Guilforaian
Volume LXV, No. 4
Lake may be closed for swimmers
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Anonymous swimmer enjoys Guilford lake
Stoneburner becomes new dean of faculty
by Barbara Phillips
Since the completion of the
spring semester, John Stone
burner has assumed the respon
sibilities of the interim dean of
the faculty.
Stoneburner was offered the
position based on a "rather
lengthy recommendation"
made by the dean search com
mittee to Dr. Rogers after
Catherine Frazier announced
her resignation as dean last
spring, according to Richie
Zweigenhaft, chairman of the
search committee
Stoneburner is a member of
the Department of Religious
Studies, and was the clerk of the
faculty when offered the posi
tion of interim dean.
Stoneburner describes his re
sponsibilities as ranging from
"coordination and leadership in
long and short range academic
programs, in conjunction with
Bill Rogers and Sybilla Colby, to
looking at petitions from stu
dents, requests for overloads,
and transcripts."
When asked if there were any
specific direction he would like
the academic program move,
Stoneburner responded that
deans (especially interim deans)
don't actually have a great deal
of power, and "most of their
power is the power of per
suasion." He would be most
inclined to use his powers of
persuasion in support of hte
Interdisciplinary programs,
which he considers a crucial
part of the curriculum
'Students need a balance between courses
which engage them where they are and
the need to see how major thinkers have
answered the major questions.'
In response to a question
about the value of core require
ments, Stoneburner said that as
a result of a "nation-wide
pendulum swing" Guilford re
duced core requirements some
years back, but he does not
think the school went overboard
in reductions. He does acknow
ledge that the pendulum has
made somewhat of a return
swing.
Stoneburner supports core
requirements and wonders
about the completeness of an
education if "students can gra
duate without having encoun
tered any Freud, Marx, Shake
speare, Dante," or other clas
sical writers. "Relevance" was
a concept widely talked about in
the sixties, he says, but we have
moved too far away from the
encounter of major thinkers
Guilford College, Greensboro, N.C. 27410
"Students need a balance be
tween courses which engage
them where they are and the
need to see how major thinkers
have answered the major ques
tions." To only deal with cur
rent writers is to "suffer from a
relativism of our times." The
study of other societies, and
especially of pre-modern soci
ety, casts a light on the modern
situation.
Stoneburner sees required
courses as designed to meet
student needs. History is a
requirement, he says, "because
some knowledge of human his
tory is necessary, not to keep
our historians off the streets."
He does acknowledge that tea
cher work loads can play a part
in deciding on requirements,
but "if you can't justify it on
academic grounds, it can't be
justified."
Stoneburner sees Guilford in
a transition stage, and one of
by Howard Luehrs
A proposal to limit activities
at the Guilford College Lake has
been submitted for considera
tion by the Student Community
Senate. Ken Schwab and Geoff
Miller brought the proposal
before the Senate at its regular
meeting on September 17, 1980.
The proposal states that the
school wishes to close off the
lake to swimming once the new
indoor pool is completed.
Schwab and Miller cite two
main reasons for wanting to do
this: 1) Swimming in the lake is
a liability risk to the school,
even when a lifeguard is on duty
and, 2) the new pool will
provide a healthier environment
in which to swim.
The point was also made tha
the Guilford County Health
Department has never approved
the college lake as a swimming
area. If they were called in to do
so, and found the lake was
unsafe to swim in, the proposal
could automatically be tabled.
In other words, the County
could close the lake at any given
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by Anne Satterthwaite
John Stoneburner dean of faculty
Guilford aims will be to mesh
job training with the liberal arts
emphasis The largest number
of majors are in job-oriented
areas such as accounting, man
agement, administration of jus
tice, education, and physical
education. He hopes to see
more students drawn into the
traditional liberal arts program
While he sees a genuine tension
between the two, he sees a need
for good balance and acknow
ledges Cuilford's responsibility
to help liberal arts graduates
find jobs, but also to see that
everyone is reasonably liberally
educated.
Stoneburner also sees ten
sions between striving for ex
September 23, 1980
time.
Several members of the
Senate were not ready to imme
diately act on the proposal. It
was felt that many constituents
would not like the idea of the
lake being closed to swimming
and that they should be con
sulted. In an effort to resolve
the matter, a committee was set
up to work with Ken Schwab on
the proposal Abbot Easterlin,
Jim Henniger and Julie Roth
stein will be representing the
students in this matter.
Still to be resolved is what
other activities will still be
allowed at the lake. The possi
bility of the school having boats
available for the students' use
was raised but, again, the risk
involved is probably too large.
What about those who have
their own boats? Will they be
able to continue using the lake,
at their own risk? The indi
viduals working with the propo
sal will hopefully be able to
solve these, and other, ques
tions to the benefit of everyone
involved.
cellence and emphasis on hu
manistic qualities. "We have a
moral obligation to educate"
those students who are not the
brightest, but he would not like
to sacrifice diversity among the
student body to get the very
best students. Not everyone
need be primarily intellectual,
although everyone should be
genuinely academically interes
ted."
The diversity causes a certain
amount of problem in that a
broad range of students may be
in any one class. The question
"how to get significant growth
from the best anH from thp>
others is -a difficult one," says
Stoneburner.