Campus News & Events

Wesleyan is home to students of many different faiths, as well as those who don’t practice any religion. The week of April 19, Wesleyan’s Interfaith Council of students organized a Faith Shadowing Week to allow students an opportunity “to get a glimpse at what the different religious and spiritual fellowships and events look like, and how different traditions and forms take shape,” as Lydia Ottaviano ‘17, head of the council, put it. (more…)

#THISISWHY On April 30, more than 150 scholar-athletes, along with their coaches, faculty and staff members, attended the third annual scholar-athlete banquet, held in Beckham Hall. Among the evening's highlights was the presentation of the Roger Maynard Memorial Awards to women's crew coxswain Brianne Wiemann '15 and baseball second baseman Andrew Yin '15. Since 1970, the award has been presented to the male and female senior student-athletes who best exemplify the spirit, humility and accomplishments of Roger Maynard '37, a former Wesleyan trustee and standout cross-country and track letterman. As the varsity-eight cox the last two seasons, Wiemann was integral in helping the Cardinals…

On April 21, Dione Longley '82 spoke about her new book, Heroes for All Time: Connecticut Civil War Soldiers Tell Their Stories, co-authored by Buck Zaidel (Wesleyan University Press), in the Davison Rare Book Room at Olin Memorial Library as part of the 2015 Friends of the Wesleyan Library Annual Meeting Talk. The book uses soldiers’ letters and diaries, and written accounts by nurses, doctors, soldiers’ families, and volunteers on the home front to vividly portray the war. Hundreds of period photographs (most, previously unpublished) add to the narrative. Longley was director of the Middlesex County Historical Society in Middletown for 20 years. Now a…

On April 28, Krishna Winston, the Marcus L. Taft Professor of German Language and Literature, spoke on a panel at the CUNY Graduate Center on Nobel Prize–winner Günter Grass, one of Germany's best-known contemporary writers, who died earlier this month. Winston, Grass's translator, is also professor of German Studies, professor of environmental studies, and coordinator of the Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship. She spoke alongside Professor Friedrich Ulfers of New York University and Breon Mitchell, professor emeritus at Indiana University, Bloomington. The event, which was standing-room only, was moderated by Ralph Bunche Institute Director John Torpey, a professor at the CUNY Graduate…

#THISISWHY In this issue of News @ Wes, we speak to Laura McIntyre from the Class of 2017. Q: Laura, please tell us where you're from and what you're majoring in. A: I'm a sophomore here at Wes. I'm majoring in sociology and am thinking about the film minor. I'm from New York City. Q: I understand the "Before I Die" public art project has been installed in locations all over the world. When and how did this project come to be? A: The project was started by an artist named Candy Chang as a personal project after someone close to her…

#THISISWHY Claudia Kahindi ’18 and Olayinka Lawal ’15 have received a $10,000 Davis Projects for Peace grant to launch KIU, an English education project, in Kahindi’s home area of coastal Kenya this summer. Named for the Swahili word for “thirst,” KIU will serve more than 100 fourth-grade students at Kahindi’s alma mater, Kilimo Public Primary School, in Kenya’s Kilifi County. (more…)

#THISISWHY In this video, meet Brooklee Han '18 of Redding, Conn., a figure skater who has been competing internationally since 2010. She competed in Sochi, Russia in 2014 as a member of the Australian Olympic Team.

Long Lane Farm will host its annual May Day Festival from noon to 5 p.m. on May 2. The rain date is May 3. The event is open to the community, and will feature food, live music, face painting, crafts and activities, a bake sale, and a small farmer's market. A yoga class will be offered at 2 p.m., and a contra dance held at 3 p.m. Long Lane Farm is located at 281 Long Lane in Middletown at the corner of Long Lane and Wadsworth Street.

WESU 88.1 FM is holding its annual Spring Pledge Drive to support another season of community-driven radio. The station aims to raise $20,000 this spring to close out a capital campaign that started at the beginning of 2014, when the station kicked off its 75th anniversary year. Meeting its pledge goal this spring will allow WESU to complete some much-needed studio updates, including an audio mixing console in the air studio, as well as other technical improvements that will strengthen infrastructure and better accommodate live in-studio performances. These upgrades will also enable WESU to broadcast from remote locations. (more…)

Wesleyan welcomed about 450 admitted students and their families to campus April 15-17 to experience life at Wesleyan first-hand. Visitors had an opportunity to explore all that Wes has to offer through tours of campus, film studies, science facilities, the Center for the Arts, and the theater department; parent-to-parent and student-to-student panels; departmental and center open houses; and a student activities fair, as well as lectures, performances and film screenings. (Photos by Dat Vu '15, Hannah Norman '16, Gabe Rosenberg '16, Dena Matthews and Lauren Rubenstein.) (more…)

#THISISWHY On April 15, faculty and staff met to share their service- and project-based learning stories during an Academic (Technology) Roundtable lunch at the Allbritton Center for the Study of Public Life. A(T)R lunches are designed to promote conversation, cooperation and the sharing of information, ideas and resources among faculty members, librarians, graduate students and staff. Barbara Juhasz, director of service-learning, associate professor of psychology, associate professor of neuroscience and behavior, led the session, providing an overview of service-learning at Wesleyan as well as the variety of ways that service can be used as a pedagogical tool. Other speakers included Rob Rosenthal, director of…

Beginning July 1, Marc Eisner will serve as Dean of the Social Sciences, Ellen Nerenberg as Dean of Arts and Humanities, and Joseph Knee as Dean of the Sciences and Mathematics. Eisner's appointment was announced April 17, while the appointments of Nerenberg and Knee were made at the faculty meeting in November 2014. Eisner will succeed Joyce Jacobsen; Nerenberg will succeed Andrew Curran; and Knee will succeed Ishita Mukerji. (more…)

Students Explore Different Religious Traditions During Faith Shadowing Week

Scholar-Athletes Honored at Banquet

Longley ’82 Speaks at Friends of Wesleyan Library Event

Winston Speaks at Retrospective for Günter Grass

McIntyre ’17 Brings “Before I Die” Public Art Project to Wes

Students Receive Davis Projects for Peace Grant to Launch English Education Project

Figure Skater Han ’18 Competed in 2014 Olympics

Long Lane Farm to Host Annual May Day Festival

WESU Holding Spring Pledge Drive

WesFest Gives Admitted Students, Families a Taste of Campus Life

Faculty, Staff Share Service- and Project-Based Learning Stories

Wesleyan Announces Appointment of New Deans