The semester is finally underway, and I am delighted to greet students on campus as they make their way to classes. The First Year Seminars are particularly attractive this year; they are a great way to improve one’s writing while also learning about a fascinating subject area.
I was excited to meet my Virtue and Vice class yesterday, and we had an animated conversation about the traditional virtues, and an even more pointed back and forth about the vices that are linked to them. When I asked the class about who they most admire, celebrities got by far the most votes. I wonder if that will change as we dig into the texts about moral philosophy….
Our athletes are already working hard at practice, and try outs for music and theater groups are getting underway. What performances will stand out this year? Maybe something from Friday’s MASH music festival…
This first Tuesday of the semester is a VEG OUT! day. You’ll find a cornucopia of vegetarian options at our dining facilities. Here’s what I heard from a student organizer:
Our Green Fund sponsored campaign “Veg Out” launched last October as a subcommittee of the Real Food Challenge student group, which aims to shift Usdan purchasing to socially & environmentally responsibly sourced food. The goal of Veg Out is to spread awareness of the negative impacts of the animal agriculture industry (both social & environmental), which we’ve done through a public forum, film screenings, posters, photo campaigns, an official Bon App banner in Usdan, a publication, an all school event, and most recently with the establishment of Veg Out Tuesdays. Starting on September 6, every other Tuesday for this Fall 2016 semester, Usdan will serve more vegetarian options (and no meat options). The upcoming dates are: September 20; October 4 & 18; November 1 & 15; December 6. We’re excited to Veg Out together! For more information, or to get involved, people can reach out to either Ingrid Eck ieck@wesleyan.edu or Mya Valentin mvalentin@wesleyan.edu or check us out on facebook at https://www.facebook.com/vegout.wesleyan/.
Eat plants!
Soon I meet the faculty for the first meeting of the year. And we’re off!!
Updated with more information on VegOUT