Stories this week at WFU

MEDIA INVITED TO ENTREPRENEURSHIP RECEPTION — Wake Forest’s Office of Entrepreneurship and Liberal Arts will hold a private reception to introduce its director, Elizabeth J. Gatewood, to entrepreneurs and business leaders in the Triad. The media is invited to attend the event at 5:30 p.m. Oct. 7 in the Thomas C. Taylor Atrium of the Calloway Center of Business, Mathematics and Computer Science. Gatewood says establishing relationships with local entrepreneurs and businesses will benefit students and the community in many ways. One of those benefits would be a new internship program that links students with area businesses and entrepreneurs in order to further familiarize students with entrepreneurship. Page West, Benson-Pruitt Associate Professor of Business, says that in the long run, internships could lead to opportunities that will keep more Wake Forest students in the area and lead to a better local economy.

Contact: Maggie Barrett, barretmb@wfu.edu or 336-758-5237.

 

FOREIGN POLICY AND THE 2004 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION — Teresita Shaffer, former U.S. ambassador to Sri Lanka, and Howard Shaffer, former U.S. ambassador to Bangladesh, will discuss “Foreign Policy Issues and the U.S. Presidential Election” at 7 p.m. Oct. 7 in Pugh Auditorium in Wake Forest’s Benson University Center. Both speakers have more than 30 years of experience dealing with U.S. relations with South Asia. The free, public lecture is sponsored by the university’s political science department. “These speakers will discuss the pressing foreign policy issues that the U.S. will face in the next four years and the main differences between the two candidates on these issues,” said John Dinan, Zachary T. Smith Associate Professor of Political Science at Wake Forest. “We hope to educate students and the Winston-Salem community about foreign policy issues that might not have been touched on in the first presidential debate.”

Contact: Jacob McConnico, mcconnjn@wfu.edu or 336-758-5237.

 

RELIGIOUS LIBERTY CHALLENGED DURING 2004 ELECTION — James Dunn, adjunct professor of Christianity and public policy in the Wake Forest Divinity School, says that in light of the revelation that the Bush-Cheney campaign solicited church directories from supporters, religious liberty and the separation of church and state have become increasingly important topics during this year’s presidential contest.

“A recent poll indicates that over 80 percent of Americans value religious freedom, recognize it as essential to the American way, but have no idea of its source or that its essential corollary is the separation of church and state,” Dunn said. Dunn, a former executive director of the Baptist Joint Committee on Public Affairs in Washington, D.C., is available to comment on issues of religious liberty and separation of church and state. He has appeared on news programs of all the major television networks and has been a frequent guest on television documentaries.

Contact: Jacob McConnico, mcconnjn@wfu.edu or 336-758-5237.

 

FEWER COMPETITIVE RACES HAMSTRING VOTER TURNOUT EFFORTS — The declining number of presidential battleground states and the lack of competitive U.S. House races make it increasingly clear that only a small percentage of Americans will be able to cast a meaningful vote in a federal election on Nov. 2, says John Dinan, Zachary T. Smith Associate Professor of Political Science at Wake Forest and an expert on voter behavior. “It is hard enough as it is to get Americans to the polls, what with weekday voting and voter registration requirements in all but one state,” said Dinan, who is leading a senior seminar this semester on the 2004 elections. Recent trends in legislative redistricting, particularly the creation of safe seats for one party or the other, have ensured that fewer congressional districts are contested in any real sense. “As a result, with the exception of voters in a small number of presidential battleground states and in some hotly contested House districts around the country, there is less incentive than there might be to turn out to the polls,” Dinan said.

Contact: Jacob McConnico, mcconnjn@wfu.edu or 336-758-5237.

 

NO ‘GIRLIE MEN’ ALLOWED: MANHOOD IN AMERICAN POLITICS — Sarah Watts, professor of history and author of the 2003 book “Rough Rider in the White House: Theodore Roosevelt and the Politics of Desire,” can comment about manhood in American politics. “From the first Roosevelt to the second Bush, U.S. presidents have viewed politics as a cultural war,” Watts says. “This war has been waged primarily with images, especially images that linked the nation’s well-being to their own positioning as virile and virtuous men.” Watts can comment on parallels between Theodore Roosevelt (George W. Bush’s favorite president) and President Bush. “Roosevelt helped form and popularize the cowboy-soldier type in national and international affairs,” she says. “Roosevelt’s cowboy style of politics was helped along by Wild Bill Cody’s Wild West Show at the turn of the 20th century, and Reagan and Bush by Hollywood in our time.” Watts is teaching the freshman seminar “Manhood in American Politics” and a graduate course, “The Political Culture of the American Presidency,” this fall.

Contact: Cheryl Walker, walkercv@wfu.edu or 336-758-5237.

 

SANGER TO ADDRESS REPRODUCTIVE FREEDOM — According to Alexander Sanger, chair of the International Planned Parenthood Council and grandson of Margaret Sanger, the founder of the birth control movement, America needs a new perspective when defending the right to abortion. Sanger, who will give a free, public lecture at Wake Forest, says abortion should be viewed as less of a rights issue and more of a reproductive one. The lecture, which is titled after his recent book, “Beyond Choice: Reproductive Freedom in the 21st Century,” will be held at 7 p.m. Oct. 13 in Annenberg Forum, located in Carswell Hall, Room 111. A book signing will follow the lecture.

Contact: Pam Barrett, barretpm@wfu.edu or 336-758-5237.

 

FORMER ACNIELSEN CEO TO DELIVER BABCOCK LECTURE — Nicholas L. Trivisonno, former chairman and chief executive officer of ACNielsen Corporation, will deliver the Charlotte Babcock Leadership Series lecture at 5:30 p.m. Oct. 14 at the Hyatt South Park in Charlotte. Trivisonno was ACNielsen’s chairman and chief executive officer from 1996 to 2001. Under his leadership, a $2.3 billion merger with VNU was completed. From 1995 to 1996, he was executive vice president and chief financial officer of Dun & Bradstreet Corp. ACNielsen has more than 20,000 employees and is the world’s leading market research firm, offering measurement and analysis of marketplace dynamics, consumer attitudes and behavior, and new and traditional media in more than 100 countries.

Contact: Dusty Donaldson, dusty.donaldson@mba.wfu.edu or 336-758-4454.

 

SYMPHONY JAZZ COMBO PROVIDES LUNCHTIME ENTERTAINMENT — A jazz combo from the Winston-Salem Symphony, featuring Ken Wilmot on trumpet and Nathan Scott on bass, will perform selections of jazz and swing music for the Bookstore Lunchtime Music Series at 11 a.m. Oct. 14, weather permitting. The free concert will be held in front of the College Bookstore near Wait Chapel. Tickets for the symphony’s upcoming performances and compact discs will be available for purchase.

Contact: Pam Barrett, barretpm@wfu.edu or 336-758-5237.

Categories: Arts & Culture, Campus Life, Community, Events, Speakers