When the Board of Trustees convened on campus last weekend, it made decisions about tuition increases, an early college program for Guilford County high school students, the future of college-owned properties, and was updated by the administration of the status of the ongoing presidential search.
The Board also spent much of its time working towards keeping the college on solid financial ground and planning the next steps to eliminate the steep debt the college is in following the construction of the Frank Science Center and other campus-wide improvements.The Presidential Search
The D.C.-area consultant hired to solicit applicants to replace Don McNemar when he steps down as president in June reported that it has received over 50 applications, twice as many as it expected. The applications include a range of diverse candidates: Quakers, women, businesspeople, and minorities. For now, however, applicants’ names are confidential.
All applicants will be reviewed, and the pool will be winnowed to three to five final candidates, each of whom will visit the campus in February and March to meet with faculty and students. The selection of Guilford College’s eighth president should come shortly afterward.
While every president in the school’s history has been Quaker, the leadership statement elucidates that it is not a requirement.
“I think it’s extremely important to the college to have a Friend as president if it’s at all possible, but I think it’s preferable – and I’m a Quaker myself – to have a strong president first and foremost,” said Bruce Stewart, chairman of the Board of Trustees. “So if I had a very strong non-Quaker candidate and a moderate or lowly skilled Quaker candidate, I would opt for the first.”

Sale of College-Owned Land
At the recommendation of outside consultants, Guilford recently sold land it owns in Charlotte, and similar college-owned properties are on the market in Winston-Salem. The college is waiting for a fair offer.
The trustees did consider selling a 12-acre tract of the Guilford College woods, which could be worth half a million dollars. The college is instead looking to work with a conservancy or similar eco-friendly foundation, which would raise money to buy the land from the school, and at the same time, protect it from development.

Tuition Increase
The Board approved a 3.7 percent traditional student tuition increase for the 2002-2003 academic year. Stewart pointed out that the rate increase is lower than North Carolina’s university system.
“While Guilford is putting up tuition more than it would like to, it’s a modest increase relative to the market and the competition,” he said.