Summer Session I begins!
In this Issue:
- Magnolias (part II)
- Wake Forest alumna named Chancellor of Winston-Salem State University
- Athletics achievements
- Summer Session II housing selection – date change
Summer Session I begins today, so some Deacs are back on campus for classes. It is nice to see students on campus again. There is always a weird lull between Commencement and summer session: you are grateful to have a little rest after such a big event, but it feels oddly empty after a week or so. Wishing all our Summer Session students the best as they begin their studies.
Magnolias (part II)
I was on the Mag Quad early this walking to meetings and I kid you not, you could smell the magnolia blossoms as you walked by. The scent just floated in the air and it was so delightful, I wanted to just pull up one of the green cafe chairs and just sit there and breathe the delicious scent in. Here’s a picture I snapped of a particularly beautiful blossom.
Following my recent Daily Deac about magnolias, I was reminded by a well-connected alumna/long time Wake Forest volunteer/GP’28 (grandparent of a ’28) that the magnolias on this campus have a special signifcance: they come from seeds from the magnolias on the original campus in the town of Wake Forest. The Wake Forest Magazine explains:
“The magnolias on Manchester Plaza have a special origin. They arrived at only 5 feet tall in 1956 in a batch of 20 donated by Walter Raphael Wiley Sr. (’29, MD ’32, P ’63) and his wife, Monnie Louise McDaniel Wiley. With the University’s pending move from the town of Wake Forest to Winston-Salem, she had asked her nephew, Robert Earl Williford (’51), to collect magnolia seeds from the original campus. She planted them in a filled-in swimming pool in their hometown of Chesterfield, South Carolina, and she and her son, Walter R. Wiley Jr. (’63), delivered them in a large station wagon to the new campus in Winston-Salem.”
We are grateful to the Wiley family for all they did to give us our beautiful magnolias that are tied to old Wake Forest.
Wake Forest alumna named Chancellor of Winston-Salem State University
We are always proud of the achievements of our alumni, and today is an especially proud moment as Winston-Salem State University named Wake Forest alumna Bonita J. Brown (’95, JD ’97) as their 14th Chancellor. You can read the full story here. Congratulations to Chancellor Brown!
Athletics achievements
A lot of focus has been on our baseball team of late. But in the newest edition of From the Quad by our Director of Athletics John Currie (’93), a couple of factoics stuck out at me. First up, let’s show our Track and Field team some love:
“The Deacs will be represented at the NCAA Track & Field Outdoor Championships next month following four standout performances over the weekend in Lexington.
In the men’s 800m, Rynard Swanepoel shattered the facility record and notched the fastest time in Wake Forest history at 1:45.28. He was also joined by freshman sensation Rocky Hansen, who recorded a time of 13:52.18.
On the women’s side, Leia Braunagel continued a standout season recording a discus throw of 54.89 to advance while Robbie Grace landed a long jump mark of 6.24m to punch their tickets to Eugene….
All four days of action (June 5-8) from the NCAA Outdoor Championships can be seen on ESPN/ESPN2, and be sure to follow the team’s social media accounts for the latest updates!” Good luck to our Track and Field Deacs!
And in terms of overall accomplishments, “Wake Forest is one of just 17 schools nationally to advance their men’s and women’s tennis, men’s and women’s golf and baseball teams to the NCAA’s this spring.”
That is incredibly impressive! Go Deacs!
Summer Session II housing selection – date change
I received word this afternoon that there has been a change to the Summer Session 2 housing selection date. Summer Selection will now take place on June 17th beginning at 9 a.m. instead of June 19th, which is a University holiday for Juneteenth.