Stories this week at Wake Forest

Actor James Earl Jones will address “The Necessary Arts: From Fishing Lures to Fine Art” at Wake Forest’s Founders’ Day Convocation Tuesday, Feb. 25. From Shakespeare to “Star Wars,” Jones has a long list of critically-acclaimed performances. Most recently, he starred with Robert Duvall in “A Family Thing” and played the lead in the Alan Payton classic “Cry, the Beloved Country.” The 11 a.m. address in Wait Chapel is open to the public.

New Coffeehouse Revives Wake Forest Tradition

During a 1994 speech, Wake Forest alumnus Arnold Palmer recalled an “old campus” tradition: “In my day, students gathered at a local place called Shorty’s” in the town of Wake Forest. Forty-one years after moving to Winston-Salem, the university has revived the Shorty’s tradition by opening a coffeehouse named in honor of the beloved eatery that still serves residents of the Wake County town. Alumni from the 1930s and 1940s will gather at the newly-opened coffeehouse (located in Benson University Center) at 2 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 25. Photographs of student life dating back to the 1930s decorate tables throughout the coffeehouse. Display cases feature basketball and other Wake Forest memorabilia.

Children to Learn About Animal Care

Animal care and veterinary medicine are the focus of a Saturday Science Symposium for middle school children from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m., Feb. 22, at Wake Forest’s Carswell Hall. The event is sponsored by the Western Triad Science and Math Alliance, a non-profit organization affiliated with Wake Forest’s education department. The event will include hands-on activities led by local veterinarians and a cooperative extension agent. A local trainer will bring her horse for a discussion of the animal’s nutritional needs. Registration for the free event begins at 8:30 a.m.

Starr’s Departure Good News for White House

Whitewater special prosecutor Kenneth Starr’s decision to accept a post at Pepperdine University makes indictments against President Clinton and First Lady Hillary Clinton unlikely, says Katy Harriger, a Wake Forest politics professor, an expert on the independent counsel law and author of “Independent Justice: The Federal Prosecutor in American Politics”(University Press of Kansas, 1992). “It’s hard to believe if he was planning on indicting one of the Clintons that he would be leaving the case at this critical point,” Harriger said.