August 22 Weekly Message for New Families

Bottom Line, Up Front

  • Move-in Guide and email sent to new students
  • Join us for Family Orientation sessions Aug 23-24 if you can
  • Final important to do’s
    • Ensure you have submitted the Health Insurance Enrollment/Waiver Form. You must enroll or waive coverage or you will be charged for WFU student insurance.
    • Decide if you want to enroll in optional tuition insurance
    • Ensure your student has registered their mobile phone with Wake Ready
  • How we can best partner with families 
    • How to opt in to Campus Security Alerts
    • When we communicate with families
    • Our philosophy on student development and growth
    • The Stop, Drop, and Roll method
  • A-Z of WFU glossary of terms
  • We hope to see you often during your student’s time at Wake
  • Closing thoughts/what’s next

Dear parents and families of incoming students,

Move-In Day is almost here! Here are the critical items to know between now and the 23rd:

Move-In Guide and email sent to new students

Please be sure to view our Move-In Guide for step by step instructions for your student’s move in. 

For those moving in on the 23rd, click on the bar with “August 23 arrival” to expand that section and see your instructions.

The Office of Residence Life and Housing sent this message to students yesterday. Important information includes check-in details, parking and unloading, and moving into their room. For questions regarding all things RLH, feel free to visit rlh.wfu.edu/incoming and/or the Move-In Hub and review recent messages here. You can also contact the office at housing@wfu.edu or 336.758.5185 during business hours.

Join us for Family Orientation sessions Aug 23-24 if you can

We hope you will join us for our Family Orientation sessions if you can. You can access the schedule in Guidebook:

  • DOWNLOAD THE APP:  Go to your APP or Google Play store and search “WFU Orientation Programs” to access the New Deac Welcome Week 2023 guide or simply scan the QR code below

  • In the top left menu, choose Schedule by Tracks > Parents and Families to see your schedule (students will choose the First Year or Transfer track as applicable).

Final important to do’s

How we can best partner with families

At the start of each semester, we like to share some basic foundational information with families about how we can best work together for our shared goal of your student’s success. Please visit our How We Communicate page for important information on:

  • How parents and families can opt in to receive Campus Security Alerts
  • When we communicate with families: what are the circumstances, etc.
  • How we partner with families and what our philosophy is on student development and growth
  • The Stop, Drop, and Roll method that we encourage families to use when their student has a problem, a decision to make, a task to complete, or a frustration

A-Z of WFU Glossary of Terms

We mentioned this earlier this summer, but we thought we’d remind all new families that we have compiled an A-Z of WFU glossary of terms that may be worth reviewing or bookmarking for future reference. There are a lot of terms that have changed in higher ed over the last 30 years, schools tend to have a lot of acronyms, and we may refer to something using a different term than you may be used to. 

We hope to see you often during your student’s time at Wake

Families, once you drop your students off, we still want you to be involved with Wake Forest:

  • You will receive invitations to Wake Forest events that are happening in your local area. All WAKECommunity events are open to alumni, families, and friends.
  • There are also lots of opportunities to visit on campus, and we hope you will do so. Your students may be involved in arts productions, research presentations, or athletic competitions. Wake Forest’s signature speaker series, Face to Face, brings world-renowned speakers to campus several times a year. We hope you will join us whenever you can.

Closing thoughts/what’s next

This is our final weekly message for P’27 families as part of Move-In and Orientation! From here on out, we will keep you updated on Wake Forest activities in the following ways:

  • Important note: the New Students website (newstudents.wfu.edu) will not be updated after August 22nd. At that point, all parent and family information can be found on parents.wfu.edu. Please discontinue using newstudents.wfu.edu after August 22nd.
  • If you have not already done so, you can subscribe to the Daily Deac blog and get an email each weekday around 5 pm with news, information, advice, and some fun stuff too.
  • Each Monday of the fall semester, the Daily Deac will include a link to a Weekly Message for First Year Families, which will discuss the college transition and things your Deac might be experiencing that week. If you don’t subscribe to the Daily Deac, you might wish to bookmark our First Year page if you wish to read those messages.
  • Around the 15th-20th of each month, we will email a Wake Parents & Families e-newsletter to all families. Those are archived here.
  • Please bookmark the Who to Contact for… page so you have it as a reference, but whenever possible, let your student be the one to contact an office, ask a question, give feedback, or research how to accomplish something on campus. Our students need to develop relationships with campus offices, and they will be building real-world problem-solving skills when they do the work themselves.
  • You will also want to bookmark our After Hours Help page. This will help you know who to contact in the event of an urgent concern that cannot wait until the next business day.

Move-in and the start of school inspires a lot of emotions – excitement, anxiety, anticipation, joy, hesitancy – for students and families alike. But your Deacs are ready for this next step, and you are too 🙂

Wishing our 8/23 move-in families safe travels to campus, and to all a wonderful first year at Wake Forest for all our Deacs!

Betsy Chapman, Ph.D. (‘92, MA ‘94)
Executive Director of Family Communications

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