PAGE 2
The Dean's List
It now takes a quality point of 2.5 to qualify a student
for the dean's list. Last year the standard was 2.0, but the
dean announced to the faculty that two hundred and forty
one on a dean's list was much too high a number.
Supporting faculty members pointed out that the honor
would mean more if a quarter of the students didn't
receive it.
We have no objection to this change. In fact, we don't
really place that much importance on a list that is only
tacked onto a bulletin board in Archdale Hall or published
in some small hometown newspaper. And most of the
faculty didn't worry that much about the matter. Afterall,
they have more important things to worry about.
One of the important things faculty have to worry
about is giving grades. And those grades need to be an
evaluation of the college as well as the individual student.
The faculty must realize that. Why else wouldn't they be
concerned about a dean's list that includes a fourth of the
campus?
But no matter where you draw the line for dean's list, it
16 still a fact that twenty-five percent of the students at
Guilford have better than a "F" average. That says one of
two things about the college. Either Guilford has
exceptional students or Guilford has exceptionally low
grading standards.
It seems ironic that the one group on campus who is
most vocally concerned about improving the academic
atmosphere of the campus is also the one group who has
more power to work for this change than any other input
into the college system simply because it is their collective
judgment which determines who shall remain a member of
the college community and who shall not.
A fair raising of the grading standards can only be
achieved if all faculty members are willing to raise their
standards cooperatively. An upgrading of the grading
system can not be accomplished as painlessly as a swtich in
the dean's list cut off point. Possibly, that's why the
faculty can concern themselves with dean's list standards
and still not admit that they are contributing to the
devaluation of our academic atmosphere.
There are those who question the legitimacy of giving
grades at all. We readily admit that it would be ideal to
have a community in which there is such a degree of
academic dependability that a higher standard than grades
is used to measure the difference between expectations
and achievements. We hope that the faculty will seriously
reconsider the grading habits of the faculty as a whole so
that Guilford might be able to command such a degree of
trust in the standards of the institution.
"Self-discipline isn't staying up all night to finish a term
paper; that's slave work. Self discipline is revising one
paragraph fanatically fo. weeks—for no other reason than
that you yourself aren't happy with it.. . Self discipline is
nothing more than a certain way of pleasing yourself, and
it is the last thing anyone is likely to learn for a grade. "
Jerry Farber
The Guilfor6icm
r ww
Printed by the students of Guilford College weekly except
for examination periods and vacations.
The office is Cox Old North. Telephone 292-8709. Address
Guilford College, Greensboro, N.C. 27410. Subscription
Rates $4.00 per year; $2.50 per semester.
Jeanette Ebel Editor-in-Chief
Paul Bryant Business Manager
Tori Potts .. Associate
Douglas Scott Managing
Phil Edgerton Contributing
Jim Willson and Jerry Clawges Photography
Jim Shields Sports
Clare Glore Advertsing
Kelley Dempster Cartoonist
General Staff: Carla McKinney, Doug Scott, Ed Diaz, Lucette
Sharkey, Terry Wyszynski, Susan Hardee, Jeannie Campbell
Tony Cottle, Judy Harvey, Sara Wills, Kyd Brenner, David
Musser, Dave Rhees, Danny Beard, Sue Scheider, Linda
Jackson.
IUUJIUUIIHAN
( I 1/
irir\iP..
Boycott
Christmas
Dear Friends,
We see as hypocrisy the
extravagant celebration of
Christmas when there is no
peace on earth. So our group
feels it is time for a Christmas
boycott. We are not going to
buy presents this year, nor are
we going to receive them. We
will do without decorations, and
may be fasting on Christmas day
instead of feasting.
Instead of spending, we will
work for peace on earth by
giving our money to help make
amends for the suffering we have
caused—such as by financially
adopting a Vietnamese child,
and by giving our time to stop
the war. We are calling for
people to put peace back in
Christmas-what better way to
observe the birth of Christ than
to bring an end to the war this
year?
We are counting on college
groups to do most of the local
work. Here are some possible
approaches for organizing the
boycott:
1. Contact local clergy—many
should be receptive to taking
commercialism out of Christmas
and putting peace back in.
2. Organize picket lines at
department stores and shopping
centers.
3. Do guerilla theater on the
sidewalk in front of large stores.
Dramatize the horrors of war or
the contradictions in the think
ing of the military.
4. Leaflet at high schools,
train stations, churches and
shopping centers.
5. Urge fellow students not to
go home for vacation unless
their parents agree to participate
in the boycott.
We would welcome any
criticisms and suggestions read
ers might have of this proposal.
Westport Citizens for Peace
P. 0. Box 207
Saugatuck Station
Westport, Conn. 06880
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HL&HOFTY COFIULSSTOAJ AAE HAMK>6> PRODFTSSS O/W
AOAO UE BU/UJ. YES SIR 6Y IQSO UJE'LL
HAVE RUE MOST COMPLETE VERUOAK OF AOAOS HOTH£
( COUFOTAY AS SHOUW EY -RUTS HUP. WE ROADS HA* >
V OESI(,FOATEO RUE GMC* UIOE-S.
Politics of the Private College
by Jeanette Ebel
The discrepency between the
"conditions of society and the
scholarly world" and the paroch
ial pressures exerted on a private
college constitutes a danger to
the future of the private college,
according to W. Max Wise,
author of The Politics of the
Private College: An Inquiry Into
the Processes of Collegiate Gov
ernment.
In this short brief report of a
study of six small colleges, Wise
asserts that the conservative
nature imposed upon colleges by
their dependency on community
financial support prohibits them
from taking a realistic world
view. Members of the college
community do not understand
the reality of the colleges' situa
tion because presidents' reports
are designed to assist in fund
raising and seldom reflect the
true nature of the college.
The lines of authority in
college governance from stu
dents to faculty to administra
tors are such that the power of
veto is stronger than the power
of change. And since presidents
are generally more concerned
with maintaining public image
than with directing the in
novation that naturally occurs in
a scholastic setting, the ad
ministration of a college falls
into a haphazard pattern of
image creating and maintaining
ST/ie s£uman Rendition
by Douglas Scott
"Two point five is only point five larger than two point
zero?"
There's no tool like numbers
to confuse people. Think of
registration. Remember? Do you
perhaps, recall that feeling that
appears when you're about three
quarters done? That invigorat
ing, refreshing sensation that
rolled over you when it looks
like you'll get exactly the
courses and sections you want in
less than six hours in line? And
how quickly it all disappeared
when someone in authority, at
once, asked for your social
security, student ID and drivers
license numbers? Ah numbers!
At least they affect me that way.
Now if you want to mystify
people, really confuse people, or
even lie to them, then the
process that you're using is
called statistics. There are entire
scholarly works on the topic
(How to Lie with Statistics) and
every school has a statistics
course or eleven.
OCTOBER 16.1970
functions while the needs of
faculty and students are often
given secondary importance.
Wise reported that often the
faculty members involved in his
study said they felt as if they
should protect scholarship from
the administration's other in
terests. Because the faculty has
so little information on the
institutions condition, the only
power the faculty has in gov
ernance is that of veto. They can
strongly object to some ad
ministrative action although
they may not have as much
information concerning the mat
ter as does the administration.
The only thing that can break
the collegiate "cycle of distrust"
is, according to Wise, a revision
of the role of the college
president. A president must be
reponsible not only to the board
of trustees but also to the
members of the college com
munity. Although he is em
ployed by the board, a president
cannot administer a college
where he is unknown or dis
trusted.
Wise suggests that rather than
be the pivot point for the break
between financial and scholastic
interests, the president can use
the powers of his office to
influence in two directions. He
can emphasize the value of the
continued on page 8
We have just been taught a
course in statistics by our
faculty. Students, you've been
BAD!! Fully one quarter of you
made Dean's List last semester,
the list being compiled of you
who had a 2.0 average. And
that's too many. If so many of
you hadn't worked so hard we
wouldn't have this particular
problem. But since you did,
we're demoting most of you
back to being dumbheads. A 2.5
is what you need from now on.
That's right, Honours List level
work.
Nothing like inflation in the
academic world. Our dollar, the
grading system, has been de
valuated by teachers throwing
grades around, and we, like
President Nixon's good tax
payer, have to pay for it. Is that
really a reasonable academic
improvement people? Faculty,
what do you think?