Olivia DrakeNovelist 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."…
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…
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…
Ellen "Puffin" D'Oench, curator emerita of the Davison Art Center, adjunct professor of art history emerita, and former trustee of Wesleyan University died May 22 in Middletown. She was 78 years old and had been ill for some time. D'Oench interrupted her education at Vassar College to marry Russell "Derry" D'Oench and raise their family. She completed her undergraduate education at Wesleyan in 1973, graduating magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa in the same class as her son Peter. She received a Ph.D. from Yale University in 1979. D'Oench was Curator of the Davison Art Center from 1979 until…
Thank you faculty, President Roth, Anna Quindlen family, friends. And of course congratulations to the class of 2009. I am scared. We probably all have good reasons to be scared right now. When the nation was scared many decades ago, FDR said, “This is preeminently the time to speak the truth, the whole truth, frankly and boldly. Nor need we shrink from honestly facing conditions in our country today.” The truth is climate change is no longer merely a distant threat, it is happening now. The truth is Social Security and Medicare will likely be insolvent before 2020. We are…
(The Commencement Address by Anna Quindlen P’07 also is on video.) When I was first asked to give the commencement address to the Wesleyan class of 2009, I knew I was going to have to begin with an apology: I am not, as you can see, Barack Obama. But as the months passed between the invitation and this event, prevailing wisdom was that I was not only going to have say I was sorry for not being last year’s speaker, but for so much else. On behalf of your elders and the entire nation, I was expected to say I was…
Members of the board of trustees, members of the faculty and staff, distinguished guests, new recipients of graduate degrees and Class of 2009, I am honored to present some brief remarks to our graduates on the occasion of their commencement. This year I’ve continued my “second Wesleyan education,” but I am still very much an underclassman. You seniors often asked me: “Roth, what are you going to major in? What are you focused on?” My focus as an undergraduate was on how people make sense of the past. My focus as your president is on how to link our sense…
Wesleyan's 177th Commencement is featured in several video clips below. The latest version of Quicktime Player is required to view the videos. The player can be downloaded for free, for both Windows and Mac, by clicking here. A high-speed internet connection also is necessary to view the broadcasts. Procession Welcome Invocation Chair Welcome Senior Class Welcome President's Remarks by Michael S. Roth ’78 Conferring of degrees Honorary degrees Commencement Address by Anna Quindlen P'07 Doctorate and graduate degrees Additional honorary degrees Undergraduate degrees (last names A-D) Undergraduate degrees (last names E-L) Undergraduate degrees (last names M-S) Undergraduate degrees (last names…
Jennifer Alexander ’88, Mark Masselli and Azim Premji ’99 were awarded Doctor of Humane Letters honorary degrees during the 177th Commencement. Remarks from the ceremony are below: Remarks by Jennifer Alexander '88 Has anyone here ever read Charlotte's Web? You remember the story of Wilbur the pig and Charlotte the spider who became best friends - But spiders don’t live very long: we all cried when Charlotte died and left Wilbur behind to care for her egg sac full of tiny baby spiders. When I was at Wesleyan, Professor Anne Greene would sometimes read children's books out loud to us…
Joseph J. Fins ’82, M.D., chair of the Alumni Association, spoke to members of the Wesleyan Gamma Chapter of Phi Beta Kappa during Reunion & Commencement Weekend. His speech was titled "Minding Time." Membership for Phi Beta Kappa is conferred for high scholastic achievement. It is a delight to be here with you today to celebrate your induction into Phi Beta Kappa. Let me add my congratulations to those of The Faculty, President Roth and your friends and family. This is a memorable day in your life and it is good that you savour this accomplishment. A former professor of…