"Voices of Our Time" Archive

Creative excellence earns WFU 8 Gold Awards from CASE

Writer Ta-Nehisi Coates speaks at Wake Forest University as part of the Voices of Our Time series in Wait Chapel on Tuesday, November 17, 2015.

“Voices of Our Time – Ta’Nehisi Coates” poster won the Grand Gold Award.

Wake Forest continues to raise the bar of creative excellence for best practices in advancement, winning eight varying Gold Awards in the annual 2016 Circle of Excellence awards program sponsored by The Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE).

Wake Forest Magazine received the Gold Award in the General Interest Magazines category, circulation 37,000+. “Wake Forest obviously is doing everything right … someone here is thinking about how images enhance storytelling – something we wished we had seen in more magazines.”

The magazine also won the Gold Award in the category Staff Periodicals Writing. The entry included “The Hidden Gym,”  “Family Trees” and “Inside Pitch” by managing editor Cherin C. Poovey; “Look at Her Now” by Maria Henson, associate vice president and editor-at-large; and “Real-Life Drama” by senior editor Kerry M. King.

The judges noted: “This publication truly sets the gold standard for alumni magazines that aspire to inform, affirm, entertain and engage. Each story was allowed to develop and fully engage the reader.”

The Communications and External Relations team received a total of six Gold Awards for a range of creative work in varying categories.

For the Multi-page Publication which had 94 entries, the team won the Grand Gold Award for “iPlace Viewbook” which was noted for its “edgy, outside the box, design” and use of bold colors. “The combination of photography and line drawing to provide visual explanation was very well done,” noted the judges.

In the Posters category with 32 entries, the Grand Gold Award was achieved for “Voices of Our Time – Ta’Nehisi Coates” which was, according to judges’ comments, an “overwhelming favorite.” The entry was described as “compelling,” “stunning” and “a rare design that goes beyond its intended project or purpose and creates additional rich communication opportunities.”

In the Specialty Pieces category with 49 entries, the team won the Gold Award for the “Demon Deacon Playing Cards,” for an “unusual and irresistible annual fund campaign.” The cards were described as “beautiful and fun, with quality typography and a restrained black-and-gold color palette highlighted by pops of silver and gold foil on the card packaging. The judges kept returning to this entry, wanting to handle the cards and keep flipping through.”

A Grand Gold Award was received in the Annual Giving Programs category out of 38 entries for “Naming Rights for the Rest of Us,” a campaign created to celebrate the donors whose smaller annual gifts make a big difference. The judges said: “The institution took items from around campus that held significance and offered exclusive naming rights for several lucky donors – items like the telephone of the man who makes the call when classes are canceled due to weather, the leaf blower that always seems to be operating outside a dorm window at 7am, and the skillet of a legendary campus chef.”

Out of 51 entries in the Annual Reports & Fund Reports, Wake won the Gold Award for “Year Two,” which judges described as a “daring departure from the standard cookie-cutter annual report. The design was modern and accessible and the narrative compelling.”

For the Viewbooks and Prospectuses (Print) category, which had 52 entries, the University won the Gold Award for the “Admissions Viewbook.” Judges noted that the entry “created a tone and visual energy that could provide answers to prospective students in ways that conjure the student experience.”

The awards competition received 3,356 entries for consideration in nearly 100 categories from more than 713 higher education institutions, independent schools and affiliated organizations located worldwide.

CASE is one of the largest international associations of education institutions with more than 3,600 member colleges and universities and honors outstanding work in advancement services, alumni relations, communications, fundraising and marketing at colleges, universities, independent schools and affiliated nonprofits.

A message from President Hatch regarding equity and inclusion

This is a message e-mailed by President Hatch to faculty, students and staff today:

Dear Members of the Wake Forest Community,

Colleges and universities have been in the national spotlight this week as students, faculty and staff at Missouri, Yale, Ithaca and other institutions have protested and demanded corrective action against bigotry, racism and injustice.

If you are feeling similar pain and tension on our campus, you are not alone. If you think the pain and tension experienced by others – at Wake Forest and on campuses across the country – do not affect you, I invite you to reconsider. As a nation and as a community of higher learning, we must make progress in handling issues of diversity, inclusion and equity.

Wake Forest’s commitment to an equitable and inclusive campus culture is unwavering. Making that a reality for everyone is overdue. I am, however, encouraged by the efforts of countless University leaders, faculty, staff and students.

Today in Washington, D.C., Wake Forest is co-hosting a daylong summit with the White House Council on Women and Girls on Advancing Equity for Women and Girls of Color. This morning, Provost Rogan Kersh announced that Wake Forest is part of a collaborative that has committed $18 million to support and improve related academic research. I encourage you to read more about this significant step toward closing the research deficit and its implications for policymaking.

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Mary Robinson to speak at spring ‘Voices of Our Time’ event

mary.robinson.300x175Mary Robinson, President of the Mary Robinson Foundation – Climate Justice will speak at Wake Forest University at 6 p.m. on Thursday, March 26 in Wait Chapel as part of the University’s Voices of Our Time speaker series, which recently featured acclaimed civil rights lawyer, advocate and legal scholar Michelle Alexander.

Robinson’s address is being presented in conjunction with a two-day interdisciplinary symposium, “The Human Face of Environmental Inequality,” jointly sponsored by the Wake Forest University Humanities Institute, the University’s Center for Energy, Environment and Sustainability, and the Human Rights and Global Justice research group, an affiliate of the Humanities Institute. The symposium will be held at Wake Forest on March 26 and 27.

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Categories: Events

The real inside couple of DC

President Hatch with Judy Woodruff and Al Hunt.

President Hatch with Judy Woodruff and Al Hunt.

In a wide-ranging conversation, journalists Al Hunt (’65) and Judy Woodruff talked about politics and government, working and raising a family in Washington, D.C., the rise of social media and the decline of traditional journalism, and the increasingly partisan, bitter style of politics, during an appearance at Wake Forest Wednesday night.

Sitting on the Wait Chapel stage with Wake Forest President Nathan O. Hatch, Hunt and Woodruff answered questions from Hatch and students during a Voices of Our Time event billed as an evening with “The Real Inside Couple of DC.”

“It’s the most fascinating city in the world,” Hunt said of Washington. “If you’re interested in power, there’s no better place to be.”

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Hunt and Woodruff, who have been married since 1980, have raised three children in Washington and covered the national political scene for four decades. Hunt spent 35 years as Washington bureau chief for The Wall Street Journal before joining Bloomberg News in 2005 as executive Washington editor. Woodruff, a former White House correspondent for ABC News and Washington correspondent for CNN and PBS, is now co-anchor of The PBS NewsHour.

Much of their conversation focused on politics. Hunt said that Barack Obama, despite his problems, still holds an advantage heading into the 2012 campaign because of the power of incumbency and the weakness of the Republican field of candidates. Hunt, who acknowledged that he has a terrible track record predicting presidential races, said he expects Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, or Tim Pawlenty, the former Minnesota governor, to be the Republican nominee in 2012.

“The economy — and the direction of the economy — always shapes the election,” Hunt said. “If the unemployment rate is 9% in October (2012), the president is in trouble. If it’s 8%, that’s a slight plus. The role of government and spending priorities will also be key issues, and the state of the wars — if Afghanistan escalates, if Iraq goes south, if Gadhafi is still there (in Libya), that’s going to create problems” for Obama.

Hunt and Woodruff also discussed their long careers. Hunt credited Wake Forest with helping him become a journalist because Wake Forest “kicked me out of college,” he said, following a rowdy party celebrating a Wake Forest basketball victory over North Carolina. During his six-month “sabbatical,” he went to work for The Philadelphia Bulletin as a copy boy and “got hooked on journalism.”

After graduating from Wake Forest, he went to work for The Wall Street Journal. Turning to Woodruff, a graduate of Duke University, Hunt quipped that the only job she could find after graduating was as a secretary for an Atlanta television station.

“The landscape has changed dramatically since I started out in television,” recalled Woodruff, who went on to cover politics and government for NBC, CNN and PBS. “When I asked the news director to cover stories, he said, ‘We already have a woman reporter.’ More than half of reporters (today) are women, but the positions at the top — the decision-making and hiring and firing roles – are still very tough for women to break through.”

The political environment in Washington is decidedly less civil than 40 years ago, both said. The proliferation of 24/7 cable news shows has fueled the negative atmosphere. And, people tend to only watch the television shows and visit the websites that support their views, rather than seeking out opposing viewpoints.

— by Kerry M. King (’85), Office of Communications and External Relations

Categories: Events

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