Olivia DrakeJuly 13, 20059min
Joan Adams, assistant to the dean of admission, stands outside the Office of Admission.   Posted 07/13/05 Q: Joan, you are the assistant to the Dean of Admission. How long have you been in the Office of Admission?A: I started working in the office of admission in January of 2000.Q: And what were you doing before that? A: I was hired in August of 1999 and started my Wesleyan career in the registrar’s office.Q: What do you like most about working here after these five years?A: There are many things that I love about working at Wesleyan. First and foremost,…

Olivia DrakeJuly 13, 20057min
Wesleyan has partnered with the Liz Lerman Dance Exchange for several fall events.   Posted 07/13/05 For the past three years, the Center for the Arts and Wesleyan faculty have partnered with the Liz Lerman Dance Exchange to explore the ethical and social repercussions of genetic research. The Liz Lerman Dance Exchange, led by MacArthur Fellow Liz Lerman, has been creating dance works that are metaphorical and powerfully visceral about the issues of the time. The Wesleyan-Dance Exchange partnership has resulted in Wesleyan serving as a lead commissioner of “Ferocious Beauty: Genome”, which will premiere at the CFA on February…

Olivia DrakeJuly 13, 200512min
Alex Dupuy, professor of sociology, is a native of Haiti and has traced the country's turmoil back to its revolution.   Posted 07/13/05 It started out as one of the most inspiring stories in human history: slaves rebelled against their masters, fought a long, bloody revolution and took control of an oppressive nation. But since that auspicious beginning, the history of Haiti and its people has been fraught with turmoil and division. During the last few decades, Alex Dupuy, professor of sociology, has been searching for reasons why, and sharing his insight not just with his students but the world.…

Olivia DrakeJuly 13, 20055min
Posted 07/13/05 When it comes to fund-raising, Wesleyan is right on the money. The Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) has awarded Wesleyan the CASE-Wealth ID Award for Educational Fund Raising: Overall Performance. Wesleyan competed in the Private Liberal Arts Institutions category. Wesleyan shared this distinction with eight other institutions, including Wellesley College and Williams College. “Wesleyan is already ranked highly for academic excellence, but now it demonstrates exemplary support of private education through its fund-raising performance,” says Mark Bailey, director of development communications. CASE, a nonprofit education association, supports educational institutions by enhancing the effectiveness of the…

Olivia DrakeJuly 12, 20052min
Posted 07/12/05   Updated 07.25.05 Olympic Champion Otylia Jedrzejczak, who also holds the world record in the 200-meter butterfly (2:05.78), was one of 17 athletes on the Polish National Swimming Team who trained at Wesleyan July 15 through July 21. The Polish squad was preparing for the World Championships to be held in Montreal, Quebec from July 24-31. It is customary for international teams to do time-zone acclimation training, according to Brad Flood, head women's swimming coach at the University of Bridgeport. Flood has been working with the Polish National team for more than a dozen years and recruited a number…

Olivia DrakeJuly 1, 20059min
Cheryl-Ann Hagner, library assistant for Special Collections and Archives and coordinator of the Friends of the Wesleyan Library, sorts through a card catalog inside the archives.   Posted 07/13/.05 Q: How is your summer going so far here at Olin? Do you miss the students?A: Summer in the library is quiet. I miss the interaction with students and the energy they bring to campus, but it is nice to have time to catch up on projects that had to be put on hold during the busy semester. Q: How many years have you worked at Wesleyan?A: I’ve been at Wesleyan…

Olivia DrakeJune 28, 20051min
WHAT WORKS, WHAT DOESN'T: Wesleyan’s Center for Community Partnerships hosted a Conference for Service-Learning titled “What Works and What Doesn’t” May 25-26. Staff members from Amherst, Bowdoin, Byrn Mawr, Connecticut College, Smith, Swarthmore, Trinity, University of Pennsylvania, Williams and Wesleyan convened to assess service-learning’s impact on students, administration and community partners. The event was arranged by Professor of Sociology and Director of the Service-Learning Center Rob Rosenthal, pictured back left. Also pictured are Scott Laidlaw, director of the Community Outreach Program at Amherst College; Sharon Friedler, professor of dance at Swarthmore College; and Sarah Barr, associate director of the Holleran…

Olivia DrakeJune 15, 20059min
Marina Melendez, ’83, MALS ’88, is the director of Graduate Student Services and the program's biggest advocate.   Posted 06/15/05 Marina Melendez ‘83 was raised by a German-speaking mother and Spanish-speaking father in Five Towns, Long Island, N.Y. She didn’t speak a word of English until the age of 7. “After my first day of school, my mother said I came home and refused to speak any more German,” she says. “And from that day on, English would be the language in our home.” Melendez, however, never let go of her German and Puerto Rican roots. During her undergraduate years…

Olivia DrakeJune 15, 20057min
  Summer Hughes Fellows Maiko Kondo '07 (top) and Brandon Stein '07 (left) work on their research projects in Wesleyan labs. Hughes Fellows have 10 weeks to finish a research project of their choice. Faculty members provide guidance and instruction. Posted 06/15/05 In Wesleyan’s Mukerji Lab, Maiko Kondo ’07 studies peptides modeled after those found in Alzheimer’s plaques. Nearby in the Flory Lab, Brandon Stein ’07 examines nuclear functions of telomere-associated proteins. As Wesleyan University Summer Hughes Fellows, Kondo and Stein have 10 weeks to complete their research, work one-on-one with a faculty advisor and participate in a variety of…

Olivia DrakeJune 15, 20054min
In July, South College will receive eight new bells. Scaffolding will surround parts of the building, as crews install the bells and remodel the belfry. Sections of the white panels will be removed, however the copper-top will stay in tact.    Posted 06/15/05 The South College belfry will receive eight new bells and a facelift during the next several months. This renovation will add eight new bells to the current 16-bell array. This will upgrade the status of the Wesleyan bells from a chime (10-22 bells) to that of a carillon (23 or more). “Now we’ll have more notes, so…

Olivia DrakeJune 15, 20055min
This photograph of a West Bengal wedding altar by Ákos Östör, professor of anthropology and film studies, and Lina Fruzzetti of Brown University, is on display in The Museum of Cultures in Helsinki, Finland. It is part of an exhibit titled “Divine Gifts: Marriage and ritual in rural West Bengal.”   Posted 06/15/05 In India, marriage carries great social and cultural meanings. It ensures the continuity of the male line and it is vital to the maintenance of caste status. Ákos Östör, professor of anthropology and professor of film studies, has spent the past three years traveling to Bishnupur, West…

Olivia DrakeJune 15, 200513min
Michael Roy, director of Academic Computing Services and Digital Projects, works on a project inside the Science Tower Lab.   Posted 06/15/05 Q: Mike, you’re director of Academic Computing Services and director of Digital Projects. What is your personal interest with technology? A: My personal interest in technology comes from being curious about how technology can solve problems, about how it can improve our ability to understand the world, and how it can allow us to communicate that understanding in new and effective ways. Q: When did you come to Wesleyan? A: I came here in 1996 as the Humanities…