THE GUILFORDIAN
The Guilfordian maintains a free and independent policy from the institution
advised by the Publication Board of Guilford College and printed by and for the
students of the college. The opinions may not necessarily reflect the thoughts of
the student body or the institution.
Editors Janet Ghezzi, Rich McKelvie, Cheryl Sprinkle
Associate Editor Jim Garvin
Business Manager Pete Balance
Sports Editor Ted Malick
Potographer George Nauman
Circulation Manager Craig Chapman
Writers en generale Bob Swain, Richard Nilsen, Gil Hutcheson, Patty Lyman.
Chris Fisher, Phil Edgerton, Walt Fordham, Lucie Stafford
Julie Shanahan, Tom Barker, George Atkins, Becky Mills
Rankin Wittington, Susan Wagner, Jill Taylor
Published by Quaker Printing Company
Letters to be addressed to The Guilfordian, Greensboro, North Carolina 27410
CAMPUS COMMEMT: SAC vs Student Power
Can Students Have Responsibility?
Dear Sirs:
In the academic community one is
allowed the chance to communicate with
his fellows in whatever way he feels most
effective. The Student Affairs Committee,
then, will not begrudge my speaking to
them on paper, where I feel I can make an
impression, instead of over the mahogany
board—table, where it has been demon
strated that I cannot.
My concern is with the proposed dress
restrictions, which are currently awaiting
passage through the Committee. I spoke
out on elaborate dress regulations and
advised their approval March 19: Bob
Wilson spoke out on elaborate dress regul
ations and advised against their approval
April 9: we will both, inevitably, speak out
on elaborate dress regulations and advise
against their approval on April 16, at
which time they will, inevitably, be ap
proved.
What will be the content of these dress
restrictions? If they reflect the Commit
tee's discussion in previous sessions they
will (a) enforce semi—formal attire for
men and women at Wednesday and Sunday
meals, (b) possibly enforce Semi-formal
dress at all evening meals and provide a
salaried cafeteria hostess to prevent those
who would dine in inappropriate dress
from dining at all, (c) possibly enforce
improvement of student dress in class and
on campus, and (d) probably enforce an
air of increased gentility and good taste in
in the student body. These are the
suggestions which have been made and to
which no non— student member of the
Committee has seriously objected; we can
expect most or all of them to become
policy in a matter of weeks.
And it would be a decidedly wise and
and fitting policy at that, but for the
generally overlooked fact that teaching
young adults what to wear and how to
wear it is the prerogative of the Finishing
School, under which category the Quaker
School does not traditionally qualify. I
THE GUILFORDIAN
would not presume to lecture my fellow
committee—members on Quaker History
and custom, but it was George Fox, I
believe, who went to prison on several
occasions for his refusal to remove his hat
in a court of law, as required by seven
teenth century custom. No denomination
is more justly famous for pointing up the
individual spirituality of man and woman
through non—conformity and plainness, as
you may made aware by glancing at the
portrait of Nathan Hunt which hangs out
side your meeting room. You will be
offended, no doubt, to realize that Nathan
wears no tie.
These are typically Quaker considera
tions. We have not, in Student Affairs
Committee, fallen into the habit of allow
ing mere religious sentiment to influence
college policy, so I would not expect to
gain much support for killing the dress
code on such dubious grounds. But there
are other very urgent reasons militating
for a liberal dress policy and discouraging
the standardization of student dress at any
given time. Consider that we are not,
after all, a fashionable school, an affluent
school, a prestige school whose success
depends upon the turning out of hordes
of urbane and sophisticated Seniors: nor
are we attempting to attain any but in
tellectual grandeur. Consider that we are
trying to become a less regional school,
and that it behooves us not to constantly
be invoking North Carolina standards.
Consider that we are accumulating, at
great cost in time and trouble, a curious
and seeking studentry, and that no creative
and independent freshman is going to
apply to a school whose administrators
have no greater concern than to tell him
what he may and may not be permitted
to wear in the library. And consider,
finally, that the individuals who most
resist standardization of dress are myster
iously the same ones who show up in the
Moon Room after convocations; the ones
I Have a dream . .
"I say to you today, my friends,
even though we face the difficulties of
today and tomorrow, I still have a dream.
It is a dream deeply rooted in the Ameri
can dream. I have a dream that one day
this nation will rise up, live out the true
meaning of its creed: 'We hold these
truths to be self-evident, that all men are
created equal.'
—ln Memory of Martin Luther King, Jr
who run our slum—teaching programs; the
ones who publish the newspaper; the ones
who have painted our pictures and sung
in our choir and brought us our dramatics
prizes; the ones who get us in the news
occasionally, outside the confines of the
sports pages. They are, speaking generally,
our cultural hewers of wood and drawers
of water, and they bring us whatever small
shreds of intellectual dignity we have. We
might concede to them that perhaps they
do, after all, possess a certain measure of
taste.
I hope my impatience with this pro
posed collectivization of student taste will
not earn me the ill—feeling of any of the
faculty and administration members of
Student Affairs; but I should like to do
whatever I can to point out to a none—to
sensitive administration, on behalf of the
student body I represent on SAC, that it
has failed to grasp the meaning of the
liberal arts college. When it becomes
apparent that human and intellectual
values are absent in so many areas of the
life of a college, and when the stimula
tion of creativity and student interest has
become crucial in the race to bring
Guilford back into the twentieth century
as a reputable center of learning, it is
time to stop worrying about the Old
School Tie.
Very Cordially yours,
Robert Swain
Student Affairs Committee
"VOTE!!
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