Friday Wrap Up

We are wrapping up the semester and lots of administrators (myself included) will be taking PTO next week. We will still have a Daily Deac this coming Monday the 19th, and then the Daily Deac will go dark until January 3rd (unless there is some major breaking news we need to share over the holidays).

I want to give you an update on the results of the Family Communications Survey we launched in late November (many thanks to all of you who took the time to complete the survey!) Your feedback is incredibly valuable to our communications team. I have spent the last couple of weeks reading every word of your free-response answers and have been reflecting about how we can incorporate as many suggestions as we can in order to ultimately serve Wake families better. 

One of the challenges with any communications survey is that you’ll have some people who are happy with what you are doing and say don’t change a thing!, while others have suggestions of things they’d like to change. In our survey, about twice as many families said don’t change a thing! vs. those who wanted a new direction. 

This places us in a weird middle ground where we won’t make everyone happy at once. But what we can do is make some tweaks that I hope will be more useful to you, while not drastically changing what others say works well as is. So I am going to try out some new things when we return in January that hopefully will be a good compromise.

Much of your feedback was about the Daily Deac, as that is the communications vehicle that goes out most frequently. Based on your feedback in the survey, here are a few low-hanging fruit types of changes I am going to pilot when we return in January:

• Add an “In this Issue” section at the top so you can easily scan what will be covered that day and can determine whether today’s post has things you need (or if you want to skip). 
  • For example, many of you said you love the Five Senses posts, while others don’t like them at all. Adding an “In this Issue” at the top of the blog will tell you immediately whether you want to read on.
• Use headers that are big and/or bold so you can easily see where to look for the items you need the most and be able to scroll down to them quickly.
• Highlight due dates/deadlines so they are very clear and prominent.
• Discontinue Meet A Deac. The people have spoken, and this is not your favorite 🙂 I still have a few more interviews I had already written (and want to honor my commitment to those folks who had already done their interviews), so we will sunset Meet A Deac in mid-February.

There’s other feedback you offered that my team is still chewing on. Probably the most frequently mentioned was campus safety, particularly when there is an incident. I get the same security alerts your students do, so I don’t necessarily have the ability to give you more information. I know this is an area where the University is looking to improve in how it shares information. A project specifically related to families is underway, and I hope to have more details by mid-semester. In addition, I will try to share more information about what is already in place to keep your students safe. More to come as I have it.

We’re also still reflecting on your feedback about event dates for student events (and how soon to share) as well as the topics we cover in the Daily Deac that some of you have mentioned. We are always looking to provide content that finds the sweet spot between helpfulness and independence (not unlike what we all do as parents!). We’ll continue to be engaged in this sort of reflection and will see where it takes us. Thank you again for your feedback – and look for some of those changes in January!

In campus news, Wake Forest administrative offices will be closed December 23-January 2. Our After Hours Help page will connect you to resources if you have an urgent need that cannot wait until we reopen on January 3 after the holidays.

Speaking of holidays, because Hanukkah begins Sunday evening, I want to wish an early happy Hanukkah to all who will be celebrating. I also want to wish an early Merry Christmas to all who will be celebrating on the 25th.

I took a peek in our photo archives and found a couple that I hope capture the spirit of the holiday season. The first picture was from late November at the event “Chanukah on the Quad,” a celebration that offered a donut and latke bar, music, and our campus menorah. The second picture was taken from our “Lighting of the Quad” ceremony, also in late November, that featured musical groups, reflections, and the lighting of candles as well as buildings.

These celebrations were a wonderful way for students to get ready for the holidays with their Wake friends before heading home to you. May joy and happiness permeate all of your households!