Staked and Extended: A Principled Fight for Roadway Harmony in Davis Field 

By Harper Shanly

WRI 111: Writing Seminar

To read Student Editor Yushuo Wang’s comments on the writing moves found in this essay, click on or hover over the footnotes within the text. 

“Hey Mom, watch me swing!” I lifted my head and saw a girl arc gracefully through the air, her head thrown back in a fit of uninhibited laughter. I sat up from the legacy oak tree I was resting against and saw her mother reciprocate the same joyful expression. Her daughter’s happiness made her happy, and I couldn’t help but smile. As they continued their stroll across Davis Field, I saw a gold and black pamphlet in each of their hands. “She must be an accepted student,” I thought. ¹ Besides offering his close observation of the girl and her mom, Harper engages us even more by demonstrating how he was part of the scene, creating a sense of resonance among readers.

Like the shimmering sea of grass before me, my mind traveled back to a late night in the ZSR Library, where my friend Aidan Norris and I were working together. After only hearing about the construction of a road through Davis Field by means of a petition Aidan started on March 22nd to voice student outcry, I wanted to learn more about the project. When I asked Aidan what Davis Field meant to him, he told me: “Davis Field’s expansive green space was one of the main reasons I decided to come to Wake. To build through it would mean degrading what makes this campus beautiful.” As I looked up at the darkening sky through a network of sprouting tree limbs, I wondered if it would be the same for the young woman on the swing. Would she choose Wake Forest in part because of Davis Field? Would she tell her friends and family about the time she was weightless in the air, and that was the moment she knew? ² With a series of rhetorical questions in place, Harper sets the tone of the essay, which also displays the general complaints from the student body. With her laughter still reverberating through my mind, my eyes continued to gaze at the swaying branches, but all I could see was a network of roadways looming above me. 

After speaking with Aidan, I was filled with a sense of self-efficacy to fight against the Davis Field Road construction. I signed the petition as one of its 500+ signatures, I shared it on social media, and I attended an Old Gold and Black Chat to express my concern to President Susan Wente and Vice President for Campus Life Dr. Shea Kidd Brown. I expected some sort of administrative retort to my claims but was left feeling surprised when President Wente emphasized that “student and community well-being is the top priority” for the project. I wanted to believe her, but how could that be when so many students signed a petition that said the road construction would be a detriment to their well-being and the campus as a whole? I found myself at a mental crossroads and was suggested by friend and mentor Brian Cohen, Assistant Director for Sustainability Engagement in the Office of Sustainability, to view Wake Forest University’s Campus Master Plan to develop a fuller understanding of the road construction in relation to the vision of the institution. Just like the word etched into one of the oak tree swings, I was determined to know the motivation, reasoning, and proposed benefits of the Davis Field Road construction, all in the effort to develop a holistic stance on a matter that will forever shape the future of the forest. 

As a framework for the future development of the Wake Forest campus over the next four decades, the current 88-page Campus Master Plan (last updated in 2019) aims to build on the vision of Jens Fredrick Larson, the original designer of the Reynolda campus. During an intense building period in the early 1950s to inaugurate Winston-Salem, NC as the new home for Wake Forest University, it was recognized that Larson’s plan was “establishing a distinct and harmonious campus through the building-to-open-space relationships” (Ayers 14). In other words, the foundation of our modern campus has been attributed to the thoughtful construction of buildings in relation to open spaces, instituting the balancing of these two entities as an important campus principle. ³ Just as Harper did here, we need to make possibly opaque background information accessible enough for our readers.

Further reading revealed several other planning principles identified by Ayers Saint Gross, an architectural firm out of Maryland that partnered with Wake Forest to update the Master Plan in 2009. The planning principles by design “guide the development of the physical campus and reflect the philosophy, culture, and character of the university, [ultimately representing] the qualities and characteristics that define Wake Forest” (Ayers 27). The proclaimed principles are organized below, along with their paraphrased conception. If these principles influence all proposed development on the Wake Forest campus, then having a clear understanding of what they say is crucial throughout the Davis Field Road construction as well as future capital projects. With this knowledge comes an opportunity to instill accountability. 

Although the updated Master Plan was relatively easy to find on the Wake Forest website, the search brought up questions about administration communication on the Davis Field Road construction as well as what the project actually entails. On March 17th, the WFU Should Know newsletter shared a very brief construction update with a link to an Inside WFU-Faculty and Staff article on the campus improvement projects. The next day on March 18th, The Daily Deac newsletter shared the same article link with a short reflection from Betsy Chapman, The Daily Deac head blogger. She provides an image from the 1990 Howler yearbook of how the campus used to look with Wake Forest Road going through Davis Field before it was rerouted in 1991.

While informative, my research on the Updated Campus Master Plan and the Inside WFU article led me to believe that one would have to know what they were looking for in order to understand the full scope of the Davis Field Road construction. Through this process, I was amazed to find that along with the road through Davis Field, there would be construction of a centralized shuttle stop on the other side of Hearn Plaza, replacing Lot N. 

*In the figure to the right, two new bus shelters will also be added to protect travelers from inclement weather. 

This new central location as stated by both sources will consolidate shuttle services, therefore improving route time efficiency, enhancing vehicle and pedestrian safety, and shortening the amount of traffic in the campus core. Although the construction of the road through Davis Field leading up to the arc on Hearn Plaza aims to achieve the same goals around the ZSR Library, Reynolda Hall, and the Benson Center, one goal stands out above the rest: “Restoring the alignment of [Wake Forest] Road [to] improve what is already an iconic arrival experience” (Ayers 41). If one of the main objectives of this project is to further the aesthetic appeal of entering campus through its natural beauty, then you must inevitably build through the untouched beauty of Davis Field. Davis Field is the largest open green space on campus, and many students believe that a road through it would desecrate a meaningful part of what makes our forest green. 

I didn’t have to look far to read about these opposing student views. ⁴ Here’s a good transition to the opposing voices of students. In Wake Forest’s student newspaper, The Old Gold and Black, several articles express students’ disdain toward the road through Davis Field. This can be shown through published titles such as, “Students Criticize New Davis Field Roadway” on March 29th, and “University Should Not Build Road Through Davis Field” on April 7th. One of the more impartial articles written by sophomore Cooper Sullivan called “Davis Field Construction Alters Campus Sustainability,” explores the potential concerns of the project which include the excess runoff from the road’s impervious surface and the removal of trees that are within the road’s staked-out trajectory. Sullivan does well in collecting a variety of responses from the important people involved, including Davis Field construction Project Manager Jill Perry. To combat these issues, Perry assures that the storm drains on the lower half of Davis Field will be modified to absorb a higher flow rate of runoff and that the 11 trees displaced will be “replanted alongside the extended road to maintain the “same type of Davis Field feel” (Sullivan).

With all this talk about what is going to be added through these projects, one must question what is going to be taken away. ⁵ What’s new and what will be taken away; this is another effective transition sentence, connecting paragraphs. For both the Davis Field and centralized shuttle stop construction, the removal of visitor and faculty/staff parking spaces in Lots N and B is a big concern. In the Inside WFU article, it is decided that Wake Forest will plan to offset this reduction by reallocating “thirty spaces in the parking lot across from the divinity school near Dogwood and Magnolia Residence Halls (Lot Q)” (Inside WFU) and ten spaces each to Lot A and P on either side of Wait Chapel. This compensation for removed parking, especially in Lot Q, provokes much student frustration. In sophomore staff writer Jackie Thacher’s article that was mentioned previously, “Students Criticize New Davis Field Roadway,” Thacher quotes impassioned senior Emily Potts who exclaims, “There is already a major concern for student parking on campus. Lot Q, among other student lots, is extremely congested during the day. There needs to be something done about increasing parking instead of just [reallocating] spots already there.”

Beyond just the good things the Davis Field Road and centralized shuttle station have been predicted to create, there seems to be a need to address current parking issues that could be exacerbated because of these projects. Even during the weekends as I have walked through Lot Q, I am shocked to see how packed it is with student vehicles. If Wake Forest wants to fulfill its planning principles, then it can’t just transfer parking spaces and traffic congestion away from the campus core and into heavily used student lots. This would go against Jens Fredrick Larson’s vision of maintaining a harmonious campus community. ⁶ This is a clever approach for an advocacy essay. Bringing up Jens Fredrick Larson’s blueprint again, Harper keeps his readers focused on the chief statement of the entire essay. Further sustainable and well-thought-out planning development must be in order. 

Before starting this project, I personally did not think about what could be potentially taken away if a road through Davis Field was built. Through conversations I had with Aidan and other outspoken peers, I learned that a road could disrupt marching band, Greek life, and cultural associations from utilizing the space, but I wanted to know the personal significance of what Davis Field truly meant to people. That’s why I created a google survey to find out. With 28 responses ranging from all undergraduate levels and different stances on the construction, all of them attributed at least some personal significance to Davis Field, with 17 of the responses saying that the expansive greenspace was somewhat to very meaningful to them. When asked, “How do you personally view Davis Field?”, the top three answers correlated strongly to the planning principles listed in the Master Plan: 1. A place to relax. 2. A place to admire nature. 3. A place to rest as well as a place to socialize. The responses to the question, “How do you think the student body perceives Davis Field?” are virtually the same, with the answer “a place for well-being” edging out “a place to admire nature” in the final tally. 

However, in order to try and gain an even better understanding of where a lot of my survey responders were coming from, I decided to undertake my own Davis Field excursion for the first time ever. I turned my music off and settled in next to a tree, one that was right in the middle of the trail of stakes that marked the eventual Wake Forest Road extension.

Within minutes, it felt like I had been set free. As my ears got more attuned to the different soundscapes, I could hear the interplay between the vehicular hum around me and the melodic birdsongs above. The grass danced between my outstretched fingertips, and even the smell of the approaching rain added to the enjoyment of merely existing in the natural environment of Davis Field. ⁷ Opening both his senses and the ones of the audience, Harper once again created a scene that engages his readers.

After witnessing the moment of benevolence between mother and daughter, I knew that Davis Field held a special significance; one that extends beyond the options of a survey and into the hearts of all past, present, and future Deacons who find themselves being drawn to the space. Davis Field is meant for the ones who venture into it and find a piece of their humanity restored. Davis Field is meant for the ones who walk by it on the way to class while noticing its greenery in bloom. Davis Field is even meant for the ones who might look past it on a daily basis. Davis Field is meant for the Wake Forest community in whatever way people choose to engage with it, and the Wake Forest community is meant for Davis Field and its longevity, no matter what future form it takes. ⁸ This paralleled structure builds itself up layer by layer, elucidating and emphasizing the significance of Davis Field to the entire community. This is a distinct aspect of the balance Jens Fredrick Larson set out to create for the Reynolda Campus back in the 1950s, and I for one will fight for this roadway harmony when the construction crews come rolling in next fall.

When I initially started this project, I was at the understanding that the opposing sides to the Davis Field Road construction were ultimately advocating for the same thing: the overall well-being of the Wake Forest campus community. On the pro-road side led by the Wake Forest administration, the upcoming construction projects laid out in the Master Plan would enhance the campus for decades to come: a long-term vision. On the contending side led mostly by a group of outspoken students, the construction projects (viewed mostly as the Davis Field Road construction) would degrade the campus currently: a short-term vision. To regain harmony (if there ever was harmony between these two forces), I would have had to present each side and their visions, show the shared goal between them, and try to find a way to disseminate this information between the two groups in an effort to create common an understanding. That was my initial goal for my project. ⁹ [The way the essay is laid out in front of our eyes meets exactly what Harper has planned ahead of time.]

While I still believe that the for/against sides to the Davis Field Road construction are fighting for similar aims, I no longer believe that achieving harmony lies in the creation of shared understanding between two timetables that are at odds with each other. A naysayer may interject and say, “Then you have failed to establish a stance of your own,” but I would say that the focus should not be on picking sides. The extension of Wake Forest Road through Davis Field is happening now. In approximately four short months, the stakes in the ground will be replaced with machinery and yellow caution tape. Picking a side in this debate could potentially provide internal resolution, but it wouldn’t stop the inevitable, so how can we make sure that the road through Davis Field is constructed harmoniously? I say we must use the Master Plan planning principles as a way to achieve this goal. 

In essence, roadway harmony through Davis Field means that the Wake Forest Road extension follows the Wake Forest planning principles on which all campus development is based. The principles as stated in the updated Campus Master Plan uplift the values of enhancing community well-being, respecting expansive green spaces, and promoting sustainability for years to come. To make sure the ensuing construction projects are done well and with this intention, education among the student body on these planning principles is crucial. You can rely on your personal significance to Davis Field all you want, but if you can’t reason within the confines of what has been laid out in the Master Plan, then you really can’t enforce the main way of achieving roadway harmony: and that is instilling administrative accountability. 

This is a principled fight. No matter where your beliefs lie on the project, if you want the runoff from the road extension to be sustainably and properly captured, then you educate yourself on the planning principles. If you want all 11 trees that are going to be uprooted and replanted on the side of the new road, even if you never even wanted the road to begin with, you educate yourself on the planning principles. If you want the Wake Forest administration to truly hear your voice beyond just the claims that have our best interests in mind, then educate yourself on the planning principles.

With knowledge comes instilled accountability pressured on the forces that be, and with accountability, comes responsibility for roadway harmony in Davis Field. ¹⁰ Pointing out the three key words of the essay, knowledge, accountability and harmony, Harper wraps up while imparting to the audience what he wants them to linger on. There may be construction, but we will never lose the significance of Davis Field if we fight this principled fight.

Works Cited

Ayers Saint Gross. Prod.wp.cdn.aws.wfu.edu.  https://prod.wp.cdn.aws.wfu.edu/sites/119/2022/03/WFU_Campus-Master-Plan_FinalReport_2019.11.04.pdf. 

Chapman, Betsy. “New Parents.wfu.edu Site!” Parents & Families, 18 Mar. 2022, https://parents.wfu.edu/2022/03/new-parents-wfu-edu-site/. 

“Maps: Parking.” About Wake Forest, Wake Forest University, 10 Mar. 2022, https://about.wfu.edu/visiting/maps/. 

Nataline, Aaron. “University Should Not Build Road through Davis Field.” Old Gold & Black, 7 Apr. 2022, https://wfuogb.com/16134/opinion/university-should-not-build-road-through-davis-field/. 

“New Centralized Shuttle Stop and Extension of Wake Forest Road Coming for Fall 2022.” Inside WFU – News for Faculty and Staff, 16 Mar. 2022.  https://inside.wfu.edu/2022/03/new-centralized-shuttle-stop-and-extension-of-wake-forest-road-coming-for-fall-2022/

Sullivan, Cooper. “Davis Field Construction Alters Campus Sustainability.” Old Gold & Black, 29 Mar. 2022, https://wfuogb.com/16037/features/davis-field-construction-alters-campus-sustainability/. 

Thacher, Jackie. “Students Criticize New Davis Field Roadway.” Old Gold & Black, 29 Mar. 2022, https://wfuogb.com/16040/news/students-criticize-new-davis-field-roadway/.

“WFU Should Know for March 17, 2022.” WFU Should Know for March 17, 2022, 17 Mar. 2022, https://us1.campaign-archive.com/?u=6b0a36eabbf19f7be29576ec4&id=e79964adb7.

(Link to Survey mentioned in the paper) https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1DYvHozU-wZ_1_x5TT-JMWHGa-jNYMssEgFJQb77Xxkc/prefill

A Word from Harper

My essay, “Staked and Extended: A Principled Fight for Roadway Harmony in Davis Field,” summoned me to dynamically engage with writing in a way that I have never experienced before. Initially, I possessed a fiery stance against anything to do with the implementation of the Davis Field Road, causing me to self-righteously confront advocates as if they were in the wrong. Only through talking with close friends and mentors who helped me realize the significance of educating myself on the sources of my discontentment, was I able to grow my understanding of the history and vision of Wake Forest University’s capital projects and how my beliefs and the institution’s weren’t directly at odds. 

By adopting this mindset, I was able to employ various mediums such as google survey and immersive reflection to not only flesh out my own beliefs on the construction, but also to strengthen my argument into a rallying expression rather than one of combativity. What is left is an essay of personal growth, cross textual research, and an opportunity for enthusiastic student empowerment. “Staked and Extended: A Principled Fight for Roadway Harmony in Davis Field” is a product of honoring the knowledge I gained in Dr. Witzel’s Weird Nature 111 Writing Seminar, and I am thankful for the opportunity to share it with y’all, the readers.

From Professor Guy Witzel

Commentary:

What is immediately striking about Harper’s essay is its emphasis on his own intellectual journey. As the prompt explains, I ask students to analyze a challenging ecological problem, one that doesn’t present immediate solutions and therefore compels them to wrestle with uncertainty, ambiguity, and complexity. Harper selects such a concern, a controversial development on this very campus, and much of his essay explores what it means to confront a project that is already long underway. While keen to incorporate student and administrative perspectives, positions he treats with remarkable fairness, Harper never separates himself from the drama.

From the start of “Staked and Extended,” we meet a writer invested in his community. With his back against that “legacy oak tree,” Harper may at first pose as just a curious observer. But with the words of his friend resonating in his ears and this scene of post-acceptance joy before him, a scene that artfully establishes the conflict under consideration, it’s not long before ominous portents loom in the branches overhead, and he becomes drawn into the disagreement surrounding the changes to Davis Field. Later, Harper will reevaluate his stance in light of what he learns from conversations with campus leadership; later still, he will pose something like a third position in the Campus Master Plan’s language of progress.

The result? “Staked and Extended” offers a model for the principled, community-engaged student scholar: patient, eager to understand the other, willing to re-assess, and yet capable of taking a position, especially when one belongs to the affected community and is committed to its wellbeing. In doing so – challenging himself to be wrong, giving space to a position he viewed as suspect, and writing about scrutinizing his preconceived notions – Harper accomplishes something that all of us, not just students, find to be tremendously difficult. He demonstrates how writing offers us a critical space and a process for questioning and examining our own beliefs and understanding.

Assignment:

Process Project:

Our final unit begins with discussion of a writer who challenges the conventions of critical writing in her efforts to think through (i.e.,“process”) several challenging, ecologically-relevant problems. In “Spark Bird,” essayist Emily Raboteau photographs and reflects upon Harlem’s Audubon Mural Project. In doing so, she embraces happenstance as well as the capacities of various genres (e.g.,memoir, local history) and forms (photography) to assess the  intersections between bird migration, environmental racism, police brutality, and the COVID-19 pandemic

In this unit, we will write essays that merge categories sometimes held distinct from one another: the textual and the visual, the analytical and the emotional, the individual and the larger dramas of history, society, and the human condition. Yes, we will make use of genre conventions, standards of form, and rhetorical commonplaces. But we will also bend rules, test out unexpected combinations, and play with what seems possible. Indeed, as we take this journey, we will
explore how a more playful approach, open to randomness and chance, can offer us new ways of mulling over challenging problems and questions.

Assignment Overview:
For this assignment, you will write a genre-bending essay that identifies a distinct ecological problem and designs and enacts a creative process by which that problem is explored. This problem must be clearly defined and related, broadly or specifically, to nature, the environment, ecology, or a sense of place. In developing this project, you will seek out typical research essay-associated sources, including scholarly and journalistic works. But you are also encouraged to turn to writing, materials, and even experiences you might not ordinarily embark upon when developing a long form research-driven project. That is, you might engage with public art, speaker events, relevant public spaces, photography, music, film, comics, interviews, surveys, etc. Finally, and most importantly, you are encouraged to “process” this problem as well as any research you read/gather by way of a deliberate experiment or “process,” which may very well include such potentially unorthodox materials and events.

Editor Comments

• 1
  Besides offering his close observation of the girl and her mom, Harper engages us even more by demonstrating how he was part of the scene, creating a sense of resonance among readers.
• 2
  With a series of rhetorical questions in place, Harper sets the tone of the essay, which also displays the general complaints from the student body.
• 3
  Just as Harper did here, we need to make possibly opaque background information accessible enough for our readers.
• 4
  Here’s a good transition to the opposing voices of students.
• 5
  What’s new and what will be taken away; this is another effective transition sentence, connecting paragraphs.
• 6
  This is a clever approach for an advocacy essay. Bringing up Jens Fredrick Larson’s blueprint again, Harper keeps his readers focused on the chief statement of the entire essay.
• 7
  Opening both his senses and the ones of the audience, Harper once again created a scene that engages his readers.
• 8
  This paralleled structure builds itself up layer by layer, elucidating and emphasizing the significance of Davis Field to the entire community.
• 9
  [The way the essay is laid out in front of our eyes meets exactly what Harper has planned ahead of time.]
• 10
  Pointing out the three key words of the essay, knowledge, accountability and harmony, Harper wraps up while imparting to the audience what he wants them to linger on.