Tuesday Newsday

Yesterday it was about 80 degrees, which means it is time once again for me to pull out one of my favorite memes about NC (click to enlarge):

I also had seen this little gem over the weekend, and I thought it might be applicable to a lot of Wake moms, dads, grandparents, and family members:

It is Election Day. If your Deacs are registered to vote in NC and they did not early vote or absentee vote, they can vote in person at their designated polling place, which they can find on this website (the Reynolda Campus is divided into two districts, loosely based on south campus vs north campus residence halls). Polls are open until 7:30 p.m. There are free rides from the Benson Center Circle to both Harvest Bible/Salem Chapel (Precinct 903) and Bethabara Moravian Church (Precinct 905) on Election Day. Shuttles will begin running at 9 a.m. and will finish return rides at 8:30 p.m. Students should expect long lines throughout Election Day, and they should be aware that if are in line by 7:30 p.m., they legally have the right to vote. If anyone tells them otherwise, they should not leave their spot in line but should call the North Carolina Election Protection Hotline at 888-687-8683.

Now to some other news from campus. I had heard from some families who had forgotten to waive health insurance coverage for their student this year, and I have good news: the Student Blue (Health Insurance) Enrollment/Waiver process is now open for Spring 2023, if you want to make changes to your coverage:

• If you did not enroll in Student Blue for the fall and want to change that for the spring 2023 semester, enroll here.
• If you did not submit a waiver for the fall semester but you want to submit a waiver for Spring 2023, waive here.  
• The deadline to enroll or waive for Spring 2023 is 2/15/2023. Need assistance?  Email sip@wfu.edu or call 336.758.4247.

In addition, please remind your student(s) to always carry either an electronic or hard copy of their insurance card.

Yesterday, President Wente and Vice President Kidd Brown sent a message to students with an update on the University’s first campus climate survey on sexual misconduct; read it here.

The Office of Residence Life and Housing sent this message to resident students about how to take care of their physical space if leaving for the Thanksgiving break, and preparing for inspections.

I also got word of an upcoming Outreach Workshop Learning Series (OWLS) from CLASS (Center for Learning, Access, and Student Success). How Food Impacts My Learning will be held on Thursday, Nov. 10th at 4 pm in the Autumn Room of Reynolda Hall: “We know that food impacts our health. But did you know it plays a big role in our learning, too? Come get some study snacks and hear from Harvest Table as well as staff from CLASS.” If this would be helpful to your Deacs, encourage them to attend.

For our P’23 families, while most of the details about Commencement are still being worked on, we do have a Commencement website with some initial info. A much fuller picture of Commencement will be available in the spring; we appreciate your patience until then. And if your seniors have not already discovered the Out of the Forest website, it has great info about how they can prepare for their launch post-WFU.

I also just got word that there will be another set of senior portrait sessions for The Howler (our yearbook) offered in the spring semester: apparently the photographers will be here for two weeks from February 6-17, 2023. Signups for those sessions should go out in January to students, so your ’23s should be on the lookout for emails from our official yearbook email: howler@wfu.edu.* More information from The Howler student leaders is available here.

For our P’26 families, this week’s Letters So Dear was sent to your ’26s. and the Weekly Message for First Year Families is about “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For.”

That’s all I’ve got for you on this busy Tuesday – other than this closing thought: my fondest wish today is that all eligible Deacs participate in the election process (or have already done so via early voting or absentee). Part of what we want to instill in our students is a sense of civic and community responsibility and participation in our democracy. Who they vote for is their business. I just want them to vote, and for that to become a habit they will carry forward with them 🙂

* note – due to a quirk in web coding, sometimes if you click on email addresses in our posts, it adds a weird [null] in the email address. If you get that, just type the email address manually instead (thank you for your patience).