GThe
UILFORDIAN
Milner change delayed pending community approval
Peter Smith
News Editor
Richard Ford, the associate
dean of students, decided Friday
to reverse his decision to convert
Milner Hall into a co-ed resi
dence hall after receiving strong
Off-campus selection process under review
Larisa Hulnick
Staff Writer
The administration is considering alterna
tives to the increasing problem of too many
students applying for too few spaces in the
off-campus education programs, a problem
which has caused some students to question
the selection policy.
According to Martha Cooley, director of
off-campus education the semester in Lon
don program usually has twice the number of
applicants as spaces, and some qualified
students are inevitably disappointed.
Jennie Wisler, a junior math/accounting
double major, was recendy accepted, after
initially being put on the waiting list, to the
semester in London for next fall, led by
political science professor and former Direc
tor of Off-Campus Education Bill Schmickle.
She said she had a good GPA, no judicial
photo by Chartes Almy
Health center sponsored a blood pressure booth at Tuesday's Wellness
Fair. Students at the fair leanred that the Ideal blood pressure is 140/90.
Vol. 74 No. 17 Guilford College, Greensboro, N.C. Feb. 12, 1990
protests from various student
groups on campus.
In a memorandum sent Feb. 9
by Residential Life to Dean of
Students Nancy Cable-Wells and
SRC Co-Chairs Chrissy Law
rence and Stuart Vaughn, Ford
said the decision was "contro
versial" and that "strong feel
ings" existed on both sides of the
record, and a good record of student activi
ties, and she thought she belonged in the
program. Her application, however, was in
complete initially. She said she fought the
decision actively, and was the second student
to be admitted on the waiting list. She had
some complaints about the system as a whole.
One of Wisler's complaints was that there
was no interview involved in the process.
Schmickle said that since there were 60
applicants, and since he did not consider an
interview under a half hour to be of any
quality, he chose not to interview the stu
dents. She said she was also disturbed by the
fact that no math or accounting majors were
accepted.
According to Miriam Collins, the adminis
trative assistant for the office of off-campus
education, Wisler was one of the two ac
counting majors to apply for the program.
Wisler was also concerned about the lack
of stricter academic guidelines. She said she
wanted to go to London to "learn, not party."
issue, resulting in a decision to
keep Milner a "single-sex resi
dence hall for men through 1990-
91 academic year."
"There was a lot of resistance
to this proposal," said Ford. "At
a Quaker institution, such a big
decision needs to be heard by a
larger group. We need to have
more open forums and debate on i
this issue."
Ford also called for the forma
tion of a special Housing Assign
ment Task Force to review the
current housing assignment pat
terns across campus and to assist
planning for future housing allo
cations.
The task force will examine
admissions data as to the per
Another student, who asked that her name
not be printed, had applied three times before
finally being accepted to the program in
London. She said her second application
went to the faculty leader who had a very
strict set of guidelines. She said the selection
process had a "lack of consistency in all
respects." She said, "There needs to be more
focus on academics." Schmickle said that
"each faculty leader does it differently," and
that there are no rules of selection, but "tra
ditional tendencies."
Neither student knew how the selection
policy worked before applying to go abroad.
Martha Cooley said the committee for off
campus education is beginning to realize that
students don'tknow the policy, and in the fu
ture there will be a description of the process
attached to the application form.
The application for off-campus programs
includes two recommendations from faculty
members and a written statement by stu
dents. There will also be a new form that
goes to the student's hall director. Schmickle
said, "Everyone who has cause to know the
student fills out forms." For programs that
emphasize language, such as France or
Mexico, language teachers are also consulted.
All information about the student is given to
the faculty leader of the program.
The faculty leader may conduct interviews,
but is not required to do so. The leader makes
the final decision. Cooley said the commit
tee beleives the leader should select people
he or she can live with overseas for four
months.
Schmickle said that since many of the
leader's activities center around the subject
the leader teaches, many choose people who
will benefit from these activities. He said he
looks at people's interests when making his
selections, and he prefers applicants who
see OFF-CAMPUS page 6 >*
centage of incoming men and
women, and will meet through
out the remainder of this semes
ter. The task force could also
determine changes in Milner
housing patterns after the next
academic year.
Ford said there still remain
"compelling issues" concerning
the lack of co-ed spaces avail
able to students and the lack of
options for men outside of Milner.
In a memorandum issued Jan.
26, Ford outlined six reasons for
changing Milner to a co-ed hall.
These included the fact that 30
percent of the college's living
space is co-ed but over 50 per
cent of the students desire co-ed
living arrangements.
Other reasons for converting
Milner included a desire to bal
ance the male/female ratio in
Bryan, to provide new renovated
rooms to a larger group on cam
pus to insure greater freshman
distribution on campus, to re
duce vandalism, and to foster a
more positive feeling about the
community through living in the
spirit of cooperation.
Said Ford, "The bottom line is
that making Milner co-ed is a
good idea, but the timing is bad.
Making a hasty decision is the
wrong thing to do. We need to
know more about what the statis
tics show for next year's enroll
ment and consider what the larger
community has to say."
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