Kate CarlisleYou’d be surprised by what people don’t know about Wesleyan’s community engagement and service programs. Or, what people think they know. “Students and others think that community service at Wesleyan is an individual, versus a university effort, or just one semester for one student, on their own,” said Cathy Lechowicz, director of the Center for Community Partnerships. A new publicity campaign launched by the CCP last month aims to fix those misimpressions. The reality is that Wesleyan has a broad community engagement plan that ranges from hiring local contractors and sourcing local food to providing volunteers to Middletown service agencies,…
Gun laws in the United States need to be changed to protect thousands of lives, but meaningful change is not a sure thing, even in the wake of the tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary School, three experts told a packed house at Wesleyan on Feb. 6. The seminar, “Guns and Gun Violence: Crisis, Policy and Politics” featured three specialists in the legal, social and political aspects of firearms regulation, and drew a capacity crowd at the Center for the Arts Hall. “The United States is not more violent, but more lethally violent (than other developed nations who have stricter gun…
Dynamic filmmaker and educator Shakti Butler will be the keynote speaker at Wesleyan’s Martin Luther King, Jr. celebration on Friday, Feb. 1. “Diversity University: From Theory to Practice,” is the theme of this year’s daylong commemoration. Butler, a prominent speaker on racial equity, is the producer of documentaries including The Way Home; Mirrors of Privilege: Making Whiteness Visible, and Light in the Shadows. She is frequently hired by companies seeking a catalyst for change and uses audience participation and often, clips from her films, in her public appearances. A multiracial African-American woman (African, Arawak Indian and Russian-Jewish), Butler has worked…