WFU in the news: Aug. 21-27, 2023

FEATURED NEWS

WFU to welcome Class of 2027
Wake Forest News
Wake Forest University welcomed nearly 1,400 first-year students on Wednesday, Aug. 23. The Class of 2027 includes students from 45 states, Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia. Thirty-two countries are represented, including Brazil, Canada, China, Germany, India, Italy, Netherlands, South Korea, Spain, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and Vietnam. – 8/18/2023

WXII and WFMY covered move-in day.

NATIONAL & INTERNATIONAL

A 21st century mining boom across the tropics is degrading rivers
ScienceDaily
“Our team’s prior work has reported on how gold mining is a problem in the Madre de Dios region of the Peruvian Amazon, by poisoning wildlife and people,” said co-author Miles Silman, the Andrew Sabin Family Foundation Professor of Conservation Biology, and director of Wake Forest’s Centro de Innovación Científica Amazónica (CINCIA). The new study showing the impact of mining on rivers across the tropics was published in Nature Aug. 23. “While gold mining has a lot of potential to lift people out of poverty, particularly on remote tropical frontiers, the way it is done now comes at a tremendous societal cost from environmental degradation, mercury pollution, and corruption and criminal networks.” – 8/23/2023

Time to change US policy toward Niger and its West African neighbors
By Will Walldorf | Defense One
“The coup in Niger last week should be a wake-up call for U.S. policymakers: the current approach to security in West Africa isn’t working. The United States is using too much force against too little threat in the region. Leaders must resist the temptation to escalate in the current crisis. Instead, they should draw down forces from Niger, limit missions to reconnaissance, and focus on peacemaking in conflict zones,” writes politics and international affairs professor Will Walldorf in this opinion piece. – 8/09/2023

Top environment enforcement cop aims to meet the climate moment
By Stephen Lee | Bloomberg Law: Environment
One possible reason the EPA is focusing on coal ash is that enforcement in that area wasn’t a priority under former President Donald Trump, meaning the problem went unaddressed for years, said Stan Meiburg, executive director at Wake Forest University’s Center for Energy, Environment, and Sustainability. – 8/24/2023

The latest mass shooting in Jacksonville puts focus on America’s unique, enduring gun problem
By Nicole Narea, Li Zhou, Ian Millhiser | Vox
What is unique is the US’s expansive view of civilian gun ownership, ingrained in politics, in culture, and in the law since the nation’s founding, and a national political process that has so far proved incapable of changing that norm. “America is unique in that guns have always been present, there is wide civilian ownership, and the government hasn’t claimed more of a monopoly on them,” said sociology professor David Yamane, who studies American gun culture. – 8/27/2023

Dirty-to-green job transitions ‘exceedingly rare’ despite Biden’s promises to blue-collar workers
By Ramsey Touchberry | The Washington Times
President Biden is vowing a prosperous future for union and blue-collar fossil fuel workers thanks to his clean energy agenda, but a new study suggests the promise of a smooth transition could go up in smoke. Less than 1% of those working in “dirty” carbon-intensive industries such as fossil fuels transitioned to green jobs such as solar, wind or electric vehicles from 2020 through 2022, according to a research paper published by the nonpartisan National Bureau of Economic Research. “There are definitely a number of places in the U.S. that if you were to remove the carbon-intensive job option, there would be really big hits to workers,” said economics professor Mark Curtis, co-author of the study. – 8/25/2023

REGIONAL & TRADE

Wake Forest University in top 10 on Forbes’ list of best employers in North Carolina
Triad Business Journal
Wake Forest University has been ranked the eighth-best employer in North Carolina by Forbes magazine. The university fell from its place at the top of the list last year. Forbes, partnered with market research company Statista, surveyed 70,000 anonymous Americans working for businesses with at least 500 employees. The final list – one for each state plus the District of Columbia – ranks the 1,392 employers that received the most recommendations. – 8/22/2023

LOCAL

Political leaders have mixed views about the fourth indictment against former President Donald Trump
By John Hinton | Winston-Salem Journal
John Dinan, a political science professor at Wake Forest University, said that the Georgia indictment against Trump and his allies might be politically significant to Trump. “The Georgia indictments naturally raise questions about whether voters will react any differently to these indictments than to the previous ones,” Dinan said. – 8/21/2023