Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal will speak April 18 on campus. Posted 03/16/07 Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal will deliver a keynote address on Connecticut’s Role in the Fight Against Global Warming at Wesleyan University’s Earth Day celebration at 8 p.m. April 18 in Wesleyan’s Memorial Chapel. The event is free and open to the public. A reception will be held afterward in the adjoining Zelnick Pavilion. The presentation is being sponsored by The Robert Schumann Lecture Series in the Environmental Studies Certificate Program. For more information, contact Valerie Marinelli at 860-685-3733 or vmarinelli@wesleyan.edu.

Wesleyan will keep its Internet services private. Posted 03/16/07 Wesleyan will adjust its computer network access protocols in order to remain exempt from an order by the Federal Communications Commission that requires facilities-based Internet service providers to engineer their networks to assist law enforcement agencies in executing wiretap orders. The changes, intended to ensure that the university's network is viewed as "private" and thus exempt, include requiring log-ins for access to the campus wireless network, kiosks and library computers. To facilitate guest use, each Wesleyan user will be able to request as many as five guest accounts through the electronic…

 Posted 03/16/07 This summer, Gaël Hagen ’09 will be doing something a little different than he’s used to. Specifically, he’ll have the opportunity to meet with such high-level government officials including Supreme Court Justices, the Secretary of State, U.S. Senators, U.S. Congressmen, as well as business leaders. Hagen, pictured at right, is a newly-selected scholar to the Institute for Responsible Citizenship, a leadership program centered at Georgetown University. Each year, 24 minority male students are selected to participate in the two-summer program in Washington, D.C. During the first summer, students take courses on campus while interning in the D.C. Metro…

Posted 03/16/07 A $2.5 million pledge from Board of Trustee member Joshua Boger ' 73, and Amy Boger will support planning for a new molecular and life sciences building at Wesleyan. Joshua Boger, pictured at left, who founded and currently serves as president and CEO of Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Cambridge, leads Wesleyan's Science Advisory Council, which works to strengthen the sciences at Wesleyan and to raise their visibility on and off campus. He also has served as a charter trustee of Wesleyan since 1999. Payette Associates of Cambridge, Mass., is working with faculty in the molecular and life sciences…

Posted 03/02/07 Wesleyan will increase tuition for the 2007-2008 academic year and simplify its fee structure. The new comprehensive fee structure will combine charges that are now billed separately as room and board. Tuition will increase by 5.5 percent to $36,536 for all students in 2007-2008. For freshman and sophomores, the residential comprehensive fee will be $10,130. For juniors and seniors, the fee will be $11,512. The residential comprehensive fees are based on the current room and board charges experienced by students at these class levels, plus a fee increase of $590 and $550, respectively. The increases in student charges…

An image from: “Indies Under Fire: The Battle for the American Bookstore" by Jacob Bricca '93, adjunct assistant professor of film studies. The film was screened March 6 at the Center for Film Studies. Posted 03/02/07 Though he loves to read, Jacob Bricca ’93 admits that he was never “a book person,” one of those individuals who have an affinity for books and bookstores. But when he heard that an independent bookstore called Printers, Inc., in his hometown of Palo Alto, California, was closing, he was immediately saddened. “When I was growing up, even if you weren’t into books, that…

Posted 03/02/07 A new Wesleyan program will facilitate the opportunity for one person’s trash to become another person’s treasure. This month, the Wesleyan freecycle program is launching its own electronic mailing list. Staff, faculty and students are eligible to join the freecycle program. Launched last May by the Wesleyan Recycling Committee with the appearance of the “PODS”, the Wesleyan freecycle program, encourages students, staff and faculty to exchange unwanted items, rather than throwing them away. Wesleyan’s program is part of the national freecycle movement where people give away things that they don't need, or ask for items they do need.…

Posted 03/02/07 Wesleyan’s 175th Commencement Ceremonies will be held on Sunday, May 27, and will complete the 2007 Reunion-Commencement Celebration that will run from May 24-27. During that ceremony, the following people will receive honorary degrees: Jim Lehrer, P ’85, who will also give the principal address at commencement, will be awarded an honorary doctor of letters degree during the ceremony. Lehrer has anchored The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer on the Public Broadcasting Service since 1995. Lehrer joined PBS in 1972, teaming with Robert MacNeil in 1973 to cover the Senate Watergate hearings. They began in 1975 what became The…

Posted 03/02/07 A new WESU 88.1 FM radio program is gaining a nation-wide audience with its emphasis on indigenous politics. The show, titled ''Indigenous Politics: From Native New England and Beyond,'' was launched Feb. 5 from the Wesleyan-based radio station. J. Kehaulani Kauanui, assistant professor of anthropology and American Studies, is the producer and host of the program. The multi-media program airs shortly after 5p.m., right after the “Jive at Five” community calendar, and runs until 6 p.m. each Monday with a live streaming Web cast on www.wesufm.org. ''Indigenous Politics'' features interviews with political leaders, community activists, filmmakers and artists,…

From left, Henk Meij, applications technology specialist; Francis Starr, assistant professor of physics; and James Taft, assistant director of technology support services, look over the newly-installed 10-terabyte computer cluster at Information Technology Services. Posted 02/16/07 It takes 10, 250-volt plugs to power up. It takes 9,000 BTUs to keep it cool. It can communicate 14 times faster than high-speed internet, and it has the potential to store more than 2.5 million MP3s. But most important, this state-of-the-art high-performance computer cluster will offer both education and research opportunities for the university on a level which has never before been available. The…

Posted 02/16/07 Nelson Polsby, renowned political scientist, died on February 6 at the age of 72. Polsby was a member of the Wesleyan faculty from 1961 through 1968, rising meteorically from the rank of assistant professor to full professor. According to Karl Scheibe, professor emeritus of psychology, “Nelson left an indelible mark on Wesleyan, even though he was only here for seven years.” Polsby was a prolific author of books and articles and editor of The American Political Science Review, the premier political science journal. Perspectives on Politics noted that Polsby ranked in the top ten of most frequently cited…