A Very Rainy Friday

It’s Friday, Deac families.  The end of the week for your students, and it has been a pretty rainy one.  We’ve had rain on and off for the past three days.  The temperature has been cooler – low to mid 70s – and when it hasn’t been raining, it’s been foggy and generally overcast.  This morning, however, is a full-on hard rain.  My prediction is that students with 8 am classes will be especially grumpy today.

Rainy days are an interesting phenomenon at Wake Forest.  Most of our students prefer to wear hooded all-weather jackets rather than carry umbrellas.  Some students do nothing at all – no jacket, no umbrella.  Our female students do have a huge array of nice rainboots though – lots of colors and patterns.  Even if they aren’t carrying umbrellas, at least their feet are staying dry.  That is a big change from my days on campus (the late 80s) when rainy days meant you saw a slew of students in LL Bean Duck boots, with umbrellas.

I had a couple meetings Wednesday in the center of campus and I had my umbrella.  As I walked in the rain, it dawned on me that an umbrella is great if you are walking alone along the campus paths, but during class changes, when there are hundreds of students all on the same walking paths, having an umbrella creates a certain awkwardness.  I kept thinking of how close I was passing to other people and thinking  be careful, don’t hit anyone with it! – so perhaps our students are onto something with the hooded jackets alone.

One other observation that I made during my time in Reynolda Hall the other day:  I went into the ladies room and as soon as I walked in, on the counter near the sinks was a student’s cell phone, her pretty Vera Bradley ID card holder (with her name and picture displayed), as well as a very expensive looking leather backpack.

All left unattended while she was in a stall.

Anyone who entered that bathroom could have seen the bag, phone and ID card holder (which had a zipper compartment which ostensibly could have contained money) and taken it.  And because Reynolda is so busy and has so many entrances and exits, this poor girl would have emerged from her stall to find all her things gone and she’d have virtually no way of knowing which way to run to try and chase the person down.

So parents and families, please remind your students not to leave their things unattended in a public place.  We are Wake Forest and we are a wonderful place, but that does not mean that it is wise to leave valuables in plain sight.

Finally, a ray of hope for students – only a 20% chance of rain this weekend.  Hope they dry out and get some well needed sunshine!