Jan. 20 marked the one-year anniversary of the violent fight between Guilford students that came to be known as the “Bryan Incident.” Those of us who were here to experience it remember the shock that swept the community and the outpouring of emotions-fear, anger, sorrow, frustration-that followed the fight.

Life was different in the wake of the Bryan incident; the community was both brought together and pushed apart. We shined when we met at the New Garden Meeting House to share our opinions and feelings in an appropriate, respectful manner. We excelled when we rallied in front of Founders to express disbelief and propose solutions for our huge problem. We floundered when we constructed walls and divides-polarizing groups like athletes and non-athletes. We have physical reminders of the Bryan Incident, representations of its wide-reaching impact on our campus. Metal gates bar the entranceways to Bryan Hall. Professional hall directors replaced their student counterparts in the residence halls as an extra safety measure. But, these are reminders of the worst part of the Bryan Incident, the grotesque, inappropriate actions of a few students.

It is important for us, a year later and for years to come, to remember the best parts of the Bryan Incident-the New Garden Meeting Houses, the Founders’ rallies. Our ability to come together as a supportive community to try to find solutions to our problems was important and remarkable.

It is particularly important that we remember our community reaction because we continue to have violence on our campus. The third-floor bathroom in Milner was smeared with human feces and a disparaging and insulting note was written to the cleaning staff in tandem. A swastika and “death to fags” were written on a professor’s office door in Dana.

Though no punches were thrown, these are acts of deplorable violence that, like the Bryan Incident, have no place in a community that prides itself on peace, tolerance, and acceptance. Again, like the violence in Bryan Hall, the events in Milner and Dana deserve the reaction of a supportive campus. We need to make it clear that violence in any form does not belong at Guilford.