WFU in the news: March 6-12, 2023

FEATURED NEWS

ChatGPT is upending campus practices. Colleges are rushing to respond
By Beth McMurtrie | The Chronicle of Higher Education
It’s hard to believe that ChatGPT appeared on the scene just three months ago, promising to transform how we write. Higher education, rarely quick about anything, is still trying to comprehend the scope of its likely impact on teaching — and how it should respond. Director of Wake Forest’s Center for the Advancement of Teaching Betsy Barre said, “If it gives us the opportunity to free up time to do things that matter, like building relationships with students,…it could be a good thing.” – 3/06/2023

NATIONAL & INTERNATIONAL

Ukraine: A boon or bust for U.S. power? It’s complicated
By C. William Walldorf | Democracy Paradox
“Despite Ukraine’s remarkable success, NATO’s increased unity and Russia’s poor military performance, the answer to that question is more complicated than some might think. Especially in a war’s early stages, assessing the impact on the power of a participating or associated state, like the United States in Ukraine today, can be tricky business,” writes politics professor Will Walldorf, author of the book “To Shape Our World for Good.” – 3/10/2023

Wanted: More EPA employees
By Kevin Bogardus | POLITICO Pro
Stan Meiburg, executive director of Wake Forest’s Center for Energy, Environment, and Sustainability, comments in this story on how the EPA’s goal to hire hundreds more employees to advance President Joe Biden’s signature climate and infrastructure laws missed its own targets. – 3/08/2023

New framework on honest behavior suggests it is a process that goes beyond not lying
By Carnegie Mellon | Phys.org
Based on the findings in an article by researchers at Carnegie Mellon University, the University of Chicago, Northwestern University and Wake Forest University, there is a narrow focus on honest content, which largely reduces the study of honesty to lying versus truth-telling, is problematic and connected to modern day societal challenges such as the spread of misinformation. – 3/06/2023

Knowing it from shinola: An academic looks at ‘malarkey’
By Dale Hartley | Psychology Today
Psychology professor John V. Petrocelli cites Mao’s war on sparrows in his new book, “The Life-Changing Science of Detecting Bullsh*t,” as an example of how bullsh*t can be not only an annoyance but downright dangerous as well. He has developed a bullsh*t rating scale (the “Bullsh*t Flies Index,” since flies are attracted to bovine droppings) – rating bullsh*t on a scale of one to three flies. – 3/09/2023

Baptist Joint Committee gains faith and justice center
By Adelle M. Banks | Religion News Service
The Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty is acquiring the Center for Faith, Justice, and Reconciliation in a move its leaders say will help them broaden efforts to support a more universal range of religious freedoms in the country. Interim School of Divinity Dean Corey D.B. Walker, one of those board members, said he expects the new arrangement will lead to expanding work by the center that will include religious and secular people and Jewish and Muslim groups as well as other Christian organizations. – 3/06/2023

REGIONAL & TRADE

Wake Forest not taking growth for granted, even as smaller schools battle to recover
By Anne Wooten Green | Triad Business Journal
The past few years have seen continuing growth in enrollment and programming for most private colleges and universities in the Triad, despite the pressures associated with the pandemic. Wake Forest University, Elon University and High Point University each report undergraduate enrollment growth from 2019 through 2022. Wake Forest reports undergrad enrollment of 5,477 in 2022, up 3.6% from 5,287 in 2019. Wake Forest’s Vice President for Enrollment Eric Maguire said, “Many of the hallmarks of a Wake Forest education—first-rate academic opportunities, strong faculty and student interaction, a supportive campus community, and engaging ACC athletics — are just as relevant, if not more so, as we emerge from Covid.” – 3/10/2023

LOCAL

As North Carolina nears Medicaid expansion, concerns grow about what could be added to bill
By Richard Craver | Winston-Salem Journal
Tying Medicaid expansion to the state budget “will put pressure on some Democratic legislators to vote for the budget bill and then overturn a possible gubernatorial veto of the budget,” said politics professor John Dinan. But, the expectation judging from developments in the first few months of this session is that Republican legislative leaders are planning to include some swing Democratic members in the crafting of the budget.” – 3/12/2023

Winner of international scenic design competition to stage WFU ‘Silent Sky’
By Steve Morrison | Yes! Weekly
In 2021 — after being delayed by a global pandemic — the Department of Theatre and Dance launched an international scenic design competition to gather creative approaches from designers outside the United States. After receiving concepts from set designers representing 10 countries, an international panel of judges convened to select the winner — Egyptian stage designer Héba Elkomy. – 3/08/2023

President Jimmy Carter’s dream to unite Baptists to serve the community together
By Tanya Rivera | WFMY-TV (Greensboro, NC)
In 2009, Bill Leonard, the founding dean of Wake Forest University’s School of Divinity, organized former President Jimmy Carter’s visit to Wake Forest University. The event was in response to Carter’s new organization, the New Baptist Covenant. “He really is a person who personified the best of the Christian witness not simply in the south, but in the world, globally,” Leonard said. – 3/07/2023