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Old Gold&Black
WAKE FOREST’S STUDENT NEWSPAPER SINCE 1916 VOL. 106, NO. 4
T H U R S DAY, S E P T E M B E R 19 , 2 019 “Cover s the campus like the magnolias”
wfuogb.com
Threatening emails alarm Wake Forest A series of inflammatory emails were sent to a number of departments at WFU BY LILLIAN JOHNSON Editor-In-Chief johnlg@wfu.edu
city in all its glory. “New Orleans is a blessed city,” he said, “It’s a wonderful place and it’s got great bones. But the city wasn’t great the night before Katrina hit.” As his team began rebuilding, they had been going through a lot of work on their race and equity agenda, ultimately coming to the realization that the city should not be rebuilt the way it had been. “Instead,” Landrieu said, “it ought to be built back the way it should have been, had it been done right in the first place.”
On Tuesday, Sept. 17, the Wake Forest campus community was notified that several faculty and staff members received threatening emails from an unknown source on Sept. 10 and 11. “The emails were intentionally inflammatory, using racist, homophobic, anti-Semitic and discriminatory language,” the email notification, sent on behalf of University Police, stated. “The wording of the emails was intentionally intimidating and threatening, though no direct and specific threat was made.” The emails were sent to individual and offices inboxes associated with two academic departments — the Department of Sociology and the Department of Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies — and three offices on campus — the Office of Diversity and Inclusion, the LGBTQ+ Center and the Intercultural Center. According to the email notification, there were 12 original emails. There are no reports of any students receiving similar emails and no further emails have been reported. In response, University Police has undertaken an investigation, coordinating with Information Systems, local authorities and state and federal agencies. Faculty and staff were informed by University Police of the investigation on Sept. 11. In addition, Wake Forest has increased the police and security presence around buildings with the affected offices, the email notification said.
See Landrieu, Page 6
See Email, Page 5
Photo courtesy of Wake Forest News
Wake Forest’s Voices of Our Time series features a variety of guest speakers who come to campus to talk about important issues. Mitch Landrieu was featured on Tuesday in Brendle Recital Hall.
Landrieu speaks on racism Former Lt. Gov. of Louisiana and Mayor of New Orleans addressed institutional racism BY LIAT KLOPOUH Staff Writer klopla18@wfu.edu
Former Louisiana Lt. Gov. and New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu spoke at Wake Forest this past Tuesday, as part of the university’s Voices of Our Time series. Audience members nodded along in admiration as Landrieu recounted his personal experiences with race and discussed the broader history of slavery, race relations and institutional
inequalities that continue to plague America. Landrieu’s story began with Hurricane Katrina and its damaging impact on New Orleans in 2005. The aftermath called for a great deal of reconstruction, both in terms of reviving infrastructure and redefining the city’s morals. “When I had the great joy of taking over the city,” Landrieu said, “I started thinking about how the city should be rebuilt. Are we going to bring it back to the way it was? Or are we going to build something new?” Having lived in New Orleans all his life, Landrieu knew the