Work to Do After the Election

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As the results of the elections sink in, some at Wesleyan will be cheered by the outcomes, others will be distressed. It may be challenging now to remember that democracy and higher education have been good for each other. We don’t have to pretend to be neutral, but we do have a job to do. The work in this new political context is to continue to maintain Wesleyan’s commitment to an education based in boldness, rigor, and practical idealism. That work has never been more important.

The University will do everything it can to protect the most vulnerable among us. The mass deportations promised by president-elect Trump threaten our students who may be undocumented and are a cause of great concern to many in our community. As we said after the election of 2016: Wesleyan will remain committed to principles of non-discrimination, including equal protection under the law, regardless of national origin or citizenship. The University will not voluntarily assist in any efforts by the federal government to deport our students, faculty or staff solely because of their citizenship status. Today, the work to defend the most vulnerable has never been more important.

Candidate Trump promised to dismantle diversity, equity, and inclusion departments and to punish those schools who do not live up to his version of civil rights standards. At Wesleyan we have long believed in the educational power of diversity, and we know that our Office for Equity and Inclusion has a vital role to play in our educational mission. We will redouble our efforts to enhance belonging while we cultivate a greater pluralism. That work has never been more important.

The University will continue to defend academic freedom, which has allowed universities to create teaching environments free of official censorship or the soft despotism of pandering to commercial popularity. The classroom must remain a space for professors to share their professional expertise with students who could in turn explore ideas and methodologies without fear of imposed orthodoxies. The campus must strive to be the home of an ecosystem of genuine intellectual diversity. Cultivating an environment in which people can pursue ideas and forms of expression without fear of retaliation has never been more important.

The attacks on higher education, on democracy, on the rule of law, threaten to sweep away freedoms that have been hard-won over the last 100 years. Education is a process through which people develop their capacities for exploration, collaboration and creative endeavors. They learn to treat new ideas with curiosity and respect, even as they are also taught to critically evaluate these ideas. They learn skills that will be valued beyond the university and habits of mind and spirit that will help them flourish throughout their lives. They work to think for themselves so that they can be engaged citizens of a democracy rather than mere subjects of an authoritarian regime. That work has never been more important.

However we feel about the election’s results, we must strive to make education and democracy protect and nurture one another. At our university that will mean a very intentional effort to protect and nurture the seeds of a democratic culture. We must reject the cultivated ignorance that is used to fan the flames of hatred. We must defend the freedom to learn together in our schools, colleges and universities so that we can continue our democratic experiment. At Wesleyan, to quote our mission statement, we work to be “a diverse, energetic community of students, faculty, and staff who think critically and creatively and who value independence of mind and generosity of spirit.”  This work has never been more important than it is now.

VOTE!

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Yesterday I sent the following message to all faculty, staff and students at Wesleyan. 

Americans will now cast their votes in one of the most consequential elections in our country’s history. By now, many of us will have already taken advantage of early voting or mailed in absentee ballots to home districts. Others will exercise their right to choose our own leaders by voting on Tuesday. Polls in Connecticut are open from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m.

I am proud of the work many of our students, faculty, and staff have done in the runup to Tuesday’s election, including efforts led by Rob Rosenthal Distinguished Professor of Civic Engagement Khalilah Brown-Dean and sociologist/faculty director of the Allbritton Center Robyn Autry. The Wesleyan Media Project has continued its tireless efforts to analyze the endless political advertisements bombarding us these last several months. The participation of so many from our university in the public sphere is one of our great strengths.

Transportation Services and the Jewett Center for Community Partnerships will offer free rides to the polls for our students, with van transportation running every 15 minutes from the steps of Usdan on Wyllys Ave. If voting before or after the workday is not possible for any employee, check with your supervisor today to find a reasonable time to vote during the day on Tuesday. I look forward to seeing the Wesleyan community out in force.

 

Welcome Home!

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Today marks the start of Homecoming + Family Weekend, and it should be a lovely few days. The Advancement team has planned a spectacular array of programs, from a conversation with artist Glenn Ligon ’82, Hon. ’12 this afternoon to seminars, lectures, and, of course, plenty of athletic events. We have a constellation of special events for our Latine families and alumni, and we are grateful for all the work of our volunteers and staff who put this together. 

Our athletes are pumped! Not only is the football team playing for the Little Three Championship (and more) at Corwin Stadium on Saturday afternoon, but the women’s soccer team looks to continue its unbeaten streak when they meet Conn College on Jackson Field at noon. Field Hockey, too, will be showing off its new field as it hosts the beginning of the NESCAC Championship for the first time since 2005. 

Theater, music, art, and so much more awaits you on campus. Welcome home!!

 

Follow the rainbows!

Wesleyan in India

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This week, my Advancement colleagues Frantz Williams ’99 and Cecilia McCall ’91, P’24 joined me in taking the Wesleyan banner on the road to Mumbai and Delhi. We saw several old friends—alumni and parents—and made some new ones—guidance counselors, principals, writers, and even the American Ambassador to India, Eric Garcetti. I gave a talk about The Student: A Short History at Hindu College at the University of Delhi, and met with teachers and students who were enthusiastic about pragmatic liberal education.

As I prepare to head home later today, I thought I’d share some pictures from our trip.

Reflections on October 7th

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A year ago today, I wrote on my blog about the “sickening violence” of the massacres and kidnappings by Hamas. Little did I know that the violence would provoke a response that, while profoundly degrading Hamas’s military abilities, would kill tens of thousands of civilians and result in the destabilization of the entire region.

But I don’t want to write about events in the Middle East, about which I have strong feelings and slight expertise. I do want to talk about how the past year has affected education. We’ve seen fear and loathing — resulting from Oct. 7 and its aftermath — spread across the US and onto college campuses.  It would be an understatement to say that many on campuses are increasingly wary of one another. It doesn’t have to be that way, as I have written in today’s Chronicle of Higher Education (which I draw on here).

As students and teachers, as people devoted to education, we must try to learn from all this. We can model meaningful opportunities for sustainable peace by showing that strong differences don’t have to end in violence. Wesleyan has programs that do just that. The Office of Equity and Inclusion, Academic and Student Affairs, along with the Allbritton Center for the Study of Public Life, have all initiated educational activities to help students, faculty and staff build a greater capacity to have dialogues across difference. Sociology Professor Robyn Autry has been working with colleagues here, at Harvard and at the Institute for Citizens and Scholars, to integrate intellectual diversity and open conversation across the curriculum. Executive Director Khalilah Brown-Dean is building on the Allbritton’s history of community partnerships to help students learn to listen more deeply, respect differences of opinion, and find ways to take positive actions even when disagreements are not fully resolved. With the help of the Arthur Vining Davis Foundations and the Templeton Religious Trust, the Chaplains use a similar model as they build interfaith literacy across religious groups that might at first glance seem to have irreconcilable world views.

At the heart of all these efforts is a commitment to pluralism, not sectarianism — a commitment to learn from those whose views are different from one’s own. Building on that engagement, we can foster conversations that take us beyond the borders of the university, leaving our comfort zones to engage with our fellow citizens and not just with like-minded undergrads and professors. In the coming months, we will be announcing grants to support this kind of work — both at the curricular and co-curricular levels. Going beyond a defense of freedom of expression, as Eboo Patel has counseled, we can integrate pluralism into a great many aspects of the education we offer. We can model a pragmatic liberal education that comes from cultivating connection, not canceling perceived enemies.

October 7th is a day of mourning for many on our campus, and I am hopeful that everyone here will respect that. However one marks this sad day, let us remember that education depends not just on free speech and critical thinking, but on a willingness to listen for the potential to build things together. A year ago, I ended my blog post like this: May the wounded receive care, the kidnapped be returned to their homes, and the bereaved find comfort. And may it not be long before the peacemakers can find a way. Alas, it has now been a year with scant prospects for peace. Let us do what we can to help peacemakers find a way. At a time when so much is being destroyed, let’s be peacemakers who together use our education for constructive purposes.

Turning Towards Peace for the New Year

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As I prepare to celebrate Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, I looked back on my first High Holiday season at Wesleyan in 2007. That week I found a vibrant faith community, as I was able to attend both High Holiday services and the Imam’s sermon marking Ramadan. I was struck at the time by the ways that students from different religious cultures managed to learn from one another while also holding onto distinct traditions.

In this season, we are in some ways in a very different place. It is certainly still true that we have active groups of students, faculty, and staff oriented toward the world, at least in part, through their religious traditions. With foundation support and leadership from our chaplains, we now have an Interfaith Literacy Program that has been working with students to create programs on campus to support deeper understanding of different spiritual, religious, and ethical traditions. This understanding, I expect, will spread across the student body so that people with passionate commitments to different political and moral positions will learn how to have meaningful conversations across their differences.

On many campuses today, and Wesleyan is no exception, these conversations often break down over moral and political positions. The current war in the Middle East has flooded our screens and our minds with horrific images, and it is no wonder that people here want to stop the killing. There are, of course, very different views of how to achieve peace in the region. But reminding ourselves that peace is the goal might turn us toward more constructive dialogues across our differences.

Tonight, along with Jews around the world, I will celebrate the beginning of a new year. We will say “Shana Tova,” meaning simply “good year.” We will think about turning ourselves to better lives, for ourselves and for the communities of which we are a part.

What will make it a good year? More life, more peace.

Shana Tova!

On September 11, Work for Peace

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Over the years on September 11, I have reflected here on the meaning of this sad date in American history. Like so many others, I remember watching the news as a plane slammed into the Twin Towers. The terrorists killed thousands of people going about their lives and unleashed a series of wars that would kill many times the number of the unfortunate souls who died that day.

The parents of murdered hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin talked of “a surplus of agony on all sides of the tragic conflict in the Middle East. In a competition of pain, there are no winners.” They called for peace. Mothers and fathers of Palestinian children killed in Israel’s war against Hamas also call out for peace, as do hundreds of thousands of protesters on the streets of Israel. They call out for an end to the fighting so that they can go about their lives, rebuild their communities.

Some persist in believing they can achieve peace or security through continued fighting. They should listen more to the mothers of these dead children, and the children who have had to bury parents and grandparents. A cease fire is within reach. We should do all we can to encourage leaders to make it happen.

And this day, above all, we should remember the cold brutality of terrorism. Often the person who unleashes terror wants more war, wants more killing. Usually, they have an ideology that makes it easier for them to embrace cruelty without feeling any pain themselves. Morally despicable, they wrap themselves in the righteousness of belonging to a cause. We must reject their fatuous arguments and reject their celebration of rape, of murder, of annihilation.

On September 11 we honor those who have died in these attacks by working for peace.

The Semester Begins!

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This morning the following message went out to the campus community. Written a few days ago, it arrives in boxes amidst more tragic news from Gaza and intense uncertainty here at home. What can we do in such times? We can commit to education — to learning from one another, from traditions that inform our lives and through modes of inquiry that will shape our futures.  I am so happy that tomorrow we will begin classes, and I am thrilled to be meeting my new Virtue and Vice students for the first time. Across this beautiful campus and beyond, we will learn together.

Dear friends,

To the Class of 2028 and our newest transfer students—welcome! I hope by now you have settled into your dorms, begun to make connections, and are feeling ready for the journey ahead. To our returning students, faculty, and staff—including those who have worked tirelessly this summer to prepare for the fall semester—welcome back!

We are starting the 2024-25 academic year at a time that feels immensely consequential. With America in the throes of a heated presidential election and global conflict at dangerous levels, there is much to be concerned about—and much to attend to. At Wesleyan, we believe that our work should be committed to both the good of the individual and the good of the world. Here we seek to empower individuals through a pragmatic liberal education that also cultivates our ability to attend to one another, understand broadly diverse perspectives, and engage with the issues in positive ways. To do this, we foster an environment that supports free inquiry and expression and that is “safe enough,” encouraging passionate debate free of intimidation or harassment.

We are excited by the arrival of Khalilah L. Brown-Dean as the Rob Rosenthal Professor of Civic Engagement and the Executive Director of the Allbritton Center for the Study of Public Life. Dr. Brown-Dean has already developed some stirring initiatives to encourage students to take action at this important moment for American democracy, which you can read more about in a recent post. I hope you will find meaningful ways to engage with Dr. Brown-Dean and her team’s work in the months ahead as well as our broader programming through the Democracy 2024 initiative. Remember that National Voter Registration Day is Sept 17!

At the Center for the Arts, we can look forward to inspiring programming from this year’s CFA Artist-in-Residence Anna Deavere Smith and a new music theater work by Sunny Jain  that looks to performance’s power to assemble community across diaspora. The new Pruzan Art Center will soon feature an exhibit from the Davison Art Collection featuring works by Glenn Ligon ’82, Hon. ’12 and Jasper Johns. At the Shapiro Center for Creative Writing and Criticism, Merve Emre’s speaker series, “The Art of Editing,” will welcome to campus the likes of Emily Greenhouse ’08 (New York Review of Books), Radhika Jones (Vanity Fair), and Kaitlyn Greenidge (Harper’s Bazaar), among other important figures.

And make sure to catch some athletics action this season—perhaps a field hockey game on our brand new blue AstroTurf field. You may have seen a similar one this summer at the Paris Olympics. Or catch the night game that opens our home football season on September 21. Our athletes do us proud!

Given the times, this will likely turn out to be a political semester as Wesleyans engage with important local, national, and global issues. We will not protect individuals from opinions they don’t like, but we will protect each and every person from harassment and intimidation. There will surely be protests, but we will not allow these to disrupt the educational mission of the University. That mission includes cultivating attentiveness and care for one another across our many differences. We shouldn’t just expect agreement, but at Wesleyan we trust that disagreement can lead to learning.

I look forward to the exciting semester ahead.

Sincerely,

Michael S. Roth
President

Arrival Day!

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Here we are again! After meeting athletes, international students, and participants in our First Gen program, today The Frosh Arrive! I so enjoy this day filled with promise, excitement…some tears and tons of smiles. This morning’s sunrise was very peaceful, but now there are cars everywhere, Wes athletes carrying trunks, bags and refrigerators, and many a parent wondering what it will be like on the ride home. 

It was a jubilant day…from carrying boxes (THANK YOU WES ATHLETES!) to speaking with parents in the chapel, to teaching the class of 2028 the fight song. Plus, our orientation staff did a STUPENDOUS musical performance on Denison Terrace.

HERE WE GO!!