News

This semester, the news staff covered several significant events on campus — some expected, some not. Not only have we thoroughly enjoyed working with each other as co-editors, we’ve cherished getting to work with such a dedicated team of writers, many of which also worked as production assistants. We saw many new writers quickly become staff writers and produce incredible work for our section. This has been a remarkable year of news writing, to say the least. 

News continued to rigorously cover COVID-19 policy updates, with the pinnacle of the coverage being the lifting of the indoor mask mandate. 

Perhaps the craziest event to occur this semester was the wildly unexpected Weaver Fertilizer Plant fire that disrupted much of Winston-Salem and our entire campus community. Alongside our executive team, we had the opportunity to practice real-life reporting, providing students with timely and necessary updates. 

The university also saw a few changes in its leadership this semester. President Susan Wente who arrived at Wake Forest last fall was formally inaugurated, Provost Rogan Kersh stepped down to assume full-time teaching and Dean of the College Michelle Gillespie succeeded and Vice Provost Kami Chavis announced she would be leaving Wake Forest to take a position at the College of William & Mary. The Wake Forest Student Government also elected a new set of leaders, and our news team followed the election through coverage of the presidential debate and the election’s aftermath. 

To end the semester, members of our editorial board and a contributing writer extensively covered the innocence hearing of the “Winston-Salem Five”, the group of men who were convicted of murdering a Winston-Salem man named Nathaniel Jones, the grandfather of former Wake Forest basketball star Chris Paul. 

Like the Weaver Fire Fertilizer fire, this event was a chance for our section to engage in professional reporting and to write a story that is deeply important to the city of Winston-Salem and members of the Wake Forest community. 

We’re looking forward to another successful semester ahead and have many bright visions for the potential of the news section.