“Dude, this is righteous – a guy who likes to party!” said associate academic dean Jim Hood at the inauguration of Guilford’s eighth president. “This was my third presidential inauguration since coming to Guilford. They tend to be celebratory, forward-looking, at times moving, and optimistic (with a good bit of pomp and circumstance thrown in). This was no exception,” said Richie Zweigenhaft, a psychology professor.
Kent John Chabotar’s official investiture was televised by three news stations and watched in person by 1,000 Guilford students, faculty, staff, alumni, trustees, and guests.

Festival Introit, a song by the choir, got the audience’s attention, and then Ruffin Hobbs ’75, playing bagpipes, led the processional of student flag bearers, faculty, alumni, delegates, and speakers through the entranceway and into the makeshift auditorium.
College trustee Joseph M. Bryan, Jr. ’60 called the audience to order following the processional, delivering a short speech that was fully supportive of Chabotar as the college’s president. Following Bryan’s speech, Max Carter, director of Friends Center and campus ministry coordinator, made a solemn invocation requesting the presence of God in the Field House.

Max’s invocation was tailed by greetings from the faculty, students, and community to the new president. “Most of the speeches were excellent, and Jim Hood’s welcome was just irreverent enough to lighten the occasion,” said sophomore Susan Rahmsdorff.
After another song by the choir, Donald McNemar, Guilford’s seventh president, transferred the charter of Guilford and the key to the original Founders Hall to Chabotar. Bryan again spoke, officially investing Chabotar as Guilford’s eighth president and jokingly blaming the cold winter on Chabotar’s Maine heritage.

Chabotar himself then stood and delivered a resounding inaugural address (Pride and Promise, available on Guilford’s News and Events web page), promising, “you will not need the psychic network to see what’s coming from this president,” among others.
Chabotar’s speech outlined his plans for the college in the future, including nine propositions. Among these were re-focusing the curriculum, increasing enrollment, renovating and maintaining campus buildings, and achieving financial stability.

“We need more full time faculty so that our classes stay small and the student-teacher interactions constant,” Chabotar said.
When speaking about diversity, he waxed sentimental. “When I look out at this gathering, I see a kaleidoscope of white, red, yellow, black, and brown. No one who is not a person of color can really understand what it’s like for our brothers and sisters to live and work in this society.”
He also said, “If we can just remove the air conditioners from the windows in Milner Hall, I will retire happy,” regarding facilities maintenance.

“[Chabotar] understands the financial constraints and realities, but knows that Guilford’s people are its greatest asset,” said dean of campus life Anne Lundquist.

Not everyone is happy with Chabotar’s proposals, however. First year Joanna Kelly said, “having [3,000] students at Guilford would take away from the thing that I love most about this school – its size. It would just become way too impersonal, and I would have to transfer.”
Lauren McCathren, another first year, said, “It might be a better idea to focus on fewer goals but accomplish them to the fullest extent. [Chabotar’s] goals are so broad, and he is only one person; it may be hard to accomplish all of them.”

In closing his speech, Chabotar said, “My image of Guilford College will be what John Winthrop declared on the flagship Arbella almost four hundred years ago, as the Puritans also started a new government in uncertain times. ‘We must always consider,’ he said, ‘that we shall be as a city upon a hill”