The student news site of Guilford College

The Guilfordian

The student news site of Guilford College

The Guilfordian

The student news site of Guilford College

The Guilfordian

Atiany Responds to Coverage, Chabotar

Guilford College and the whole world are in the midst of many turning points and important events. Iraq War, the Inauguration of the new President, and the hot debate about the future of Guilford are all events that I feel I can’t stay on the margin. Rather, I feel that I have a viewpoint that differs with lots of people and that this viewpoint is underrepresented in Guilford College.

25 million different views
Last week, Professor Jeff Vanke offered different (and better) words to describe my article in The Guilfordian about news summaries two weeks ago. I would like to argue as to what a news summary should include.
Having “25 million different” perspectives of war does not exempt the honest journalist from understanding them and citing them in one way or another; in the same way, the presence of millions of different living species on earth does not mean that biologists can only study a few random (or cute looking) species. Rather, they classify them and study the major classes, class by class; they wouldn’t be doing their job otherwise.

A journalist or a newspaper writer should do, at least, the same, even in a news summary. Even if you have 25 million different views, a journalist can classify them and represent each class, or “perspective,” of news with some fair mentioning in the news summary.
Furthermore, I was not demanding that The Guilfordian read all news sources from all around the world and cite them all. I was just protesting the statement that the troops were welcomed in Iraq (and they were at times) without there being any mention that there were many demonstrations against the American presence in Iraq; the latest was in Baghdad Friday, April 18, which some news agencies account to have more than 100,000 demonstrators. You can simply be fair by mentioning opposing views.

The new President and the status of Guilford College
I wish to add my voice to Jake “The Snake”’s voice, who spoke of the status of the College with true passion and honesty. He is so righteous in demanding that Guilford College does not become a community college.

I have preferred Guilford College to a score of other colleges that accepted me, including Earlham, because I felt Guilford was a small college that was capable of taking care of me personally, and providing a liberal education that would fit with my aspirations and special interests. When I heard that Guilford intends to expand enrollment to welcome 3,000 students I almost crapped my pants!

Many of the best U.S. colleges have sustained financial stability not by inflating the student body but by improving efficiency, improving college relations with donors, and improving investments. Furthermore, I have never heard of a college that made profit; entrepreneurs are very encouraged to open college business for this particular reason!
Indeed, I see that the college debts are very large relative to its endowments; I only wish that Guilford will find its way through the financial problems without losing its integrity and its status as an educational institution – not a profit-maximizing business. I wish our new president all the luck: it is a hard task in front of you and you have my blessings.

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