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Environmental Concern: Recycling at Guilford
Chris Ward
Staff Writer
The environmental policy at Guilford
does not seem to be living up to its billing.
As a supposed "liberal" college, one might
think that Guilford would be on the fore
front of recycling and environmental con
cerns. Yet, recycling bins are nowhere to
be found, and styrofoam cups are used at
school functions. Is the school not willing
to spend a few extra dollars to make a
recycling center on campus and to encour
age good environmental practices? Since
the manufacturing process for styrofoam
is extremely dirty and since styrofoam
doesn't disintegrate, the college should
not use it. The Guilford community seems
very concerned about the possibility of a
road being built on campus, yet the ad
ministration (and others?) give little or no
consideration to relatively simple ways of
improving our environment.
If there are plans for recycling atGuilford,
people are either against the idea or take an
extraordinary amount of time to put the
plans into action. Meanwhile, the planet is
drowning in garbage, and we as a commu
nity could be doing something about it!
Important paragraph omitted
To the Editor:
The Guilfordian seems to think that it can express our
views better than we can.
The Guilfordian failed to include the following excerpt
from the original manuscript of an editorial I submitted for its
October 1 issue.
. .This is only the tip of the iceberg that is to come. Clearly
it barely touches the relevance of the issue. The dialogue that
will follow will show whether or not we want to be here. The
attrition rate here is unacceptable. And one of the best ways
to ensure that our peers remain is through a truly strong
Union. Certainly the Ricks administration wants to keep
people here too. (But not in the manner that Hussein wants
to keep people in Kuwait!) It has demonstrated that it wants
you here. The recent forum regarding the drug policy was an
example of its commitment to listen to our voice. It wants to
take the time to listen. Talk with your senators and urge them
to study the ramifications of being responsible for Union..."
Failure to include this passage altered the overall tone of
my editorial.
The headline for the piece implied that I spoke for Union.
I did not. I am only a concerned (student activity fees paying)
member of the community who has an interest in how Union
fulfills its purpose. I was vice-president of Union from the
fall of 1988 to the spring of 1990.
The first line of my editorial was an attention getter and a
mistake for which I apologize. I would never intentionally
infuriate Senate, the people who can help this cause.
Bill Stoesen
Thanks to volunteers
To the Editor:
I would like to thank the students, faculty, and staff that
The challenge to the students and faculty is
simple: get up and make the environment
a personal priority, if it is not already.
Someone is holding up the plans here, and
the status quo of inactivity remains.
A good plan of action should include
recycling bins that are located in each
residence hall, the number of which de
pending on the size of that particular resi
dence hall. If the administration was will
ing to spend the small amount of money
necessary to start a concerted recycling
program on campus, many tons of garbage
could be saved throughout the year.
If the school is unwilling to start a recy
cling program, the burden must fall on the
students. Many people are more than
willing to help in aprogram, and only a few
hours a week would be needed to collect all
the aluminum cans, newspapers, and plas
tic containers that students use. Although
there are some individual recycling pro
grams on campus now, a school-wide
program would be mosteffective to collect
student debris.
School has been in session for well over
a month, and I, like many other students,
have a collection of aluminum cans and
newspaper in my room. If a recycling plan
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
helped with the recent petition to save Lake Jeanette from
development. When the Guilford County Greens started the
petition drive, we had but two weeks to get 8,000 valid signa
tures. We thought we had virtually no chance of succeeding, but
we felt the people of Greensboro should have the opportunity to
say whether or not they wan ted to protect their drinking water for
generations to come. With the help of many on this campus, we
were able to obtain nearly 11,000 signatures. The people have
spoken, although it remains to be seen whether the city govern
ment will listen.
Three of the 10 key values of the Greens are grassroots
democracy, personal responsibility for society's welfare, and
future focus. Those who volunteered their time and energy have
shown that these values are alive and well on this campus.
David Barnhill
Column lacks depth
To the Editor:
I object to Phillip B. Smith's "On Golden Pond" piece in last
week's "Guilford Life" section. Who cares? So what if Smith
wastes a nice sunny day with his repeat mode CD player
wallowing in self-pity? If you miss your sister so much, Smith,
why don't you call her? Oh, I forgot, the "While she's so busy
being free..." isn't about her being free, it's about you. Instead
of calling, however, your response is "But I stop... I do not call.
I am afraid..." What kind of sentimental over self-indulgence is
this? And more to the point, what kind of disjunctive writing
style is this? Is this supposed to be some sort of avant-garde
stream of consciousness, or are you just unable to write complete
sentences? In short, Smith, I think your disjunctive writing style
reflects your disjunctive thinking and self-centeredness. I can
almost hear the Miami Vice soundtrack glossing over your
trendy moodiness. It's not deep, Smith, it's juvenile. But what
troubles me more than Smith's failure to be profound is that the
student community sees nothing wrong with it. Let's take a big
step back and look at this: Smith isn't troubled by the death of
had been in place when classes began, the
amount of material that could have been
conserved would be enormous. This inac
tivity must not persist lest the entire school,
however environmentally-conscious, be
overwhelmed by wasu, that is thrown away
rather than recycled. The choice is clear:
either take a stand right now or become as
guilty as those who willingly pollute our
planet.
Standard
>■ continued from page 2
obey the community standards, and
those dissenters accept the conse
quences of their choice, regardless of
the effect. What are called strict
policies are merely community stan
dards which protect the common
good.
THE GUILFORDIAN October 8, 1990
Enrollment
figues up
>■ continued from page 1
for the success including faculty assis
tance in the recruiting, advising, and course
registration process; improved admissions
literature; more attention to the develop
ment of detailed action plans; admission
staff accountability; and data systems and
analysis.
Other areas receiving praise included
the admissions office, the Board of Trus
tees and Peter Bryant, a consultant who
specializes in enrollment management.
Cable-Wells expressed caution, how
ever, in evaluating Guilford's future posi
tion with enrollment management.
"I am pleased with our success, but we
still have a long ways to go," said Cable-
Wells. "The college's position in the mar
ket place has changed. Now our competi
tion, who are experiencing declines in
enrollment, will strive to be even more
competitive. We need to be increasingly
both genuine and sophisticated about our
process."
one of his parents, he hasn't just experienced a failed relation
ship, nor is he in jail. Anyone here who actually is undergoing
a life-altering experience should be insulted. Smith's piece,
by representing our depth and understanding, belittles us all.
Marc Feurerberg
Is Guilfordian over-editing?
To the Editor,
Tim Kircher and I have the same problem. The Guilfor
dian editors arbitrarily removed sections of both his article
and my letter responding to that article. Both were done with
no consultation of the author. My complaint is small but im
portant because it rendered a good sentence non-sensical: "I
saw such fearful buzzwords as' Hellenism' and 'hallmarks
Editors, since when is "hallmark" a fearful buzzword? my
original statement was "hallmarks of Western Culture,"
which fits in nicely with Hellenism and the basic point of the
whole letter. What were you thinking? I honestly cannot
understand your intention behind cutting out those words.
Now, to vent some steam. I suppose you could have ration
alized removing certain sections of Kircher's article to blunt
the impact on our nonchalance, to save us some well needed
criticism. If so, you have proved Andrew Stuart right in the
fact that Guilford tends to run from self-incriminating contro
versy. We are all gung-ho to criticize governments, writers,
traditions, etc. But when some self-reflective criticism
comes along, we run screaming. How diverse are we, how
involved. And how well The Guilfordian's editorial poli
cies reflect that.
David Olson
Editor's Note:
The Guilfordian edits on the basis of length, clarity and
taste. We do not edit for content, except in the case of
potentiality libelous statements.
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