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Reinhold Blumel, Charlotte Augusta Ayres Professor of Physics, has recently published three papers in the journal Scientific Reports: "Effects of the coupling of dielectric spherical particles on signatures in infrared microspectroscopy;" "Space-resolved chemical information from infrared extinction spectra", and "Domes and Semi-Capsules as Model Systems for Infrared Microspectroscopy of Biological Cells." David Kuenzel, Associate Professor of Economics, published Non-tariff Measures: What's Tariffs Got to Do with It? in the February 2023 issue of the Canadian Journal of Economics. The paper systematically examines the empirical link between various tariff measures and the imposition of non-tariff barriers in WTO member countries. Matthew M. Kurtz, Professor of Psychology, published a piece…

Tom Matlack ’86 P’16 has never felt as in the zone as he did while rowing at Wesleyan. “It's this weird thing where you're with eight other people, and you're trying to move in exact synchronicity,” Matlack explained. “There's a feeling when you're doing that well that the boat actually feels almost like it's floating. And that there's no way to tell who is contributing what to the speed of the boat. So, you have to trust that each of the other people who are rolling with you is working just as hard as you are.” For Matlack and many…

The Wesleyan Board of Trustees voted to increase tuition by 4.7 percent for the upcoming 2023-24 academic year. Tuition will be $66,716. The Residential Comprehensive Fee (RCF) will be $19,034. There will also be a $300 student activities fee, bringing the total cost to $86,050. Wesleyan continues to recognize that any increase in student charges can create financial difficulties for families. The University remains committed to meeting all of a students’ demonstrated financial need. In academic year 2022-23, 39 percent of students received need-based grant awards totaling more than $75 million. “We are mindful of the cost of a Wesleyan education.,” said President Michael…

In a recent article in the journal Regional and Federal Studies James McGuire, Professor of Government, found that Trump's 2020 vote share was a strong and robust predictor of a lower COVID-19 vaccination rate across US states, US counties, and Connecticut towns alike, adjusting for wide range other factors thought to affect the vaccination rate. At each of the three subnational levels, McGuire showed, the Trump 2020 vote share was also correlated more closely than the Trump 2016 vote share or the Romney 2012 vote share with the COVID-19 vaccination rate. McGuire estimated the statistical impact of the Trump 2020…

Community-based, data-driven stories are Koeppel Fellow Jacqueline Rabe Thomas’ bread-and-butter. Instead of walking into a pitch meeting with a defined story arc, as is often required in the modern media landscape, Thomas prefers to come in with a general topic to take to community members and find the story from there. “Community-based reporting is sort of just standing on the sidelines and observing what's happening. Listening to people at community meetings or the park or wherever, staying attuned to the Facebook groups that are the communities in the areas you're serving, and then determining what the story is,” Thomas said.…

Director and Producer Stephen Talbot ’70 was an early adopter of the anti-Vietnam War movement. He first began to turn against the war as a member of the mandatory Junior ROTC at Harvard High School, now Harvard-Westlake, in California in the mid-1960s. Talbot and his fellow high school classmates were given required trainings about the war. One of their JROTC instructors was called into active duty overseas in Vietnam and was severely injured. The news shook Talbot and he slowly began to question the war. Now nearly 60 years later, Talbot has produced and directed a documentary on the anti-war…

When Taylor DeLoach ’13 was studying for her Master’s in education she went on a lot of school visits. “Alma felt different when I got there,” she recalls. From the all-staff huddles every morning to the parent focus groups, DeLoach says “there were great interpersonal relational dynamics between people.” You’ll hear the same sentiment from a lot of Alma del Mar’s teachers and staff. Since opening in 2011, Alma has become one of the highest-performing charter public schools in the region. And nearly a decade after her first year of teaching, DeLoach has taken the helm as Alma’s new executive…

One of Wesleyan’s hallmarks is its ability to foster conversation, difference of opinion and creativity. It’s a place where thinking one way isn’t always the way. The experience of Wesleyan is unique, it’s open and it’s broad. It’s a community, but it’s also individual. Despite its nuances, it shares a few universal fixtures that most other universities have too. It has stately buildings with hallways lined with classrooms, its students can be seen rushing from lectures to library study rooms, and if you listen closely enough you can hear the faint beeping of construction vehicles backing up in the distance.…

By Maia Bronfman ’24 So many people were interested in Wesleyan’s Archaeology and Collections Open House earlier this month, Archaeology Collections Manager Wendi Field Murray didn’t stop talking for two-and-a-half hours. “I had so many great conversations with people of all ages. A young boy who brought a sketchbook to draw all the interesting things he was seeing; an individual who helped excavate the Beman Triangle site 10 years ago; a Wesleyan student who had never seen the collection; an older gentleman who collects historic glass insulators,” Murray said. There were over 150 attendees at the open house held in…

The U.S. Department of State announced that Wesleyan University is a Fulbright Program Top Producing Institution for the 2022-2023 academic year. This is the fourth consecutive year Wesleyan has appeared on the list. “Fulbright is interested in Wesleyan’s commitment to thinking about how what happens in an academic setting interacts with the real world and how that can be mobilized in a positive way,” Erica Kowsz, Assistant Director for Fellowships at the Fries Center for Global Studies, said in a previous interview. The list of Fulbright Top Producing Institutions for 2022-2023 was published in early February. “Thanks to the visionary leadership of these institutions, administrators, and…

The $14,635 the Softball team raised on Wesleyan Athletics Giving Day (WAGD) will help to cover its spring break trip to Florida where it will play over a third of its season schedule in just nine days. The money Softball raised, while a significant sum for the program, is just a portion of the near-record breaking total of $521,363 from 2,136 donors that Wesleyan’s 28 athletic teams combined to raise on WAGD on Feb. 15, the second highest total in the fundraiser’s history. Alongside funding the crucial spring break trip, Softball Head Coach Jennifer Lane said the money it raised…

For a trio of Wesleyan alumni working in film, news of their being nominated for an Oscar arrived like a triumphant Hollywood ending—a result of hard work, passion, and deep commitment to their craft. The Wesleyan community will be cheering them on as the 95th Academy Awards ceremony airs on March 12. Sara Dosa ’05 directed the Oscar-nominated documentary “Fire of Love,” the story of French volcanologists Katia and Maurice Kraft, who spent their lives chasing eruptions and documenting what they found. Ben Procter ’96 was one of the three people nominated for the production design of the blockbuster “Avatar:…

Faculty Achievements: Spring 2023

Tom Matlack ’86 P’16: On Acorns Becoming Oak Trees and Rowing For Coach Will Scoggins

Tuition to Increase For 2023-24 Academic Year

New Research Shows 2020 Vote for Trump a Strong Predictor of Lower Vaccination Rates

Koeppel Fellow Jacqueline Rabe Thomas on the importance of community-based reporting

Wesleyan Alumnus to Release PBS Documentary on Anti-War Protests

Wesleyan Alumni Chart Course for Student Success

Public Affairs Center, New Science Building Construction on Schedule

Local Artifacts on Display at Second Annual Archaeology Program Open House

Wesleyan Again Named Fulbright Program Top Producing Institution

Wesleyan Athletics Giving Day A Success

Three Wesleyan Alumni Nominated for Academy Awards