OLD GOLD&BLACK WAKE FOREST UNIVERSIT Y
OPINION
LIFE
SPORTS
NEWS
VOL. 96, NO. 28
Wake Debate sends teams to nationals Page 5
T H U R S DAY, A P R I L 1 8 , 2 01 3
Ongoing struggle for inclusion
Meet the new Wake Forest Fellows Page 7
Spotlight: Track star Myesha Barr Page 13 Graphic by Daniel Schwindt/Old Gold & Black
Tolerance in sports: You Can Play Project Page 17
Exercise tips for your dream beach body Page 19 Humor Column: Cracking the mystery cipher of girl code Page 23
It’s time to close prison at Guantanamo Bay Page 9 The confederate flag remains an offensive symbol of prejudice Page 11
oldgoldandblack.com
Although the percentage of minority students has increased since 200708, students still think there is a divide between ethnicities on campus.
University lags behind when it comes to increasing diversity on campus BY DORSEY HILL Staff Writer hilldm12@wfu.edu After celebrating 50 years of integration, Wake has begun to reflect on the challenges
and successes of diversity on a liberal arts campus. Wake, like its fellow universities, has faced its own unique set challenges. With all this taken into account, how diverse is Wake Forest really? “Ever since I started as a freshman they’ve been trying to do a better job incorporating a lot of races, senior Roth Pram said. “I’m the secretary of ASIA. We’ve been seeing
more South Asian students and others besides Chinese and Korean.” According to the 2012-13 university factbook, 76.8 percent of students at Wake are white, 7.6 percent are African American, 5.6 percent are Hispanic and 7.6 percent are Asian. Similar schools have better percentages, such as Duke University whose student body is 47 percent Caucasian and Vanderbilt University, which has a Caucasian population of 62 percent. However, five years at Wake have shown a steady increase in minority populations. In the 2007-08 university factbook, 83.7 percent of student identified themselves as Caucasian, 6.7 percent as African-American, 2.4 percent as Hispanic and 5.5 percent as Asian. This means Wake has seen a 7 percent tradeoff between the Caucasian and minority student populations since 2007. “I think that while it is obvious that Wake has tried to become more diverse, it forgets to give students with diverse backgrounds the tools they need to succeed in a still mostly homogenous population,” senior Chelsea Eversmann said. However, some students seem to think numbers aren’t exactly the issue here. On a
See Diversity, Page 5
The world through a journalist’s eyes Gwen Ifill discusses journalism, politics and her upcoming commencement address BY JULIE HUGGINS Print Managing Editor huggjn0@wfu.edu What inspired you to become a journalist? I looked at people who do all the things that I wanted to do, that I liked. I liked writing, I liked having deadlines because I wasn’t very organized at getting things done, and in my house growing up there were always newspapers. My father was an ordained minister. He was very engaged and involved in the Civil Rights Movement and therefore I was always
See Ifill, Page 6
Photo courtesy of the office of Gwen Ifill
Gwen Ifill, moderator of the PBS broadcast Washington Week, served as the moderator for two vice-presidential debates in 2004 and 2008.