Catching Up
There are a variety of news items that I missed between being out last week and yesterday being Meet A Deac day, so want to catch you up today. Bear with me, as there is much to cover.
Dr. Hatch sent a message on Friday to share news of important work that has taken place via an examination of our past and a desire to create a more inclusive narrative of our history:
At the April 2021 Board of Trustees meeting, members of the Advisory Committee on Naming presented findings to the Academic Committee of the Board of Trustees. The Academic Committee explored the research regarding how we acknowledge, remember and honor individuals whose names have been placed on University plaques, memorials and buildings….
We have decided to rename Wingate Hall to “May 7, 1860 Hall,” the date our institution sold at auction 16 human beings that a slave-owning benefactor bequeathed to Wake Forest through his estate. Washington Manly Wingate was the fourth president of Wake Forest University, serving from 1853-1862 and after the Civil War from 1866 until his death in 1879. By renaming this building, we acknowledge the University’s participation in slavery, recognize this aspect of our history and remember those who labored at the institution against their will. We hear their stories, learn their names and honor what they endured for our institution.
As Dr. Hatch said in his message, “the exploration of our past has prompted greater insight and richer understanding, and by engaging our history, we reaffirm the power of education to help broaden our empathy for all human beings.”
In academic news, we are extremely proud to be graduating our first class of 43 engineering majors. You can read the news story here, but there are a couple of things worth highlighting. First, the program is distinctive because it is grounded in the liberal arts: founding chair and professor Olga Pierrakos “partnered with the executive director of the Wake Forest Program for Leadership and Character to support the engineering faculty in developing and integrating learning modules focused on virtues including curiosity, courage, teamwork, resilience and grit, authenticity, practical wisdom, and empathy as part of the engineering curriculum.” Second, the program is precedent-setting for women in STEM: “forty percent of the graduating class are women, about double the national average for American engineering programs. Nearly 60% of the engineering faculty are also women.”
Some of our incoming first-year students (’25) and transfer students might have run into a hitch getting their COVID vaccines uploaded. There has been a delay in getting their Student Health Portal accounts created, and until those are created, they can’t upload their COVID vaccine documentation or other immunization documentation. Our IS people are working on this issue and we hope to have it fixed in a week or so. If your ’25 or incoming transfer student has tried to upload and it isn’t working, give it a couple of days and then try again. Thanks for your patience.
Rising sophomores (’24s) received this message, which outlines opportunities to apply for the Sophomore Retreat and select Pre-Orientation programs (since those were canceled for last August). Space is limited, so students should register their interest quickly.
As we conclude the academic year, we want to make you aware of a change. The Call Center, which had been operating each weekday between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m., will close on May 14.
The Call Center was designed to be activated when the Crisis Management Team was working on a campus crisis or emergency. Now that the majority of the students are about to go home for the summer, and because the status of COVID is much more stable, we no longer need the Call Center to stay active. Of course, in the event that circumstances arise where we need to reactivate the Call Center, we will do so.
For families with Commencement questions on May 15 or 16, you may email commencement@wfu.edu or call 336.758.7059.
We always encourage students to be the ones to contact administrative offices or faculty when they have questions. For parents and families, if you have COVID-specific questions, you can use our COVID form to send those in to us. For general parent/family questions, you may use the Who to Contact for… page, email parents@wfu.edu, and/or call the Office of Family Engagement (336.758.4237). There is also an After Hours Help page for urgent situations that require immediate attention.