During the GSBA Community Meeting, a question arose that struck a chord with the students in attendance: “What are you doing for our staff and faculty?”
The question came from junior Ryan Shoenthal who, like many members of the Guilford College community, have held concerns about the professors and staff that support him at Guilford College.
This question also brought forth a shocking revelation for the Coordinating Committee that was confirmed by Interim Associate Provost Kathryn Shields during the community meeting. There are members of the campus, specifically professors, who are teaching overloaded or additional classes without an increase in their pay.
Professors and staff are the students’ first introduction to the Guilford College community and their impact cannot be understated in the eyes of the students.
“I, personally at least, have full confidence that Guilford will balance our budget and maintain accreditation,” Shoenthal said. “My biggest concern is that we will not be able to do so without losses for students, faculty and staff.”
“I’m not speaking to things like mass staff cuts or major removals, but more to things like the meal swipe policy implementation, or the lack of payment for faculty teaching overload courses and the loss of retirement contributions from the college,” he clarified. “Particularly, I fear that faculty and staff will be at risk of gaining proper compensation for their efforts — in fact, in my opinion, they are already facing unfair treatment.”
They were not the only students concerned about the faculty and staff of Guilford College.
Cairna Zimmerman, an active campus leader serving as president of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) and vice president of both GSBA and Reaching Out for Animal Rights (ROAR), voiced their questions during an open meeting held by the Coordinating Committee. Following up on the topics discussed in the community meeting, they asked, “How are you planning on rebuilding trust and communication avenues with the community?” and “How are you planning on protecting students, faculty and staff?”
Beginning with the first question, Acting President Jean Bordewich said, “I’m working on transparency, greater communication and collaboration with leadership. Our intention is not creating a lot of new but working with what we have.”
Through these meetings, it was clear that the lack of communication between the admin and the Board of Trustees was shocking.
“If I had known that the college wasn’t paying their bills I would have come to action a lot sooner,” Carla Brenner, a Coordinating Committee member, stated.
“We all would have,” Bordewich added.
While the miscommunication must be made clear, fixing those avenues is a priority of the Coordinating Committee. They were unable to provide any details on how they plan to bridge that gap besides transparency moving forward.
Zimmerman’s second question was met with a similar sentiment.
“We don’t have answers,” Daniel Mosca, another Coordinating Committee member, stated, “we are gathered here to learn of the problems. We need to help pay faculty what they deserve to be paid.”
This statement highlights a critical concern for Guilford College — the treatment and job security of its faculty. Currently, the majority of faculty members, particularly professors, are not tenured. Tenure refers to a permanent full-time teaching position, which provides both job security and a deeper investment in the institution. Instead, much of the faculty consists of adjunct and visiting professors.
When asked about this imbalance, Acting President Bordewich explained, “Tenured faculty do a lot, do the bulk of the administrative and other kinds of work, counseling and so forth. I would like to move to a model where we do have more tenure-track positions, but we are now in the middle of a detailed analysis.”
While this seems to be good news to staff and faculty moving forward, there seems to be more of a balancing act that is happening behind the scenes.
“We are probably top-heavy on faculty, so we have to figure out where to make adjustments on that,” so-and-so stated. “That’s the biggest expense we have — salaries and benefits for across the board — not just faculty and that’s where SACSCOC (The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges) has told us that we have to come back to them with a plan, so we’re not there yet, but certainly, if they’re working now and they’re not getting paid, that’s a problem.” stated Jean Bordewich during one of the zoom open meetings.
As of now, there are no updates in terms of how many faculty members have not been paid or how this miscommunication occurred. We do know that Mosca is investigating the issue and hopes to have updates in the coming weeks.
