GrinnellPlans Ceases and Desists

by David Logan

At roughly 7:30 p.m. Monday evening, the popular cyber-forum site GrinnellPlans ceased operation and posted a notification citing a cease-and-desist notice as the reason for the suspension of service.

“GrinnellPlans, in accordance with a cease-and-desist notice, is suspended, effective Monday, December 15, 2008 at or around 7:30pm Central Time,” the posting read.

Plans Administrator Ian Atha ’09, who received the notice, would not comment on the source of the notice or the reasons behind it but in an e-mail to the S&B wrote that "The cause is not yet to be communicated, but it was not libel/slander.
Also, it was not about particular content, but about alleged
practices." He also said he is working with an attorney to resolve the issue and restore service to the site which he anticipated would be soon but said that, in the meantime, he is treading cautiously.

“My strategy is to be as careful as possible and make sure we don’t get into judicial legal trouble,” he said in an interview. “The homepage says we are complying with the [cease-and-desist] letter but that does not constitute admission of fact or practice.”

He cited a potential injunction and court fees as some of the more disruptive measures he hoped to avoid.

Atha said that he had received the notice because the site is hosted on a server he owns in Texas through The Planet, an information technology firm based in Houston, Tex.

Quickly following the suspension of service, rumors circulated among students on campus and on a discussion board hosted on the social networking site Facebook as to the source and motivation of the cease-and-desist notice. Posters speculated about whether or not a student submitted the notice while one alumnus even claimed responsibility, though there is no evidence to support any of the claims.

Many speculated that the cease-and-desist notice and the subsequent suspension of service might have come from members of the College administration. In the midst of recent student anxieties about recently hired Student Affairs employees, and the controversial departure of former Associate Dean and Director of Residence Life Sheree Andrews, the website had become a sounding board for student grievances about the administration. Without providing any specifics, Atha denied that the College administrators had sent the notice.

“It’s not Houston or Travis or RKO or anyone who works for the College,” he said. “I think the most important thing now is to not start groundless rumors. Plans will be back as soon as possible.”

While he said he could not provide a definite timeline for when the service might be restored, Atha said he did not expect the suspension to last beyond Saturday, when he would be leaving the country for the start of the College’s winter recess.

As a precaution, he said that he has signed over power of attorney to a lawyer in California who could then act on Atha’s behalf while he is out of the country.

The last time the site was shut down because of legal troubles was in 2005 when Paul Wainwright’07 posted statements that authorities said advocated violence against law enforcement officials. While the site had not been hosted by the College since 2003, College administrators asked Plans administrators to take down the cite pending an investigation.

--additional reporting by Ari Anisfeld

SOA funding uncertain

by Ari Anisfeld, J. Francis Buse & David Logan

For the past month, Grinnell College student activists had been making plans to travel to Ft. Benning, Georgia and participate in the 16th annual “Vigil to Close the School of the Americas.” But after receiving pledges for funding from various College departments and student groups, organizers were later informed that their budget was under scrutiny by the College’s attorneys.

Though the students who planned to attend the vigil Nov 21-23 were not initially told about the funding decision, administrators have since said that they would not support the funding. The group leaders met with President Russell Osgood and other administrators at 4 p.m. this afternoon to discuss the decision.

The students had already received pledges to help cover the approximately $7000 transportation and other logistical costs. But still roughly $2000 short, organizers approached Student Affairs to cover the rest. Director of Campus Center Operations/Student Activities Michael Sims, concerned about the legal implications of funding a advocacy activity, contacted some of the College’s attorneys.

President Russell K. Osgood, who said he was approached for help by Vice President of Student Affairs Houston Dougharty, advised that the College not provide funding because of a combination of both financial and legal factors.

“One, we’re being careful about every expenditure, we’re not selling jobs and anything that looks largish I’m saying no to unless it’s in the budget,” Osgood said. “And that’s one level on which this exists.”

“Two, over the last few years … going on what I’ll call “advocacy trips” has been discussed a couple of times and in general because the College is a 501(c)(3) charity, we don’t fund advocacy trips, just like we don’t fund sending people to a lot of things that are worthy.”

Osgood was referring to the Internal Revenue Service’s prohibition against political lobbying activities by 501(c)(3) nonprofit organizations, which is meant to ensure that primarily political advocacy groups do not benefit from the tax-exempt status afforded by a 501(c)(3) designation.

According to the information on the website for the Internal Revenue Service, “In general, no organization may qualify for section 501(c)(3) status if a substantial part of its activities is attempting to influence legislation…”

The IRS generally draws a distinction between attempting to influence legislative decisions as opposed to executive or administrative ones.
It does include some exceptions to the restrictions, noting that “organizations may conduct educational meetings, prepare and distribute educational materials, or otherwise consider public policy issues in an educational manner without jeopardizing their tax-exempt status.”

Osgood also cited safety concerns and said that the activity was not “squarely within our educational purpose.”

“So if someone came to me and said we’re going to the U.N. and it’s part of an upper level course in political science, I’ll be honest, that has more of a cache for funding,” he said. “But right now, I wouldn’t even fund that because of the budget situation.”

The “vigil”, a three-day event, which commemorates the killing of eight Salvadorians by a graduate of SOA and includes social justice and activism workshop, has been attended by for the at least the past six years, and has received College funding for a bus for similar sized groups for the past couple of years, according to Dean of Religious Life Deanna Shorb.

Sheree Andrews on Leave

The S&B can confirm that Associate Dean and Director of Residence Life Sheree Andrews has been placed on administrative leave as of yesterday morning. Andrews is still employed by the college, but it is unclear what, if any, role she will have while placed on leave. “I don’t know what the status is,” Andrews told the S&B in a phone interview this afternoon.

While Andrews said she could not speak in detail on the matter, she said that it might be resolved soon. “Hopefully next week [it will be resolved],” she said. “That’s my understanding.”

Andrews could also not say whether or not her change in status was voluntary, and said only that “There’s a bunch of us working on this.”

Responding to a request for comment, Dean of Students Travis Greene wrote in an e-mail that “due to College policy regarding the confidentiality of personnel-related matters, and out of respect for those involved, no College employees are able to comment regarding this or any other personnel matter.” Vice President for Student Affairs Houston Dougharty could not be reached for comment.

While the College’s Staff Handbook includes a section on Progressive Discipline and Termination, there is no formal policy for imposing disciplinary measures short of dismissal.

According to section 2.5 of the Grinnell College Staff Handbook, “Although one or more … steps may be taken in connection with a particular employee, no formal order or procedure is necessary for appropriate action.” Although there is no formal designation for Andrews' status, she said it could be best described as "administrative leave."

The S&B first learned that Andrews was placed on administrative leave from numerous Student Staff members and a member of SGA. Andrews later confirmed the information in the interview.

Andrews’ status at the school was first disseminated to Student Staff members last night, when some RLCs held meetings to inform their staffs. However they were given no further information about the circumstances beyond the fact that she was on leave.

This is a developing story, and we will be posting further information when it becomes available…

Correction: Missing word in column

In Danny Haupt's opinion column in the May 2 issue of the S&B, the first word was missing. His opening paragraph should have read:

At Grinnell we have a tendency to bitch on a pretty regular basis about pretty much everything. Some of the loudest and most frequent complaints are often about the college, itself, and the perceived failures of administrators and trustees to listen to students. But when the trustees presented themselves last Thursday to talk to students, not too many showed up.

Relays postponed due to funding, disinterest, weather

by Claire Reeder

Grinnell Relays, an annual party that combines all the fun of a middle school field day with the all the fun of a booze bash, was canceled at the eleventh hour last Saturday. While, as officials reported, weather did play into the final decision to postpone Relays, lack of campus interest and funding were primary factors, according to organizers SGA President Megan Goering ’08 and SGA Student Services Coordinator Kirby Ramstad ’08.

According to Ramstad, there was little initial interest in Relays. After the first application due date, only one team had signed up; the extended deadline yielded one more team. After a second extension, seven teams had signed up. “No one seemed interested until really close to the event,” said Ramstad. “It was like pulling teeth to get people to sign up and turn in their forms.”

Marissa Gillman ’09, captain of Team Rainbow Fight, said she felt that the amount of advertising may have affected campus interest. “I just put together a team because I thought it would be fun after I saw a flyer in the mailroom,” she said. “But I didn’t really see a ton of advertising for the event.”

Funding also limited the planners, as participating teams contributed $90. Appeals to Dining Services, the ACE budget and collecting around campus finally totaled around $500. Traditionally, Relays money pays for equipment, food and beer, and is invested in T-shirts.

The low initial funding impeded the purchasing of Relays T-shirts, which in the increased awareness and funding in the past, limited initial capital restricted the ability to buy T-shirt. However, with the postponement, organizers have decided to front the money to purchase T-Shirts that will be distributed during Relays.

Generally, Relays is officially organized by volunteers and is not necessarily associated with SGA or All-Campus Events. But when no volunteers came forward to organize this year’s event, Ramstad and Goering took over.

According to Ramstad, the responsibility of Relays coupled with those of SGA and graduation limited the ability of the organizers to fundraise and increase advertising. “Megan had the trustees on campus, and I had both FogFast and the Blood Drive to organize,” said Ramstad. “With such a busy week, we do take some of the responsibility, we just couldn’t get it all together.”

Saturday morning, however, it was the weather forecast that led to the cancellation. It was “the straw that broke the camel’s back,” said Goering.

The campus response has been mixed. While some people expressed frustration at the postponement, others offered to help. According to Ramstad, the organizers received five emails, three of which were offers to help. “People’s frustration is justified, but we’re doing our best to respond,” said Ramstad.

With another week to organize, let funds trickling in, and increase awareness, Relays will take place this Saturday on Cleveland Beach from 1 to 5 p.m. Scheduled events include the typical picnic games—three-legged and sack races, water balloon toss and watermelon eating contests—capped off with the traditional keg toss and the crowning event: the lighting of the flaming toilet torch. New additions this year include real beer in the outdoor beer garden and trophies for winners. Randy Brush, husband of Loosehead RLC Kim Hinds-Brush, will serve as master of ceremonies.

Update on Plans Outage

EDIT: Plans is once more online. Be sure to check out a full article in tomorrow's S&B.

Grinnellplans.com has been down since Sunday night, but might be back up as early as tonight or tomorrow.

The popular Grinnell site is hosted on a web server in Hawaii owned by Sechyi Laiu '04. On Sunday night, the server ran out of space and crashed.

Plans administrators are currently planning on moving Plans to a new server. This will probably involve reverting to a ten-day-old backup file, meaning that any Plans updates in the last ten days will be lost.

Danny Carroll to challenge State Rep. Palmer

The Iowa Secretary of State has posted a list of candidates (PDF—scroll down to page 42) in primary elections, and as rumored, former Republican State Representative Danny Carroll will challenge the man who unseated him in 2006, State Rep. Eric Palmer (D). Palmer also challenged Carroll in 2004 and lost narrowly. 

Carroll held the seat for years before losing to Palmer. Since leaving office, he co-chaired former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee's statewide presidential campaign, which culminated in an unexpected and powerful victory in the 2008 Republican Iowa Caucuses.

Students receive anti-queer letters

By: Ari Anisfeld and David Logan
Additional reporting by David H. Montgomery & Abby Rapoport

This story is an edited version of a previously-published story.

Sometime Thursday night 34 members of the Grinnell College queer community received anti-queer letters, according to Stephen Briscoe, director of Security. The letters come a day after a rally responding to a bias-motivated crime that occurred in a South Campus hall last Friday night.

Early this morning a student working at the post office received one of the letters and then notified security at around 8:15 a.m. Friday. “They were all the same type of letter, folded over and stapled together with the students’ name and mailbox typed on the outside,” Briscoe said.

Printed on the inside of each letter in large bold font were slurs and epithets, many including gender-specific anti-queer attacks matching the gender of the recipients. Among the slurs were “Fear God, not Fags” and “You can’t stop us fag—go and get some pussy.” Most of the students receiving the letters were part of the campus queer community, although some were not active on campus.

Security contacted the Grinnell Police Department as part of the investigation. Security is also working with ITS to find out if they can identify whether the letters were made on a campus computer or printer.

While Briscoe said that security cannot currently say with any confidence who may have sent the letters, he suspected the perpetrators are part of the college community. “I think it was someone on campus, to be honest,” Briscoe said.

Sheree Andrews, associate dean and director of Student Life, said whoever sent the letters, likely had information about the queer community. “It was clearly somebody who had access to a directory and it was somebody who was on campus or could come on campus,” said Andrews. “It was someone who knew who was associated the LGBTQ community.”

Briscoe said that security could not yet say whether the incident is connected to last weekend’s anti-queer vandalism.

According to Thomas Bateman ’10, who received one of the letters, recipients were contacted by Interim Vice President of Student Affairs Elena Bernal who then set up a meeting to discuss the mailings. “She wanted to make sure we were okay and find out what we wanted to do about it,” Bateman said.

Not all the students were completely comfortable with the meeting. Jose Segebre Salazar ’09 was somewhat disturbed that the names of the recipients had been distributed to individuals outside of security. “If you want to talk about it, that’s fine,” he said. “But just the fact that there’s a compiled list that’s gone outside of police record—it’s kind of scary.”

In an all-campus e-mail, President Russell K. Osgood expressed anger at the continued acts of intolerance. “We are very saddened and angered by what has happened. Those who engaged in these cowardly acts will find no solace in our community,” Osgood wrote.

Some classes were cancelled as students met in informal groups across campus to discuss how to respond to the latest anti-queer incident.

The centerpiece of the response was a second meeting in JRC 101 which appeared to have an attendance of well more than 200 students, faculty and staff. Bernal and Johanna Meehan, Philosophy, delivered opening remarks emphasizing that the message of the gathering was one of community and love, not one of hate. “[We’re] not here to talk about the negative aspects. We’re here to have a positive discussion,” Bernal said. “There’s comfort for people that are in this room tonight.”

After the opening discussion, organizers unveiled the gathering’s primary activity—love mail. Attendees took advantage of crates of paper and art supplies to make love letters for their friends and peers. “In response to the hate mail, the most beautiful thing we’ve come up with is love mail,” Bernal said.

Before this afternoon’s forum, a group of students were in the Spencer Grille creating t-shirts that emphasized community and tolerance. Jon Richardson ’10, who helped to organize the t-shirt making with Kelly Bosworth ’10, bought plain white t-shirts and colored markers for friends to use, but others quickly joined in.

“I thought some other people might join in, but this is amazing,” Richardson said. “It started with one table making shirts and there are five now.”

Jessica Issacharoff ’09, who made a shirt of her own, said she was particularly upset by the letters because she knew many of the recipients. “I have a lot of friends who got [the letters] and I was absolutely shocked,” said Issacharoff. “I would never have expected anything so aggressive. And so violent. It was just very violent language.”

Bateman, who participated in Thursday night’s march and rally, said he was not surprised that this happened after Thursday’s great show of support for the queer community and tolerance in general. “It makes sense that this happen[ed] after the rally because [the rally] was so effective and productive,” said Bateman. “This makes sense as a retaliation to that.”

Again emphasizing the positive responses to the anti-queer acts, Bernal also said that the letters revealed some sense of desperation. “Because last night was so powerful,” Bernal said, “the response back from folks who did not want to see that happen, who are living with this latent anger … had to come back just as hard as what happened the other night [with the rally and march].”

Some students, like Jose, felt that the magnitude of the response to both the vandalism and mailings incidents lent them too much legitimacy and impact. “We should not give them so much currency as to disrupt our personal lives and our lives as students,” he said.

While Andrews said she was upset by the mailings, she reiterated the importance of responding in a positive manner. “We want to go into a very positive vein with all of this,” she said. “Some of the fire we got going last night with the rally will keep on throughout the weekend.”

In addition to the community events that will unfold throughout the week, Bernal emphasized college services as a means of coping with the events. She urged students to take advantage of resources in the Mental Health Center, Student Services and their friends. “Everybody’s waiting to throw their arms around their brothers and sisters at Grinnell in support,” she said.

Bernal also categorically rejected the notion that the incidents mean that Grinnell College is not a tolerant community. “If this wasn’t an accepting community,” Bernal said, “you wouldn’t have the hundreds of people here last night and the hundreds of people here within a few hours of an e-mail.”

Bateman, while shaken, said he would not let the mailings significantly alter his perceptions of the Grinnell community. “I’m really happy with the Grinnell community in light of last night,” said Bateman. “It’s important not to view this as spoiling [the rally] and that the Grinnell community is not intolerant.”

Correction: On Editorials and Percentages

In this week's staff editorial, "Stop getting us sick," we wrote the following: 

Last Thursday, 90% students visited the health center complaining of sore throats and runny noses.

In fact, that was inaccurate by several orders of magnitude. The sentence should have read,

Last Thursday, 90 students visited the health center complaining of sore throats and runny noses.

Also, even if 90% were the accurate figure, the correct style would have been to write "90 percent."

Waitress

by Julia Bottles

From the opening frames, director Adrienne Shelly's film Waitress walks a fine line between light comedy and over-the-top camp. Jenna (Keri Russell) holds a home pregnancy test in her hands awaiting the result as her fellow waitresses Dawn and Becky throw out emotionally exaggerated lines at her. It shouldn't work, but somehow it does, setting the tone for the rest of the film.

The film continues to follow Jenna through the early stages of her pregnancy, a lens into an unhappy life lightened only by her pie-making genius. As Jenna plots her escape from her hated husband Earl (Jeremy Sisto), she finds passion in the arms of her neurotic obstetrician Dr. Pomatter (Nathan Fillion). Their affair grows into something more than mere physical attraction, and the miserable waitress gets a glimpse at happiness.

Waitress will be shown at the Forum this Thursday Feb. 14 for Valentine’s Day.

The Apartment

by Joey Mandeville

It’s hard to find comedies like The Apartment anymore. While today what passes for comedy often offers up little more than sight gags and gross-out humor, The Apartment builds its laughs through genuine emotion and dilemma. That kind of comedy will always be funnier and more meaningful, because the story is involving and the laughs are real.

The story being told is of perennial nice-guy C.C. ‘Bud’ Baxter (Jack Lemmon), whose generosity at work leads him to loan out his apartment to bosses who are less than faithful to their wives. That is, until his boss J.D. Sheldrake (Fred MacMurray) decides to use said apartment to start courting Fran Kubelik (Shirley MacLaine), Baxter’s secret office crush. This charming story, told in just over two hours, moves forward at a pleasant and engaging pace as we chart both characters’ eventual redemption.

One of the movie’s greatest assets is the combination of Lemmon’s naïve and bumbling Baxter with MacLaine’s cynical and impassioned Fran. This refreshing contrast switches the traditional gender roles of the day. Fran often seems so much older than Baxter, and her character is no worse for any lack of fidelity she displays. Often she sees truths in the world that Baxter could not fathom. “Some people take, and some people get took” she pessimistically states after being abandoned again by Sheldrake in the apartment.

Baxter’s frank and endearing innocence combats this outlook. Consider when, in reference to his love for Fran, he compares his life to that of Robinson Crusoe, “shipwrecked among 8 million people. And then one day I saw a footprint in the sand and there you were.”

The Apartment continues to be regarded as one of the greatest comedies, and indeed one of the greatest movies, of all time. The story is engaging, the characters fascinating, but describing them paints part of a picture that only seeing this classic movie can complete.

The Apartment is playing at the Forum this Wednesday, Feb. 13.

Alternative Break gets ready for Spring

By Sarah Casson

With the February 9 deadline for AltBreak fast approaching student organizers have been working for a long while to plan everything from the trips’ mode of transportation to how to feed their student volunteers.

The student coordinators begin the process for AltBreak trips 2 to 3 months before trips, that they may or may not go on, occur. Together they get the planning process going, select leaders in an application process, facilitate transportation to the sites and more. This begins in December or January and in the fall the process starts about 2 weeks into the school year.

This spring break there will be three trips, all differing in the type of community service they provide. One will go to Milwaukee where the crew will work on a community garden. Another will go to Umay, Arizona to help at a veterans’ event where services such as health care will be provided to them. The last will go to Mananda County Forest, California to be part of a conservation program. All are opportunities to do good for communities around the country.

According the AltBreak leaders students with any level of experience are welcome to apply for the spring break trips. Students who have a service project that they would like to see done can easily apply to be a leader of a trip for next year. “You don’t have to have any previous experience, you don’t need to have gone on a previous trip,” says Zach Razavi ’08, one of this break’s coordinators. “All you need is a co-leader and a well written application.”

Of course, to put in all that effort, students must feel strongly for AltBreak. “I love AltBreak, it’s just a great way to give back, and to get out as well,” said Justin Erickson ’10, another trip coordinator.

Thin (playing at the Forum this Wednesday)

by Christine Grummon

Five million Americans currently suffer from an eating disorder.

One in seven anorexic women will die from their disease.

It is with these grim statistics that the documentary Thin opens. Directed by Lauren Greenfield, the movie chronicles the lives of four women as they undergo treatment at the Renfrew Center, a recovery facility for people with eating disorders. The film introduces us to Shelly, Polly, Brittany and Alisa, women ranging in age from 15 to 30 with extensive histories of eating disorders.

Shifting focus from each of the patients’ stories, the film follows their victories, setbacks and the relationships each develops between the staff and other patients. We watch as the women struggle through seemingly mundane tasks like eating a birthday cupcake or finishing a slice of pizza.

Aside from the opening statistics and brief background descriptions of the four women, Thin makes almost no commentary on the events of the film. Through its intimate study of the four women, the film offers insight into the complicated psychology surrounding eating disorders. Pressure from family, peers, and society are all portrayed as culprits in the women’s suffering along with the failure of insurance companies to provide adequate coverage for treatment. The movie ends with the departure of each woman from the center, though not all of them leave because they’re physically or emotionally ready.

Thin presents an interesting and relevant study of those suffering from eating disorders, but it does leave something to be desired. Juggling the stories of four very different women, transitions between segments sometimes seem abrupt and each story doesn’t get equally thorough treatment. Follow-up interviews with the women after they had left treatment would also have been a worthwhile addition. But, on the whole, Thin presents an interesting portrait of what it means to have an eating disorder in America.

A message from Don Smith

Poweshiek County Democratic Chair Don Smith just stopped by the gym and gave me a statement thanking all student Democratic caucus-goers:

"I just want to say thanks to all the Grinnell College students resident in Poweshiek County who came back from other places to take part in our caucuses. We look forward to electing a Democratic president and other Democratic public officials in November. Thanks again, happy New Year and good luck."

Remainders

Dodd drops out.

Biden, too.

Final results: Edwards takes second--barely, by exactly seven delegates, or one more than mere viability in Ward 1 would have given her.

Obama won big--and with a heavily Democratic turnout (76% Democrats, 20% independents, 4% Republicans--scroll down, but plenty of interesting statistics there)

Everything turns now to New Hampshire.

Thanks for tuning in, everyone!

After the Caucus

The PEC fieldhouse is almost empty now. Most of the hundred-plus students here are off at off-campus parties, notably a pretty wild Obama victory party.

We got kicked out of the Harris cinema before 11, ending the CNN-watching party shortly after Obama's victory speech. Students have to be out of the PEC by noon tomorrow; the Dems are providing breakfast of some sort.

Why Grinnell Matters

Grinnell College mattered a lot in this election.

How? Just look at the vote for second place.

In Grinnell's precinct, the most powerful in the state, achieving bare viability is worth 6 delegates to the county convention. The state Democratic party reports results in terms of delegate counts.

John Edwards and Hillary Clinton are in a neck-and-neck battle for second place in Iowa. Being able to say that one didn't finish third--or last among the top three--is immensely valuable, particularly for Hillary Clinton, who needs to minimize the cost of her loss in Iowa.

How close is that race? Well, at the present time, with 99 percent of precincts reporting, Clinton trails Edwards by 7 delegates.

Clinton was non-viable in Ward 1 here in Grinnell, a mild surprise.

Had Clinton been merely viable in Ward 1, she would have received 6 delegates.

Clinton fell short of viability by 29 voters.

If THIRTY additional Clinton supporters had showed up to caucus for her, she would be in a virtual tie for second with Edwards--and perhaps ahead, if a viable Clinton group here might have attracted more support from the Richardson camp.

Alternately, if the Richardson camp had given most of their support to Clinton instead of Biden, Clinton would be viable.

Why wasn't Clinton viable in the most powerful Democratic precinct in the state? Well, for one, she didn't campaign here. She didn't even campaign in Poweshiek County. Surely an energizing visit by the potential first female president could have drummed up 30 supporters.

Also, on the subject of Grinnell's influence, let's not forget that it was a Grinnell student, Muriel Gallo-Chasanoff '10, who sparked a damaging scandal for Clinton by telling the S&B that her question to Senator Clinton at an event in Newton was planted by the campaign. That furor resulted in a week of bad headlines for Clinton and coincided with a newly aggressive Barack Obama and John Edwards and a fumble by Clinton at a debate. If Gallo-Chasanoff had stayed home that day, don't you think that Clinton would have at least been in second place tonight, if not first?

Thirty votes. One question. Grinnell matters.

(Hat tip to Doug Cutchins, who first pointed this out to me tonight.)

Update

Almost everyone has gone. A few dozen people are gathered in the gym to conduct official business and ratify the delegates; another few dozen are in the cinema watching the network news.

UPDATE: Delegates and alternates have been approved without dissent.

Results called in

Don Smith is calling in the results to state headquarters.

Obama wins Iowa

The networks and the AP have called Iowa for Obama

With 1534 of 1781 precincts reporting, Obama has 36.84%, versus 30.15% for Edwards and 29.92% for Clinton.

UPDATE

Biden still has 6 delegates

Edwards now has 10, down from 11

Obama now has 21, up from 20.

Now, preference groups will select delegates to the county convention. The Obama group is in the cinema, choosing 21 delegates, etc. The county convention is Saturday, March 15. Groups can select alternates as well.

The county conventions select state convention delegates, which select national convention delegates. Each election a number of Grinnell students manage to be delegates to the national Democratic convention--often all you have to do is be persistent (or just volunteer).

Other wards

In Grinnell Ward 4 Democrats:

Obama 8 delegates

Edwards 7

Clinton 4

There were about 200 people there.

Grinnell Ward 1 GOP:

Huckabee 32.1%

McCain 14.2%

Paul: 7.1%

Romney: 26.2%

Thompson: 10.7%

Giuliani: 8.3%

Write-in: 1.2%

There were 85 people present.

Final results

121 for Edwards.

78 for Biden.

263 for Obama.

That adds up to a bit less than 484.

Statewide, 1212/1781 precincts reporting, Obama has 34.96%, Edwards 31.26%, Clinton 30.96%.

DELEGATES

Biden: 6 delegates.

Edwards: 11 delegates

Obama: 20 delegates.

UPDATE:

Representatives from each of the three groups are being called up to certify the delegate counts.

Notable support

Don Smith caucuses for Edwards in the first round.

Campus Democrats chair Alec Schierenbeck, previously neutral, has gone for Obama in the second.

Round 2 group preferences!

The Biden people announce that they are viable. Formal sorting will now occur.

Obama supporters being sent to the Cinema. Biden on the left of the gym, Edwards on the right.

UPDATE: The Edwards group is a bit larger than the Biden group. Results coming imminently.

UPDATE 2: Edwards group is counting.

GOP, Precinct 2

CNN calls Iowa for Huckabee

I'm told that Clinton isn't viable in the second precinct of Grinnell.

Biden Update

The Biden people, 15 minutes before the time out, have requested to count themselves to determine if they are viable--they clearly think they're doing well. They're going off to the Harris Cinema to get a good count. The Richardson sign just walked out with the Biden people--have they joined forces? 

UPDATE: There got the Dodd people, too. The smaller candidates seem to be aligning around Biden.

UPDATE 2: WOW. Big shock. There goes the Hillary sign off towards the Biden group in the cinema. Is Clinton done in ward 1?

UPDATE 3: The Clinton group may not be done--they may be getting their own count. It's unclear, some confusion.

UPDATE 4: Some clarification: There's three rough groups in the cinema, and they're "trying to make a deal." Clinton, Biden, and Dodd. Biden seems to be doing the best. The Dodd group, remember, intimated that they might support Biden if they weren't viable. 10 minutes left.

UPDATE 5: Obama and Edwards supporters are heading into the cinema to participate in the bargaining.

Errata

Smith explanation: "We have 37 delegates for the country convention ... Once we have every viable group, our 37 delegates are divided up proportionally among those groups."

Smith reminder: Observers are not permitted to participate in discussions. Observers affiliated with campaigns are allowed to advise their own group but not attempt to convert others.

Live updated statewide results

AP story: “Democrats Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama vied for victory Thursday night in the Iowa caucuses, while Mike Huckabee battled Mitt Romney among Republicans. John Edwards lagged in a survey of voters entering the caucuses by The Associated Press and the television networks.”

Update

Everyone is back in the same room following the first round. 

Biden 51, small applause. "So far, not viable."

Clinton 44, mixture of small applause and smatterings of disapproval and surprise.

Edwards 102, big applause, viable.

Grave, 1. "I think we need to respect every candidate," Smith said.

Obama, 240, huge applause. Viable.

There will now be half an hour for people to rearrange themselves.

Biden needs 22.

Clinton needs 29.

Vote Counts

240 Obama supporters-- just under half of the total attendees!

102 Edwards

51 Biden

26 Richardson
1 Gravel
13 Kucinich
No uncommitteds
44 Clinton
8 Dodd

484 total attendees, 485 in the sum of the groups. "I think that's pretty good for this number of people," said Smith.

Addendums

Each group has the responsibility to count their own supporters. 

Don Smith is leaving to join a preference group himself.

Visual metaphor?

Don Smith: It seems that "the Biden and Richardson groups are merging together. Can I get a clear separation between them?"

Update

There's a lot of Edwards supporters, too, though not close to the number of Obama supporters. None of the other candidates look like they've got the needed 73 people, though Clinton might be close.

UPDATE: There's also a fair number of Biden supporters, probably not quite viable. But with uncommitted and other candidate support, they may reach viability. 

UPDATE 2: The Biden people just sent up a cheer, they may be viable.

Caucus separation

Biden supporters are being sent to the Harris Cinema and told to sit in the center seats from the front.

Obama supporters are being sent to the Harris Cinema and told to sit in the center seats starting in the rear. The Obama supporters are moving and there's a LOT of them. Close to, if not more than, half. This could be over quickly, people. EDIT: The Obama people don't fit in the space alotted; the Biden people have been asked to come back into the gym.

Dodd people have been sent to the left side of the gym. There's a bare handful, maybe a dozen at most.

Richardson supporters are told to stay where they are and other people told to "get out of their way."

There are Kucinich supporters present--more than for Dodd. They've been sent into the back corner.

The Clinton supporters have been sent to the right side of the Cinema. 

Edwards supporters have been sent to the left side of the Cinema (a cheer from the Edwards people at being given the left), but told to wait for the Biden people to leave before they come in.

There's one Gravel supporter in the center of the room.

UPDATE: The "uncommitted" people, almost forgotten, have been told to assemble in front of the stage. There's not that many.

Caucus count

There are 484 people registered for this caucus. (Edited to reflect a late entrant)

Viability is 73 people.

Microphones are working again! a round of applause.

The separation into candidate groups has begun.

Doors Closed

The doors have been closed, and observers are being separated out from the caucus-goers.

Due to technical difficulties, the microphones are not working, and so Don Smith is shouting to be heard over the crowd.

Ward One Expectations

The Obama campaign is confident, they say they have 61 core student supporters and possibly more and are optimistic about their chances.

Matt Horowitz '10, an Edwards precinct captain, predicted a "close second" for Edwards in the ward but said that he was hopeful about Edwards winning.

A Clinton precinct captain said that she was confident that Hillary would be viable here.

The Biden, Dodd and Richardson groups are focused on achieving viability, which no one would predict with certainty. Sarah Adams, a Dodd precinct captain, said that if Dodd doesn't achieve viability they'll try to decide their second choice as a group and may work with the Biden supporters to choose a common candidate in later rounds.

Photos

Update

Don Smith, co-Chair of the County Democrats, has called the caucus to order in his role as temporary caucus chair. He has been nominated and confirmed by general acclamation as permanent chair. Elizabeth Dobbs was nominated and confirmed as permanent caucus secretary. There are hundreds of people in the room, and would seem to be at least two-thirds non-student. At 7 p.m. CT, the caucus will reconvene and break into candidate preference groups.

Precaucus Roundup

I'm here in the PEC fieldhouse, along with around 50 other students. We're eating pizza (provided by the Campus Dems) and chatting about the caucus.

Here are the big questions going into tonight's Ward 1 caucus:

1. Who will win the ward? It will almost certainly come down to either Obama or Edwards, with perhaps an edge to Obama at the moment. There are a lot of Obama buttons being flashed in the fieldhouse right now--but remember that members of the town will be caucusing too, so whoever wins the student vote won't necessarily win the ward, though it helps.

UPDATE: I got rough estimates from Obama and Edwards student organizers; the Edwards people say they have about 30 committed students, the Obama people said that they more than double that. Take those numbers with a grain of salt, but in terms of general trends, they would match up with casual observation. Again, remember that non-students will compose the majority of those present.

2. Will Hillary Clinton be viable? Given that she might win the state, it seems a little shocking to be asking this question about the most powerful Democratic ward in the state with 37 delegates (23 percent larger than the next-largest precinct), but it's a real question. Hillary never campaigned on campus, and hadn't shown up in the county before the end of the semester. Former President Bill Clinton did come and was generally well-received, but Clinton doesn't have a very strong local organization, and has very little (though enthusiastic) support on campus. It's a very real possibility that Clinton won't reach the 15 percent threshold in this ward.

3. Will anyone else be viable? Chris Dodd has his partisans, and came twice this semester to decent crowds, but he doesn't look to have a real shot at viability here. Bill Richardson and Joe Biden are more likely candidates to do well, but don't look for both of them to succeed in the ward. There's not enough votes to go around for two candidates with similar (foreign policy-based) niches. Joe Biden in particular impressed a lot of people with his appearance earlier this semester and would seem to be the best bet for a second-tier candidate to reach viability. A lot could depend on what deals are being cut between campaigns; both Biden and Richardson are reported (and denied) to have arrangements with Obama to receive help getting viable in exchange for sending their non-viable supporters Obama's way.

I'm going over to the Harris Center, where the caucus will be held, right now. I will update more as time goes on. If you have any questions, post them in the comments.

-DM

Campaigning at Grinnell: A Recap

Here is a list of the events, by campaign, that were held on campus and in the town of Grinnell this semester. (Note that a number of candidates visited the town of Grinnell or the college over the summer when most students were not present; those events are not included.) Individuals or events marked with an asterisk occurred on campus, while candidate visits are italicized.

We've tried to be as thorough as possible, but we may have missed someone. If you know of an event this semester that we missed, leave a comment and we'll add it.

EDIT: I've scoured the web for video of these events and linked to them where video exists. In most cases, video only exists in small excerpts or in poor quality, but it's what we've got. If you know of video of campaign visits to Grinnell that we don't have listed here, give a link in the comments.

Democrats

Biden
*Senator Joe Biden (12/3)

Clinton
Former DNC Chair Terence McAuliffe (8/30)
Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright (9/14) (newly added)

*Former Ambassador Joe Wilson (10/15)
*Former President Bill Clinton (12/10, three excerpts: out-of-state student caucusing, Sen. Clinton's role in health care, Sen. Clinton's early career)
Former Ambassador Richard Holbrooke (12/20)

Dodd
Senator Chris Dodd (10/6, *12/13)
Rep. Anna Eshoo (11/18)

Edwards
*Cate Edwards (daughter of John), James Denton (from "Desperate Housewives") (9/29)
Elizabeth Edwards (11/3)
*Bonnie Raitt and Jackson Browne (11/20)
Former Senator John Edwards (*11/20, 12/12, the video is a montage)
Actor Tim Robbins (12/12)

Obama
*Former South Carolina State Supt. of Education Inez Tenenbaum (8/30)
*Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes (10/17)
*Senator Barack Obama (12/4, an amateur video, see also part two)
Prof. Cornell West (12/13)
Michelle Obama (12/31)

Richardson
New Mexico Secretary of Education Veronica Garcia (12/1)
*New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson (11/5)

Republicans

Brownback
Senator Sam Brownback (9/15)

Huckabee

Governor Mike Huckabee (1/3/08)

McCain
Senator John McCain (10/10, also parts two, three, four)

S&B Coverage of the Jan. 3 Caucuses

Many students are planning to return to Grinnell to participate in the hugely important 2008 Iowa Caucus on Jan. 3. However, many others would like to return but can't, due to the distance and time commitment or other priorities like work or family. 

For these students, their families  and anyone else who is interested in the caucus process but can't be there, be sure to come to the S&Blog on the evening of Jan. 3. I'm going to be at the caucus in Grinnell's precinct as a reporter, working on stories for a special web-only edition of the S&B at our website.

During that evening, however, I'm going to be posting on this blog a live play-by-play of the evening's events. I'll be posting about what is said in the speeches, how many people show up, which candidates they support, and, above all, the results. As soon as each round of the caucus is complete, I'll post the results, so that you can track the caucus's progress throughout the evening. Or just check in at the end of the night to get the final result.

I'll also be posting pictures and video (which I'll be taking with a camera provided the S&B in partnership with the Des Moines Register and YouTube) throughout the evening.

Before and after the caucus, I'll try to also fill this blog with caucus-relevant material. Finally, a day or two after the caucus, be sure to visit our website for our web-only caucus edition with interviews, analysis, reaction and behind-the-scenes information.

-David H. Montgomery

co-Editor-in-Chief

The Scarlet & Black