WFU in the news: March 18-24, 2024

FEATURED NEWS

Extroversion related to college student belonging
By Ashley Mowreader | Inside Higher Ed
A new study by psychology professor Shannon Brady and colleagues found students who are extroverted and agreeable are more likely to feel as though they belong. Researchers believe this can help college leaders determine how to support students through creating a sense of belonging that accommodates personality differences. Based on the results, researchers see a need for higher education practitioners to accommodate all types of personalities in belonging interventions. – 3/19/2024

NATIONAL & INTERNATIONAL

How to be wrong
By Carolyn McCusker | Connecticut Public Radio
We all strive to be right about things — we do our research, we listen to people who seem smarter than us, we make compelling arguments over dinner tables. But is there an underappreciated art to being wrong? This discussion included lessons on changing your mind and admitting mistakes from newspaper corrections to public intellectual pivots. Psychology professor Eranda Jayawickreme joined this panel conversation. – 3/20/2024

What deathbed visions teach us about living
By Phoebe Zerwick | The New York Times Magazine
Phoebe Zerwick, the author of “Beyond Innocence: The Life Sentence of Darryl Hunt,” teaches journalism and writing at Wake Forest University, where she directs the journalism program. In this piece, she writes about how researchers are documenting a phenomenon that seems to help the dying, as well as those they leave behind. – 3/12/2024

CBC News Network speaks with politics expert Adam Lenton
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
CBC News Network’s Deana Sumanac-Johnson speaks with politics and international affairs professor Adam Lenton on the Russian election. Why hold an election at all when Putin’s win was a sure thing? “The election in Russia is fundamentally different from what you or I are used to,” said Lenton. “We can see the election as a demonstration of the strength of the government delivering Putin an uncontested victory.” – 3/25/2024

Providing equitable access through child care
By Courtney Mullins | INSIGHT Into Diversity
Equitable access for student parents, at least in part, means offering affordable child care resources. Some institutions acknowledge this disconnect and are finding ways to provide more support. Wake Forest University in North Carolina is slated to open an on-campus child care center by fall 2024 that will prioritize placement for children of students, faculty and staff. – 3/20/2024

Government program seeks to bring new jobs to former coal towns
By Jeremiah Budin | The Cool Down
“In places like Texas or in the middle of the country where there’s a lot of solar and wind, fossil fuel communities are relatively well positioned to take advantage of renewables,” Economics professor Mark Curtis who is studying the clean energy transition as it relates to labor, told The New York Times. “Coal communities generally don’t have that, especially when you think about Appalachia.” –3/21/2024

REGIONAL & TRADE

Greensboro ranked among the least EV-friendly cities in US
By Chaewon Chung | Greensboro News & Record
Economics professor Mark Curtis noted the varying demands for public electric vehicle chargers across different regions.“In a place like Winston-Salem, where the majority of [electric] car owners are going to be homeowners as well, they can very easily charge within their house when they get home…places where the vast majority of owners live in apartments or condominiums, that’s going to be a group of people that need access to public chargers,” he said. – 3/18/2024

Front Street Capital, WFU aim to start $35M infrastructure work within a year
By Lillian Johnson | Triad Business Journal
Front Street Capital (FSC) has $35 million to start the first phase of the planned redevelopment project around Wake Forest University’s off-campus athletic facilities. Winston-Salem City Council unanimously approved earlier this month to receive a $35 million grant from the state budget that will go towards infrastructure work in the area. Coleman Team, partner at FSC, projected at the city council meeting that shovels would be in the ground towards the end of 2024 or early 2025. –3/22/2024

LOCAL

‘Wake N’ Shake’ raises money for cancer research
By Rebecca Smith | WXII-TV (Winston Salem, NC)
Sixteen-hundred students participated in a 12-hour dance marathon held at the Sutton Center from noon to midnight on Saturday, March 23. The goal was to raise $250,000 toward the Brian Piccolo Cancer Research Fund at Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center. Students crushed the goal, raising $313,052 during Wake ‘N Shake to support cancer research. 3/23/2024

‘Midtown’ project aims to revitalize area centered on Deacon Boulevard
By Wes Young, Wesley Young | Winston-Salem Journal
Winston-Salem will use a $35 million state grant to build streets, greenways and other improvements in an area centered on Deacon Boulevard with the goal of creating what’s being called Midtown – a “vibrant, mixed-use development” near Joel Coliseum, the Winston-Salem Fairgrounds and Allegacy Stadium. – 3/20/2024

Shrouded in uncertainty: North Carolina’s path to green ambitions
By Chaewon Chung | Winston-Salem Journal
“The projections for greenhouse gases are certainly optimistic…it’s consistent with the other projections that you see at the national level,” Stan Meiburg, said executive director of the Andrew Sabin Family Center for Environment and Sustainability, adding that the pace of reduction between the year 2030 and 2035 “will depend on choices that Duke makes.” – 3/22/2024

Business Milestones
Winston-Salem Journal
Stacy W. Smallwood has been named Executive Director the School of Divinity’s Faith COMPASS Center. “We are excited to welcome Stacy back to Wake Forest to engage in the critical work of the Faith COMPASS Center,” said divinity school dean Corey D. B. Walker. “His commitment to scholarship and community engagement positions him to provide effective leadership in mobilizing and supporting our faith partners.” Smallwood will begin his new role on June 1. – 3/24/2024