Newspapers / The Guilfordian (Greensboro, N.C.) / April 16, 2004, edition 1 / Page 9
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APRIL 16, 2004 WWW.GUILFORDIAN.COM letters to the Editor To the Editor: I would have liked to begin with words of praise for our school about how we care about the earth, recycle, conserve energy, go to speakers and events and pitch in to help out all these things. Sadly, I can not do that. Instead, I must begin by saying I am greatly saddened by the lack of inter est from this college in caring for the cleanliness of our liv ing area: let alone caring for the environment. I am con cerned that this place is not what I thought it was when I first arrived. L e t me explain: On the Sunday after Serendipity a group of people gathered by the lake to eat some food and clean up after the weekend festivities. You may ask yourself "Why would students want to clean up? That's maintenance or facilities job." Well actually it's not. The college work crews are not paid extra to clean up beyond their regular tasks, meaning that they have to do extra work for no extra pay. I would like to thank house keeping, grounds, security, maintenance, the RA's, HD's and Union for all their extra work. Because it is ultimately the students' responsibility to keep our campus clean, Forevergreen sponsored a post-Serendipity campus clean up. Approximately 15 people came. We attempted to cover as much of Guilford as possi ble, but limited time was a restriction on our efforts. For three hours we worked pick ing up a variety of things. Generally we were ignored and occasionally we garnered some dirty looks from people passing by. Overall it seemed that no one cared. We found recycling in trash cans as well as all over the ground: oil containers, lighter fluid, nitrous oxide con tainers, un-cut beer can rings, clothing, shoes, batteries, many golf balls, and more cig arette butts then you can shake a stick at. We found the remains of a T.V. and comput ers that had been thrown off a balcony. In total, we collected about 8 bags of trash and we salvaged 31 bags of recycling that would have otherwise been thrown away. Most of that was in the form of alu minum cans or glass bottles. Let me take a moment to talk about recy cling. "Enough energy is saved by recycling one alu minum can to run a T.V. set for three hours or to light one 100 watt bulb for 20 hours." "Americans throw away enough aluminum every three months to rebuild our entire commercial air fleet." "Five recycled plastic bottles make enough fiberfill to stuff a ski jacket." (http://www.recyclin gs, com/recvfact. htm). Now you may say "Why are you telling me this? I recycle." Well let me tell you that I spent a good deal of the 3 hours of clean up sorting through trashcans and recy cling bins. When recycling bags are contaminated by trash, it forces the recycling workers to throw them out. Also, broken glass makes it to dangerous to sort and is therefore thrown away. If a recycling dumpster is filled with more trash than recycling (like the one next to Bryan was) then it will all be trashed. However, it is not just stu dents; there are problems throughout the school. During the events of the weekend there were few, if any recy cling bins and often the ones that were out were used by all people for trash, food served on Styrofoam, even when the meals were moved inside. Overall these actions show a general apathy towards the environment. What does this say about our school, a school that is supposed to be active and conscious of the world? This experience has shown me that there is a lot to be done at Guilford to make a change for the better, and it has also strengthened my resolve to make these things happen. I hope that you will think about where you are going to throw your cigarette butt, soda can, etc. the next time you go to throw your trash away. Parks Marion, Sophomore FORUM To the Editor: Political activism at Guilford College is a joke. There are marches for women's issues, marches for pro-choice, nazi protests, war protests, protesting corpora tions and the march for crying and screaming, one without having to actually do anything productive to make myself feel important. Yeah, democracy is great because it gives you a voice and, moreover, the right to express that voice; but that is only so valuable. Without anyone to step up and actual ly make a change, your voice is irrelevant. The fundamen tal failure of the thought process of these marchers and protesters is that they actually make the assumption that people or politicians care. They don't. Neither do I. Neither do you, unless it is for your own personal reason. Here is a suggestion from an outsider, which is what I am here at Guilford. Money drives our communi ties, our states, our govern ment and the world. Like it or not, that is the way it works. Find a way to get money to influence your politicians, or find a way to take it away from the ones who have it. And I don't mean by cutting cords on coke machines, or putting box cutters on planes. Those were ignorant attempts to change a system that they knew nothing about. It took all of fifty cents and five min utes to fix the machines, and the actions are viewed as extreme because these peo ple are operating outside the system taking away their credibility if there was any there to start with. Learn the system and work with that knowledge to change it. Learn your history and realize what worked in changing our society. Most of all keep your credibility. If you want to make a change start with yourself, then actually do something. Or keep doing what you are doing, personal ly I am pleased with its effect: none. Matt Cowan Sound Off Because of your key role/title at Guilford College, you have an active voice in where Guilford is heading in the next 5 years. In six sentences or less, where do you feel Guilford should strive in the demographics of its stu dent body? Hannah Winkler W&N Editor Max Carter: Director of the Friends Center/Campus Ministry Coordinator We will need to have an administration committed to positioning the college squarely within the communi ty of colleges deeply informed by Quaker principles. We will need to seek out and hire fac ulty and staff excited about being part of a community of learning that takes seriously the life of the mind as well as the life of the Spirit. We will need to recruit a student body that desires to grow in truth, accessing both the riches of the Quaker tradition and the resources of the faculty and fellow students. Randy Doss: Vice President for Enrollment and Campus Life What I hope will change will be more courses and full-time professors (who are compen sated above the average of our peer and competitors) in existing programs, refur bished residence halls and campus facilities and more interaction with the city and with other colleges. I want to see even more activities for students during the week and weekends. In the absence of major gifts to the college (which we all hope will happen,) the way to achieve these goals is to grow the size of the college. Judy Harvey: Director of Multicultural Education As Director of Multicultural Education, I am (predictably) interested in a culturally diverse campus. I am encour aged by our growing numbers of multicultural students, but the growing numbers are not my top priority. I am most interested in Guilford learning PAGE 9 GREENSBORO, NC how to honor and celebrate the history, culture and tradi tions of all of our students. I don't want our multi-cultural students to feel they have to leave themselves at home when they study here. Jim Hood: Assoc. Professor of English and Associate Academic Dean Personally, I think we should focus our efforts for increas ing enrollment on retention; this means that we need to make Guilford the first choice for more students and we need to be careful to admit students likely to succeed here. I will always favor recruiting students who are highly motivated academically and who have talents (arts, sports, organization, writing, etc.) that can make Guilford a better place while they are here and after they graduate. This applies to traditional and CCE students. Jack Register: Queer & Allied Resource Coordinator I am the Queer Resource Staff member. We currently have approx 25-30 active members of PRIDE and the Q.U.A.R.C. Our list is confi dential, and very dynamic. I would see our role growing as more and more students become comfortable dis cussing these issues on cam pus. I would like to see more CCE folk [in our group], Vance Ricks: Assistant Professor of Philosophy As the new director of the Honors program, I have sev eral goals and hopes for it. Students who are invited into the program should be invited not just because they're "smart", but also because they will actually enliven the campus intellectual and/or artistic life.
The Guilfordian (Greensboro, N.C.)
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