For this year’s Black History Month, the Multicultural Education Department and Brothers and Sisters in Blackness worked to celebrate black history in Greensboro and nationwide. These groups organized the Element poetry slam and presentations by professors. We should express gratitude to everyone involved in organizing February’s events, specifically Director for Educational Initiatives & Partnerships Jada Drew ’07 and Assistant Director for Multicultural Education and Latino Community Coordinator Irving Zavaleta ’08.

While we as a college have been focusing on the work of the MED, other groups and individuals have made great efforts to celebrate diversity, as well. This year was the first year Guilford College created gender-neutral housing. We have more gender-neutral bathrooms than ever before. In the years to come, Coordinator of Housing Operations Maria Hayden ’06 plans on incorporating gender-neutral housing into all dorms rather than just the basement of Shore. While we still have a long way to go, we at The Guilfordian would like to recognize the efforts of the housing department, LGBTQQA Coordinator Parker Hurley and all those involved in making Guilford a more gender-inclusive place.

Student organizations on campus have also been standing up and taking action. After the recent events in Chapel Hill, students from the Muslim Student Association, Guilford Conference of Religious Observance, Hillel and Students for Justice in Palestine came together and organized a vigil for the shooting. Soon after, GCRO president and junior Laura Todd began organizing a panel with MSA and Hillel on islamophobia and anti-semitism. We would like to thank these student groups for helping our community heal and for banding together at a time when our community needs it most.

These students, faculty and staff at Guilford College help us remember that while it is important to grieve for those whose lives were stolen based on their gender, race or religion, it is also important to recognize that there are still cultures to celebrate, still people to honor through working for change.

We reach out to the Guilford Community and ask you to join us in recognizing those with a commitment to celebrating diversity through positive action.