Olivia DrakeNovember 12, 20092min
Wesleyan has launched its new online look with a completely redesigned homepage. The new, image-rich homepage, http://www.wesleyan.edu/, offers rotating photographs of campus life, university factoids and departmental highlights that change when the page is reloaded. The most noticeable change to the new homepage is the open layout that emphasizes information, facilitates navigation, and refocuses content for Wesleyan's primary target audiences, including prospective students, their parents and external users. Under the images are recent headlines, upcoming events and title selections from a new, open access Community Blog. All members of the Wesleyan community can author a post, and anyone can comment…

David LowNovember 12, 20092min
Kate Wetherhead ’98 currently stars in the off-Broadway musical Ordinary Days with a score by Adam Gwon and directed by Mark Bruni. The show deals the lives and troubles of four young people living in New York City. In a positive review in The New York Times, Charles Isherwood says the show “captures with stinging clarity that uneasy moment in youth when doubts begin to cloud hopes for a future of unlimited possibility.” Wetherhead plays an unhappy graduate student who has lost her thesis notebook, which is found by an aspiring artist (Jared Gertner), and the two eventually meet at…

Olivia DrakeNovember 12, 20091min
WesWars, an inter-class, campus-wide competition, was held Oct. 30 on Andrus Field.  Modeled after older class competitions and “cannon scraps,” which were popular in the mid 1800’s, WesWars is composed of field games and trivia questions.  The students participated in games such as tug-o-war, the human pyramid, disc toss, the loudest scream, three-legged-race and a roll down Foss Hill. The Class of 2012 won WesWars. WesWars is supported by the Cardinal Council, University Relations, the Alumni Association and the Office of Student Affairs. (Photos by Olivia Bartlett Drake)

David LowNovember 12, 20092min
In The Calculus of Friendship (Princeton University Press), Cornell University professor Steven Strogatz chronicles the moving story of the friendship he developed with his former high school math teacher, Don Joffray ’50, over 30 years through the exchange of letters between them. For a long time, their friendship revolved almost entirely on a shared love of calculus. Joffray goes from the prime of his career to retirement, competes in whitewater kayaking at the international level, and loses a son. Strogatz matures from high school math whiz to Ivy League professor, has a failed marriage, and experiences the sudden death of…

Olivia DrakeNovember 12, 20091min
Pedro Alejandro, associate professor of dance, is a recipient of the C. Newton Shenck III Award for a "lifetime achievement in and contribution to the arts." Alejandro received the award from the Arts Council of Greater New Haven board of directors. He was mentioned in a Nov. 9 article in The Hartford Courant. Alejandro was featured in The Wesleyan Connection in May 2008.

David PesciNovember 12, 20098min
As the College of Letters (COL) celebrates its 50th anniversary, we asked Ethan Kleinberg, associate professor of history and letters, director of the COL, about his life in two departments, his views on interdisciplinary teaching, how this impacts his own scholarship, and the future of the COL. Q. How did you end up with a joint appointment in the College of Letters and History Department? EK: As an undergraduate at U.C. Berkeley I created my own curriculum combining philosophy, history and religion as a “Humanities Field Major.” In graduate school at UCLA I combined work in History and Comparative Literature…

Corrina KerrNovember 12, 20097min
From its beginnings in 1959, Wesleyan’s College of Social Studies (CSS) has grown into a well-respected program and is celebrating its 50th year in 2009. The multidisciplinary program allows students to explore the subjects of government, history, economics and philosophy concurrently. Many attended lectures and celebrations for CSS during Homecoming/Family Weekend last weekend. The first event of the weekend was a CSS Public Lecture by John Goldberg (CSS 1983, professor of Law, Harvard Law School) on Friday, Nov.  6. His talk was titled “John Locke on Tort Reform (Really!): A CSS Parable.”  John Goldberg was introduced by Brian Fay, the…

Olivia DrakeNovember 12, 20091min
Wesleyan's Long Lane Farm Club hosted the sixth annual Pumpkin Festival Oct. 31 at the farm on Long Lane. The event was open to the Wesleyan and local community. Activities included food, baked goods, live music, Farmer's Market vendors, pumpkin sales and painting, face painting, t-shirt designing and tours of the organic farm. Music was provided by the student band, 350 degrees, and faculty band, the Mattabessett Pickers. (Photos by Valerie Marinelli)