Bryan residents protest chalk ban Andrew Kobayashi STAFF WRITER A concrete courtyard played host to a display of com munity as Bryan residents came together last Friday af ternoon to turn a frustrated protest against perceived cen sorship into a sprawling piece of lyrical art. Chalking on the walls out side of Bryan dorms was out lawed for the first time this year, and amidst confusion about the reasons for the new rule, many residents felt that their artistic voices were being smothered by bureaucracy. Guilford students are no torious for their social con sciousness, and they do not take lightly any perceived at tack on their freedoms, espe cially the freedom of speech. But is this a case of freedoms deprived? Or have students, overzealously protecting their rights, failed to comprehend the full picture? The latter is exactly the case, according to residential life director Patty Burgoon. "Last year the task of removing Andrea Gerlak to leave Guilford Casey Creel STAFF WRITER "It's a tremendous loss for the college," said Ken Gilmore, K/|f f \jjy^H^| i> i.^*wy This semester will be Gerlak's last THE GUILFORDIAN Greensboro, NC , JL: 1 ; j ill: • f 'HKV* A # I The decorated Bryan quad head of the Political Science de partment. "She is a great teacher, a good friend, and will certainly be missed at Guilford," said Dave Dobson, Geology and Earth Sciences professor. "I could always go to her and she'd go out of her way to help me," said James Tatum, a junior Political Sci ence major. "I'm certainly sorry to see her go." Andrea Gerlak, a profes sor of Political Science since 1996 and the person chiefly responsible for the Environ mental Studies major, will leave Guilford at the end of December. "It caught me by sur prise," said Tatum, who learned of Andrea's depar ture through an email to Po litical Science majors two weeks before the school year BRITA HELGESEN began. "I don't see how she could possibly turn it down though." What Gerlak could not turn down was a job offer to teach at Columbia University's Bio sphere, a giant metal and glass dome built in the early 90's to host every ecosystem found on the planet. The facility is located 30 miles outside of Tuscon, Ari zona. Columbia took over what was originally a privately funded operation after it closed in 1995. October 5, 2001 the chalk went to maintenance, and since they were unable to remove some of it, the students were made to pay damages. We didn't want that to happen this year," she said. So the problem was addressed at what seemed to be the root, and the chalk ing was forbidden. But this was not the logi cal conclusion for many stu dents. First-year Tyson Buis said, "If the problem was re moval, why not just let us ac cept financial responsibility and be done with it?" "This is completely ridicu lous," said sophomore Biynne Kirk, as she and fellow pro chalk activist Alicia Frasca cir culated a petition to all Bryan residents. The petition was in tended to be a compromise. The wall-art could stay up, but all words and phrases would be promptly taken down. This would not be a bad idea by most standards of taste, as one such phrase reminded Bryanites to "act your age, not your [exple tive deletedl size." But a compromise was not to be had, and steps were taken See Chalk, p. 3 LEAH KEFALOST The university bought it to offer students "interdisciplinary hands-on experience in environ mental studies." "There aren't too many rain forests in New York," Gerlak joked. Her teaching at the Bio sphere will deal directly with the topic of both her dissertation and the manuscript she is currently writing: water policy in the West. See Gerlak, p. 2

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