Important Reminders
One of the most important things your Deacs can do at the start of the school year is go to the Fall Involvement Fair. This will take place on Tuesday, August 30th from 3:30-6 p.m. on Poteat Field. Students can browse the 200+ student organizations on campus and can sign up on individual club/organization distro lists to be included in upcoming opportunities. (Pro tip: make one lap around all the tables before you start signing up – because you want to be sure you know the full smorgasbord of offerings before you settle on which groups you are interested in potentially joining.)
Particularly for families of new students, urge your Deacs to go to the fair and find some groups to join. Feeling connected to campus life and developing a sense of belonging at college is strongly correlated to meaningful involvement in clubs and organizations. Another pro tip: if you have an extroverted new student, gently plant the seed with them to look for the introverts on their hall/in their classes and invite them to go with you to the fair. I’m an introvert myself and it can be hard to muster up the desire to go to something solo, but if I know I have a buddy going with me, that can make all the difference.
It’s not just engagement on campus that is important, it’s also civic engagement that we want to help foster in our students. Some of you have already emailed me to ask about how your students can be registered to vote in NC, and I am happy to share some news on that front. There is a Deacs Decide interest meeting next Wednesday, August 31 at 6:30 p.m. in the Social Justice & Campus Kitchen Lounge (Kitchin Hall); interested students should RSVP on The Link. Here’s more:
“Join Deacs Decide to learn more about how to get involved with get out the vote efforts and the Deacs Decide Fellows Program! Fellows are energetic, passionate students who are highly interested and engaged to lead nonpartisan electoral and democratic engagement efforts at Wake Forest University. Fellows will work closely with Deacs Decide co-directors for engaging students to register to vote, increase voter turnout, and increase their peers understanding of how democracy works.”
If Deacs Decide isn’t your student’s jam, but they do want to be sure to get registered to vote, there will be a National Voter Registration Day on Tuesday, September 20 from 11:00 a.m. – 5 p.m. in the Tribble Courtyard. We’ll bring you more info on voter registration and this event a little closer to the National Voter Registration Day.
Each fall, our police chief sends out a message to campus with important personal safety reminders; you can read it here. When I talk to students about safety, I gently remind them that unfortunately there is no town, city, or campus that is immune to the potential for crime, so they need to make thoughtful choices about their safety. Two of the things I stress are 1) lock the door to your residence hall room, and 2) if you wouldn’t leave your laptop, cellphone, purse/backpack unattended in the middle of a major airport, don’t leave those things unattended here either.
In addition to the great tips in Chief Lawson’s message, please encourage your students to download and use the LiveSafe app:
“LiveSafe is a free personal mobile application for Wake Forest University students, staff, and faculty to engage in a two-way conversation with Wake Forest University police. With LiveSafe, you can use your cell phone as a personal security device that allows direct access to police, 911 emergency services, emergency location sharing, information sharing with quick tips, and a peer-to-peer Safe Walk tool.”
You know that from time to time, I like to share parenting articles that I find. This one is from the The Washington Post, and it’s about parenting during the college application process (and asking parents to make it less stressful). This one hit me particularly hard, as my HS senior is working on his Common App, and we have been navigating that stress and parent-child conflict. So this article had a lot of food for thought for me personally. If there are others in the Daily Deacdom with HS seniors applying to college right now, this article may be worth your while.
Two late additions: students got their weekly WFU Should Know today, and resident students got their annual mold and mildew prevention email.
— by Betsy Chapman, Ph.D. (’92, MA ’94)
August 25, 2022