Olivia DrakeIt's one mean, green machine and it's saving Wesleyan up to $5,000 a day in energy costs. Wesleyan's new Cogeneration system - or CoGen, - uses natural gas to simultaneously generate electricity, heat and steam for university use. It began operation in February after an 18-month installation process. "Buying electricity from the grid is expensive and non-efficient,” says Peter Staye, associate director of utilities management. “With CoGen, we are generating 81 percent of our own power. It should pay for itself in five years." CoGen operates similar to a vehicle with an extreme super-duty engine. The natural-gas fired, turbo-charged, four-stroke…
David PesciThe Wesleyan University Board of Trustees affirmed the following appointments to the faculty, effective July 1, 2009: Promotion with tenure: Yuriy Kordonskiy, associate professor of theater, was appointed assistant professor at Wesleyan in 2002. Previously he was visiting assistant professor at George Washington University. He has served as head of directing in the Theatermakers program at the O’Neill Theater Center, and was visiting artist at Columbia University in Spring 2007. He teaches acting and directing, and has performed and directed internationally. His recent directed productions include Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya, Galin’s Sorry, and Gogol’s The Marriage. He holds an M.S. from…
Corrina KerrFor the next two years, researcher Silvia Matesanz of Segovia, Spain will be collaborating with Chair and Professor of Biology Sonia Sultan in her plant evolutionary ecology lab at Wesleyan. Matesanz was awarded the prestigious Marie Curie International Post-doctoral Fellowship from the European Commission. Matesanz, Sultan and biology BA/MA student Timothy Horgan-Kobelski ’09 will be studying an introduced annual plant called Polygonum cespitosum that is becoming invasive in North America. The scientists are particularly interested in understanding the evolutionary dynamics of the plant’s spread. Sultan and her research group will provide Matesanz with evolutionary expertise, which will enhance her previous…
Novelist and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Anna Quindlen P'07 did not apologize for her generation leaving the Class of 2009 with a failed economy, poor job market and uncertain housing market. Instead she charged the graduates with the opportunity to remold the nation and its spirit. "On behalf of your elders and the entire country, I was expected to say I was sorry," Quindlen said. "I’m not going to do that. I think, perhaps more than any generation in memory, all of you have an unparalleled opportunity to remake this nation so that it is stronger, smarter and makes more sense."…
Other presenters at the Shasha Seminar for Human Concerns included author Mark Harris; Mark I. Bomback ’93, screenwriter, whose credits include Race to Witch Mountain, Live Free or Die Hard, and Deception; Miguel Arteta, film and television director of Chuck & Buck, The Good Girl, Six Feet Under and Youth in Revolt. Also Liz Garcia ’99, producer, editor and writer of Cold Case; Evan Katz ’83, screenwriter and the executive producer of the television series 24; David Kendall ’79, director of several television series, including Jonas, Hannah Montana and Growing Pains; Dan Shotz ’99, producer, editor and writer, Jericho, and the…
Douglas Foyle, Irina Russu and John Seamon were honored with the 2009 Binswanger Prize for Excellence in Teaching May 24. The Binswanger Prize was inaugurated in 1993 as an institutional recognition of outstanding faculty members. Prize recipients are chosen by a selection committee of emeriti and current faculty members and members of the Alumni Association's Executive Committee. Douglas Foyle, the Douglas J. and Midge Bowen Bennet Associate Professor of Government, joined the Wesleyan faculty in 1998, after serving as a postdoctoral fellow in international relations at the Mershon Center for the Study of International Security at Ohio State University. He…
Peter Staye, associate director of utilities, points to the ceiling of the Bacon Field House. About 140 high-tech light fixtures span the width of the dome-roofed gymnasium. "These are special lights for high ceilings," he says. "There's 24 fewer fixtures here than there used to be, and it's just as bright. If we used florescent fixtures, we'd need 240 of them." The new, 350-watt, high-intensity discharge bulbs have replaced the older, 400-watt bulbs, and use 373,000 fewer kilowatt hours per year. They're also programmed to turn on in zones, and change luminosity throughout the day based on a newly-installed ambient…
By Brian Katten, sports information director Q: We understand that you will be umpiring during the World Cup women's lacrosse championships in Prague, Czech Republic in June. How did this opportunity come about? A: The World Cup is every four years. I have been at the last two World Cups representing the U.S. as an umpire in 2001 and 2005. U.S. umpires must apply and are ranked within our country. The number-one ranked umpire is an automatic umpire for the World Cup. This year, that’s me. Each country submits their candidates. A committee of IFL (International Federation Lacrosse) makes the…
Fox 61 News featured Green Street’s AfterSchool Program within the segment "Fox Focus" with Susan Christensen. The newscast was broadcast May 18. The piece featured the Green Street students' and teaching artists' work. The report is online here.
For 25 years, Diane Kischell has cared for the children of dozens of Wesleyan employees and Middletown community members. This month, Kischell, director and head teacher at the Wesleyan-affiliated Neighborhood Preschool (NPS), is retiring. She started at NPS in 1983. "Diane's teaching, mentorship and commitment have guided the Neighborhood Preschool, fostering a school where children can be themselves and where they develop a firm foundation of self-esteem and communication skills that sustain them as they grow," says Suzanna Tamminen, director of Wesleyan University Press and mother of Hugh Barrett NPS '07, Fiona Barrett NPS '08 and Silas Barrett NPS '12.…
Willard B. Walker, professor of anthropology emeritus, died May 23 in Skowhegan, Maine. He was 82 years old. Walker was one of the mainstays of the Anthropology Department for more than two decades. He came to Wesleyan in 1966 as an assistant professor, where he and Dave McAllester established anthropology as a department. A specialist in Native American languages and cultures, Walker taught courses on the ethnography of the southwest, the southeast, and the northeast and he also single-handedly maintained a curricular focus on linguistic anthropology. His research interests ranged from Zuni phonology and semantics to the cryptographic use of…