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W A K E
F O R E S T
VOL. 95, NO. 24
SPORTS | B1
U N I V E R S I T Y
T H U R S D AY, M A RC H 2 2 , 2 0 1 2
“Covers the campus like the magnolias”
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Law school draws in prospectives
Choices include “Laywers and Legal Institutions”and “Advocacy, Debate and the Law” By Paige Emerson | Contributing writer
Graphic by Bobby O’Connor/Old Gold & Black
Should you accept that request? By James McCabe | Staff writer Your professor finds you on Facebook and sends you a friend request. You glare at the little red notification at the top of your webpage and think for a minute, “Do I REALLY want to be friends with my professor?” Ever since the early years of social networking, there has been the debate over where to draw the line between professional and private lives. When gauging the faculty response to becom-
ing “friends’”with their students on Facebook, there were mixed signals from faculty and staff. “I have a lot of students from LIB 100 who follow me on Facebook,” Giz Womack, the outreach librarian at the ZSR Library, said. Although Womack uses Facebook to communicate with his students, he does not see Facebook as the only hub of faculty-student communication. “Facebook does not have the course functionality as Sakai,” Womack said, “but it’s where everyone is.”
With more than 845 million users on Facebook, when will the blurred line of professional and private lives of professors and students eventually fade away? Ananda Mitra, chair of the communications department, sees the potential pedagogical value of social media. “Since teaching is a process that relies on the relationship between teacher and student I see nothing wrong with the use of social media as
See Social Media, Page A3
A family away from home Students and staff find common ground in campus settings By Sylvia Shank | Contributing writer Around here, they are borderline celebrities. They’re Mom and Aunt and Grandma. Sharon Jones mans the main buffet in the Fresh Food Company (The Pit). While she spoons gravy over mashed potatoes, she can read body language with maternal precision. “I can just look at a student and know their attitude,” she said. “I’ll ask, ‘What’s wrong?’” Some students know Jones’ birth date and they sing. They see her at Walmart and insist on hugs. Maria DiFazio, who swipes cards in the Magnolia room, plans birthday parties for students. In an article for Her Campus, Hannah Kay Hunt describes DiFazio’s action plan whenever someone has an upcoming birthday: she orders a cake and candles. The day of, she directs the whole Mag Room in “Happy DiFazio Birthday.” Once, twice or three times a day students go to Benson, Subway or the Pit. Communication between students and staff consists of polite “Thank you” and “You’re welcome”, but sometimes friend-
ships form, like the four-year friendship between Annie Floyd who swipes cards in The Pit and Jeremy Bourne (‘11). As a freshman, Bourne started talking with Floyd each time he came in. “She genuinely cared about me,” Bourne said. “She made all my Pit visits better.” Floyd and Bourne talked each time he came in, for 15 minutes or more if The Pit wasn’t busy. Floyd talked about the farm where she grew up and her frequent trips to her sisters’ or her childrens’ homes. “[Talking to Jeremy] was just uplifting,” Floyd said. “He’d come around and really make my day, and then we’d hug.” Sometimes there was a line of students, but Floyd always got that hug. The uncommon friendship between Bourne, the white philosophy major from Davidson County, and Floyd, the African American grandmother who grew up eating solely off her family’s farm, embodies Pro Humanitate according to President Hatch. “We [the university] want to educate people on what it’s like to live in a humane society,” he said, “one where every person is taken seriously and young adults can interact with other generations.” Hatch says that when young adults interact with older adults, both gain wisdom. Students often hang with people just like them. Their friendships can hinder the kind of multigenerational diversity President Hatch believes in. “If Wake Forest is only a safe and protective cocoon,” Hatch said in the 2011 State of the University, “our students will be ill prepared for the
dynamic, multicultural and increasingly interconnected world that they will face after graduation.” Jenny Puckett (‘71) just published Lost in Tribble on Harold Tribble, president of the university from 1956 to 1967. “Tribble was always worried about the human element,” Puckett said. A Baptist minister, Tribble believed in God-given human equality. He constantly monitored his black and white staff to ensure equal dispersal of refreshments, use of comfortable chairs, and breaktime. “Tribble was very conscious that [blacks] had the same value as everyone else on campus,” Puckett said.
Wake Forest University School of Law is now offering a new pre-law program for undergrads during the 2012 Summer Session I. The program will consist of two classes, “Lawyers and Legal Institutions” (POL 286) and “Advocacy, Debate and the Law” (COMM 370), and will be open to any student who is considering law school, regardless of their majors. The courses will be taught by Wilson Parker and Chris Coughlin professors in the law school. “The goal of the program is to provide students with enough information about law school so that they can make an intelligent decisions as to whether or not law schools is a good choice for them,” Parker said. “The idea came from talking to students who would visit my classes when they were applying to law school and who told me that they wished they could have had more exposure to
“The goal is to provide students with enough information about law school so they can make a decision as to whether or not law schools is a good choice for them.”
Wilson Parker
Professor of Law
His convictions cost him alumni support. Yet in 1962, he convinced the Board of Trustees to integrate the university. In her honors thesis “We Called Ourselves Revolutionaries: Remembering Integration at Wake Forest University,’” senior Margaret Wood interviewed Steve Bowden, who was one of the first
law school classes than they did during their one day visit.” “Lawyers and Legal Institutions,” which was introduced for the first time last summer, was designed to give undergraduates a better understanding of what law school is like. It introduces students to subjects covered during the first year of law school, and the methods of legal education. “Advocacy, Debate, and the Law” is also being offered this year, which focuses on theories of communication and persuasion. It will include many in-class exercises to help students develop necessary skills in oral expression, which are “required in all aspects of life after college and are critical to success in law school,” according to Parker. The two classes will also extend outside of the classroom, including social events that provide students with the opportunity to get to know law school professors and practicing attorneys, as well as attend screenings of films involving legal topics. For those students who do decide to continue pursuing a career in law, the professors are dedicated to informing and assisting these students in any way they can.
See Staff, Page A3
See Law, Page A6
“If Wake Forest is only a safe and protective cocoon our students will be ill prepared for the dynamic, multicultural and increasingly interconnected world.”
Nathan Hatch
University President
Students serve communities across nation for break By Lauren Gensler | Contributing writer
Working with tigers and bears at a Florida Wildlife Conservation, exploring race and poverty in the city that was the center of the Civil Rights Movement, and clearing trails in the woods of Pennsylvania are just some of the spring break experiences that students had through Wake Alternative Break. WAB, which is predominantly service-oriented, offers students the opportunity to participate in a different kind of spring break. Coordinated by the Volunteer Service Corps, all WAB trips are studentled. Started approximately 13 years ago, WAB continues to grow and evolve. This year, a total of 95 students participated on 10 different trips. There were twice as many student leader applications than there were student leader positions, according to Shelly Sizemore, assistant director of campus life for service.
Starting this year, students could propose their own idea for a trip. Trips have also become “more issue-based than they’ve been in the past,” Sizemore said. “We’ve tried to expand to different kinds of service, such as working with low-income youth and the environment.” For students like junior Kelly Chervin, who led a 10-person trip to Birmingham, Alabama, WAB provided an excellent opportunity to develop a particular academic interest. “I specifically wanted to lead the Social Justice WAB trip to Birmingham because I am extremely passionate about social justice and desired to gain deeper insights into its roots,” she said. Chervin and her group spent most of their time with Habitat for Humanity, where theybuilt a house for a local mother and her two children. On their day off, they visited a local non-profit called The Alabama Poverty Project,
See WAB, Page A6