Olivia DrakeQ: Jennifer, you started working as Wesleyan's sustainability coordinator on July 2. Please define "sustainability" and explain the purpose of this new position. A: I think of sustainability as people living such that current and future generations of humans and animals, as well as the Earth itself, can thrive. Sustainability doesn’t just have to do with the environment; it’s about people, too. As the sustainability coordinator, my job is to turn these ideas into tangible actions that help the campus to operate more sustainably and show how others how to change behaviors to live in a way that’s in harmony…
Q: Ed, when did you join the Events and Scheduling office as the facility and event manager for the Memorial Chapel and the '92 Theater? A: I came to Wesleyan in October 2003. Q: As a facility manager, what is your role? A: I make sure that the buildings and equipment are in working order for each event. I manage events within the spaces. I work with presenters so that they are ready for their event, manage the student House Staff who are there for the safety and comfort of patrons. The House Staff consists of 40-60 students who work the events in the…
Robert Weber, an electrician in the Physical Plant-Facilities department, received a Cardinal Achievement Award in July. Weber was honored for demonstrating extraordinary initiative or providing outstanding service with regard to specific tasks in his department. This special honor comes with a $150 award and reflects the university’s gratitude for those extra efforts. The award recipients are nominated by department chairs and supervisors. Nominations can be made anytime throughout the year. For more information or to nominate a staff member for the award, visit the Human Resources website and scroll down to Cardinal Achievement Award under “Forms.” Recipients will continue to be recognized in The…
Cynthia RockwellAmy Schulman ’82, Pfizer’s executive vice president and general counsel, president of Pfizer Nutrition and business unit lead for Pfizer Consumer Healthcare, received a 2012 Margaret Brent Women Lawyers of Achievement Award, given annually by the American Bar Association Commission on Women in the Profession. Mary Cranston, chair of the ABA Commission on Women in the Profession cited the five honorees as “shar[ing] tremendous achievements as lawyers and in their devotion to helping other women, and served as pioneers for those in the legal profession and beyond.” Schulman, whose grandfather was the first public-housing commissioner in New York and later…
David LowHarvard Law School recently announced that John C. P. Goldberg ’83 has been appointed to the Eli Goldston Professorship of Law. An expert in tort law, tort theory and political philosophy, he joined Harvard Law School as a tenured faculty member in 2008 and teaches first-year and upper-level courses. Goldberg has worked closely with Professor Henry Smith to develop the Project on the Foundations of Private Law at Harvard and has co-taught with Professor Smith the Private Law Workshop, which enables students to discuss with leading scholars cutting-edge research in torts, property, contracts, restitution, and other topics. He recently served as…
Jonah Sachs ’97 is the author of Winning the Story Wars: Why Those Who Tell—and Live—the Best Stories Will Rule the Future (Harvard Business Review Press). Viral storyteller and advertising expert Sachs draws upon case studies from his own body of work and some of the most successful brands of all time to show how values-driven stories can influence and revolutionize marketing. The book suggests that marketers can take on the role of heroes with the possibility of transforming not just their craft but also the enterprises they represent. The author shares insights culled from mythology, advertising history, evolutionary biology,…
Randy Siegel ’83 has just published his second children’s book, My Snake Blake (Roaring Brook Press). In this amusing story, a boy finds friendship with an unusual pet snake, a gift from his father, much to the dismay of his mother. As it turns out, the green snake has exceptional abilities such as twisting his body into words and helping the young lad with his homework. Siegel’s entertaining tale is illustrated by award-winning artist Serge Bloch. Publishers Weekly called the book “…a loving salute to the unconventional pet heroes of an earlier era.” In his review in The New York…
Matvei Yankelevich ’95 is the author of Alpha Donut: The Selected Shorter Works of Matvei Yankelevich (United Artists Books), which brings together poems and prose texts written over the course of the first 11 years of the millennium. The volume contains a pastiche of works from the writer’s several serial projects (such as Writing in the Margin or The Bar Poems) and stand-alone poems. Many of these pieces have appeared previously in progressive literary journals and little magazines. Yankelevich comments: “Alpha Donut's title comes from an old-school coffee shop in Queens, near my first NYC apartment. I used to write…
The Wesleyan Open Golf Association raised and donated $1,500 to the Middlesex Coalition for Children to support The Diaper Bank. The Diaper Bank supplies more than 200,000 diapers every month to young children in low-income families in Middlesex Country, New Haven, Bridgeport and Hartford. The organization also raises awareness that "basic human needs" include diapers and that these needs are not being met for children living in poverty. The association raised the funds during a golf tournament July 14 at Banner Country Club in Moodus, Conn. About 75 participants payed an entry fee, which included an 18-hole round, prizes and…
J. Kēhaulani Kauanui, associate professor of American studies, associate professor of anthropology, discussed her public affairs radio show on indigenous politics during the 18th Commemoration of the International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples. The event was held at the United Nations Headquarters in New York on Aug. 9 and focused on this year’s theme, “Indigenous Media, Empowering Indigenous Voices.” Kauanui was one of four invited panelists who spoke at the commemoration about indigenous media - television, radio, film, and social media - and its role in helping to preserve indigenous peoples’ cultures, challenge stereotypes, and influence the social and political agenda. The event's…
Lauren RubensteinThe Molecular Biology and Biochemistry Department sent three professors and six students to the international 2012 Yeast Genetics & Molecular Biology Meeting held at Princeton University recently, giving Wesleyan the largest per capita representation in the world. Attending from the department were Associate Professor and Chair Michael McAlear and his graduate student, James Arnone; Assistant Professor Amy MacQueen and her graduate students Pritam Mukherjee and Lina Yisehak, and recent alumni Sarah Beatie '12 and Louis Taylor '12; and Associate Professor Scott Holmes and his graduate student, Rebecca Ryznar. All spoke or presented on various aspects of yeast genetics, molecular biology,…
Professor of Economics Richard Grossman published an op-ed in The Hartford Courant on August 7 about the global "Libor" banking scandal. Taking a lesson from the old mob-run "numbers racket," Grossman proposes an elegant solution to fixing deficits in the Libor, and renewing public confidence in the banking system. The Libor (London Interbank Offered Rate) is currently calculated by asking a group of banks to self-report the cost for them to borrow money from other banks. The highest and lowest 25 percent of submitted estimates are thrown out, and the average of the remaining submissions is the Libor. Banks are supposed to…