Lots to See and Do

Today is just packed.  Tons of things to see and do.  This afternoon starting at 3:30 pm on the Mag Quad (aka Manchester Plaza) is the Student Involvement Fair – a wonderful opportunity for students of all class years to get involved in clubs and other activities.

I took a walk around campus at lunchtime and saw some folks setting up and organizing the tables.  Once all our student organizations fill those tables, it will be a fantastic, colorful hive of activity.  Tonight is the panel discussion The Flag: Navigating Southern Identity, Race, and Symbolism at 6 pm in Wait Chapel, with small group studetn discussions to follow.  Tomorrow is our first football game (more on that tomorrow).

What else are your students seeing on campus?  Flyers of all types and sorts.  Many of them are posted on bulletin boards near the first-year residence halls, but flyers also pop up on brick walls and around staircases.  I took a few pictures of some of the flyers your students are seeing as they go about their business on campus (see below).

Many of these flyers have to do with tryouts for club sports or musical groups (great ways to get involved on campus, by the way).  On any given day I could go out and see a whole new group of flyers.  There is that much going on all the time, it seems.  (So in the unlikely event your student says ‘there’s nothing to do at Wake Forest,’ between the flyers and the organizations represented at the Student Involvement Fair, you have seen evidence to the contrary).

As I was on my walk, I did some people watching too.  I saw a couple of students running to get into one of the classroom buildings, with a friend behind them calling to them “you have two minutes – why are you running?”  (The friend kept a leisurely pace and did not run.)

Probably 80% of the students I passed were on their phones talking or texting, unless they were walking with a friend.  I can’t decide if the dogged connection to the cell phone is so they look occupied and won’t give off the impression they are walking alone because they don’t have a friend to go with them, or if they are just multitasking.  Perhaps a bit of both?  I’m just as guilty of walking and looking at my phone, by the way, but I know the reasons I do it.  I wonder what our students reasons are.

During the walk, I passed a really adorable girl who was wearing an outfit that was reminiscent of the famous ‘Diana Spencer at the daycare’ shot.  If you are a fan of pop culture or were a royal watcher, you will know the shot I mean.  I saw this young lady and for just a second she was almost in that same Diana pose (except she had a backpack and not a toddler on her arm) and it occurred to me that the student was probably barely a gleam in her parents’ eyes at the time that famous picture was taken.

And I saw my first official sign of fall.  One of the trees along the main Silas Creek entrance is starting to turn colors.  Fall Wake Forest is an amazingly pretty Wake Forest.  I can’t wait for your Deacs to see it.

— by Betsy Chapman