Mike Mavredakis

It has been a consequential year at Wesleyan. The University announced the end of legacy admissions and loans, policy changes aimed at improving the access and affordability of its liberal arts education. It also launched the largest fundraising initiative in school history. While Wesleyan was focused on its mission to provide a diverse group of students with an expansive and broad education, its students continued to learn and create and faculty continued to make significant contributions in their fields of study. Throughout the year, the Wesleyan Connection has documented this creative and compassionate community hungry to have an impact on…

In a time when campus dialogue is front page news as violence continues in the Middle East, Wesleyan President Michael S. Roth ’78 has spoken and written extensively on the topic over the last few days, providing his perspective and insight into the environment at Wesleyan. Roth appeared on MSNBC’s “The 11th Hour with Stephanie Ruhle” on Dec. 5 to discuss the campus conversation surrounding the war and student’s perception of safety during times of rising religious interpersonal conflict. “On our campus, we have seen that people have the ability to sit together in the same room and listen to…

Professor of Astronomy Seth Redfield was one of several collaborators who recently published the discovery of a six-planet system around a nearby bright star within the Milky Way Galaxy, according to a paper in Nature. Not only are the planets within our galaxy, but they are in perfect resonance, a rare and potentially highly important discovery for humanity’s understanding of planet formation, Redfield said. A planetary system in resonance means that the orbital periods—how long it takes a planet to complete a single orbit around its star—are in ratio with one another. Redfield said that in this case all six…

Wesleyan’s newest Phi Beta Kappa Society members plan to impact the world through service, research, policymaking, music, literature, and art. There were 15 high-achieving Wesleyan students inducted into the Phi Beta Kappa Society at a ceremony in the McKelvey Room on Dec. 6, joining over 500,000 members from 293 campuses across the country. They join former presidents, members of Congress, and Nobel Laureates as part of the nation’s oldest scholastic honor society. “It is really an impressive honor,” said Wesleyan President Michael S. Roth ’78, who is a member of Phi Beta Kappa. “It's not just your grades, it's not…

When given the option to control how their data is being collected and distributed with a simple click on a button, 94 percent of participants in a study from researchers at Wesleyan University said they would use the tool. The new opt out mechanism, called Global Privacy Control (GPC), promises to allow people to universally exercise their right to opt out of data sharing and selling through a simple click in their browsers to communicate their preferences to websites across the internet. “The opt out right is especially important because it controls whether or not people’s data enters the online…

Newly published research on cognitive remediation’s impact on those with mood disorders calls for public health officials to consider assessing and treating cognitive deficits. Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience and Behavior Matthew Kurtz said offering those people with mood disorders and cognitive deficits some type of behavioral treatment may help mitigate their difficulties. Kurtz, Zoey Goldberg ’21, and Brina Kuslak ’21 published “A meta-analytic investigation of cognitive remediation for mood disorders: Efficacy and the role of study quality, sample and treatment factors” in the June edition of the Journal of Affective Disorders. By meta-analyzing 22 unique, controlled studies with nearly…

In a piece for Time Magazine, Wesleyan President Michael S. Roth ’78 and Yale School of Management Professor Jeffrey Sonnenfeld argue university leadership has an obligation to speak out to ensure safety for students and employees. "It’s not an infringement on free expression to take a stand as an institutional leader, whether it’s to condemn perpetual military occupation, to denounce scientific falsehoods during a pandemic, to defend the importance of telling the truth about the legacies of Black slavery, or to point out that progressive pieties often make use of ancient anti-Semitic tropes to promote sick silos of solidarity," they…

The path from military service to the classroom varies from veteran-to-veteran. Some spend four years in active-duty service straight out of high school and then utilize their educational benefits immediately. Others spend decades serving the country before venturing out to pursue personal enrichment through academia. Regardless of a veteran’s journey to education, Wesleyan University offers its student-veterans a holistic approach to reintegrating them into the classroom. The path for Chase Williams ’25 was a long and winding one. He first came to the United States in Aug. 2001, a month prior to the Sept. 11 attacks. He took an English…

Thousands of alumni and family members converged on Wesleyan University’s campus for Homecoming and Family Weekend from Oct. 27 to 29. Attendees walked the footpaths they once knew, hugged loved ones they hadn’t seen in a while, sparked up their grills at the football game, sat in on WeSeminars, and joined in on a historic University announcement. After hours of tailgating on Andrus Field, with music blaring and the distinct smell of hotdogs in the air, Wesleyan’s football team took the field against rival Amherst in front of 5,000 fans. The Cardinals cruised to a 34 to 7 victory over…

The National Basketball Association. The pinnacle of the profession. A level that millions of people of every age and walk of life dream of being a part of. Assuredly every basketball-wielding person has put themselves there—the seemingly hour-long seconds flickering away at the end of the fourth quarter of an NBA Finals game. Few have lived the finals dream, even fewer have left winners. Both Jordan Sears ’18 and Greg St. Jean ’13 are among the few, each taking home a championship in the last few seasons. Sears won in 2021 as assistant video coordinator with the Milwaukee Bucks and…

The Los Angeles Review of Books reviewed a book recently published by President Michael S. Roth ’78, titled The Student: A Short History—which explores what it means to be a student over the years. “[Roth’s] self-described ‘pragmatic idealism’ is hardly a battle cry, but it is exactly what we need more of,” writer Todd Shy said. Roth joined PBS Newshour on Oct. 24 for a segment on how colleges have responded to the Supreme Court’s decision to end race-based admissions. “This summer, when I read the Supreme Court opinions … I thought to myself, how could we continue this practice?…

A team of scientists from different corners of the field, all with unique backgrounds and countries they call home, tucked onto a vessel in the middle of the Northwest Atlantic for two months. It could be the set up to a research-themed superhero movie, or the dream scenario for an early-career professor. For Raquel Bryant, Assistant Professor of Earth and Environmental Sciences, getting this experience had been a bucket list item for the past decade. Bryant once had a research mentor who had a similar experience who told lively stories of the life at sea with some of the world’s…

Wesleyan’s Year in Review 2023

Wesleyan in the News: President Roth on ‘Safe Enough’ Campuses

Wesleyan Professor Collaborates on Discovery of Six Planets

Fifteen Students Inducted to Phi Beta Kappa

Privacy Controls Important For Users, Study Says

New Research Calls For Public Health Officials to Consider and Treat Mood Disorders

Wesleyan in the News: November

Wesleyan’s Holistic Approach to Student-Veteran Success

Wesleyan Celebrates Homecoming and Family Weekend

Wesleyan Makes Coaches: St. Jean ’13, Sears ’18 Start NBA Season in New Roles

Wesleyan in the News: October

Raquel Bryant on Eight-Week Research Expedition in Waters of Greenland