Welcome, President Wente!
Today is a big day at Wake Forest: we welcome our new president, Dr. Susan R. Wente. She sent this message out to students, faculty, staff, parents and families, and alumni this morning. I hope you found her message as energizing as I did!
It’s always a big deal when a college or university gets a new president, but to put it in context, Dr. Wente is only the 14th president since the founding of the school in 1834. That means in 187 years, we have only had 14 people lead our university – which feels pretty remarkable to me. You can follow Dr. Wente on Twitter and Instagram (and of course I will continue to share her messages here). As she said in her Instagram post, “I can’t wait to see what we will accomplish together!” Welcome, Dr. Wente!
Our incoming ’25 students got two emails today, which I have shared on the Emails Students Received page of the New Students website. One is about course registration for the fall, and the other is about Project Wake, which is a small group book discussion that new students can participate in (and I highly recommend). Project Wake allows new students to meet a faculty or staff member leading the discussion, as well as a group of other new students who were interested in the same book. It’s another way to meet people and expand your network of potential friends (beyond your roommate/hallmates, etc.) and it also gets new students comfortable with the idea of speaking up and sharing their ideas and opinions, which will be a key part of their classroom experience.
Yesterday, the Class of 2020 was sent a message about plans to celebrate them this September; P’20 families also received the message. Our ’20s are asked to complete a survey about their Commencement plans; if you are a P’20 still in the Daily Deacdom, please encourage your graduate to read their email and take the survey as soon as they can.
For students who did not attend Summer Session I but are coming to campus for Summer Session II, they received this message from Residence Life and Housing reminding of CDC guidelines regarding international travel.
Today was the deadline for new students (’25 and transfers) to submit their Health Information and Immunization Form (HIIF), and for continuing students (i.e., ’22-’24s and graduate and professional students) to submit their COVID vaccine documentation. The Student Health Service tells me they are processing the HIIF and COVID vaccine uploads and emails as quickly as possible. Students are asked to please allow 7-10 business days before checking their Student Health Portal for receipt/acceptance of their documentation. If after that time their immunizations are not uploaded into their portal, students should send an email to HIIF@wfu.edu. The Student Health Service notes that sending or uploading duplicates will slow down the process for all students. If a student is missing any vaccines or information that the SHS must have, the student will be sent a secure message through the Student Health Portal.
One final Student Health Service note: they have posted information about their holiday weekend hours. And as a reminder, the University will observe the July 4th holiday on Monday, July 5th. I’ll pre-post our normal Monday Meet A Deac though.
Wishing our Deacs in Summer School I a strong finish – crush your finals!