Turmoil ends but learning continues
Update, noon Wednesday: All Charges dropped, our news staff reports All parties involved should be commended for this resolution.
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My column today:
If you wanted to pick a job that sounds pleasant and peaceful, dean for campus life at Guilford College ought to be perfect.
Small Quaker school nestled in a quiet corner of a midsize Southern city. Core values include community, diversity and justice. What could ever disturb the tranquility?
Aaron Fetrow might have wondered about that when Al Jazeera showed up to report on the alleged assault of Palestinian students by a team of football players.
Lots of other media organizations, too. For a while after the Jan. 20 incident, the Guilford College "hate crime" was a big story across the country and in the Middle East. And campus life was anything but sedate. ...
As dean, Fetrow was the man in the middle -- giving interviews, meeting with students and urging everyone to wait, wait, wait before making judgments.
For all the good it did. He appeared before cameras and microphones at a news conference while angry students held signs with accusations of "liar" and "cover-up" because the college didn't rush to condemn the football players.
That was the moment, Fetrow said in reflection last week, when he felt most frustrated -- because he couldn't disclose all the facts that already were being gathered. In the vacuum, rumors and exaggerations took over.
Fetrow was a happier man in a calmer setting last Thursday. Students were gone for spring break. He was wearing casual clothes and untied running shoes, slumped in an armchair of his second-floor office in Founder's Hall.
The crisis had passed. The college's judicial board dealt with violations of campus codes quietly, and all parties seemed satisfied. Criminal charges against several football players, based on warrants taken out by the Palestinian students, may be dropped with apologies offered and accepted.
It turned out there wasn't a hate crime, only a fight stemming from a potent mixture of alcohol and testosterone.
Which makes Guilford, despite its peaceful reputation, like a lot of other places where young people live together and occasionally settle differences the wrong way.
But Guilford isn't the same as other places. Its Quaker traditions and core values set it apart, or should. The fact that the fight happened, and that so many students reacted to it with more emotion than reason, means that Fetrow and Associate Dean Bill Woodward have work to do.
Really, they knew that even before Jan. 20, Woodward said. They had started to look for ways, beginning with freshman orientation, to mix students together rather than let them separate according to their various interests. After all, diversity isn't necessarily helpful if students divide themselves into cliques from day one. So the college will insist that all participate together in freshman activities, athletes included.
That's a start. Fetrow and Woodward also want to add a graduation requirement that students attend a minimum number of campus events in various categories, such as athletics, arts and lectures.
The idea, for example, is to have "theater folks going to a football game and football players going to the theater," Fetrow said.
"By changing expectations and requirements for the students, you're changing the culture of the campus," Woodward added.
That seems likely to broaden students' experiences and maybe teach them that an actor puts as much dedication and energy into his craft as a linebacker does his. You don't have to be a fan to appreciate talent, drive and passion.
It also couldn't hurt to place more emphasis on Quaker traditions now that 90 percent of students come from other backgrounds. The 10 percent who are Quaker tend not to be the protesters, Fetrow said.
There are times when reflection beats reaction.
It turns out that dealing with commotion is part of the job description for a dean for campus life, even at Guilford College. But, if students learn to know and trust each other a little better, it might be possible to settle the next problem without such an uproar.
Doug Clark can be contacted at dgclark@news-record.com and 373-7039.