WFU in the News: May 9-16

FEATURED NEWS

Wake Forest graduates 2,200 students. Ceremonies return to Hearn Plaza.
By Lisa O’Donnell | Winston-Salem Journal
As an accomplished shot-putter on the Wake Forest University track and field team, there’s no question that Chanel Dawson is strong. On a sun-kissed Monday morning at Hearn Plaza, her strength was evident in other, more important ways. She carried on her shoulders the hopes and dreams of a family beaming with pride. “I didn’t do this just for me,” Dawson said, clutching her diploma. – 5/16/2022

NATIONAL & INTERNATIONAL

Young Americans aren’t as woke as you think
By Adrian Wooldridge | The Washington Post
A new study of younger Americans by Wake Forest University’s Center for the Study of Capitalism demonstrates that younger Americans continue to believe in the holy trinity of competition, individual responsibility and earned success: Some 68% of younger millennials agree that “competition is good” and “stimulates people to work hard and develop new ideas,” while only 9% disagree. – 5/09/2022

How joining forces can help to end bullying in STEM fields
By Fay Patel | University World News
Business professor Sherry Moss presented key findings from a global web-based survey research project on “abusive supervision AKA bullying”. Those who completed the survey were people who had been targets of bullying and people who had witnessed bullying. Most bullying occurred in the highest-ranked institutions. – 5/14/2022

Missing the emissions for the trees: Biomass burning booms in East Asia
By Justin Catanoso | Mongabay
Journalism professor Justin Catanoso writes: Over the past decade, Japan and South Korea have increasingly turned to burning wood pellets for energy, leaning on a U.N. loophole that dubs biomass burning as carbon neutral. While Japan recently instituted a new rule requiring life cycle greenhouse gas emissions accounting, this doesn’t apply to its existing 34 biomass energy plants; Japanese officials say biomass will play an expanding role in achieving Japan’s goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 46% by 2030. – 5/11/2022

Lack of data hinders Oklahoma justice reform efforts
By Keaton Ross | The Journal Record
Local justice systems have limited resources and must set enforcement priorities said law professor Ron Wright, an expert in prosecutorial practices. This can cause disparities in charging and sentencing between counties and regions. – 5/10/2022

REGIONAL & TRADE

What Atrium Health’s deal with Advocate Aurora means for Wake Forest Baptist, WFU med school
By Lillian Johnson | Triad Business Journal
Dr. Julie Ann Freischlag, CEO of AHWFB, chief academic officer of Atrium Health and dean of the WFU School of Medicine, said there is no cause for concern that Wake Forest will lose its place within the larger Atrium Health enterprise. “We’ll be a part of a bigger group, so I think if anything, people will know more who we are, and we’ll be able to touch more people and tell them about the research and education – the wonderful things we do.” – 5/13/2022

LOCAL

Republicans will try to ban or further restrict abortions in N.C., legal and political experts say
By John Hinton | Winston-Salem Journal
Law professor Meghan Boone said that North Carolina currently has pre-Roe bans on abortions within state laws. “It is unclear how courts will interpret them in light of the post-Roe laws that permit abortion up to 20 weeks, and whether there will be an appetite to attempt to enforce them.” – 5/09/2022

Abortion-rights rally in downtown Winston-Salem draws nearly 400 on Saturday
By John Hinton | Winston-Salem Journal
Rabbi Andrew Ettin, the spiritual leader of Temple Israel in Salisbury, said that women’s abortion rights must be respected. “Women have a moral right to make decisions about their own lives,” said Ettin, an adjunct professor in the Department of the Study of Religions and the School of Divinity. – 5/14/2022

WAKE FOREST NEWS

State constitutions in the spotlight as U.S. Supreme Court reconsiders Roe v. Wade
By Cheryl V. Walker | Wake Forest News
A decision by the U.S. Supreme Court reversing Roe v. Wade and declaring that the U.S. Constitution does not protect abortion rights would return the issue to the 50 states and put the spotlight on state constitutions, according to Wake Forest Politics professor John Dinan, who has written extensively about state constitutions. – 5/12/2022

WFU student and faculty-led groups help support local refugees
By Kim McGrath | Wake Forest News
While those abroad at Wake Forest’s Flow House in Vienna, Austria, were helping Ukrainian refugees seeking shelter away from their home nation, students, faculty and staff on the University’s Reynolda Campus were doing the same for refugees in Winston-Salem. – 5/11/2022