Guilford is a college of students and professors who value transparency and open communication, and the college delivers this in part through the Buzz.
But as it stands right now it seems that the Buzz is ineffective because of our lack of concern for the information within.
Essentially the Buzz replaced rampant mass emails and mass voicemails and has served the purpose of eliminating the clutter of those processes.
In 2003, President and Professor of Political Science Kent Chabotar brought the idea of Guilford’s Buzz with him when he became president, according to vice president of marketing Ty Buckner. This is a measure that would be more effective if more students actually read the Buzz.
“It has also drawn attention to the emergency nature of a mass email or voicemail message from the College,” said Buckner. “All in all, a success in my opinion.”
Recently in a private conversation, a CCE SGA board member stated that CCE students were hard to reach because they simply did not read their email, the Buzz, or even The Guilfordian. It was as if some simply did not care, were uninterested, or were too busy.
User Services Manager Teresa Sanford told The Guilfordian that some people scoff at the idea of having to read the Buzz.
“It’s sad actually to hear someone be so proud of the fact that they don’t read the only sanctioned form of mass communication on campus, but also hear them be the first to complain when they don’t know something,” said Sanford.
As a college student, I want to be in tune with what is going on at my college — even if I am not planning on taking part in the events. We are being taught to be critical thinkers and how to be aware of the local, national and world events taking place around us, so it would stand to reason that we would want to know what is happening in our back yard.
In a Guilfordian survey of 52 students, both traditional and CCE, placed on Facebook and the Buzz, 41.7 percent of the students polled said they felt their peers used the Buzz, 38.9 percent said their peers did not and 19.4 percent said “they didn’t know. 84.6 percent of those surveyed said they read the Buzz daily while 13.5 percent said they only did once in a while.
On the other end of the spectrum, traditional students at times have to deal with a deluge of homework and reading and do not have time to read the Buzz.
One of my professors said, “You know college isn’t just about papers. Get out and be involved.”
I wondered if he had forgotten the homework he had recently assigned and how impossible, at times, it makes students’ lives.
Still, there is no reason that, as students, we cannot take the time to read the Buzz and make ourselves aware of what is going on around campus.
“It only takes five minutes to browse the Buzz and it can be uploaded to most mobile devices,” said Sanford.
For better or worse, the centralized platform we have for campus wide communication is the Buzz. Short of blaring public service announcements at the start of every class, it is what we have to work with. Why not give it a shot?
Lewis Stewart • Nov 24, 2015 at 7:06 am
Open letter given before 11/20/15 prier to Demand letters
Open Letter
November 24, 2015
Dear Jane K. Fernandes
This is Lewis A. Stewart, we spoke outside the Hege library; I just want to thank you for taking the time to read my letter. I fully understand the issues on campus between the administrations and the African American student body. These students are upset behind “Black Lives Matter”; most young students felt the College did not support them when they wanted Black Lives Matter to speak on campus. In addition, after the ‘Black Lives Matter’ rally was over, the students felt even more upset because it appeared that the College took credit from “Black lives Matter” as if to say that Guilford College were the ones who invited them. The second issue was that they felt that the hiring practices in the past two years show discrimination. They cited that 6 African Americans top staff were fired or left on their own, but their replacements were white or other ethnic groups as opposed to African Americans to replace the ones that are gone. The third issue raised is the fact that the students felt that in upper management and board members does not have any African American representation.
In addition, the week coming is multicultural week. However, the continent of Africa is not being represented. The African Americans and brown people in housekeeping and kitchen staff are feeling discriminated against as well as under privileged. The housekeeping staff is shorthanded; they are made to clean more places yet they are finding it very hard to accomplish the task they are given. These things I have been able to gather between staff and students among the African American community.
These issues, which I cited, are fixable from what I gather. These issues are not your fault at all. Although, as President of Guilford College, the buck stops with you. I understand that you have to run this college as a business; making choices about budgets cuts are not easy. I also understand that not everything you do or decisions you make are based on race. I understand that when the young students protested twice; you opened up to them but they did not come to speak on these grievances with you. I personally do not see you as a racist therefore, I come to you with compassion; these issues, which these students and staff are raising are due to the fact that no one is talking with you but instead they are talking at you. There is no one staff member, student, or Bonner willing to take the time to educate you and educate the ‘African American’ student body as to ‘The business’ of college nor do I see anyone willing to understand both sides of the issues or come to mutual arguments or to any solutions. They have even brought these issues to Facebook to make their voices heard publicly, giving the impression that the school is racist. This action will cause potential students and staff not to come to Guilford College. Therefore, I am offering my services to stop the battle between you and the student body. I am a CCE student and I presently work for Guilford County School so I deal with High School kids daily and I am able to stop many conflicts with kids or teenagers. I am 48 years old and I have raised four girls who are now adults, but I have the maturity to handle this issue. I am a youth minister and a part time educator from New York City and I have dealt with a myriad of people.
I will lay out some solutions to these issues. I am fully aware that you have a staff and these people are supposed to communicate with you about many things. Nevertheless, I am offering to become your personal liaison. My role will be to communicate between student bodies and administration and I will be able to speak or educate you on some issues within the student body (African Americans). I am also the one who can explain some choices you have to make and why you have to make them as your personal protector, not as a bodyguard but as a public relations officer from you to the African Americans. I am aware that the ‘multicultural’ center and the public relations are supposed to be the buffer office for these students.
However, this office has failed. The tensions on campus are running very high right now. The white students on campus are starting to feel the tension. I have been able to speak with white students as well and bring most of them some peace. Although I have not taken ‘conflict and resolutions’ class, I have practiced it nonetheless. The solution is to hire African Americans with Masters Degrees to work as Adjunct Professors in different departments such as Political Science, Math, and English, to name a few. This will give more diversity. When it is time to hire professors, use African and African American professor(s) to sit with you during the hiring process. The third solution, hire four students for work-study to replace four housekeepers that the college had laid off previously. This will help the burden the housekeeping staff has and this will aid in budgets because it is cheaper to hire a student for work-study than hiring outside personnel.
Direct the international community and the kitchen staff to have one week devoted to African (West African) food dishes, West Indian foods, ‘Soul Food’ (Southern cooking) dishes, and Louisiana dishes (West African and French mixed) before the semester ends. These foods all represent four main African and African American food groups’ traditions. This will show that you and your staff recognized the error made when setting up the international week. This will give African Americans the feeling of belonging to Guilford College.
Lastly, write an apology letter explaining that you and your staff made many mistakes in the past and that it was not out of malicious intent but gross ignorance. Within this letter, list the changes that you and your staff will make before the year-end as well as the year starting in 2016. Apologize for taking the credit as a marketing tool to recruit other African Americans.
Again thank you for reading my letter. Sorry for the length but I wanted to give both the problem and the solution. As noted, I am here for you so please feel free to use me to handle these issues.
Thank you,
Lewis A. Stewart