In Defense of Artistic Drive and the 1988 Quaker II
Andrew M. Stuart
Guest Writer
"On time and under budget"—those were
the words which the wife of Guilford's
president used to describe the 1990 Quaker
when she spoke to me at a recent Guilford
football game. And those words pretty
much sum up what most people strive for
at Guilford College. Like most of the
people of fifteenth-century Europe,
Guilford is convinced that the world is flat,
and they are scared to death to venture
toward the edge.
It is extremely ironic to me that Peter
Smith was the individual who wrote the
article, "Lessons to be learned from the
1988 Quaker?" You see, Peter and I both
attended the same high school in Nash
ville, TN—Montgomery Bell Academy.
M.B.A.—is the one upon which the film
Dead Poets Society was based. One of
Peter'sand my fellow alumni from M.B.A.
won the Academy Award for Best Origi
nal Screenplay for that film earlier this
year. At M.8.A., we had a short, but to the
point, motto. Our ultimate goal, one which
we took very seriously, was to strive to be,
and hopefully, become "Gentlemen, Schol
ars, Athletes." Although some of the
physical aspects of that film—the archi
tcctureof building exteriors and some other
visual features—strayed a bit into the realm
of Hollywood, the important part of the
film, the spirit of the film—the incredibly
intense English classes; the commradery
between the men of the school; the drive to
learn and learn, to be the best; to compose
stories and poems and then to recite them
from memory before one's classmates; to
perform first-rate productions in the thea
ter before the entire intellectual and sup
portive community: parents, fellow stu
dents and the student's from M.B.A.'s
Editor-in-Chief Jacob Stohler
Managing Editor Peter Smith
News Editor Courtney Roberts
Features Editor Lara Ramsey
Editorials Editor Lisa Pope
Sports Editor Butch Maier
Photo Editor Charles Almy
Layout Editor Bruce James
Copy Editor Suzanne Moore
Business Manager Erskine James
Advertising Director Lesley Funk
Faculty Advisor Jeff Jeske
The Guilfordian is the student newspaper of Guilford College, Greensboro, N.C.
Submitted articles are welcome. Opinions expressed in editorials and letters to the
editor do not necessarily reflect the views of the staff and editorial board. The
editors reserve the editorial licence to The Guilfordian staff. Please address all
mail to: The Guilfordian, Box 17717, Greensboro, NC 27410.
THE GUILFORDIAN October 1, 1990
2
sister school Harpeth Hall; to compete
against one's mates in scrimmages and
intramurals and against rival schools in
varsity athletics in all sports —I can go on
and on —the SPIRIT of that film was real;
it exists; but unfortunately, not atGuilford
College. I had six unbelievably challeng
ing years from seventh to twelfth grade in
that environment. Yes, it was tense; it was
stressful; the teachers and coaches pushed
us to the breaking point and then dared us
to go further. Yes, it was rough; but it felt
damned good to be on the edge, to know
that you as an individual, your mates, and
your school were way out there, extended
further than you had to be just to get by.
Peter Smith has obviously and unfortu
nately lost that sensation and has suc
cumbed to the status quo policy, the medi
ocrity of Guilford College.
"On time and under budget" is all
Guilford is and all it will ever be with its
current upper-level administration.
Guilford is a school in a swamp with an
anchor, wallowing and drowning, gasping
for air, but always inking further into its
self-constructed, self-perpetuating quag
mire. Maybe yearbooks do not deserve or
warrant any serious discussion—as Smith
says, "I don't think many students are
going to lose sleep over a college year
book..." He says instead that students "...
should be losing sleep over their academic
studies." I covered every square inch of
Guilford's 300 acres during my journal
ism career from 1984-1988, and what I
found was that there were, indeed, a lot, a
substantial number, a great percentage of
Guilford students losing sleep; but believe
me—l have seen everything imaginable—
it certainly was not because of their "...
academic studies (or for the) pondering
(of) past problems in history..." I photo
graphed and wrote about over what
THE GUILFORDIAN
PERSPECTIVES
Guilford students were not losing sleep;
and if you look at page 367 of the 1988
Quaker, you can see what the Guilford
admissions and public relations offices,
administrators, and supposedly, students'
parents thought about it.
So, it is with great certainty that I make
the supposition—verified by Mrs. Rogers'
statement to me —that Guilford is tremen
dously pleased with itself that it received
the non-thoughtprovoking, mediocre piece
of mental masturbation which is the 1990
Quaker —(although I must add that the
1989 Quaker is a considerably more pre
cise representation of the Guilford com
munity's drive for excellence). I am quite
hilariously amused that Peter Smith has
gotten his "reality check" which "has
enabled him to get on with (his) life"—if
yearbooks are not worth losing sleep over,
then why did it take a yearbook for Peter to
"get on with his life?" Why is he glad to
have his "reality check?" Because it al
lows him, and many others, to use the 1990
Quaker as a standard for Guilford College
publications. The 1988 Quaker will soon
be a distant flicker in Guilford's history,
no longer being a standard which Guilford's
students could use to strive toward; in
stead, everyone can revert back to the high
standards of quality set by the 1984, 1987
and now the 1990 Quakers: seminal stan
dards in mediocrity.
Certainly, Peter Smith feels safe now,
having had his "reality check." Guilford
lets students like Smith go from an envi
ronment like that portrayed in Dead Poets
Society whose tenets such as Carpe Diem
appeared all over Guilford's publications
during the 1989-1990 school year—to that
Union Disappointed with Budget
Bill Stoesen
Guest Writer
Does the Ricks administration want to
be a champion of students' rights or the
Saddam Hussein of Guilford College?
Some feel that it is thwarting Union's
efforts. Currently, Union and Senate offi
cials are at odds: now that the budget
report is out, Union wants more money. In
order for the officers of Union to carry out
their campaign promises, they must have
the amount of money they thought had
been promised them. Neither side has
documentation of the promise. Here is
what happened:
According to Union's constitution, a
finance committee (instead of the Senate
budget committee) is to decide what per
centage of the student activities fees (S AF)
Union receives. That decision must then
be approved by Senate. Such a finance
meeting was held last year after the elec
of the typical Guilford student: an alco
holic who plays sexual musical chairs, or
should I say leap frog? Believe me, Peter,
you haven't a clue to what Carpe Diem
means.
What about the 1988 Quaker's coverage
of Guilford's sesquicentennial; the ex
haustive coverage of all Guilford sports;
the 100+ page photographic section show
ing practically all of Guilford's student
body during 1987-88; the coverage of
nearly every one of Guilford's clubs and
organizations; the coverage of all of the
semester abroad programs; the coverage
of Serendipity; the representation of all
seniors who wanted to be included in the
book along with their personal thoughts;
the coverage of homecoming, plays, fac
ulty, dorms, coffeehoues, and many other
special events. Never have I seen a year
book with more complete coverage of all
aspects of Guilford College. But who
cares, because when I made this book I
was, as Peter says "misguided... confused...
(and) blind." But Peter's most important
point is the one which I want to emphasize;
the fact that: "It is indeed sad to see
someone so out of touch with reality."
Peter, when you publish your Nobel Prize
winning treatise on "What Reality Is," I
would certainly like to read it.
You may ask how it was possible for me,
"someone so out of touch with reality," to
be appointed to the position of Editor-in-
Chief of the most difficult and time-con
suming of the three student publications.
The answer is fairly simple: I was the only
applicant. You may ask why I was given,
see DEFENSE II on page 6 >■
lions for Senate and Union officers. The
four Union-elect officers, another Union
representative, two then Union officers,
the president and treasurer-elect of Senate,
and the then Senate treasurer attended.
The Union-elect officers left the meeting
believing a recommendation would be
made to Senate that 31 percent of the SAF
should go to Union. However, a recom-
see UNION on page 3 >-
From the Editor:
The Guilfordian will produce six
more issues this semester for release
on the following dates: Oct. 7, Oct.
14, Nov. 11, Nov. 18, Dec. 2 and
Dec. 9.
Our staff meetings are Sunday
nights at 9 p.m. in the Passion Pit for
all interested students.