Laurel Appel, adjunct associate professor of biology and senior research associate, died on March 4. She is survived by her husband, Michael Weir, and her children, Rebecca and Nathaniel. The following announcement was made by Provost Rob Rosenthal, the John E. Andrus Professor of Sociology, in an all-campus e-mail. "Laurel Appel's passion was equality of opportunity, and she developed and ran the Ronald E. McNair Program at Wesleyan for many years. This program provides support and nurturing of first generation college students and students in underrepresented groups for entry into graduate programs. In Laurel's words, working with the program 'was…