Olivia DrakeU.S. Senator Ted Kennedy is currently the senior Democrat on the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee in the Senate. He will speak at the 176th Wesleyan commencement. Posted 02/01/08 U.S. Senator Edward M. "Ted" Kennedy will deliver the main address at Wesleyan's 176th commencement in May. Senator Kennedy, a Democrat, is the senior senator from Massachusetts and the second longest-serving current member of the U.S. Senate. Senator Kennedy has long been a thoughtful and energetic supporter of higher education in the United States, says Wesleyan's President Michael Roth. In this time of great change at our universities, it is…
Janice Astor del Valle, left, director of the Green Street Arts Center, listens to Sonia BasSheva Mañjon, director of the Center for Art and Public Life at the California College of the Arts in Oakland, speak in Memorial Chapel during a campus visit Nov. 2. Mañjon will return to campus in July as Wesleyan's new vice president for diversity and strategic partnerships. Posted 02/01/08 President Michael Roth has appointed Sonia BasSheva Mañjon as vice president for diversity and strategic partnerships, a new position that will include leadership on civic engagement and cooperation with private and public organizations. Mañjon will work…
Wesleyan has secured a permanent endowment that will support the Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowship Program at the Center for the Americas. Posted 02/01/08 In 2004, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation challenged Wesleyan to raise $1.5 million over a three-year period. Wesleyan agreed -- and recently succeeded. As part of the challenge, the Mellon Foundation matched these funds to endow a permanent Postdoctoral Fellowship Program in the humanities within the Center for the Americas. Since 1998, postdoctoral fellows were hired on a year-to-year basis as grant funding allowed. The Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowship Program has become part of the very rhythm of the…
Barbara Juhasz, at right, assistant professor of psychology and neuroscience and behavior, explains eye-tracking data to guests during a roving lab event Jan. 23. Posted 02/01/08 Three new psychology labs in Judd Hall allow faculty and students to study readers' habits, to reveal insights into children's' minds and to help improve existing treatments for schizophrenia.The Department of Psychology hosted a roving lab event Jan. 23 to introduce the labs and showcase the extensive renovations that were completed to create customized multi-purpose facilities. The renovations include Barbara Juhasz's eye tracking lab on the fifth floor, Anna Shustermans child development lab on…
Eloise Glick, faculty resource specialist, helps process teaching evaluations at the end of each semester in the Office of Academic Affairs. Posted 02/01/08 Q: Eloise, as a faculty resource specialist in the Office of Academic Affairs, what resources do you manage for the faculty?A: I coordinate all the paper and processes -- except for benefits -- associated with a faculty members career from the letter of offer until retirement. There is a reason the main decorative feature of my office is filing cabinets!Q: When a new faculty member is hired, what is the process of getting him or her…
David Winakor is Wesleyan's first general counsel and represents the university on issues affecting the university. Posted 02/01/08 According to David Winakor, lawyers and doctors often have something in common. We cant always tell you what exact illness or illnesses you might have, but we can probably help treat some symptoms and maybe even prevent it from getting worse, Winakor says. Although our issues are very different, we are both trained to find the answer. As a lawyer and Wesleyans first General Counsel, Winakor represents the university, its trustees, officers, faculty and staff, all in their official capacities, on…
Multimedia artist Lenore Malen is the artistic director of "Lenore Malen and the New Society for Universal Harmony," on display in Zilkha Gallery Feb. 2-March 2. Posted 02/01/08 A new Center for the Arts exhibit uses the lens of history to explore the far-ranging beliefs and anxieties of our time and the sciences and technologies that have informed them. Lenore Malen and the New Society for Universal Harmony runs from Feb. 2 through March 2 in the Ezra and Cecile Zilkha Gallery. It consists of a multi-media installation that uses video, digital prints and archival materials. The New Society exhibit…
OVER WINTER BREAK: Area children sled down Foss Hill after a gentle snow Jan. 14. Frosty trees near Exley Science Center. Ice-topping on the South College belfry. A winter walk near the front steps Olin Library and West College. A glistening-morning scene near Hall-Atwater and Shanklin laboratories. (Photos by Olivia Bartlett)
Posted 01/15/08 Parlez-vous français? By attending the Wesleyan Summer Language Institute, students will learn to speak, write and comprehend basic French in only four weeks. The new Summer Language Institute, developed by the Division of Continuing Studies, will offer programs in Arabic, Russian and Spanish as well as French. Participants will be grouped together by language, and will live, study, eat and mingle together constantly in the target language. In four weeks of immersion, students will gain the equivalent of a full year of language study at Wesleyan, says Jennifer Curran, assistant director for admissions and outreach. This is a…
Posted 01/15/08 Lisa Dierker, associate professor of psychology, has received a $1 million National Institutes of Health grant to develop a new statistical method that will move past standard approaches to provide more sensitive ways to evaluate both the etiology and clinical course of mental and physical health outcomes. Numerous statistical methods used in longitudinal health research help make sense of mountains of complex data and aid researchers in uncovering important associations that can inform health care.Dierker, pictured at right, and Runze Li, associate professor of statistics at Pennsylvania State University, are principal investigators on the grant, which is a…
Lauren Nichols, a BA/MA biology student, demonstrates how the new LICOR Li-6400 measures the rate of carbon fixation via photosynthesis in living plants. Posted 01/15/08 A challenge grant from The Kresge Foundation is supporting much-needed equipment for the sciences at Wesleyan. With a challenge grant from The Kresge Foundation, Wesleyan has already acquired a photosynthesis system, microplate reader, spectrometers and a dye laser. With $500,000 raised from donors, the foundation provided a grant of $250,000 for a total of $750,000 used towards the equipment purchase. And this month, Wesleyan will receive an additional $250,000 from the foundation to support future…
Posted 01/15/08 Q: With your father and uncle both outstanding former Wesleyan wrestlers, was it a foregone conclusion that you'd become a wrestler? A: It's hard to say, I had known growing up that my father and three out of my four uncles had wrestled; however, I never felt at one time that I was being pressured to follow suit. We joke in my family that my father always gets his way without ever saying anything. I vaguely remember him urging me to look into it, but I know the decision to start wrestling was ultimately mine. In terms of…