What's Happening in
Human Rights
by Eric Longley
The True
Meaning of
Human Rights
Dear Reader, I want you to perform a
little experiment Think of one person or
group of people whom you hate above all
others. Perhaps it's an obnoxious teacher
or classmate. Perhaps it's your boss.
Perhaps it's your former spouse's lawyer.
Perhaps it's Communists, Nazis, racists,
Republicans or Baptists. In any event, I
want you to fix firmly in your mind an
image of the person or group which you
hate. Remind yourself of the reasons for
your hatred. Whip yourself up into a
frenzy against the object of your detesta
tion. Take a moment to do this. Yes, right
now. I'll wait.
Have you done it? Have you worked
yourself into a lather over the wickedness
of your enemy? Good. Now I want you to
imagine that someone is attempting to
violate your enemy's rights.
If your pet peeve is Communists, imag
ine an attempt to send Communists to
prison (as happened in the 19505) or to
prohibit Communists from speaking on
the campuses of state colleges (as the North
Carolina legislature did in 1963).
If you despise Christian fundamental
ists, imagine that several high schools and
colleges have forbidden student funda
mentalist groups from holding meetings
on school property after school hours
(which many high schools and colleges
did until Congress and the Supreme Court
stepped in).
Are you outraged at the sight of antiwar
demonstrators protesting outside the White
House in the middle of hostilities? Then
imagine an attempt by the government to
send the protestors to prison (the United
States sent innumerable anti-war activists
to prison in World War I, and as late as
1970 Nixon was trying to break up the
peaceful Mayday protests against the war
in Indochina).
Do bigoted statements about women
and minorities distress you? Then suppose
several colleges were to enact codes under
which students could be punished for big
oted speech (many colleges have done
precisely that).
Are you resentful toward a particular
individual? Then imagine the government
imprisoning him or her without a fair trail
(as the government does in many coun
tries).
Now that you have imagined your en
emy in such dire straits, I will permit you
to savor the thought of his distress for a few
see HUMAN RIGHTS on page 9>
8
THE GUILFORDIAN April 8, 1991
GUILFORD LIFE
Let's Go the World
Almost One-Third of Guilford Students Enjoy Life Abroad
Jacob Stohler
Editor in Chief
"One day I went to a wedding with a
Mexican friend," said Camille Hayes, a
Guilford College student thinking back on
hersemesterinGuadalajara, Mexico. "And
my friend bought the bride's shoes."
"Money's a big issue in these people's
lives, but they're not attached to it the way
Americans are," she said.
Like Camille, a junior, 29 percent of
Guilford students
spend at least one se
mester studying
abroad. The average
at other American
colleges and univer
sities is only 4.2 per
cent, according to the
Institute of Interna
tional Education in
New York.
The idea of study
ing in another coun
try is nothing new, but
in the late 1980s there
was an explosion of
interest in other cul
tures. "Whereas
study abroad was a
quiet backwater now
it is the crest of a
wave," wrote
Craufurd Goodwin in
the 1985 publication
"U.S. Students Abroad." Guilford Col
lege is one institution riding that wave,
adding five programs in the last six years.
"You can never really know another
culture until you've lived in it and been a
part of it," said Hayes. "My three months
in Mexico taught me more than any amount
of reading could."
Martha Cooley, the director of Off-
Campus Education, attributes the high rate
of participation to several factors.
"We run our own programs," said
Cooley, "And therefore students can use
their financial aid on the programs, so it's
not more expensive."
She also said that having Guilford pro
'You can never really know another culture until you've
lived in it and been a part of it... My three months in
Mexico taught me more than any amount of reading
could.'
fessors lead the programs makes students
more willing to go abroad since they will
be with someone they know. There is also
good publicity and personal encourage
ment within the campus, said Cooley, and
that increases student involvement
"[These programs] are seen as a strong
component of academics," she said.
"There's encouragement and publicity
from faculty and the student body."
A proposal is scheduled to come before
the faculty this fall which would make
Ircl i m
ft #1- /) 8 I t 'vl i,. ' fUjg-fr
KBflHi ML* Wt fW
WMJSI V CH 1H HrT
The Guilford students who studied in London this past year pose in
front of Christ College at Oxford/photo by Greg Schmickle
study abroad or an off-campus internship
mandatory for graduation. If passed, stu
dents entering Guilford as soon as fall
1992 would have to complete one of the
following:
• a semester or year on an overseas
program
• a semester or year on an off-campus
domestic program which offers a different
setting from Guilford's
• an internship which places the student
in an environment different from the stu
dent's original home environment
• a combination of four seminars com
pleted during school breaks
• a summer program, either overseas or
domestic, which offers an experience in a
different cultural setting
In a memorandum on behalf of the
Curriculum Task Force, Cooley said that
54 percent of Guilford students already
meet at least one of these requirements.
The memo also said that to make this
proposal possible, Guilford would need to
add as many as three more professors to
compensate for the extra faculty members
spending semesters abroad. In addition,
said Cooley, the Off Campus Education
Office would need
"reorganization,"
defined as "addi
tional clerical or ad
ministrative assis
tance or a full-time
director."
"We're being
very careful in mov
ing," said Cooley,
"But the support and
interest is here."
The Guilford
study abroad pro
grams have their
origins in a 1967
summer abroad pro
gram which took
students on a 10-
week study of Eu
rope. By 1977, the
college had estab
lished its first full
semester program,
taking 30 students to London.
Other programs followed: Munich in
1978; Paris in 1983; Tokyo in 1983;
Guadalajara in 1985; and two Beijing
programs in 1988 and 1989. The college
plans to add two more programs by spring
1992: one to Brunnenburg, Italy, and
another to Africa.
Junior Scott Genualdi spent fall 1990 in
London with the Guilford program. He
said he learned about the unique ways
other cultures look at people.
"In England, shoes are very important,"
he said. In fact, [the English] can tell your
nationality by the shoes you wear. They
knew we Americans because we wore
running shoes and docksiders."
According to its assistant dean for study
abroad, nearby Duke University is compa
rable to Guilford in that it sends approxi
mately one-third of its students abroad and
is looking to send more. Wake Forest's
study abroad program has managed to
double student participation rate in the
see STUDY on page 9>-