Natalie Robichaud ’14
Kate CarlisleBoth the SAT and the ACT tests will be optional for high school applicants to Wesleyan University starting next fall, President Michael S. Roth announced this week. The tests, given annually to about three million students in 170 countries, have been part of the Wesleyan admissions process for many years. Wesleyan has required either the SAT with two subject tests, or the ACT. Now the university joins several hundred institutions, including many of its peer colleges, in making the tests optional. While students’ academic records will continue to be most important in Wesleyan’s admissions decisions, as they always have, applicants…
Bill HolderThe broad contextual education that Wesleyan and peer institutions offer is frequently critiqued, sometimes excoriated, by those who accuse it of not preparing graduates for success in today’s world. But that accusation, says President Michael S. Roth in his sixth and latest book, Beyond the University: Why Liberal Education Matters (Yale University Press, 2014), is as old as liberal education itself – and never less convincing than now. A historian whose previous scholarship has focused on making sense of the past, Roth charts the development of pragmatic liberal education through a succession of important American thinkers. Liberal education has deep…
Olivia DrakeThe Campus Activities Committee sponsored the 3rd Annual Taste of Middletown, an event offering samples from 15 local restaurants and hotels including Typhoon Asian Cuisine, Sweet Harmony Bakery, Lyman Orchards and more. The event took place on April 30 in Beckham Hall and included a raffle prizes. More than 225 Wesleyan faculty and staff attended. Employees were encouraged to donate non-perishable food items to Amazing Grace, a food pantry located in Middletown. "Amazing Grace is grateful to all of our employees who donated a whopping 227 pounds of food and an additional $80 in cash," said event organizer Olga Bookas, director…
From daffodils, tulips, hyacinths and pansies to flowering cherry, magnolia and pear trees on College Row, spring blooms finally emerge across campus in warmer temperatures at the end of April. (Photos by Olivia Drake) (more…)
This month, the National Science Foundation awarded Brian Northrop, assistant professor of chemistry, with a 2014 Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) award. The CAREER awards support junior faculty who exemplify the role of teacher-scholars through outstanding research, excellent education and the integration of education and research within the context of the mission of their organizations. The honor came with a five-year grant totaling $537,561, which Northrop will use on his study titled "Selective Thiol-Ene and Thiol-Yne Chemistry, From First Principles to Organic Materials.” At Wesleyan, Northrop's research focuses on the design, synthesis and analysis of new organic materials utilizing molecular…
Lauren RubensteinStudents, faculty and staff who exercised cultural sensitivity, helped promote diversity and inclusion, and improved the campus climate were recognized at the annual Edgar Beckham Helping Hand Awards ceremony held April 27. The event brought together generations of alumni, students, faculty and staff to celebrate the tenets that make Wesleyan "Diversity University." The keynote speaker this year was Daphne Kwok '84. The awards are sponsored by the Administrators and Faculty of Color Alliance, African American Studies Program, Alumni of Color Council, Edgar Beckham Fund, Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship, and Office of Equity and Inclusion. Honored at the ceremony were: Students…
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The colors of the Holi Festival brought the entire campus together to celebrate spring on Foss Hill on April 25. Shakti, the South Asian Student Association, hosts the event annually. View additional photos in this Wesleyan Facebook gallery. (Photos by Bill Fisher) (more…)
April was Sexual Assault Awareness Month, and its observance at Wesleyan has coincided with a spirited discussion about campus climate, including a particular focus on the future of single-sex, residential fraternities. On April 20, the Wesleyan Student Assembly passed a resolution calling on residential fraternities to accept full co-education – “with a clear and swift plan of action” to become coeducational in membership and residence, and an initial co-educated pledge class in spring 2015. The purely advisory 14-12 vote, however, underscored a difference of opinion. (more…)
Once a week, a group of Wesleyan faculty gather to work on individual projects. Although they come from different departments - psychology, classical studies, government, among others - they're all working towards the same goal: to write, be published, and celebrate each others' accomplishments. The Wesleyan Faculty Writing Group, founded in 2010, provides an opportunity for faculty to come sit in a shared space and work on any writing projects they are pursuing. Participants are currently working on book proposals, book manuscripts, articles, reviews, grant and fellowship applications and op-eds. "All of us have found that the occasional change of…