FDOC! (First Day of Class)
Today is FDOC – First Day of Class. It has been a long time coming, and I am thrilled that we are back to normal(ish) with students engaged in their courses.
It has been a pleasure to watch my faculty friends all summer on social media and see the amazing work they have been doing to make their classes, no matter the modality, as engaging and interesting and as pedagogically sound as possible. I also know the care the faculty are taking in thinking about your students – some of whom could not come to campus for whatever reason and are spread across time zones all over the world. A 9 am class here in Winston is a 6 am class for a student in San Francisco, or a 9 pm class for a student in Shanghai (I think), so there are lots of considerations faculty reflect on re: how best to engage students no matter where they are, when it makes sense to be synchronous vs. asynchronous, etc. But I can tell you that they care and they have worked their backsides off to make the fall the best it can be.
Not sure if your Deacs have kept up with all the action on the Quad, but our Campus Rec department has been working tirelessly to try and create ways to connect our students to each other outdoors in safe, masked, social-distance-appropriate ways. They have a Recreation Go Outside program of games on the Quad. Here are some photos that student photographer Riley Harriman (’22) took of the Quad lastnight. I was SO SO proud of our students. Look at all those masks! Let’s keep up the good work, Deacs.
Campus Rec is helping in other ways too – creating outdoor fitness classes, and converting some of the space that can’t be used for workouts (due to too much heavy breathing indoors) to study space. Their Living Room is available now, with additional space coming available next week. Urge your Deacs to check out all Campus Rec is doing via their website.
Related note: a couple of you have asked me about certain closures: why are the basketball courts closed, or why can’t students play the pianos. I have not been in the center of those policies but know our health and safety and medical folks looked at all of these things. If I had to guess, would imagine it has to do with the fact that very few folks playing pickup basketball would limit themselves to simply shooting free throws or taking unguarded three point shots; instead, the norm is to post up on people, which is not socially-distant. With pianos, it would be hard to keep clean between uses, and my assumption is that we are focusing our custodial efforts on high-touch surfaces that everyone uses, like doors. Please know that any restrictions are not meant to irritate our students, but to keep them safe. Not one student I have talked to wants to do this semester from their family home (much as they love you).
If your Deac hasn’t looked at the Virtual Involvement Fair yet, please encourage them to do so. This is open to students of all years. Students can watch videos for organizations they are interested in, and then copy down their contact info at the end to get connected to their organization. I happened to get an email a couple days ago about one organization, the Office of Civic and Community Engagement; they have some things coming up that might be of interest to your Deacs:
We offer meaningful opportunities in the areas of service, leadership, social justice, election engagement, and community-based learning. We are so excited to connect with you! Through a mix of in-person and virtual opportunities, the OCCE has both new and re-imagined programs lined up for the fall with options like Virtual Tutoring, Deacs Decide, Hit The Bricks, and more. Please join us at our Virtual Open House on Friday, August 28 from 2-3 PM EDT. RSVP on The Link.
OCCE also sponsors Deacs Decide, which is about voting. As I tell my students, I don’t care who you vote for, but I care that you vote. This page has a lot of great info about how our students can get involved, whether that is by being part of Deacs Decide, or by knowing how they can get registered to vote in NC or request an absentee ballot.
Speaking of voting, we do have students at Wake Washington this fall! On their FDOC, in addition to having class, our Wake Washington students (and some alumni) made 280 sandwiches and 60 trail mix bags for Martha’s Table, serving folks in need. How’s that for Pro Humanitate?!?!?
Go Deacs!
— by Betsy Chapman, Ph.D. (’92, MA ’94)