Olivia DrakeSeptember 9, 20057min
Makaela Kingsley '98, associate director of Alumni Relations, Ciaran Escoffery '00 and Roxanne Williams '98 share a laugh during a previous Alumni and Parent Volunteer Weekend at Wesleyan.   Posted 09/09/05 When Karen and Michael Haley sent their son, John ‘07, to Wesleyan in 2004, they were anxious to learn more about the community in which he would be spending the next four years. That year, they attended an Alumni and Parent Volunteer Weekend. They not only became informed, they became involved. “We were so impressed that weekend with how cordially we were welcomed and made to feel a part…

Olivia DrakeSeptember 9, 20054min
  At top, Wes-Haul volunteers Daniel Rubin ’06 and Hanako Moondance ’06 carry a refrigerator into freshman Jennifer Bunin’s room in the Fauver Field Residence during Arrival Day Aug. 29. At right, Ian Renner ’08 helps carry students’ belongings into Clark Hall.   Posted 09/09/05 U-HAUL? Not here. Leave that up to Wes-HAUL, a team of volunteers that welcomed new students to campus. They unloaded cars, carried belongings, directed traffic and answered questions during students’ Arrival Day Aug. 29. Wes-HAUL started five years ago as a small University Relations initiative and has evolved into a cross-university effort. More than 35…

Olivia DrakeAugust 17, 20053min
Michael Singer, assistant professor of biology, discovered that the wolly bear caterpillar, Grammia geneura, ingests medicinal plants when sick.   Posted 08/17/05 When tiger moth caterpillars get a bug, they do what a lot of us do - ingest some medicine and hope it provides a cure. These findings by co-investigators Michael Singer, assistant professor of biology, and Elizabeth Bernays, regents professor emerita of entomology at the University of Arizona, appear in the July 27 issue of Nature. During a study of the caterpillars of two types of tiger moths, known as Grammia geneura and Estigmene acrea, Singer and Bernays…

Olivia DrakeAugust 17, 20053min
Posted 08/17/05 A picture may be a worth a thousands words, but what is its value in the college classroom, especially if the picture is digital? This will be among the issues considered by a new digital image study spearheaded by Wesleyan University and the Center for Educational Technology. The six-month study will examine how digitized images of all sorts are used by faculty at 34 elite teaching and research institutions. The hope is that by assessing current practices in the classrooms, methods for more effective use of these images can be identified and implemented. "There is also an opportunity…

Olivia DrakeAugust 17, 20054min
Members of the Committee on Planetary and Lunar Exploration (COMPLEX) met at Woodhead Lounge July 20-22. Martha Gilmore, assistant professor of earth and environmental sciences, (pictured second from left in the first row) coordinated the meeting.  Posted 08/17/05 Martian oceans, solar system exploration and telescopic studies of Neptune were all topics of discussion during a planetary committee meeting at Wesleyan.The Committee on Planetary and Lunar Exploration (COMPLEX) met at Wesleyan’s Woodhead Lounge July 20-22. COMPLEX advises the National Academies’ Space Studies Board on the entire range of planetary system studies that can be conducted from space as well as on…

Olivia DrakeAugust 17, 20055min
At left, Hughes Associate, Mellon Fellow and Earth and Environmental Sciences Major Maya Gomes '06 discusses her research with interested onlookers during the 17th annual Hughes Summer Research Program Poster Session Aug. 5. Gomes' poster was titled "Understanding the Genesis of Jarosite in Qualibou Caldera, Saint Lucia as an Analogue for Mars."   Posted 08/17/05 Chimpanzee studies, eating behaviors, mice brains and even sperm banks were topics of research presented at the 17th annual Hughes Summer Research Program Poster Session Aug. 5 at the Exley Science Center. After 10 weeks of intense research, 49 Hughes Fellows presented their projects. Hughes…

Olivia DrakeJuly 13, 20055min
Posted 07/13/05 When it comes to fund-raising, Wesleyan is right on the money. The Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) has awarded Wesleyan the CASE-Wealth ID Award for Educational Fund Raising: Overall Performance. Wesleyan competed in the Private Liberal Arts Institutions category. Wesleyan shared this distinction with eight other institutions, including Wellesley College and Williams College. “Wesleyan is already ranked highly for academic excellence, but now it demonstrates exemplary support of private education through its fund-raising performance,” says Mark Bailey, director of development communications. CASE, a nonprofit education association, supports educational institutions by enhancing the effectiveness of the…

Olivia DrakeJuly 13, 200512min
Alex Dupuy, professor of sociology, is a native of Haiti and has traced the country's turmoil back to its revolution.   Posted 07/13/05 It started out as one of the most inspiring stories in human history: slaves rebelled against their masters, fought a long, bloody revolution and took control of an oppressive nation. But since that auspicious beginning, the history of Haiti and its people has been fraught with turmoil and division. During the last few decades, Alex Dupuy, professor of sociology, has been searching for reasons why, and sharing his insight not just with his students but the world.…

Olivia DrakeJuly 13, 20057min
Wesleyan has partnered with the Liz Lerman Dance Exchange for several fall events.   Posted 07/13/05 For the past three years, the Center for the Arts and Wesleyan faculty have partnered with the Liz Lerman Dance Exchange to explore the ethical and social repercussions of genetic research. The Liz Lerman Dance Exchange, led by MacArthur Fellow Liz Lerman, has been creating dance works that are metaphorical and powerfully visceral about the issues of the time. The Wesleyan-Dance Exchange partnership has resulted in Wesleyan serving as a lead commissioner of “Ferocious Beauty: Genome”, which will premiere at the CFA on February…

Olivia DrakeJuly 12, 20052min
Posted 07/12/05   Updated 07.25.05 Olympic Champion Otylia Jedrzejczak, who also holds the world record in the 200-meter butterfly (2:05.78), was one of 17 athletes on the Polish National Swimming Team who trained at Wesleyan July 15 through July 21. The Polish squad was preparing for the World Championships to be held in Montreal, Quebec from July 24-31. It is customary for international teams to do time-zone acclimation training, according to Brad Flood, head women's swimming coach at the University of Bridgeport. Flood has been working with the Polish National team for more than a dozen years and recruited a number…

Olivia DrakeJune 15, 20054min
Posted 06/15/05 In the year ending March 31, 2005, Wesleyan's endowment has performed in the top quartile of schools with similar-sized portfolios, according to data collected by the Office of Finance and Administration. Wesleyan’s return of 11.7 percent was not only 2.2 percentage points above the 25th percentile for peer schools, it was almost twice the S&P 500 return for the same period. These results reflect a series of improvements in Wesleyan's portfolio management, according to Vice President for Finance and Administration Marcia Bromberg. In 1997 the university developed new endowment guidelines that divided the activities of the Wesleyan Board of…

Olivia DrakeJune 15, 20055min
Posted 06/15/05 Wesleyan's trustees formally adopted a new strategic plan for the university at their meeting on May 20. "Engaged with the World: A Strategic Plan for Wesleyan University, 2005-2010" (www.wesleyan.edu/wesleyanplanning/) sets ambitious goals for academic and student life programming and for campus renewal, according to President Doug Bennet. The new plan is the product of almost two years' dialogue among faculty, students, staff, alumni and trustees. It notes institutional advances that resulted from the implementation of its 1998 precursor, "Strategy for Wesleyan," and the success of the $281 million Wesleyan Campaign, including the addition of 20 faculty across the…