“There is nothing wrong with our community that can’t be solved by what is right with our community,” said Leonard Lawson, member of the student-led, problem-solving initiative OURStory that organized the forum held Jan. 31 in Bryan Jr. auditorium to discuss the violent incident in Bryan Hall earlier in the semester. The forum was moderated by members of the Conflict Resolution Center (CRC) and featured a panel of representatives from various on-campus groups responding to three preconceived questions about the incident.

A wide variety of groups were represented on the panel including PRIDE, the soccer team, BUS, The Native American Club, HUG, the football team, QLSP and CCE students.

The questions the panelists responded to were projected on the wall behind them. The questions focused on the school-wide response to the aftermath of the incident.

“I felt betrayed and stereotyped as a football player,” said junior Josh Vogelbach, one of the football team’s representatives. “People don’t give us a chance to find out what we are really about. I don’t agree with how a lot of things were handled, the Guilfordian bad-mouthing the football team for instance. I don’t agree with violence; I don’t believe in fighting, but this has been a totally one-sided thing.”

“I feel like our response was above and beyond what any other college would have done,” said sophomore QLSP representative Maddie Winters. “But, we were very aggressive in the things we had to say, which is understandable, but we segregated ourselves, we were very harsh to athletes in general, and that is not something I am proud of.”

The meetings held for students of color in response to the incident were praised, and the panelists agreed that the meetings had been one of the most powerful responses to the incident.

“The meetings for students of color that I participated in helped me a lot as an international student,” said junior HUG representative Irving Zavaleta. “It was a safe place where I didn’t need to express why I was feeling a certain way, just how I was feeling.”

The divide between athletes – football players specifically – and the rest of the school was discussed. The reasons behind the divide were questioned and steps towards bridging the divide were discussed.

“We are a group of 70 plus guys and when we come here for pre-season we spend all our time together,” said junior football representative Troy Smith. “We live together, eat together, sleep together. It’s a comfort-level thing. There is a respect we have for each other; there is a bond we have that we don’t have with anyone else . but having this talk is a huge positive. The past week or so on the football team, we felt like we had each other and that was about it.”

The polarization of on-campus groups based on race, gender, sexual preference or lifestyle was repeatedly addressed.

“We have an idea of community, we talk about how it should be,” said sophomore soccer representative Peter Deng. “Within a community you have separate groups and that’s what makes it a community. The best way for us to come together is to have respect for each other. We may never like everyone all the time but we have to respect them; you have to look in their eyes and recognize something human.”

After the forum, many students and faculty stayed to talk, discuss the forum and make further plans.

“A lot of issues were tiptoed around and many issues could have been discussed which weren’t,” said junior Clare Hyre. “The questions were vague and that resulted in panelists talking around what they were trying to say. It was good to hear the football players’ perspectives though.”

“It went a whole lot better then I was expecting,” Smith said after the forum. It was a great sense of community; everyone was respectful, and everyone cooperated. It was nice to know that people wanted to hear from us. I just wish it had happened a week ago.”

Some attendees were not entirely satisfied by the structure of this forum and expressed their desire for more community forums in the future.

“I was expecting a discussion-oriented forum where the audience could explain their points of view,” said sophomore Menemsha Milnor. “It was very frustrating for people who came expecting to be involved and instead had to bite their tongues. There is a time for reflection, which is what this forum was; now we need a moderated, student-oriented discussion.