The Guilford Beacon

Digest of the October Board of Trustees Meeting Published

October 31, 2009

Guilford College Board of Trustees
Meeting Digest
October 2009

The Board of Trustees convened Oct. 3. The following is a digest of board activity (board action in italics).

Chair JOSEPH M. BRYAN JR. welcomed and introduced new board members and expressed appreciation for those members rotating off the board.

Plenary Session: Self-Assessment Survey

MARTHA SUMMERVILLE provided a general overview of the results of the recent Board of Trustees self-assessment survey. The survey included four parts: Our board as a Working Board, Governing Higher Education, Going Forward and Personal Reflection. Regular self-assessment and examination of the board’s culture are two important hallmarks of effective boards. The results of the self-review were positive, and will be further discussed by the Trusteeship and Governance Committee, as well as the full board.

Principled Problem Solving

MARK JUSTAD, director if the Center for Principled Problem Solving, reviewed the mission of the Center, which emanates from placing Guilford’s core values (community, diversity, equality, excellence, integrity, justice, stewardship) into work in the world. Justad offered a summary of short-term and long-term projects and initiatives that the Center is currently addressing, including the PPS Scholars program. Justad reviewed the center’s goals for the future, including endowing the center and establishing Guilford as a national model for comprehensive campus-wide efforts to teach personal and social responsibility.

Capital Campaign Steering Committee Report

Vice President for Advancement MIKE POSTON reported that the capital campaign has reached nearly $37.4 million toward a goal of $75 million. He further stated that trustees have pledged $11.8 million of their $18.5 million campaign goal. He reported the gifts, pledges and bequests in the amount of $25,000 and above that have been received since May 2009. DAN MOSCA reported that the Capital Campaign Steering Committee convened on Sept. 30.

COMMITTEE REPORTS

Academic Affairs

The college currently has a 17:1 student/faculty ratio, slightly higher than the 16:1 ratio outlined in The Strategic Plan for Guilford College 2005-2010.

Vice President for Academic Affairs ADRIENNE ISRAEL shared the criteria developed to measure academic programs, approved by the by division chairs, Curriculum Committee and Clerk’s Committee. During 2007-08, each department share submitted a report providing qualitative data. Quantitative data from the registrar, Office of Institutional Research and others were combined with these reports to measure each department by these criteria. The committee reviewed the preliminary results.

The committee will also review a report on student outcomes, based on 2003 data.

The board approved the following faculty promotions:

KYLE DELL, assistant to associate professor, Department of Political Science
KAREN HAYES, assistant to associate professor, Department of Psychology
ANGELA MOORE, assistant to associate professor, Department of Geology
DAVID NEWTON, assistant to associate professor, Department of Art

Zhihong Chen to Deliver Annual Newlin Lecture in History Nov. 9

October 30, 2009

The intersection of environment and human development will be the subject of the annual Algie I. Newlin Lecture, to be delivered by history professor ZHIHONG CHEN on Monday, Nov. 9, at 7:30 p.m. at the Community Center.

In her talk, “Place and Race: How Geographers Defined Racial and Ethnic Identities in Early 20th Century China,” Chen will look at how a group of Chinese geographers used their knowledge of climate to legitimize racial and ethnic ideologies from the 1910s through the 1930s. The lecture will ask to what extent climate determines human character and how this geographical knowledge can be used to justify racial and ethnic boundaries.

Chen is an assistant professor of history, teaching courses in pre-modern and modern Chinese, Japanese, and Asia Pacific history. A primary area of interest is the ethnic and geographic formation of the modern Chinese nation. She earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Beijing University in Beijing, China, and an M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Oregon.

The lecture is free and open to the public. For more information, contact the Department of History at 316-2226.

The Algie I. Newlin Lecture, sponsored annually by the history department, honors a key member of the department from 1924-66.

Theatre Studies to Present Chekov’s “Uncle Vanya” Nov. 13-14 and Nov. 19-21

October 30, 2009

The Department of Theatre Studies will open its season with a student performance of Anton Chekov’s classic drama “Uncle Vanya” Nov. 13-14 and Nov. 19-21. All performances will take place at 8 p.m. in Sternberger Auditorium.

“Uncle Vanya,” first produced in 1900, is one of four plays that Chekov published before his death in 1904. The play presents a Russian family at a turning point in their lives, when they re-examine their pasts, question their futures and find the courage to continue.

Director DAVID HAMMOND, a professor of theatre studies, says, “The issues the family faces in the play include an uncertain economy, political change, failed dreams of success and destruction of the environment. Their world and their problems are strikingly similar to our own.”

Hammond previously directed “Uncle Vanya” for graduate students and professional actors at the American Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco and at Playmakers Repertory Company, where he was artistic director for 14 years. This all-student cast includes RYAN FURLOUGH ’10, DUSTIN GRIMSLEY ’13, PALMER HICKS ’12, ALLISON MARTIN ’10, MARY PEARL MONNES ’10, RICHARD ROGERS ’13, BEN STOREY ’10, ALEXANDRA STROUD ’12, and NORA YOUNES ’11.

Tickets are $5 for general admission and $1 for Guilford students, faculty and staff members. For ticket information and reservations, call the box office at 316-2414.

Anne Morrison Welsh and Stevie Westmoreland to Discuss Post-Vietnam Healing Nov. 9-10

October 30, 2009

Two speakers with ties to the Vietnam War era will visit in early November to talk about their respective journeys of reconciliation and healing. Anne Morrison Welsh, widow of Norman Morrison, and Stevie Westmoreland, daughter of Gen. William Westmoreland, will speak Monday, Nov. 9, and Tuesday, Nov. 10, respectively.

Each program will take place at 7:30 p.m. in Joseph M. Bryan Jr. Auditorium, located in the Frank Family Science Center, and each is free and open to the public.

Welsh’s first husband, a Baltimore Quaker, self-immolated on the steps of the Pentagon in 1965 in protest of American involvement in Vietnam. Welsh later directed the Rural Southern Voice for Peace in western North Carolina and in 1999 made a pilgrimage of healing to Vietnam. She will speak about her family’s experiences, recounted in her book (authored with Joyce Hollyday), Held in the Light: Norman Morrison’s Sacrifice for Peace and His Family’s Journey of Healing.

Westmoreland was in her teens when her father commanded American military operations in Vietnam from 1964-68 and later served as Army Chief of Staff from 1968-1972. She returned to Vietnam last spring for the first time since her family’s deployment. She will speak about reconciling her love for her father with the destructive impact of the war whose strategy he helped direct. Her daughter, MOLLY, is a student at Guilford.

Harrelson, Buckner Named Associate Vice Presidents in Advancement Area

October 30, 2009

JERRY W. HARRELSON ’72 and TY BUCKNER have been promoted to associate vice president positions, Vice President for Advancement MIKE POSTON announced. The appointments were effective in October.

Harrelson will be associate vice president for alumni relations and Buckner will be associate vice president for communications and marketing. They are being promoted from director and senior director positions, respectively. Both have been employed at the college since the 2001-02 academic year.

“Promoting Jerry and Ty is not only a recognition of their dedication and good work but also the importance the college places on the alumni relations and communications and marketing functions,” Poston said. “Engaging our alumni and promoting the college to a wide range of constituents is pivotal to our success in attracting support for the college and achieving enrollment and other business goals. We are grateful for the efforts Jerry and Ty have made and will make in these areas.”

Harrelson is responsible for all aspects of alumni relations including the strategic engagement of alumni spread across the United States as well as alumni living in 60 foreign countries. In addition, Harrelson is responsible for relationships with over 100 key donor prospects. He joined Guilford in March 2002 as director of planned giving, and assumed the position of director of alumni relations in September of that year.

In the first 30 years of his career in the UNC System, Harrelson was the senior undergraduate enrollment officer at UNCG. He worked two years as director of admissions and records at Rockingham Community College. He is the 2002 recipient of the CACRAO (Carolinas Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers) Excellence Award and an Honorary Lifetime Member of CACRAO.

He earned a bachelor’s degree in economics from Guilford and a master’s degree in guidance and higher education administration from UNCG in 1973. He has served on the Guilford College Alumni Association Board of Directors, the Board of Visitors and member of the President’s Club and a past chair along with his wife, MELISSA THOMPSON HARRELSON ’72.

Buckner is responsible for all aspects of communications and marketing including the development and implementation of a strategic integrated marketing plan. In addition to media relations, publications and Web content, Buckner and his staff coordinate the Bryan Series. He joined the college in July 2001 as director of college relations and has been senior director of communications and marketing since April 2007.

In his first 16 years in higher education, Buckner was on the intercollegiate athletics staff at UNCG, serving as sports information director beginning in 1985 and later assistant and associate athletic director for public affairs. He was on staff throughout the movement of the athletic program from Division III to Division I of the NCAA. He won awards for publications and helped establish the UNCG Athletics Hall of Fame.

He earned a bachelor’s degree in English from UNCG in 1984 and began working with the athletic staff as a college sophomore.

Early College Math Team named State Champion in American Mathematics Contest

October 29, 2009

The math team at The Early College at Guilford was recently named 1A state champion for its performance in the 2009 American Mathematics Contest. The team is coached by Paul Smith and includes Thomas Lu, who posted the high score in the contest.