud about, the truth is that there are many ways you can “step up” and be an active bystander.

In some cases, one might step up and say something to the person who came up and danced on your friend, but that option isn’t available to everyone. Identities, power dynamics, past experience and other factors can impact what actions feel available in the moment. So going to the bathroom with your friend? That was a great option for you in the moment.

Someone else might have gotten help from an ACESS staff member or waved over a friend of the dancer. Walking between the dancers, having the DJ pause the music or change the song, or even spilling a drink may be other options, of many, one could take in order to be an active bystander. Part of the active bystander trainings offered on campus focus on brainstorming what different steps one could take in various situations to be an active bystander, and often, it’s a lot of identifying things that many of us already do — such as moving with our friends elsewhere, like you did.

It’s also important to note that the role of being an active bystander doesn’t rest solely on the peers of the person in the uncomfortable position — peers of both parties should take action. Most students at Grinnell, regardless of relationship to one another, would prefer that someone step up, even if they are unsure of how the situation is actually playing out.

Basically, you did the right thing for your friend, and you are an active bystander. As you look ahead towards future Harrises or even Sunday brunches, sit down and have a conversation with your friends about what options feel available to you and each other. If you’d like to learn more or have more structured conversations about it, reach out to Jen Jacbosen [jacobsen], a SAM, a Peer Educator or a CA.