September 20, 1974
Hugh Stohler Interview
by David F. Dickinson
Hugh Stohler comes to
Guilford College for the first
time this fall as the new
Director of Student Affairs.
Because Hugh is a new face to
this campus and because the
duties of his office will require
him to come into contact with
a prodigious number of
Guilford students, the Guil
fordian feels that a personal
interview would be the best
way for the paper to introduce
him to the campus.
This interview transpired on
Monday afternoon in Hugh's
office in Bryan Hall. During
the interview, which lasted
much longer than I had
initially planned, I came to
feel that here was an
administrator who was geni
unely interested in the
students and their ideas. The
single overwhelming image
that I received was that Hugh
Stohler is a person rather than
a position. It is feasible that
Hugh and administrators like
him could be the beginning of
a bridge of understanding
across the chasm that
presently exists between most
administrators and students.
At the beginning of the
interview, 1 asked Hugh to
relate what he did before he
came to Guilford and to
explain why he decided to
come here.
Hugh explained that before
coming to Guilford, he spent
four years in various admini
strative posts at the University
of North Carolina at Chapel
Hill, the last of these positions
being that of Coordinator of
Residence Hall Programs.
Prior to the position of
Coordinator, he served as
director of the campus YMCA
and as a Methodist campus
minister.
Before moving to Chapel
Hill, Hugh spent four years as
administrator at the Univer
sity of Chattanooga.
Hugh stated his reasons for
coming to Guilford as
centering around a desire to
be on a small campus where
he would have more direct and
intimate contact with a larger
number of students. He feels
that his position at Chapel
Hill, due to the size of the
University, locked him into the
impersional mold of the
faceless administrator.
Being a native of Johnson
City, Tennessee, Hugh also
wanted to remain somewhere
in the Southeastern United
States. He drew up a list of
several schools in this region
that seemed tailored to his
desires and Guilford was one •
of these. After sending a
resume to Guilford last fall.
Hugh heard no more from us
until last spring when quite to
his surprise, Ken Schwab
called to invite him over and
discuss taking a position here.
By that point, he had decided
to stay in Chapel Hill but after
coming to Guilford and
meeting several of the faculty
and administrators, he decid
ed that this was the place to
be.
Upon being asked to
describe how he perceived his
role as Director of Student
Affairs, Hugh emphasized
that he saw his role as being
one of human development.
He feels that it is just as
important to the growth of a
student to have his social and
political potential developed
through various student or
ganizations as it is to develop
the intellect in the classroom.
Hugh approached this task,
he says, by being both
professional and intimate at
the same time. I took this to
mean that while he desires to
be close to students, he wishes
to retain his professional
identity to a degree that would
prohibit him from "partying"
with students. Therefore, he
might be best described as a
friend but not a consort.
At this point in the
interview, I determined to test
Hugh's true mettle by asking
him for his opinion on the
rather controversial issue of
regulations for dorm visitat
ion. He responded by saying
that whereas he supported
"liberal" visitation policies
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The Guilfordian
(what we have now is deemea
liberal), he could not advocate
a policy of 24 hour "open"
visitation. He proceeded to
explain to my satisfaction his
reasons for this. I cannot
relate them here because he
desired for that part of the
conversation to remain "off
the record". He did state
however that he couljd
envision further liberalization
of visitation, though not to the
24 hour system.
Tied in with the question of
visitation was my question of
how far he felt administrators
should be willing to go to
accomodate student desires.
Hugh gave the response that
he did not feel that
administrators should "go
along" with all student
demands. He feels that it is
pretentious of administrators
to pretend to be nothing more
than "super-students". At the
same time, he does not feel
that an administrator is
performing his duties properly
if he ignores student demands
and assumes a close-minded
dictatorial stance.
I ended the interview by
asking Hugh to explain to me
the nature of his world view,
the manner in which he
perceived the correct moral,
political and social orders. His
answer was simply that he was
a "democrat". He believes in
the rights of all men and
women. He says that his
philosophies border on Socia
lism and are tempered with
the concept of Christian
self-understanding.
I believe the man is for real.
| Quit n0w.,..
''- I v
1974-75
arts series
mm. #*
Hugh Stohler, Director of Student Affairs, hassles with Shirley
Verrett's manager over hotel accomodations during interview.
photo by Gearhart
Conciousness Cont. from P. 2
questioning of our identity,
feelings, and roles as women.
Through our group effort,
we created an environment
where we could talk freely and
honestly, and work out
problems together.
In the beginning, we talked
about how we felt as women.
What it's like growing up
female and how it effects our
relationships with others.
From this broad basis, we
branched out into particular
areas of discussion, such as
competition, discrimination,
and sexuality. The purpose of
this self-analysis was to find
out what we wanted to change
and how to go about it.
1 o me the whole experience
of conciousness raising is
overwhelming. Through my
experience with the group and
the areas we covered, 1 have
Page 3
found a sense of pride and
support among women that I
didn't know was there.
Personally, I've found
strength, courage, and love
that I never thought I had. I
find the group a useful,
integral part of my life.
Women interested in join
ing or forming there own
consciousness group should
do so. There is no reason to be
afraid to explore your own
feelings, or to discuss them
with others. Only through
constant questioning and
review, can we ever discover
our own individual potential.
Women interested in partici
pating in consciousness rais
ing should contact Paula
Swonguar in the counseling
department or Vickie Spiers in
the Woman's Center in Cox.