Last year was the most difficult I’ve experienced since my 2004 autumn arrival at Guilford. Friends tell me I’m not alone. A series of violent events challenged the comfort and ease that, along with caring faculty and staff, often create an escape from the thunder of the conflict, poverty, racism, and warfare that lurk beyond the peacefulness we experience daily.Eleanor Branch used to teach English here. She received a negative tenure decision and had to leave Guilford. There are issues of privacy and professional peer review, no doubt, that can interfere with a fully open discussion of what happened. But, the Guilford student community is deeply affected by what happens to faculty and staff and, at the least, we need to find ways to better understand college decisions that impact our lives. It is not simply that the college’s tenure practices are, or are not, fair. Or even that barring deeper understanding, a suspicion that race was a factor, whether it was or not, can drill into perception and routine. The controversy surrounding tenure should lead to a critical examination of the school’s faculty hiring and retention practices – for the sake of student understanding, as well as for faculty security.

There were other controversies. Some students called the ethics of Sodexho, the multinational corporation that provides our cafeteria food, into question over their corporate policies. There were concerns about their corporate conduct and their involvement in private prisons, which fueled questions about the treatment of Guilford cafe employees.

The infamous Bryan incident caused more pain than the physical bruises inflicted on each other by the students who came to blows in the residence hall. Our school was divided into factions. We experienced an unbelievable range of emotions that stretched us beyond our zones of comfort and safety. Anger and sadness and frustration and fear and disbelief were staples of the Guilford Campus for nearly an entire semester. When all was said and done, the Bryan incident – the alleged “hate crime” that landed Guilford in newspapers around the country and as far away as Europe and the Middle East- instead boiled down to three acts of violence. Violence among individuals drawing blood. Violence to the tenets of Guilford College. And violence to the pictures in our heads of who as a community we thought we were.

Violence doesn’t belong anywhere. In our community it should never be tolerated and when it occurs it should be treated with the same course of medicine faculty, staff and students apply regularly to the challenges that confront us — questioning, open minds, and trust in the power of full understanding.

I don’t intend to use the Guilfordian to preach to the community. But it is important for those of us who experienced last year to remember what happened and to learn from the wounds we encountered. For those of you who are just joining our community, it is important for you to understand the impact of the past. Upsetting tenure decisions, racism, and student violence are now part of our community. The newspaper staff will make a particular effort this year to help each of us understand the campus world we think of as home. The violence of racism and student confrontation, rules that govern the faculty and effect the students, and our community’s response to them are important issues with valuable lessons. These issues and others will get the coverage they deserve in our pages.

The Guilfordian exists to serve the community, but the community has a responsibility as well. It is our goal at the newspaper to cover relevant and significant issues and events using the highest standards of journalistic ethics and integrity to serve as the foundation for strong discourse. I cannot stress how important it is for you, the readers of The Guilfordian and the members of our community, to contribute to the conversation. If you have something to say, add your voice with a letter to the editor or a full-blown contributed article. I’ll listen. If the newspaper’s job is to spark discussion, then my own task as editor is to invite you into that discussion. Consider this an invitation.