Eboo Patel – Todd

Wake Forest University announced Eboo Patel, head of the Interfaith Cooperation and founder of Interfaith Youth Core, will deliver the 2016 Commencement Speech.

In an email to the Wake Forest senior class, WFU President Nathan O’Hatch stated “Patel is recognized around the world for bridging divisions among people of different faiths. At a time when so much global conflict is rooted in religious difference and the need for interfaith cooperation is so great, I am pleased he will be Wake Forest’s commencement speaker.”

Patel was a member of President Barack Obama’s inaugural Advisory Council on Faith-Based Neighborhood Partnerships, a part of the Executive Branch that seeks “to expand the role of this office as it relates to policy issues where religious and local leaders can be effective.”

Patel founded the Interfaith Youth Core (IFYC) nonprofit in 2002. According to the IFYC website, the nonprofit aims to bring people from different faiths together through activities. Through exposure with other faiths, the goal is that students will learn to be comfortable with different beliefs and cooperate towards a “common good”.

Patel is recognized for his books “Act of Faith” and “Sacred Ground”. Patel blogs for the Washington Post, The Huffington Post, USA Today, and many others. In 2011 he was ranked in The Nonprofit Times’ list “Top 50 Power and Influence”.

Patel earned a doctorate in sociology of religion from Oxford University, as a Rhodes Scholar.

Patel was not available for questioning about his speech.

The last two Wake Forest commencement speakers were The Daily Show’s host, Stephen Colbert (2015) and former executive editor for The New York Times, Jill Abramson (2014).

Senior Alana McCarthy commented, “I am excited for Eboo Patel to be our commencement speaker because he is such an accomplished individual and will surely deliver a strong message.” She went on to say, “That being said, I was initially a little bit let down when I heard it was him, simply because I had never heard of him, and my expectations were so high after Stephen Colbert.”

WFU announced Eboo Patel as the commencement speaker on April 15th, much later compared to years prior. The 2014 announcement came on March 20th and the 2015 announcement came on March 2nd.

Eboo Patel will deliver his speech in front of Wait Chapel on May 16th.

https://www.ifyc.org/about-us/eboo-patel

Darryl Hunt Timeline – Todd

https://cdn.knightlab.com/libs/timeline3/latest/embed/index.html?source=1G-Mv-qTv1BgH_XalTztFwb4dUyJzvApaN7zA1Wdqhi0&font=Default&lang=en&initial_zoom=2&height=650

FRAC Lead – Todd

Winston Salem ranked highest in FRAC study which showed that 34% of families did not have enough money they needed to buy food for their family.

Student Democrat Campaigns for Cruz With “Wake the Vote”

By Tidd Gilbert

Nick Boney, a member of the Wake the Vote Campaign, was assigned to campaign for Senator Ted Cruz, despite the fact he personally “dislikes” him.

Students involved in Wake the Vote traveled as a cohort to the Iowa caucuses, New Hampshire, South Carolina, and North Carolina primaries. Each student was assigned to volunteer on the primary campaign of a presidential candidate. Boney campaigned for Ted Cruz at the Iowa caucuses.

“At first I expected to hate working for the candidates I didn’t support. I had no idea how I could phone-bank alongside Cruz volunteers all day and convince supporters to vote for the Senator.”

While campaigning for Cruz, Boney found satisfaction that Cruz supporters took the time to learn about the candidate. Despite his initial hesitations, Boney said that after some lengthy conversations with Cruz supporters he realized how “fervently they cared about their candidate.”

“My opinions on Ted Cruz and his policies didn’t change, but it was heartening to see that there are people willing to be so involved and invested in the political process at its most basic level, regardless of which candidate they support.” Boney said.

Boney also campaigned for Senator Bernie Sanders in New Hampshire and Marco Rubio in South Carolina. Both of whom he does not support.

According to Boney, he found the strong involvement in the political process consistent among Rubio and Sanders supporters.

Boney at first supported Democratic candidate Martin O’Malley. After he dropped out of the race, he supported Hilary Clinton.

B Matter – Todd

As candidates claim more delegates it is becoming more clear who the front runners for the Republican and Democratic nomination are.

In the democratic race Hilary Clinton is heavily favored to win the nomination.

Hilary Clinton won the South Carolina primary by relying on the minority vote.

Bernie Sanders gets a lot of his support from the youth vote.

On Super Tuesday, Hilary Clinton won seven out of the eleven states that were up for grabs.

Hilary Clinton has a total of 1,052 delegates. Bernie Sanders has 427 delegates. A candidate needs a total of 2,383 delegates to win the democratic nomination.

Donald Trump won South Carolina for the Republican race.

On Super Tuesday, Donald Trump won the majority of the states, and solidified his spot in first place.

Donald Trump won seven out of the eleven states that voted. That left him with a total of 319 delegates. Ted Cruz came in second place winning three states, one of which included his home state, Texas. Marco Rubio only won Minnesota. John Kasich and Ben Carson did not win any states.

After Super Tuesday, Donald Trump has a total of 319 delegates. A candidate needs 1,237 delegates to win the nomination. Ted Cruz is in second with 226 delegates. Marco Rubio has 110, Kasich has 25, and Ben Carson has 8.

More Republicans came out to the polls to vote than Democrats on Super Tuesday.

In 2013, North Carolina passed a law that required a government issued id at the voting polls. This law aims to prevent non US citizens from voting. The new law hurts Democratic party because a lot of low income individuals do not have any form of government ID, and those individuals would typically vote democratically.

After Super Tuesday 6 out of 10 Republicans feel like they were betrayed by the Republican party.

SC Primary Articles

This past weekend both Hilary Clinton and Donald Trump won the South Carolina primary elections.

In the first CNN article “Hillary Clinton crushes Bernie Sanders in South Carolina: 5 takeaways” the author does a good job of starting out by briefly explaining what happened in South Carolina. Next, the article is divided up into five key points which the author believes to be the most important takeaways from the South Carolina primary. I thought that structure made it easy for the reader to follow along and to be able to pull what is important from the article. The article includes statistics about the minorities that supported Clinton. The article also talks about the importance of Clinton to win South Carolina by so much to shut down Bernie Sanders’ momentum from New Hampshire.

In the Huffington Post article “Trump just won South Carolina. These charts show how huge that is”. The article uses a combination of charts, graphics, and analysis to show what happened in the primary. The article gives statistics that breaks down the overall victory percentage for Donald, what types of people voted for others, and which districts voted for which candidates. I thought that the article was very easy to follow. It also was able to easily avoid any bias by simply giving the statists, and showing them in graphics.

Three Year Policy – Todd

Many students have admitted to forging petitions to be approved to live off campus since 2011 when the Wake Forest University administration passed a policy that forced students to live on campus for three years instead of two.

According to the Wake Forest’s Residential, Life, and Housing website only Seniors, and approved Sophomores and Juniors are allowed to live off campus. To get approval for off campus housing a student has to write an essay explaining why they need to live off campus.

The application for getting off campus has turned out to be a major loop hole in the policy. Many students admitted to lying on the application so that they can live off campus. According to Alana McCarthy, a Senior at Wake Forest, “Everyone does it.”

Students use a variety of creative lies on the application to get off campus. According to

Senior, Harry Perkins, a lot of students say they are allergic to the mold in campus dorm rooms.

Perkins said that a friend of his told the school that she was anemic, and that she needed to live off campus so that she can cook more meat.

Perkins also said that the more “absurd and unusual” the excuse is the more likely that person will get approved.

One student, who wished not to be name, took it as far as telling the school that he was a homosexual and that he did not feel comfortable living in a dorm room with other men. The entire story was a lie, but the student got off campus.

As strange as the process seems, the school actually needs these students to live off campus because since the three year on campus policy came into effect there has been a shortage in living space available on campus.

According to Resident, Life, and Housing, there are 3,710 beds on campus for 4,846 students.

Adam Bernot, the Assistant director of Housing Assignments, admitted that “We have become much more flexible about who we let off campus because we are so close to capacity.”

Drew Duff, a Sophomore Residential Advisor, feels that “The housing policy is just another way for the school to micro manage it’s students.” He went on to say that he thinks the policy is “Just another money scheme.”

The cost of housing on campus is $ 4,248 per semester. A student can find a typical apartment off campus with many more amenities for $ 2,800 per semester.

However, according to Kristy Eanes, the Director of Housing assignments, the school sees that there is a correlation between living on campus and student engagement in the community.

The school says there is no plan to change the policy in any way.

Multi Media – Todd

http://graphics.wsj.com/elections/2016/how-trump-happened/

Interesting interactive graphic about a poll about what type of people vote for different republican candidates. The interactive visual makes it really easy to follow and more engaging.

Reflection

In doing this story I focused using a combination of my experience at the event and interviews I had with people who attended. After going to the 1834 event I felt like I had a decent amount to write about regarding the atmosphere and the scene. That being said, once I interviewed all the people who I wanted to talk to I felt like I had much more of a story. I conducted five different interviews with people who attended the event and people who organized the event. I conducted 3 of my interviews over FaceTime on my phone. I found this to be a very convenient method for doing the interview. I was able to get all the reactions and responses in real time, which I felt made it more authentic. It was also much easier to do it over FaceTime because I didn’t have to organize a meeting place with anybody, or deal with fitting our schedules together. For the other sources I wrote emails to people who could provide me with information about the event. This was not as convenient and more time consuming for my source, but still proved to be an effective way to gather information. I tried to base this story off of a mix between a slice of life piece and a feature about the 1834 Student Giving Campaign.

1834 Student Giving Campaign Event

The Wake Forest 1834 Student Giving Campaign hosted a social event on Wednesday for the 2016 senior class, with the aim to encourage students to give back to Wake Forest in a philanthropic way. The even took place at Ziggy’s bar which is located on 8th street in downtown Winston Salem. The 1834 group said that the goal of the event was to raise awareness among students of the importance of donating to the school, and simultaneously have a fun event for the seniors as their time at Wake Forest University dwindles. It cost each person 10$ to get into the venue. The money was collected through a new crowd funding app called Tilt. Every person that donated 10$ to the tilt got two free drinks at the bar. According to Janie Warnock, a member of the 1834 student giving committee, the 10$ contribution also got people entrance to all other 1834 events that are coming later this semester, and anyone can contribute at anytime. Warnock said that the other 1834 events will be Wake Forest tunnel tours, bell tower tours, basketball tailgate, and a “thank a donor day”. She said that the Sorority or Fraternity with the highest attendance at all 1834 events will win a bar tab at Ziggy’s. Although after speaking to some of the attendees there seemed to be some confusion among them about what exactly their 10$ bought them. All the money that the 1834 student giving group raises goes directly into the Wake Forest Fund. Wednesday’s event raised 920.16$. 1834’s goal is to raise 2,000$ by the end of the semester. However, their long term goal is much deeper. Warnock said they want to “Encourage students to understand the University’s philanthropic needs and to donate more in the future.”

The event started at 9:30 on Wednesday and went until around midnight. The venue had a large dance floor, and there was loud music being played by one of the students known as “DJ Rob V”. There was lots of dancing and socializing. Harrison Perkins, a Waker Forest senior who attended the event, said, “it was a great way to hang out with all the people from different parts of my life all in one place. People get so caught up in greek life or social cliques, and I felt like this event really broke those walls.” Meredith Anderson, another senior at the event shared a similar opinion, she said, “The 1834 event at Ziggy’s opened my eyes to the true solidarity which lies between each and every one of the students in the class of 2016. Best night of the year.”

There seemed to be a mixed consensus about if the people there recognized 1834’s purpose for hosting the event or if they saw it as just another social space to hang out with friends. Many people learned about 1834 after a Facebook event page was sent out inviting them to the event. Others heard about it through word of mouth. When asked if he knew what the 1834 Student Giving group does, Greg O’Connor responded “Well, I had no idea about them until the Wednesday’s event, but now I get it”. Alternatively, when Hayden Arnot was asked the same question he said, “Frankly, I have no idea what 1834 is, and I didn’t even realize that they hosted the event. I just heard about it from my friend.”