Many Guilford students feel that the college costs too much money, that the campus needs to hire more tenure-track professors, and that no one in power listens to them.
Students being frustrated are nothing new, but now members of the student senate have become openly frustrated with the school’s administration. I firmly believe that this frustration stems from decisions the school had to make because of a lack of money and a need for increased revenue.
“The administration respects Senate and the students,” said one influential member of Senate who is close to the situation. “However, I do feel that they think that we are all just babies and cannot possibly know what the real issues are. I also feel that when students have an issue that they think we are simply crying. The administration needs to really look at the students’ concerns.”
One of the more divisive issues here at Guilford is traditional students’ relationship with CCE students. Some traditional students seem to believe that they are no longer a priority here; CCE students are.
This is not to imply that anybody is against adult education, or that one body of students gets priority over the other, but I believe people want to see a happy medium between the two.
From the same member of Senate: “In some ways I feel that CCE students are more of a priority of the college than the traditional students … I would have no problem with this; however, I feel that traditional students are not being taken seriously with their concerns about the growth.”
When asked for a response, Bill Stevens pointed out several facts: the number of employees in the CCE Office is less now than in 1990; CCE students give the college more academic diversity, and if adult students did not go to Guilford, it would be a lot more expensive.
But these concerns are not just limited to possible inequalities among different types of students. There has been the tuition increase in the past month that has also raised the eyebrows of many students; especially since CCE tuition was raised about 1.5% less than that of traditional student.
While tuition increases are necessary to help increase revenue and to bring back a balanced budget, it is not viable to raise tuition each year. There has to be a point where tuition can be raised no more.
When asked for a comment on this issue, President Kent Chabotar said this about the tuition increase: “I do not think that a 1.5% difference in the increase in student fees between CCE and traditional students constitutes balancing the budget on the backs of one group or the other … given a target of having student fees around the middle of the competition, we had more room to increase traditional student fees since we were toward the bottom in price compared to CCE, where we were in the middle.”
Another anonymous member of Senate does agree that the school is moving toward a better financial position, but questions some of the logic behind the tuition raises.
“Tuition hikes at the level proposed would not be sustainable in the long term. Many question whether or not Guilford is worth $27k per year, even when taking into account all the extras and even if only one student actually pays that rate. The problem here is that the public views many comparisonschools as being better institutions. Guilford is the fourth most expensive private school in the state, following Duke, Davidson and Wake Forest. This certainly begs the question that there are better values available elsewhere in the state, even at other private schools.”
Clearly, there are some serious challenges facing all Guilford students and the school’s administrators in the upcoming years. I commend the student senate for having the gumption to do something in the best interest of the students that previous senates have not done.
The administrators of this school have also been fighting an uphill battle for the past few years when it comes to the school’s financial viability. Clearly, budget issues have dictated the personnel who have come and gone over the past few years.
It should have been clear when Guilford brought in the former chief CFO of Bowdoin College and when CFO Phil Manz and Associate CFO Jim Vroom recently resigned, that making Guilford financially stable for the long term is still something that needs a lot of work.
Is the school acting in the students best interests as a teaching institution or has the school become so focused on the bottom line that academics have taken some blows over the last few years?
My point here is that all of these problems I have talked about in this piece are not unrelated and it all boils down to the fact that the school just does not have enough money to do everything it would like to. This problem breeds this type of frustration and when not enough money is present, unpleasant decisions are made and problems arise.