Lauren RubensteinTwo current state governors who proudly call Wes their alma mater will be back on campus during Reunion & Commencement Weekend, May 22-25. Both Gov. Peter Shumlin ‘79 of Vermont and Gov. John Hickenlooper ’74, MA ’80, Hon ’10 of Colorado will be celebrating their reunion years, and giving talks during the weekend. On May 24, Hickenlooper will give a WESeminar from 10:30 to 11:30 a.m., titled “An Inside Look Into the Legalization of Marijuana.” He will address how the decision by voters to legalize small amounts of marijuana for adult use is affecting his state of Colorado, and potentially…
Gerpha Gerlin '16On Friday, May 9, the Center for Humanities held its last theory salon for the 2013-2014 academic year. The intimate faculty-student presentation revealed ground-breaking research on the Stanley Milgram "shock" obedience experiment, led by Jill Morawski, the Wilbur Fisk Osborne Professor of Psychology, professor of science in society, professor of feminist, gender and sexuality studies, and assistants Ethan Hoffman ’14 and Nick Myerberg ’14. Stanley Milgram, a psychologist from Yale University, is known for his experiment on obedience to authority figures. In the 1960s, Milgram measured the willingness of participants to obey an authority figure who instructed them to perform…
Kate CarlisleThe process of removing about 60,000 volumes from Olin Library (to make room for others, including Art Library holdings) is nearly complete, according to University Librarian Pat Tully. Olin started the work in 2012, guided by faculty and other experts in selecting duplicate, out of date, rarely circulated, and other books for removal as the library anticipated greater demand on the stacks starting in 2014. Olin holds about one million volumes and will continue to acquire books and other material every year. “Weeding will be on hold through the summer,” Tully said. “Sometime next fall we will begin an ongoing…
Olivia DrakeAll Wesleyan alumni, students, parents, faculty, families and friends of the university are welcome to attend Reunion & Commencement Weekend May 22-25 on campus.
The weekend is chocked-full of events including class reunions, WESeminars, academic department open houses, campus tours, an all-college picnic and festival, an All-Campus Party featuring mamarazzi and Illegalize, and the 182nd Commencement Ceremony led by commencement speaker Theodore Shaw '76. The full schedule is online here.
Twenty alumni, parents and community members participated in an Alumni Athletics Mentoring Workshop May 12 in Daniel Family Commons
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President Roth writes on the value of a pragmatic liberal education following the release of his new book
In this issue of The Wesleyan Connection, we speak with Taylor Goodstein from the Class of 2014. She is delivering a WESeminar at Reunion & Commencement on the topic of her capstone project: “Looking Inward: Examining the Broken Brain and Reducing Stigma.” Q: Taylor, what is your major, and how did you settle on this topic for your thesis? A: I am a neuroscience and behavior and biology double major, and I am also obtaining a certificate in creative writing. I was never planning on writing a thesis because I don’t conduct research in a neuroscience or biology laboratory, but…
Wesleyan students presented “Texts.com Presents Shrak the Musical: the Musical” May 3 in WestCo Cafe. Nick Petrillo '14, Sky McGilligan '14, Keegan Dufty '14 and Liza Pine '14 wrote, directed and acted in the musical. Charlie Kaplan '14 directed the music and co-directed the show. Ben Kafoglis '14 also wrote, directed and produced the show. (Photos by Ryan Heffernan '16) (more…)
Hilary Barth, associate professor of psychology, associate professor of neuroscience and behavior, is the co-author of of "Preschoolers trust novel members of accurate speakers’ groups and judge them favorably," published in the Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, Issue 67, pages 872-883, in 2014. The paper is based on work from BA '08/MA '09 student Keera Bhandari's thesis, and research by former undergraduates Kyle MacDonald '10 and Jenn Garcia '10, and former lab manager Elizabeth Chase. It is known that by age 3, children track a speaker's record of past accuracy and use it as a cue to current reliability. Through two different experiments,…
Wesleyan hosted the Academic Scholarships, Fellowships and Prizes Reception for students May 7 in Daniel family Commons. "We gather today to honor students who represent the highest ideals of Wesleyan University―intellectual curiosity, academic excellence, creative expression, leadership, and service. While celebrating these recipients of awards, prizes, and scholarships, we also honor and thank alumni and friends whose generous contributions make these prizes possible," said Ruth Striegel Weissman, provost and vice president for academic affairs. The prizes and recipients are listed below: Butterfield Prize Established by the Class of 1967 and awarded to the graduating senior who has exemplified those qualities…
Reinhold Blümel, the Charlotte Augusta Ayres Professor of Physics, and physics graduate student Yunseong Nam are the co-authors of "Robustness of the quantum Fourier transform with respect to static gate defects," published in Physical Review A, Issue 89, in April 2014. The quantum Fourier transform (QFT) is one of the most widely used quantum algorithms, ranging from its primary role in finding the periodicity hidden in a quantum state to its use in constructing a quantum adder.