Inside WFU – news for faculty and staff

Update for Wake Forest staff

July 2, 2020

This message was sent on behalf of Executive Vice President Hof Milam:

Dear Staff Colleagues,

By now, I hope you have had a chance to read the latest update on campus plans from President Hatch and review the Our Way Forward website. While a great deal of information has been presented, I realize that several of your most important questions remain unanswered.

Among those questions asked most frequently:

• When am I expected to return to campus?
• What should I expect upon return?
• What accommodations will be made for caregivers who may face childcare issues?

At this time, I want to offer an apology, reassurance, and a pledge.

Our team had hoped to address our process for arriving at answers to these questions and many more during the Staff Advisory Council forum that was victimized by hackers. We know how traumatic that experience was for those of you on the call. We’re sorry you were exposed to such vile language and imagery, and will take additional security steps on future virtual forums.

I want to reassure you that there are working groups dedicated to addressing questions specific to staff concerns. While return dates and expectations for staff may vary by work function and work area, we are coordinating planning efforts to create equitable work conditions across the university. Your return date will be determined by a combination of your expected interaction with students and the university’s ability to provide you with safe working conditions. 

Finally, I want to make a commitment to communicate more regularly with staff. You are vital to sustaining the mission of the university and deserve insight into the planning that will affect your work. We pledge to do better.

I want to invite you to submit your unanswered questions through our designated Human Resources form. We will work with the Reynolda Cabinet, supervisors and HR talent liaisons across campus to make them aware of your questions and empower them to provide you with answers, as well as addressing questions applicable to all of our staff colleagues through centrally distributed messages like this one. Expect to receive the next update on or before July 16.

Thank you for your understanding and for all you do for Wake Forest.

Sincerely,
Hof Milam
Executive Vice President

Wake Forest taking over WSJS today

July 2, 2020

The following is a guest post by Stephen Czarda in Wake Forest athletics.

Stan Cotten and Lary Sorensen will fill in for Josh Graham from 3-6 p.m. on Thursday and be joined by members of the Wake Forest and Winston-Salem communities.

It will be a Wake Forest University Takeover on Thursday, July 2, as Stan Cotten and Lary Sorenson guest host WSJS “The Drive with Josh Graham.” The show will air live from 3-6 p.m.

You can listen to it here.

Throughout the afternoon, Cotten and Sorensen will be joined by members of the Wake Forest community along with Mark Owens, President & CEO Greater Winston-Salem Inc. Owens, who has served in his currently role since 2017, will be the first guest at 3:15 p.m.

Here’s a rundown of the Wake Forest guests along with the times they will be on-air:

Mark Owens, President & CEO Greater Winston-Salem Inc. (3:15 p.m.)
Owens earned a B.S. in Business Administration (’07) from Presbyterian and currently serves as the President and CER of Greate Winston-Salem Inc.

Jimmy Quander, Wake Forest Football Alum and Current Attorney (3:45 p.m.)
Quander earned a B.A. in Politics (’95) and a J.D. (’98) from Wake Forest and currently serves as an attorney in Winston-Salem. A four-year letterwinner for the Deacs, Quander received the Bill George Award in 1995, given to the most outstanding lineman/linebacker.

Tom Walter, Head Baseball Coach (4:15 p.m.)
Walter has served as Wake Forest Baseball’s head coach since 2009. He has helped 38 players get drafted or sign pro contracts over the last eight years including 2020 first round pick Jared Shuster.

Dr. Herman Eure, Vice Chair of the Board of Trustees (4:45 p.m.)
Dr. Eure (’74) is the Vice Chair of the Board of Trustees at Wake Forest. He was Wake Forest’s first full-time black graduate student, its first black doctoral recipient on the Reynolda Campus and its first black full-time faculty member.

Jen Hoover, Head Women’s Basketball Coach (5 p.m.)
Hoover recently completed her eighth season at the helm of Wake Forest Women’s Basketball. During the 2019-20 season, the Deacs won seven ACC regular season games before an impressive showing in the ACC Tournament. She is a 1991 graduate of Wake Forest.

John Currie, Director of Athletics (5:30 p.m.)
Currie became Wake Forest’s sixth Director of Athletics in school history when he was named to the position on March 3, 2019. A Wake Forest alum, Currie (’93) is just the third individual to have held the position since 1964 following the 28-year tenure of Dr. Gene Hooks (1964-92) and Ron Wellman (1992-2019).

Our Way Forward: Fall 2020 Update

June 30, 2020

Dear Wake Forest Community,

I am pleased to share that we have completed the major elements of our plans to reopen Wake Forest University for the Fall 2020 semester. Our intent is to create a path forward which prioritizes the health of our community, maintains flexibility and delivers an exceptional education to our students. I am grateful to the hundreds of faculty and staff who have dedicated themselves to designing our plans based on what we know at this time about the virus and how it is spread, even as public health conditions in North Carolina and around the globe evolve at a dizzying pace. Their talent, dedication and good judgment are evident throughout the plans we offer today, and their vigilance as we go forward will ensure we are prepared to adapt when needed.

While we are still finalizing many details and will continue to provide updates throughout the summer, Our Way Forward provides important information regarding the most salient elements of our campus experience and preparations at this time. I encourage you to visit the Our Way Forward website to read our plan, hear from our teams about their work and stay current with future decisions.

The fall semester will be different than anything we have experienced. Ultimately, our plans seek to sustain the essence of Wake Forest — a place that takes each person seriously, respects their intellect and identity, and invests in the quality of our shared life together. We move to open this fall with the knowledge that we all will play a role in completing the semester successfully. The health of our campus is dependent upon each of us acting for the good of the whole community. That is indeed the promise of Pro Humanitate that Wake Forest remains deeply dedicated to fulfilling.

Thank you for your patience and goodwill as we anticipate and plan for the upcoming semester. As noted on the website, more detailed information will be available on July 15.

I look forward to welcoming you to campus soon.

With gratitude,

Nathan O. Hatch
President

WFU committee working to implement new Title IX regulations

June 30, 2020

Wake Forest University has established a Title IX 2020 Implementation Task Force led by Vice President for Campus Life Penny Rue and Associate Provost for Academic Initiatives Kami Chavis. 

The group, which held its first meeting on June 3, was established following changes announced in early May by the U.S. Department of Education regarding how colleges and universities must handle sexual-assault and sexual-harassment complaints. The new regulations increase protections for accused students and employees and take effect Aug. 14.

Among the most notable changes, institutions must now hold live hearings and allow cross-examination when deciding sexual-misconduct complaints. The new federal regulations are the first regulatory revisions in 45 years to the federal gender-equity law and will also limit the scope of complaints colleges and universities are required to investigate. 

Read More »

Guidance for organizing and hosting secure video conferences

June 25, 2020

A message from Vice President for Information Technology & CIO Mur Muchane 

Dear Colleagues,

In response to the zoom-bombing events where racist, anti-semitic, and additional offensive language and imagery were used during yesterday morning’s Staff Advisory Council meeting, I wanted to share some information for those organizing and hosting video conferences. The meeting link and password were posted on inside.wfu.edu, a public-facing website. Once it was published, it was easy for the link to find its way to malicious sites. Please do not publicly share meeting links. We also recommend contacting IS when planning a large online event to request a webinar license and multimedia specialist to help organize and host your meeting. Finally, we recommend that if a meeting is zoom-bombed, that the meeting be immediately terminated and rescheduled.

Recommended security practices when organizing meetings for Webex and Zoom:

• Limit attendees to @wfu.edu accounts to ensure that only Wake Forest faculty, staff, and students can join your meeting. 
  
• Lock your meeting room and enable a virtual waiting room. 
  
• Make sure all of your meetings have a password. 
  
• Never publish the join URL for your meetings. 
  

Recommended security practices when hosting Webex and Zoom meetings with a large audience: 

• Contact Information Systems to request a webinar license and multimedia specialist to help organize and host your meeting. 
  
• Mute all participants upon entry.
  
• Turn off annotation. 
  
• Disable private chat. 
  
• Remove participants from your meeting as soon as they begin being disruptive. 
  

Recommended security practices when joining a WFU hosted video conference:

• Rename yourself as the name your colleagues know you as. For example, if you have a nickname, use something only WFU colleagues would know to make it more difficult for people to use your name to join meetings.
  
• Join using your WFU email address whenever possible. 
  

For information on how to enable or execute any of these practices in your video conference platform, visit this help article on Privacy and Security Practices for Video Conferencing.

If you have questions concerning this message or need assistance, please contact the Information Systems Service Desk at (336)-758-4357 (HELP) or help@nullwfu.edu.