Opening Academic Convocation Remarks by President Kent Chabotar

“The Reality of Community”

Good afternoon and welcome to Guilford’s 173rd academic year. In 2003, a strategic planning process led to our seven core values, one of which was community. Community is also one of the five Quaker testimonies. Community not only defines a group of people but also expresses an aspiration for kinship and cooperation.

I quarrel with Groucho Mark when he said, “I would never belong to a group that would accept someone like me as a member.” Rather, like Justice Sandra Day O’Conner, I claim, “We don't accomplish anything in this world alone ... and whatever happens is the result of the whole tapestry of one's life and all the weavings of individual threads from one to another that creates something.” For all these reasons, I thought to focus my remarks today on the reality of community at Guilford College.

Let us start by debunking a couple of myths. One myth is that community means we all look or act alike. If sameness was why you chose to work or study at Guilford College, you really screwed up. Talk of one college is clueless—we are 2,800 versions of college and that does not count faculty, staff, or alumni.

Imagine going to performances of Mahler’s 5th Symphony or Black Eyed Peas “I Gotta Feeling” where all of the instruments were playing the exact same notes in the exact same way. To make it even more hopeless, all the instruments were the same: flutes for the symphony and guitars for the backup band. Just like good music demands harmony, or the combination of contrasting notes, a good community thrives on diversity of backgrounds and talents, origins and destinations. We can have adult and traditional students, athletes and nonathletes, gay and straight, accountants and philosophers, Goths and preppies, and still have a community that works because, among other things, we see God in each of us.

A second myth is that community demands we all think alike. If almost all of the community agrees on one issue, we invariably disagree on other issues. It is called pluralism. It is a good thing. If your beliefs are never challenged, they get weak and you get soft. No pain, no gain. No guts, no glory. A college campus should be one place where a kaleidoscope of ideas and opinions are not only tolerated but also encouraged. We can have our own viewpoints as long as we serve a common purpose. That is as necessary for a left wing professor who has not yet recovered from Vietnam or Woodstock, and believes that communism was a brilliant concept that the Russians ruined, as it is for the first year student whose parents believe that Sarah Palin is the Messiah.

Let me continue by suggesting what makes a great community besides celebrating difference. Let us move from the question "What are we?" to ask, "What might we become?"

First, a great community demands respect. We respect one another’s space and rights. To paraphrase Thomas Carlyle, your rights end where your neighbor’s rights begin. Taking too loud, too early or too late, playing your Bose acoustic wave radio as if you are in Madison Square Garden rather than in your suite in Bryan, and “sexiling” your roommate night after night are how we violate those rights and hurt community.

We also respect the other person’s choices. That you are a premed honors student surrounded by aspiring musicians, historians, and actors does not elevate you. That you are a fitness fanatic whose friends would rather read a book than lift a weight does not demean them. That you are a faculty member who disagrees with a decision of your colleagues gives you no right to attack their character or to inspire students to be your personal battering rams.

Second, great listeners make a great community. We concentrate too often on justifying our positions rather than listening to others. No wonder debates deteriorate into dialogues of the deaf. Unlike Ann Coulter and Donald Trump, admit the possibility that you might be mistaken. Listen actively. When you are in a conversation, listen as if you will be expected to repeat what the other person is saying. When you listen, quit looking for excuses to be hurt, disrespected, and insulted. Drop the stereotypes. Most faculty are not supercilious and selfabsorbed, students are not typically silly and immature, and not all New England Yankees hate NASCAR, country music, and grits. I do hate all of them, especially grits, but I do not speak for my people.

Third, enthusiastic engagement in community life makes a community great. Tennyson reminds us that, “I am a part of all that I have met.” Get up and get out of your office, dorm room, or apartment. Remember the “Guilford Hello” to everyone you meet. See the wonder of the Quad at dusk, spring flowers rising to meet the sun, trees dancing with the wind, and moonlight dappling the lake. Participate. Get involved. Do not be what Keynes called “water spiders, gracefully skimming, as light and as reasonable as air, the surface of the stream without any contact at all with the eddies and currents beneath.”

This entails attending events during community hour, Homecoming, and Serendipity Weekend. It means seeing your friends perform when the “Theatre Tonight” sign hangs from Founders or the announcer starts calling the game in Armfield Stadium. It also requires you to leave your comfort zone. If you fancy yourself as a prospective Rhodes Scholar too busy or too good to abandon your word processor, join the ultimate Frisbee team or the Yachting Club. Discover in community service how much you can do for folks in homeless shelters or hospice who have so little. The uncomplicated gratitude in their eyes will be far more satisfying than solving yet another economics problem or quadratic equation.

Fourth, a great community has fun. We enjoy each other’s company and do not need Comedy Central to make us laugh. We relish a random party as well as a prom. Until a few years ago, Guilford students would rise before dawn one day each February to chalk the campus to commemorate Ronald Reagan’s birthday. We can laugh at the absurdity of a long line at the Grill, an office that is supposed to be open but isn’t, maneuvering like General Patton trying to find a parking space, and getting caught doing something nonlethal but breathtakingly stupid.

Fifth, a great community thrives on positive energy. If you can dream it, you can do it. Remember President Obama’s campaign mantra: “Yes we can.” To paraphrase what I told the Class of 2009 last May:

Have friends who rejoice in each day the Lord has made, hate drama and unhappiness, and radiate optimism. Find your own version of what Luke Skywalker discovered as the Force. Avoid people who are caught with Lord Vader on the Dark Side of misery and regret. Instead of being mired in gloom like Shakespeare’s Hamlet at Elsinore or Richard III on Bosworth Field, be an eagle like Henry V before Agincourt.

There you have it. Difference, respect, listening, engagement, fun, and being positive. These are a few ingredients of an effective and caring community. I would call it a great community. My dream is that one day it will be the Guilford College community. At that time and in that place, may we pray as Black Elk, a healer of the Lakota Sioux, did a century ago:

Hear me, four quarters of the world a—relative I am! Give me the strength to walk the soft earth, a relative to all that is! Give me the eyes to see and the strength to understand, that I may be like you. With your power only can I face the winds.

Thank you. Have a great year.

Sept. 9, 2009