Olivia DrakeOctober 2, 20131min
Wesleyan students, staff, faculty, friends, families and neighbors in the Middletown community enjoyed a plethora of activities at Middletown Day, held Sept. 21 on campus. The afternoon of games, live music, poster-making and balloon art, led up to the first night football game in the NESCAC, as the Cardinals faced the Tufts University Jumbos in the season’s first contest. Wesleyan won the game 52-9. (Photos by Ryan Heffernan '16 and Hannah Norman '16) (more…)

Olivia DrakeOctober 2, 20133min
By examining highly-detailed satellite images, researchers can spot small channels formed on the sides of craters on Mars. These channels may be evidence of flowing water on Mars. Since scientists don't exactly know what the surface of Mars is composed of, Wesleyan student Peter Martin ’14 created a modeling program that can simulate the kinds of salty water, or brine, solutions that would possibly form on Mars. For his efforts, Martin was awarded the Thomas R. McGetchin Memorial Scholarship Award. The $1,500 prize is given annually by the Universities Space Research Association in honor of the former Lunar and Planetary Institute Director, and…

Olivia DrakeOctober 2, 20132min
On Sept. 24, NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day featured a figure that Assistant Professor of Astronomy Seth Redfield generated as part of his research on the interstellar medium, the gas and dust surrounding the Sun and other nearby stars. Each day, NASA features a different image or photograph of the universe, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. The explanation of the figure states: “The stars are not alone. In the disk of our Milky Way Galaxy about 10 percent of visible matter is in the form of gas, called the interstellar medium (ISM). The ISM is not…

Olivia DrakeOctober 2, 20131min
Albert J. Fry, the E. B. Nye Professor of Chemistry, is the author of four new papers published in 2013. "Ion pairing and association effects between tetraalkylammonium Ions and nitrobenzene redox species: Ion pairing to neutral substances” and " Ion pairing of tetraalkylammonium ions to nitrosobenzene and benzaldehyde redox species: A general binding motif for the interaction of tetraalkylammonium ions with benzenoid species," were published in the March and August editions, respectively, of the Journal of Organic Chemistry. The third, "The 'steric effect' of tetraalkylammonium ions on electrochemically generated anions is not steric" was published in the August edition of Electrochemistry Communications. These are the 7th, 8th,…

Olivia DrakeOctober 2, 20131min
Lily Myers ’15, a member of WeSlam, performed a poem about her family that has received more than 1.7 million views on YouTube. The poem, titled "Shrinking Women," won Best Love Poem at the 2013 College Unions Poetry Slam Invitational in April, and expresses the pressure women feel to take up less and less space, to be quiet, to be small and to eat sparingly. Fellow slam poet Evan Okun ’13 said, “Her piece exemplifies Wesleyan's progressive thinking, innovative writing, and emotional honesty when it comes to Slam Poetry.” Myers also appeared in Upworthy.com and The Huffington Post. She is currently studying abroad…

Olivia DrakeSeptember 26, 20133min
The Friends of the Davison Art Center is hosting its first-ever online auction featuring many pieces of fine art including works by internationally-exhibiting photographers, Wesleyan faculty, alumni and friends. The online auction, supported  by Bidding for Good, runs for three weeks, from Oct. 15 through Nov. 9 and will be accessed at http://fdac.wesleyan.edu. As part of Wesleyan’s Homecoming/Family Weekend the Friends will also host a silent auction and free champagne reception at the Alsop House from 3 to 6 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 2. "We welcome the public to come get an up-close look at the pieces in the online auction…

Olivia DrakeSeptember 26, 20132min
The Wesleyan community celebrated the eat-local movement on Eat Local Challenge Day Sept. 24. Wesleyan's Dining Services and several local vendors provided meals made entirely from local ingredients harvested within 150 miles of the university. The menu included New England clam chowder, fried haddock and fresh cut french fries, whole spit roast pig with cranberry chutney, New England clam bake with steamer clams, corn and potatoes, vegan seitan hash, salad made from Long Lane Farm produce, wood fired pizza, blueberry and strawberry crisp, ice cream, apple cider, coffee and soda. Vendors included Pierce Brothers Coffee Roasters from Greenfield, Mass.; Sid…

Olivia DrakeSeptember 16, 20132min
From Sept. 18-26, Wesleyan's Jewish community will observe the holiday of Sukkot by living, studying, holding classes, meditating, eating and socializing in a structure made completely of bamboo and steel rods. On Sept. 9-11, four members of Wesleyan's Physical Plant staff worked full days to assemble the massive temporary structure on the lawn of Olin Library. (more…)

Olivia DrakeSeptember 16, 20131min
Ted Shaw '76 will speak on “Looking Backwards; Looking Forward: The Persistence of Race in 21st Century American Life” during Wesleyan's annual Constitution Day celebration Sept. 17. Shaw is Professor of Professional Practice at Columbia University Law School and counsel at the international firm of Fulbright and Jaworski. He served as director-counsel and president of the NAACP’s Legal Defense and Educational Fund from 2004 through 2008 and as a Wesleyan Trustee for 15 years. Shaw's talk begins at 7:30 p.m. in Olin Library's Smith Reading Room. Wesleyan’s Constitution Day event is part of a nationwide observance the U.S. Department of Education has…

Olivia DrakeSeptember 16, 20132min
Aharon Barak, former president of the Israeli Supreme Court Interdisciplinary Center, in Herzliya, Israel will deliver the 23rd annual Hugo L. Black Lecture on Freedom of Expression at 8 p.m. Oct. 8 in Memorial Chapel. His talk is titled, “Human Dignity and Free Speech." Barak served as a justice on the Supreme Court of Israel from 1978 to 1995 and as president of the Court from 1995 to 2006. Earlier, he was Attorney General of the State of Israel and Dean of the Law Faculty at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. In 1978, Barak traveled to the United States as…