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Steve ScarpaSeptember 2, 202211min
Emotions run high on Arrival Day at Wesleyan. Raw nerves live next to joy. Tears and laughs happen simultaneously. For the Class of 2026, the day is filled with hope, aspiration, and the promise a new year brings. “I’m feeling good. A little bit nervous. In the short term, I am excited to meet new people and make amazing new friends, but then I want to find my passion and explore different academic areas,” said William Liang ’26, whose sister Mia is a member of the Class of 2023. The 745 members of the Class of 2026, who arrived on…

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Andrew ChatfieldMay 19, 20226min
Gabby Farina ’23, an Art History and English major, was interested in how artists’ work dealt with family, identity, body, grossness, and fleshiness. What she found from her classmates inspired her. “Everything was very much tied back to this idea of the human form,” Farina said. Farina is the first Wesleyan student to curate a Senior Thesis Showcase exhibition on her own. The exhibition, “It's Mutual,” was the first such exhibition in the Ezra and Cecile Zilkha Gallery since COVID-19 led to the cancellation of a planned showcase in May 2020. As part of her tutorial, Farina visited the working…

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Steve ScarpaMay 9, 20226min
Political upheaval. A national reckoning on matters of race. A global pandemic. Any one of these major world happenings would leave an impact on a student’s college experience. But for the Wesleyan University Class of 2022, the totality of events has been, to dredge up an overused expression, unprecedented. As Reunion and Commencement Weekend 2022 approaches, Wesleyan reflects on and celebrates a class that has shown courage, creativity, and resiliency in the face of a complicated and fraught world. “There were difficulties aplenty, but also tremendous fortitude and endless examples of sacrifice for the greater good,” said Michael Whaley, vice…

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Steve ScarpaMay 2, 202211min
A common observation about Wesleyan is that each student experiences a different Wes than the next. What is shared across all generations of Cardinals, however, is a sense of responsibility to make the world a better place. For Trustee Nominating Committee Chair Ellen Glazerman ’84, P’26 and David Hill ’86, Chair of the Alumni Association, voting in the election for Alumni-Elected Trustees is one of the most important—and easiest ways—to help continue to make Wesleyan a special place. Each year, Wesleyan alumni elect three of their peers to serve on the University’s Board of Trustees for a three-year term. While many schools have some Alumni-Elected Trustee representation, Wesleyan…

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Editorial StaffApril 26, 20225min
By Maia Dawson '24 TEDxWesleyanU returned to campus April 23 with authors, entrepreneurs, and other accomplished professionals sharing stories of revivification and curiosity. Organized by students and held in Beckham Hall, the TEDxWesleyanU gathering was the first live event since 2019. The brochure pictured a martini glass overflowing with a string of pearls, in line with the theme "Re-roaring Twenties." Ritu Chhawal ’88 and Raquel Graham ’90 spoke to the audience about resilience emerging from illness. Chhawal introduced her vegan startup as an effort to spur a food revolution, and Graham described her success on Shark Tank and finding her…

Editorial StaffApril 11, 20221min
Earl Bloodworth, the Jewett Center for Community Partnerships’ 2022 Mentor in Residence for the Re-Imagining Justice Initiative, is committed to giving incarcerated people a second chance. The stark truth of his work is that for many individuals who have experienced the criminal legal system, they’ve never had a first chance. In an effort to correct what he sees as a real need in Connecticut, Bloodworth serves as the director of the Mayor’s Initiative for Reentry Affairs in Bridgeport. “You gain the trust and build up rapport with people who have been let down by a lot of folks in their…

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Steve ScarpaMarch 2, 20222min
Wesleyan University finalized the purchase of 55 High Street, located in Middletown, from Liberty Bank on February 18. The university purchased the 44,315 sq.-ft. building for $3.1 million. The building, most recently served as one of Liberty Bank’s corporate office locations, was originally constructed in 1961 by Wesleyan University to house the “Weekly Reader” publication. The two-story structure sits on a 2.99-acre parcel of land with 132 parking spaces. “Wesleyan University is pleased to work with our colleagues at Liberty Bank on this purchase. Fifty-five High Street is having a homecoming of sorts. Wesleyan owned the building through 1988 and…

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Andrew ChatfieldFebruary 15, 20227min
Actor Greig Sargeant was watching a debate on YouTube in the fall of 2019 and he started getting very angry. It wasn’t new footage, though – the clip was over 54 years old. In February 1965, writers James Baldwin, one of the most powerful figures of the Civil Rights Movement, and William F. Buckley, Jr., the father of 20th century patrician conservatism, had been invited to the Cambridge University Union in England to debate the proposition “The American Dream is at the expense of the American Negro.” “It was definitely relevant for me, being a Black man and seeing this…

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Editorial StaffFebruary 15, 20226min
By Maia Dawson '24 Benjamin Chaffee, associate director of visual arts, adjunct instructor in art, and curator for Wesleyan’s Ezra and Cecile Zilkha Gallery, has to crouch slightly when he tries to envision an exhibition from the perspective of someone of average stature. He said that when Brandon Ndife, one of the artists featured in the gallery’s latest pair of exhibitions, came to set up his postapocalyptic yet homely sculptures, Ndife had to crouch too. The result of his careful curation is an uninterrupted view from the entrance of three consecutive sculptures, and the hint of one more hiding around…

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Olivia DrakeJanuary 21, 202211min
Although Kati Koerner majored in government, she spent the majority of her career working in the theater arts. The Class of 1990 Wes alumna now teaches a graduate seminar on the pedagogy of drama at the Juilliard School and serves as director of education at Lincoln Center Theater. And she's more than happy to talk about her experience with other budding theater-makers. On Jan. 14, as part of the Gordon Career Center's WEShadow Externship Program, Koerner met with a dozen current Wesleyan students on Zoom to discuss her experience in arts education, applied theater, arts integration, and also grant-writing and budgeting. She's…

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Steve ScarpaJanuary 14, 20228min
Looking back over Martin Luther King Jr.’s four visits to Wesleyan between 1962 and 1966, one is struck by how many of his concerns still exist today. He saw hatred on the march throughout the country, and believed that the only way to combat it was through non-violent means. “Moral ends will be achieved by moral means,” King told the Wesleyan crowd during his first visit to Wes, 60 years ago. King, who received an honorary degree from Wesleyan in 1964, spoke about the injustice of racial segregation. He urged people to move away from materialism towards a higher plain…

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Olivia DrakeJanuary 11, 202218min
Despite a tumultuous year intertwined with pandemic up-and-downs, the Wesleyan community persevered. After returning to full, in-person learning for the Spring 2021 semester, students resumed their research, community service, social justice and entrepreneurial projects, extracurriculars, and athletic contests. The Class of 2021 celebrated with an in-person, mask-optional graduation ceremony. Members of the faculty won numerous grants and prizes and an alumnus even brought home an Oscar. Wesleyan continues to help people become more engaged citizens while offering a robust liberal education. In this timeline, we look back and explore some of Wesleyan's highlights in 2021: Feb. 9: Students Return to Campus for…