News: Women’s Forum hosts panel for faculty Page 5
Opinion: Professor addresses political correctness Page 9
Sports: Basketball comes back to beat Miami Page 11
Life: WFU Theatre puts on performance of Tartuffe Page 16
Old Gold&Black
WAKE FOREST’S STUDENT NEWSPAPER SINCE 1916 VOL. 105, NO. 7
T H U R S DAY, F E B RUA RY 2 8 , 2 019 “Cover s the campus like the magnolias”
wfuogb.com
TEDx presents “metamorphic” theme Diverse set of speakers deliver TED Talks about the idea of change to the WFU comunity BY LUCY NELSON Staff Writer nelsld16@wfu.edu
Photo courtesy of the Howler
Pictured at center in the front row is Dean of Admissions Martha Blevins Allman. This photo, in which members of Kappa Alpha Order pose in front of a Confederate flag in 1982, has recently circulated and caused controversy on campus.
Deans pictured before Confederate flag Students responded with social media posts and the creation of the Wake Forest Anti-Racist Coalition BY LILLIAN JOHNSON Editor-in-Chief johnlg16@wfu.edu
Last week, photographs of current university administrators in front of Confederate flags in old editions of the Howler surfaced and circulated among the Wake Forest community. In response, many students, including the newly formed Wake Forest University Anti-Racism Coalition, have called for action rather than conversation. During “Creating Inclusive Climates at Wake Forest University,” a forum held last Thursday, Feb. 21, several students asked about a particular photograph from the 1982 edition of the Howler that featured current Dean of Admissions Martha Blevins Allman di-
rectly situated in front of a prominently displayed Confederate flag amid members of Kappa Alpha Order, including her husband, M. Joseph Allman, who is currently an adjunct professor at the School of Law. Allman was not present at the forum. The photo quickly circulated among students. On Saturday, images from the 1983 and 1984 editions of the Howler also showed Associate Dean of Admissions Kevin Pittard, a 1985 graduate, in Kappa Alpha photographs with the Confederate flag. As of Feb. 27, Pittard, who is married to Dean of the College Michele Gillespie, had not sent out a statement to the Wake Forest student body. This story surrounding the photographs and subsequent apology has been covered by local media outlets, such as the Winston-Salem Journal and Triad City Beat, as well as national media outlets, such as Inside Higher Ed and The New York Times.
Students find administrators’ apologies insufficient Following the forum, and as news of the photo quickly made its way around the student body, an email was sent out to the entire university community on behalf of Allman to apologize for and to acknowledge the photograph she was featured in. “That flag was a symbol of pain and racism then just as it is now, and I understand that much differently in 2019 than I did in 1982,” Allman said in the email statement. “Thirty-seven years of life, experiences, relationships and education have made a difference in my way of understanding the world and my ability to empathize with those who are different from me.” She concluded her statement by maintaining her commitment to creating a more diverse and inclusive Wake Forest.
See Flag, Page 4
At the TEDx event last Saturday, a blue- and red-hued Wait Chapel came to life with large flowers and tree projections popping out from the stage to match this year’s theme and title: “Metamorphic: What Will You Become?” TEDx WFU, one of three student-run TEDx conferences in the nation, hosted eight vastly different speakers to give presentations centered around the common theme of change. After last year’s business-oriented talks, the student organizers of the event wanted to bring forth a broader theme that would attract a more diverse audience base. “I think we were focused a little bit more this year on niche topics, but it really benefited the conference as a whole because we also had a lot of unique audience members which was really cool,” said sophomore Zoe Walling, the director of marketing for the event. In order to attract a more unique audience, the team selected a motley crew of speakers to give 18-minute presentations. Derrick Day, a former senior special agent with the U.S. Secret Service, kicked off the event. Among other attendees, a group of computer science students joined the audience to listen to him speak about the dark web and cybersecurity. Through a series of examples, Day shined a light on the dark web and demonstrated how it could be implemented in both useful and dangerous ways. He explained that the dark web was originally created for naval use because the government wanted more ways to communicate in private, but nowadays anyone can utilize it to buy prescriptions, guns or even hitmen. “Knowing the dangers of the dark web had me thinking deeper about the pros and cons of technology,” said junior Jordan Smith. Lorraine Gudas, chairman of Weill Cornell Medical College of Cornell University, was the next to stand on the classic TEDx red-dotted stage. The professor and researcher emphasized female-empowerment in the scientific world and detailed her research on cancer-preventive uses of Vitamin A, as well as therapeutic uses of stem cells and drugs to treat prostate and kidney cancers.
See TEDx, Page 6