On March 6, Wake Forest faculty, staff and students gathered in Broyhill Auditorium to hear about Wake Forest’s year of strides and challenges. Provost Michele Gillespie gave her second annual address to celebrate and reflect upon a year of the university’s accomplishments and future endeavors. 

Arjun “Raja” Chatterjee, president of the faculty senate, began the address with opening remarks.

He detailed Gillespie’s career at Wake Forest, beginning in 1999 in the history department. He also shared how over the last two years working with the provost, he has witnessed Gillespie’s many contributions to the university, including her strategic framework process, hiring of three new deans and reorganization of the provost office. 

Provost Gillespie began her address by joking that her original draft was almost one hour and 30 minutes long. She assured the audience that her address would not last that long and that any questions asked by the senate that were not answered would be addressed in her monthly newsletter.

“We’ve all worked really hard to create a dynamic learning community that attracts incredibly talented faculty, staff and students so that we can be a force for good in society,” Gillespie said during the address. “We value experiential learning in all its forms, and we want to be a community that lives up to our motto of Pro Humanitate. We’re in a great place because of our people: our outstanding students, our talented faculty and our amazing staff.” 

Gillespie detailed some of the many notable programs Wake Forest has implemented, though she said no single address can do the full extent of the university’s work justice. While she recognized that diversity on campus is a work in progress, she mentioned current efforts that support first-generation undergraduate students.

“While we have yet to achieve the socio-economic, racial and ethnic diversity we’d like across our student body, especially in regard to our undergraduates,” Gillespie said, “we boast a nationally heralded first-generation program, the Magnolia Scholars, and we double down on our efforts to support all of our first gens with the First in the Forest program.”

Some of the other programs highlighted included the Office of Personal & Career Development (OPCD), which has helped 97% of undergraduate students find jobs or graduate school programs, and the Provost Student Leadership Council, which consists of graduate and professional program students that advise the provost office on different initiatives that could benefit campus. 

Junior Meg Outcalt, who recently returned from her semester abroad in Florence, Italy, said she was also surprised to hear that Wake Forest had the third-highest percentage of students studying abroad in the nation. 

“I was really impressed with the amount of things Wake [Forest] is working on,” Outcalt said. “I really liked hearing from the Provost. I’d never met her before, or really thought about any of these programs before. So it was good to come be a part of this and to see how our school’s doing and working to improve. It made me proud to be a Wake Forest student.”

In her address, Gillespie said that Wake Forest staff members are at the heart of Wake Forest’s excellence and that they deserve more recognition for their tireless efforts to provide students with a world-class education. 

“Our staff solve problems and find solutions,” Gillespie said. “Our staff connect meaningfully with our students, who recognize our staff as consummate educators and mentors — and as friends. Our staff, perhaps most importantly of all, build and sustain our community.”

Another crucial part of the Wake Forest community, according to Gillespie, is the Dean’s team, who provide invaluable leadership to the university. There have been five new deans in the last two years: Annette L. Ranft in the Wake Forest School of Business, L. Ebony Boulware in the Wake Forest School of Medicine, Jackie Krasas in the College and Graduate School of Arts & Sciences, Andrew Klein in the Wake Forest School of Law and Corey D. B. Walker of the Wake Forest School of Divinity. 

Gillespie explained that dedicated leaders are more important now than ever, particularly during a time of great public criticism targeting higher education. She explained one public concern over the affordability of higher education. Gillespie said that in response to such concerns, scholarships under President Susan R. Wente have become a fundraising priority. She also discussed the admission office’s early-action program for first-generation students that provides them early acceptances and financial aid information, which is the first of its kind in the country. 

Another issue the senate asked Gillespie to address is low faculty engagement and morale. She assured that the office’s strategic framework “Framing our Future” is a program dedicated to campus-wide improvements, including more support to combat overwhelming and inequitable workloads. She said that she, like most others, entered academia because of the transformative power education has. By moving into administration, she hoped to make a greater difference in extending education to a more diverse group of faculty, staff and students. 

“We are a big university full of smart, interesting and dedicated people,” Gillespie said. “Each of us can seek out environments that nurture our hopes and aspirations. Each of us can surround ourselves with collaborators that complement and extend what we do. Each of us can build our own support teams, knowing that it takes time, courage and vulnerability to do so.”

To help better support faculty, the Office of the Provost is adding two members to their team: Stacie Petter as the inaugural associate provost for faculty affairs, and Stephanie Hudson as the assistant director of provost communications. Both roles will provide more resources to ensure faculty are as effective in their roles as possible. 

Politics and International Affairs Professor Mark Vail said that Gillespie’s address was representative of her deep commitment to faculty wellbeing.

“[Gillespie] is a provost who cares about faculty,” Vail said. “She invests in faculty, takes to heart faculty concerns and understands that faculty really are the core of the intellectual identity of the institution. That’s not true everywhere. Never a day has gone by that I haven’t felt valued here in what I do and supported, so I feel very lucky to be here.”

Gillespie concluded by emphasizing that the people of Wake Forest make the institution what it is, and that collaboration is vital to the continued success and improvement of the community. 

“As we approach this university’s second century, I’m certain that if we continue to stand together in support of our deepest-held values, and by that, I mean values about what it means to be human and humane in practicing Pro Humanitate with a critical mind and an open heart, then we will continue to embrace and grow our academic excellence,” Gillespie said.

She continued: “We will deliver our signature transformative education as it adapts to changing times, and we will create important new knowledge. And that, my friends, is a powerful place for our university to be.”