During your visit, you impressed students, faculty, staff and trustees with your visions of the college’s future and your appreciation of our Quaker values.

When you encouraged strengthening mutual communication between administration and the community, we knew you would be the ideal candidate for our school. The student body has recently expressed the desire for more transparency and we believe that you will join our efforts.

After speaking with you at the student sessions, we felt that you understood us. You acknowledged that tough issues like racism and sexual assault remain problematic on every college campus, and that tackling these issues should be a continuous and ongoing process. You could have pretended that issues like these don’t exist, but you didn’t take the easy road.

We know how important the moment of silence is to us. Our advisor starts every class session this way in order for us to be focused on the tasks at hand. We were all touched at how you valued a key component of our Quaker heritage.

You made a personal connection with the community that the other candidates did not. You said that you felt like you met people who were “genuine, brilliant, dedicated and enthusiastic” while you visited us. You gave us the same impression.

We look forward to working with you, President Fernandes.

Sincerely,

Kate, Colleen, Michaela, Samir, Ashley, Natalie, Rishab, Justyn, Anthony, L.A., Ty, Alayna, Zachary, Allison and Ines

Reflecting Guilford College’s core Quaker values, the topics and content of Staff Editorials are chosen through consensus of all 15 editors and one faculty adviser of The Guilfordian’s Editorial Board.