Closing out the First Week of Classes

In this Issue: MLK day closure and Briana Scurry livestream; where to find key University dates for academics and residence life; Summer Management Program Zoom meeting for families; Spring Career Fair; Family Weekend date is still TBD; wacky weather

Happy Friday, Deac families! It’s the end of the first week of classes, and my guess is that your Deacs are happy the weekend is here. I have gotten several questions about upcoming dates and events, so I wanted to devote today’s column to those questions.

MLK day closure and Briana Scurry livestream

The University will observe the MLK holiday this coming Monday, Jan. 16. In practical terms, what that means is there will be no undergraduate classes, and administrative offices will be closed.

We hope your Deacs will join us in Wait Chapel on Monday the 16th at 7 pm to hear from gold-medal winning goalkeeper Briana Scurry for our Martin Luther King, Jr. Keynote Address. The event will be livestreamed, so you can watch too!

Where to find key University dates for academics and residence life

A couple of sites you may wish to bookmark if you – like me – like to plan ahead on dates:

The Registrar’s website has a Calendars page with many different types of calendars. The ones you might find most useful are the Academic Services Calendar, which shows first day of class, breaks, etc., and also the Final Exam calendar.

A note about the Final Exam calendar: it will show you when exams begin and end, but you will need to consult with your student on which days/times they have class, because class times determine when exam time will be.

The Office of Residence Life and Housing website publishes the Opening and Closing dates for residence hall communities, which tells you in theory when your students can move in/out. The 2023-24 Opening and Closing dates website is partially complete.

BIG CAVEAT before you make any travel arrangements for your ’23-’26 Deacs: if you are planning this far ahead for move-in 2023, please consider getting flexible plane tickets/hotel reservations. The reason for that is that you don’t know at this moment if your Deacs might apply to be an RA, or a student adviser at Orientation, or a pre-Orientation group leader – and if yes to any of those, your students will likely have a different arrival date than the general sophomores-seniors student body.

CAVEAT for our P’27 families of an incoming student who will start this fall: you don’t want to make concrete travel plans either until you know if your student will want to do a Pre-Orientation experience, as their move-in dates will be different than the general move-in day for the Class of 2027. P’27s, you will get more information when the New Students website goes live in May; we appreciate your patience until then.

So use these dates as a general guide, but always opt for flexibility in travel plans.

Summer Management Program Zoom meeting for families

I am a big fan of our Summer Management Program – which has been referred to informally as ‘business boot camp for non-business majors.’ It’s a great way for a student to learn some business concepts and basics over summer school, plus get 8 credits! Our SMP team shared the following info about an upcoming Zoom for families:

“Wake Forest parents and families are invited to attend an information session on one of our most distinguished programs, The Summer Management Program (SMP).  SMP is a business boot camp for non-business, undergraduate students, and students earn 8.0 credit hours (pass/fail) by attending this summer program. Join Professor Ben King on Tuesday, Jan. 24 at 4:00 p.m. (EST) via Zoom https://go.wfu.edu/smpparents to learn more about this outstanding program. (This session will be recorded for those who cannot attend the live presentation.) Please note that this meeting is for parents and families only. We shall hold a separate information session for students.  Contact Francie Powers at powersfv@wfu.edu with questions.”

Spring Career Fair

My colleagues at the OPCD (Office of Personal and Career Development) wanted to share information about the upcoming Career Fair:

“The Spring Career Fair will be held on Jan. 18 from Noon-4 p.m. in the Sutton Center with organizations who have full-time and internship hiring needs. Recruiters from corporations, nonprofits, government, military and intelligence organizations, policy and think tanks, education, and more will be present and excited to meet our talented Wake Forest students. All majors and class years are invited to ask questions, learn about the organizations and opportunities, and make valuable connections. Employers include DISH, Lenovo, Red Ventures, Toyota, U.S. Dept. of State, U.S. Navy Seals, and many more. This is the best opportunity for students to quickly and easily meet with and learn from employers on the Wake Forest campus – and the only major on-campus career fair this spring.”

Encourage your Deacs of all years to register to attend.

Family Weekend date is still TBD

One of the biggest questions I get this time of year is “When is Family Weekend?” The date for Family Weekend is typically chosen to coincide with a home football game. The football schedule is typically not released until late January or early February. And once it is released, there is some due diligence we need to do to see what hotel availability looks like, typically trying to avoid events like the Furniture Market, which seems to claim rooms throughout the Piedmont Triad of Winston-Salem, Greensboro, and High Point, etc.

So even once the football schedule is announced, it normally takes a few days before we have an answer on the dates for Homecoming and Family Weekend, so we’d beg your patience in the interim. Once a Family Weekend date is chosen, we will publish it on parents.wfu.edu and in the Daily Deac blog. Thank you for your patience in the interim.

Wacky Weather

We’ll close out the week on a light note. Last night we had a loud and fierce thunderstorm. The old wives tale says that if you have a thunderstorm in the winter, you will have snow within 7 days, or at least that’s the version I know 🙂 Nothing in our immediate forecast suggests snow is likely, and my hope is it stays that way.

Have a great weekend, Deac families!