Joseph M. Bryan Jr. chaired his first meeting of Guilford’s board of trustees from Feb. 24-25. “Of course we ended up very early, which was delightful, but I think everyone had a chance to speak what they wanted to say,” Bryan said.

The meetings covered the budget, the upcoming capital campaign, and new building plans.

“For the first time in the long time I’ve been here it was a balanced budget,” Bryan said. Director of College Relations Ty Buckner said the budget has been moving towards balanced for several years.

A $75 million fundraising campaign is in the strategic plan, but the trustees will hold a spring feasibility study to decide the goal for fall’s drive. The last campaign raised $56.4 million, more than any other college in Guilford County.

Of the new campaign, Bryan said, ” It’s not a big number that we just pulled out of the air, it all came from the strategic plan.”

The trustees also discussed a campus master plan to place the strategic plan’s future buildings.

“A college or university, every so often … does a plan for the places to put the buildings … and usually engages an outside firm to assist them at making this ‘master plan,’ If you’re looking at it from an air perspective, what does the college look like?” said Ty Buckner.

Director of Facilities and Campus Services Jon Varnell said in an e-mail that while the board will not develop the central green, the lake, or the woods, the meadows are a possible building site.

The Quaker Life Committee adopted a “new intent” on Jan. 7. It reiterates the school’s Quakerism, and commits the school to relationships with other Quaker institutions, “in order to build mutual respect, support, and understanding and to establish the College as an important international institution among Quakers.”

Before the meetings, trustees ate with students in the cafeteria and held their first open office hours. Buckner expects open office hours before the October 2005 and February 2006 board meetings.

“They would welcome any comment about student services, academic programs, etc.,” he said in an e-mail.

President and Professor of Political Science Kent Chabotar hopes students will take the new chance to talk to the trustees. He points out, though, that every other office already holds open hours, and that students should feel comfortable talking to nearer departments about their problems.

“If you have to return something to a department store that you bought, you should be able to deal with the sales clerk or the floor supervisor, and not go to the board of directors,” Chabotar said. “If it is something to do with procedures around here, bureaucracy, whatever, I need to know that so that we can fix it.”

The board of trustees meets three times a year. They will hold their next meeting in June 2005.