A Message from President Hatch
President Hatch emailed this message to students, faculty and staff on Feb. 22:
Dear Wake Forest students, faculty and staff,
Last night, there was a campus forum on creating more inclusive climates at Wake Forest. Several students voiced their acute and ongoing hurt, frustration and fatigue surrounding the underrepresented student experience on campus and the slow pace of change in bringing racial equity to our community.
As an institution of higher learning, Wake Forest is called to be a place where every member of our community cares about the treatment of people, seeks to understand the experiences of others and works together to become better. I want students at Wake Forest to know, at a deep and personal level, that you are valued here, even if it doesn’t always feel that way.
Following the forum, Dean of Admissions Martha Allman apologized to the campus community for appearing in a 1982 group photo with the Kappa Alpha Order before the Confederate flag. Since then, she has devoted her professional career to improving Wake Forest, and I have accepted her apology.
I have often spoken of the need to be in conversation with one another, which is why I am meeting with student leaders and University administrators to navigate our path forward.
I am grateful to the students, faculty and staff who have voiced their concerns. I remain committed to pursuing the sense of belonging we want everyone in our community to feel.
Sincerely,
Nathan O. Hatch
President
Categories: Inside WFU, University Announcement
Faculty Drive neighborhood remains an integral part of the Wake Forest community
This is a guest post from Alex Abrams, communications coordinator in the Office of the Dean of the College:
A large historical marker stands at the corner of Faculty Drive and Timberlake Lane, just across the street from where Wake Forest University’s Department of Biology is housed inside Winston Hall.
The words “Welcome To Historic Wake Forest Neighborhood – Est. 1956” are etched into the metal historical marker, which has been painted old gold and black like other signs posted around campus.
Just past the marker, one- and two-story houses line the five quiet streets that make up the neighborhood. The houses range in style, with some exteriors made of brick and others covered with wood. Large trees in each yard provide both shade on a hot afternoon and a limb for the occasional tree swing.
Martha Allman, WFU’s Dean of Admissions, got a sense of the neighborhood during her four years living on campus as an undergraduate student. Her freshman advisor had a house on Royall Drive and hosted a dinner for students during Orientation.
“I had this very idealized feeling about that neighborhood and how wonderful it would be to live there,” Allman said.
In 2001, Allman and her husband moved their two young daughters into a yellow house on Faculty Drive. Their neighbors include a “Who’s Who” list of WFU administrators, professors, and staff members who also enjoy living on campus, walking to work, and hosting students in their homes.
The Historic Wake Forest Neighborhood was started the same year WFU moved its campus to Winston-Salem as a place for faculty who had relocated to live. It has since grown into a tight-knit community where dozens of university employees have raised their children just down the street from Wait Chapel for more than 50 years.
“Over here faculty members are our next-door neighbors, and the fact that one faculty member was a historian, another one was a psychologist, another one was a physicist, that’s tremendously important,” said Ed Wilson, the longtime English professor and Provost who is affectionately known as Mr. Wake Forest.
“And of course it made our children grow up with the idea that it was important to go to college, and if they could, it was important to do well.”
Wilson still lives in the same four-bedroom house that he and his wife, Emily, built on Timberlake Lane in 1964. He raised his three children there. He can still remember the different routes he used to walk every day to reach his favorite spots on campus, including his office in Tribble Hall.
Categories: Inside WFU
Unbroken Circle to perform at Byrum Center for Shalom Project
Members of The Unbroken Circle performing at Wake Forest’s 2016 Homecoming.
Bluegrass string band The Unbroken Circle will perform two shows at Wake Forest in February in support of The Shalom Project.
“The benefit for The Shalom Project is an event we look forward to the entire year,” said Martha Allman, band member and Wake Forest’s dean of admissions. “We love sharing our music with such enthusiastic crowds and for such a great cause.”
The shows will be open to the public. Donations offered during the shows by the local band will support the programs and initiatives of The Shalom Project, based in Winston-Salem.
Each show will start at 7 p.m. on Feb. 3 and 4 in the Kulynych Auditorium of the Byrum Welcome Center at Wake Forest.
“We are looking forward to another fabulous show from this talented group of caring musicians who are so willing to share their time and talents to raise funds and awareness for the work of The Shalom Project,” said Lynn Brown, executive director of The Shalom Project.
For more information, contact The Shalom Project.
Categories: Events
