Olivia DrakeEloise 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)
Norman Rudich, professor of letters and of romance languages and literatures emeritus, died Dec. 20, 2007 at home in New York City. He was 85 years old. Professor Rudich joined the Wesleyan faculty in 1952 and served with distinction until his retirement in 1991. He earned his Ph.D. in French from Princeton University and did graduate work at the Sorbonne. Rudich was an accomplished scholar who edited two notable books, Premiers Oeuvres (with J. Varloot) and Weapons of Criticism, and published numerous articles, essays, and reviews. Rudich was one of the founding members of Wesleyans College of Letters. His former…
Sarah Lazare, associate dean of Student Academic Resources, coordinates Wesleyan's Disabilities Services, the Student Academic Resource Network (SARN) and SARN Peer Advisors and the First Year Matters Program. Posted 01/15/08 When a student encounters academic woes at Wesleyan, Sarah Lazare will find a pathway that may lead the student to success. "There are so many academic resources available to our students," says Lazare, associate dean of Student Academic Resources. "When students find themselves stumbling, all they have to do is ask. We will help them find a solution." Dean Lazare works with students from all areas of campus and…
Posted 01/15/08 For the past three years, College of Social Studies and French double major Anand Venkatachalam 08 has studied South Asian culture, history, language and the Hindu religion. What was lacking, however, was the opportunity to practice Hinduism on campus. "I found it very odd that a campus so greatly endowed with an interest in Asian art forms did not have even a student group that provided a community for Hindus on campus," says Venkatachalam, a native of Chennai, India. "College is a time of ethic formation, and questioning norms and values. Hindu students, or students who were raised…
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…
Q: Frank, you came to Wesleyan in 1996 as a campus center coordinator. What did this position entail? A: Oh my, how time flies when you are working with and being challenged by Wesleyan students! I was hired for one year as the interim coordinator of the former Davenport Campus Center. Then I was appointed full time coordinator the following year. I was a one person office, responsible for the facility and its operations. Basically, I was charged with keeping the building safe, clean, and hopefully attractive as a gathering place for students. For the last five years, I also…