I have been in the throes of student advising the past few days. Right now I have a brief break between sessions. My intrepid student advisor, Nikki, is in here with me. She’s had great advice for our advisees.

One of the things we typically do is ask students about potential majors, even though they don’t have to know yet. A very nice young man told me yesterday he wants to focus on politics and take a lot of classes in Arabic, which would certainly have a lot of marketability, especially if he wants to look at jobs in foreign service or government.

For the alumni out there, Organic Chem is still a toughie. A couple of my freshmen are having a rough time there. That’s one of those classes where it seemed like even my science-gifted friends had to struggle a little. Like Magic Mouthwash and rolling the Quad, some things at Wake Forest remain the same even 20 years later.

Please everyone, send good vibes for our football team this weekend. We need a win and need some good karma. GO DEACS!

Yesterday afternoon, Dr. Hatch held a “State of the University” address for faculty and staff. His theme was “Why I believe in Wake Forest” - and I’ll try to summarize here. Note: I do not have a copy of his speech, so I am going by my own notes, so that’s my disclaimer : )

He talked about how MSD has a rich history, a compelling mission and a bright future. We are a university of national prominence and are competing in a different league than we once did (when we were considered a regional school). How do we meet this moment of truth in competing with the biggest and best schools and still stay true to our ideals and heritage?

We are a bit of an oddity (my words, not his) in higher education because we are a “Collegiate University” -this is a deeply personal place that values face to face interactions and community. This is increasingly rare in higher education.

Dr. Hatch hit on 3 key strengths of WF:

1) We are deeply personal. We build connections at Wake Forest - between individuals, departments, schools. In a society that is increasingly transactional in nature, we value the rich and meaningful connections that come from face-to-face interactions. He talked about how the best learning comes in the triangle of students-faculty-ideas. One of our strengths is our strong sense of mentoring -between students and faculty, coaches, and/or staff. We need to do more of this and involve alumni more as well.

As an interesting aside, he was talking about how students of today have alwayslived in a fast-paced, multitasking world where people are doing 5 things at once. He quoted someone who’d coined the phrase “the disease of the internet age is continuous partial attention”. So true.

2) Connecting who we are with what we do - though some people view college as a time to equip students for a career in very practical terms, at WF we want to help students discover their talents, passions, and help them find ways to link those to ways we can advance knowledge, society, and our community. Unlike a lot of other schools, it still matters to us here to help our students find a moral and ethical purpose. We have a rich tradition of teaching values and stressing through our Pro Humanitate motto that we have a responsibility to make the world better. We want to help people take their education and help them learn to lead lives that matter.

3) Opportunity - our roots are humble. Our history is a school with humble beginnings - students whose parents were teachers and ministers and everyday folk. Our challenge is to remain a place where the doors of opportunity are open to all.

Sometimes we admit students whose achievements are written all over their face. Other times we see a budding leader who needs the right environment to flourish. He talked about the change in the SAT policy and said that by making the test scores optional and encouraging the interview, we are extending our deeply personal community to the admissions process. He said “we will not take shortcuts” when evaluating candidates, and I liked that statement a lot.

He also quoted someone who had recently made a statement that elite educational institutions prepare kids to join the elite society. But Dr. Hatch stressed that we are a place where plain speaking is honored and pretension is deflated. His dream is that we are open to everyone - regardless of socioeconomic status or religion or race or whatever. We can pass the torch to a new generation.

In closing, he said that we must continue to serve the best traditions ot Wake Forest while moving forward. That the challenges are bigger now (economy, anyone?) and the stakes are higher. But we have what we need to be successful. He is optimistic about our future - we’ll set great goals together, and working together we will achieve them.

Edited to add: the text of his speech is now online, so you can check me for accuracy : ) http://www.wfu.edu/president/2008.10.29.php

Today is one of the best days on campus all year: it’s Project Pumpkin day! PP is a student-led Halloween carnival for local children from disadvantaged areas, so they can have a safe place to trick-or-treat. The Volunteer Service Corps runs PP and always does a smashing job. Normally a thousand or more children come to campus - dressed in their Halloween costumes - for games, candy, face painting, music and more. It’s truly a blast.

The Quad is decorated beautifully. Orange and black streamers in the trees (a special Halloween ‘roll’ if you will), signs and pumpkins, banners, you name it. The Quad will come to life in early afternoon, and you’ll see the students (also dressed in their finery) taking groups of kids through the various parts of the Quad to play games and get candy and more. Faculty and staff bring their kids as well. It’s just a great community event.

One thing did shock me this morning as I saw the banners, and that is that it’s the 20th anniversary of PP. I still remember it from my student days, and to tell me now that PP is 20 years old is a really frightening reminder that I am not as young as I think I am : )

If you walked on the Quad today, you would have no idea that we’d had a major political rally the day before. There was nothing left - no bunting, no signs, no barricades. It was like the Who’s house after the Grinch finished picking it clean on Christmas eve. Once again, a testament to the hardworking folks from the campaign and our own WFU crew who worked quickly and diligently to restore order.

Today would have been a lousy day for a rally - it’s overcast and gray and has the occasional drizzle. The scent of tobacco is in the air too. They must be processing over at the RJR plant just a mile or so away. It smells of unwrapped Winstons : )

There is good coverage of the rally on Window on Wake Forest (www.wfu.edu/wowf) - including audio and photos - so check it out if you had not seen it previously.

PS - Yesterday was our biggest day ever for the Quad View blog. We had about 5x the number of hits we usually do, so many thanks to all of you who were reading!

And for the first time he is really sort of yelling and being really ebullient. He is urging everyone to get up and vote. Lots of waving to the crowd. Now he is working the rope line to shake hands and speak to the students. An older lady might have just kissed him on the cheek.

He did a fist bump with one of the students.

Looks like he is making his way all across the line. Lots of cellphone camera pictures he’s posing for with students and others.

And, since I should have said that before I blogged today, let me say the official disclaimer : )

Statement from Wake Forest University: As an educational institution, Wake Forest is committed to promoting the free exchange of ideas, which includes providing a forum for speakers who express a wide variety of political views. The University’s tax-exempt status, however, requires that it not engage in any political campaign activity, which means the University is prohibited from endorsing or opposing any candidate for public office. Wake Forest takes its obligation in this regard very seriously. This event does not represent an endorsement by Wake Forest of any candidate for public office.

Thanks for reading, y’all!

There are some long stretches here where Biden is just talking, and it’s not the kind of mayhem of applause that you typically see in media coverage of an Obama event. I would say he is largely well received by his audience here - but then again, it is a self selected audience.

Medical personnel are tending to someone. My colleague at the window thinks he saw an older lady who perhaps needed attention. I hope she is OK.

He just said their economic proposal will, he believes, create 60K new jobs in NC.

He is talking about national service and how important that is, and that message got a very vigorous cheer. It’s the notion that if you volunteer for service to your country, we will pay for your college education. Obviously that is of paramount interest to a lot of folks in the audience.

I am trying to listen to this impartially, and it seems to me about 50% of his speech is about what an Obama-Biden ticket will do for the audience, and about 50% of the time pointing out what McCain is wrong about.

He is talking about the two key things that he and Obama will do if he is elected: 1) restore the middle class - give them a fighting chance. (big cheers), and 2) reclaim America’s respect in the world, and begin by ending the war in Iraq.

Biggest cheer so far came when he said of the war: “John McCain was wrong, and Barack Obama was right!”

That came from him referencing local company Hanes losing jobs.The people in the crowd seem moved by the idea of not losing jobs, especially to folks overseas.

He’s picking on McCain and Palin talking about how they are mavericks. Big chuckles from the audience. He told a story about his mother telling him’if it walkslike a duck, and quacks like a duck, etc.’ - and he said that McCain iswalking like George Bush, and Palin is quacking like GWB. Big applause.

He is urging everyone to vote early and don’t get cocky about a lead. He urged students to be sure to be registered and to get out to vote.

Talking now about NASCAR and how he has a track in Dover, DE (his home state). He’s talking about how McCain is driving ‘a little loose’ to use a NASCAR analogy.

He is hitting now on what he calls ‘common concerns’ of Americans - is my house or 401K still worth what it was? Can I afford health care?

And he walks out to massive applause. There is a long catwalk to the stage. He turned back to salute the students and began with “Hello, Demon Deacons!”

He called us a great and beautiful university. He spoke here in 1991, he said that if we elect him, he’ll come back to speak.

Mayor Joines is getting up now to introduce Senator Biden…

1/2 a million NC residents have already participated in early voting, according to Mayor Joines. That’s pretty impressive.

Just got a text from a high ranking University official who was here to greet Biden, and he gave her a hug.

Just heard it from someone who talked to an officer. So as the French would say, L’aventure commence.

I am not sure if I am going to be able to type as we go - it will depend on whether he is speaking loud enough. there are about 10 people in here with me and I am trying to make sure they can hear. I am not exactly a quiet typist - I sort of pound as I go, so if they can’t hear me, I will wait until after the speech is over.

Now they just let a MASSIVE amount of people run in. They did not go through the magnetometer that’s why they moved the barricades. It looked like when they have open seating for a concert and everyone is running for the floor seats. Can’t be long now.

There are a bunch of homemade signs being handed out now -

Students for Change

We love Joe

Carolina is Obama country

[the generic Obama logo]

Just got a report from someone downstairs that some McCain supporters have arrived to protest , but I don;t see them yet, There are also some “official” campaign signs being handed out to the crowd.

Sadly, they have also changed to country music. And it looks like they have closed the magnetometer.

I’ve gotten a few comments from blog readers - thanks so much! Glad that you are enjoying the coverage.

Or so the song says - they are playing that old classic now. It’s sort of an odd moment, because we are all just sitting here waiting. Just texted a friend on the ground whose one word summation of the event was “Awesome!” even though it hasn’t started.

Intrepid colleague here just pointed out that the end of the line has now gotten back in sight - it’s at the top of Efird. So we are making headway.

Bomb dogs are still around the Quad. More media is just coming in th side entrance, so I am led to believe we might be getting closer to the event…maybe his bus just pulled up or something. Someone is getting ready to hand out posters to the students. So we are getting close!

Just been told we’re running about 30 minutes late. Also told that there is a live view from Fox8 news: http://media.myfoxwghp.com/live/index_livecentral_politics.htmlSo if you want to see it online, you can see the front of Reynolda and what’s going on.

If you look at the Fox page, we are left of the flags. I think we are the 3rd window from the far left.

The officers have been moving the barricades around a little bit and we are trying to figure out exactly what is going on here. It looks like they are moving the barricades closer. People still are coming through the metal detectors though.

The excitement does not appear to be dimming, I see lots of smiling faces.

Just got some new visitors from the first floor. Standing room only is extending along the front of Reynolda and its now blocking our colleagues view from the first floor, so they are joining us in here.

A high ranking University official (who requested anonymity) just told me that the dignitaries are still outside the Mag Room, so the party is not ready to begin.There are 7 or 8 of us in the office here watching the scene and we approve of the high level of Earth Wind and Fire being played outside.

Has now wrapped around most of the Quad and is down into Lot N (between Kitchin and Poteat). A lot of the people in line are choosing to gather on the back half of the Quad (since you can still hear). I think I see my next door neighbor, Ellen, in the front row under the Y in the “Vote Early” sign : )

Our student, Randy, is a good speaker. He did well. He talked about his parents being from the 60s and how you’d hear about people talking about marching for Kennedy or marching for King, but now he can own his own piece of history by marching with Obama. Randy got a nice round of applause.

Just had the invocation. Now doing a moment of silence for the 25th anniversary of the bombing of Beirut Marines barracks. Then the pledge of allegiance.

Now we are hearing from Randy Paris - a student who spoke at the Summer Leadership Conference and who tookthe fall semester off to work for the Obama campaign. He is a very impressive young man, and it’s awesome that he is able to speak on his own campus after working for 8 months on the campaign. Great props for him.

And in my heart of hearts, I say there is no way they start on time. The line is still very long - and that’s nobody’s fault, just the law of having a lot of people here all at once. We’ve had visitors from a lot of different offices within Reynolda who are digging this good view I have. One of my colleagues left our perch here and is going to wander down to the Quad - I’ve asked her to send me some reports from the ground.

I keep expecting Secret Service to pop in here and do a security sweep, but so far nothing. I am told there are 17 police cruisers on one side of the building.

They are moving people through at a steady pace, but the line is now past Huffman. Looking down into the crowd, I see a teenage boy in a football jacket with a mohawk, a dude in a yellow hat with a Carolina sweatshirt on (and my friend Zahir stopped him to give him a little heck about it, I could see from my window). There are some people who have brought their children - kids in first or second grade. A wide swath of humanity is represented - from the very old to the college aged. There is a palpable air of excitement.

Talked a few minutes ago with Kevin Cox, who directs our News Service. He said all is going well and there is tremendous school spirit on the ground.

Thank our lucky stars - we can hear! They are doing a soundcheck now, and even though it is a little bit faint, I think I will do just fine. The line to get in stretches all the way back to Efird. Some lucky students - I think College Dems - have been escorted to bleachers behind the stage, so they are getting the best seats in the house.

Stevie Wonder’s “Isn’t She Lovely?” is playing in the background. People seem very festive.

Just heard from a high ranking University official that Mayor Joines of W-S has arrived and he will be the one to introduce Senator Biden. I see at least one Trustee in the VIP section. Still lots of room to move around within the rally enclosure. Magnetometers are a little bit slow going.

They are now testing the light system, since he’ll need to be lit for the cameras. It’s causing a bit of glare for me here, but I doubt that’s their highest priority.

And my man Zahir is helping usher the students into the grassy area. Basically the setup is there is a large T shaped stage and the guests are able to stand up surrounding most of the stage. Just inside the barricade near the stage is a homemade sign that says Vote Early North Carolina. The line for the magnetometers is now back almost to Wait Chapel.

Looks like they are getting ready to do a sound check. I am praying that I can hear them.

Just got a text message from a student that I know - he’s the president of the College Democrats and a President’s Aide, and he and I worked closely together on the Hillary Clinton event in May. I told him I was blogging from the windows above and asked him to call or text me if he has any interesting scoop. He texted back this message: “College dems are awesome that’s about it will keep you updated.”

It appears that they are letting some VIPs in first. Looks likeCollege Democrats and there are some seats saved for people who I’d guess are Obama-Biden VIPS, likely key volunteers and maybe donors.

I’ve borrowed a colleague’s office (since I was too late to get proper media credentials) and now have a bird’s eye view of the Quad. It’s 12:15 and a line is forming for those who want to get into the enclosure area. It stretches from the middle of the central walk mid-Quad back to the arch. There are guards inside Reynolda at each door making sure no one goes in our out, and we’ve already had one sweep of th 3rd floor windows fronting the Quad making sure they are in compliance with the Secret Service requests. By staying inside, I am going to have an overhead view of the action (and am banking on the fact that his sound system is going to be powerful enough to hear from closed windows). If not, I will head outside.

Bomb sniffing dogs were up on the stage a bit ago - a great, enthusiastic German Shepherd with a sweet face. I can see a lot of Secret Service personnel - always easily recognizable by their dark suits, ear pieces, and serious expressions. There are doubtless many more that I *can’t* see because they blend in so well. Having had interaction with several sets of Secret Service for events here, I can say you will not find nicer people. Their training is incredible and they are amazingly polite and good ambassadors. It’s sort of a shame you can’t just hang out with them.

Walked onto the Quad this morning to see the southern half (nearest Reynolda) transformed: metal bike rack/crowd control things everywhere, beautiful red, white and blue bunting hanging from all the wrought iron rails on Reynolda, 3 big American flags hanging inbetween the columns on Reynolda, a huge stage/catwalk apparatus. All in all a pretty impressive show.

I also learned that the reason that nothing was happening yesterday was because our intrepid Director of University Events, Jennifer Richwine, had worked with the Obama-Biden campaign to delay the preparations until after 5 pm, so that we limited disruption to our students, faculty, and staff. Just another way that we try very hard here to make sure our students come first.

Right now I am scratching my head trying to figure out how I can cover the activities with laptop in hand. I tried to see if I can get a media credential to go sit in their enclosed area and blog - but the likelihood is slim. At this point I am not even sure how one would go about getting credentialed. I am hoping maybe I can take my laptop to one of the tables outside the bank and sit there. In any event, I will try my hardest to bring you any exciting info as it happens!

To post a blog entry today, because I have wanted to tell you about the massive and major activities taking place on the Quad for the Joe Biden rally tomorrow - and there’s just not that much to tell you. There have been some sporadic bits of activity within Reynolda Hall, but no sweeping, major, dramatic events unfolding outside. I guess in part it’s because the event is an outdoor rally. I am assuming they’ll have a stage and speakers, but that can be set up in the morning. Right now you’d never know that a VP candidate would be here tomorrow. The Quad looks like it always does.

This has been an incredibly fortunate year for our students. They will have had the chance to hear from 3 senators since April: McCain, Clinton, now Biden. No matter their party affiliation (or their independent status), it’s a teachable moment about engaging in the issues, learning what you can about the candidates and their positions, and watching the national political process unfold - in this case on your front lawn.

I was on campus with my 76 year old mother yesterday, who was here for a brief visit. As soon as we drove on to campus, she smiled and said “I have such happy memories of this place!” She’d just been to Boston U to visit one of her granddaughters, and mom was telling me that although Boston U is a lovely campus, it just doesn’t have the same feel as dear old WF does for her.

Just saw this in the Winston-Salem Journal:

Democratic vice-presidential nominee Joe Biden will speak in Winston-Salem Thursday, according to an itinerary on the campaign’s Web site.

Biden will speak at 2:15 p.m. at Wake Forest University, in the Hearn Plaza outside of Reynolda Hall.

Doors open at 12:15. Tickets are not required.

North Carolina has not voted for a Democrat for president since Jimmy Carter in 1976, but the polls are close this year and the state has been a frequent stop on the campaign trail in the closing weeks of the campaign.

Both presidential candidates, Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain, campaigned in the state over the weekend, and McCain’s running mate, Sarah Palin, campaigned in the Triad last week. http://www2.journalnow.com/content/2008/oct/21/biden-speak-wake-forest-thursday/

So for students - and parents and friends and alumni alike - if you want to join the rally, keep your eye on the W-S Journal website and/or the Obama website to learn more about this event.

It finally has started getting fairly cold at night. When I walked onto the Quad this morning, the north half of it (closest to the chapel) looked like the grass was wet with dew; however, the south half closest to Reynolda had what looked to be true frost. I guess it’s because that half of the Quad is in the shadow of Reynolda as the sun rises, so it can’t heat up as fast.

My friend from Facilities with the backpack leaf blower (I always want to say it looks like a jet pack) was doing his best to blow the weekend’s gathering of leaves off the sidewalks and onto the Quad. Once they get the leaves all on the Quad, another person comes up with a tractor-like thing with a vacuum attachment that sucks all the leaves up. They use the vacuum tractor after a good Quad rolling too, which sadly we did not need this weekend.

Our game at Maryland was not one for the ages. However, I have great faith in our team and our coaches. Let’s hope they get back the old Grobeism “Play like your hair’s on fire” for our next game.

Students appear to be mostly back from fall break, but they are moving slowly. It’s 11:15 and normally I can peek out my back window toward the patio outside The Pit and see students gathering for lunch. So far I only see two young ladies who are working at a table for Project Pumpkin, one of the greatest student-led activities all year. Note to parents of freshmen: tell your kids to get involved with Project Pumpkin! It’s a great day of activities, games, music and fun for children within our community, providing them a safe place to trick-or-treat and a lot of fun for the volunteers as well.

It’s the 20th year of Project Pumpkin, by the way. Website for your perusal: https://vsc.groups.wfu.edu/ProjectPumpkin/

Yesterday afternoon was a mass exodus of students piling into cars to head off for Fall Break. Some of them appeared to be carrying an awful lot of luggage for just a long weekend - and I suspect that they were taking their summer wardrobe back to Mom and Dad’s to make room for fall clothes. Some of the students were clearly on roadtrips- with a car full of people and a lot of palpable excitement. They probably need to blow off a little steam following midterms and papers due. Hopefully they are destined for someplace a couple of hours away, because the W-S weather is atrocious today. Gray, steady rain, starting to get much cooler - mid 60s at best. Hard to believe, but the students will be registering for spring classes in just a few weeks - early November. Time is really flying by.

A friend of mine sent me an obituary for a 77 year old alumnus who just passed away. In addition to all the expected biographic and family information, his obit had this little gem in it: “He attended Oak Ridge Military Academy and then the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. When he decided that he wanted a real education, he transferred to Wake Forest College and graduated in 1957.”

My hat is off to this gentleman and/or his family, for sticking it to Chapel Hill from the great beyond. Happy Friday to all!

The great stretch of Reynolda Road is at its prettiest now - the leaves are just perfect. Driving by at lunch on this warm day (low 80s), I saw students walking and jogging through Reynolda Gardens, and it made me long for the days where I’d take a book and a blanket and walk out into the grass in front of Reynolda House and study.

Pre cellphone. Pre email. Pre 24/7 news cycles. Pre 9/11. Back when everything seemed uncomplicated and easy and innocent. Just me, and an EM Forster novel, and my thoughts. And the blue, blue sky.

I am not seeing nearly as many political signs in students’ windows as I expected. Between Kitchin and Poteat, there are a few windows that front to the parking lot that have McCain or Obama signs (I think the edge is slightly to McCain in terms of number of signs). I don’t mean to suggest that the students are not politically active or interested, but in my mind I still remember the Quad when we had the Presidential Debate in 2000 and it was nothing BUT political signs everywhere you turned. I miss the excitement of having a debate on campus. It was literally the greatest work-related project I’ve ever had. Oh well.

Our freakishly warm snap continues - today is projected to be in the mid 80s. However, we are supposed to drop to the mid 60s by Friday and have a cool weekend. There is also some sort of cold going around - I was in the Pit yesterday and heard a lot of coughing and hacking. I have it too. For parents who read the blog, we know that students need to manage their own lives and its best to let them make their own choices, but the next time you send a goody bag to them via mail, you may want to include vitamins, hand sanitizer, and/or Zicam. Its an inevitability that colds and such will go around any campus, and if you think your student doesn’t buy that stuff on his or her own, you can stash some of that in with the cookies you send.

Finally, there is a great story about one of my favorite Deacs, Jamie Dean. http://www.mba.wfu.edu/newsDetail.aspx?id=293 Jamie was on the crew team with my niece. He was our student trustee during his undergrad days, and I was completely in love with his guide dog, Paul (who had the most excellent silver tooth, the result of a root canal I think Jamie told me). I may have referenced an earlier article about Jamie’s triumph in the Paralympics for rowing, but there is a new article on our MBA web site that you should check out.

We are working on a pet project here in the office, and I need the help of our longtime Wake Foresters. We are trying to compile a list of some of the most important things that happened at MSD - and while some are obvious huge things like the move to W-S, or the Presidential Debates, or the change in our relationship with the Baptist State Convention - others are more subtle.

So I’d like to hear from the alumni (or parents) out there: what memorable things happened while you were at WFU?? Let me hear from you about the athletic victory of the century, or the famous band that played on campus while you were here - and there have been some great ones - or the amazing famous speaker that you heard as a student.

You can either email me at chapmaea@wfu.edu with your top moments in our history, or you can post a comment on the blog and I will get them that way.

Thanks for your help!

I should have posted a message on the blog letting you know we’d be going dark for a couple of days. Though my household’s first love is Wake Forest, its second love is the Los Angeles Dodgers. So we made the pilgrimmage to my family’s home in Phili to take in Game 2 of the NLCS - the Dodgers lost, but we had fantastic seats down the 3rd base line, replete with a Phillies fan in a dredlock wig heckling Manny Ramirez, who was only about 20 feet away from us. My husband also got nicknamed “LA Guy” buy the good people of Section 139 with us, as he was the only one in sight wearing an LA hat. Thankfully the ribbing was good natured.

This is a reminder to all alumni and parents in the Phili area - if you haven’t been to a Phili sporting event lately, make sure to go. You typically get not only a good showing from the sports team, but great theatre too watching the fans : )

And in just the 4 days that I was gone, The Dash is starting to bloom in its fall colors. For those of you who were devotees of the Calvin and Hobbes cartoons, I was reminded this weekend that Hobbes referred to the fall colors on the trees as “nature’s fireworks.” An apt description. The trees on the Quad are turning, and the tops of the trees are a deep and rich auburn color. There’s ample TP in the trees too, from the post-Clemson Quad rolling. The stadium and the fanbase looked really impressive on TV - the “Black Out” was a nice touch. Go Deacs!

It is very, very calm out my window. I only see one student poking along the sidewalk. Admittedly, it’s in between classes, so you would not expect huge traffic, but today is supposed to be almost 80 and its sunny and gorgeous. Normally I would expect to see a little more action, but then again, midterms approacheth.

Got some great news today - Luke Russert, son of beloved newsman Tim Russert, will be on WFU’s campus tonight covering a viewing of the Presidential Debate. Details below.

Luke, if you ever read this, I loved your dad. As a matter of fact, when my son was born, I’d gone into labor on a Saturday night, and I was happy that I did not progress quickly, because I got to spend the morning watching Meet the Press (then NFL countdown and a Panthers game). So in my own strange way I feel like I shared something special with your dad!

———-

Wake is gathering students in Carswell Hall, Room 111 Tuesdaynightfor the Second Presidential Debate. The event will begin at 8:30 p.m. with a pre-debate program/lecture/discussion moderated by Ross Smith.

Tim Russert’s son Luke Russert, who reports for NBC and MSNBC, will be there starting at 8:30 p.m. to talk with Wake Students about the debateHe will interview students throughout the debate.

We had a great meeting of the College Board of Visitors last week. They heard updates on the strategic plan, the campus master plan, our financials, mentoring - you name it, we covered it. This board, like most of our volunteer boards, takes very seriously its commitment to making WFU the best it can be. It was my first official meeting with them and I am pleased to say they are all great folks.

Today I had this odd thing happen on campus. I was walking on the Quad near Poteat/post office and the wind was blowing just right and there was this odd, faint, hot, slightly sweet smell. I knew I knew what the smell was but it took me a second to get my mind around it. And then it hit me - fabric softener sheets! Someone in the bowels of Poteat was doing laundry and the dryer air was venting out to the Quad - or maybe venting elsewhere but the wind caught the scent and carried it to the Quad. I suddenly was transported back to my own college days of hauling laundry to the laundry room and praying there would be enough washers and dryers to do the small mountain of laundry I had. Ahh…good times.

Midterms are rapidly approaching and I probably need to send my advisees a quick email to tell them not to panic: ) but to study and prep and do all they need to do to stay current on their reading. That first set of midterms is always scary for the freshmen - and parents, if you’re reading this, your kids will sound pretty stressed until they get through them. But fall break is just around the corner too, and they will get a chance to refresh and renew themselves. And moms, sending cookies to your students is never a bad idea. They all love care packages from home. Just a thought : )

I am going to be out of pocket for a couple of days. I work with the College Board of Visitors and they are having their meeting tomorrow and Friday. So I have time for just a few reflections now and will catch up later Friday.

There was a brisk wind at the end of the day and it looked like a brown ticker tape parade. Not sure which kind of trees line most of campus, but they have thin leaves like fingers - and they were coming down in huge bunches as the wind blew, almost confetti-like. What most people don’t know is that in the early part of the morning, some of our facilities people are armed with leaf blowers to clean off the sidewalks and Quad. With a lot of leaves and wind falling, it’s a task worthy of Sisiphus (take that, Classics majors! I threw you a mythology reference).

As I was driving around campus with my little one in tow, we happened past Starling Hall, our admissions bldg. I chatted with a couple of the folks there - and they said application numbers are up. They looked happy and also a little tired.

Finally, there is going to be an Octoberfest tomorrow on the Mag Patio - big sign hanging off Reynolda to advertise it. The College Democrats are hosting a VP Debate Viewing party in Shorty’s at 9 pm tomorrow in Benson. I sent an email to the College Republicans asking for their viewing opportunities but am waiting to hear back from them.