Center for Principled Problem Solving

PPSP Alumni Presents Sculptures in Durham

I am writing this as an alumni of the first group of Principled Problem Solving Scholars and, more recently,  Guilford College. My time at Guilford was rich with opportunities for learning and expansion. For me, the PPSP was one of the most important and influential of them all. The ability to think outside of the proverbial box and understand the importance of experiential learning were two of the most important parts of my PPSP experience. During my time at Guilford these ways of thinking and reacting became two absolutely key aspects of my art practice.

This being said, I would like to invite the Guilford community to my first solo exhibition at The Carrack in Downtown Durham, NC. It will be up from January 31- February 9, 2012 with a reception from 7-10pm the evening of Friday, February 3rd. It will be featuring new steel work as well as small pieces.

The Carrack is on the second floor of 111 West Parish Street in Durham, NC. The gallery is open from 12-6pm Tuesday through Friday.

Thank you all for your positive thoughts and help along the way!

www.graceleelawrence.com

 

The Illusory Distance

    Know that as I write this, I write with the experience of a chronic procrastinator. I am well-acquainted with panic, and there are many kinds. There’s the panic that you get when an assignment you should have done a week ago is due tomorrow.  There’s the dread of having a huge project hanging over your head that you know you should have been working on. There’s even that little niggling panic at the back of your head that lets you know that you’ve forgotten to do something, but for the love of Christ you just can’t remember what that something is.

    As you get older, graduate, and prepare to join the exciting world of employment (and even more stressful, careers), panic is likely to be something you will have to cope with for the rest of your life. So you may as well learn to live with it while you’re still in school.

    I’m not telling you to be a procrastinator, like me. True, procrastination is an excellent coping mechanism for those of us who can’t handle school 24/7. But for the purposes of this entry let’s just say it’s just about the worst thing to be. Why?

    Because here I am talking about the most important assignments you’ll ever get. The long-term projects that you are expected to work on for half a year or longer. The assignment you know you’ve had at the very beginning of the semester, at the very outset of your class.

    In this case, procrastination kills. If it doesn’t kill your grade, then it’ll destroy your composure until finally you turn it in. Even if you distract yourself with a party or a video game (or worst of all, the internet), you’ll know that you SHOULD be working on it. It hangs over you like a guillotine, you know you should do something about it but you rationalize by saying “I’ll do it later”.

    YOU WON’T! If you don’t do it now, you’ll never get around to it. The pressure of responsibility builds up as the days pass and the due date gets ever closer. The stress gets to be so bad that you’re willing to turn in just about any piece of crap just so that the pressure will end. And that’s a shame. You shouldn’t have to half-ass the most important projects you’ll ever undertake.

So do you have a 50-page paper you’ve been putting off? A poster board of some kind? A presentation on biophysics that’s supposed to last twenty minutes? Start working on it now! NOW!

    Spare yourself the stress. You know that sense of security you get from knowing that your assignment is due in over a month? That distance is an illusion. Stop kidding yourself and get to it, because that assignment on the horizon is a lot farther than it seems.

 

 

The Over-Whelming Demand For Survey's At Guilford Are Affecting First-Year's Turnouts At Programs

After almost 2 long hard fought months of running around and trying to get First-Year students pumped up about taking a survey about programming, I find myself stuck between students versus the demanding needs of Guilford College which moves my focus to another level.

(Milner Hall Tabling Event: Picture of students taking the survey & bonding with each other)

 The purpose of this programming survey is focused on the issue of student apathy towards programming.  This apathy for programming keeps them from learning educational tools or just simply having fun by bonding with other First-Year students. The goal of the Programming Survey is to see what First-Years like, don't like, and what changes need to be made to make programming more attractive for them. This issue has been a burning issue I wanted to look into because Guilford College stresses to all students the importance of bonding, getting out around the community, and taking advantage of the many opportunities that arise.  In my journey of doing tabling in both First-Year dorms (Milner & Binford) to get survey responses, I have experienced the over-arching effect of too many surveys for First-Year students.  They consistently expressed to me how the flooding of surveys in their college email was causing them to hate taking them.  Some First-Years have admitted that they always delete the surveys because they don't want to take them and very few admitted that they try to take them all. Also during this process, I learned that many First-Years feel worn out from the demanding workload of their classes, extracurricular activities, and meetings.  They feel like they have very little time for fun and don't won't to waste their time taking hundreds of survey's.  For example, some surveys given out consisted of the Dinning Survey, Resident Advisor Survey, First-Year Survey, First-Year Lab Survey, and my Programming Survey as well.

So weeks into in my project, I started out with a goal of 200 which slowly decreased to 100 after I learned about the other survey's adding much of a burden on First-Years.  The demand for survey's that Guilford heavily relies on for improving the college as a whole may be playing a huge role in deterring First-Years from coming out to programming and many other great activities around campus. Although I’m still in the process of gathering responses to see what changes need to be made and what works, my focus has slightly changed.  I'm still completing my survey project to implement changes where needed, but I’m also starting to address the issue of surveys that Guilford overly demands.

Here at Guilford College many teachers and staff take full advantage of using survey's as a main tool in learning what changes need to be made and what is working well.  Guilford has taken survey's even deeper by requiring not only First-Years but all students to take an evaluation at the end of each semester for the classes they are taking.  Is this Wrong?  Why do students not have a say in whether or not they want to take class evaluations?  Some teachers even eliminate student’s opinion by telling them if they don't take it then it will affect their final grade or will be punished in some other form.  I have personally experienced this for myself in all the three years I have been here at Guilford which is causing many negative feelings and views towards surveys in general.

A possible solution to solve the issue of the over demanding need for surveys is to go back to past methods used by many.  What I mean by this is that Guilford College should look into doing round table discussions that will be more effective than giving out surveys.  Having a group of students discussing what worked in their class and what didn’t at the end of the semester will be more effective than having students hurrying to finish a paper evaluation with many grammatical errors.  These grammatical errors from paper evaluations cause student’s ideas and thoughts to not be expressed correctly which doesn’t help anyone in the end.  There are also email evaluations that other resource departments on campus use which floods student’s emails.  These evaluations may not have as many grammatical errors but students rush to complete them which cause them to not express their thoughts in an effective manner.  All in all, either way you look at it, surveys should be a last resort for Guilford to turn to. Face to face round table discussion should be the main pathway for teacher and staff evaluations so that students can enjoy the option of doing paper or online surveys for their projects.  With this being said, students may start to have a different outlook towards surveys and may feel like they have more free time.  This may help solve my project issue of student apathy towards programming.  Students may start coming out more programs which will be a win-win solution for both my project and Guilford’s overwhelming demand for surveys. Although this may not completely solve the issue of student apathy towards programming but it will definitely be a good start.  What do you think about what has been said and suggested?

 

 

Book reading meant to inspire Guilford community

My project was holding a book reading for Nothing About Us Without Us by James I. Chalton. I chose that particular book because it mirrored some of the PPS readings. For example, Nothing About Us Without Us is similar to Half The Sky written by Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn. Both books give examples of oppression and empowerment at the same time. For the book reading, I invited my fellow PPS classmates along with my many friends on campus, and I even posted an advertisement in the Guilford Buzz. Although many students did not have time to read a whole book in the middle of the semester, I still think it was effective. This reading is very important to me because the staff that did come will likely be at Guilford for a longer period of time than the students anyway. I believe I offered a different perspective to the staff who aid students with disabilities the most. The fact that the people who attended will be here for longer than 4 years is very helpful to my ultimate goal of having disability being seen differently on Guilford’s campus! Now they will be able to help future students by suggesting the book as something to read.
Guilford has a relatively large percentage of people with different disabilities. The percentages will likely stay the same or grow; in other words, it will not decrease. With such a large population on campus, the people on Guilford’s campus need to be more aware and empowering of people with disabilities. I do know that some professors on campus only make their classes accessible because they are required to under the ADA (Americans with Disability Act). That is all well and good, but Guilford has core values like equality and diversity, which in my view calls Guilford to do more than what the laws require. Guilford should be one of the most accepting places.
Before I had my reputation at Guilford for being intelligent, professors were surprised with my academic performance. Professors should not have judged me to begin with and the book Nothing About Us Without Us can help people to understand why this should not happen. Furthermore, the book provides people with more knowledge on people with disabilities and creates a greater awareness that is needed around campus. With this small step a lot can change.

Okay Being Average

Often I feel that I have been condemned to Sisyphus’ eternal punishment of pushing a boulder up a mountain only to have it fall back down when I reach the top.  Yet time and time again I push the boulder back up the mountain.  Sometimes my efforts seem useless and cause unending frustration, but I want to reach the top of the mountain and I have the drive and self-motivation to do so. 

I wonder why others don’t have the same commitment.  Some people are okay with being average and just going through the motions of life.  What is it that will make them start living and become all that they can be? 

One of my driving forces is my strong sense of self-motivation.  I want to be the best version of myself and I’m not content with simply breezing through life.  I look around and see people with aspirations and goals, but I also see people who simply do things because they are told to.  What is the difference between the two?  One group has found passion and motivation in their life. 

What is it that you are passionate about?  What motivates you?

Guilford College students have many opportunities and resources available to them.  The student that seeks these resources out will benefit greatly compared to the student who sits in his or her room waiting for an opportunity to come to him or her.  True, it may be hard work to make it to the top, but those hardships shape who you are as a person. 

Life is full of opportunities, but if we don’t seize at least a few, life will pass us up and all that weight we have been carrying will come crashing down on us.  We are not condemned to Sisyphus’ punishment; we can and will reach the top with passions and motivations.  We must seek out opportunities and utilize our resources effectively.  

 

Jumping Hurdles

    After a slew of unreturned phone calls and e-mails I found myself in the conferences and events office figuring out the details for an event planned only a couple short weeks away.  The process of planning this alternative health care information session began over a month before and attempting to contact the required checks and balances in the planning process had failed miserably. And so I, determined to get an answer, headed down to the office of conferences and events, no one was there. I waited, twiddling my thumbs for over 30 minutes before striking up a conversation with a maintenance employee.  After hearing my complaints he offered to drive me around to try to find my contact person, whom we successfully located setting up for another event.  I returned to the office to wait for another 30 thumb twiddling minutes before she could return and approve the space and time of my event. The actual meeting took less than 15 minutes after an hour and a half long waiting game. But I do not blame the amicable and helpful staff at the conference and events department I blame the problems within the system.

     Guilford has a system of checks and balances for planning events, reserving a place and time, reviewing legalities, and discussing the purpose of the event.  This system is understandable it helps assure organization and cover liability issues, but it is broken.  The frustration of feeling ignored by the needed faculty was discouraging and would have completely deterred me from pursuing the event if this project was not required for class credit.  This broken system probably deters many hopeful students attempting to create events, therefore muting Guilford’s creativity and community.  Events are and should be hard work but Guilford’s policies should not add to the workload or hinder progress.  There is a potential for the existing policies or checks and balances to run smoothly. A larger conference and events staff is essential to assure that students can be assisted when needed and that Guilford’s community can grow by encouraging a fun and engaging variety of events.  It’s important for student passions and knowledge to be shared and hosting events are great ways for students to be heard, creating systems in support of student events could promote more student involvement on campus.  Guilford’s conference and events department should shift focus from enforcing limitations to encouraging possibilities.

HUG welcomes speaker Macrina Cárdenas Alarcón

    On Monday September 26, 2011 Hispanos Unidos de Guilford (HUG) organized for speaker Macrina Cárdenas Alarcón to discuss the femicide occurring in Mexico, focusing on Ciudad Jurárez, Chihuahua and Tijuana.  Macrina Cárdenas Alarcón is the former legislative director in DC for the Mexico Solidarity Network and has worked for over ten years organizing to end femicide.                                                                                                                                         

    In 1993 it became apparent that numerous women had been abruptly disappearing from their communities across Mexico. As a result a group called the Civil Rights of Women, made up of mostly mothers of the victims, mobilized.  By 1995, the bodies of three of the abducted females were found in one place, even though the individuals had disappeared at different times and from places. This led the Civil Rights of Women group to believe that these crimes were committed by the same perpetrators.
Despite these disappearances, the government of Mexico has only hindered these women’s fight for justice. While authorities arrested several people who aligned with their theories surrounding the crimes; these individuals were essentially used as scapegoats.  The mothers of the victims met with the families of the arrested to work together to get them out of jail.  Also, media networks heavily influenced by the government have perpetuated the victimization of the individuals that disappeared.

    The Civil Rights of Women group has organized together to fight against the femicide occurring intheir communities.  This way of working in community groups parallels the college’s core values of community, integrity, and justice.  For more information on the Mexico Solidarity Network visit: http://www.mexicosolidarity.org

                                                    

Pictures taken by Sharp Hall

 

Undoing Borders: A Queer Manifesto

    On Thursday, September 15, the Guilford community welcomed the San Francisco chapter of Pride at work—HAVOQ (Horizontal Alliance of Very Organized Queers).  Three members of the volunteer group are currently on tour discussing their new zine entitled “Undoing Borders: A Queer Manifesto”, highlighting the ways in which borders, prisons and the conception of criminalization affect how individuals and communities operate in the world.

 

 

The group HAVOQ is a horizontally organized group (a group that aligns all members equally). The group organizes around the principles of fabulosity, which strives for open and inclusive language, and recognition of overlapping experiences. Through these guiding principles the group seeks to build ways living and advocating that do not replicate hierarchies that marginalize queer people.  HAVOQ believes that in Queer organizing, Queer is considered a “how”, not a “what”.  The ideology of queer organizing is central to breaking down binaries.  Binaries can act as borders by separating us from another and constricting us.  This group strives to create an effective community that creates positive change by operating under its central principles. Just as Guilford has its core values set in place, the principles of fabulosity serve as a guiding code to the members of the HAVOQ.  

    In 2007, ten members of HAVOQ came together to attend the first US/ Mexico ‘No Borders’ camp.  Since then they have been working in the Bay Area and in the borderlands to resist violence surrounding the Mexican border. They have broadened their conception of borders by being advocates against the privatization of the prison system.  Their zine is an opportunity for them to add to dialogue about how we conceive borders in our lives and communities.

  

     The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) is a forum for corporate representatives to meet with conservative state legislators to develop strategies for advancing corporate industry objectives.  ALEC has played a crucial role in passing legislation that is designed to increase incarceration and promote the private prison industry in order for their product to stay in demand. As a result, legislation like Arizona’s SB1070 law requires police officers to detain or arrest anyone who they suspect lacks federal authorization to be in the United States.  Arizona’s SB1070 and similar immigration laws across the country create borders within our communities, and lead to the incarceration of immigrants.

In their presentation HAVOQ discussed how the rhetoric surrounding criminalization leads to the dehumanization of individuals. Once people are viewed as criminals, locking them into cages is justified, and often portrayed as necessary. This rhetoric is produced to criminalize individuals instead of unjust corporate institutions who seek to make profit off of the misery of others.

To follow the ‘Undoing Borders’ blog and to learn more about HAVOQ you can venture to their blog page: http://undoingbordersblog.wordpress.com/

 

Guilford Afterschool Arts Program students to perform BOOM BOOM click clack Who I am

Faculty in Theatre Studies envisioned and developed Guilford Afterschool Arts Program (GAAP) through the Center for Principled Problem Solving in collaboration with the Bonners Center for Community Learning. The project provides Guilford students with a chance to engage in solving a real world problem with ethical reasoning by creating an arts literacy program for the underserved immigrant youth populations  of Greensboro’s Glen Haven and Avalon communities. The Guilford students use their particular artistic skills to empower the children to express their personal and communal experiences in performance. The project helps all to engage in the world more fully through the arts.

Students will celebrate the work of  GAAP with the premiere performance of BOOM BOOM, click clack, WHO I AM! on Thursday, April 21st at 7:30pm in Sternberger Auditorium at Guilford College. Doors open at 7pm. A small reception to follow the performance. The event is free and open to the public.

For a video sneak peak, go to http://www.vimeo.com/21820935.

 

Students present PPS projects, compete for prize

What do handicap accessibility, radio telescopes, and service learning in Greensboro have to do with each other? They are all PPS projects groups whose members recently went the extra mile to present their work to the Guilford community during the Guilford Undergraduate Symposium. The presentations were part of the criteria for judging the winning project, along with team work, and thoroughness. Check out more from the February 24 edition of the Guilfordian!