John Azoni John Azoni

#115 - Inside the Daily Deac Blog: How Wake Forest Built a Trusted Parent Communication Channel

My guest today is Betsy Chapman, Senior Executive Director of Family Communications and Engagement at Wake Forest. Betsy is the voice behind the Daily Deac, a blog for parents and families that's been running nearly every weekday for over a decade and has grown to roughly 8,200 subscribers.


Betsy walks through how the Daily Deac started as an alumni blog called Quad View, how it evolved into the go-to source of information and comfort for Wake Forest parents, and the philosophy behind "Stop, Drop, and Roll" — her framework for helping families support their students without taking over for them. She also shares findings from her own dissertation research linking how deeply families read parent communications to student satisfaction, self-advocacy, and giving behavior.

Key Takeaways:

  • A named, first-person author builds more trust with readers than an institutional or departmental voice — Betsy's dissertation research on corporate and institutional blogs backed this up directly.

  • The Daily Deac isn't written from scratch every day — a mix of predictable, cyclical campus content (move-in, midterms, finals) and campus partner requests keeps the workload manageable, often just 15 minutes to an hour a day.

  • Schools don't need a new hire to start something like this — existing staff in communications, alumni, or student life offices can contribute, or the role can rotate across departments.

  • "Stop, Drop, and Roll" reframes how families should respond when a student calls with a problem: stop and assess whether the student can handle it, drop your urge to fix it, and roll with whatever solution the student lands on.

  • Betsy's dissertation found a correlation between how frequently and deeply parents read university communications and three outcomes: higher satisfaction, less direct intervention with university offices, and increased giving to the annual fund.

  • Some of the most-loved posts weren't polished or strategic — a "five senses" post written during a bout of writer's block, just describing what Betsy observed walking across campus, became one of the most emotionally resonant posts she's written.

  • Feedback and even pushback from readers (including families who felt a post was condescending) has directly shaped how Betsy frames advice — she treats critical feedback as information, not an attack.

Connect With Betsy:

  • Email: parents@wfu.edu

  • Find the blog: search "Daily Deac Wake Forest"

Connect With John:

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