Wake in the News

Media Report for Dec. 16, 2017 - Jan. 5, 2018

January 8, 2018   |  wfu_news_&_communications

The Wake Forest News Media Report for Dec. 16, 2017 – Jan. 5, 2018 is now available online.

Sticking to your New Year's resolution is not about willpower

January 4, 2018   |  The Washington Post

“Positive emotions can help turn threat-related thoughts (‘There’s no way I can do this’) into optimistic thoughts (‘I have the resources to do this’),” says psychology professor Christian Waugh of Wake Forest University. They accomplish this by promoting stress responses that are helpful.

Science-tested tips to be a better person

January 5, 2018   |  The Wall Street Journal

In a guest column, Wake Forest philosophy professor Christian B. Miller says moral reminders, role models, and education in self-awareness can improve our characters.

Review: Good people, bad people and 'The Character Gap'

January 4, 2018   |  The Wall Street Journal

Our behavior is radically inconsistent and seems to depend less on character traits than on the context of each chance to behave well or badly. Julian Baggini reviews ‘The Character Gap’ by Christian B. Miller, a philosophy professor at Wake Forest.

Dozens more selective colleges join pledge to add lower-income students

December 23, 2017   |  The Washington Post

Dozens more selective colleges and universities have joined a pact to recruit more students from low-to-moderate income families, nearly tripling the total that launched the effort a year ago. The American Talent Initiative (ATI), as it’s known, set a goal last year of adding 50,000 high-achieving students with significant financial need by 2025 at roughly 270 schools with high graduation rates. ATI has made public the commitments of a handful of members. Wake Forest pledged to increase the share of its students who receive Pell Grants by 40 percent.

Wake Forest in the News (Jan. 2018 publication)

January 1, 2018   |  wfu_news_&_communications

WFU engineering students test their creativity with cardboard

December 18, 2017   |  Winston-Salem Journal

There are few things as simple and commonplace as a chair — unless Wake Forest University’s budding engineers have anything to say about it. The 55 engineering students put their creativity to the test, reimagining and revolutionizing the idea of a “chair” as part of their final project.

“Instead of just teaching lectures on theory, we’ve made the curriculum project-based,” Pierrakos said. “Our goal is to produce internship-ready engineering students by year one who can go out there and contribute.”

“I thought as a freshman I’d be doing general classes, but with engineering I’ve hit the ground running,” freshman John Hobson said.

More than 20 states in 2017 considered laws to promote shared custody of children after divorce

December 11, 2017   |  The Washington Post

Lawmakers are accelerating the trend toward co-parenting, with legislatures in more than 20 states considering bills this year that would encourage shared parenting or make it a legal presumption – even when parents disagree. “The custody laws in our country were based on the sexist belief that mothers are better than fathers at raising children.…Well, the research does not support that.” said Linda Nielsen, a professor of adolescent and educational psychology at Wake Forest.

See also: Chicago Tribune

U.S. universities pledge to increase intake of low-income students

December 13, 2017   |  The Times Higher Education

Wake Forest is one of six U.S. institutions to announce public commitments through the American Talent Initiative to increase enrollment and support for moderate- and low-income students. The University set goals to increase the number of Pell Grant applicants by 50 percent, the number of enrolled Pell Grant students by 40 percent, the number of need-based aid recipients by 25 percent and graduation rates of Pell Grant students by 12.5 percent.

See also: Diverse Issues in Higher Education

College grads aren't just going to the coasts

December 14, 2017   |  bloomberg

The percentage of the population 25 and older with college degrees is an imperfect but quite useful indicator of an area’s affluence and potential for income growth. Having a college apparently isn’t always enough to make your area a magnet for college grads. Knoxville and Winston-Salem are home to major universities and are centers of metropolitan areas of more than 600,000 people, but are not attracting college grads as much as some other smaller metros. Most small cities will probably continue to struggle as economic activity shifts to big metro areas.