Newton’s First Law of Motion states that a body in motion stays in motion. As President Kent Chabotar says, Guilford is a body in motion, and this movement forward has been evident in many changes made on campus lately. In light of these changes, Chabotar answered a few questions concerning issues brought up in previous articles in the Guilfordian. In a previous interview, you said that Guilford students are “different from their social counterparts.” How do you mean that, exactly?

Well, actually, I said two things. One is that while we’re growing we’re getting more kinds of students. We’re getting what I call the J. Crew students who have the button-down polos; we’re getting more evangelical Christian students; we’re getting more students who are socially active – so all the kinds of students are embraced. But we’re still predominantly what I would call the classic Guilford student, which is somebody who has a social conscience, someone who wants to make a difference and is very concerned with things like war, environment, social justice and poverty.

bSo you think the traditional Guilford student is very socially conscious?

But that sounds too earthy-crunchy. It’s just that they’re connected with the outside world more so than other schools are to their fraternity, or going out to the bar. And that’s great! It’s nice to be known for something.

Do you think that as Guilford’s student body expands, advertising for the school will change, and it will be less about appealing to that niche?

Well, you have to look and see how Guilford advertised itself before. There was always a wide variety of students. I don’t think you’re going to see year-to-year changes that are really going to be significant, except seeing more people not like you, whoever you are. If you’re white, you’ll see more non-whites. If you’re Catholic, you’ll see more non-Catholics. If you’re Quaker, you’ll see more non-Quakers. It’s going to be more diverse – that’s the way the world’s going!

There’s been talk of Guilford mainstreaming lately, what with the standardized tests being given and such. Do you think that’s true?

The standardized tests are part of reaccredidation. Our accrediting body likes to see both internal and external evaluations of student work. As for mainstreaming, it depends on what you mean by “mainstream.” First of all, I wasn’t aware America had a mainstream. Last time I looked, the mainstream is pretty diverse. I don’t see what mainstreaming is in this diverse country. I don’t feel like I’m being mainstreamed. It’s also, with some people, if you don’t look like every other X on campus of our type, whatever our type is, suddenly you’re mainstreaming.

As the student body expands, do you think Guilford’s Quaker values will stop being as evident?

We’re not as consensus-driven as we might be. There are certain areas that are not consensus driven. But this administration has done more for Quakerism in three years than my predecessors did in 20. For example, we have Quakerism 101. Part of the plan is Quaker. We’re going to have FYE next year for employees, in which they’re going to learn about our Quaker roots and Quaker business practice. We built new relations with Quaker meetings, and we actually had an open house last year for Quakers. We have affirmative action for Quakers. We are hiring for next year a recruiter to recruit Quaker students.

How do you think Guilford’s Quaker values are evidenced here?

People ask what we do besides open class with a moment of silence, which is a fair question. I think the fact that the students are so “out there” in respect to social justice – I mean, the students are going to Louisiana over spring break to build houses. That’s an easy sell here – it’s oversubscribed. That, to me, is Quakerism.

And lastly, what’s your favorite Quaker value?

Quakers and Catholics share the belief that faith alone does not save, good works do. Good works, as well as faith, save you.