Monday Thoughts
In this Issue:
- Email re: campus postings
- Letters So Dear for ’27s
- School of Business Inclusion Weekend – P’24s and P’25s
- Considerations and trade offs associated with the decision to live on or off campus for senior year and deadlines upcoming on February 12
Mondays are always a big meeting day for me, as well as class (I am teaching this semester!) so most of this content was pre-written on Friday, plus an addition this morning. Here goes.
Email re: campus postings
This morning, a message was sent to our campus community about campus postings. It reads, in part:
“Overnight (February 4), several signs and flags were placed around campus, and chalk was used on sidewalks in violation of University policies. Materials that violate policy, prevent or inhibit the intended use of public campus spaces, or are inconsistent with campus processes have been or will be removed. Additional steps will be considered as needed.”
You can read the full message here.
Letters So Dear for ’27s
As always on Mondays, Letters So Dear went out to our ’27s.
School of Business Inclusion Weekend – P’24s and P’25s
My colleagues in the B-school wanted me to share this information with families of current college juniors and seniors/P’24s and ’25s:
“The School of Business will be hosting our 2024 Inclusion Weekend event from February 23-24. This event is open to all college juniors and seniors to learn more about careers in business and specifically how the Wake Forest MS in Management, Accountancy, and Business Analytics programs can prepare you to succeed in a wide range of professions.
Participants have the opportunity to meet faculty members, students, and alumni from the School of Business. The goal of the event is to introduce prospective students to the programs’ curriculum and admissions processes while demonstrating the value of a business master’s degree.
More information can be found on our website. We would love to have as many current Wake students as possible join us for this event. The deadline to apply for the event is February 12th at 11:59 p.m.”
This could be a terrific opportunity for our ’24s and ’25s who might be interested in graduate programs in our B school. I also wanted to say that I checked on this, while it is entitled “Inclusion Weekend,” this program is open to juniors and seniors of all identities (i.e., it is not limited just to underrepresented groups).
Considerations and trade offs associated with the decision to live on or off campus for senior year
This is a message I run every year, so our longtime Daily Deac-ers might recognize it. This is about housing and the decision to live on or off campus after they have fulfilled the University’s six-semester residency requirement (typically during a student’s senior year).
Now that there has been a message to rising seniors (i.e. ‘25s) about the 24-25 housing selection process and their intent to live on or off campus, it seems like the right time to talk about this (senior families, please note that Deacon Place Apartments, which are located down the street from the Polo Road entrance to campus, are considered on-campus housing, as they are University housing managed by Residence Life and Housing). But families of all years should read this message, so you get a preview of what’s to come.
In the ideal world, we often want to have everything at once – sort of like an a la carte cafeteria menu where you can choose all you can eat. I refer to this phenomenon as wanting to choose something from Column A and Column B. In the real world, most of the time we get to pick one or the other, but not both.
Some students want to get a house or an apartment off campus because it seems more fun to have their own place, fewer rules and regulations, etc. But the decision to move off campus as a senior – or enter the off-campus lottery to move off as a junior – represents a great Column A-Column B moment. There are benefits and tradeoffs, and students/families just have to decide what is most important to them.
Benefits and tradeoffs for seniors moving off campus
- Campus parking – one of the realities of moving off campus is that you are not guaranteed on-campus parking; that is something that only on-campus junior and senior resident students have. So if your Deac wants to move off campus, they can log on when parking permits are being sold in August and see if they can get a commuter parking pass for on campus. Those permits are limited – so maybe they get lucky and get one, and maybe they don’t and have to park in a satellite lot just off campus and walk. That walk to campus in the morning might be less fun when it is raining or snowing. (Note that students with off campus permits can park on campus after 5 pm, so they can move their cars if they are working late in the library or whatever).
- Winter weather issues – during snow and ice storms, historically, the buildings on campus (which are on their own power grid) have kept power when some of the houses and apartment complexes just off campus have not. Wake has superior snow plowing on campus compared to the city snow plowing. Wake Forest, unfortunately, can’t make the power come on faster or have the streets plowed faster at non-campus properties; that is all utility/city-controlled.
- Trash/recycling – if you move off campus, there are no dumpsters and recycle stations right outside your building (as they are with the residence halls). You are taking out your own trash and recyclables, etc.
- Police and safety – if you move off campus and call 911, it goes to City of Winston-Salem police, not University Police. Students who live in single family houses in areas of high concentration of Wake students have historically been more likely to have break-ins or other incidents than those in apartment complexes. So that is a consideration too – if I move off, am I better off in a house or an apartment? Students may want to live in a house; parents and families may prefer that their student live in an apartment.
- Scholarship requirements – some students may have scholarships or other requirements that specify they must live on campus all four years. So, know the fine print of your Deac’s situation before you make firm plans. If your student has questions, have them follow up with the Scholars Office at scholarships@wfu.edu as they oversee those additional requirements.
These are all issues you and your Deac will have to navigate.
Important deadlines – due February 12
- Rising seniors (who have fulfilled the residency requirement) need to register their intent to live on or off campus – Rising seniors are required to indicate their intent to live off campus and register their address/roommates with the Office of Residence Life and Housing. They do this on their Housing Application in the Housing Portal.
- Students who fail to indicate their intent by February 12 will be coded as off-campus.
- Off campus lottery for rising juniors (i.e., students who are sophomores this spring) – Wake Forest has a six semester residency requirement. Rising juniors can enter an off-campus lottery and see if they can be released to live off campus as juniors in 2024-25. But unless/until they are released in writing by the Office of Residence Life and Housing, they should not secure any off-campus housing. If it turns out they don’t get a lottery slot, they will be required to live on campus as a junior. No one wants the costly mistake of being held to an off campus lease and an on campus housing requirement. And note: once you move off campus, you are expected to live off campus from that time forward and are not included in housing selection for future years. So if a junior wants to try to live in Deacon Place in their senior year, they would not want to enter the off-campus lottery as a junior.
- For our P’26s and P’27s: beware of signing leases now for occupancy 2+ years away. In recent years, some of our younger students have started signing leases for off-campus houses for their senior year – even though they won’t occupy that house until 2+ years from now. Students may feel pressure to sign up now to get the house they think they want, with the roommates they think they want, but a LOT can change over sophomore and junior year. The people they might want to live with now might not be the same ones they like best their senior year. Students who take a medical or other leave for a semester will still have to fulfill their six-semester residency requirement, which can impact their ability to live off campus in their ‘senior’ year. So please consider that carefully before signing a lease, which will be binding.
Additional considerations
- The Housing Agreement and the Dining Agreement are each binding contracts – in other words, if your rising senior decides to live on campus and selects housing and/or a meal plan, that is a binding commitment, the same as if they had signed a lease at an apartment off campus. So they need to be very clear that if they choose campus housing, they cannot change their mind later.
Final thoughts
I say all this not to sway your student to stay on campus or move off. There is not a right or wrong here – just what is right for each individual. But your students (and you) should think about what the pros and cons are of moving off campus, and determine which tradeoffs are important to you, and which are not, so you make an informed decision. Definitely something to mull over before it is time for room selection.