Friday is the end of the fiscal year, and the Wesleyan University Trustees are adding generously to any gift that comes in during the next few days.

• Every gift of any amount will be matched with $500 for financial aid by the Board of Trustees, up to $1 million

That means if you give $50, it has the impact of a gift of $550!!

Why is it important to make an annual gift to support students at Wesleyan?

• Annual giving by alumni, parents and friends makes up 5% of our annual budget.
• Your gift goes right to work in all areas of the campus; academics, arts, athletics, and student life.
• It feels great to give back.
• You’re helping the creators, innovators, and engaged citizens of tomorrow.

Thanks to our trustees and to everyone who supports our amazing Wesleyan students!

When Wesleyan opened Green Street Center in January 2005, it signed a lease with the City of Middletown to improve an old school building so as to operate after-school educational and art programs in the North End of the City. The plan was that over time the programs would become self-sustaining through private and foundation support. Despite the best efforts of the University and the Green Street staff, sustainability has proven elusive. Wesleyan has spent more than $4 million on these programs, a significant percentage of which has gone to overhead expenses. While Green Street contributes to the community in many important ways, we believe we need a new model for supporting the community engagement of our students. In the wake of the university’s decision in regard to Green Street, Prof. Rob Rosenthal, director of the Allbritton Center, and Cathy Lechowicz, Director of the Jewett Center for Community Partnerships, are leading work on a Civic Action Plan to determine how the University can have the greatest impact on the community, including families and children.

Wesleyan’s lease on the facility that houses the Green Street Teaching and Learning Center expires in July 2018, and this week we informed the six members of the regular Center staff that over the course of the next year we will be winding down operations there. We are very grateful for their efforts and wanted to be sure to give them a full year to prepare for the future—a future that we hope will continue to involve working with Wesleyan.

The students and staff who work at Green Street have done a wonderful job in engaging members of the community in high-quality arts, math and science programs. We plan to continue aspects of these programs in on-campus settings and also to develop other community-based resources so as to continue our involvement in local, diversified education projects. We will continue to offer volunteer and employment opportunities for our students to work with children in the North End and throughout Middletown.

At Green Street, and at local schools, Oddfellows, Traverse Square and other organizations, Wesleyan students have learned invaluable lessons about making a positive difference in the lives of children. Over the next year, as part of our Civic Action Plan, we will be working to provide our students with a variety of community engagement opportunities. Those opportunities should include the most effective elements of the programming at Green Street. Engagement of Wesleyans with the community will take wide-ranging forms in the future, and the University will strive to help them make that engagement as productive as possible.

The Wesleyan campus has summer sessions, sports camps, and many researchers from mid-June through mid-August, but it does become a quiet place for a few months. Not so the arts on campus, which continue to provide enlivening, beautiful and thought-provoking programs. The College of Film and the Moving Image has its annual free July film series, this year featuring Gary Cooper. All screenings take place at C-Film on Tuesday nights at 7:30 p.m., beginning on July 11. The movies will be introduced by Marc Longenecker.

• Tuesday, July 11:  BALL OF FIRE
• Tuesday, July 18:  MR. DEEDS GOES TO TOWN
• Tuesday, July 25:  HIGH NOON

On Tuesday, August 1 C-Film will sponsor Spotlight on the Middlebury New Filmmakers Festival:  WALK WITH ME, THE TRIALS OF DAMON J. KEITH. Marc will also introduce this film.

Wesleyan’s Center for the Arts is sponsoring a series of events:

• The series opens on Thursday, June 29 with a free outdoor concert by singer-songwriter, acoustic guitarist, and conga player Aurelio and his band in the CFA Courtyard (rain location: Crowell Concert Hall). He performs traditional Garifuna music from Honduras, which has its roots in West Africa, and has shared the stage with Youssou N’Dour and recorded with Orchestra Baobab, among other artists. 
• Jazz vocalist Alicia Olatuja brings her quintet to Crowell Concert Hall on Thursday July 6. She has worked with Christian McBride, Dr. Lonnie Smith, Chaka Khan, and others. She was also the featured soloist with the Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir at President Barack Obama’s second inauguration in 2013. Following Wesleyan, she will perform at the Montreal Jazz Festival. 
• The New England premiere of “Beyond Sacred,” an interview-based theater production by Ping Chong + Company, takes place in the CFA Theater on Thursday, July 13.  The work explores the real-life stories of five young Muslim Americans, from a range of cultural and ethnic backgrounds, coming of age in New York City at a time of increasing hostility towards, and violence against, Muslims in the United States. This is a continuation of the “Muslim Women’s Voices at Wesleyan” programming that began during the 2014-2015 season at the Center for the Arts, which expanded awareness, knowledge, and understanding of Muslim cultures through the lens of performance.  
• Wesleyan’s John Spencer Camp Professor of Music Neely Bruce presents the twelfth in a series of CD-length recitals of his piano music on Sunday, July 16 in Crowell Concert Hall. The free concert will feature three world premieres of his compositions, plus guest artists Professor of Music Jay Hoggard on vibraphone, and Wesleyan Jazz Ensemble Director Noah Baerman on piano.

Summertime and the arts at Wesleyan!

Since the cynical, know-nothing announcement from the Trump Administration that it was withdrawing the U.S. from the Paris Accord on Climate Change, many people across the country have reaffirmed their commitment to take action to reduce the pernicious effects we have been having on our environment. Here at Wesleyan, we have been taking a public stand to fight climate change. I am among over a hundred university presidents who, together with mayors, governors and business leaders, are preparing to submit a plan to the United Nations pledging to meet greenhouse gas emissions targets outlined in the Paris climate accord. This early story in The New York Times describes the effort. Wesleyan has reported on this and other efforts here.

Gary Yohe, Huffington Professor of Economics and Environmental Science, has been working for decades to understand more deeply and to mitigate more effectively the effects of climate change. Prof. Yohe has underscored the importance for institutions at various levels of civil society and for individuals to do their part to meet the goals set forth in the Paris Accord. Along these lines, just yesterday colleagues from MIT sent the following message:

We are writing to invite you to join academics across America in signing a new statement on climate change that is going live right now: http://academiaunited.org/. This statement enables the faculty, staff, and students of American universities and colleges to join groups of mayors, business leaders, and university/college presidents who are announcing that even though the federal government is withdrawing from the Paris Agreement, we will do our parts to fight climate change. Please consider signing the statement, and forwarding this invitation to any colleagues at any American university or college who you think might be interested.

The silver lining in all this, I suppose, is that citizens are becoming more engaged in working for sensible environmental policies. As I’ve said to the press, it’s extraordinary that supporting a basic commitment to lessen a source of pollution in the world is seen as a particularly strong civic or political act. It is nonetheless crucial at a time when the White House is promoting an anti-scientific assault on public policy and research, that universities defend the values that are necessary for us to be institutions of learning. The economic nationalism promoted by the administration is in great tension with our mission as educational institutions, if only because inquiry and pedagogy take place across borders. The environmental nationalism currently embraced by the White House is an exercise in lunacy. What’s next….Americans will be told that we can smoke without fear of lung disease, or that we no longer have to wash our hands after using the bathroom? Is this what “America First” will mean?

Protecting the environment is not a partisan issue. It is a vital responsibility for our time. Wesleyan will continue to explore ways to do our part.

Hearty congratulations are in order for Eudice Chong ’18 and Victoria Yu ’19, for their extraordinary success in the NCAA Division III Tennis Championships. Eudice is first person in Div III tennis history to win three consecutive singles championships. She did this by winning a thrilling three-set match against Rebecca Ho from Washington University in St Louis.

Not long after that singles victory, Eudice teamed up with Victoria to claim the national championship in doubles. They were unstoppable all year long, and they earned the national championship in decisive fashion. This is the first time that Wesleyan students have won the crown.

Is it any wonder that coach Mike Fried was named Division III Coach of the Year by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association? He has built a fabulous program, with both men’s and women’s team achieving top 10 national rankings. He’s a great mentor to many Wesleyan students.

Congratulations! Go Wes!!