CONTINUING EDUCATION: COFFEE CHATS OFFER OPPORTUNITIES FOR ALUMNI TO CONNECT

BY EMILY HEDRICK '70

If necessity is the mother of invention, could the pandemic be at least the godmother of Zoom?

With COVID-19 requiring social distancing from mid-March on, every sector of the country started scrambling to keep their constituents connected. Guilford College was no exception.

With the campus closed, how best to facilitate not only academic course work for students, but to continue to engage with members of the larger Guilford community, as well?

Vice President for Advancement Ara Serjoie and his team launched a monthly series of Coffee Chats, taking a chance that even older Guilfordians would embrace the relatively new Zoom video conferencing capability to participate in the hour-long sessions.

The inaugural session in April featured Hege Professor of History Tim Kircher , who presented an overview of past pandemics, including the Black Death (bubonic plague) of 1348 and the worldwide Spanish Flu following World War I. In that deadly outbreak, incidentally, Guilford College remained in operation and didn’t lose a single student to the disease. To put current circumstances in perspective, Tim said it’s rare when there isn’t a pandemic somewhere in the world, such as cholera, malaria, smallpox or HIV/AIDS.

In May Michele Malotky, Associate Professor of Biology, spoke of the implications of the discipline of public health in the COVID era. Michele described the mechanism of the coronavirus and explained the interdisciplinary nature of the field, since a comprehensive response to a massive problem like COVID involves the natural and social sciences, biology, statistics, business and the whole health care industry.

The June presentation of Barbara Lawrence, J.D., Vice President for Diversity, Equality and Inclusion, and Associate Professor of Justice and Policy Studies, came on the heels of the death of George Floyd and the subsequent Black Lives Matter social protests around the country.

July brought “Ethical Leadership for a Crisis-Ridden World” by Dean of Students Steve Mencarini and Vance Ricks ’92, Associate Professor of Philosophy, who shared Guilford’s ethical leadership model and its implications in 2020’s tumultuous society.

Carol A. Moore, Guilford’s new President and August’s guest, gave an overview of her style, and explained why she accepted the position and her understanding of the Trustees’ expectations for her one-year appointment.

From feedback and participation so far (about 50 participants a month), the series has been well-received. Gertrude Beal, a lifelong member of New Garden Friends Meeting who retired from Guilford in 2017 after 38 years of service in various administrative posts around campus, says she likes the sessions because the topics are timely, they keep her connected to the college and they serve as good continuing education.

Karen Reehling Blum ’72 has joined in from Grantham, N.H., where she and her husband, former Guilford advancement team member Alfred Blum, have retired.

“I agree it’s a good idea,” says Karen, herself a lifelong development professional. “[Coffee Chats] are a good way for the college to keep up with constituents,” especially when the pandemic keeps people apart.

Attendees, many of whom (like this writer) produced their assignments in college on manual typewriters, defy the odds and figure out not only how to get sound and onscreen video, but also to submit questions during the sessions.

Visit Guilford’s Advancement and Alumni YouTube site to view previous Coffee Chat sessions.