Wesleyan in the News

In this recurring feature in The Wesleyan Connection, we highlight some of the latest news stories about Wesleyan and our alumni.

Recent Wesleyan News

1. The Washington Post: “Major Trump Administration Climate Report Says Damage is ‘Intensifying Across the Country'”

Gary Yohe, the Huffington Foundation Professor of Economics and Environmental Studies, was widely quoted in the media about the fourth National Climate Assessment, the first to be released under the Trump Administration. “The impacts we’ve seen the last 15 years have continued to get stronger, and that will only continue,” Yohe, who served on the National Academy of Sciences panel that reviewed the report, told The Washington Post. “We have wasted 15 years of response time. If we waste another five years of response time, the story gets worse. The longer you wait, the faster you have to respond and the more expensive it will be.” Yohe was also quoted on the report in The Hill, The Verge, Al Jazeera, and many other news sources. He is also professor of economics, and professor, environmental studies.

2. The Hill: “If Brits Don’t Want a Redo on Brexit, They Should”

In this op-ed, Richard Grossman, professor and chair of economics, writes that Brexit, or Britain’s “divorce” from the European Union, is anticipated to “reduce Britain’s economic prospects in both the short and long run and leave the country poorer than it would have been had it remained within the European Union.” He writes: “There is a way out of this mess,” but the difficulties are political, not legal.

3. The New York Times: “How Democrats Can Deliver on Health Care”

Paul Krugman based his latest column on findings from the Wesleyan Media Project’s research this election season: “A tally by the Wesleyan Media Project found that the 2018 elections stand out not for how much Democrats talked about the tweeter in chief, but for how little: Not since 2002 has an opposition party run so few ads attacking the occupant of the White House. So what did the campaigns that led to a blue wave talk about? Above all, health care, which featured in more than half of Democrats’ ads.”

4. Harper’s Magazine: “The Present is Constant Elegy”

Harper’s published a poem by Peter Gizzi from a manuscript in progress to be published by Wesleyan University Press in 2020.

Recent Alumni News

1. The Washington Post: “One Key Scene Helped Cement ‘Hamilton’ as a Broadway Legend. The Team That Crafted It Explains How.”

Washington Post theater critic Peter Marks interviews Lin-Manuel Miranda ’02 (“the man at the vortex of a team of cyclonic talents”), Thomas Kail ’99, Alex Lacamoir, and Andy Blankenbuehler to discuss their art of collaboration. Marks notes that the Kennedy Center is recognizing the four with a unique award as the creators of Hamilton, and this conversation “was an opportunity for them to reflect on the profound psychic-income aspect of their group achievement and the ineffable bond that feeds artistic success.”

2. The New York Times: “Opinion: What a Kenyan Slum Can Teach America About Politics”

Kennedy Odede ’12, cofounder with partner Jessica Posner Odede ’09 of Shining Hope for Communities, draws on his experience growing up in Kenya to urge readers to rely on grassroots organizing and local activists rather than elected officials. “Real change has to start locally,” he writes.

3. The New York Times: “Jerry Frankel, Prolific Broadway Producer, Is Dead at 88”

Jeffrey Richards ’69, longtime producing partner with Jerry Frankel, recalls their Broadway history, including the revival of Glengarry Glen Ross, for which they shared a Tony in 2005. “We had an instinctive kind of mutual understanding about people and talent,” Richards told writer Richard Sandomir.

4. American Bookfest.com: “Award Winner: 2018 Best Book Awards Health: Psychology & Mental Health”

It’s Not Always Depression: Working the Change Triangle to Listen to the Body, Discover Core Emotions, and Connect to Your Authentic Self by Hilary Jacobs Hendel ’85, LCSW, was selected in this 16th annual awards compilation. The judges noted:  “Jacobs Hendel provides navigational tools, body and thought exercises, candid personal anecdotes, and profound insights gleaned from her patients’ remarkable breakthroughs. She shows us how to work the Change Triangle in our everyday lives and chart a deeply personal, powerful, and hopeful course to psychological well-being and emotional engagement.”

5. Fox News: “Will the Florida Recount Produce Election Results?”

When a judge gave Florida’s Palm Beach County five extra days to tally their ballots after this year’s election, Orlando Fox News turned to Steven Meyer ’86, who had been the attorney for the Palm Beach County Democratic Party in the 2000 ballot recount. In an on-air interview, Meyer offers insight and perspective.