Grinnellians want to change the world — they just don’t want to tell other people what to do. Can one enact major social change without acting authoritarian? That’s the question posed by “The Leadership Paradox,” second in our feature series “How Grinnellians Learn,” in the Spring 2011 issue of The Grinnell Magazine. The answers are intriguing.
“R.I.P., PEC” remembers the College’s first comprehensive physical education and recreation complex. The PEC was dedicated in 1972 and dismantled recently, recycled and repurposed into everything from an octagonal barn to garden mulch. We’ve got pictures and a retrospective.
Speaking of recycling, sustainability efforts are a frequent topic on campus. In “The Greening of Grinnell,” President Kington and Dean Marci Sortor talk about some rather extraordinary College initiatives — including a plan to harvest 80 percent of the campus’ electricity from the wind.
Among the best reading in the spring issue are your letters in response to the winter “Grinnell and Activism” issue. A record number of you, from classes ranging from 1944 to 2009, wrote us. Your comments — insightful, moving, amusing, and informative — are a delight.
In “Inane and Dangerous,” Carroll McKibbin ’60, contributes an especially poignant — and not at all nostalgic — alumni musing on the subject of hazing at Grinnell in the ’50s and ’60s.
There is a lot more to the spring issue, of course. The Grinnell Science Project and the College’s library system each won national awards. And we alums just can’t seem to stop doing the most amazing things — from resculpting injured bodies using reprogrammed fat cells to winning a state house of representatives seat at age 25.
Thanks for staying in touch. Keep your e-mails and letters coming!
Sincerely,
Dan Weeks ’80
Editor, The Grinnell Magazine
