Campus News & Events

A 7-foot-long extinct marine crocodile has finally found a permanent home on Wesleyan's campus—exactly 150 years after it arrived. Known as a Teleosaur (Macrospondylus bollensis), the sea-dwelling lizard lived during the early Jurassic period, approximately 180 million years ago. A cast was gifted to Wesleyan in 1871 by chemist Orange Judd of the Wesleyan Class of 1847, and the namesake of the University’s Orange Judd Museum of Natural Sciences. When the museum closed in 1957, more than 900 animal casts, including the Teleosaur, were moved into storage in random locations throughout campus. Over sixty years later, the Teleosaur cast was…

"We’ll meet again, don’t know where, don’t know when, but I know we’ll meet again some sunny day. Keep smiling through just like you always do ‘til the blue skies drive the dark clouds away.” These lyrics, sung by Vera Lynn in the 1939 song "We'll Meet Again," are especially moving for Donna Brewer, director of employee benefits at Wesleyan. They'd be even more meaningful for her uncle Jim, an avid maple syrup maker and World War II vet, who died of COVID-19 in May 2020. "Uncle Jim passed away early on in the pandemic and at that time, we…

There was no shortage of ways to find community, enlightenment, and a deep sense of the Wesleyan experience this Homecoming/Family Weekend, which took place Oct. 29-30. Lectures were given on recent glacier-related flood events in high mountain environments and the uncertain future of the Senate filibuster. Graduates of Wesleyan’s Center for Prison Education told their personal stories. “What Happened to Baby Jane?” screened at the Jeanine Basinger Center for Film Studies. There were two sold-out dance performances in the ’92 Theater and exhibits at Olin Library. The campus was alive with activity, with parents, alumni, and students connecting over the…

Like many alumni entrepreneurs, Kenny Green's career launched from a "dorm room business" during his junior year at Wesleyan. Green '98, an economics major, teamed up with his classmate Paul Freeman '98 and started selling keychains with 'Wesleyan' stitched in black thread. "[At the time] these big long keychains came in style—the dog tag keychain. So I said, 'Hey, how can we put Wesleyan on this?'" Green asked. Green, who is the founder of Green Passion Projects, an organization that consults with professional athletes and entrepreneurs to create effective business strategies, joined five other Wesleyan alumni panelists to lead the…

Wesleyan’s intellectually dynamic faculty, students, alumni, staff, and parents frequently serve as expert sources for national media. Others are noted for recent achievements and accolades. A sampling of recent media hits is below: Wesleyan President Michael Roth '78 reviews Richard Rorty's Pragmatism as Anti-Authoritarianism in The Los Angles Review of Books. "Rorty was at once an iconoclast and an adherent of progress — the odd radical who believed deeply in this country’s potential. His Pragmatism as Anti–Authoritarianism, a set of 10 lectures he delivered in Spain in 1996, has just been published. While many of the arguments are by now…

An art form discovered more than a million years ago by hominids is being kept alive today by a Wesleyan sophomore. Elizabeth "Beth" Cooper '24, a modern-day "knapper," uses moose antlers, cobble hammerstones, and homemade copper contraptions to shape and "chip" stone into tools. This technique was historically used to craft arrowheads, knives, blades, spears, gun flints, and more. "I've always been interested in historical replicas and recreating ancient production techniques," they said. On Oct. 27, Cooper shared their handiwork and knowledge with fellow students during a practical—and traditionally seasonal—activity: pumpkin carving. Sponsored by the Archaeology Department and Archaeology &…

News media, advertising, and other messaging can be important tools in promoting a healthy and equitable society. The COVID-19 pandemic shows just how catastrophic the consequences can be when a communication crisis is added to a health crisis. Wesleyan’s Erika Franklin Fowler, Steven Moore and Laura Baum are launching the Collaborative on Media & Messaging for Health and Social Policy (COMM) to help. In summarizing their research—including more than a decade’s worth of health-related advertising and news coverage on childhood vaccinations, the Affordable Care Act, education, paid leave, and health equity—they find some broad takeaways. For example, according to COMM,…

Like many other activities on campus, Wesleyan Food Rescue went into a kind of hibernation during the height of the global pandemic last year. When Food Rescue distributed food daily, over 40 students were involved. Last year the number dwindled to seven participants. Now, student coordinators were looking to rebuild the ranks of their almost 10-year-old organization. Student coordinators Gina Gwiazda ‘22, Ari Hart ‘24, and Lucia Voges ’24 are looking for at least three or four drivers to help them bring more food to the Eddy Shelter, located on Labella Circle in Middletown. Expanding the number of available drivers…

For her efforts furthering the status of women in the economics profession through example, achievements, and mentoring, the American Economic Association's Committee on the Status of Women in the Economics Profession (CSWEP) is honoring Joyce Jacobsen with the 2021 Carolyn Shaw Bell Award. Jacobsen, who retired from Wesleyan in 2019, is the Andrews Professor of Economics, Emerita. She's the current president—and the first woman to serve as president—of Hobart and William Smith Colleges. "When I think of Joyce’s presence and impact at Wesleyan, the words 'energetic,' 'disciplined,' 'innovative,' and 'supportive' come immediately to mind," said Gil Skillman, professor and chair…

Felice Li '25 met, mingled, and offered a campus tour to one of Japan's sōryōji—or consuls general—during a recent visit to Wesleyan. "As a new student here, I felt very excited to show the consul general our campus and what I had explored here so far," Li said. "I lived in Tokyo before coming here, so I was excited to present the tour in Japanese." Li was among several students and faculty who spent the day with Consul General Setsuo Ohmori, who is the highest-ranking Japanese consul in Boston. The CG supports the safety and stability of the Japanese people,…

Wesleyan’s intellectually dynamic faculty, students, alumni, staff, and parents frequently serve as expert sources for national media. Others are noted for recent achievements and accolades. A sampling of recent media hits is below: Variations on the Body, written by María Ospina, is reviewed in The New York Times. "Ospina’s debut collection opens not with a bang but a scratch: The protagonist of the first story faces the irritation of a shirt tag. The body troubles, you see. Welts appear. The heart becomes a defiant pump. Pregnancy happens, whether or not it is a vocational disqualification. Then, of course, there’s the…

One in five women and one in 16 men experience sexual violence in college, according to recent studies. The percentages are even higher amongst women of color and the LGBTQ+ community. The frightening thing about those already disturbing numbers is that they are almost certainly not the whole story. “We know that this is one of the most underreported experiences of harm,” said Johanna DeBari, director of the Office of Support, Healing, Activism, and Prevention Education (SHAPE). DeBari and her team at SHAPE are hoping that their work during Dating Violence Awareness Month this October will help draw attention to the…

Sea Dwelling Teleosaur Restored and Displayed in Exley Science Center

Wesleyan Community Honors Pandemic Loss through Movement, Dance

Families, Alumni, Students Gather for Homecoming/Family Weekend 2021

Alumni Discuss Black Entrepreneurship at 29th Annual Dwight L. Greene Symposium

Wesleyan in the News

Students Learn to Carve Pumpkins with Stone Tools (with Photos, Video)

Researchers Create New Collaborative to Guide Effective Health Communications

Wesleyan Food Rescue Looking for Volunteers

Jacobsen Honored for Furthering the Status of Women in Economics

Consul General of Japan Visits with Wesleyan Students, Faculty

Wesleyan in the News

SHAPE Office Recognizes Violence Awareness Month with Activities