Stories this week at WFU

THE CONNECTION BETWEEN CHAPEL BELLS AND BASKETBALL
When the Wake Forest carillon plays this week, a special note will ring for the men’s basketball team. The university’s 48-bell Janet Jeffrey Carlile Harris carillon has one bell inscribed with a special dedication to the success of the Wake Forest athletic program. Media are invited to climb the winding staircase to the top of Wait Chapel and see first hand the athletics bell, part of the 11-ton carillon. The Wake Forest carillon is one of five traditional carillons in North Carolina. Interviews are available with the university carillonneur.
Contact: Wake Forest News Service, 336-758-5237.

UNIVERSITY GATHERS TO CHEER ON THE DEACONS
All television monitors in Benson University Center will be tuned to the Wake Forest men’s basketball game against Virginia Commonwealth University today at approximately 2 p.m. The screen in Pugh Auditorium will also be showing the game. Media are invited to campus to share in the excitement of the Demon Deacon’s first NCAA game.
Contact: Wake Forest News Service, 336-758-5237.

COLLEGE SPORTS AS ENTERTAINMENT BUSINESS
Earl Smith, Rubin Professor of American Ethnic Studies at Wake Forest, is available to discuss the complex issue of sports and higher education. “These athletic programs, usually under the supervising structure of the athletics department and governed by the organizational rules of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), operate a form of entertainment business within the academic setting,” says Smith, who has written extensively about issues of race, sports and society. Smith will present a lecture titled “The Modern World System: Academics and Athletics in the New Millennium” at 4 p.m. March 18 in Greene Hall, Room 145. The speech is free and open to the public.
Contact: Cheryl V. Walker, walkercv@wfu.edu or 336-758-5237.

DOES THE COACH SAY WHAT HE MEANS?
John Llewellyn, associate professor of communication, analyzed the professional vocabulary of NCAA Division I men’s college basketball coaches for “Coachtalk,” a chapter in “Case Studies in Sport Communication,” published in 2003. “After a while, if you listen to enough coaches, you begin to think you’ve heard it all before,” says Llewellyn. “And the odds are you have.” He is available for interviews about his research and for analysis of coaches’ comments during March Madness.
Contact: Sarah Mansell, manselss@wfu.edu or 336-758-5237.

NOTED IRISH SCHOLARS TO DISCUSS LITERATURE, POLITICS AT WFU
Wake Forest continues its weeklong Irish Festival at 4 p.m. March 19 with a symposium and roundtable discussion on literature and politics in Ireland. The program features two well-known Irish scholars who will address the topics in an open, public forum in Wake Forest’s DeTamble Auditorium in Tribble Hall. Terence Brown, a professor of Anglo-Irish literature at Trinity College in Dublin, and Declan Kibred, professor of Anglo-Irish literature and drama at University College in Dublin, will participate in the event. Brown, an author and lecturer on Irish literature and cultural history, will discuss “Commemoration and the Peace Process.” Kibred, whose most recent book, “Irish Classics,” won the Truman Capote Prize and The Robert Rhodes Prize for Books on Literature from the American Conference of Irish Studies, will present the lecture “Masking Modernity: Change in Ireland.”
Contact: Jacob McConnico, mcconnjn@wfu.edu or 336-758-5237.

MUSIC, FOOD CELEBRATE BAHA’I NEW YEAR
The Wake Forest Baha’i Association will host a Naw Ruz (Baha’i New Year) celebration March 20 at 5:30 p.m. in Benson University Center, Room 401. The event is free and open to the public. The event will feature a free international buffet and musical performances by SOUL, a Wake Forest women’s a cappella group; Fort Tabarsi, a New York City rap and hip-hop group; and One Human Family Choir, a gospel group. The buffet is in observance of the end of the Baha’i 19-day fast. The group was started by four Wake Forest students, who are available for interviews.
Contact: Wake Forest News Service, 336-758-5237.

TECHNOLOGY Q&A WITH REP. RICK BOUCHER
U.S. Rep. Rick Boucher, D-Va., a leading architect of federal policy for information technology and the Internet, will give the keynote address at Wake Forest’s second annual Technology Consortium March 22 at 9 a.m. Boucher will hold a private question-and-answer session for members of the media following his talk in the Information Systems Building, Room 262. Boucher will discuss the current state of copyright legislation, the role that corporations play in defining copyright law, and the role of universities as advocates for the public domain.
Contact: Sarah Mansell, manselss@wfu.edu or 336-758-5237.

HARVARD SCHOLAR TO DISCUSS AFRICAN-AMERICAN MEN
Orlando Patterson, John Cowles Professor of Sociology at Harvard University and a leading scholar on the roots of racism and poverty, will present a lecture at Wake Forest at 4 p.m. March 22 in Benson University Center’s Pugh Auditorium. Patterson’s talk, “American Dionysus: The Image and Reality of African American Men,” is free and open to the public. The author of eight books, Patterson has helped shape the national debate on race in America. He is available for interviews before his talk.
Contact: Cheryl Walker, walkercv@wfu.edu or 336-758-5237.

NUTRITION EXPERT AVAILABLE TO DISCUSS HEALTHY EATING
Associate Professor of Health and Exercise Science Gary Miller is available for interviews for stories about health and nutrition during National Nutrition Month (March). He is an expert in nutrition and teaches “Nutrition in Health and Disease.”
Contact: Sarah Mansell, manselss@wfu.edu or 336-758-5237.

STUDENTS ASSIST LOCAL TAXPAYERS
Accounting students in Wake Forest’s Calloway School of Business and Accountancy are helping local taxpayers file their 2003 income tax forms through March 30. The students, with the help of their professor Yvonne Hinson, assisted around 1,700 local residents last year and returned between $30,000 and $40,000 in tax credits to local people. Hinson, PricewaterhouseCoopers Faculty Fellow and associate professor of accountancy, is leading Wake Forest’s effort to make sure local residents take advantage of the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC). The Wake Forest assistance site will be open each Tuesday from 4-6 p.m. Media are invited to the site to talk with Hinson and student volunteers.
Contact: Sarah Mansell, manselss@wfu.edu or 336-758-5237.

ORSON SCOTT CARD TO PRESENT ‘ON FOSTERING DIALOGUE’
Triad author and columnist Orson Scott Card will give the free, public lecture “On Fostering Dialogue” at 7 p.m. March 23 in Wake Forest University’s Wait Chapel. Card, the author of several popular science fiction books, including “Ender’s Game,” “Speaker for the Dead,” “Xenocide” and “Children of the Mind,” will participate in a booksigning at the College Book Store, next to the chapel, immediately after the program. Card’s talk at Wake Forest is presented as part of the university’s ongoing theme year for the 2003-2004 academic year, “Fostering Dialogue: Civil Discourse in an Academic Community.” The theme is dedicated to the exploration of how free people with passionate interests and beliefs can communicate openly without turning dialogue into discord.
Contact: Jacob McConnico, mcconnjn@wfu.edu or 336-758-5237.

WFU FACULTY PANEL TO DISCUSS FREE TRADE
How does free trade affect people around the world, especially when different cultures have different views of progress and poverty? A panel of Wake Forest University professors will address this and other issues related to free trade and human rights at a symposium at 7 p.m. March 24 in Tribble Hall’s DeTamble Auditorium. The symposium, “Free Trade and its Human Rights Ramifications,” is free and open to the public. Four Wake Forest professors, including Robert Whaples from the economics department, Ian Taplin from the sociology department, Peter Siavelis from the political science department and Jeanne Simonelli from the anthropology department will present short statements representing different views on the topic and then invite the audience to participate in an open discussion.
Contact: Wake Forest News Service, 336-758-5237.

GOING UP?
Teams of students from top MBA schools across the country hope to parlay a two-minute elevator ride with a venture capitalist into the business break of a lifetime during the fifth annual Babcock Elevator Competition at Wake Forest March 26-27. The first round consists of two, 28-floor elevator rides at the Wachovia Center building in Winston-Salem during which teams pitch their business plans to a venture capitalist. The only thing the students can leave behind when the rides end is a business card. The competition, presented by the Angell Center for Entrepreneurship at Wake Forest’s Babcock Graduate School of Management, is believed to be the only one of its kind in the country.
Contact: Dusty Donaldson, dusty.donaldson@mba.wfu.edu or 336-758-4454.

Categories: Arts & Culture, Athletics, Events, Media Advisory, Speakers