Guilford College is a
private
Private or privates may refer to:
Music
* " In Private", by Dusty Springfield from the 1990 album ''Reputation''
* Private (band), a Denmark-based band
* "Private" (Ryōko Hirosue song), from the 1999 album ''Private'', written and also recorde ...
liberal arts college in
Greensboro, North Carolina.
Guilford has both traditional students and students who attend its Center for Continuing Education (CCE). Founded in 1837 by members of the Religious Society of Friends (
Quakers
Quakers are people who belong to a historically Protestant Christian set of denominations known formally as the Religious Society of Friends. Members of these movements ("theFriends") are generally united by a belief in each human's abili ...
), Guilford's program offerings include such majors as Peace and Conflict Studies and Community and Justice Studies, both rooted in the college's history as a Quaker institution.
History
Guilford College is the only Quaker-founded college in the southeastern United States. Opening in 1837 as New Garden Boarding School, the institution became a four-year liberal arts college in 1888.
Levi Coffin, a well-known abolitionist, Quaker, and political dissenter grew up on the land, which is now considered a historical site.
The woods of New Garden, which still exist on campus today, were used as a meeting point for the
Underground Railroad in the 19th century, run by Coffin.
COVID-19 challenges
Jane Fernandes, having served as president since 2014, made difficult decisions to furlough and lay off colleagues during the COVID-19 pandemic and announced that she would leave office on June 30, 2021, followed by a one-year sabbatical and transition to a tenured faculty position in English. Carol Moore was appointed the interim president and she began a "program prioritization" process that would significantly reduce the number of majors offered once approved. The college announced in November 2020 that it would likely discontinue 19 out of its 42 majors and cut 16 tenured professors.
In November 2020, as a response to this plan, the faculty voted no confidence in Moore and the Board of Trustees' leadership, the first no-confidence vote in the college's history. Moore subsequently left the college and Jim Hood, a faculty member, was selected as the new interim president at the end of February 2021.
In early 2021, the college paused the November 2020 layoff plans and began significant fundraising effort, placing a hold on the layoff question until after the spring semester.
As of late March 2021, the fundraising plan was slightly ahead of schedule. On January 1, 2022, Kyle Farmbry became Guilford's 10th president.
Athletics
Guilford athletic teams are the Quakers. The college is a member at the
Division III level of the
National Collegiate Athletic Association
The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges ...
(NCAA), primarily competing as a member of the
Old Dominion Athletic Conference
The Old Dominion Athletic Conference (ODAC) is an NCAA Division III athletic conference. Of its 15 member schools, all but one are located in Virginia; the other full member is in North Carolina. The conference also has an associate member in N ...
(ODAC) since the 1988–89 academic year.
The Quakers previously competed in the
Carolinas Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (CIAC, now Conference Carolinas) of the
National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics
The National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) established in 1940, is a college athletics association for colleges and universities in North America. Most colleges and universities in the NAIA offer athletic scholarships to its stu ...
(NAIA) from 1930–31 to 1987–88.
Guilford competes in 20 intercollegiate varsity sports: Men's sports include baseball, basketball, cross country, football, golf, lacrosse, soccer, tennis and track & field; while women's sports include basketball, cross country, lacrosse, rugby, soccer, softball, swimming, tennis, track & field, triathlon and volleyball.
Accomplishments
The school has won five national championships, including the
NAIA men's basketball championship in 1973, the 1981 NAIA women's tennis title and the 1989 (NAIA), 2002 and 2005 (NCAA Division III) men's golf titles.
Campus events
Bryan Series. In the past decade, Guilford's Bryan Series
has brought many notable speakers to the campus and city for an annual public lecture series. Past speakers have included
Desmond Tutu,
Mikhail Gorbachev,
Colin Powell,
Madeleine Albright
Madeleine Jana Korbel Albright (born Marie Jana Korbelová; May 15, 1937 – March 23, 2022) was an American diplomat and political scientist who served as the 64th United States secretary of state from 1997 to 2001. A member of the Democrat ...
,
Bill Clinton
William Jefferson Clinton (né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and again ...
,
Tony Blair,
Ken Burns,
Mary Robinson,
David McCullough,
Toni Morrison, and
Venus Williams.
Eastern Music Festival (EMF). Every summer, the college hosts the five-week-long Eastern Music Festival (EMF), where professional and student musicians come together for seminars and public performances. Each year, EMF features more than 70 concerts and music-related events on- and off-campus.
Serendipity. The largest campus-wide event of the year is "Serendipity", held annually in the spring. It began in 1972 as a replacement to the somewhat antiquated May Day festivities, and has featured games, musical performances, and "general mayhem." During its peak in the late 1980s and early 1990s, the weekend festival was attended by Guilford students and alumni and thousands of students from other local institutions in the Triad area. Musical acts wt this event include Dave Matthews Band, Widespread Panic, Hootie, the Blowfish, Common, Talib Kweli, De La Soul, Luscious Jackson, Tand the Violent Femmes, Man Man, The Village People, and The Squirrel Nut Zippers.
WTH?! Con This event has occurred annually since 2001. Major guests include a host of webcomic creators and
wrock bands. The 2018 event attracted around 300 attendees. Peak attendance has been around 500 people. The most recent con was held the weekend of March 15, 2019.
Notable faculty
*
David Hammond, notable director, was a Theater Studies Professor at Guilford.
*
Mary Mendenhall Hobbs, wife of Guilford President L. L. Hobbs raised funds for women's education.
*
David Newton, an American sculpture artist worked as a Guilford art professor.
*
Adam Daniel Beittel, minister and former president of
Tougaloo College
Notable alumni
*
Mary Ann Akers: 1991, reporter for ''
Roll Call''
*
M. L. Carr
Michael Leon Carr (born January 9, 1951) is an American former professional basketball player in the National Basketball Association (NBA) and American Basketball Association (ABA), and former head coach and General Manager of the Boston Celtics.
...
: 1973,
ABA/
NBA player, head coach and executive
*
Howard Coble: 1953, member of
U.S. House of Representatives (6th District, N.C.)
*
Joseph M. Dixon
Joseph Moore Dixon (July 31, 1867May 22, 1934) was an American History of the Republican Party (United States), Republican politician from Montana. He served as a U.S. House of Representatives, Representative, United States Senate, Senator, and th ...
: 1889, U.S. representative, Senator and Governor of
Montana
*
Rick Elmore
Rick Elmore is an American judge who previously served as a judge of the North Carolina Court of Appeals.
Elmore earned his undergraduate degree in 1974 from Guilford College in North Carolina, and worked for the North Carolina Department of Cor ...
: 1974, Judge,
North Carolina Court of Appeals
*
Rick Ferrell: 1928,
Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (A ...
player and member of the
Baseball Hall of Fame
*
John Hamlin Folger
John Hamlin Folger (December 18, 1880 – July 19, 1963) was a Democratic U.S. Congressman from North Carolina between 1941 and 1949.
Born in Rockford, North Carolina, Folger attended public schools in Surry County. He graduated from Guilfor ...
:
U.S. Representative
*
World B. Free
World B. Free (born Lloyd Bernard Free; December 9, 1953) is a retired American professional basketball player who played in the National Basketball Association (NBA) from 1975 to 1988. Free was known as the "Prince of Mid-Air", "Brownsville Bom ...
(formerly Lloyd Free): 1976,
NBA player
*
Griff Garrison
Garrett Griffith is an American professional wrestler. He is signed to the professional wrestling promotion All Elite Wrestling (AEW), where he performs under the ring name Griff Garrison. Griffith is one-half of the tag team the Varsity Blonds al ...
: 2020, professional wrestler
*
Rick Goings: CEO of
Tupperware
*
Greg Jackson: 1974,
NBA player
*
Bob Kauffman: 1968, three-time
NBA All-Star and NBA head coach/general manager
*
Jennifer King
Jennifer King (born August 6, 1984) is an American football coach who is the assistant running backs coach for the Washington Commanders of the National Football League (NFL). King was the first black woman to become a full-time coach in the NFL ...
: 2006, first full-time black female coach in NFL history
*
Penelope W. Kyle: 1969, president of
Radford University
*
Junior Lord: 1998,
Arena Football player
*
Warren Mitofsky: 1957, inventor of the
exit poll
*
Dave Odom: 1965, head men's basketball coach of East Carolina, Wake Forest & Univ. of South Carolina, now Chairman of Maui Invitational Basketball Tournament
EA Sports Maui Invitational
*
Thomas Gilbert Pearson: 1897, Secretary and later President of the
National Audubon Society
*
William Queen: 1981, author of
New York Times bestseller ''
Under and Alone
''Under and Alone'' is a book written by undercover ATF agent William Queen and published by Random House in 2005 which chronicles his infiltration of the violent outlaw motorcycle gang, the Mongols.
Synopsis
William Queen was a nearly 20-year A ...
''
*
Doc Searls
David "Doc" Searls (born July 29, 1947), is an American journalist, columnist, and a widely read blogger. He is the host of FLOSS Weekly, a free and open-source software ( FLOSS) themed netcast from the TWiT Network, a co-author of '' The Clu ...
: 1969, journalist,
Cluetrain author
*
Ernie Shore: 1913, professional
baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding t ...
player and Guilford professor
*
D. H. Starbuck: circa 1840, North Carolina lawyer and political figure who served as
United States Attorney for
the entire state, and then for the
Western District of North Carolina after the state was divided into two districts, delegate from
Forsyth County to the
state constitutional conventions of 1861 and 1865, and elected state superior court judge.
*
Ben Strong, 2008, professional basketball player
*
Sam Venuto
Samuel Laurence Venuto (November 2, 1927 – July 7, 2014) was an American football running back in the National Football League. He played professionally for the Washington Redskins.
Biography
Venuto was born in Havertown, Pennsylvania, an ...
: NFL Running Back for the 1952 Washington Redskins. Long time high school Athletic Director and football coach. Member of the New Jersey Coaches Hall of Fame.
*
Tony Womack
Anthony Darrell Womack (born September 25, 1969) is an American former professional baseball player. He played all or parts of 13 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB), with most of his career spent with the Pittsburgh Pirates and the Arizona D ...
: 1992,
Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (A ...
player,
2001 World Series Champion with the Arizona Diamondbacks.
*
Hunter Yurachek
Hunter Reid Yurachek (born October 21, 1968) is an American university sports administrator who currently serves as athletic director at the University of Arkansas. He was previously the athletic director for Coastal Carolina University.
Early ...
: 1990, Athletics Director at the University of Arkansas
*
Tom Zachary
Jonathan Thompson Walton Zachary (c. May 7, 1896 – January 24, 1969) was a professional baseball pitcher.
Career
Zachary had a 19-year career in Major League Baseball that lasted from 1918 to 1936. He played for the Philadelphia A's, Wa ...
: 1917,
Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (A ...
player best known for pitching
Babe Ruth's 60th home run.
Karl Stephan- 1981, artist and educator
See also
*
WQFS
References
External links
*
*
Official athletics website
{{authority control
Liberal arts colleges in North Carolina
Quaker universities and colleges
Private universities and colleges in North Carolina
University and college buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in North Carolina
Universities and colleges in Greensboro, North Carolina
Educational institutions established in 1837
Colonial Revival architecture in North Carolina
Neoclassical architecture in North Carolina
Gothic Revival architecture in North Carolina
Universities and colleges accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools
Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in North Carolina
Quakerism in North Carolina
1837 establishments in North Carolina
National Register of Historic Places in Guilford County, North Carolina