Welcoming students to campus with health and safety a top priority

Wake Forest will welcome students this week from Aug. 17-24. Along with the anticipation of a new academic year and meeting friends and faculty, face coverings and social distancing will be part of the experience of college life.

About 1,400 first-year students will move into Wake Forest residence halls from August 17-20 during scheduled two-hour appointments. Continuing students have scheduled move-in times August 20-24. Classes begin August 26.

The class of 2024 was admitted from an applicant pool of nearly 12,000. Seventy-three percent of the class were in the top 10% of their high school classes.

Wake Forest has embraced “Show Humanitate” – a reflection of the University’s Pro Humanitate motto – to encourage the campus community to follow health and safety guidelines this fall. Show Humanitate calls for students, faculty and staff to honor a shared purpose of Pro Humanitate with our daily actions.

“We have worked closely with public health officials to develop our plan, and we have confidence we can implement it well,” said Vice President for Campus Life Penny Rue. “We can’t control every possible factor that might contribute to the spread of the virus, but we believe we are taking prudent actions to mitigate the risk to campus and the surrounding community.”

New guidelines and procedures are in place to protect against the spread of COVID-19. These include:

• Undergraduates have participated in required pre-arrival testing, self-quarantining and monitoring for symptoms for two weeks prior to returning to campus.
• Residence halls are opening at reduced capacity to provide more space in rooms, bathrooms and common areas.
• Everyone on campus is required to carry a mask and to wear it when in contact with others following current North Carolina mandates and the recommendations of the CDC. To reduce the spread of germs, community members are expected to stay 6 feet away from one another when possible.
• Students, faculty and staff are required to conduct daily COVID-19 symptom screening using an online tool developed in partnership with Wake Forest Baptist Health.

All members of the University community have been required to complete an education and training module about COVID-19 facts, virus transmission, risk-reducing behaviors and relevant University policies before returning to campus.

There will be a small number of face-to-face courses provided in socially distanced classrooms, labs and studio spaces. Other classes will be offered online or will combine in-person and online components with online options available such that students can take the course fully online if necessary. 

As universities nationwide have been struggling to translate face-to-face classroom learning to online teaching and potentially blend the two, Wake Forest launched a comprehensive program to support faculty. Read more about summer preparations for academic excellence on the Wake Forest News site here.

Campus access for move-in this week is limited. Photos of back-to-school preparations and students arriving will be available here for media use. Contact media@wfu.edu for access to the images.