On the weekend of April 14, the ground shook as a herd of prospective students, stampeded across campus. That weekend, 272 prospective Guilford students and their families visited campus for Spring Into Guilford but more disturbing than the massive quantity of visitors was the way in which Guilford bent over backwards to impress these outsiders.

Spring into Guilford is an event for admitted students, allowing them an opportunity to come on campus and supposedly see what our school is all about.

“It’s the biggest event for admitted students,” said Shelley George, Assistant Director of Admissions and the co-coordinator of Spring Into Guilford. “(Spring Into Guilford is) a great way to show them what a Guilford education can afford them.”

Technically though, we are not showing them what Guilford really is. We are showing them Guilford with a nice fresh coat of shellac.

I live in the rat hole that is Milner, and for at least two weeks, three used condoms lay in front of my dorm.

However, as Spring Into Guilford rolled around, such delightful lawn ornaments were gone, as was the cracking paint in the Underground, trash around the lake, and the giant pollen tumbleweeds that roll in front of Founders.

The Admissions Department justifies this superficial facelift on the fact that the weekend’s events and the campus’ appearance might be determining factors for students shopping for colleges.

“For some this is their first time to Guilford, others it’s a follow-up,” said George in regard to the campus makeover. “We certainly want students to have a positive experience”

Isn’t it ironic that those of us who pay the $30,000 Guilford tuition and will be in debt for the rest of our lives because of it, live in lackluster dorms and facilities which are only gussied up when company is coming?

Tiffany Lowery, a first-year and former Spring Into Guilford attendant agrees that attention is disproportionately distributed to prospective students, rather than those of us who actually attend Guilford.

“I think that if they are going to do something to better Guilford, they should do it for the good of the Guilford community and the current students, not prospective students who may or may not go here” said Lowery.

But Admissions continues to lead these kids to believe that life at Guilford is just one big, clean well-oiled machine.

“(We try to offer them a) fresh perspective of what they can expect,” said George.

Perhaps that is accurate. If the students choose to enroll at Guilford, they can expect clean buildings, fresh paint, and trimmed lawns right around the middle of April to impress the next herd.