WIGUILFORDIAN
Greensboro, N.C.
Next year's Bryan Series speakers announced
Charlie McAlpin
Staff Writer
For the first time, Guilford is choosing
2005-2006 speakers around a prede
termined theme. At the request of the
Initiative on Faith and Practice, that theme
will be The Year of Spirit and Spirituality
(YSS).
Karen Armstrong, Desmond Tutu and Bill
Moyers will headline the theme in the Bryan
Series.
"We needed to figure out how to include
in dialogues across the campus people who
do not define themselves as religious," said
Eric Mortensen, professor of religious stud
ies and member of the YSS Guiding
Committee. Spirit and spirituality will extend
beyond specific religions.
In the previous Year of the Arts, Guilford
Sodexho and Follett employees gain benefits
Caitlin Adams
Staff Writer
Sodexho and Follett full
time employees at Guilford
will gain tuition remission bene
fits for themselves, dependents
and spouses. President Kent
Chabotar announced these ben
efits, which will closely mirror
those that Guilford employees
currently receive.
"This is my idea. Believe it or
not I have an original idea," said
Chabotar.
Chabotar thought of this in
early Nov., shortly after the
strategic plan passed.
Goal five in the strategic plan
is community. Giving tuition
remission benefits to Sodexho
and Follett employees will, ideal
ly, add a greater sense of com
munity between them and the
rest of the Guilford community.
Additionally, out-source
employees will receive access
to the library and athletic facili
ties.
The President is trying to
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Nobel Prize winner Desmond Tutu will
headline next year's Bryan speakers
President Kent Chabotar came up with a
theme after he had seen the speakers.
Next year Chabotar is choosing speakers,
with the input of some faculty and staff, for
weave the strategic plan into
things that he could easily make
happen here on campus," said
Fred Devine, Director of Human
Resources.
"A dining services worker
came up to me and she said her
daughter was going to Guilford,"
said Chabotar. "She had to pay
the last part of her tuition and
she felt it was really too bad she
had to do that because she felt
as much as part of the commu
nity as anyone else, but she
worked for an outside contrac
tor."
"I did it for her," he continued.
"She is such a nice person."
The tuition remission is
retroactive, allowing reimburse
ment for the current semester
for those that are eligible.
Full-time Sodexho and Follett
employees must be employed
for 30 days to receive these
benefits for themselves, and 12
months of continuous full-time
employment is necessary before
their college-age dependents or
Volume 91, Issue 20
www.guilfordian.com
spouse are eligible. New
Guilford employees follow the
same guidelines.
Guilford is the only institution
that provides this benefit to out
sourced Sodexho employees.
"I thought that plenty would be
doing this and I wanted to copy
any policies, but we couldn't find
one," said Chabotar.
The Sodexho and Follett
employees that take advantage
of this plan will pay taxes on it.
The value of the reported tuition
must be claimed as taxable
income to the IRS.
"According to the college's
CPA (Certified Public
Accountant) firm, the IRS con
tends that the college can pro
vide the tuition remission benefit
to non-employees on a non-dis
criminatory basis," said Devine.
"But, non-employees cannot
exclude it from their income as
employees can."
Michael Watts, General
Manager of Dining Services
said, "I was very excited to hear
their abilities to contribute to a central
theme.
"Gorbachev is a really tough act to follow,"
Chabotar said, "so we knew we wanted at
least one person who was very well known
and who fit within the theme."
That person was Desmond Tutu.
Tutu is Archbishop Emeritus and Dean of
the Anglican Church in Cape Town, South
Africa. For battling apartheid, Tutu was
awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984.
Tutu was the first black dean of St. Mary's
Anglican Cathedral in Johannesburg, the
first black bishop in Johannesburg, and the
first black archbishop of Cape Town.
President Nelson Mandela appointed Tutu
the chair of the Truth and Reconciliation
Commission. The group investigates crimes
of apartheid in South Africa.
Continued on Page 3
that President Chabotar was
going to do this. I think it does a
great deal in building the rela
tionship, partnership and build
ing a community."
"I have not been contacted by
any bookstore or dining service
employees yet about the pro
gram," said Devine. "Even if it is
just one or two people it is going
to be successful."
Pam Jones, six-year dining
services employee, expressed
interest in such benefits previ
ous to the tuition remission
announcement. In respect to her
23-year-old daughter, Jones
said, "I would definitely look into
that and want her to come
here."
"People that work for Sodexho
and the bookstore, a lot of them
don't make a lot of money. It
helps those that are neediest in
our community," said Chabotar.
"If we gain two or three good
students that would not come
here otherwise, that to me is
pay back for this."3€
February 25, 2005
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