Olivia DrakeOn Dec. 3, Lisa Brommer was hired as associate vice president for human resources, succeeding Julia Hicks, who retired in September. Brommer comes to Wesleyan from Colorado College, where she was serving as interim director of human resources. In her work at Colorado College, she was known for creating professional development opportunities for staff, improving recruitment processes to ensure a diverse applicant pool, building leadership capacity at all levels, and putting systems in place to identify and retain top talent. Brommer received her BA at the University of Sioux Falls and her MA from the University of South Dakota and…
On Oct. 8, Christopher Olt joined Wesleyan as associate vice president for finance. Olt took on a role last held by Nate Peters before his promotion to vice president for the Office of Finance and Administration. Upon Peters's retirement, the leadership structure of Finance and Administration was reorganized, reestablishing this new role. Olt comes to Wesleyan with significant finance experience in education, most recently at Notre Dame High School of West Haven, where he was responsible for all aspects of finance, budget, and other operational areas including physical plant, information technology, campus safety, and risk management. He was previously a…
Lauren RubensteinNancy Hargrave Meislahn, vice president and dean of admission and financial aid, recently announced that she will retire. Meislahn will leave the University in September after the arrival of the Class of 2023, the 20th class she will admit to Wesleyan. Meislahn came to Wesleyan from her previous role at Cornell University in January 2000 and is the longest-serving dean of admission in Wesleyan history. Over the past two decades, she has overseen a period of enormous growth and progress in Wesleyan admissions. For the Class of 2004, the first class admitted under Meislahn, Wesleyan received fewer than 7,000 applications…
Mark Slobin, the Winslow-Kaplan Professor of Music, Emeritus, is the author of Motor City Music: A Detroiter Looks Back, published by Oxford University Press (November 2018). Slobin's book is the first-ever historical study of music across all genres in any American metropolis. According to the publisher: Detroit in the 1940s–60s was not just "the capital of the 20th century" for industry and the war effort, but also for the quantity and extremely high quality of its musicians, from jazz to classical to ethnic. Slobin, a Detroiter from 1943, begins with a reflection of his early life with his family and others,…
Karl Boulware, assistant professor of economics, presented a paper at the Allied Social Science Associations (ASSA) Annual Meeting on Jan. 4. The three-day meeting was attended by more than 13,000 economists, who gathered to network and celebrate new achievements in economic research. Boulware's paper, titled "Labor Market Conditions and Charges of Discrimination: Is There a Link?" examines whether the degree of labor market conditions affects the frequency of claims of discrimination based on race, sex, age, national origin, color, and disability. "Our findings have implications for how macroeconomic policies might be used to promote equal opportunity in the labor market,"…
New poetry by John Murillo, assistant professor of English, is published in the Feb. 2019 issue (Volume 48, No. 1) of American Poetry Review. Murillo also is featured on the publication's cover page. His poem, titled "A Refusal to Mourn the Deaths, by Gunfire, of Three Men in Brooklyn,” is a nod to Dylan Thomas’s famous poem, “A Refusal to Mourn the Death, by Fire, of a Child in London.” (more…)
Hirsh Sawhney, assistant professor of English and coordinator of South Asian Studies, recently participated in Tata Literature Live! The Mumbai LitFest. The ninth annual event was held Nov. 15–18 in Mumbai and was attended by more than 100 participants from around the world. At the festival, Sawhney participated in a panel discussion about the way in which outsiders write about India, and how outside perspectives have shaped both Euro-American and South Asian perspectives on India. "A lot of this conversation focused on the undying legacy of empire, and we had a nuanced conversation about issues of representation and authenticity, a discussion…
The 2017-18 Middlesex United Way Wesleyan Employee Campaign brought in more than $100,000 in contributions, pushing Wesleyan's donations to more than $2 million since 2001. "This milestone—made possible by your generosity and the efforts of many volunteers across campus—is one we should all be proud of," said Clifton Watson, director of the Jewett Center for Community Partnerships and United Way campaign coordinator. "Our collective support will help ensure that the remarkably effective programs of the United Way will continue to provide critical services to residents across the region." This year, 360 Wesleyan employees, retired faculty, and authorized vendors (including 31 “Leadership Givers”…
This year, the Sustainability Office is partnering with Commute with Enterprise to offer vanpooling opportunities to employees. A vanpool is a group of 7–15 people traveling to work together in a minivan or a 12–15 passenger van. Vanpool groups usually meet each day at a prearranged location, such as a park-and-ride lot. Commuters pay a monthly fee that covers the van, insurance, and fuel costs. In addition, users enjoy: Reduced personal vehicle maintenance expenses Emergency ride home service Roadside assistance Eligibility for commuter rewards Reduced stress (a recent study indicates that vanpoolers experience a 21 percent lower rate of self-reported stress than…
Parlez vous français? Hablas español? Bạn có nói được tiếng Việt không? According to Wesleyan's Language Proficiency Database, more than 80 languages, other than English, are spoken, read, or written on campus. The database, which was created in November 2018, is free and available to the entire Wesleyan campus. Speakers of a language other than English (at any level) are encouraged to go to WesPortal / My Information / Language Proficiency, to add one or more languages and levels of proficiency. This year, the Fries Center for Global Studies (FCGS) is promoting the use of languages other than English in…
Cynthia RockwellThe Wesleyan magazine issue on the future of journalism (2018, issue 2) prompted Adrienne Scott ’76 to write a letter to the editor, recalling a high point in her early career in journalism: when legendary boxing champion Muhammad Ali granted her an exclusive interview. Scott, who had been a columnist for The Wesleyan Argus as an undergraduate, as well as a student of University Editor Jack Paton ’49, P’75, was at that time a young journalist and the first African American full-time news reporter at WPRI-TV in Providence, R.I. The Connection reached out to Scott to continue the conversation that…