Serendipity: not just another weekend page 4 GUILFORDIAN THE GREENSBORO, NC Local clashes vostalseruice By Heath Williamson STAFF WRITER Are the postal workers of Greensboro disgruntled? Picketers stood their ground a week ago Monday outside Greensboro's Main Post Office. These picket ers are members of the American Postal Workers Union, Area Local 711. The protesters are being led by 711's president Wray Davis. The protests extends from the recent notification on intention to fire mechanic Terry Duncan, the Greater Greensboro Area Local 711 executive union vice presi dent. According to Duncan, the U.S. Postal Service fired him for lying during his tes timony in an arbitration hearing. It was a testimony defending a fellow employee and union member. Duncan claims he is be ing let go because of his union membership. "They were basically singling me out because of my union activity," said Duncan to reporters Mon day. The protest is just an ef fort to get his job back and to send management a mes sage. Union president Wray Davis called this malicious firing as an intimidation tac tic about speaking out or fil ing grievances. "We are not going to ac cept harrassment of a fellow union member who is acting within his rights supplied by the National Labor Act," said Davis in our telephone inter view. "This is to let all man agement know that we are not going to take the crap that they are giving us. We want the people to know what's going on in the post Please see USPS, page 2 Our Town: a benefit for the Multicultural RC page 6 New IDS major approved ♦Peace and Conflict Studies first in series of interdisciplinary proposals Ben Gann STAFF WRITER Wednesday, March 17th marked a significant moment for the new Guilford College curricu lum. The faculty approved Peace and Conflict studies as an interdis ciplinary major. On April 21st the faculty will consider approving two more interdisciplinary majors, African American Studies and En vironmental Studies. Each of the majors requires that students double-major in a second, disciplinary field. Two of the programs, Peace and Conflict Studies and African-American studies, come from existing concen trations. Expanding the current programs gives students more in terdisciplinary opportunities. Peace and Conflict Studies draws on two fields, Conflict Reso lution and Peace Studies. How ever, one field or the other has tended to dominate in many gradu ate and undergraduate programs. Joe Groves, Coordinator of the Graduation plans commence By Andrea Dodson STAFF WRITER The day that many have been looking forward to since they set foot onto campus their freshman year is near. That day is gradua tion. The ceremony will be held this year on May Bth at 10:30 in the morning. "Commencement is planned by the Celebra tions and Convocations committee," said Dawn Watkins, director of Stu dent Activities and Events Planning and also chair of the Celebrations commit tee. "Commencement is probably one of my favorite times of the year." There are students who serve on this committee who help plan and organize the events that take place during the week of commencement. Those students Criticism of American drug policies page 7 Peace and Conflict Studies Committee, sees the two fields as complementary and thinks the new major has a nice balance. African American Studies also strives for a bal ance. The program, coordi nated by history professor Adrienne Israel, does not focus strictly on African Americans. The goal of the proposed major is to educate students about the signifi cant contributions made by African peoples to the world's growth and progress. At the end of the spring semester 13 students will have completed a concentra tion in African-American Studies. The demand for a major is present. In addition, 15 students without concentrations in African-American Studies have ex pressed an interest in taking more African American Studies courses. Environmental Studies has on the committee are James Norton, Gwen Kelly, Sarah Mor ris, and Gary Young. The senior picnic will be held Thursday, May 6th at the HP * " 1998 QuAKfR Don McNemar and Thad Rombauer lake from 1:00 to 4:00 p.m. Se nior senator, James Norton has been planning this event. Friday, May 7th, the re hearsal for graduation will take place in Dana auditorium at 2 p.m. Baccalaureate, the spiritual service for graduation will be Lamont Williams leads track and field club page 9 APRIL 2, 1999 § % I ~ ■ I P? , COURTESY OF INSTITUTIONAL ADVANCEMENT David Barnhill the most student interest. About 40 students currently enrolled at Guilford have expressed inter est in an Environmental Studies Please see IDS, page 3 held also on the 7th in Dana Au ditorium at 6:00 p.m. Jon Coyle, Gvvyneth Cliver, Hanna Passmore, Taj Greenlee, and Michael Martin have been plan- ning this event. Commencement will be held in front of Hege library. Keir Bickerstaffe and Debbie Kiliru are the main campus students speaking at graduation. "Basically, I'm really touched that I was chosen to speak,' 5 replied Bickerstaffe "Hopefully I won't bore the crowd to death with what I say... I'll try to keep it lively and short and relatively 'clicheless' ... It's really difficult to think of something to say that will be meaningful for ev eryone—there are so many dif ferent individual experiences at Guilford that for me to sum it up in a five-minute speech seems pretty daunting. Hopefully most Please see Graduation, page 2