Newspapers / The Guilfordian (Greensboro, N.C.) / Sept. 27, 1977, edition 1 / Page 3
Part of The Guilfordian (Greensboro, N.C.) / About this page
This page has errors
The date, title, or page description is wrong
This page has harmful content
This page contains sensitive or offensive material
September 27,1977 A Letter From London! Greetings from London Town! After a summer filled with anticipation, the day to leave for London finally came. Despite a long delay at the airport along with a severe case of jet-lag, we arrived in London filled with excite ment. Our home away from the dorms is the Hotel Vienna in northwest London. Life here is quite comfortable with large rooms, maids, a lounge, a dining room, and big bathtubs. There are no showers. The first week here was designated to acquainting ourselves with this large city. We took off in groups of twos and threes and spent long days exploring the work ings of the underground, the buses, visiting tourist attrac tions (the Tower, Westminster Abbey, etc.) and generally getting a feel for our new environment. Each day is ended with everyone getting together at the corner pub to discuss the day's adventures. The group (there are 30 of us) has been getting along extremely well. We have met with Dr. Parker on a number of occasions to discuss any problems that have arisen. All in all, everyone is co operating with everyone else and it looks like we have a good semester ahead of us. Along with all of the good times, however, we have been encountering a few minor problems. We are, for example, on our own to find meals and have found it difficult locating good but inexpensive restaurants. Crossing the street is another activity that takes a little bit of practice. The traffic, you understand is driving on the left hand side of the street. Those of us in London hope to be corresponding with you periodically throughout the semester. We've been so busy that it's been hard finding time to write. Hope fully though, we can give everyone a feeling of how things are going here. Watch for our letters in future issues of the Gui/fordian. The Guilford College London campus hopes y'all have a good semester. Until then we remain Sincerely yours, Jeff Dale Kenneth Dix Tom Gluck Glenn Larson Column I am not writing my column this week. I've got three tests to study for; I've only slept for three hours in as many days; and I'm afraid that I have a social disease. To make the bad seem worse, I have a hearing with the Judicial Board for not serving a non-alcoholic beverage at a party I "co-sponsored" last week in Bryan. (My innocence in the matter seems unquestionable to me. After all, we had tonic water.) To add salt to my wound, Pammy Jo tells me she is running for SAC, what she thinks stands for Society of Athletic Chasers. I know that she is an athletic supporter, but why she wants to be a Milner social worker, I'll never know. Unless she wants to punish me for telling her how much I was fascinated last weekend by Minnie Pearl at the Grand Ole Opryhouse. But then again, maybe living in Binford has just gone to Pammy Jo's head. Last Friday, I hitch-hiked to Fayetteville to catch the arousing sounds of Dolly Parton, which would have been fine had I been able to get a ticket. But since I wasn't, I drank a few Pabsts at a local bar, which would have been okay if I hadn't gotten sick. But since I did, I went outside for a breath of F'etteville air, which would have been okay if I hadn't been accosted by a six-foot-three street-walker. As if I were sowing my wild Quaker oats! (That might be where I encountered the social disease.) My bad luck did not end there. After being dragged to Madame Gladene's Pinball Parlor, as luck would have it, I passed out and was unable to score an extra play. What happened after that I'll never know, or never mention. Bertie Lou tells me that the liveliest rumor around is that Eartha Earp, a transfer student from Miss Barbara's School of Beauty, wants to start a Campus Association of Vestal Virgins. That's an arousing piece of club news! Well, like I said, I don't really have the time or energy to write a few words that would be appropriate for a tasteful column like this one. Perhaps next week. Until the stars in the sky prove otherwise, Big Col • P.S. There is no post script this week. Do you really know what kind of school you want to attend? Everyone at this school chose Guilford because it seemed to be the kind of place s/he wanted to be. For a school of its size, Guilford attempts to provide its students with a tremendous range of opportunities to voice an opinion about college life, have a say in school policies, organize and participate in activities, and generally be effective and influential parts of this campus. We are all well aware of these advant ages of a small school. But we forget that inextric ably bound together with these advantages is a respons ibility. One can get swept up in the crowd at a larger school. But here at Guilford, each person is a larger part of the total population; each person to a larger extent determines what this school The Guiltordian Look at What You're Doing for Guilford is. What you get involved in matters. And when you chose Guilford as where you wanted to be, you put yourself in a position to decide what you wanted it to be both now and in the future. Take a look at what you are doing for this campus. Are you involved in the things that are important to you? How long do you expect "other people" to keep alive those fine advantages to this school? The most import ant student committee on campus, SAC, got only three nominees and had to extend the deadline. There were no elections at all for Day Senators, because just barely enough people ran to fill the positions. Union Committees have lists of "interested" students who have never shown up at a meeting. The apathy on this campus is a vote in favor of doing away with student involvement. If we are to see an end to A Part of Being Human Guilford being such a small community where each student is at least familiar with the rest of the student body and faculty are in general friendly, helpful, and easily accessible, everyone can feel comfortable here. As a newcomer to the neighbor hood, I have found it very easy to become involved, there is ample opportunity for each student and faculty member to contribute their unique talents for the benefit of others, not to mention their own edifica tion. This is as it should be, for active involvement in the community is an important element of the Quaker tradition. However, just as in any small group of people, there is a tendency to isolate our selves from the outside world. Set apart from the city and surrounded by beauty, I doubt that Guilford's student body is well infomed about the day-to-day activities of the larger community of which we are a part. A student could easily be learning all s/he needs to know for contented existence without ever picking up a newspaper, listening to the news, or venturing beyond our brick gates. Shouldn't our sense of community stretch further than that? Student Government, student faculty committees, activities such as dances, etc, all we need do is continue like this. In contrast to the beliefs stated by Good and Bailey last week, I have a lot of admiration for the student leaders here. For the most part they take their jobs seriously and do them well. But the presidents of organi zations, chairmen of commit tees, and editors of publicaitons did not take the jobs in anticipation of doing all the work themselves. Instead of seeing these same few people extend themselves into so many different areas, as we have in the past, we have to see them get the support of the community. It will be said that concen trating on being a good student is a large contribution in itself, and of course it is. But Guilford attempts to be Page Three It seems that much could be done to increase our level of awareness and involve ment. The Art Series, films, and other events could be extensively advertised so that Guilfordians and Greens burgers have the opportunity to mingle and share ideas. (Dave Owens valiantly attempts to provide coverage of activities at Guilford for the city newspapers, but obviously this is not enough.) The Quaker Meeting could actively welcome people from outside the college to participate in worship. Club activities, so beneficial to the Guilford community, could be widened to include residents of Greens boro, and also to provide services to the city. Teachers could put more emphasis on awareness of current city and world events. And the Guilfordian could highlight more pertinent local news. It goes without saying that most of us will not be spending the rest of our lives as members of a small, ideologically isolated commun ity. Part of being human in the twentieth century is learning to become an active participant in a world a little larger and not quite as blissful as Guilford College. M.J.C. more than just an academic environment. College is an excellent place to branch out a little bit. Try something you wouldn't ordinarily do. Find out how much really goes on beyond what the general public thinks. See what it's like to be in charge of some thing, how good you are at holding your own meetings. And see what it's like to work creatively under someone else's authority. Everything you don't take part in stands a chance of ending. If everybody chose carefully what s/he wanted to see done, then it could be. But if we continue in favor of apathy, whatever changes come our way, we're stuck with. Ask yourself this question: Am I going to be satisfied to graduate from a school with the kind of reputation I am giving it? B.G.P.
The Guilfordian (Greensboro, N.C.)
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
Sept. 27, 1977, edition 1
3
Click "Submit" to request a review of this page. NCDHC staff will check .
0 / 75