Feeling hot Hot HOT

In this Issue:

• A view of campus flowers
• New students adjustments and how to combat loneliness (and find your place on campus)

Not gonna lie, friends. This week is setting up to be a beast, weather-wise. This is a story best told in pictures. First, the week’s forecast:

And then, this funny that made its was across my social media feed last night:

For those of you with Deacs in Summer Session I, or who are living in Winston this summer, I hope they have a lot of opportunity to be indoors with good air conditioning!

A view of campus flowers

Last Friday I was admiring some of the flowers on and around the Quad. Given the heat that is here this week, I thought I’d better share those pictures today, before the heatwave wilts them into oblivion. Enjoy!

New students adjustments and how to combat loneliness (and find your place on campus)

Most of our students have grown up with an image of college shaped by movies and tv. The message they may have received is College Is SO MUCH FUN! OMG OMG OMG! And It’s Going to Be Great From the Moment I Step Foot on Campus and Every Minute Thereafter!!!!!!

And yet, the first few weeks of school are [gulp] a big adjustment. The start of school can be a time of loneliness and uncertainty for students. I want to talk about it now, while our new students are NOT on campus, to help reassure that feelings of discomfort are normal and to be expected at the start of college (and not just at Wake – ANY college).

During a student’s senior year in high school, they were at the top of the pyramid: oldest students (with conferred status as such), they had established friend groups, knew how to balance the school workload and extracurriculars, etc.

Starting college – whether as a new student or a transfer student – means they have to start all over. New students don’t have an established friend group yet; they must find their people. New students are at the bottom of the proverbial pecking order. New students do not yet know their faculty members’ expectations for academic work. New students don’t yet belong to campus clubs and student organizations; they will be trying to find those.

The first few weeks and months – and P’29s, brace yourselves – sometimes even the first semester or whole year can be more of an adjustment than your student anticipated.

Once school begins, your new student may sound like they are on shaky ground and not happy the way they (and you) hoped they would be. I promise you, this is normal and happens every year.

It isn’t that something is wrong with your student, or something is wrong with Wake. It is simply that college is an Enormous Adjustment. New students can feel isolated, unhappy, confused – and are surprised to feel that way when the image of college they had in their head was College Should Be Perfect From Day One. The reality is that it takes time and effort before students feel at home

One of the keys to finding your footing in college is by getting involved. The Student Involvement Fair, which takes place early in the semester, is a critical first step. We also have an Office of Student Engagement whose motto is helping every Deacon find their place. They have staff and students who can help them identify interests and find ways to plug in. Urge your Deacs (of all ages!) to go to the Student Involvement Fair, join a handful of things, use the resources of the Office of Student Engagement to get plugged in to campus life.

The other key to the first few weeks is to resist the temptation to eat alone, but talk to other students (on your hall, in your classes, in the tables in Benson, the Pit, or even outside). Your ‘29s/transfer students can invite someone to eat with them, or if they are alone (or someone is at a table by themselves), walk up and say “Can I join you?” Most of the time, students will be overjoyed for some company and connection. If your Deacs keep plugging away and making an effort, they will begin to feel more comfortable.

This is worth thinking about and talking about with your new students NOW, before school begins. Sometimes knowing in advance that loneliness or adjustment issues are to be expected takes the sting out of them when they hit, and that your student is normal for feeling that way. And help remind your Deac that with time, and with effort on their part, they will find their friends and get into the groove of Wake.

If you are interested in some old (but I think still good) additional reading, one of my favorite higher ed columns came from 2017 via New York Times columnist Frank Bruni. He wrote an article entitled The Real Campus Scourge, which was about new college students, loneliness, and how their peers mask their college reality via carefully curated social media. This is an excellent read. Some of his column is a dash outdated (I bet few of our college students are on Facebook) but the overall message still works.