Bill HolderThe Marietta College Board of Trustees has elected Joseph Bruno, formerly vice president for Academic Affairs and provost at Wesleyan, as the 18th president of Marietta, effective July 1, 2012. The college is located in Marietta, Ohio. Bruno is considered an effectual and collaborative higher education leader who has worked with four Wesleyan presidents in his 27 years and has helped to shape academic initiatives at the university, according to an announcement issued by Marietta. A graduate of Augustana College and Northwestern University, Bruno is currently a professor of chemistry at Wesleyan. He also completed a thesis parts appointment at Argonne…
David PesciA high profile auction of Elizabeth Taylor’s estate provides a definitive moment to discuss the film icon’s life and work. Jeanine Basinger, Chair and Corwin Fuller Professor of Film Studies, is featured on Southern California Public Radio (KPCC) and brings a historical perspective to Taylor’s body of work and her life as one of the last true movie stars. More than 2,000 of Taylor's items are being auctioned online. "With Elizabeth Taylor, you're operating at at a level of stardom, it's cosmic really," Basinger says in the show. "Whether anyone was a fan of hers or not, they would want something of…
Olivia DrakeThe City of Middletown, Conn. named Wesleyan University a "2011 Green Business Recycling Hero." According to the recycling heros list, "Wesleyan recycles a variety of materials beyond what is mandated. These include office furniture, clothing and mattresses. They also compost, purchase materials made from recycled components, and have initiated many green initiatives revolving around green building, transportation and energy conservation." The City applauds Wesleyan and other local organizations and businesses who are reducing, reusing and recycling to protect the environment.
Brian KattenPatti Klecha-Porter, who has directed the field hockey team at Wesleyan since her arrival in Middletown in 1985, was inducted into the Connecticut Lacrosse Hall of Fame on Nov. 13, for her long-time service as a lacrosse umpire. Klecha-Porter was one of eight individual enshrined during a ceremony in Southington, Conn. Klecha-Porter graduated from Ithaca College in 1981. As a student athlete at Ithaca, she was captain and MVP of both the field hockey and lacrosse teams. After graduating she continued playing field hockey at the U.S. Hockey level as well as club lacrosse for Hampshire New England. Klecha-Porter was…
Q&As with outstanding students is an occasional feature of The Wesleyan Connection. This issue we speak with Lief Fredrichs from the Class of 2014. Q: Lief, where are you from, and why did you choose Wesleyan? A: I am from Exeter, NH. I chose Wesleyan because, when I visited, the students (actually tour-guides) seemed the most real to me. I liked Wes because of its reputation for being a small and prestigious school. I applied and got accepted off the waiting list in July. I was planning to go to Bard College, but I decided that I couldn't pass up…
Paul Karl Haake, professor of molecular biology and biochemistry, emeritus, died on Dec. 3 in Middletown, Conn. He was 79 years old. A memorial service was held Dec. 7 at the Wasch Center for Retired Faculty. In the true spirit of the liberal arts and the Wesleyan tradition of service, Professor Haake was particularly proud of the popularcourses he taught to students outside the sciences and of his participation in community issues. In 1975, Governor Grasso appointed Professor Haake to the Connecticut’s Nuclear Power Evaluation Council, a commission concerned with the safety of nuclear power. Professor Haake completed his A.B.…
Elisabeth Young-Bruehl, philosopher, psychoanalyst and public intellectual, died suddenly on Dec. 1 at the age of 65. She served on the Wesleyan faculty for nearly two decades, joining the College of Letters in 1974, after earning her Ph.D. in Philosophy at the New School, where she studied closely with Hannah Arendt. In 1982, Young-Bruehl published what is still considered the definitive biography of Arendt, Hannah Arendt: For Love of the World (Yale University Press, 1982; Second Edition, 2004), a text for which she received the Harcourt Literary Prize in Biography and Memoirs. Six years later, in 1988, she published an intellectual…
Benjamin TraversOpraha Miles '14 is an intended neuroscience and behavior major from Jamaica who sings, dances in the ISIS women of color dance troupe, is a member of the West Indian Student Association (WISA), student manager at Usdan University Center and is a dedicated YouTube enthusiast. Learn more about Opraha in this video below: [youtube width="640" height="420"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0VklhWEl-lQ&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]
Below is a video of Wesleyan's Cardinal Swim Team members in action. Music by Wesleyan's own Almonds and Elephants. [youtube width="640" height="420"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKZttqAX1xk&feature=relmfu[/youtube]
Below is a video featuring WILD Wes (Working for Intelligent Landscape Design at Wesleyan). WILD Wes is a Wesleyan student group working to transform fossil-fuel-intensive lawns into food-producing, ecologically-regenerative landscapes. WILD Wes is currently working on its first project: a 3/4 acre courtyard situated in a cluster of West College. The video was created by WILD Wes member Erin O'Donnell '12 and Ofer Levy '12, who were enrolled in the "Documentary Advocacy" class. Jacob Bricca, adjunct assistant professor of film studies, taught the FILM 150 course last fall. [youtube width="640" height="420"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bT3pDlO0WKw&feature=youtube_gdata[/youtube]
Wesleyan's Green Street Arts Center received a $75,000 grant from the Connecticut Health and Educational Facilities Authority (CHEFA) on Nov. 22. The grant will support Green Street's After School Program in 2012. CHEFA's mission is to enhance the welfare and prosperity and improve the health and living conditions of the citizens of the State of Connecticut by providing access to tax-exempt financing and other financial assistance to institutions of higher education, healthcare institutions, childcare providers and nonprofit organizations.
The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) has offered Wesleyan's Center for Film Studies Cinema Archives a $425,000 challenge grant. Support from NEH, which requires a three to one match with private gifts, will ensure that the Archives continue to grow and flourish. The four-year NEH grant will help endow a full-time curatorial position for the Cinema Archives, a collection which includes the person papers and other materials of such seminal film icons as Frank Capra, Elia Kazan, Federico Fellini, Martin Scorsese, Clint Eastwood and Ingrid Bergman, among others. The NEH grant will only partially endow the position and, because it is…