New Guilford College Interim President Jim Hood is being embraced by faculty, staff, and Save Guilford College, a grassroots organization of alumni and friends of the school. The show of support comes as the college seeks a viable path forward following years of fiscal challenges.
This is the second leadership change for Guilford College in less than a year following the early departure of Interim President Carol Moore. Under her leadership, the school considered cutting some 20 tenured faculty positions and related majors. But critics said the proposal ran counter to the principles touted by the Quaker tradition school. Save Guilford College engagement committee clerk Daniel Summers says Jim Hood's decades-long experience at Guilford as both student and teacher provides a welcome change.
“Through his history, his family connections, and his expressions of his faith, he has definitely shown that he not only embodies the values that Save Guilford College is trying to protect, he's part of the reason that we have those values,” says Summers. “He helped teach us many of those values.”
Save Guilford College is working to improve enrollment numbers. According to The Greensboro News & Record, enrollment peaked at Guilford in 2009 with nearly 3,000 students but has fallen ever since. The group also has a fundraising goal of $500,000 by the end of March. They're currently more than a third of the way there.