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The Guilfordian November 14,1997 Forum CONTINUED FROM PG. 1 sumption that many majors may opt to require an even more rigor ous study of a foreign language. Under the new proposal, stu dents could fulfill an intercultural experience requirement by taking a cultural course at Guilford, studying a foreign language, or by going abroad. The details of how this will work out are still being determined, and Jeske admitted, "This has been one of the knotty problems we're having as a task force." Some believe that the in tercultural experience should be about the non-Western world. The forum also addressed aca demic restructuring at Guilford. That task force is led by sociology professor Richie Zweigenhaft. He Minorities express frustrations BY AMANDA BECOM Staff Writer On Tuesday, November 4, a meeting of people concerned about African American/minor ity support issues on Guilford College campus met in the lobby of Founders Hall. This meeting of staff and students brought to a head the issues that exploded later in the week, creating a call for the emergency Senate meet ing that took place in the caf on Thursday, Nov. 6. This meeting, attended by Rob Owens, Mona Olds, Anne Lundquist, and Dawn Watkins to name some of the staff, as well as students of all colors, began with a moment of silence. Tay Stocks, an organizer of the meeting, made the first statement, explain ing that this meeting concerned support issues on campus in gen eral rather than Rob Owens' spe cific position. Casaundria Penn, another organizer of the meeting, sec onded Tay's stand in stating, "It's not about keeping Rob in his po sition, it's about providing his support base." The major issue on the agenda revolved around the hope for a full-time position at Guilford for a director of african-american student programs and affairs. The definition of this position from a proposal collaborated on by students, staff and faculty reads, "The director coordinates service programs and advocacy began by saying, "Our task force is, as I see it, shooting at a moving target." Until the curriculum task force finalizes its proposals, the academic restructuring task force is not sure what they are dealing with. This much is certain. Accord ing to Zweigenhaft, the academic restructuring task force has been asked to cut full tenured positions by approximately 20% from the current 98.8 positions to 80.2. To achieve this goal, the task force began by distributing question naires to department chairs. The questions were to discover how departments thought they could work together with other depart ments or reduce numbers of fac ulty. Zweigenhaft assured the au dience that not one specific reduc tion has yet been proposed. When which addresses campus issues, needs and concerns primarily of African American students." The group defined what they wanted; the issue before them re mained how to attain it. Several students also expressed distress about no minorities holding po sitions on the task forces. Another issue of hot debate involved the absence of an African American studies major. Several of the con cerns lodged at the meeting in volved issues currently being re viewed by several committees and boards. Tempers flared as individu als told about their personal ex periences with faculty and staff concerning their worries with support issues. Students de scribed feeling patronized and regarded as unimportant when they tried to confront feelings of discomfort. Casaundria Penn looked directly at the staff present when she voiced her frus tration. "I'm tired of people not taking [the concerns of minori ties] seriously. What we want is someone to say 'Yes! Let's actu ally do something.'" Molly Martin, Senate repre sentative at the meeting, reiter ated the importance of getting your voice heard. Martin smiled as she insisted "Sometimes you have to be loud in a Quakerly way." Rob Owens was asked to speak about his experience at Guilford. His response sparked debate between students at the News students raised concerns that en tire departments might be elimi nated, specifically the art, theatre, or music departments, he said there had been "no discussion of eliminating departments, yet." To some the "yet" may seem ominous, but apparently there has been no formal proposal to eliminate any of the fine arts. Other changes in academic structure may include a January term, although the scheduling task force is addressing that. A Janu ary term could be used to do an intensive course, a service project or some other type of experiential education. An important thing for Guil ford students to remember is that much of the new curriculum will be optional for them. Zweigenhaft said, "There will be a transition period." The college has an obli meeting about what support is. Owens said to the group, "Guil ford has supported me, but not enough. If I were an African American undergraduate again, I would not choose to come to Guilford...The thing...about fac ulty and staff is if we aren't happy, you won't be happy...lt's about what you want. When I see students and ask how they are, they say 'l'm surviving.' You should not have to 'survive' your college experience. It chokes me up." Linda Johnson, Clerks Com mittee representative at the meet ing, suggested that if students feel that they are under-represented on campus they should go to dif ferent boards and meetings ex pressing this. Owens spoke again, saying, "I'm tired of whites saying 'You have to come to us.' You should Call for photographers The Guilfordian needs more photographers. No experience is necessary, and you'll have the opportunity to take pictures of just about anything you want. Who knows—there might even be some free film in it for you. For more information, contact our photo editors: Becca Lee (x 3449) or Chris Carlstrom (x 3844). gation to continue those programs and requirements into which cur rent students were admitted. "This new system is going to demand planning beyond your wildest dreams," said Jeske in re sponse to a question from David Curry who asked about the scar city of courses currently available in some fields. The administration and students should know farther ahead of time which courses will be offered when. Zweigenhaft doubtless ex pressed the views of many in his introductory speech when he said, "My own personal commitment is to what I think is best for the insti tution." Bedik asked that he and the rest of the individuals serving on task forces to change Guilford re member that "Students are the ones sitting in the classrooms." come ask us how we feel. We are your resources." The meeting continued, fo cusing on whether requiring a certain number of minorities on committees enforced tokenism. One student expressed anger at the suggestion of including mi norities only now. "If you called me up and said 'I need you on my task force in order to meet the quota' I would tell you 'Hell no! you got yourself in this mess; now get yourself out.'" The meeting broke up with promises to meet again the next week. Students continued to stand and talk about whether anything was accomplished, or if it should have been accom plished. With the deadline for change looming at the end of this semester, students left the meet ing believing something more needed to be done. 3
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