Olivia DrakeMarch 15, 200512min
Psychology Professor Karl Scheibe will retire from Wesleyan this spring after a 42-year career here.   Posted 03/15/05 Fresh out of the Ph.D. program at the University of California at Berkeley, 26-year-old Karl Scheibe accepted a faculty position at Wesleyan University. Apparently, he liked his first job. “It sure lasted a while,” says Psychology Professor Scheibe, who has spent the more than four decades since teaching and doing research at Wesleyan. “I’ve considered going to other universities, but never did. And I’ve never regretted staying here.” Scheibe, a social psychologist known for his classes emphasizing relationships between psychology and theater,…

Olivia DrakeMarch 15, 200510min
Laurie Zolty, assistant to the coordinator of University Lectures, poses with lecture advertisements inside the Horgan House.   Posted 03/15/05 Q: When did you join the staff at Wesleyan and why? A: I joined the staff in the fall of 2000 looking for a career change. A very good friend was on staff here and spoke so highly about working at Wesleyan. I was searching for almost a year, looking for a position where each day would be different – working a diverse schedule, meeting new people, taking on new tasks and challenges. This newly created position with University Lectures…

Olivia DrakeMarch 15, 20056min
    Posted 03/15/05 Wesleyan University made a record-breaking contribution to this year’s Middlesex United Way annual community campaign. Frank Kuan, director of community relations and volunteer community campaign chair, reported that Wesleyan raised $140,018 for the local United Way chapter, exceeding the campaign goal of $135,000. This is the most Wesleyan has ever raised for Middlesex United Way in the 60-plus years the university has been involved in the campaign. Middlesex United Way supports critical human care services and county-wide projects that improve community conditions. “This goes to show that Wesleyan employees care about the community that they work…

Olivia DrakeMarch 15, 20053min
  Lingzhen Wang, assistant professor of Asian languages and literatures stands outside Fisk Hall, where she teaches a class on 20th century Chinese literature and film.   Posted 03/15/05 Lingzhen Wang joined the Asian Languages and Literatures Department as an assistant professor of Asian languages and literatures in January 2005. She teaches China Modern: An Introduction to the Literature and Film of Twentieth Century China and Intermediate Chinese at Wesleyan. Wang completed her undergraduate work at Nanjing University and earned her Ph.D at Cornell University. Her master’s thesis is a comparative study of a well-known Chinese writer, Shen Congwen, and…

Olivia DrakeMarch 15, 20059min
  Biology visiting assistant professor Stanley Lin researches ways to prevent brain cell death in stroke patients.   Posted 03/15/05 Q: Professor Lin, you’re among only a handful of scientists, nationwide, studying excitotoxic cell death. Please explain your research, and what this means for stroke victims. A: After a stroke, millions of brain cells can get over excited and the cells can die. This cell death is an ongoing process. This condition can be prevented if the neurological signaling pathways that that cause cell death are inhibited. If we use proteins that block excitotoxic pathways, we could prevent post-stroke death.…

Olivia DrakeMarch 15, 20057min
  Public Safety Senior Officer William Heckstall has worked for Wesleyan more than 20 years.   Posted 03/15/05 In his distinctive black, gray and red uniform, a shimmering silver badge and a belt equipped with a jingling set of keys and nightstick, Public Safety Senior Officer William Heckstall appears daunting from afar. But once eye-contact is made with this 6-foot-3, broad-shouldered officer, his sweet, signature smile overwhelms his face. “I like to greet everyone with a friendly smile, and let them know I’m a nice guy and can be trusted,” officer “Hex” says, modeling his beaming grin. For 23 years,…

Olivia DrakeMarch 15, 20058min
Allynn Wilkinson, digitization specialist, works on scanning and piecing together a map of Middletown inside the Information Technology Services digitization lab.   Posted 03/15/05 Allynn Wilkinson is leading Wesleyan into a digital world. As Wesleyan’s digitization specialist, Wilkinson support curricular instruction by converting and creating multimedia instructional materials. And campus wide, technology seems to be contagious. “We give faculty members what they need, and that gets other people interested in these types of services,” she says. “It’s just amazing what we can do nowadays with technology.” Wilkinson works in her own digitization lab at Information Technology Services. There, she uses…

Olivia DrakeMarch 15, 20056min
Katy Wichlac, CPP, is Wesleyan's payroll manager and works in Financial Services.   Posted 03/15/05 Q: I’ve heard of a CPA but not a CPP. What does that stand for? A: A Certified Payroll Professional. Q: Are you a math person? What skills do you need to work in payroll and what is your educational background? A:  I graduated from Sacred Heart Academy in Hamden, Connecticut.  I have a bachelor of arts degree in American Studies and British History from Cardinal Cushing College in Brookline, Massachusetts I am currently taking classes through the Graduate Liberal Studies Program here at Wesleyan.…

Olivia DrakeMarch 15, 20057min
Luke Snelling '05, a DJ with WESU 88.1FM, speaks on air during his talk show March 3. The student-run station now broadcasts shows via the Internet.   Posted 03/15/05 On March 14, Wesleyan's student radio station, WESU 88.1 FM, introduced a new broadcast schedule that combines original programs by students and community members with program feeds from WSHU in Fairfield, Conn. For the first time, WESU will begin to broadcast via the Internet, a move that should add listeners both on campus and among alumni and parents. In addition, WESU will begin to raise funds from its alumni, local underwriters,…

Olivia DrakeMarch 15, 20053min
Posted 03/15/05 On March 4, Tom Cornish '05 was transported to a local hospital with symptoms consistent with meningitis. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed Tom was infected with strain B of Neisseria meningitidis, a strain not protected against by any existing vaccine, though one is in development. Based on this information, Tom had meningococcal meningitis, which is a type of bacterial meningitis caused by Neisseria meningitidis. Tom's condition has improved significantly since being admitted to the hospital and he is making steady progress toward recovery. Wesleyan's Office of Health Education has compiled a page with information about…

Olivia DrakeMarch 15, 20057min
Economics Professor John Bonin is the editor of "Journal of Comparative Economics."   Posted 03/15/05 As John Bonin recalls a recent overseas trip, one scene in particular stands out."The tree-lined streets with boutiques sprinkled among retail giants like the Gap could have easily been in a European city," says Bonin, the Chester D. Hubbard Professor of Economics and Social Science and editor of the "Journal of Comparative Economics." Perhaps the most remarkable part of this recollection is that the streets he describes weren't in Europe or even the west. They were in Shanghai, China. The image is important because it…

Olivia DrakeMarch 5, 20054min
  Mary Alice Haddad, assistant professor of government and East Asian studies, came to Wesleyan in June 2004.   Posted 03/05/05 Mary Alice Haddad joined the faculty in the Government Department and East Asian Studies Program as an assistant professor in June 2004. Haddad, a native of Washington, D.C., completed her undergraduate work at Amherst College and earned a Ph.D at the University of Washington in Seattle. Her dissertation, "Creating Citizens: Volunteers and Civil Society, Japan in Comparative Perspective,” was about civil society in Japan. Her primary area of research is comparative civil society, with a focus on Japan.  “I am especially…