Community Impact

Wesleyan’s Public Safety collected over $2,000 worth of donations and a full cruiser of toys at the sixth annual week-long Holiday Toy Drive. The toys and proceeds were delivered to eight families in need, including 29 children, on Dec. 17. Public Safety collaborated with the Middletown Fire Department and Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) to sponsor the drive. “The Wesleyan Community has been so generous during our Stuff-a-Cruiser event, we are humbled by the outpouring of support we have received from the students and staff on campus,” a representative from Public Safety said. “Without the students, support from the department, and…

Students from high schools across the country are getting the chance to “live like a philosopher” thanks to a Wesleyan course taught by Tushar Irani, Associate Professor of Philosophy and Letters. The course is offered through Wesleyan’s partnership with the National Education Equity Lab—an initiative that seeks to democratize college access and advance education justice by providing college-level courses to students attending Title 1 high schools across the country. (The New York Times wrote about the program previously.) There are six high schools participating in the course—from Albuquerque to El Paso to the Bronx—with a total of over 75 students…

Four prototype mosaics sit on display in storefront windows along Main Street’s Downtown Business District this fall. The quartet are a sample of what Adjunct Assistant Professor of Art and Art Studio Technician Kate Ten Eyck will install in the pedestrian tunnel connecting downtown Middletown to the Connecticut River as part of a new public art project. The ongoing multi-year mural installation project, called “Mosaics on Main/TunnelVision," will showcase 200 million years of local history. Ten Eyck’s mosaic depicts the dinosaur Anchisaurus, one of the few fossilized skeletons found in the region, in Manchester and East Windsor. Ten Eyck held…

Author and academic Michael Eric Dyson will offer the keynote address at Wesleyan University’s Democracy in Action Convening, a weekend exploration of the convergence of higher education and democracy. The event will be held February 16-17, 2024, and is free for Wesleyan students and $25 for all other attendees. Registration is now open. Across two days of thought leadership and engaging activities, participants will hear from a collection of scholars, community leaders, experts, and peers. Following a Friday afternoon filled with student-centered engagement opportunities, the Convening opens to all with Dyson’s keynote address that evening. Saturday will be filled with…

Hoping to expand the diverse ways the Wesleyan community engages in public discourse, Associate Professor of Sociology Robyn Autry has been named director of the Center for the Study of Public Life, at the Allbritton Center. “Provost Nicole Stanton has trusted me to do something new with the CSPL (Center for the Study of Public Life). I am still figuring out what I want to do, but it is connected with a lot of the public writing I’ve been doing for the past few years,” said Autry, who is a critical sociologist. The new role dovetails with Autry’s research interests…

Poet and social entrepreneur Ahmed M. Badr '20 has been named the new director of the Patricelli Center, an organization he considered a home while attending Wesleyan. After serving in an interim capacity, Badr took on the permanent role in August. “I hope that the folks going through the classes and the program realize their own capacity to create a direct impact in the world,” Badr said. Badr’s road to helping students find their way to change the world through the Patricelli Center began with finding his own voice. His family came to the United States in 2008 as refugees from…

By Rose Chen '26 On Saturday, November 11, the Bailey College of the Environment (COE) hosted “Mobilizing Power: Community Building for Environmental Justice,” an event which brought together individuals to exchange knowledge, build relationships and skills for community organizing, and collaborate on action for environmental justice. Malana Rogers-Bursen, the Project Coordinator for Food Security, Environmental Justice, and Sustainability at COE, and Hannah Phan ’25 created the event along with a small group of student leaders and faculty from Sunrise Wesleyan, the Environmental Solidarity Network (ESN), the COE and the Office of Sustainability, as well as community leaders from Save the…

Assistant Professor of Dance Iddi Saaka is teaching the fundamentals, history, and cultural importance of African drumming and dance to a group of adults over the age of 55 at the New Britain Public Library this fall. His group gathers in the downstairs Stanley Works Community Room for 90-minutes on Thursday afternoons. Over the course of eight weeks, the library class is learning two Ghanaian recreational dances, “Kpatsa” and “Kpanlogo.” Saaka previously taught “Kpatsa” to Wesleyan’s Class of 2027 during their new student orientation “Common Moment” on Andrus Field the day after they arrived on campus at the end of…

Wesleyan University has made significant strides in reducing its carbon footprint, cutting its carbon emissions by a third. In addition, more than half of the student body have participated in sustainability courses and activities over the past year. The University’s progress was documented in its first Sustainability Strategic Plan annual report, recently released by the Wesleyan Sustainability Office this week. A full text of the annual report is available at bit.ly/sspreport2023. Thanks to its renewable energy purchases, carbon offsets for air travel, and campus upgrade from steam to hot water pipes, the University reduced its carbon footprint by 35 percent…

The path from military service to the classroom varies from veteran-to-veteran. Some spend four years in active-duty service straight out of high school and then utilize their educational benefits immediately. Others spend decades serving the country before venturing out to pursue personal enrichment through academia. Regardless of a veteran’s journey to education, Wesleyan University offers its student-veterans a holistic approach to reintegrating them into the classroom. The path for Chase Williams ’25 was a long and winding one. He first came to the United States in Aug. 2001, a month prior to the Sept. 11 attacks. He took an English…

By Rose Chen '26 Students and members of the community gathered at Van Vleck Observatory (VVO) on the afternoon of Saturday, Oct. 14 for solar eclipse and astronomy-related fun. Despite the cloudy weather, attendees received eclipse glasses for safe future viewings and a planetarium show, as well as books available to check out from Russell Library and demonstrations in both English and Spanish from graduate students in the astronomy department. “I think, of course, everybody was disappointed that the clouds didn't cooperate today,” Associate Professor of Astronomy and Integrative Sciences Meredith Hughes said. “But it's never cloudy in the planetarium,…

By Rose Chen '26 Wesleyan hosted its first Community Campus Day on Saturday, Oct. 7, an event which invited students grades 7 to 12 to campus for hands-on art workshops in honor of National Arts & Humanities Month. The Jewett Center for Community Participation (JCCP) collaborated with the Dance Department, Olin Memorial Library, Art Farm, Oddfellows Playhouse, and WESU 88.1 FM to offer a range of workshops to students from 14 schools, including those who are homeschooled. Community Campus Day was organized and led by Briana Bellinger-Dawson, the JCCP’s Coordinator of Community Participation, who focuses on youth and education facing…

Wesleyan Public Safety, Middletown Fire Stuff a Cruiser, Raise Money for Those in Need

High School Students ‘Live Like A Philosopher’ Through Partnership

Wesleyan Professor to Create Mosaics on Main

Dyson to Offer Keynote Address At February Democracy in Action Convening

Autry Named Director of the Center for the Study of Public Life

Badr ’20 Named Director of the Patricelli Center

Bailey College of the Environment Hosts Environmental Justice Event

Professor Teaches African Drumming and Dance to Local Community

Wesleyan Cuts Carbon Emissions, Report Says

Wesleyan’s Holistic Approach to Student-Veteran Success

Community Views the Solar Eclipse

Jewett Center Hosts Workshops for First Community Campus Day