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Old Gold&Black WAKE FOREST’S STUDENT NEWSPAPER SINCE 1916
VOL. 103, NO. 9
T H U R S DAY, M A RC H 2 2 , 2 018 “Cover s the campus like the magnolias”
wfuogb.com
Islam Awareness Week celebrates Muslim community Events sponsored by the Muslim Students Association were created to educate and engage BY MOHAMMAD MALIK Contributing Writer malimj16@wfu.edu
Lizzie Snyder/Ol d Gold & Black
The new executive branch of Student Government of Treasurer Sydney Packard, President Danny Reeves, Speaker of the House Will Hargrove and Secretary Maia Kennedy (left to right), was elected March 20.
Next year’s SG elected Reeves wins the majority for president and executive and senatorial positions announced BY AMANDA WILCOX Digital Media Editor wilcaf16@wfu.edu Following a week of hard campaigning, elections for senatorial and executive positions in the 2018-2019 Wake Forest Student Government came to a close on Wednesday March 20. Junior Danny Reeves was elected president amongst four candidates and sophomore Maia Kennedy was elected secretary amongst two candidates. Junior Sydney Packard was re-elected for a second term as treasurer and junior Will Hargrove was elected speaker of the house. Both Packard and Hargrove ran unopposed. President-elect Reeves ran on a platform that stressed increasing diversity and inclusion on campus and in Student Government, creating a conducive environment
for mental health and wellness and bridging ready, in the next few days,” Reeves said. the gap between the student body and the “Let’s get to work.” administration. His campaign goals and reFinally, he thanked the more than 50 stucord as senator and secretary — in which he dents who were involved in his campaign worked to transition Senate meetings from and his fellow candidates for their contribubi-weekly to weekly and served on the Alco- tions. hol Coalition — resonated with a decisive “I was never interested in solely being majority of the student body and earned elected,” he said. “I love this school and Stuhim more than 59 percent of the vote. dent Government, and I want to create maReeves said that he looks forward to meet- jor reforms in the coming days, weeks and ing with students and administrators and months.” building relationships on campus. “StrucJunior William Morgan, sophomore Mattural change takes time and needs to be stra- thew David and junior David Ajamy, who tegically planned,” he said. “Therefore, I will were Reeves’ fellow presidential candidates, be meeting with multiple administrators shared their hopes for Reeves’ administraand students to ensure that the changes we tion and explained how they planned to want to make, like the demographic survey, continue to advocate for policies included are implemented the right way.” in their own platforms. As he will not take office until the fall, Two of the central policies in David’s Reeves indicated that he will spend the re- platform included organizational medical mainder of the spring semester laying the amnesty and the availability of expanded groundwork for his administration. course descriptions during registration. Da“When we created this campaign, we vid said that he intends to continue to work didn’t want to include things on the plat- to put these into action. form that were not feasible, so the seeds of these ideas will be planted, if they haven’t al- See Student Government, Page 6
The Muslim Students Association at Wake Forest, founded in 2008, is hosting its fifth-annual Islam Awareness Week. The week was started by the current Muslim Life Director, Naijla Faizi, who was the MSA President at the time, in an effort to help educate the Wake Forest community about Islam. Most people assume that the Muslim community is mostly Arab or South Asian, but in actuality the Muslim American community is the most ethnically diverse faith community in America. Part of Islam Awareness Week is to highlight this diversity within the Muslim community. One of the events that shows this element of the Muslim community was the Gallery Walk in Benson, which had posters of notable Muslim people. Each event throughout the week is intended to provide a different educational opportunity for students to engage with aspects of Islam and lived Muslim experiences. The purpose of the event on March 19, Demystifying Islamic Head-Coverings, was to create an environment of empathy for Muslims who wear head coverings. MSA invited non-Muslims to wear hijabs and kufis, which are worn by Muslim women and men, respectively. These participants were invited to return and reflect on their experiences. Junior Alec Jessar commented on his experience. “I felt that I could learn a lot from this event and wanted to take full advantage,” Jessar said. “I felt proud wearing it, even though it was not my religion, to be a part of that for a day,” Another student commented that although she was physically more covered, wearing the hijab actually made her feel more open. By the end of the day she even developed a sense of attachment with the headscarf. The event on March 20, Shorty’s Trivia, provided a fun and competitive way for Wake Forest students to both learn about and test their knowledge of Islam. Students from various academic disci-
See MSA, Page 4