A link to the apartment therapy website keeps zipping among Wake Foresters’ emails since the appointment on Jan. 27 of Rogan Kersh (’86) as the new provost. I want to share it because it provides a glimpse into the student-centered lives of Kersh and his wife, Sara Jade Pesek, and offers a spotlight on sustainability, an ethos important to Wake Forest.

Kersh and Pesek’s dorm apartment at NYU

The post begins, “In New York University’s Goddard Hall, on Washington Square Park, most doors open on the chaotic lairs of 200 college freshmen. But door #702, dotted with notes and nametags, reveals an unexpected oasis, the tranquil home of ‘dorm parents’ Sara and Rogan.”

Their 1,350-square-foot apartment is considered a model for sustainable campus living. The couple has not one but two compost options, the regular kitchen countertop container and a worm compost bin. Cabinets are bamboo. The paint has low volatile organic compounds.

The couple won’t be strangers to the high value placed on service learning at Wake Forest. The website notes that Kersh and Pesek led 40 freshmen on a spring break trip to New Orleans with Historic Green, a zero carbon rebuilding project in the city’s Lower Ninth Ward.

I hear the couple is shopping for a house. It’s safe to guess Kersh and Pesek won’t be able to discover a Winston-Salem home for sale to top their Manhattan building as a former residence for famed Americans. Edgar Allan Poe, Winslow Homer and Charlie Chaplin had bachelor’s quarters in the building. Whether they had worm compost bins in their bachelor’s quarters is doubtful. In that, they were not ahead of their time. Kersh and Pesek clearly are.