Tuesday Newsday
In this Issue
- New Deac Week and FDOC photostory
- Reminder: Wake the Demons on the Quad tomorrow at 9 p.m.
- Opportunity to hear from a former ambassador (and WF parent!) this Thursday
- New research suggests that studying philosophy makes people better thinkers
- Some important info about Deacon Health and family access to medical information
Yesterday was a beautiful day for FDOC (First Day of Classes). As you will see if you choose to look at the New Deac Week and FDOC photostory below, your Deacs seem to be having a pretty good time on our beautiful campus:
And our students also look great doing it: did you see their FDOC Fits (my ’27 would be quick to tell me “fit = outfit”) LOL.
New Deac Week and FDOC photostory
If you are a P’29 who just returned home and are itching to see all the things your Deac might have experienced during New Deac Week, or you have an older student and want to take a walk down memory lane back to their first year, I hope you will enjoy this New Deac Week photostory.
And this photostory covers more than just New Deac Week activities: there are pictures from the FDOC (First Day of Classes), the first Milkshake Monday with Dr. Shea, and more. You may even see your Deac!
Reminder: Wake the Demons on the Quad tomorrow at 9 p.m.
Encourage your Deacs – of all ages, but especially our ’29 Deacs – to head to the Quad tomorrow night for music, school spirit, hearing from coaches, free t-shirts, and more. Wake the Demons is a celebration of Wake athletics and school spirit – a do not miss event!
Opportunity to hear from a former ambassador (and WF parent!) this Thursday
This Thursday, August 28 at 4 p.m., The Program for Leadership and Character will be hosting “Leadership, Character, and Diplomacy: A Conversation with Former Ambassador Shefali Razdan Duggal,” in which we will discuss her fascinating life story as well as the role of character in politics, diplomacy, and public service. The event will be held in Pugh Auditorium (room 215 of the Benson University Center). You can find more information here.
Ambassador Razdan Duggal served as the U.S. Ambassador to the Netherlands from 2022-2025 and is a former Wake Forest parent (P’24). This is a wonderful opportunity for your Deacs to hear from a former ambassador – and you if you are able to be on campus. All are welcome to attend.
New research suggests that studying philosophy makes people better thinkers
This one goes out especially to families of philosophy majors: “Philosophy majors rank higher than all other majors on verbal and logical reasoning, according to our new study published in the Journal of the American Philosophical Association. They also tend to display more intellectual virtues such as curiosity and open-mindedness.”
Wake Forest’s own Michael Prinzing, Research and Assessment Scholar, did a study with a colleague from UNC Chapel Hill: “All told, we looked at test and survey data from over 600,000 students. Our analysis found that philosophy majors scored higher than students in all other majors on standardized tests of verbal and logical reasoning, as well as on self-reports of good habits of mind, even after accounting for freshman-year differences. This suggests that their intellectual abilities and traits are due, in part, to what they learned in college.”
A fascinating finding! Read the full article.
Some important info about Deacon Health and family access to medical information
With the semester underway, it is inevitable that our students will get sick at some point. Our students joke about the “freshmen plague” – and my sense of that is that there is no big bad germ that is targeting just our first-year residences. Instead, we have a lot of new students who have never been away from home, and they are often not getting enough sleep, they may not be eating a balanced diet with a lot of vitamins, they may be sharing germs via romantic entanglements or drinking from each other’s glasses, or they are exposed to new allergens not in their home environments. So it is easy for things like coughs, colds, runny noses, etc. to take hold.
Families often ask me if there is a blanket authorization form their student can sign to allow them to talk to the medical providers at Deacon Health when their student is sick. There is no blanket form. During each visit to Deacon Health, students are asked who we can share information with about this visit. Deacon Health will only share what the students give them permission to share.
Here’s a real world example of why a blanket authorization may not serve a student’s best interests: imagine a student suspects they have an STD (sexually transmitted disease). If a student had signed a carte blanche release of all their medical records, the student might decide not to go to the doctor at all, fearing their family would find out about the suspected STD. We don’t want there to be any barriers that would prevent students seeking care that they need.
And while that can feel a little uncomfortable as a parent or family member – since we were used to having access to everything before our students turned 18 – students’ health records are private, just as our medical records are private. Students over 18 can choose who can have access to their medical information, just as we get to make those choices for ourselves.
You can help your student by telling them – ideally before they are sick – that they should be open with their healthcare providers every time they are at Deacon Health: tell them everything that is going on with them. If anything during their appointment is confusing or doesn’t make sense, the student should ask questions of their care provider so they understand the situation. This is an important step in teaching students how to actively participate in their own care and advocate for themselves. Of course, students can always request to put their parent/family member on the phone during a visit if they wish.
I had to do this with my own student, and I know it is uncomfortable to be giving up some of the illusion of control. But lean into that discomfort and trust your students to make good decisions with the guidance of the medical team. This is all part of how we teach students to be good healthcare consumers, which is an important out-of-the-classroom lesson they learn at college.
The other question I frequently get is whether students can register a Power of Attorney with Deacon Health. Deacon Health does not retain documents like Powers of Attorney. While North Carolina law generally prohibits healthcare providers from disclosing medical information about individuals who are 18 years of age and older to family and friends without permission of the individual, if a student experiences a medical emergency or life-threatening health concern, hospitals contact a student’s next of kin regardless of papers. And be assured that Wake Forest has a robust set of on-call personnel to coordinate response to these incidents, and informing families is a high priority.
That’s all I’ve got for you on this beautiful second day of classes, Daily Deacdom. Have a good evening.