To whom it may concern:
In all of my years working at Guilford College, I have been proud to be a member of this community. However, in this year’s Goofordian, I was disappointed and ashamed by the lack of civility that our newspaper staff and writers showed when they chose to publish the “My Bad!” letter “from” College President Kent Chabotar.
Not only was this letter insulting and demeaning, it wasn’t the least bit funny. What it seemed like to me was a cruel jab at a man who has worked for 12 years to bring this institution back from the edge of financial crisis. Not everyone agrees with every decision he made, myself included, and many of you might even disagree with every decision. That doesn’t give us the right to send off a member of our community with derision and scorn.
Guilford extolls the values of integrity, community, excellence, justice and stewardship — I believe that civility is key to all of these. How about we, as the community of Guilford College, try to be better? Try to be more?
I won’t go through each of the points outlined in the letter (and believe me, I have lots to say), but suffice it to say, Kent is not by any means the highest paid President at a private institution. Nor is he the only one to have a company car. He also isn’t a miracle worker, an alchemist, or an evil dictator. He IS a human being deserving of respect.
It’s easy to cast stones in a cloak of anonymity, in a public forum. That’s the Facebook society we live in. However, for the first time in 9 years, I am not proud to be a member of our community. Is the post-Kent Guilford a perfect place? Of course not. But it could be a lot closer to being one if we all learned to treat one another with respect and compassion, despite our viewpoints. I thought we, as Guilfordians, were the bigger people, and that we were better than that.
Signed,
Jen Agor
Chris • Jun 7, 2014 at 12:46 am
“It’s now very common to hear people say, ‘I’m rather offended by that.’ As if that gives them certain rights. It’s actually nothing more… than a whine. ‘I find that offensive.’ It has no meaning; it has no purpose; it has no reason to be respected as a phrase. ”
[I saw hate in a graveyard — Stephen Fry, The Guardian, 5 June 2005]”
The lack of “civility” is merely The Guilfordian exercising their right to free press, including the right to criticize the school’s president. It is no surprise to me that an administrator (who is benefiting monetarily from Kent’s pay raises for admins) is complaining about how The Guilfordian called him out.
As George Orwell said “Journalism is printing what someone else does not want printed: everything else is public relations.”