Wake in the News

Media report for April 19-25, 2020

April 28, 2020   |  WFU News and Communications

The Wake Forest News Media Report for April 19-25, 2020 is now available online.

Wake Forest in the News (April 2020 publication)

April 28, 2020   |  WFU News and Communications

The census needs to count women. The pandemic makes that harder

April 21, 2020   |  The New York Times

Catherine Harnois, Wake Forest sociology professor, said that women’s intent to fill out the census could be affected by their lack of discretionary hours in the day. Outside of their careers, she said, women working a “second shift” as family caregivers for children and the elderly may simply not have time. That may be compounded today by the pandemic — with children home from school and family members falling ill, many women feel as if they’re working multiple jobs. “Even women interested in the census and knowledgeable about it might find the task getting pushed to the back burner,” Dr. Harnois said. “Especially in the current environment, with the complete reorganization of work and home life, and additional emotional stressors.”

Amid coronavirus, concerns grow over fate of Americans held in Iran, Syria

April 22, 2020   |  Voice of America

As the coronavirus pandemic continues to spread around the world, U.S. officials are expressing concern about the safety of American citizens held abroad, especially in countries that are hostile to the U.S, such as Iran and Syria. Randall Rogan, an expert on hostage negotiation who teaches communication at Wake Forest, said there are “two-pronged” options to address this issue. First, the U.S. State Department on behalf of the government can make some positive gestures of goodwill, such as releasing frozen funds or other economic conditions in exchange for the health and well-being, or even the release of detainees. “The second prong would be the punitive approach, by which actions might be taken to put more negative pressure, such as sanctions, on the governments or various leaders directly.”

Coping with Corona: WFU professor creates video series to help

April 23, 2020   |  YES! Weekly

Christian Waugh, a Wake Forest associate professor of psychology and expert in stress and coping, has created a video series discussing the science behind coping with the coronavirus pandemic. The series, hosted on YouTube, features Waugh talking about topics like resilience, problem-focused coping, distraction and avoidances, positive emotions, the power of amusement and the brain. While he doesn’t give tips, tricks or advice through his videos, Waugh covers research on coping and how people successfully cope in different situations.

Media report for April 13-18, 2020

April 22, 2020   |  WFU News and Communications

The Wake Forest News Media Report for April 13-18, 2020 is now available online.

Wake 'N Shake raises $383,550 for Cancer Fund

April 21, 2020   |  The Chronicle of Higher Education

Students have had to move most of their campus lives online this semester. Canceled in-person classes also mean no campus events, performances, or outings. But where there’s a will, there’s a way. For the past 14 years, Wake Forest University has held a 12-hour dance marathon for the Brian Piccolo Cancer Research Fund. This year the event, “Wake ’N Shake,” was rescheduled, and students had just one week to move the marathon online, the News & Record reports. And they pulled it off. The students danced like no one was watching (social distancing gives that saying a new meaning). They danced for 12 hours and posted videos on Instagram. Most important, the event raised $383,550 for the cause.

Improving our character with Christian Miller

April 13, 2020   |  

Christian Miller, Wake Forest professor of philosophy, appeared as a guest on “The Good Life” podcast to discuss virtues that make up a good character, why character matters and how we can improve our character. “Character makes a big difference to our own individual lives,” Miller explained. “There’s good empirical evidence to support the idea that the better character you have, the better your life will go. There are studies that have been done that correlate measures of good character, like hope, conscientiousness, and honesty, with things that benefit us like being in a better mood, being healthier, achieving more in life, have better life satisfaction, and more purpose and value.”

In this new virtual world, area colleges move classes — and campus events — online

April 14, 2020   |  News & Record

COVID-19 almost meant the cancellation of the university’s largest student-run philanthropic event, the 15th annual Wake ‘N Shake dance marathon to raise money for the Brian Piccolo Cancer Research Fund, but in only a few short weeks, student organizers transitioned the whole 12 hour event online. Students posted videos to Instagram of their best moves. Inspirational messages from cancer survivors and Piccolo’s three daughters were aired throughout. Wake Forest students raised $383,550.29 for the Research Fund, and about 1,500 people watched the final hour live on Facebook. “I have been overwhelmed by the amount of response we’ve received,” said Kylie Reed, a Wake Forest senior from Atlanta and one of the event’s three student directors. “Fundraising aside, it was a really important 12 hours for the Wake Forest community to be able to come together.”

After social distancing, a strange purgatory awaits

April 16, 2020   |  The Atlantic

Adaptive recovery is like living through evolution in real time. We will swerve and pivot, become acclimated to random closures and sudden changes in testing regimens, and hope that we can box the virus in long enough to buy time for a more permanent solution. Jonathan Walton, the dean of Wake Forest’s School of Divinity, has described our time hiding from, mobilizing against, and then living with the virus as the “now normal,” the simple effort to live each day as if it were typical, knowing that the next day will bring a new round of uncertainty.