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VOL 112 , NO. 10
MARCH 5, 2026
WA K E F O R E S T ’ S S T U D E N T N E W S PA P E R S I N C E 1 9 1 6
Ǥ Ǥ ϐ Forest as “high risk” institution After Defense Department cuts ties with Harvard, ambiguous communication raises questions at other top universities MIRIAM FABRYCKY Deputy Editor
Leaked photos of an internal U.S. Army email show Wake Forest appearing on a list of 33 “moderate to high risk” universities, CNN and Business Insider reported in February. It’s unclear what exactly the Army means by this designation, which comes shortly after the Defense Department announced it would end its academic partnerships with Harvard University. On Friday, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said he would block service members from attending certain selective universities, including Princeton University, Columbia University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Brown University, Yale University and “many others.” Hegseth said the ban would come into effect for the 2026-2027 academic year; the Defense Department has not published a full list of affected institutions. “No longer will we sit back and treat these woke breeding grounds of toxic indoctrination as valid centers of so-called intellectual curiosity,” Hegseth said in a video posted to X, formerly known as Twitter. 527& SURIHVVRU 1R RI¿FLDO ZDUQLQJV RI VLJQL¿FDQW FKDQJHV IRU :DNH )RUHVW /W &RO -RKQ )ODFK DQ DFWLYH GXW\ $UP\ RI¿FHU and professor of military science with the No Fear %DWWDOLRQ :DNH )RUHVW¶V $UP\ 5HVHUYH 2I¿FHUV¶ Training Corps (ROTC) program, said in an interYLHZ 7KXUVGD\ WKDW KH VDZ QR RI¿FLDO LQGLFDWLRQ WKDW the Army is reassessing its partnerships with the university. “The list that’s been circulated was a picture of VRPHERG\¶V FRPSXWHU DERXW DQ XQRI¿FLDO HPDLO ´ Flach said. “The Army has published no list of high or moderate risk universities, so we don’t have any reason to believe that that’s the case.” Even if the Army did cut academic ties with Wake Forest, Flach said he anticipated only minimal effects for enrolled service members and ROTC cadets. “All other programs [beyond Harvard] are still under evaluation,” Flach said. “I do know that all current students in a funded program would be allowed to continue their education, even for the program at Harvard.” “It doesn't have anything to do with undergraduate education programs or education assistance, and it certainly doesn't have anything to do with ROTC,” Flach continued. “So ROTC programs would remain in place.”
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:DNH )RUHVW KDV KLVWRULFDO DQG FXUUHQW $UP\ tion or discussion of any of that changing.” FRQQHFWLRQV One change that will take effect soon: Wake Forest ROTC will transition from a “host university” Wake Forest shares longstanding partnerships with program to an extension unit of ROTC at North the U.S. Army. During World War II, the then-Col- Carolina Agricultural and Technical State Univerlege hosted the Army’s Advanced Finance School on sity. The move is driven by the Army’s reductions its campus in Wake Forest, N.C. Following the war, a in force as part of the Trump administration’s camFKHPLFDO ZDUIDUH RI¿FHU HVWDEOLVKHG D 527& EUDQFK paign to shrink the federal government. Flach said of the Army Chemical Corps Reserve at Wake For- the number of ROTC staff at Wake Forest “will be est, which enrolled hundreds of students. Wake Forreduced slightly” but that the “student experience est maintained high ROTC participation over the won’t change.” next several decades. “We'll still have full-time cadets. We'll still have Today, Wake Forest enrolls a handful of active-duty scholarships,” Flach said. “They're still going to service members, usually in professional programs. have class here, [physical training] here, leadership 13 active and former military personnel attended the laboratory here… If anything, I would argue the caWake Forest School of Law in Spring 2025. det experience is going to improve from just addi“All those folks, even if the Army came out today and said that we were gonna follow the path that Har- tional diversity and additional access to resources.” vard went down, they wouldn't be affected,” Flach said. “Veterans would still be able to use veterans’ Contact Miriam Fabrycky at HGXFDWLRQ EHQH¿WV KHUH ± DW OHDVW WKHUH LV QR LQGLFD- fabrml24@wfu.edu
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