Olivia DrakeAmber Smith '14 understands the importance of having connections with others who understand the hardships faced as an amputee. Smith, an African American studies major, was born with an upper extremity amputation of her left forearm. On Nov. 6, Smith received a 2013 Ella T. Grasso Leadership in Action Grant from the Connecticut Women’s Hall of Fame. The award will serve as seed money for starting up her social enterprise, "I AMputee," an online community designed for amputees and their families to connect with those of similar circumstances in an effort to create positive, reciprocal relationships grounded in common experience. I AMputee's…
Phi Beta Kappa, Wesleyan's honor society, welcomed 12 new members during an initiation ceremony Dec. 4 in the Office of Admission. These students have been elected to early decision PBK membership, and hold a GPA of 94.89 and above. "These new members’ accomplishments during their years at Wesleyan should be a source of pride to themselves and to their families," said Anna Shusterman, vice president of the Connecticut Gamma Chapter of Phi Beta Kappa and assistant professor of psychology. To be elected, a student must first have been nominated by the department of his or her major. He or she…
Brian KattenThe Cardinals put away a successful fall season, with 18 athletes earning all-NESCAC honors, 58 qualifying as NESCAC scholar athletes and (in case you haven’t heard) the football team winning the Little Three Title for the first time in 43 years. Leading the way with 12 all-NESCAC picks were the 7-1 footballers, whose season record was the best finish for the team since 1993. Named to the NESCAC first team were NESCAC leading rusher LaDarius Drew ’15, defensive backs Jake Bussani ’14 and Donnie Cimino ’15, defensive end Nik Powers ’15, center Jake Sheffer ’14 and wide receiver Kevin Hughes…
Kate CarlisleWesleyan’s Center for the Arts is the recipient of a $400,000 grant recognizing the CFA as an innovator and leader among arts organizations. The unsolicited gift from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation is one of five – totaling $3.5 million - given to arts centers around the country. It recognizes these centers for their “adaptability” to changing conditions in the arts sector and is intended to support the groups’ ongoing capacity to respond to these changes, according to the foundation. “We understand that most organizations do not have enough, if any, “change capital’ – funds they can devote to maximizing…
On any given day, President Michael Roth writes in paragraphs. Clear, complex blocks of prose that build one upon another into blog posts, essays or even, books, such this one, he’ll publish in May. Also, on any given day, President Michael Roth tweets. A cultural historian whose last two books numbered 336 pages and 224 pages respectively, Roth is now also expressing himself in 140 characters (or fewer) nearly every day, and has attracted a following of about 490 in the month since @mroth78 joined the Twitterverse. “I am really enjoying Twitter, perhaps more than I thought I would,” Roth said.…
A rallying call of "Because Wesleyan Is Our Cause" united alumni, parents, and current senior students on Giving Tuesday Dec. 3. Together, they contributed more than $54,000 to the Annual Fund during the global day of giving back. This was Wesleyan's first year participating in Giving Tuesday, which encourages people around the world to kick off the holiday season with gifts of money, service or time to their favorite causes. "The response was wonderful," said Chuck Fedolfi ’90, director of the Wesleyan Fund. "Support from alumni, parents and friends is what keeps Wesleyan strong; it’s our edge, our margin of excellence." Altogether,…
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Wesleyan students, parents, alumni and friends who attended Homecoming/Family Weekend festivities witnessed a historic moment Nov. 2, when the Cardinals claimed the Little Three football title for the first time in 43 years. The Little Three is a rivalry between Wesleyan, Williams College and Amherst College, which dates to the late 19th century. The Cardinals defeated Amherst 20-14 on Oct. 19, and the 16-14 Homecoming victory against Williams secured them the 2013 title and a 7-0 record. Watch NBC Connecticut's coverage of the Little Three victory here. Since 1970, Wesleyan has won Little Three titles dozens of times in sports…
While technology at Wesleyan is growing by leaps and bounds, the computational capacity is growing by gigaFLOPS and now, teraFLOPS. Not to be confused with the prehistoric pterodactyl's beach footwear, a teraFLOP is a term used in high-performance computing to quantify the rate at which computer systems can perform arithmetic operations. TeraFLOPs can perform one trillion operations per second (S), and for scientists at Wesleyan, this means calculations can be done up to 50 times faster with the new computing cluster, installed during the summer 2013. "The new cluster has been revolutionary in my own work," said Francis Starr, professor…
In September 2012, Wesleyan announced a new partnership with Coursera, a company offering the public access to free online courses from top colleges and universities. Wesleyan was the first liberal arts institution focused on the undergraduate experience to join the company. Seven Wesleyan faculty, including Wesleyan President Michael Roth, are teaching courses through the new platform in 2013. Thanks to a recent report by the Office of Institutional Research, the university is now aware of background information about its Coursera students. In early 2013, Institutional Research administered a survey to more than 200,000 students enrolled in Wesleyan’s Coursera course offerings.…
On Nov. 2, members of the Wesleyan community gathered at the Eclectic House to celebrate the building being named to the National Register of Historic Places and State of Connecticut Historic Registries. The Eclectic House, located at 200 High Street, was built in 1906 and formally dedicated in 1907. It was designed by Henry Bacon, who also designed the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., as well as Olin Library and several other prominent buildings and spaces at Wesleyan. The National Park Service's National Register of Historic Places is the official list of the nation's historic places worthy of preservation. Authorized by…
Wesleyan University apologized this week to Native Americans and other indigenous peoples, and said it is launching an effort to repatriate human remains and cultural objects, collected mostly in the 19th century, which are part of its anthropology and archaeology collections. The university has adopted a repatriation policy in compliance with the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act. “Wesleyan University is dedicated to working in partnership with Native Nations and indigenous peoples,” the apology reads. “We welcome Native Nations to campus for tribal consultations and commit to having an ongoing dialogue with indigenous peoples about repatriation.” Here is the…