Mucho Monday
In this Issue:
- Join me tomorrow for Deacs Day of Giving!
- Housing selection info and tabling event tomorrow
- John Legend Face to Face tomorrow
- Webinar for P’25s on Wednesday
- Top 10 finish at Augusta for Carolina Chacarra
- P’25s and P’28s – please encourage your student to take the National Survey of Student Engagement
Today’s forecast is gray and rainy all day, plus it is supposed to be a lot cooler this week. There’s a lot of content to share with you today, so we will dive right in.
Join me tomorrow for Deacs Day of Giving!
Tomorrow is Deacs Day of Giving, and I hope you will consider making a gift – of any size and to any area of Wake Forest. You can give tomorrow through this link (which, full disclosure, is my referral page). I’d love to see a strong showing from the Daily Deacdom, so thank you for your consideration.
Housing selection info and tabling event tomorrow
Housing selection is next week, and I know this can be a high stress time for students. I checked in with one of my key partners about any advice I should offer families during this process. Here’s what I have for you.
If you read nothing else, read this: “if your student is having any difficulty with Housing Selection, the best advice I can give them is to use any of the following opportunities to receive help about Housing Selection:
- On April 8, the Housing Selection Info table will be outside the Benson Food Court from 11 a.m.-2 p.m.
- April 14-17, there will be open office hours from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. for students to ask questions prior to Housing Selection starting. They can visit in-person at the Residence Life and Housing office in Angelou Hall, call, or email for assistance.
- During Housing Selection, the Help Desk will be available from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. in Residence Life and Housing on the ground floor of Angelou Hall (you enter their office from the back of the building). The team there is best situated to assist with all types of problems, be they technical, interpersonal, or expectation based.
It will be most helpful for students to ask questions now (either at the tabling event tomorrow or via email to housing@wfu.edu) and have some plans in place vs. trying to navigate it during selection.
Residence Life and Housing works very hard to maintain as equitable a process as possible for the continuing students who need to select on-campus housing for the academic year. This Friday, April 11, they will release the availability list for students to use as they finalize their approach for next week. Please note that only those with a WFU email address will have access to view this availability list.
A few things to note:
- Huffman Hall and Martin Hall will be unavailable for Fall 2025 Housing Selection.
- Selection times are randomly generated based on your student’s housing credits. The longer your student lives on campus, the earlier their selection time will be.
- Group selection times are based on the average number of housing credits for all group members. Students should keep this in mind when making changes to their roommate group and are again encouraged to consult with Residence Life and Housing if they have any questions.
Finally, I always encourage students to do the following:
- Roommate groups need to have honest conversations with each other about what they would do if someone suddenly finds themself in a position to get a single, or pulled into another group, etc. There is a domino effect when roommate groups change, so everyone ought to be on the same page about how they would handle that sort of thing.
- Know what is most important to you: is it living with this particular roommate? or do you want to be in a particular building (even if you are rooming with people you don’t know as well?)
- Have a plan A, B, C, and D in case there are no more blocks of rooms with your roommate group size when it comes time to select. In other words, if you had planned on a block of 11 and there are no 11s left, could you divide into a group of 5 and a group of 6, etc.? We encourage your students to use this worksheet to help plan.
- Understand that you might not get your first choice (or even second). We can’t all be first in line to choose rooms, and the one you wanted may not be open. That’s the luck of the draw, and sometimes we don’t get what we want. It isn’t personal. However, students can still make your room situation work if you are flexible and open to possibilities. (And sometimes NOT getting what you want is a blessing).
- Honor your word and your commitments to your roommate group. If you tell your roommate group you won’t bail on them, don’t do it.”
As parents and family members supporting your students during this process, your best posture is to listen with empathy and be supportive, but let your students work their housing out on their own. This will build skills they need (problem solving, resilience, imagining different possibilities, etc.)
John Legend Face to Face tomorrow
If your Deac has not gotten their student ticket for the John Legend Face to Face tomorrow, they want to do that asap. They can see info here.
Webinar for P’25s on Wednesday
Webinar for P’25s
This notification hit my inbox late last week and I wanted to be sure to share it with our P’25s:
“The Offices of Family Engagement & Personal and Career Development (OPCD) invite you to attend a special webinar for parents & families of seniors graduating in May 2025 to discuss: Out of the Forest: Jobs and Careers after Graduation.
If your student has not yet secured employment for after graduation – this webinar is for YOU. Topics covered will include: resources available to your student, the current job market, common student challenges and how to address them.”
Speakers at the webinar include: Andy Chan, Vice President; Heidi Robinson
Associate Vice President and Associate Professor of the Practice, and a student panel.”
The webinar will be held Wednesday, April 8 from 5-6 p.m. Eastern; register here.
Top 10 finish at Augusta for Carolina Chacarra
For the golf fans in the Daily Deacdom, you may have seen that “in her first time competing in the final round at Augusta National, senior Carolina Chacarra carded a 68 (-4) during the final round at Augusta National to secure a top-10 finish.”
Go Deacs! Read the full story here, and you can see a lot of other great athletics news at Godeacs.com.
P’25s and P’28s – please encourage your student to take the National Survey of Student Engagement
I got a message from one of my colleagues today asking if I could remind first-year and senior families to encourage their Deacs to take the NSSE survey. We really need their participation!
“First-year students and seniors were sent an invitation on 3/31 (via their WFU email) to complete the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE). This 15-minute survey provides valuable feedback on student engagement and satisfaction, helping to improve the student experience at Wake Forest.
Incentives for students who complete the survey by Friday, May 2:
- A FREE small coffee at Smith’s Café
- Entry into a drawing for one of two $99 Deacon Shop gift cards
We encourage you to remind your first-year or senior student to take the survey and make their voice heard! Thank you for your support.”
I actually had a few more items for today but this is long as it is, so will hold them over for tomorrow. Hopefully we’ll see the sun again then.