WesLink Connects Campus to Business Opportunities, Events and Each Other

WesLink, a Web site launched Feb. 16 by the Office of University Relations, enables all alumni, faculty, staff and students to post non-Wesleyan sponsored events, announcements, activities, and services to the greater Wesleyan community.

“We are always looking for opportunities to engage alumni with the university and with each other, and WesLink helps to bridge that engagement, while at the same time showcasing some of the extraordinary talents of the greater Wesleyan community,” explains Jennifer Jurgen, senior associate director of Regional Programs and Networks.

WesLink, https://weslink.wesleyan.edu/ is reserved for all members of the Wesleyan community. Users can post events occurring on or off campus. These events may be theater, music, comedy, literary, athletic or community-service related.

WesLink offers a dozen regional sections where alumni living in these areas can post their own local events. These sections include the cities of Atlanta, Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York City, Philadelphia, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle and Washington DC, and Connecticut.

In addition, the site features sections on Real Estate and Housing, Wesleyan Authors, Reunion & Commencement Weekend 2007; Business Marketing and an Everything Else category.

The site is maintained by University Relations and Information Technology Services staff. The site mirrors the Wesleyan Classifieds, which was established in 2005.

“In the process of working with our regional club programming, we often hear from alumni who want to promote their theater events, concerts, comedy shows, art exhibits, etc,” Jurgen says. “Since the timing doesn’t always allow us to work these alumni-sponsored events into our club event calendars, we wanted to create a forum where they could still get their information out to the greater Wesleyan community.”

Wesleyan’s online newsletter, The Wesleyan Connection, and online magazine, The Wesleyan Extra, also receive dozens of e-mails each month from the campus community eager to announce upcoming events or business endeavors. WesLink will provide a venue for people to post these announcements if they are unable to be published in one of these publications.

WesLink was an instant success with alumni, who contributed more than two dozen postings in the site’s first week of being active.

Heidi Mastrogiovanni ’79 took advantage of the Los Angeles Events section by posting an animal rescue volunteer opportunity. In the ad, she mentions she is a board member of volunteer-operated Forgotten Animals of Los Angeles. Elizabeth Ehrlich ’04 posted an announcement of her business, Snuggle Up, in the Business and Marketing section of WesLink. In her posting, she mentions she is a stay-at-home mom selling personalized towels, hand-dyed clothing, fleece blankets and more for babies and kids.

“She sells baby clothes with watermelons painted on them. They are too cute. I had to send the link to three of my friends,” Jurgen says.

While the public may view the postings, only Wesleyan alumni, students, faculty, and staff have the ability to post items to WesLink. The site requires a Wesleyan username and password to log into the system. Users are allowed to upload one photo with each posting.

Items posted to the system automatically expire after 30 days, however users will be sent an email a week prior to the expiration date, which will offer the option to extend the posting for an additional month.

WesLink administrators reserve the right to edit or remove postings with inappropriate content.