Amidst partially consumed food and passed proposals, President Kent Chabotar visited the Feb. 9 Community Senate meeting ready to face tough opposition. By the end, students were more receptive and tolerant than he had expected. Chabotar began his hour-long discussion talking about the lack of previous plans for the college.

“This college made deals, signed initiatives… without even budgeting it,” Chabotar said. “When I got here, they hadn’t even budgeted for my inauguration.”

“Don’t worry, I think balancing a budget is critical,” said Chabotar leading into the need for a balanced budget. According to Chabotar, the Strategic Long Range Plan (SLRP), which took two years to produce, is the first long range plan in the College’s history that is paid for in advance.

Chabotar moved on to the five major parts of the plan, going over each one in detail. Beginning with what he called transformational education, Chabotar stressed that principled problem solving was to be a central tenet of the academic programs at the College. He also explained the “Guilford Challenge:” a plan to integrate co-curricular activities into a student’s final transcript.

Chabotar explained that although the college is looking to expand its alliances with other colleges, Guilford will remain an undergraduate school. However, depending on the programs, some students would be able to do four years at the college and one year at UNCG for a cooperative graduate degree.

He also talked about the steep growth the college has seen in the past year in terms of enrollment. In 2003, the first-year class was only 298 students. By 2004, the number leapt to 440, instead of the budgeted 328. The quality was not lost, according to Chabotar, as 19 percent of the class arriving in 2004 was in the top 10 percent of their class in high school, whereas only 10 percent of the class that arrived in 2003 were in the top 10 percent in high school.

Chabotar said that the plan intends to slow the increase of the school, enough so that by 2010, the enrollment will total 3,300: 1,500 traditional students, 1,700 CCE students, and 100 Early College students.

He also stressed the need for expanding on Guilford’s Quaker heritage. “We need to get serious about this,” Chabotar said, as explained the need for a heavier emphasis on Quaker values. Chabotar proposed a possible Sophomore Year Experience, much like FYE, but intended to focus on the Quaker values and testimonies.

On the subject of stewardship, Chabotar said, “We’ve got to turn over to our successors a college better than when we came into it.”

Stewardship was a big point as Chabotar emphasized that he “wants students to be proud of our campus.” The initiative calls for not only an upgrade of the facilities, but also an expansion of faculty and staff in both numbers and salaries.

Chabotar’s last point involved community. Although intent on making the campus more cohesive and content, Chabotar also said “this is not going to be the Stepford College.”

The plan is to target points of discontent and rectify them as they come about, while trying to bring the entire campus together. Not only intending to pacify student unhappiness, Chabotar also is looking to bring students, faculty, and staff together via added community meeting time on Wednesday afternoons next semester.

Planning on celebrating the kickoff of the SLRP just before spring break, Chabotar said, “We don’t have enough parties here!” No specific date was mentioned.

After taking a number of questions from the remaining senators on environmental plans, the rift between CCE and Traditional students, and the possibility of more majors, Chabotar addressed what he saw as his biggest challenge, that of maintaining the College’s ‘specialness.’

“Most of the country doesn’t know how special this campus is,” he said.

Ending with a slight sigh, Chabotar thanked the Senate for letting him come, and spoke to a few students personally before leaving.

Senior Kate Doom, Community Senate’s Mary Hobbs representative, said afterwards,”You can’t measure a problem by the number of complaints … if everything he said went through, Guilford would be a better place.”

First-year Noah Collin agreed. “I feel like there are efforts to retain that special atmosphere … sometimes numbers can’t say everything though.