Guilford

I’m writing now because it’s not too late to save your college and mitigate some of the bad outcomes. I have studied colleges in crisis since 2019 (Hampshire, Marlboro, Guilford, Goddard, Mills, Antioch, Sweet Briar), seeing what works and what doesn’t.

[Editor/Blogger’s introduction: As Guilford College approaches decisions that are reliably reported to be “do or die” for the school, we were approached by Jonathon Podolsky, a self-described “save college” consultant. He has been following Guilford’s recent difficulties. His personal assessment here is long, likely controversial, and has been doggedly pursued in the face of Guilford officialdom’s chronic policy of avoidance, stonewalling, and feckless message and damage control. Maybe, if Guilf...

Published initially via newsletter and at www.theassemblync.com/newsletter/the-quad-montreat-cyber-era

Jonathon Podolsky, an activist who consults with struggling schools, was involved in Guilford College’s last survival campaign, and he submitted this letter to The Quad with his thoughts on how the school should move forward. We are running it in full.

Guilford College declined to comment.

Guilford College’s acting leadership is working hard to cut expenses and increase revenue, but time is tight. To maximize results, they need to rebuild trust with their stakeholders, even those who have given up on the college.

Matt Hartman’s recent piece in The Assembly, “Guilford College Debates How Quakerly it Should Be,” was an excellent deep dive that surfaced important issues. It observes a dichotomy between forming Quaker councils, or making business decisions first. But we need a different lens to better see the college’s main impediments and way forward. Saving a college is like playing 3D chess while riding a bicycle. It requires an immaculate strategy while sustaining movement and balance.

Various strategies have different time cycles, but both sides of this seeming dichotomy agree the college needs to be saved now. Guilford’s strengths in terms of its offerings to students are not business or religion in isolation, but a blend of helping students find meaning, gain professional skills, learn critical thinking, group dynamics, and ethics.

Faculty groups have plans to reduce silos and expenses. One would flatten the administrative hierarchy, another organizes the academics into four clusters: Understanding the Human and Natural World, Human Studies & Cultural Understanding, Management & Systems, Justice, Society & Global Engagement (this proposal has been accepted).

Adding majors, and other changes that Mark Cubberley suggests in The Assembly’s Guilford article, should also be considered. What’s actually needed is a better container where students, staff, faculty, alumni, and a variety of marginalized groups can discuss these issues while keeping in mind timelines, financial goals, and successive stages. I was part of the re-envisioning coalition at Hampshire College that did just that.

Guilford overspent its approved budget to the tune of $10 million, and broke stipulations from its lenders, leaving some to wonder why the board didn’t notice this and take action sooner. Guilford can act expeditiously to rebuild trust by holding a community meeting with an impartial auditor to discuss new financial controls that would prevent these problems from recurring, while the board could reform its oversight policies, reporting transparently and often.

The college also needs an ace negotiator who can level with any vendors for which it may be overpaying. It’s time to renegotiate, or there won’t be a college. I’ve heard the college has experienced delays in selling a valuable parcel of land. It’s worth asking the bondholders if they would accept the parcel in exchange for eliminating debt payments for an appropriate period.

The college must also excite its constituents with a go-forward plan and better messaging. I like these thoughts from Prof. Dixon, quoted on Guilford’s website: “When you see the lights turning on, when you see (students) waking up to their intelligence and gifts? That’s why I get out of bed in the morning. The world needs people who are occupying their intelligence and their gifts and figuring out how those gifts connect with the world’s needs. That’s what a Guilford education does for you.” Let’s make it so.

— Jonathon Podolsky

Colleges that don’t deal robustly with core issues arrive at existential crises that can quickly become insurmountable. For over two years, I have been an activist, writer and researcher in save-college movements for schools listed in the book “Colleges that Change Lives.” I also worked early on as an adviser to Save Guilford, a group formed to fight the cuts and restore Quaker processes that had been integral at Guilford. Through a deep dive into various schools and stakeholder groups in crisis...

Jonathon Podolsky is the moderator of Hampshire College Alumni of Western MA, Director of the non-profit Re-envisioning Marlboro College Corporation, and runs a Hampshire College/Sweet Briar Facebook group. He has been involved in save college movements for two years. Podolsky advised Save Guilford leadership during the group’s formation. He can be reached at www.Podolsky.cc

The light at the end of the tunnel could be an oncoming train.

Save Guilford is a group mainly of alumni that has emerge...