Office of the President

Welcome to 2019

January 14, 2019

Dear Wake Forest community,

Welcome to 2019! I hope your time away from Wake Forest was refreshing and you return with a deep anticipation of what this year holds. As we start a new semester, I want to offer you a reflection and some encouragement.

Last year, we spent a lot of time talking about and discovering how our community could engage in greater understanding of one another. In the classroom, among colleagues and within our community, we joined in more frequent and deeper conversations with one another; we shared and chose to become vulnerable; and we learned that what we have in common is more important than what we hold in difference. We introduced Call to Conversation on our campus, and I am grateful to all who facilitated and participated in the effort. I look forward to more of these gatherings that blend hospitality and mutual sharing. Read more

Categories: Letters

Pittsburgh synagogue shooting

October 28, 2018

A message from President Hatch to students, faculty and staff

Dear Wake Forest Community,

Lives were shattered and our nation stunned by the horrific and senseless mass shooting at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh on Saturday. Our thoughts, prayers and love go out to all those who lost family members and friends, to those injured, and to all those touched by this unthinkable event.

Freedom of conscience and the right to worship freely were causes to which the founders of Wake Forest, in the Baptist tradition, were especially committed. To attack a house of worship is an attack on the very ideals that founded our nation. The overt anti-semitism expressed in this attack is particularly painful. Read more

Categories: Letters