I agree with this. Hatch has done an objectively solid job. The older sorts on here, me included, often lament some of the changes. And there are things I miss about the Wake Forest I knew as a student, but the overall result has been positive. The amount of money raised, the transformation of campus, Wake Downtown, a more diverse student population, etc. are all positives. And sports have been pretty solid too...the new facilities are amazing and results are pretty solid sans basketball. That is the glaring issue, for sure. And the scandal is centered on one dude and shouldn't be viewed as a Wake or Hatch issue. In fact, it is oddly good for Wake...that it is reported as one of the elite places people were cheating to try to get into.
4 years ago or so I had the same qualms as many on here probably do/did. I lamented the changes and feared that the Wake I knew and loved as a student would become unrecognizable. Then my daughter entered Wake and I got to see it through her eyes...and it has been her greatest experience too, just like me. Her experience is different, because Wake is different. But she loves it. At the heart of it, Wake is still Wake. A unique place, IMO, unlike nearly any other place. The Hatch Era has seen our national reputation grow and Wake students are in demand more than ever before. But the school itself hasn't really changed that much at its core. I think I graduated with 1000 folks and my daughter will graduate with about 1250. I grant that is 25% larger, but in raw numbers it is pretty close and I suspect students can't tell the difference in size at all. My daughter has never had a class larger than 40 and her classes currently range in the 8-15 range. The fears that we were growing too much and pursuing becoming Vandy or Duke were/are misplaced, imo. The result seems to be that Wake is what it always has been...the best of both worlds. A small intimate college with the reach of a research university. Are we as quaint as Davidson? No. And are we as big a national presence as Duke? No. But the opposite is true...we have a larger national reach than Davidson and intimacy that Duke doesn't. Always hard for me to put into words what it is...but Wake is just special. And it seems to me, that is still the case.
One more thing...my wife, family, and I still live here in Winston. Hatch's leadership in expanding the footprint of the school downtown is absolutely huge. The Wake-led innovation quarter has transformed that part of downtown and has had a ripple effect across the entirety of downtown. Without the med school and Inmar and others moving into that area, I just don't see the renaissance of downtown happening as vigorously. And with the eventual departure of BB&T and the continued weakening of RJR, Wake Forest is the single most important entity in the city. So as a resident, I see the Hatch Era as positive through that local lens too.