WFU in the news: Oct. 2-8, 2023

FEATURED NEWS

The Americans most threatened by eviction: Young children
By Emily Badger, Claire Cain Miller, Alicia Parlapiano | The New York Times
About a quarter of Black babies and toddlers in rental households face the threat of eviction in a typical year, a new study says, and all children are disproportionately at risk. “We all want to feel that when we go home, we feel safe, we feel comforted, there are positive things happening,” said Sherri Lawson Clark, a cultural anthropologist at Wake Forest who studies housing instability among poor families. “If you get to a place where you can build that, it will create that generational stability.” – 10/02/2023

NATIONAL & INTERNATIONAL

How daughters can repair a damaged relationship with their divorced dad
By Linda Nielsen | Yahoo News
Now that you’re older and more mature, it’s time to ask yourself: How could my relationship with my father have been better if my mother, my teachers and the legal system had all actively worked to keep him involved in my life and to make him feel welcomed and appreciated? Considering what he probably went through, can I be more compassionate and forgiving? In this piece written for The Conversation, education professor Linda Nielsen suggests these are important questions to consider. – 10/09/2023

How a popular New Deal jobs program inspired Biden’s Climate Corps
By Talib Visram | Fast Company
Biden’s new American Climate Corp program touts skills building, giving exposure to hands-on, vocational training that’s often lacking in general education. “It’s good for government and good for business. Many of the CCC families think the new corps will be a worthwhile endeavor. The Civilian Conservation Corps is a really sweet story and shows how government can take very difficult situations and find ways to use them to help improve people’s lives. And I think that’s exactly the objective here,” said Stan Meiburg, executive director of Wake Forest’s Sabin Center. – 10/03/2023

Pope Francis condemns world leaders for deeply flawed UN climate process
By Justin Catanoso | Mongabay
In the lead-up to the 2015 Paris summit, Pope Francis issued a landmark climate and faith document that ultimately saw much of the pope’s language of human responsibility and hope enshrined in the breakthrough climate agreement. “The pope notes that it is the world’s poorest who suffer most from the battering of record heatwaves, storms, floods, droughts, melting glaciers, and rising seas. He also asserts that it is the obligation of the world’s wealthiest nations to decisively lead humanity out of the crisis,” writes journalism professor Justin Catanoso, who is a regular contributor to Mongabay. – 10/05/2023

Into the ‘other’ world: An anthropologist’s journey
By Sharada Adhikari | The Himalayan Times.com
Thousands of miles from his hometown, in a land totally different from where he grew up in and pursued his education, and studying about strangers unique to him, anthropologist Steven Folmar has explored the deepest layers of Nepali people, more specifically of the Dalit people of Nepal. The interest in Dalits didn’t come all in one moment. “I remember some Dalit people in their neighborhood in Pokhara telling me that things should be better for them. ‘After all, if you cut us, we bleed.’ It is this equality statement I still hear,” said Folmar in this piece featuring his life’s work in Nepal. – 10/08/2023

The worst TV teachers of the 21st Century
By Grace Wehniainen | Bustle
Much has been written about the negative portrayals of TV teachers, with communication professor Mary M. Dalton telling The Washington Post that 21st-century discussions about education have led to fictional educators who are “burned out, incompetent, unfulfilled, immature, irresponsible, and worse.” – 10/02/2023

Three African American scholars appointed to Dean positions at universities
The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education
Corey D. B. Walker has been named dean of the Wake Forest University School of Divinity. Walker, who is a professor of the humanities at the university, has served as interim dean for the school since January. Before joining the faculty at Wake Forest in 2020, he was dean of the Samuel DeWitt Proctor School of Theology at Virginia Union University in Richmond. – 10/02/2023

2024 Best Greensboro Area Colleges with Women’s Studies Degrees
Niche
Wake Forest University was recognized for its Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies program as well as its small school academic benefits, a favorable student/faculty ratio wrapped and big school spirit. – 10/06/2023

Musical journey takes Hastings native around the world
By John Huthmacher | Hastings Tribune
Growing up in Hastings, jazz music was probably the furthest thing from the mind of young Ann Phelps, now director of Programming for Leadership and Character. Not one to follow musical trends, her musical tastes went beyond what the majority of her peers listened to at the time. “Culturally, country music was definitely dominant here,” she said. – 10/06/2023

REGIONAL & TRADE

State budget includes millions for infrastructure improvements in Winston Salem
By Robin MacLennan | North Carolina Construction News
“Wake Forest is proud to be a partner in these important commitments to the collective well-being of our community and to be one of the many reasons people come to visit and fall in love with Winston-Salem,” said President Susan R. Wente. – 10/03/2023

Krispy Kreme may put stake in Insomnia Cookies up for sale
By Richard Craver | Greensboro News & Record
The access to home-delivery expertise may prove to be more pivotal to Krispy Kreme than the Insomnia revenue source, said marketing professor Roger Beahm. “Learning from and leveraging this key reason-for-being in Insomnia Cookies’ success makes a lot of sense given where the retail food industry is headed today.” – 10/03/2023

LOCAL

Developer spends nearly $11 million to buy land for 500-plus Forsyth subdivision
By Richard Craver | Winston-Salem Journal
A combined 310 acres in Forsyth County have been bought for $10.95 million by a High Point residential real-estate developer with plans for a more than 500-home subdivision in the Tanglewood Park area near Clemmons. Engineering professor Courtney Di Vittorio, who specializes in water management, agreed that flood projections are obsolete. “It’s kind of silly to me that we’re not communicating the risks. We need to move past where you’re considered fine on one side of the (floodplain) line and not on the other.” – 10/02/2023

What happens next following House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s ousting?
By Kara Peters | WXII-TV (Winston Salem, NC)
Politics professor John Dinan weighs in on this historic removal, and McCarthy’s temporary replacement. “That’s a big deal to have a speaker of the House removed in the middle of the term. People have used the term ‘chaos’ to describe today and the aftermath of today, and chaos is an apt description. In a way, Speaker McCarthy, by working with members across the aisle to allow the government to continue operating and not shut down, basically sealed his fate.” – 10/03/2023

“Hit The Bricks” Raises Record $300,000 for Cancer Research
WXII-TV (Winston Salem, NC)
Wake Forest University’s Hit The Bricks raised a record-breaking $301,722 for cancer research during this year’s event. The grand total was announced during the closing ceremony on Thursday, Oct. 5. It was an emotional moment for many participants, as the fundraising amount was shared with the crowd. The steps of Wait Chapel were lined with luminaries honoring cancer survivors and those impacted by the disease. – 10/06/2023

‘Clean slate.’ UAW strike could push more EV investment south
By John Deem | Winston-Salem Journal
“The unions have cited record auto industry profits as justification for their demands of higher wages, worker flexibility and improved benefits,” said economics professor Mark Curtis, whose research includes the economic impact of the growing clean-energy industry, particularly for workers. “It is certainly true that profits (for Ford, General Motors and Stellantis) are high, but making these demands now is risky given that automakers appear to me more willing than ever to relocate production to new regions like the Southeast.” – 10/04/2023

RiverRun scares up a pair of classic Halloween treats at Marketplace Cinemas
By Mark Burger | Yes! Weekly
This Halloween season, the RiverRun International Film Festival’s ongoing “RiverRun Retro” screening series will present King Kong (1933), celebrating its 90th anniversary. “King Kong endures for many reasons,” explained Woody Hood, professor and director of Wake Forest’s film studies program. “The original King Kong and its stop-motion animation was groundbreaking for the time.…Kong is a complex and sympathetic character. He is a powerful and majestic creature, but he is also vulnerable and misunderstood. We fear him. We love him. We mourn him in the end. – 10/04/2023

NC tops 70,000 electric-vehicle registrations
By John Deem | Winston-Salem Journal
North Carolina has cruised past the 70,000 mark for registered electric vehicles as a growing number of the state’s drivers take advantage of EV-related tax credits included in last year’s federal Inflation Reduction Act. “We had been thinking about this for a while, and when the Inflation Reduction Act passed, we thought, ‘Well, maybe it’s time to think about this,’” said Stan Meiburg, former deputy administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency and now executive director of the Sabin Family Center for Environment and Sustainability. “We kind of understood how electric works and were looking for a car that would be a little more useful on long trips.” – 10/05/2023

Grow or die? It’s a question Triad manufacturers are struggling to answer.
By Richard Craver | Winston-Salem Journal
Diversify or divest? That is the question facing an increasing number of publicly-traded corporations in the Triad trying to strike the right balance between two competing business mantras. “Diversification can offer advantages for corporations that have successfully built their businesses around one or more brands in a specific category,” said marketing professor Roger Beahm. – 10/08/2023

Business Milestones
Winston-Salem Journal
Alton B. Pollard III will join the faculty of Wake Forest University as the James and Marilyn Dunn Chairman in Baptist Studies in the School of Divinity and university professor of African American Studies in the college of arts and sciences beginning July 1, 2024. Pollard previously served on the faculty of WFU from 1988-1998 and was Luce Visiting Professor in the School of Divinity in 2009. The Dunn Chair honors the important work of James and Marilyn Dunn, who were influential Baptist leaders and committed to the work of the School of Divinity. – 10/08/2023