Opening Academic Convocation Remarks President Kent Chabotar
“Guilford College’s Competitive Advantage”
Good afternoon and welcome to Guilford’s 172nd academic year. Besides being president of the college, I am a professor of political science. And it’s great to be a political scientist in a presidential election year. The late night talk shows are loving it.
- Having been Governor of Alaska for 20 months, Sarah Palin is John McCain’s running mate. Gushing about her qualifications, a Fox News commentator—always a reliable source—claimed that she does know about international relations because she lives in Alaska, right next door to Russia to which Jon Stewart quipped, "When you think about it, Alaska is also near the North Pole, so she must also be friends with Santa."
- Jay Leno reports that Barack Obama’s running mate Sen. Joseph Biden has 35 years experience in Washington. Between the two of them, that’s almost 36 years of experience.
- Conan O’Brien commented on Hillary Clinton’s big speech in favor of Barack Obama. Experts say it was the longest speech ever delivered entirely through clenched teeth. Her speech should have been entitled, “Forget All Those Things I Said During the Primaries.”
- Jimmy Kimmel pointed out that President Bush has become the first U.S. president to attend the Olympics in a foreign country. He said he‘s been looking forward to it ever since he learned that in China people are not allowed to make fun of political leaders.
Many of you share that interest in politics. That was reflected in Newsweek’s recent designation of Guilford and Oberlin as the nation’s top colleges for social activism. Ironically, that was the same issue with a cover story entitled, “What Bush Got Right” that Conan O’Brien claims is the shortest cover story since January’s issue on famous Korean rabbis.
More importantly, our community’s interest in politics is demonstrated by how many alumni hold public office and how many students are volunteering in federal, state, and local political campaigns. Too often politics consists in choosing between an idiot and a crook. I congratulate you for getting involved and knowing we can do better. The planet is changing, the balance of power is shifting, and the times require imagination, innovation, and courage. We need leadership at every level, to paraphrase Winston Churchill, that does not open a quarrel between present and past, but focuses on surmounting the challenges of an uncertain future.
What else sets Guilford College apart from 3,800 other colleges and universities in America and even more around the world? I want to speak to Guilford’s “competitive advantage.” That’s a concept defined by Harvard Business School Professor Michael Porter as an organization’s distinctive competencies that attract customers by creating superior value in its products and services. If you do not know a Guilford College customer, right now look to your left and right and later on look in a mirror. There you are.
Central to Guilford’s competitive advantage is not one thing but several things taken together. Unlike David Letterman, I do not have a “Top 10 List.” I do have a “Top 4 List.”
1. Guilford is committed to being an undergraduate liberal arts college that gives students a full liberal arts experience including a sampling of pre-professional programs.
Guilford is one of only 265 liberal arts colleges in America, which produce about 3% of the nation’s graduates annually. Liberal arts colleges foster a broad-based knowledge and understanding of the humanities, sciences, and the arts and the cultivation of critical thinking and examination—skills that lie at the heart of liberal learning. A liberal arts major prepares a student for the workforce, public service or graduate school, which is the destination for no fewer than 20% of our graduates each year.
These colleges are intentionally small, permitting the active engagement of faculty in promoting the learning of every student. Guilford’s enrollment has grown 40% in the past six years while increasing the faculty by 60%. Thus, we remain small enough to preserve these close faculty-student relationships while providing revenues needed for a larger and better-paid faculty to strengthen the existing curriculum, improve facilities and secure overall educational excellence.
Excellent teaching is central to the liberal arts, and shortly you will hear from Jeff Jeske, recipient of the Bruce B. Stewart Teaching Excellence Award in 2008. Not only does Jeff teach English and related subjects, but he is a hands-on adviser for our award-winning student newspaper, The Guilfordian.
2. The typical liberal arts college is relatively homogeneous with about 1,500 students, nearly all of traditional age and living on campus. That’s not us. Among Guilford College’s 2,650 students this fall, 1,400 are traditional aged (with 1,100 in residence), 1,150 are adults and 95 are high school students in The Early College at Guilford. We have more faculty and students of color than most of our competitors. While some see the challenges in such a diverse population, we believe it is an educational and social opportunity not to be missed.
3. Guilford has a curricular focus on principled problem solving with the documented integration of academic courses with service and work experience that we call Guilford Connects.
Guilford students are being educated to be problem solvers, not just problem spotters. As part of the strategic plan, principled problem solving was established as the unifying theme of a transformative education. It challenges students to solve real-world problems under the guidance of the college’s core values of community, diversity, equality, excellence, integrity, justice and stewardship.
The Center for Principled Problem Solving opened in King Hall in the fall of 2007. Mark Justad, director of the center, serves as a resource for students, faculty, and staff to obtain funding and relevant contacts to enable students to realize ambitions for social change.
Ten students were selected to participate in the pilot phase of the Principled Problem Solving Scholars Program this academic year. They began a four-semester sequence of interdisciplinary courses and engaged learning opportunities this fall. Kyle Dell, assistant professor of political science, was selected for the first faculty fellowship granted by the center. A primary focus of his fellowship will be the Presidents Climate Commitment and our broader efforts to address global warming by planning for long-term institutional climate neutrality.
Mark, Kyle, and the student scholars are attending today. Would they please stand?
4. Guilford has core values that speak to Quaker practices and testimonies and influence learning in and out of the classroom.
They reinforce the spiritual dimension of college life. They are the philosophical basis for principled problem solving and Guilford Connects. Reinforcing our Quaker heritage and commitment to diversity and anti-racism are competitive advantages in a crowded academic market for students and faculty. There are only 13 colleges founded by Quakers and known for quality educational programs and a commitment to tolerance, social justice and integrity. Quaker testimonies offer a powerful alternative to a culture wracked by the problems that include integrity in personal and corporate life, community, cultural pluralism in every dimension, responses to violence at home and abroad, and a simplification of our lives.
One more thought
In our admissions literature, we challenge prospective students to “become more.” What does that mean to you, who have recently joined our community, or to those who have been around for awhile and are further along the educational journey?
To me, a story told by President Kennedy at the University of California resonates best with “become more.”
The great French Marshal Lyautey once asked his gardener to plant a tree. The gardener objected that the tree was slow growing and would not reach maturity for 100 years. The Marshal replied, 'In that case, there is no time to lose; plant it this afternoon!'
Today, your future, a just government, a world at peace may be years away. But we have no time to lose. Let’s plant our trees this afternoon.
- Become more active
- Become more committed
- Become more educated
- Become more international
- Become more confident
- Become more….
Have a wonderful year.
Sept. 3, 2008