Mission of the Graduate School

The mission of the WFU Graduate School of Arts and Sciences is to train and mentor future leaders in research, teaching and innovation for serving humanity. This embodies the Graduate School’s vital role as an engine of discovery that fuels the nation’s scholarly and creative enterprise. The Graduate School contributes to the academic reputation of the university by educating the next generation of teachers and scholars and by providing mentors and role models for educating undergraduates. A strong graduate program also helps support faculty research and is critical for faculty recruitment and retention.

We seek to instill in our students a sense of professionalism, which includes the ethical behavior inherent in their professional role, as well as respect for their colleagues, their field, and for society as a whole. We want our students to be critical, independent thinkers and good citizens. They should be motivated to apply their scholastic efforts to enlighten and improve the wellbeing of society. Thus the Graduate School is a key link for collaboration between departments and schools and for achieving WFU’s goal of becoming a collegiate university and major academic medical center.

Our values are steadfast and consist of critical thinking, service, diversity, discovery, mentoring, and ethics. These are integral to all our activities in the classroom, the laboratory or other research environments, the broader communities of which we are a part.

Our vision is for the Graduate School to be a diverse community of excellence. We achieve our vision and fulfill our mission through strategic activities that build pillars of excellence in:

• Student experience: to create an optimized learning and mentoring experience that prepares students to lead in any career path.
• Research: to provide high-quality research partnerships for promoting innovation, discovery and creation of value to the community.
• Faculty and staff support: to enable seamless, effective, aligned services for maximizing time and resources for instruction and research.
• Internal and external communication: to celebrate the prominence and value of the Graduate School and the University.

The Graduate School confers the Master of Arts, Master of Arts in Education, Master of Arts in Human Services, Master of Fine Arts, and Master of Science degrees in the arts and sciences and biomedical science, and the Doctor of Philosophy degree. The Graduate School also offers a MD/MS, MD/PhD, PhD/MMS, as well as a MD/MA in bioethics jointly with the School of Medicine, and a PhD/MBA program jointly with the School of Business. In addition, the Graduate School offers an MDiv/MA in bioethics, counseling, or sustainability as well as a MDiv/MAED jointly with the School of Divinity; and a JD/MA in bioethics and sustainability jointly with the School of Law. Certificates are offered in Bioethics, Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment, Data Science, Interpreting and Translation Studies, Medieval and Early Modern Studies, Structural and Computational Biophysics, and Sustainability.

History of the Graduate School 

In accord with the prevailing custom among American colleges during the antebellum period, Wake Forest granted honorary master’s degrees to selected alumni.

By 1862, when the College closed temporarily because of the Civil War, twenty-nine such degrees had been awarded. The first announcement of a program of study leading to an earned graduate degree at Wake Forest was made in 1866. Between 1871, when the first degrees earned under the plan were awarded to John Bruce Brewer (grandson of Samuel Wait) and Franklin Hobgood, and 1951, 383 Master of Arts and Master of Science degrees were granted. In 1949 the School of Arts and Sciences discontinued admitting applicants for the Master of Arts degree because the rapid increase in the size of the undergraduate student body following World War II had overloaded the faculty. The School of Medicine did not interrupt its graduate program. The first Master of Science degree conferred by the school after it moved to Winston-Salem was awarded in 1943, and the degree was offered regularly thereafter by the departments of Anatomy, Biochemistry, Microbiology, Pharmacology, and Physiology.

During the fifteen years the College and the School of Medicine were located in different towns, the study of graduate education continued on both campuses. The self-study report adopted by the faculty of the School of Arts and Sciences immediately prior to its move to Winston-Salem recommended that graduate study leading to the Master’s degree be resumed as soon as practicable. In 1958 the administration of the School of Medicine, in view of an increasing demand for graduate instruction in basic medical and clinical sciences, appointed a Committee on Graduate Studies for the purpose of reorganizing the graduate program.

As a result of these two parallel studies and in recognition of the need for an institution-wide approach to graduate education, the trustees, on January 13, 1961, established the Division of Graduate Studies and authorized it to grant the Master of Arts degree in the School of Arts and Sciences and the Master of Science and Doctor of Philosophy degrees in the School of Medicine. The first PhD degree was awarded in 1964. In 1967 the Master of Arts in Education degree was added to the graduate program in arts and sciences. A program, leading to the Master of Arts in Liberal Studies, was begun in the summer of 1987. The first PhD program on the Reynolda campus was begun in 1970.

Administration

The Graduate School is administered by one Dean and a Graduate Council composed of ex-officio administrative officials, twelve faculty members elected by the Graduate School faculty, and two graduate students elected by the Graduate Student Association. Six of the twelve are members of the College of Arts and Sciences (Reynolda campus) and six are members of the Wake Forest School of Medicine faculty (Bowman Gray campus).

Statement of Mission and Purpose 

Wake Forest is a university dedicated to the pursuit of excellence in the liberal arts and in graduate and professional education. Its distinctiveness in its pursuit of its mission derives from its private, coeducational, and residential character; its size and location; and its Baptist heritage. Each of these factors constitutes a significant aspect of the unique character of the institution.

The University is now comprised of seven constituent parts: Wake Forest College, the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, the School of Law, the School of Medicine, the School of Business, the School of Divinity, and the School of Professional Studies. It seeks to honor the ideals of liberal learning, which entail commitment to transmission of cultural heritages; teaching the modes of learning in the basic disciplines of human knowledge; developing critical appreciation of moral, aesthetic and religious values; advancing the frontiers of knowledge through in-depth study and research; and applying and utilizing knowledge in the service of humanity.

Wake Forest has been dedicated to the liberal arts for over a century and a half; this means education in the fundamental fields of human knowledge and achievement, as distinguished from education that is technical or narrowly vocational. It seeks to encourage habits of mind that ask “why,” that evaluate evidence, that are open to new ideas, that attempt to understand and appreciate the perspectives of others, that accept complexity and grapple with it, that admit error, and that pursue truth. Wake Forest College has by far the largest student body in the University, and its function is central to the University’s larger life. The College and the Graduate School are most singularly focused on learning for its own sake; they therefore serve as exemplars of specific academic values in the life of the University.

Beginning as early as 1894, Wake Forest accepted an obligation to provide professional training in a number of fields, as a complement to its primary mission of liberal arts education. This responsibility is fulfilled in the conviction that the humane values embodied in the liberal arts are also centrally relevant to the professions. Professional education at Wake Forest is characterized by a commitment to ethical and other professional ideals that transcend technical skills. Like the Graduate School, the professional schools are dedicated to the advancement of learning in their fields. In addition, they are specifically committed to the application of knowledge to solving concrete problems of human beings. They are strengthened by values and goals which they share with the College and Graduate School, and the professional schools enhance the work of these schools and the University as a whole by serving as models of service to humanity.

Wake Forest was founded by private initiative, and ultimate decision-making authority lies in a privately appointed Board of Trustees rather than in a public body. Funded to a large extent from private sources of support, it is determined to chart its own course in the pursuit of its goals. As a co-educational institution it seeks to “educate together” persons of both sexes and from a wide range of backgrounds--racial, ethnic, religious, geographical, socio-economic and cultural. Its residential features are conducive to learning and to the pursuit of a wide range of co-curricular activities. It has made a conscious choice to remain small in overall size; it takes pride in being able to function as a community rather than a conglomerate. Its location in the Piedmont area of North Carolina engenders an ethos that is distinctively Southern, and more specifically North Carolinian. As it seeks further to broaden its constituency and to receive national recognition, it is also finding ways to maintain the ethos associated with its regional roots.

Wake Forest is proud of its Baptist and Christian heritage. For more than a century and a half, it has provided the University an indispensable basis for its mission and purpose, enabling Wake Forest to educate thousands of ministers and lay people for enlightened leadership in their churches and communities. Far from being exclusive and parochial, this religious tradition gives the University roots that ensure its lasting identity and branches that provide a supportive environment for a wide variety of faiths. The Baptist insistence on both the separation of church and state and local autonomy has helped to protect the University from interference and domination by outside interests, whether these be commercial, governmental, or ecclesiastical. The Baptist stress upon an uncoerced conscience in matters of religious belief has been translated into a concern for academic freedom. The Baptist emphasis upon revealed truth enables a strong religious critique of human reason, even as the claims of revelation are put under the scrutiny of reason. The character of intellectual life at Wake Forest encourages open and frank dialogue and provides assurance that the University will be ecumenical and not provincial in scope, and that it must encompass perspectives other than the Christian. Wake Forest thus seeks to maintain and invigorate what is noblest in its religious heritage.

Nondiscrimination Statement

Wake Forest University is committed to diversity, inclusion and the spirit of its motto, Pro Humanitate. In adherence with applicable laws and as provided by University policies, the University prohibits discrimination in its employment practices and its educational programs and activities on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, sex, age, sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, genetic information, disability and veteran status.

The following person has been designated to handle inquiries regarding the University’s non-discrimination policies:

Title IX Coordinator
Section 504/ADA Coordinator
titleixcoordinator@wfu.edu
Reynolda Hall 307 Winston-Salem, NC 27106
336-758-7258

Assistant Vice President Human Resources
AskHR@wfu.edu
2958 Reynolda Road, Winston-Salem, NC 27106
(336)758-4700

Deputy Title IX Coordinators have also been designated and represent various University schools/divisions. Contact information for each Deputy Coordinator can be obtained from the University’s Title IX Coordinator.

Inquiries concerning the application of anti-discrimination laws may be referred to the individuals listed above or to the Office for Civil Rights, United States Department of Education. For further information on notice of non-discrimination, visit the Office of Civil Rights website for the address and phone number of the U. S. Department of Education office that serves your area, or call 1-800-421-3481.

Overview

The libraries of Wake Forest University support instruction and research at the undergraduate level and in the disciplines awarding graduate degrees. The libraries of the University hold membership in the Association of Southeastern Research Libraries.

The Wake Forest University libraries include: the Z. Smith Reynolds (ZSR) Library, located on the Reynolda Campus, supporting the undergraduate College, the Wake Forest School of Business, the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, the School of Divinity, and the School of Professional Studies; the Law Library, housed in the Worrell Professional Center on the Reynolda Campus, serving the School of Law; and the Coy C. Carpenter Library serving the Wake Forest School of Medicine and is located on the Bowman Gray Campus.

Collections

The three library collections total over 2.8 million titles, including over 1.8 million e-books, more than 150,000 electronic journals and over 15,000 DVDs as well as streaming media and other formats. The Law Library holds over 45,000 volumes and the Coy C. Carpenter Library holds over 35,000 volumes. The ZSR Library  and the Law Library serve as selective federal depositories as a part of the Federal Depository Library Program.The three libraries share an online search portal, which provides access to books, electronic resources, journals and databases. Through our interlibrary loan service, students, faculty and staff may obtain materials from other libraries at no charge.

Z. Smith Reynolds Library

The Z. Smith Reynolds Library (ZSR) provides comprehensive reference and research services in-person and online. Research Librarians work with individual classes across the disciplines on research papers and library users can request personal research sessions with Research Librarians at all phases of their research process. Library faculty also teach elective courses in the fundamentals of research and information literacy and upper-level courses geared towards research in the disciplines and special topics in information. The Digital Initiatives & Scholarly Communication librarians support faculty scholarship and student digital project coursework through consulting and instruction on tools, methodologies, project management, digital publishing, open education, data management, copyright, and open access.

Special Collections & Archives (SCA) serves as a research repository for rare, unique, and primary source materials in the Z. Smith Reynolds Library, including nearly 80,000 volumes and 15,000 linear ft. of collections. SCA acquires, preserves, and provides access to a wide range of primary research materials in their original formats, and in particular, seeks to better document underrepresented communities on campus. Major collections include the Baptist Historical Collection of North Carolina, Manuscripts, the Rare Book Collection, and the University Archives. SCA has a major outreach program offering events and presentations and also frequently hosts Wake Forest faculty and their classes. All are welcome to use the collections, a selection of which are available online in SCA Digital Collections, which currently numbers over 245,000 items. Please contact archives@wfu.edu for access to the collections by appointment or to submit a specific question.

Spaces

The Z. Smith Reynolds library has group study rooms equipped with large screen monitors and individual study carrels that can be booked online. Windows PCs, Macintosh computers, and media viewing stations are available for public use. Multimedia equipment, Chromebooks, tablets, and other technology devices may be reserved for checkout. Reference and online chat are available to help library visitors to find resources and research assistance. The library has a 118-seat auditorium that is available for use by Wake Forest community groups for programs, lectures, and film screenings. 

ZSR houses The Bridge Service Desk, the Center for the Advancement of Teaching,  the Office of Online Education, and The Writing Center. The Bridge provides hardware and software support for WFU students, faculty, and staff. The Center for the Advancement of Teaching is a resource center for Wake Forest faculty at all stages of their careers. The Office of Online Education is a resource for faculty interested in designing and delivering online learning experiences in the courses they teach.  The Writing Center provides help to guide students through their writing process.

Access

ZSR Library is committed to creating an accessible, enriching, and welcoming community space for all.
The library's hours vary by semester and can be found at https://zsr.wfu.edu/calendar/. Several large spaces are available via WFU Deacon OneCard entry even when the library is closed. These include over 200 seats of open study, reservable study rooms, vending machines, printers/copiers/scanners, and the library’s bank of touchless smart lockers for pickup of requested materials. The Library also houses Smith’s Cafe, our coffee shop.  Check out the hours and events calendar to stay up to date. See a full description of the ZSR Library resources and services at zsr.wfu.edu. 

Information Technology / Academic Computing

Information Systems supports University instruction, research, and administrative needs through computing and telecommunications services. The University’s computing resources serve both academic and business needs. Wake Forest’s network infrastructure includes a 10-gigabit-per-second Ethernet backbone, a mixture of 100-Megabit and 1-Gigabit-per-second switched connectivity to the desktop, and pervasive wireless connectivity in all campus buildings and select outdoor locations. 

All students are given a WFU account. This account is maintained as long as the student is enrolled and provides access to networked computer resources such as electronic mail, client software packages, various courseware applications, and administrative services. Students are able to reset their forgotten password or change their expired password through a self-service password management portal, account.wfu.edu. Eduroam provides a secured WiFi network for visiting students to use their home institution’s WiFi credentials to access WiFi network services. Our students can take advantage of this service by using their Wake Forest credentials when visiting other eduroam participating institutions.

Students have the option to bring their own computer device or purchase a laptop through the WakeWare program. WakeWare provides students the opportunity to purchase a specially selected laptop configured to run academic technology at a negotiated price, bundled with extended warranties and protection, and provided with on-campus support. WakeWare evaluates new models, as available, to offer the most up-to-date technology to our students. WakeWare laptops have been thoroughly tested to ensure compatibility with academic software.

The Service Desk, a service center, located on the main floor of the Z. Smith Reynolds Library provides on-campus support for all IT-related questions and assistance. The Tech Shop, located in the Service Desk, is an authorized Apple, Dell, and Lenovo ThinkPad service center.  With extended Service Desk hours, the online help portal, AskDeac, as well as Live Chat, there are extensive options for getting IT help. In addition, the IS website provides timely announcements and in depth service-related content. 

All students have access to licensed software and tools, via software@WFU, for coursework, degree projects, and research; including SPSS, a statistical package used for data analysis, forecasting, and financial modeling; Maple; and Matlab, an interactive environment for algorithm development, data visualization, and data analysis.

Students also have access to computing resources outside the University. The University is a member of:

• The Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR), located at the University of Michigan. Membership in ICPSR provides faculty and students with access to a large library of data files, including public opinion surveys, cross-cultural data, financial data, and complete census data.
• EDUCAUSE, a national consortium of colleges and universities concerned with computing issues.
• Eduroam, a global wireless network access service for research and education, accessed using Wake Forest credentials.

Information Systems maintains an extensive array of online resources, including the Wake Information Network (WIN), Banner, and more, that support University admissions, student registration, grade processing, and other academic applications. 

For advanced software with high computing requirements, WFU offers cloud-based virtualization. Engineering, among other departments, utilize a performance Workspace to run software, such as AutoCAD and COMSOL, needed for their Capstone Projects. The Wake Forest University Distributed Environment for Academic Computing (DEAC) cluster, a Linux-based High Performance Computing cluster provides supercomputing services academic research and coursework. These systems are available to students 24 hours a day through the Wake Forest University Network.

Students have unlimited access and full-time support using the One Button Studio, a fully automated video production facility, located in Z. Smith Reynolds Library behind the IS Service Desk. Wake Forest also has a student run Makerspace, named the WakerSpace. The space allows students to not only build physical projects using technology such as 3D printers, laser cutters, and solder stations, but also to learn skills such as podcasting, knitting, sewing, and woodworking through workshop partnerships with Facilities, Information Systems, and other resources across campus. By offering both academic and non-academic programs, the WakerSpace serves a broad range of interests across campus.

Information Systems offers cable television and streaming services. All residence hall rooms are equipped with cable TV connections and/or the ability to stream cable TV. Cable and/or streaming services provide access to campus information, news, weather, select HDTV channels and DVR recording via Stream2.