Update on University Alerts and Malcolm Gladwell
Before we get to what I originally planned to cover in today’s Daily Deac, we want to make a mention of the shooting yesterday at Mount Tabor High School, where my Class of ‘27 is a junior (he is safe, though we are all shaken by the incident). As a parent immediately impacted by the situation, I can tell you firsthand that getting information about the incident was challenging, as this was an emerging situation.
Some of you have asked about Wake Forest’s response. Students will get an update in their WFU Should Know e-newsletter shortly.
“Wake Forest was in close communication with local law enforcement partners during yesterday’s shooting at Mount Tabor High School, about three miles from campus. University Police staffed the gatehouses to monitor car and foot traffic coming to campus and increased patrols in surrounding neighborhoods. With the information received from local law enforcement sources, the University had no reason to believe that the suspect was headed toward or near Wake Forest property.
University Police also received reports of a heavy law enforcement presence in an area north of campus overnight. As with the shooting at Mount Tabor, University Police were in communication with Winston-Salem Police and learned students were not at risk from the incident being investigated.
Wake Forest uses the Wake Alert system — voicemail, email, text message, website and web banners, and social media (Twitter, Facebook) — to notify faculty, staff and students when the University believes that members of the Wake Forest community could be at risk. Those messages are issued as soon as pertinent, vetted information is available. It may take time for authorities to investigate, verify and provide instructions or updates.
Based on recent feedback, the University will communicate more extensively about incidents in the vicinity of campus for the sake of greater community awareness.”
I can also tell you that it is very hard to outrun social media, which can have a lot of inaccurate information and rumors. Our crisis management folks are blessed to have a great working relationship with the Winston-Salem Police Department and the Forsyth County Sheriff’s office, and they help us in these incidents with information that has been vetted, which guides our response.
We live in a small city, and Winston-Salem – like every other town or city – is not immune to crime. At the start of each year, our Chief of Police sends out a campus safety reminder with tips on security resources. Families, you can help us by encouraging your students to download the Live Safe app. You can also help reinforce the idea that students should seek their safety information from the University or official local sources, and not social media (particularly anonymous sites like Yik Yak), which can be inaccurate.
Now to what I had originally planned. For our longtime Daily Deac-ers, you have heard me liken Wake to a wonderful smorgasbord: so many amazing experiences to taste, and I encourage our Deacs to try a bite of everything and make it the richest experience possible. Our Deacs have an opportunity coming up on September 14th – and, depending on your circumstances, parents and families could have one too.
You may be aware that Wake Forest launched a signature speaker series, Face to Face, last year. The series brings national and international thought leaders to campus to do two speaking engagements: one just for students, and one with people who have bought individual event tickets or are Face to Face subscribers (meaning they bought tickets for the whole season).
Famed journalist and author Malcom Gladwell will be here on September 14th, and I am super excited about it. Your students have the opportunity to go to a 5:15 pm program in Wait Chapel with Malcolm Gladwell. This will be free for students (they just line up and have their student ID with them to get in), and it will be Q&A based.
I cannot underscore what an opportunity it is for students to get a Q&A with a journalist of his caliber (and for free!) I hope loads of them take advantage of it. If they aren’t familiar with his work, they can tune in to his old TED Talk on Choice, Happiness, and Spaghetti Sauce.
Gladwell will then do a program at 7:30 pm in the LJVM Coliseum. There are seats in a student section that are first come, first served; again, students need to line up and have their ID to get in. But this is where the opportunity extends to parents and families too. If you are a Gladwell fan, and are within a reasonable commute, you could buy tickets for this 7:30 event. Single event tickets begin at $45 and there are a range of prices (depending on where you want to sit).
You could also buy a subscription to the full series, which will feature former Secretaries of State Madeleine Albright and Colin Powell (who will be here on November 9), or cellist Yo-Yo Ma, who will be here February 16, 2022. There was a special addendum to the series, and that is Dr. Sanjay Gupta, who will be here on April 12, 2022; subscription holders will have first access to buy tickets to the Sanjay Gupta event, and then if seats are still available, they will be offered on a single ticket basis (not gonna lie, Sanjay has been my TV doctor during the pandemic. I want to see him!!).
So at minimum, my plea to you is to encourage your Deac to check the Corq app for details about the special student event with Malcolm Gladwell and make plans to go on September 14th. (Once they are old like me, they will beg for the chance to go to see this kind of speaker for free! They just don’t know it yet). But also, if you are thinking about times during the year that you might want to come to W-S and visit your Deac, think about scheduling it to coincide with a Face to Face event if you’d enjoy hearing from some of the leading voices of our time.