Archive of Newsmakers

From the Akron Beacon Journal

Highway to Heaven inspired Melissa Poe to roadblock Earth's highway to hell. Poe was only 9 when she first thought about stopping pollution in her hometown of Nashville, Tenn. Today, more than 300,000 young people from around the world are members of Poe's group, Kids F.A.C.E. (For a Clean Environment). Poe, whom many consider an "eco-hero" for the 21st century, is still anchored to the same goal she had nine years ago: inspiring young people toward their own ecological crusades. "I represent kids all over the world who havethese concerns," says Poe, now an 18-year-old freshman at Wake Forest University in North Carolina. (12/16/98)

From USA Today

The Japanese name for the short-tailed albatross is "ahodori," or "stupid bird," presumably because of the birds' inability to take flight to escape threats. The birds are clumsy on land and need an open runway to gain the air. But once in the air, they are magnificent fliers. With broad wings and a small body, the albatross is uniquely suited for gliding. "Their body-size-to-wing ratio is extreme among birds," says David Anderson, associate professor of biology at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, N.C. "Planes like gliders or long-range bombers have mimicked the design. It allows for great flying time with little effort." (12/15/98)

From the Westford Eagle

Unlike many other college students, Westford's Amanda Silva will not be spending a lot of time with family and friends, catching up on lost sleep or doing odd jobs to make a few bucks this Christmas break. Instead, the 20-year-old will be working in Mother Teresa's hospices, camps and missions, volunteering her time and care to the poverty-stricken, sick, and dying families of Calcutta, India. Silva, a junior at Wake Forest University in North Carolina, is preparing for what she hopes will be an opportunity to make a small difference. The experience already promises to be an eye-opener. (12/10/98)

From the Florence Morning News

Five years ago, a Wake Forest student visited India and encountered third-world poverty first-hand. It was a powerful experience; one that was light-years removed from anything portrayed in the media. Catherine Dyksterhouse and 11 other Wake Forest University students will return to Calcutta, India, Dec. 27 to give in a way most of us don't in surroundings most of us have never imaged. Dyksterhouse, a member of First Presbyterian Church in Florence, is quick to say that although the program does not proffer a spiritual purpose, she sees this trip as an opportunity to "Give something back. God has blessed me with a home, a family and opportunities." (12/8/98)

From the Philanthropy Journal of North Carolina

University Students learn a lot about society's problems. Some students are learning more by helping solve those problems. A new initiative at Wake Forest University funded by the Mary Reynolds Babcock Fund for Leadership and Ethics is training at least 15 professors during the next three years to incorporate community service into their courses. "It's one thing to talk about economic disparity and injustice in the community when you're in a classroom with climate-controlled temperature and where everyone has their basic needs provided for," says Page Wilbanks, director of Volunteer Services at the university. (12/98)

From the Winston-Salem Journal

When a child in another country makes tires for his or her toy car, he may, using materials at hand, cut up old flip-flops. Visiting Americans, in turn, may find the flip-flop car quaint. So they buy it and take it home, thereby transforming it into "folk art." Both ways, it's recycling, which is one of the points made by "RE-NEWING: Recycling in a Shrinking World," an exhibit on view through March 20 at the Wake Forest University Museum of Anthropology. (11/29/98)

From the Greensboro News & Record

This Thanksgiving, a few dozen Wake Forest University students are giving a little extra thanks for their blessings, courtesy of one ingenious sociology professor. Angela Hattery... asked them to adopt fictional families of different socioeconomic classes, from welfare moms to well-heeled professionals, and create a life for them. "I tried to think of a project where they would have to go out into the community and see what money buys. I wanted them to come ... face-to-face with social class in a way they couldn't in a book." (11/27/98)

From the Tennessean

Yesterday's ruling is the first of three Reno will make into the campaign finance activities in 1996. In the next two weeks, she also will decide whether President Clinton violated the law by setting up a Democratic National Committee ad campaign and whether White House aide Harold Ickes lied to a Senate investigation. Most preliminary inquiries don't result in independent counsels and most don't get this kind if publicity, said Katy J. Harriger, an expert on the independent counsel law, who teaches political science at Wake Forest University. "This case has been so under the spotlight, there will be the assumption that it should be continued" by an outside investigator, she said. "That's unfortunate" and not a good sign for Reno's relationship with Congress. (11/25/98)

From the Winston-Salem Journal

As a boy, Linwood Davis tramped around Sunnynoll, his grandfather's farm, on spring Sundays, fishing in the pond his father helped build and gigging bullfrogs around its borders with his cousins...Recently, the family decided to pass it on in a way that has become as much a family tradition as those long-gone afternoons at Sunnynoll. Brothers Egbert L. Davis Jr. and Thomas H. Davis deeded their father's house to Wake Forest University...Both Egbert L. Davis Jr., a retired president of Atlas Supply Co., and Thomas Davis, the founder of Piedmont Airlines, have served on the university's board of trustees and have been named life trustees of the university. The brothers and their sister, Pauline Davis Perry, contributed $1 million to the university's planned School of Divinity. (11/24/98)

From the Washington Post

Several times during his four-year, $400-an-hour tenure as independent counsel Kenneth Star's ethics adviser, Samuel Dash threatened to quit. Yesterday, he actually did it, and at perhaps the worst possible moment for Starr. ... Former independent counsels and academic experts on the independent counsel statute and impeachment proceedings were divided over Dash's actions and the strong, public languauge he used. ... Wake Forest political science professor Katy Harriger, an expert on independent counsels, also supported Dash. Starr was Republicans' "Exhibit A for impeachment," she said. "That is more of an advocacy role than sending a report." (11/23/98)

From the Winston-Salem Journal

What do pipe tobacco, cryptograms, and sugar water have in common? Elementary, my dear Watson. They are all ingredients in "The Analytical Methods of Sherlock Homes," a freshmen seminar class at Wake Forest University taught by chemistry professor Brad Jones. Jones is using the super sleuth to teach his 15 students a little about chemistry and a lot about critical thinking and argument analysis.(11/19/98)

From The Business Journal

On a bookshelf in her office, Dr. Jan Caldwell keeps a skull, "The Principles of Internal Medicine," poems of John Keats and Shakespeare's "Hamlet." The items reflect the dichotomoy of the emergency room doctor who turned in her scrubs to become a professor of literature. She's in her second year of teaching at Wake Forest University. (11/13/98)

From the Columbus Dispatch

Although slavery clearly was a galvanizing issue in American history, Christian churches were dividing and adding offshoots long before that conflict. In fact, one of the major reasons the Pilgrims came to America was for the freedom to form a denomination. Within the right to religious liberty and religious association came the right to develop doctrine, plant churches and evangelize people. "America generally fosters an environment where that kind of denominational switching and that kind of denominational splitting isn't just possible, it's probable," said Bill Leonard, dean of the Wake Forest Divinity School in North Carolina. (11/13/98)

From New Woman

When asked to read several physical descriptions of people, participants in a Wake Forest University study rated overweight women who exercise more favorable than underweight ones who do not. (11/98)

From the New York Times

In a new sign of fracturing within the nation's largest Protestant denomination, Southern Baptists in Texas split yesterday when a group of strict theological conservatives voted to break away from the state's established Southern Baptist organization.... Bill Leonard, a church historian who is dean of Wake Forest Divinity School, said the conservatives' decision would register as "an 8.5 on the ecclesiastical Richter scale" among Baptists. (11/11/98)

From the Greensboro News & Record

Earlier this month, Congress included a provision in the 1998 Higher Education Act allowing people who hold federally guaranteed student loans to consolidate them under a 7.46 interest rate.... Bill Wells, director of financial aid at Wake Forest University, recommends that borrowers contact their lenders to find out if the 7.46 percent rate would benefit them.(10/29/98)

From the Sojourners Magazine

Christians and Muslims have traveled a long and often bumpy road together for some 14 centuries. On the eve of the 21st century, there are ominous signs that continuing mistrust and misunderstanding combined with upheaval and rapid political change may make the journey forward even more difficult and dangerous. (Article by Charles Kimball, Wake Forest professor and chair of religion, November/December 1998)

From the Winston-Salem Journal

(Heather) Chappell is a senior studio art major from Oxford, Miss.... For her public-art sculpture class, she was playing with people's heads through food, serving lunch to passers-by willing to play. At her first couple of performances, she had served kids' food, such as peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwiches with the crust cut off. For her ethnic-food performances, she was serving not what's generally thought of as ethnic food around these here parts, but "American" food — green bean casserole (her mother's recipe) and hot dogs. Her point being that typically American food is ethnic food. "My message today is we as Americans have ethnicity as well," she said. (11/15/98)

From the Lawrence Journal-World

A trend of more people going to churches based on the nature of congregations — not the names of denominations — will continue into the next centruy, a religious scholar said recently at a Lawrence church. In addition, Bill Leonard, dean of the Wake Forest University School of Divinity, said that a movement of denominations sharing ministers and joint religious services will continue into the next century. (10/23/98)

From the Seattle Post-Intelligencer

The independent counsel statute, however flawed, is a product of these times, and it is difficult to imagine that simply allowing the independent statute to expire or blaming Ken Starr for everything that has gone wrong will in any way change the destructive political environment in which we now live. (Commentary article by Katy Harriger, Wake Forest associate professor of politics, 11/1/98)

From the High Point Enterprise

Tom Concannon, a physics professor at Wake Forest University, is a skeptic. So, on Friday the thirteenth at 1:13 p.m. and thirteen seconds — 13:13 military time — he celebrated his thirty-first birthday skeptic-style: standing under a ladder, holding an opened umbrella — indoors, of course — while breaking a mirror... He is one of the founding members of the Triad Area Skeptics Club, a group centered at WFU which investigates supernatural and extraordinary claims... The premise behind activities like these is to prove that supernatural phenomena contradicts science, said group President Eric Carlson. (11/14/98)

From the Baltimore Sun

Some of Starr's aggressive and seemingly overzealous tactics may be more a reflection of the ambiguity and looseness of the independent counsel statute — and more a matter of questionable judgment by someone who's never before been a prosecutor — than clear-cut-violations of the law, say a number of lawyers and independent counsel experts. "A prosecutor's power is constrained mainly by judgment," says Katy Harriger, a Wake Forest University professor and author of a book on independent counsels. "So when you say, 'exceeded his authority,' that authority is ambiguous"(10/15/98)

From the Biblical Recorder

Wake Forest University (WFU) has established a major fellowship for students of its divinity school. The Sarah and Samuel Wait Fellowships in Theology and Ministry will be awarded each year to up to eight students entering the master of divinity program. Samuel Wait was the first head of Wake Forest.(10/24/98)

From the Biblical Recorder

Two new faculty members have joined the Wake Forest University School of Divinity, slated to open in fall 1999. Alexandra R. Brown, head of the religion department at Washington and Lee University, has accepted a one-year appointment as visiting associate professor of biblical studies. James M. Dunn will be visiting professor of Christianity and public policy.(11/07/98)

From the Los Angeles Times

"The ways the Bible can be interpreted has opened up, and there is a growing bibliography of women's perspectives," said Phyllis Trible, a biblical studies professor at Wake Forest University (School of Divinity). "But this has not melted down into the Sunday schools or churches yet."(10/15/98)

From the USA Today (Europe)

A controversial jury verdict that held a psychiatrist responsible for the sexual misconduct of his patient has re-opened a wrenching debate among mental health therapists: Protecting doctor-patient confidentiality vs. preventing harm to the public. Though the Ingram verdict has no force of law beyond Connecticut, law professor Mark Hall of Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, N.C., says it sends a curioius and "potentially chilling" message to all practicing psychiatrists. "Under the circumstances," Hall says, "you have to wonder just what else the jury expected him to do?" (10/13/98)

From Allure ...

Recent research has shown a correlation between the amount of time women spend working out and the development of eating disorders and exercise addiction. One group that disproves the rule is aerobics instructors. Psychologists Kathleen A. Martin from Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, N.C., and Heather A. Hausenblas from the University of Florida in Gainesville recruited 286 women who had been teaching for an average of seven years and who worked out 11 times a week, be it attending aerobics classes, weight training, running, or cycling. (10/98)

From the North Carolina News Network ...

Host: How in the world did we get from an investigation about a land deal to an investigation about the President? Of course, the issue is perjury, the issue is obstruction of justice, it just happens to involve sexual activity and lying in a civil disposition. How did we get here?

Katy Harriger, associate professor of politics at Wake Forest: Well, I certainly don't think it's what Congress intended, and in fact they had a long debate ... about whether you wanted a permanent office of independent counsel or whether you wanted a temporary arrangement. And they opted for the temporary arrangement, because they were very conscious of the notion that the special prosecutor might be somebody that you would fear as well. · So, I certainly don't think Congress imagined a case that could go this far afield. Now, who's fault is that? Lots of people want to blame Ken Starr and I would say that's not a fair criticism except with the possible exception of the Lewinsky case, and let me say why. The attorney general has the initial triggering power, and so the first sort of place you should point a finger is really at Janet Reno, who · asked the court panel to expand Ken Starr's jurisdiction." (From the program, "North Carolina Report," 10/98)

From the Ladies Home Journal ...

If the bonds of friendship are fraying, so are ties to our communities — traditionally a rich source of female camaraderie. "We are operating as family units instead of parts of larger networks," notes Angie Hattery, assistant professor of sociology at Wake Forest University, in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. (10/98)

From the Orlando Sentinel ...

It seems clear-cut when you read a dictionary definition of what constitutes an apology: an acknowledgment of some fault, injury, insult, etc., with an expression of regret and a plea for pardon. But in the weeks since President Clinton's admission of sexual impropriety with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky and his public statements of contrition — including a speech Wednesday to Democratic contributors in Orlando — there's been a good deal of talk about just what an apology is or should be. Mark Leary, a social psychologist at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, N.C., says an apology has three elements: an admission of fault; an attempt to convince the audience that the deed is not a fair relection of character; and a plea for forgiveness. (9/11/98)

From The Wall Street Journal ...

Today Sen. Carl Levin will deliver another seminal speech against the other chief culprit in this sordid affair: the independent counsel. "Ken Starr has placed himself above the law in a number of ways even before he sent his report to Congress," the Michigan Democrat charges. Sen. Levin is not the only one disturbed by this prosecutorial zeal. "Starr clearly overstepped and overreached his authority," says Katy Harriger, a political science professor at Wake Forest University and an author of a respected book on the independent counsel statute. (10/8/98)

From The Associated Press ...

When Donald Nichols set out to become an art collector, he went about it in much the same way as he developed shopping centers: focus, plan, execute. The result: a 200-piece collection of American abstract paintings, drawings and sculptures from the 1930s and 1940s, a time when social realism was the more popular art form. About half the collection is on exhibit at his alma mater, Wake Forest University, through Oct. 11. Nichols, founder of Atlanta-based JDN Realty, collected the works after a false start in American impressionism. He allowed this exhibit out of gratitude to Wake Forest and will not show the collection elsewhere. (10/6/98)

From the Charlotte Observer ...

John Dinan, assistant professor of political science at Wake Forest University, says most Americans have suspected since January that Clinton probably did have an adulterous relationship with Lewinsky. But suspecting something and having to confront the distasteful details are two different things, he says. (9/11/98)

From the Medical Tribune for the Family Physician ...

To the surprise of researchers, a study has found that older individuals with pessimistic attitudes tend to cope better with negative events than do those with optimistic outlooks. Mark Leary, Ph.D., a professor of psychology at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, N.C., said, "The findings are certainly inconsistent with everything we have learned about pessimistic and optimistic attitudes over the years. However, what the researchers here may be reporting as pessimism among older people may actually be realism." (9/17/98)

From the Chicago Tribune ...

Even experts admit they are unsure what Starr's legacy will be. "As a responsible academic, I have to say, 'Who knows?'" said Katy Harriger, an independent counsel scholar at Wake Forest University. "History is a funny thing. Whether Starr's reputation is changed, or whether people say what he did is OK, depends on what Congress does with the report." (9/13/98)

From The Associated Press ...

Wake Forest University students should strive to fight the war against human suffering, former Costa Rican president Oscar Arias Sanchez told students at the school's opening convocation address. Arias, a Nobel Peace Prize recipient, also suggested Thursday that the United States and other countries reallocate their military spending to help relieve global poverty. "Unlike many previous generations, you will not be sent onto some ethically dubious battlefield with orders to kill," Arias told students at Wait Chapel on campus. "Instead, you are called into moral combat against greed and corruption, poverty and injustice. Your orders are to give life." ... Arias, who received the 1987 Nobel Prize for his efforts to bring peace to Central America, also spoke to mark the start of the school's "Year of Globalization & Diversity." (9/17/98)

From the Winston-Salem Journal ...

Some people might have decided to rest on their laurels after winning the Nobel Peace Prize. More than 10 years after he won the prize, Oscar Arias Sanchez continues to pursue peace. That pursuit, and an invitation to address Wake Forest University's convocation in a year in which the school is emphasizing globalization and diversity, brought Arias to Winston-Salem this past week. Were his word law, the world would be a better place ...(Editorial, 9/21/98)

From the Winston-Salem Journal ...

Oscar Arias Sanchez, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, urged an audience at Wake Forest University to fight for policy changes that would strip nations of arms so that the world's poorest people can have schools and clean water. ... "Human security" does not merely mean access to weapons, he said. "It is a child that is safe, a disease that is cured ... a dissident who speaks freely, a spirit that has hope," he said. "There is a war going on right now that is going unnoticed, but it's just as gruesome as any." ... Arias spoke at the opening convocation at Wake Forest. His appearance was the first event in a yearlong series of events built around the school's Year of Globalization & Diversity. The year is intended to give students and faculty at the school an in-depth look at international relations and other global issues. (9/18/98)

From the News & Record ...

Nobel Peace Prize winner Oscar Arias Sanchez will speak at Wake Forest University Thursday, kicking off a year of discussion and cultural Events focusing on the growing interdependence of nations. ... Arias is perhaps the best-known speaker to participate in Wake Forest's Year of Globalization and Diversity. ... This year's program, said Thomas Taylor, co-chairman of the planning committee, is designed "to point out problematic aspects of globalization and also celebrate differences of other cultures." (9/16/98)

From Popular Science ...

Biologists at Wake Forest University have used satellites to track albatrosses for almost 25,000 miles over three months, as the birds flew in search of food for their chicks. That's the equivalent of circling the globe. ... The results so far show that the Laysan and black-footed albatrosses make repeated flights to the mainland coast to feed, sometimes leaving their chicks home alone for weeks at a time. "It's a mystery why a bird nests that far away from a continent but goes there to feed," says project leader David Anderson. (10/98)

From the St. Louis Post-Dispatch ...

When writer Dan Moldea wanted help from independent counsel Kenneth Starr's office last winter, one call from his publisher yielded an offer of what Starr's top deputy termed "substantive information." ... Other special prosecutors have finessed the leak problem — according to Katy Harriger, who teaches politics at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, N.C., and has written a book about them — by shutting their doors tight to reporters. "In fact, news coverage normally drops off after an independent counsel is appointed," Harriger continued, "because reporters, after trying a few times, find the independent counsel just does not talk." (8/28/98)

From Audubon magazine ...

Curious about how far nesting Laysan and black-footed albatrosses might range, scientists outfitted a score of birds of the two species with small satellite transmitters. For the first month or so after their chicks hatched, the parents behaved typically, making short trips to find food. Researchers suspected that the birds would soon begin ranging farther, but they hardly expected what their satellite data began showing. The first satellite-tracked bird, a black-footed albatross, headed straight for San Francisco Bay. Others flew to the Oregon coast, and some Laysan albatrosses went to Alaska's Aleutian Islands. "I was stunned," says Dave Anderson, an associate professor of biology at Wake Forest University. "We seriously considered the possibility that the first bird had somehow gotten on a boat. People had recorded these species in those places, but a big part of the population is nonbreeders, which can go wherever they want. No one thought a nesting bird — even an albatross — would go that far to get food." (September/October 1998)

From the Christian Science Monitor ...

With already tight schedules and high tuitions, why do colleges bother with the expense and work of theme years? ... Last year, Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, N.C., focused on "Religion in American Life." The historically Baptist school invited spiritual leaders and instructors from around the world to speak and teach. The main reason for the event was to help freshmen early on develop critical thinking and writing skills, officials say. But it also helped, they believe, to shore up student spirit. "We already have high retention rates," says Sandra Boyette, vice president for university advancement at Wake Forest. "But we found that if we lose them, it's during the freshman year." (8/25/98)

From CNN's Science & Technology Week ...

Ann Kellan: Computers are reinventing the college experience for both students and professors, and university administrators say a wired campus attracts savvy students. Marsha Walton reports on some differing approaches to computers on campus.

Jay Dominick, Wake Forest University: This is the beginning of a growing national trend in higher education. For universities to try to take hold of the computer revolution, so to speak, and use it for the academic purposes of campus, rather than just letting it spread throughout the university without any sort of strategic plan or controls.

Walton: But administrators stress there's no trend for technology to replace teachers. Wake Forest has also added faculty to keep undergrad classes small. (9/5/98)

From CNN Interactive ...

College computing requires word processors, spreadsheets, databases, E-mail and Web browsers. A desktop may not suffice, however. A growing number of schools encourage students to bring notebook computers instead. "There's a recognition that students are nomads," says David G. Brown, of Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, N.C. "Colleges are utilizing computers in the laboratories and in study-group sessions and, to a more limited extent, during class sessions." (8/27/98)

From USA Today ...

University counselor Linda Bips says she and her college friends "would have died" back in the late '60s and early '70s had their parents called a professor or dean or adviser to check up on them. Today, many of those students — who at the time "wanted nothing to do with anyone over 30" — she notes — are parents, and guess what? They're clamoring for every bit of information they can get on their kids in college. ... Once silent partners who mostly dropped their kids off and made sure the bills were paid, parents "are getting more and more vocal about what happens to their children in college," says Sandra Boyette, a vice president at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, N.C. "They're more willing to telephone the dean's office or other offices if they think something's not right." (8/26/98)

From Forbes ...

The can't miss art exhibition this year isn't in New York, Washington or Paris. On Aug. 28, the J. Donald Nichols collection opens at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, N.C. More than 100 first-rate examples of American abstract paintings, drawings and sculptures from the 1930s and 1940s will be featured in the exhibition. (8/24/98 issue)

From the Chicago Tribune ...

The future of two girls switched at birth three years ago was in doubt Tuesday as the families who have raised them vowed to avoid the courts and privately work out an agreement without disrupting the children's lives. ... Drew Edwards, a clinical child psychologist in North Carolina and an associate professor at Wake Forest University agreed (with the families' decision). "At this point, it is certainly best to remain with people they've known and not to be uprooted," he said. "They need to stay with their psychological caretakers, and in this case, it is the people they live with." (8/5/98)

From the Winston-Salem Journal ...

Janella Dash walked through the line outside the gym at Wake Forest University yesterday, ready to drop off a companion she had picked up early during her freshmen year. She had no apprehension, no pangs of guilt about the split. The time had come. She had simply outgrown her IBM ThinkPad. Who could hold that against her? Dash and the rest of the junior class at Wake Forest traded in the laptops they got as freshmen — the first freshmen at the university required to use the computers — for a newer model yesterday. (8/25/98)

From the Winston-Salem Journal ...

Self-help gurus often tell people that their self-esteem shouldn't be based on what others think of them, but, says psychologist Mark Leary, that is exactly what self-esteem is all about. Leary, a psychology professor at Wake Forest University, takes a somewhat different view on what self-esteem is than many of his colleagues. (8/25/98)

From USA Today ...

President Clinton's televised speech Monday night was primarily a political rallying cry, not a legal pleading. But it was clearly a document written by lawyers. ... "What I heard him saying was he did not commit perjury in his mind," says Katy Harriger, a political scientist at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, N.C., who has written a book on the independent counsel law. (8/19/98)

From MSNBC.com ...

In new research presented here Monday at the annual meeting of the American Psychological Association, (L. Kris) Gowen suggested that teasing and dissatisfaction with body image may also be related to the development of eating disorders a few years later in life. ... Mark Leary, a professor of psychology at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, N.C., agreed that young girls may believe they are being victimized "because they are too fat, too short or their nose is too big." Girls make these connections, Leary said, despite having no proof that any of the acts are related to their size, weight or looks. "Many studies have shown that the predominant form of teasing surrounds a person's looks," he said. "It may not be a great leap in girls' minds to think that any form of victimization is related to their looks whether or not that is the case." (8/17/98)

From the Arizona Republic ...

The months of singing, clapping and praying are nearly over, and it's time for Bill Clinton to present himself for atonemont in the Baptist tradition. ... Both Oran P. Smith, author of The Rise of Baptist Republicanism, and Charles Kimball, a Baptist minister and chairman of the Wake Forest University religion department, say they are surprised that Clinton hasn't chosen to take the traditional Baptist way out of his dilemma, rather than waiting for the grand jury to do it for him. ... "If he did something he has to apologize for, then I think if he were to come forward and repent in some way, the probability of forgiveness is much higher," Kimball said, echoing the sentiments of Sen. Orrin Hatch, a devout Mormon, just a few days earlier. (8/16/98)

From CNN & Company ...

Mary Tillotson, Host: Here to talk about President Clinton's legal and political strategy, Katy Harriger, who teaches politics at Wake Forest University. She has written extensively about the independent counsel law. ...

Tillotson: Public discourse about presidential politics has sunk to a new and sordid low during the Clinton administration. Katy, who should bear the blame for that? If you look at the history of the independent counsel law, I think most folks would agree Congress passed it with the best of possible intentions to correct the abuses of Watergate, but it's certainly being faulted for what we're all talking about right now.

Katy Harriger, Wake Forest University: Yeah, I mean, I don't think we can blame the law itself. I think Congress had the intention of trying to avoid another Watergate. I think they naively believed that when a case involved the president, that somehow you could remove politics from it. And I think this case and the Iran-Contra case shows pretty clearly that these are always going to be fundamentally political. (8/5/98)

From the Christian Science Monitor ...

What blew away Anne Foerst's fellow techies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge was not her desire to build a thinking robot. Many had pursued that quest for years. But Dr. Foerst, also a Lutheran minister, crossed a delicate line last fall when she proposed a course called "God and Computers: Minds, Machines, and Metaphysics" to look at how assumptions about God and religion affect artificial-intelligence research. What followed was a spontaneous campus discussion about whether the world of faith — long seen as a threat to serious scholarship — and the world of higher education should dance even a tentative pas de deux at MIT. Growth of student interest in spirituality and religion on campus has been widely documented. Now, discussions are emerging over whether spiritual or religious views have a place in the curriculum. ... "I came from a public high school where talking about religion in class was always a constitutional thing, a legal matter for parents to get angry about," says Carey King, a senior majoring in religion and minoring in anthropology at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, N.C. "I think that's why I became a religion major, because I was starved for it." ... Last year at Wake Forest University, a historically Baptist school, William Leonard, dean of the divinity school, organized a "Year of Religion in American Life," bringing a Buddhist monk, Sufi Muslim whirling dervishes from Turkey, a Trappist monk, and other visiting scholars to Wake Forest for classes and talks. (8/4/98)

From the Boston Globe ...

Three decades after the dawn of feminism forever changed the American workplace, home and mores, the second wave of the gender revolution has arrived: masculinism. The Million Man March and Promise Keepers mobbing the National Mall in Washington were merely its most public sightings. Less visibly, it can be discerned from panels in several states commissioned to study the status of men, on Internet magazines like MenWeb and Backlash.com tracking anti-male sexism, and in the 2 million stay- at-home dads forming networks to face down the suspicious stares of mothers on America's playgrounds. ... "When you're the norm, you're not aware that you have a particularity, that you're a male and not just a human being," said Stephen Boyd, a professor at Wake Forest University and head of the American Men's Studies Association. "We're looking at our particularity the same way the women's movement, civil rights, the gay liberation movement, looked at theirs. It's like that old proverb: The fish are the last to be aware of the water." (7/12/98)

From The Fayetteville Observer-Times ...

Since he arrived in Congress in 1996, Mike McIntyre has confounded efforts to fit him into a neat political box. McIntyre, a lawyer from Lumberton representing North Carolina's 7th District, has one of the most conservative voting records of any Democrat in the House of Representatives. He has consistently voted against abortion. He has supported three proposals for constitutional amendments sought by conservatives. He has voted in support of legislation to curb labor unions. But he can make an abrupt turn to the left. ... Jack D. Fleer, a politics professor at Wake Forest University, says he believes McIntyre has been finding his way politically. "It takes time for anyone serving a district to learn how to do the job," Fleer said. "My guess would be that as he establishes himself and develops some sort of electoral following and trust with his constituents, he might feel free to go beyond what he perceives as the orientation of his district, and provide leadership instead of adhering to the orientation of the voters." (7/12/98)

From The State ...

Gene Puckett has made The Biblical Recorder a fiery pulpit in 16 years as its editor, filling it with sharp editorials that have followed, and decried, the conservative revolution in the Southern Baptist Convention. ... Bill Leonard, dean of the Wake Forest University Divinity School, says "there's a prophetic curmudgeon to him. He was of the type who didn't sit on the fence. He fits in with the dissenting tradition of Baptists." (7/3/98)

From the News & Record ...

A half century ago, Henry Randall, a young Baptist preacher from Wake Forest University, stuck out his thumb and hitchhiked to Washington to ask permission to create a radio station. He pasted a black-and-gold Wake Forest sticker across his suitcase, packed a toothbrush, toothpaste and a couple of ties and stood beside U.S. 1 in the small town of Wake Forest. A traveling salesman took him to Washington, where he made his way to the Federal Communications Commission, the gatekeeper of the country's radio dial. ... WFDD (88.5 FM) turns 50 this year. The 60,000-watt station at Wake Forest University is North Carolina's oldest public radio station and the Triad's home to classical music, National Public Radio and programs like "Car Talk." (7/9/98)

From The News & Observer ...

First Baptist Church on Salisbury Street, the city's oldest Baptist congregation and one of its most prestigious, is on the verge of breaking with the Southern Baptist Convention because of its call for women to submit graciously to their husbands. A church committee is looking into ways the church could further distance itself from the convention, from which it has grown increasingly estranged, and a vote to sever ties is expected soon. ... "I just got a call from another First Baptist Church in another state," said Bill Leonard, dean of the divinity school at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem and a Baptist historian. "People are saying, 'Can you give us a positive reason for staying Baptists? We're tired of being caricatured in the newspapers.'" But Leonard said he doesn't expect a mass exodus. "The identity of the Southern Baptist Convention is very, very deep," he said. "It's hard for people to break away from their parent." (7/13/98)

From the Washington Post ...

For the first time since 1963, delegates will likely amend the Baptist Faith and Message, the church's declaration of beliefs, by adding a statement on marriage and family that rejects divorce and same-sex marriages and declares that the husband is the head of the family. ... Many Baptists aren't happy with the amendment's description of spousal relations. "No doubt it will alienate some people, especially young people," said the Rev. Scott Hudgins, head of student affairs at Wake Forest University Divinity School in Winston-Salem, N.C. (6/6/98)

From the Houston Chronicle ...

In a lunchroom at the county courthouse, about a dozen people take a break from work to join hands and bow their heads. They pray for colleagues who are sick, clients with legal troubles and family members who face surgery. ... A revival of spirituality around the nation has made Bible study groups — such as the courthouse one that meets at noon every Thursday — an increasingly common sight at many workplaces. ... Spiritual awareness at work is getting a boost from the good economy. It's easier for people to think about their spiritual needs when they don't need to focus so much on job security, said Stephen Boyd, professor of religion at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, N.C. (7/5/98)

From the Winston-Salem Journal ...

On a recent trip to Cuba, Wake Forest University students found a country where much is falling apart and where the people are vibrant and warm. For more than 35 years, a U.S. embargo kept all but a few Americans from finding out firsthand what life in Cuba is like. In the last couple of years though — thanks to a change in U.S. law that allows exchange programs — more than a dozen American universities have sent students to study in Cuba. Wake Forest is one of them. ... Sema Bharwani, a 21-year-old senior from Quincy, Ill., said that one of the Cubans she talked to said that, in a way, everything is falling apart — the buildings, the government, families. In many families, half of the relatives live out of the country in places such as Miami... (7/30/98)

From Mobile Computing ...

All over America, schools are adding a digital edge to their curricula not only with bulked-up computer-science and engineering courses but with media labs and Internet-ready classrooms. Wake Forest University, a private, four-year liberal arts school based in Winston-Salem, N.C., is taking this idea a step further by making mobile computing and communications technology a required course. ... "What we are doing here is making this high-tech environment part of the background of a student's time here. It's a lot like teaching a second language without making it explicit," said John Anderson, the university's vice president of finance and administration. (August 1998 issue)

From National Public Radio ...

Daniel Zwerdling visits Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C., for a screening of the German film, "Beyond Silence." He talks with three members of the audience about some of the issues surrounding deaf culture. ...

Katie McKenna, student at Wake Forest University, is a hearing child of deaf parents. She's always interpreted a lot for her parents, ever since she was a child, but it's never made her feel controlled — it's made her feel independent. "I spoke for myself and when we went out in public, I spoke for my parents. And I just learned to say what I thought. ... Adults always listened to me because I was speaking for somebody else." (From All Things Considered, 6/7/98)

From the Winston-Salem Journal ...

Women who exercise, regardless of their body shape and size, are considered more attractive than women who don't exercise, according to a study by Wake Forest University researchers. "Our findings suggest that perhaps women should not focus so much on weight and pounds in trying to improve how others perceive them," said Kathleen Martin, an ajunct professor of health and exercise science at Wake Forest and the study's lead author. "It may be just as effective to focus on becoming a regular exerciser." (7/14/98)

From the St. Petersburg Times ...

Charles Kimball, chairman of the religion department at Wake Forest University, said seeking to understand what other people believe is a commendable goal. "Religion probably is the most powerful and pervasive force in society and as we look at contemporary events and to history, religion often inspires people to their highest and noblest best," said Kimball, who also is a Baptist minister. "Historically, it has also been the source and excuse for some of human beings' most dastardly deeds. So it is important to understand what motivates others and also ourselves in terms of where we place ultimate value." (7/11/98)

From The New York Times ...

Wayne Calloway, the former chairman and chief executive of Pepsico who combined a quiet, introspective leadership style with an intensely competitive business strategy, died on Wednesday at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in Manhattan. He was 62. ... Mr. Calloway was a director of General Electric, Exxon and Citicorp when he died, in addition to PepsiCo. He was also chairman of the board at Wake Forest University an enthusiastic supporter who often interviewed student applicants from the New York area in his office, said the president, Thomas K. Hearn Jr. The university's School of Business and Accountancy was named for Mr. Calloway. (7/10/98)

From The News & Observer ...

For Gene Puckett, the editor of the state's weekly Baptist newspaper, there are two great virtues: faith and freedom. ... During the 16 years he has served as editor of the Biblical Recorder, Puckett has used his pen as a kind of pulpit — a pulpit from which he has advocated fearlessly for traditional Baptist values: the autonomy of the local church, separation of church and state, and the right of each Baptist to disagree with the person sitting in the pew across the aisle. "There's a prophetic curmudgeon to him," says Bill Leonard, dean of the Wake Forest University Divinity School. "He was the type who didn't sit on the fence. He fits in with the dissenting tradition of Baptists." (6/26/98)

From The Boston Globe ...

In each of the past three years, the Southern Baptists' annual convention has been marked by a defining declaration of the march rightward of the nation's largest Protestant denomination. ... In the most recent convention, the Baptists sent shock waves around the country when it voted to amend its essential statement of beliefs to include a proclamation that a woman should "submit herself graciously" to her husband's leadership and that a husband should "provide for, protect and lead his family." ... "They're using the same method to talk about the submission of women that they used to promote slavery in 1845," said Bill J. Leonard, a church historian and dean of the divinity school at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, N.C. "Three years ago they repented publicly of having used the Bible that way. One has to ask whether in another century they may be repenting for this." (6/21/98)

From the NBC Nightly News with Tom Brokaw ...

Tom Brokaw: From babies being born live on the Internet to yet another use for the information superhighway: school kids tracking the astonishing migratory patterns of one of nature's most amazing creatues. Here's NBC's George Lewis.

George Lewis: Tern Island, a remote hunk of rock in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, home to thousands of black-footed and Laysan albatross, birds that rack up a lot of frequent-flier miles just to eat. Dave Anderson of Wake Forest University in North Carolina and thousands of school kids around the world are fascinated by the albatross.

David Anderson: These birds are going to different regions of the Earth for take-out, is what it boils down to in human terms... (6/16/98)

From MUSE (the Smithsonian magazine for kids) ...

An albatross — a very big gull-like bird — spends much of its life soaring over the ocean. Male and female albatrosses take turns looking for food while their mates keep an egg warm or protect their young. An albatross feeds on fish and squid, or even the bait on hooks thrown from fishing ships. When one albatross leaves the nest on a food-finding mission, it may be gone for days or even weeks. This behavior made Dave Anderson, a biologist at Wake Forest University in North Carolina, wonder: where does an albatross go? ... (8/98)

From The News & Observer ...

Nicole Kopovic's people will get in touch with your people, and maybe she can squeeze you in for lunch this summer. That is, between the week at soccer camp, the family beach week, ballet lessons, volunteering with the Governor's Commission on Juvenile Crime and Justice, karate lessons, classical guitar lessons, babysitting and volunteering at a camp for children with special needs. Nicole, a 14-year-old from Durham, has a black leather appointment book to keep track of her vacation, but there's room for more. ... Structure is fine if parents don't allow their children to overdo it, said Charles Richman, professor of psychology at Wake Forest University. "We need to learn boundaries, social boundaries — what to do and not to do," said Richman, who also teaches karate. "And a lot of times they're not effectively taught in the home and in the schools and they're more effectively taught in a play situation, like camp." (6/10/98)

From the Winston-Salem Journal ...

Dale Martin was traveling from France to Italy seven years ago when customs agents stopped the train and asked passengers to get off for a half-hour while the agents interrogated passengers, checked passports and searched luggage ... Traveling has since become easier for Martin, an accounting professor at Wake Forest University (who took a group of accounting students on a trip to Europe earlier this month; J. Kline Harrison, a business professor at Wake Forest, led another group of students on a different study tour there). "You hardly knew you were crossing the border," Martin said. ... The Wake Forest students, divided into groups of accounting and business majors, visited such cities as England, Belgium, Germany, France, Switzerland, Italy and Austria on their tour. They had sessions with Glaxo Wellcome Plc in London, Bayer AG in Cologne, Sara Lee Corp. in Paris and R.J. Reynolds International in Geneva. Allison Evans, an accounting major from Asheboro ... found the trip invaluable. "You can always read a book about the Germans, but to actually go there and meet the Germans, that is something you won't forget." Katherine Hall, a business major from Greensboro, said that the trip made her appreciate cultures. "It gave me a great sense of the global community we live in," she said. (6/25/98)

From The Herald-Sun ...

Food Lion and ABC return to court this week for another chapter in the five-year-old legal battle over the network's broadcast about sanitary conditions in the grocery chain's stores. ... "The reality is very few plaintiffs eventually recover a nickel in libel suits," said David Logan, a Wake Forest University law professor who is writing an academic journal article on the Food Lion case. "They [libel plaintiffs] very rarely get to keep everything the jury gave them, and many of them never get to the jury." (6/2/98)

From Parents Magazine ...

Are you raising a loser? Why misplaced shoes, jackets, backpacks, and toys go with the territory. ... "Our research has found that parents have unrealistic expectations about how much their children can remember," says Deborah Best, Ph.D., professor of psychology at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, N.C. As a result, parents may misinterpret their child's natural forgetfulness as a willful act of rebellion or a sign that he isn't intelligent ... (From the June issue)

From The Associated Press ...

Wake Forest University researchers say women who exercise, regardless of their shape and size, are considered more attractive than women who don't. (6/25/98)

From Charlotte's Morning News with Al Gardner (WBT-1110 AM) ...

Gardner: Perhaps the story of the week if there was one in terms of the sheer amount of attention paid to it and — perhaps even the consequences of it — is that the Baptists changed their decree, their basic belief for the first time in 30 plus years, to essentially make a call for women to quote, "submit graciously to their husbands" as the leader of the family. ... Someone who has studied this much more than I ever will is Dean Bill Leonard, dean of the divinity school at Wake Forest, who is with us on the Newsmaker line.... (6/12/98)

Audio Excerpt of Gardner's Interview with Leonard

From the NBC Nightly News with Tom Brokaw ...

George Lewis (reporter): ...The Southern Baptists quote the Bible, the Book of Ephesians, to back up their contention that women should follow men. But other theologians point out that in the 19th century, the Southern Baptists used the same scripture to justify slavery. Bill Leonard is the dean of the Divinity School at Wake Forest University.

Leonard: We don't read those texts that same way. We fought a war over that. Southern Baptists apologized just three years ago for having used these texts in that way to defend slavery.... (6/10/98)

From Frontiers ...

Biologist David Anderson normally works alone — in his office and lab at Wake Forest University or in the wild studying seabirds. His newest project, however, connects him to thousands of elementary school students who are joining him in the satellite-tracking of two species of albatross. (From the May/June issue of the National Science Foundation newsletter)

From MSNBC ...

Let Jay Leno make jokes and others roll their eyes. In telling wives to "submit graciously" to their husbands, the Southern Baptists say they are responding to the breakdown of the American family. The Southern Baptists are going the opposite direction from other denominations, which in recent years have taken a more egalitarian stand on the relationship between husband and wife. The new article added to the Baptist Faith and Message marked the first change in the statement of beliefs by the nearly 16 million-member church in 35 years. It defines marriage exclusively in heterosexual terms and says that husbands and wives, while equal before God, have different roles. ... The Southern Baptists quote the Bibleâs Book of Ephesians to back up their contention that women should follow men. But other theologians point out that in the 19th century, the Southern Baptists used the same scripture to justify slavery. "We donât read those texts that same way," said Bill Leonard , the dean of the Divinity School at Wake Forest University. "Southern Bapists apologized just three years ago for having used that text in that way to defend slavery." (6/11/98)

From The Houston Chronicle ...

Southern Baptist Convention leaders Tuesday defended a new doctrinal statement on the family that defines the role of husbands as providers and leaders and asks that wives "submit graciously to the servant leadership of her husband." ... "The amendment is historically consistent," said Bill Leonard, a Baptist historian and dean of Wake Forest University's Divinity School in Winston-Salem, N.C. He noted Baptists more than 100 years ago used certain biblical texts to defend slavery — something the convention publicly repented over and apologized several years ago. "I wonder if it will be another century before they apologize to women," Leonard said. (6/10/98)

From The New York Times ...

The Southern Baptist Convention, the nation's largest Protestant denomination and an increasingly conservative force among American religious organizations, amended its essential statement of beliefs Tuesday to include a declaration that a woman should "submit herself graciously" to her husband's leadership and a husband should "provide for, protect and lead his family." ... Bill Leonard, dean of Wake Forest Divinity School and a historian of the Southern Baptist Convention, said that a conservative approach to family issues was "the high ground that the Mormons have claimed." He added: "The one place that Baptists had to admit that Mormons had something was in the strength of their families." (6/10/98)

From The Chronicle of Higher Education ...

It wasn't enough that students at Wake Forest University could study in style in London and Venice. Now Vienna has been added to the list. Next spring, some Wake Forest students will make their home in a 19th-century villa located in the Austrian capital. The address was made possible by Victor I. Flow, a Wake Forest trustee and alumnus, and his wife, Roddy. They donated an undisclosed amount of money to help the university buy the villa. The 7,200-square-foot residence will be named Flow Haus in honor of the couple... (6/5/98)

From Newsday ...

Fred Rogers, of the popular children's TV show, "Mister Rogers Neighborhood," addressed divorce, children and self-blame in his 1996 book for young children, "Let's Talk About it: Divorce" (Putnam Publishing Group). ... Rogers seems to suggest a mantra of sorts: "Nothing you ever did made your mom or dad get divorced." ... Rogers' concern is particularly relevant for young children about 3 to 8 years old, says Christy Buchanan, an assistant professor of psychology at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, N.C. "Children in roughly that age group have a hard time understanding accurately cause and effect," says Buchanan, who specializes in developmental psychology and has co-authored a published study on divorce and adolescents. (6/6/98)

From USA Today ...

Around the world in 80 days? Try 79. That's how long it took for black-footed albatross 51C to log more than 24,840 miles — "the equivalent of around the Earth" — on round trips between Hawaii and the west coast of North America, says Wake Forest University biologist David Anderson... (6/3/98)

From CNN ...

Bobbie Batista, CNN Anchor: For such a big bird, the albatross can be hard to find because it spends much of its life on the open ocean where it's hard to track.

Miles O'Brien, CNN Anchor: In the future, they may be even more difficult to find because they're dying off in huge numbers. CNN's Bruce Burkhardt explains how researchers from Wake Forest University are trying to get a better handle on the bird's fate.... (5/30/98)

From the Winston-Salem Journal ...

On a Saturday morning when most kids might be sleeping late, playing soccer or frolicking in the sunshine, a group of young scientists was reaching for the stars. In a science laboratory on the Wake Forest University campus, about 12 8- to 13-year-olds intensely focused on a little piece of aluminum that will soon be launched into space to reflect the sun's rays. They were preparing a tiny piece of a satellite that will ride aboard the space shuttle Endeavor in December. The group of science prodigies calls itself the Science Stars, and it gives up a Saturday morning a month to dabble in adult science... (5/22/98)

From Newsweek ...

"That's quite a long way for takeout, isn't it?" Wake Forest University biologist David Anderson, who helped track a Laysan albatross on its quest to find food for its chick. The bird totaled more than 24,843 miles in flights in only 90 days. (From the May 25,1998 issue)

From the Winston-Salem Journal ...

You might think that Dr. Alva Parris would reminisce every time he turns on the radio to WFDD, since he had a hand in its beginning 50 years ago this spring. But that is not the case. The station, at 88.5 FM, is so vastly different today from it was when roommates Alva E. Parris and Henry R. ''Randy'' Randall began the station from their dorm room at Wake Forest College that Parris said he hardly even thinks of the two as the same station. "I guess the idea was the main thing we provided," he said. Parris will be able to reminisce Friday, though, as he helps the station celebrate its 50th anniversary with a party at its studios (on the Wake Forest University campus). The public is invited. (5/21/98)

From the Associated Press ...

White House Chief of Staff Erskine Bowles advised Wake Forest University's class of 1998 to take time for their families and communities despite hectic schedules. "When you look for a job, look for a family-friendly place to work — one that encourages you to spend time with your family. Then do it," Bowles told the crowd of about 10,000 Monday... (5/19/98)

From the Winston-Salem Journal ...

Erskine Bowles, the White House chief of staff, shared with graduates of Wake Forest University yesterday some simple rules that he said have guided him through his business and political careers. Bowles, a North Carolina native, delivered the commencement speech to nearly 1,400 graduating students... (5/19/98)

From CNN Interactive ...

A Laysan albatross, tracked by Wake Forest University biologists, has flown more than 24,843 miles in flights across the North Pacific to find food for its chick in just 90 days — flights equivalent to circling the globe. "That's quite a long way for take-out, isn't it?" quipped David Anderson, the biologist who has been tracking the flights of the Laysan and black-footed albatrosses by satellite since January. The seabirds nest on Tern Island in Hawaii, an atoll that is part of the Hawaiian Islands National Wildlife Refuge managed by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. (5/14/98)

From Prevention ...

Of course, exercise makes you feel good. But the person leading your class could make you feel even better. And the better you feel, the more likely you are to stick with it. Researchers studied the effects of different leadership styles on how exercisers felt after a class. In one, the instructor used a "socially enriched" style: lots of technical instruction, specific support, and positive feedback. With the next group, she used a bland style. Participants received little support, encouragement and social interaction (but they weren't criticized). "People in the class given more attention reported being refreshed and more energetic afterward than did people in the neutral class," says study author Jack Rejeski, PhD, professor of health and exercise science at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, N.C. (From the magazine's May 1998 issue)

From the BBC World News ...

The albatross, with its huge wingspan and ability to glide effortlessly over the surface of the ocean, has long been part of maritime lore. Centuries ago, mariners believed drowned sailors were reincarnated as albatrosses, and thought that killing them would bring bad luck. But what they didn't know about the albatross was that it had extraordinary stamina and an ability to fly very great distances. Just how great has been established by a project at Wake Forest University in the United States, which tracked 29 albatrosses by satellite. David Anderson was the biologist in charge of the project and he's been telling me how it all got started... (5/13/98)

From Newsday ...

After nearly four years of probing the murky currents of Whitewater, Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr has closed out the Arkansas phase of his investigation with a bang, indicting a reluctant witness for contempt and firing a new blast at President Bill Clinton ... "If the real issues now are about Clinton's role in obstructing justice, then the D.C. grand jury is all he needs," said Katy Harriger, a Wake Forest University scholar who has written extensively about independent-counsel investigations. "It allows him to focus his efforts ... You might say he's marshaling his resources around a single case obstruction, and maybe that's a logical thing to do, because the other case, Whitewater, doesn't seem to get him to the president or the first lady." (5/6/98)

From the Discovery Channel Online ...

Since Jules Verne's book, "Around the World in 80 Days," many have attempted to make that looonng voyage. Some have succeeded and some are still trying. Those still trying may want to take a lesson from the albatross, the huge seabird that's come close to flying the equivalent distance·but in 90 days. When biologists tracked the flight paths of these gargantuan birds — they weigh up to 10 kilograms and have a wingspan of up to four metres wide — they found that four of them flew more than 40,060 kilometres each in flights across the North Pacific to find food for their chicks. They did it in just 90 days! That's like flying around the world — the circumference of the earth at the equator is 40,076 kilometres. "Probably the most surprising thing that we've found is that the birds that nest out in the middle of the ocean [on the Hawaiian islands] are travelling all the way back to continents [North America] to find their food," said David Anderson, a biologist at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina and leader of the "Albatross Project." (5/12/98)

From The New York Times ...

Is this the great socioeconomic equalizer, the latest toy to hit academia, the small colleges' ticket to the universe or one more expense in the financial aid package? Flip it open, boot it up: the laptop computer. Freshmen at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, N.C., began getting IBM ThinkPads in 1996 and received printers later on — all paid for by part of a $3,000 tuition increase. They will get new laptops in their junior year and will be able to take those with them when they graduate. (4/16/98)

From The Daily Telegraph (London) ...

An albatross monitored by satellite has flown the equivalent of a round-world trip in 90 days. The Laysan albatross, tracked by biologists at Wake Forest University, North Carolina, has flown more than 24,843 miles in flights across the North Pacific to find food for its chick in 90 days. "That's quite a long way for take-out, isn't it?" said Dr. David Anderson, the biologist who has been tracking the flights of the Laysan and black-footed albatrosses by satellite since January... (5/13/98)

From the Environmental News Network ...

A Laysan albatross, tracked by Wake Forest University biologists, has flown more than 24,843 miles in flights across the North Pacific to find food for its chick in just 90 days — flights equivalent to circling the globe. "That's quite a long way for take-out, isn't it?" quipped David Anderson, the biologist who has been tracking the flights of the Laysan and black-footed albatrosses by satellite since January. The seabirds nest on Tern Island in Hawaii, an atoll that is part of the Hawaiian Islands National Wildlife Refuge managed by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. (5/13/98)

From The Commercial Appeal ...

As a tornado approached, the bishop was at work in his downtown Nashville office, distracted by other matters. April 16 had been another long and difficult day for Kenneth L. Carder — endless meetings about clergy assignments, a deluge of phone calls, faxes and E-mails about a dispute over United Methodist doctrine. Carder was anxious about the day and the days ahead. He and other United Methodist bishops are meeting this week in Nebraska to address the dispute over homosexuality and its implications for church doctrine and practice. ... "Ideas about Scripture and practice have always divided American denominations," said Dr. Bill Leonard, dean of Wake Forest University's school of divinity. "All involve ways of reading Scripture as applied to specific issues." (4/26/98)

From the Los Angeles Times ...

From their classroom in a California desert, Michelle Bergey's third-graders can watch an albatross fly across the sea. They can trace a bird as it makes its way out of Hawaii, soars over the Pacific Ocean for thousands of miles, even in its sleep, then glides by the Golden Gate Bridge to find food. Since January, Bergey's class of 30 at Twentynine Palms Elementary School have been studying the albatross, along with scientists from Winston-Salem, N.C. The students and scientists alike are intent on learning more about the feeding patterns of these mysterious seabirds, whose population is in danger of declining. Through a newly developed transmitter taped between the birds' wings and a data collecting system created by David Anderson at Wake Forest University in North Carolina, albatrosses have been taking off into cyberspace as well as for real. This has enabled students from across the country to "adopt" a bird and trace and study its flight patterns for the first time over the Internet. (5/7/98)

From the Providence Sunday Journal ...

The morning's sermon is on the prodigal son. So the Rev. Steve Sabin tells his small congregation about the warm of an unconditional welcome. ... It's the same reception the Lord of Life Lutherna Church gives its pastor, that it always has given him. The congregation greeted Sabin that way in 1985 when he arrived as a young family man. It stood by him five years later through the pain of his divorce. Now, shorn in a Marine-style haircut that matches his partner's, Sabin continues to be embraced by the church — even though his openly gay relationship may force Lord of Life to choose between denomination and pastor. ... The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America has decided to purge Sabin from the church roster. Sabin, backed by his congregation, is appealing. "Where in the past you saw churches split over the Eucharist and polity, now we're seeing the splits over gender and spirituality," said Stephen Boyd, a religious studies professor at Wake Forest University and acting president of the American Men's Studies Association. "It's the fault line in American Christianity. It's going to be very bloody." (4/12/98, This article originally appeared in The New York Times)

From the St. Petersburg Times ...

Decades past are remembered as glory days for the majestic churches that grace St. Petersburg's downtown. ... Two churches have closed and one is selling its building, but others have adapted to serve changing congregations. The decline or departure of St. Petersburg's downtown churches has been mirrored in many urban areas, as members have moved to the suburbs, racial demographics changed and economic conditions deteriorated. It is a trend, said Bill Leonard, dean of the divinity school at Wake Forest University, that began in the late 1970s. Churches that have survived in downtown areas have been those that have been willing to adapt. "Some change their profiles and reach out to the neighborhoods," he said. "Many of these churches open their doors to the homeless people. One of the things we noticed is that the churches that have survived have come to terms with urban realities such as poverty, homelessness and racial diversity. You have racial, economic diversity right there, and it can be a very exciting environment...." (4/12/98)

From The New York Times ...

Several mainline Protestant denominations have reported losing fewer members over the last three years, easing a trajectory that once suggested the nation's largest moderate to liberal churches were sliding toward the margins of religious life. ... "American religion is in a state of permanent transition," said Bill Leonard, a church historian and dean of the Divinity School at Wake Forest University. Mr. Leonard cited a growing number of interfaith marriages and a tendency of many people to "shop around" for a house of worship as reasons for a great "flux and fluidity" in religious life. (4/12/98)

From the News & Record ...

Think Baptists can't agree on anything? Tell it to Jimmy Carter. The former president convened two meetings of people from various Baptist traditions in November and February at the Carter Presidential Center in Atlanta to try to identify points on which they could agree. The result was a statement, issued 12 days ago, in which the signers affirmed five points in which they believe all Baptists can concur as they perform the missions work that is central to all Baptist tradition. ... Two of the signers were Southern Baptists from the Triad — the Rev. Bill Leonard, dean of Wake Forest University's new Divinity School, and the Rev. Mark Corts, pastor of Winston-Salem's Calvary Baptist Church and a leader in the denomination's conservative wing. Leonard attended the earlier meeting and says the group, all but two moderates, "talked about our common concerns for racial justice, for trying to have a public response to issues that was not as belligerent as the public response of Baptists has been." He says the group asked itself, "Can we give a witness to American life that is not simply internally antagonistic?" (4/11/98)

From the Winston-Salem Journal ...

Jimmy Carter has persuaded battling groups around the world to reconcile. But the former president may be facing his greatest challenge as he tries to heal wounds among Baptist in America. "You know, negotiating with Baptists is not too different from negotiating with Bosnians," said Bill Leonard, the dean of the planned Wake Forest University Divinity School. "There are deep divisions and wounds." Carter worked with Leonard and 25 other black and white Baptist leaders from across the country to draft a declaration aimed at reuniting Baptists. Leonard and the other leaders, who ranged from conservative Southern Baptists to independents, signed the declaration. which was released to the public this week. (4/4/98)

From the Winston-Salem Journal ...

A local car dealer gave Wake Forest University a gift as big as a house — a very big house — yesterday. ... Thomas K. Hearn Jr., the president of Wake Forest, announced the gift yesterday. "Demand for our international-studies program has increased dramatically in the last few years," Hearn said. "We have known for years this serves students well." (4/4/98)

From the Winston-Salem Journal ...

Armed with paper binoculars, 10 children took part in a pretend picnic in a classroom at Wake Forest University this week. "What do you see?" teacher Betsy Neathawk asked the children, most of whom ranged in age from 5 to 8. "I see a butterfly," said one child, who waited for a classmate to point at a butterfly in a picnic scene drawn on paper. "I see a bird," said a little girl as her partner pointed to a red bird in the drawing. The exercise wouldn't be a remarkable one, except that it was conducted entirely in French. Twice a week for nine weeks, the university's education department offers after-school classes in Spanish or French for kindergartners, first- and second-graders... (4/4/98)

From the Rocky Mountain News ...

Call it the case of the disappearing albatross. For years, scientists have been struggling with an ornithological conundrum: Where do the big marine birds go when they leave their newly hatched nestlings on isolated Pacific islands and vanish for weeks at a time? Now researchers have an answer: everywhere in the North Pacific Ocean, including the waters near San Francisco. ... "The distances they're traveling is amazing," said David Anderson, a biologist who is tracking the birds. "And I don't mean one or two — I mean all of them." Anderson, based at Wake Forest University in North Carolina, employs radio telemetry for tracking because the birds fly too fast for boats and too slow for planes. (3/30/98)

From The New York Times ...

College students used to say their goodbyes at graduation and hope to catch up at five-year intervals ever after. But now colleges are offering alumni services like lifelong personal e-mail accounts, home pages for each graduating class and regional alumni newsgroups on the Internet, making it easier than ever for former students to keep in touch. ... "It takes people from the time they pay their deposit and become students all the way through their college experience, through life as an alum, till death do we part — it's seamless," said Bob Mills, associate vice president for fund raising and communications at Wake Forest. "Nothing we've ever done has been able to bring people closer to the university than this technology," said Mills, who has worked with alumni for 26 years. "It has personalized and extended our communications." (3/26/98)

From the San Francisco Chronicle ...

Call it the case of the disappearing albatross. For years, scientists have been struggling with an ornithological conundrum: Where do the big marine birds go when they leave their newly hatched nestlings on isolated Pacific islands and vanish for weeks at a time? Now researchers have an answer: everywhere in the North Pacific Ocean, including the waters near San Francisco. Like many visitors to the Bay Area, they're apparently coming for the food. "The distances they're traveling is amazing," said David Anderson, a biologist who is tracking the birds. "And I don't mean one or two — I mean all of them." ... Anderson, based at Wake Forest University in North Carolina, employs radio telemetry to track albatrosses because the birds fly too fast for boats and too slow for planes. (3/25/98)

From the News & Record ...

Imagine a really BIG bird with a wingspan of about 11 feet who spends most of its life soaring above the open waters of the ocean. Sounds like a bird that a fantasy writer would dream up, doesn't it? But this bird, the albatross, is real. Because an albatross spends lots of time flying across wide stretches of open ocean waters, the bird has been difficult for scientists to study. This big bird has remained somewhat of a mystery. But all that's changing. Wake Forest University biologist David Anderson and his research team have set out to track two species of albatrosses that nest on Tern Island ... (3/24/98)

From the Atlanta Journal-Constitution ...

Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott's confusing comments about Whitewater independent counsel Kenneth Starr in recent days reflects growing concern in the Republican Party that Starr could become a political liability in this year's congressional election, political analysts say. ... "The Republicans are counting on solidfying their congressional majorities this fall, but now there seems to be this aroused public that feels like the president is being persecuted," said Katy Harriger of Wake Forest University, author of "Independent Justice," a book about the independent counsel system. (3/11/98)

From the Plain Dealer ...

But while gossip can certainly be malicious and hurtful, as everyone from presidents to interns can attest, academics who have investigated gossip say that it is just as often beneficial. "I don't think most people gossip to hurt," says Mark Pezzo, a psychologist and assistant professor at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, N.C., who has conducted studies on gossip. "They gossip because they want to know more about other people. A number of psychologists believe this to be true, although there is little evidence, but it looks like gossip has some benefits for the gossiper: Knowing things is very beneficial. It affords you the opportunity to talk to people, to interact with people. Gossips are often well-liked." (3/1/98)

From ABCNews.com ...

Laysan albatross 52B is heading home. After more than 4,000 miles of nonstop flight, he's probably exhausted. But he's got a mate and a young one back in the nest, their stomachs rumbling. Upon landing, he'll regurgitate stored food for the pair, and either spell his mate or head back out again. Some 5,000 miles to the east, in a nondescript office in Winston-Salem, N.C., David Anderson opens his e-mail, draws a couple of dots on a map, and crosses his fingers for 52B's safe return. ... So how does Anderson, a Wake Forest University professor, know that 52B is on his way back to Tern Island? A $2,600, AA-battery-sized transmitter duct-taped between the bird's wings tells him so. "It's great because I can come in at 8 and there's a pile of data in my office," Anderson says. "I can do a lecture, go for a run, come back, and find out where the birds are." (From Science Thursday feature: Tracking the Albatross," 3/12/98)

From the Dallas Morning News ...

Here's how deep the splits have grown within the Southern Baptist Convention: Leaders of conservative and moderate Texas factions recently met for nine hours and found no way to bridge the gaps. Leaders of the fledgling, conservative Southern Baptists of Texas have agreed to affiliate with them, with an additional 200 expressing interest. ... Decades ago, even deep chasms of disagreement like these were not enough to fracture the state and national conventions, said Dr. Bill Leonard, a Baptist, historian and the dean of the Wake Forest University Divinity School in North Carolina. "The union of Southern Baptists and Southern culture was the glue that held all that together," he said. "As the culture becomes more diverse, the differences in the convention become more difficult to sustain." (3/8/98, Religion section, first Web-posted on 2/28)

From the Winston-Salem Journal ...

She soared over the Pacific Ocean for six days, riding wind currents, using a sophisticated, innate sense of physics and meteorology to travel miles without even a flap of her great wings. The bird, a black-footed albatross, foraged for her favored foods — dead squid, whale carcasses, rotting fish — on this 2,700-mile trip that started on Tern Island, Hawaii. ... By Wednesday, this one made its way as far east as California, circling the San Francisco Bay. A thumbsize transmitter taped to her back sent a signal to a satellite system, which relayed the signal to monitoring stations in Alaska, Virginia and France. Researchers, led by Dave Anderson, a professor of biology at Wake Forest University, pick up the signal and post the information on a Web page. The researchers also ship information each to day to elementary schools around the world ...(3/5/98)

From the Christian Science Monitor ...

The extraordinary events that have played out in Washington over the past six weeks have seemed at times not so much new drama as the second act of something that began a quarter-century ago: Watergate. ... Some prosecutors believe Starr has gone too far in issuing subpoenas dealing with White House media contacts, in dragging Lewinsky's mother before a grand jury, and in general investigating the case very aggressively. ... "People were willing to accept the outcome of independent counsel investigations as impartial for most of the office's history," says Katy Harriger, a Wake Forest University political scientist. "That's in question here." (3/6/98)

From EarthWatch Radio ...

A biologist uses satellites to spy on birds that run a marathon at sea. The albatross is among the world's largest flying birds. The wingspan of some birds can reach more than 11 feet. Scientists have trouble studying these speedy seabirds. Boats move too slowly to follow them, and planes don't work either. An albatross can fly for days or even weeks and no aircraft can match that kind of airtime. Dave Anderson wants to know more about albatrosses because their numbers appear to be dropping. Anderson is a biologist at Wake Forest University in North Carolina. He's using satellites to track two species of albatross in the Hawaiian Islands ... (3/5/98)

From USA Today ...

Thomas Dorworth didn't need much persuading when son Chris, a student at the University of Florida, lobbied for a laptop computer two Christmases ago ... The Gainesville campus will become the nation's biggest to require students to have access to computers, a mammoth undertaking for which it is now training faculty, staff and students, and wiring labs and libraries for the phase-in beginning this summer. But it's not the first to institute a computer requirement ... at the forefront have been small, mostly liberal arts colleges, including ... Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, N.C. ... George Murphy, who sits on Wake Forest's parents council, says families don't mind the expense because they know ÷ and like ÷ what their kids are getting in return. Murphy says he would have bought daughter Molly, a Wake Forest sophomore, a laptop regardless of the policy. "At home now they're so tied in with the Internet they would feel lost without it," he says. (3/5/98)

From The New York Times ...

A Texas church ostracized by other local Baptists in the 1940's for welcoming blacks has come under fire again, this time after ordaining a gay deacon and advertising an outreach program for gay people on its Web site. ... The action comes during a struggle between moderate and fundamentalist Baptists across the country. The moderate-controlled Texas group, following Virginia's lead, has taken steps to become more autonomous from the fundamentalist national organization, the Southern Baptist Convention. Now, like its Virginia counterpart, the Baptist General Convention faces a rival, fundamentalist state convention seeking to woo its affiliated churches, said Bill Leonard, dean of the Wake Forest University Divinity School. Though fundamentalist Baptists accept gay members, it is with the understanding that same-sex relations are sinful and those members must actively seek to change or remain celibate. Full acceptance of gay members has become a kind of line in the sand for the fundamentalists, Dean Leonard said. (3/1/98)

From the Winston-Salem Journal ...

From my vantage point, our nation's racial crisis is the natural and inevitable result of our crisis of spiritual values. Simply stated, the choice we have before us is clear: either the malignancy of hatred or wounded healing. I choose the latter. For with the pain of candor also comes the certainty of knowing that all humanity matters, that all people are of consequence — the infirmed, the aged, the poor person, the housewife, the farmer, the woman, the young boy, the head of state. (From the Op-Ed column, "DARK OF WINTER: Indifference is the enemy we must all confront," by Alton B. Pollard III, professor of religion, WFU, 3/1/98)

From the Winston-Salem Journal ...

The Internet could have as big an impact on religion today as the printing press had when it helped spark the Protestant Reformation 500 years ago, says Stephen D. O'Leary. "Religion is one of the fastest-growing sections of cyberspace," said O'Leaery, who is an associate professor at the Annenberg School of Communication at the University of Southern California ... O'Leary spoke at Wake Forest University last week as part of the school's Year of Religion in American Life. (2/28/98)

From the Winston-Salem Journal ...

From the Winston-Salem Journal ...

From a small office tucked away in Tribble Hall on Wake Forest University's campus, Katy Harriger has become one of the nation's leading experts on independent counsels. In 1992, she published a book called Independent Justice, which is the only scholarly publication that traces the history of independent counsels. Recently, national news shows and newspapers, critics, and politicians have all sought her opinions on the role of Kenneth Starr, the independent counsel appointed to investigate the dealings of President Clinton, as he continues to stretch the purview of his investigation. (2/26/98)

From the San Diego Union-Tribune ...

Science may be a group endeavor, a collegial sort of thing, but most research tends to be done individually or in small groups, out in the field or tucked away in a lab. ... But there are exceptions, and two involve ongoing or new efforts to better understand birds. The first is David Anderson's precedent-setting study of albatrosses — those great, ocean-going birds who ply the southern oceans and northern Pacific searching for fish and squid, never settling on land except to nest. ... Anderson, a biologist at Wake Forest University, hopes to plug some of these information gaps by monitoring two species — the Laysan and the black-footed albatrosses — that temporarily nest on Tern Island in Hawaii... (2/18/98)

From Scientific American ...

Dave Anderson is no modern day Ancient Mariner, trying to rid himself of these wide-winged wonders. Instead, the Wake Forest University professor is out tracking down as many albatrosses as he can. And thanks to satellites, the World Wide Web and the Albatross Project's listserv, several thousand school children are tagging along. (Site review, Scientific American online, 2/17/98)

From the Sarasota Herald-Tribune ...

The cab driver was talking about how his ex-lady could not understand his ways. She was a black Jamaican. He was an Apache who had grown up on a New Mexico reservation. ... He said he practiced both Christianity and his spiritual traditions. The subject of religious identity and diversity wove its way from that cab ride through a conference last Saturday at Wake Forest University. The conference's topic was "The Changing Faces of American Religion: Religion Reporting in the New Century." Wake Forest is celebrating a "Year of Religion in American Life." (2/14/98)

From the Winston-Salem Journal ...

Religion reporters hunt for meaningful themes in a field of continuing change. Many find those themes in stories of people searching for God. "Because for billions of people on this planet, God does exist in some fashion," said David Waters of The Commercial Appeal in Memphis, Tenn. Waters was one of about 60 religion reporters from across the country who gathered last Saturday at Wake Forest University. "The Changing Faces of American Religion: Religion Reporting in the New Century" was sponsored by Wake Forest and the Poynter Institute for Media Studies based in St. Petersburg, Fla. (2/14/98)

From The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer ...

JIM LEHRER: "Our presidential historians, joined by Professor Katy Harriger, offer some historical perspectives on the role of the independent counsel. ... Professor Harriger, the idea, the premise was that an administration cannot investigate its own wrongdoing, is that it, thatâs what came out of that, and thatâs what has guided this ever since?

KATY HARRIGER, Wake Forest University: Right. I mean, the presumption was that there was a conflict of interest any time the attorney general had to investigate his superior or her superior. And by extension, the assumption was that really any time they had to investigate someone in the executive branch, where there might be some political fallout or damage, with those allegations that they had a conflict of interest..." (Transcript from the program, "Acting Independently" on the independent counsel law, 2/13/98)

From The Chronicle of Higher Education ...

As a Wake Forest University researcher tracks the feeding patterns of albatrosses on Hawaii, he may also be inspiring a new generation of scientists. David Anderson, a biology professor at the university, is using satellites to track albatrosses across the Pacific Ocean. With e-mail and a World-Wide Web site, he is also sharing his research data with thousands of elementary-school students, giving them a chance to test their own hypotheses about the behavior of the birds, which are known for their great wingspans and long sojourns at sea. (2/13/98)

From the Winston-Salem Journal ...

Pull up a chair. Don't be shy. It's just a computer that can link you to information about anything in town that's important. Government, hospitals, schools, businesses, Virginia Tech, civic groups — they all share this network .. It's all part of the Blacksburg Electronic Village, or the BEV, a thriving virtual community started in 1993 by the university, the town and a telephone company ... as Wake Forest University and business leaders in Winston-Salem push forward with plans to create Winston-Net, a community computer network that will tie government, schools and local universities together, they'll take lessons from Blacksburg. Jay Dominick, the assistant vice president for information systems at Wake Forest and one of the leaders in the Winston-Net project, said that Winston-Net has looked to Blacksburg, among others, to learn about planning a community network. "They've had to break a lot more ground than we have to break," Dominick said. (2/8/98)

From USA Today...

If independent counsel Kenneth Starr develops evidence of serious wrongdoing by President Clinton, officials close to Starr and senior White House strategists believe the case is more likely to be settled in the chambers of Congress than in a court of law .. [S]enior officials familiar with Starr's thinking say they expect him to follow the impeachment route if the evidence warrants, as the Watergate special counsel decided to do a quarter-century ago ... "In the end, I think impeachment is largely a political process," says Katy Harriger, a political scientist at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, N.C., who has written a book on the special counsel law. "It depends on questions about the president's popularity, for example, and what the partisan balance in Congress is." (2/4/98)

From TIME magazine ...

Criticism of (Kenneth) Starr's role in the Lewinsky affair begins with his entry into it ... to Starr's critics, the wiring of (Linda) Tripp was outside his legal authority because of its connection to Whitewater was so tenuous. Starr also arguably subverted the protections built into the independent-counsel law by making it impossible for the Justice Department to conduct its own investigation, as it is legally required to do, before he started taping Lewinsky. "It sounds like the Justice Department was presented with a fait accompli," says Wake Forest University professor Katy Harriger, author of a book on independent counsels. (2/2/98)

From The New York Times ...

"The question is whether the independent counsel gives value for the cost," said Katy J. Harriger, a political scientist and author of "Independent Justice: The Federal Special Prosecutor in American Politics" (University Press of Kansas, 1992). "It is a benefit worth keeping, one with real value, if it gives the public reassurance that an impartial investigation has occurred," said Ms. Harriger, an associate professor of politics at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, N.C. (2/1/98)

From the Baltimore Sun...

A key part of the White House strategy for defusing the Monica Lewinsky crisis was demonstrated by Hillary Rodham Clinton over the past two days: Attack Kenneth W. Starr, the independent counsel, as being part of a "vast right-wing conspiracy" against President Clinton ... Katy Harriger, a professor of politics at Wake Forest University and the author of a book on special prosecutors, said Starr is the first independent counsel with the kind of political baggage that invites skepticism and attacks such as those launched by Mrs. Clinton. "Had the record on Starr been clear, this would be a much harder tack to take," Harriger said. (1/29/98)

From USA Today ...

Congress may have to consider the historic question of whether President Clinton should be impeached, whether it wants to or not ... Legal scholars have long debated whether the Constitution allows a sitting president to be indicted, or whether impeachment is the only way he can be punished. If (independent counsel Kenneth Starr) wants to avoid that constitutional tangle, he could forward the results of his probe to the House without ever seeking an indictment. "That's why it is in the law," says Wake Forest University politics professor Katy Harriger, author of a book on independent counsels. "The Watergate prosecutors concluded they could not indict a sitting president, but they wanted to be able to do something with the information they gathered." (1/27/98)

From Legal Times ...

Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr has created new case law that whittles away at attorney-client privilege ... And many legal experts say that it is time for Congress to retool the independent counsel law. "The statute was clearly designed to find ways to constrain and limit the independent counsel," says Katy Harriger, an associate professor of politics at Wake Forest University who has written a scholarly book on the history of special prosecutors. "The larger issue is, if we can separate ourselves from the sensationalism of the allegations," Harriger continues, "does this raise questions that Starr has become a personal investigator of the president?" (1/26/98)

From The Associated Press ...

The steeple atop Wait Chapel might reach toward the heavens, but its roots on the Wake Forest University campus are firmly planted in the Baptist church ... In the fall of 1999, Wake Forest will open a divinity school. Leaders want it to reflect the school's Baptist heritage by honoring intellectual freedom and openness while demanding academic vigor. (1/26/98)

From the Environmental News Network ...

Flight of the albatross — Kids from all over are joining scientists in the Albatross Project and it's a fascinating site to behold — all of the wonder, and ingenuity and scientific rigor that the Internet provides. (From Cyberhiker, Places to go, things to see on the Internet, Column by Hillary Mayell, 1/23/98)

From the Winston-Salem Journal ...

Tony Campolo, a spiritual adviser to President Clinton, said yesterday that he is praying for Clinton, the woman Clinton is alleged to have had an affair with and the country. "I spent a lot of time in prayer for him, and I spent a lot of time in prayer for this young lady," he said. He said he also prayed that the allegations do not diminish "the greatness of America." He talked about Clinton during a press conference between speaking engagements at Wake Forest University. He was the keynote speaker for the school's Founder's Day, and also spoke as part of its Year in Religion in American Life. At the Founder's Day convocation in Wait Chapel yesterday morning, marking the 164th anniversary of the school's founding, Campolo's speech focused on students and stressed the importance of spiritual commitment to helping others rather than the pursuit of happiness. (1/23/98)

From the Roanoke Times & World News ...

Virginia Tech has started a scholarship program to help a few students defray the cost of buying a computer — a university requirement beginning this fall ... When he announced the mandate, Tech President Paul Torgersen said computer literacy was essential in the modern world but that the university wouldn't turn a student away who couldn't afford one. Georgia Tech, Wake Forest and the University of Delaware already require new students to own computers, Tech officials have said. (1/23/98)

From the Associated Baptist Press ...

Two Baptist schools — one in Asia and one in the United States — have received recent grants from the Henry Luce Foundation. Hong Kong Baptist University's national gallery of art will receive a three-year grant of $120,000 for a new archive on the influence of Christianity of China. Another grant of $150,000 will go to a new divinity school at Wake Forest University, set to open in 1999, to develop a series of multidisciplinary courses to equip students for churches' changing needs. The grants are among nearly $5 million in recent Luce Foundation gifts supporting programs in the arts, Asia, higher education, public affairs and theology. The foundation, based in New York City, was established more than 60 years ago by Time magazine founder and editor Henry Luce. (1/20/98)

From the Winston-Salem Journal ...

For about 10 years, area Indians had rented the fellowship hall at Wesley Memorial United Methodist Church on Bolton Street. They usually rented the building on Saturday nights, paying about $50 each time and holding such events as graduation and birthday parties. But about three months ago, they began holding Hindu prayer services there. Members of the Wesley Memorial congregation objected to having as many as 75 people chanting Hindu prayers, or bhajans, and reading the Bhagavad-Gita under their roof. Last week, the Rev. Bill Garrard and the church board of trustees decided that the Indians could no longer worship in their fellowship hall. The Indians are welcome to hold non-religious activities there, they said. Situations like the one the Hindus face are thresholds, said Charles Kimball, the chairman of the department of religion at Wake Forest University. "We all know that society is changing and is increasing in religious diversity. But at another level, those changes can be unsettling and even threatening. In a very real sense, if you look historically, we're looking at an infancy stage in interfaith understanding." (1/17/98)

From International Wildlife ...

Galapagos redfoots gather in immense colonies on the outer islands to breed. The species may have chosen these out-of-the-way domiciles to escape predators, according to Dave Anderson, a booby expert from Wake Forest University in North Carolina. Many of the outer islands are free of Galapagos hawks, a major nemesis of the booby. The smaller red-foots appear to be particularly vulnerable to hawks, says Anderson, and need to breed on islands free of this predator. (From the January/February 1998 issue. International Wildlife is the official magazine of the National Wildlife Federation)

From the Environmental News Network ...

Wake Forest University biologist David Anderson normally does his field studies of seabirds in the wild without much company, but that's about to change. In just a few weeks, Anderson — and students in thousands of classrooms in the United States — will begin satellite tracking two species of albatross that nest on Tern Island in Hawaii. (1/7/98)