10
■ The
Forum
editorial board
Keir BickerstafFe
Lindsay Oldenski
Courtney Christian
Ben Thorne
statement
of purpose
The Forum exists to
facilitate dialogue and
expression on matters
of importance to
Guilford College and its
mission. Toward this
end, active community
participation in these
pages is vital.
editorial policy
Every effort will be made
to print appropriate
submissions of editorials,
cartoons and letters to the
editor. They must be
signed, with the phone
number of the author or
artist included. Editorials
must be no longer than
400 words and letters to
the editor must be no
more than 250 words.
The Guilfordian reserves
the right to edit
submissions for
grammatical correctness
and brevity.
The Guilfordian
Our duty to question
Security.
The word brings up some strange, var
ied reactions among the students on this
campus. Anger. Fear. Disillusionment
This issue was originally inspired by
the announcement that Security had gone
roughly $30,000 over their budget for this
year. Was this an example of administra
tive penny-pinching, or mismanaged
money by Security?
Neither. Instead, this mix-up was all
about a lack of communication. The cut
was made prior to Chief Financial Officer
Art Ciillis' arrival at Guilford, and thus was
lost in the transition. Thirty thousand dol
lars slipped through the cracks.
While this isn't a particularly endear
ing answer, it was an answer. Several other
questions we had during our investigation
Why Marriott must go
COUN MCFADDEN-ROAN
staff writer
We're being robbed.
Did you read my news article on Marriott.
Go back and do that Nobody pays much at
tention to the News section so go give it some.
Okay, now take everything I wrote and'
throw it out the window. It has nothing to do
with why I think Marriott must go.
The international corporation that is Marriott
has been rather proud of itself, recently, for an
"innovative" program. They set up this little
hotline for their employees to call up and get
advice about things like finding a cheap apart
ment or high quality/low cost child care.
Sounds great, huh? It's something other
food and hotel service companies do not have.
Why don't others like A.RA. give this
It's about time: cigarette
manufacturer comes clean
JACOB NOBLE
staff writer
Last Thursday, an historic decision was
made. A company who makes its profits by
selling cigarettes, admitted that they knew that
cigarettes were harmful.
This is great, but the damage has already
been done. They have known this for a long
time but are only now admitting that cigarettes
are unhealthy.
The Liggett company has admitted that their
targets were young adults and minors in their
cigarette ad campaigns. Why shouldn't they
target kids? In a recent Stanford University
poll conducted with over 1700 minors who
smoked, they admitted to disregarding the
warning labels. They knew they were there, but
never looked at them Which brings me to my
next point, the Surgeon General's warning on
cigarettes.
On most cigarette packs you see the Sur
geon General's warning, no bigger then the
explicit lyrics sticker on some CD's. These
warnings are often incomplete, such as those
directed at pregnant women saying that smok
forum
still remain.
Why do Security guards receive NO self
defense training, and only limited first-aid
training—when they are the only form of a
medical response team on campus between
spm and 9am?
Why is there such confusion concerning
the cutting of shifts (we received at least three
different sets of answers)?
Why would the office of the CFO only
allow us to print the "bottom line" of
Security's budget in this issue? We understand
the confidentiality of salaries—but the ambi
guity of a "bottom line" leaves several ques
tions floating in the air.
Questions that we have a duty to ask of
the administration.
It cannot be denied that matters of secu
rity affect we, the students, more than any-
service to employees? Because they give their
employees something better: money.
We're being robbed.
Marriott, unlike other food and hotel ser
vice companies, is NONUnion, and thus, is able
to pay its employees far less money.
So they pay a little extra for a dinky 800
number service. It keeps their employees able
to run their lives cm half the money they should
be making and keeps them working for
Marriott.
It also keeps them someplace else near
the bottom of the economic scale. While em
ployees of unionized companies can rise toward
the middle class, Marriott employees stay to
ward the lower end of the pay scale.
Not cxily does this run contrary to the social
consciousness that we hold as an institution
based in Quaker values but it translates into
ing MIGHT cause health problems.
What about those of us who are not preg
nant women? Should we worry? Yeah, I think
so. Since the first Surgeon General's report 10
million people have died of causes related to
smoking. This is according to the CDC's To
bacco Information & Prevention Source page.
Yet we still smoke. In 1994, more women
died of lung cancer, often related to smoking,
then breast cancer. Yet they too still smoke.
Smoking triples the chance of heart disease of
those who are middle aged, yet we still smoke.
Now I know people do not like to be
preached to, but the facts are just so overwhelm
ing, and now that even the makers of the ciga
rettes admit that they are harmful and addic
tive, I feel as though it would be a crimeto not
say anything opinionated about the situation.
The fact is that smoking is a slow suicide. The
facts show that if you smoke you are likely to
die an average of seven years earlier than some
one who does not smoke. Seven vears to some
is not much to some but picture this. In seven
years you could see your kids get married. In
seven years you can witness the birth of your
first grandchild. In a seven years span you could
March 28,1997
one else at Guilford. The gaping questions
left by our investigation signify a terrify
ing lack of communication present at this
school—between students and the admin
istration and between different departments
on campus.
We feel it is right and proper, as stu
dents, to have these questions answered
Above all else, above new computers and
yogurt machines, the administration should
be dedicated to the security of Guilford
students.
It is up to us. The only way we will see
change implemented is to educate our
selves as to Guilford's problems, voice our
displeasure, and work with the adminis
tration to produce open, lasting and suc
cessful changes.
Guilford—let's get to work.
poorer service. When students at Pace Univer
sity in New York rated Marriott at the bottom
of all campus services last semester and when
students at the College of New Rochelle started
a petition to get rid of Marriott, food was only
a part of the concern. They did not like the
way they were treated.
SSC noted customer service in its February
6 memo concerning cafeteria needs.
We're being robbed.
If employees were compensated as they
ought to be, they would feel a lot happier about
doing their jobs. If we did not have Marriott
that could happen. Yes, it will probably cost a
bit more.
However, as an institution grounded in a
forward-looking Quaker social consciousness,
Guilford must rid itself of Marriott.
It's our money or our way of life.
see your grandchild graduate high school or
maybe even college. Now to me that is reason
enough not to smoke.
It is hard not to be preachy on a subject like
this—the deception involved is quite sicken
ing. Companies have known that cigarettes are
bad for your health. After the Surgeon General
came out with their preliminary reports, the
companies should have confessed What they
did not, however, it was like denying that an
orange was an orange. How can you deny facts
based on research? I do not know, but maybe
you can ask the cigarette companies; they did
for over twenty years. Now that the makers of
the hazardous products have admitted that their
products are bad for one's health let's hope we
can go somewhere with it.
Although now that they have admitted to
being wrong I do not see much change coming
about. Even if it does increase the chances of
death by lung cancer by more then 22%, even
if it increases the chances of death from em
physema and bronchitis by nearly 10%, and
even if smoking robs more than 5 million years
off the potential life-span of those who died