Important Read – Family Communications Philosophy
Today is FDOC (First Day of Classes). And at the start of every semester, we direct your attention to an important website about our Family Communications Philosophy. While we hope you will look through the whole website, I will also briefly summarize here.
From all we know of college student development, we recognize how important it is for your Deacs to have the freedom and autonomy to solve their own problems, experience struggle, difficulty, and even failure. Going through those experiences, and finding their footing, is what will help your Deacs to become good problems solvers and develop resilience in the face of adversity.
We strongly encourage you to adopt the Stop, Drop, and Roll philosophy when your students contact you with normal college problems or concerns.
We know you are our greatest partners in your students’ success, and we want to keep you involved and informed in appropriate ways. The bottom of our Family Communications Philosophy website shows you when and how you can expect to hear from Wake Forest:
Typically, any email that is sent to students, faculty, and staff is listed on our Family News website so it is accessible to Wake Forest families.
There are a number of specific instances (crime, weather, emergencies, communicable diseases) that might prompt us to email parents and families. You can scroll to the bottom of the site and click on the drop downs for particular situations to see whether/how you might be contacted.
You may have students at other schools who do things differently, so it is important to understand how things work at Wake. Please take a moment before the semester begins to review the Family Communications Philosophy for the first time – or refresh your memory – so we can all be clear.
Also – today we started our Weekly Messages for First Year Families – read it here. And the Office of Academic Advising has begun their “Letters So Dear,” which is advice for new students from current upperclass students. Read it here.
Hope your Deacs have a great FDOC!