Happy Friday, Deac families! An important message went out to the campus community this morning about violence and hate toward the Asian American and Pacific Islanders community. It reads (in part):
Today, in response to the violence and hate directed toward the Asian American and Pacific Islanders community, Asian American lawmakers and leaders are uniting people across our nation to observe #StopAsianHate, a virtual day of action and healing. The Wake Forest community is invited to participate in this national event through a virtual vigil being held at 7:30 p.m. ET.
Read the full message here. We stand with all our students, faculty, and staff in the goal to stop Asian hate.
After a ton of rain yesterday afternoon and evening, the sun is out this morning and temperatures will reach almost 80. That’s reason enough to be cheerful. But there is another reason to feel hope and joy. Yesterday, there was wonderful event for our campus. The Office of the Chaplain and the School of Divinity offered flowers to acknowledge the one year anniversary of COVID-19 shutting down the University. Over 1,000 flowers were placed on the steps of Wait Chapel, with signs encouraging people to take one for themselves, and one to give to someone else. Dean Jonathan Walton of the School of Divinity offered a beautiful reflection of what this past year has meant, and reaffirmed that like these flowers, hope is in bloom. You can watch Dean Walton’s message here.
We got more good news yesterday too: North Carolina announced an acceleration of the vaccine rollout. All remaining students in group 4 can be vaccinated beginning March 31st, and Group 5 (anyone over 16) can get vaccinated starting April 7th. Students received an email about this.
One important point is we need students to let us know if they have been vaccinated, as that will help us plan for our needs going forward. They should report this on SneezSafe, and the Student Health Service now has an option for them to upload their vaccine documentation to their Student Health Service portal. If you know your Deac has already begun the vaccination process, please urge them to report in SneezeSafe and upload in their SHS portal as soon as possible.
And with that, I hope you have a great weekend, Daily Deacdom!
