V ( ) I U)
( I I j I i I ( ) K
FEATURES
Theartof
employment: how
to afford your
crazy art degree
DESPITE FEARS ABOUT A
‘USELESS’ LIBERAL ARTS
DEGREE, REAL-LIFE JOBS
ARE POSSIBLE
BY LANE MARTIN
Staff Writer
"Some of the educational elite have
taken over our education where we're
offering courses that have no chance of
getting people jobs/' said Governor Pat
McCrory in a recent interview on Bill
Bennett's national radio show.
Whether or not you agree with the
claim that the elite are pressuring students
towards useless degrees. Gov. McCrory's
desire to defund seemingly dead-end
degrees for more practical paths echoes a
common misconception: you will not find
a job if you have a liberal arts degree.
Everyone has heard the jokes about
English majors flipping burgers, but in
reality, employment is often the cause
of a great deal of anxiety among artists,
historians and other students in what are
perceived as dead-end fields.
Some students avoid these majors all
together, citing their perceived uselessness
See degree I Page 7
NEWS
After 11 years, what has Kent
Chahetar dene fer GnilferdP
YSniEB
THE GUILFORDIAN DIVES DEEP INTO THE PRESIDENCY LOOKING AT FINANCES,
ACADEMICS, SLRPI & II, DIVERSITY AND MORE.
BY VICTOR LOPEZ
Senior Writer
Last week. The Guilfordian looked
at President Kent Chabotar's tenure as
Guilford's top administrator over the past
decade in a career that is said to soon end
in retirement.
This week, using six categories of
investigation. The Guilfordian will
assess the state of the college during
Chabotar's 11-year term, relying on
reports and interviews from trustees, the
Strategic Long Range Plan, and related
reports and statistics provided by Kent
Grumbles, director institutional research &
assessment:
I) STRATEGY:
The College developed SLRP I (2005-10)
and SLRP II (2011-16). SLRP I was the first
strategic plan actually implemented in the
last 20 years.
SLRP I identified our seven core values
and led to such programs as Principled
Problem Solving and Guilford Connects,
as well as renewed emphasis on financial
equilibrium, fund-raising and facilities.
SLRP II is about assessing and marketing
educational outcomes including work and
graduate school. SLRP II also led to the
J-Term and increased emphasis on study
away and study abroad.
However, not all the initiatives have
been successful. Guilford Connects, an
experiential learning program rooted in
digital portfolios, has been a failure since its
inception two years ago. It is now issuing
a proposal for a new universal experiential
learning requirement that has generated
controversy among faculty. Currently the
curriculum committee is pitching the plan
to the community.
Additionally, IT on Guilford's campus is
unreliable, becoming a liability for all who
use it. Technology often fails in classrooms,
and wireless connections often drop as
well. This is something that Chabotar has
said "needs work."
2) ACADEMICS:
The Southern Association of Colleges
and Schools, Guilford's accrediting
organization, uses about 80 principles to
assess the quality of the academic program
and the sufficiency of the institution's
faculty, student services, finances and
facilities to support it. Guilford barely
passed in the 1990s.
Based on off-site and on-site reviews
by Guilford's peer institutions, SACS
reaffirmed Guilford's accreditation in
2007 and approved the five-year interim
report in 2013 with no recommendations
for improvement. This is an achievement
earned by only one percent of over 900
SACS colleges and universities.
Although the College has received these
accolades for academic programming, not
all vital signs are uniformly stellar.
See CHABOTAR | Page 2
Hong Kong TV show
does not sit well with
Chinese government
BYKATY
ANDREWS
St/^f Writer
VIDEO: Guilford
College Harlem
“Quake”
BY THE
GUILFORDIAN
VIDEO DEPARTMENT
ONLINE:
Important weekly
Senate Update
INSIDE THIS ISSUE
NEWS I UNDERSTANDING RACISM | Page 3
W&N I LAPD MANIFESTO, KILLINGS | Page 5
FEATURES | Q&A LEE WOODRUFF | Page 8
OPINION I ABORTION CLINIC CLOSES | Page 9