Michael S. Roth ’78 – Page 6

Wesleyan University to End Legacy Admission

July 19, 2023 by Michael S. Roth '78

Dear friends,

As a highly selective university, Wesleyan University seeks exceptional students from a wide range of backgrounds and circumstances who will thrive in and enrich the Wesleyan community. An applicant’s connection to a Wesleyan graduate indicates little about that applicant’s ability to succeed at the University, meaning that legacy status has played a negligible role in our admission process for many years. Nevertheless, in the wake of the recent Supreme Court decision regarding affirmative action, we believe it important to formally end admission preference for “legacy applicants.” We still value the ongoing relationships that come from multi-generational Wesleyan attendance, but there will be no “bump” in the selection process. As has been almost always the case for a long time, family members of alumni will be admitted on their own merits.

It is important to underscore that Wesleyan has never fixated on a checked box indicating a student’s racial identification or family affiliations. We have long taken an individualized, holistic view of an applicant’s lived experience—as seen through the college essay, high school record, letters of recommendation, and interactions with our community. Our admission decision is based upon diverse facets of the individual’s history, talent, potential to contribute to the university and get the most out of a Wesleyan education. Applicants’ achievements and promise are carefully considered in the context of their respective schools, public engagement, and personal circumstances. We will continue to do all of this.

By cultivating free speech, mutual respect, and values of inclusion, we seek to foster a sense of belonging for everyone on campus. By recruiting students, faculty and staff with diverse life experiences, attributes, and points of view, we continue to build a diverse, energetic learning environment comprised of people who think critically and creatively and who value independence of mind and generosity of spirit.

Ending preferential legacy admission is the easy part. We will continue to work to:

Ensure diversity in the student body.

Pursue geographical diversity within the United States. We will continue to invest in recruiting students from around the country (and not just the coasts and the big cities).
Create an annual scholarship program to recruit and support a group of undergraduates from Africa.
Redouble efforts to recruit veterans. Building on our work with the Warrior Scholars Program, we will encourage the development of a pipeline of veterans interested in liberal arts colleges and universities.
Strengthen our outreach to community-based organizations, college access programs, and Title I high schools.
Enhance community college recruiting. Invest in building a pipeline of community college graduates interested in liberal arts colleges and universities.
Solidify the Center for Prison Education. Ensure the sustainability of the degree program for incarcerated people.

Increase financial aid support.

Maintain a commitment to access and affordability, meeting the full demonstrated need of all matriculants while keeping loans to a minimum.
Make the 3-Year Program more visible. Normalize the three-year option for more students who are trying to reduce the cost of college.
Develop more free credit bearing courses delivered online or in a hybrid mode.

We will communicate further about each of these objectives in the weeks and months ahead.

Wesleyan has long had impact disproportionate to our numbers by empowering graduates to shape a changing world. We will continue to expand that impact through an equitable and forward-thinking admission process that finds talented people from around the country and the world to join our lifelong network of learning and accomplishment.

Sincerely yours,

Michael S. Roth
President

Happy 4th!

July 4, 2023 by Michael S. Roth '78

As I write my annual Independence Day blog message, I am still reeling from the recent Supreme Court decisions and from the rhythm of mass shootings that now punctuates all our seasons. Despite the current malaise, when I think back to last year at this time I am very grateful — grateful that COVID has receded and that over the last 12 months we at Wesleyan have managed to learn together while supporting others beyond the campus. Last summer at this time I was struggling with my own COVID infection and about to resume working with colleagues on building a ‘safe-enough’ educational environment. What a difference a year makes! Now, I eagerly anticipate the coming semesters, ones that will be filled with creativity, inquiry and exuberance!

But there is time for that. Today we celebrate the signing of the Declaration of Independence, a document of aspiration often used to remind citizens of our promise but also of our failure to live up to our professed values. These are values worth remembering and celebrating! As an anonymous writer (identified only as a “Black Whig”) said just a few years after the document was signed, “And now my virtuous fellow citizens, let me entreat you, that, after you have rid yourselves of the British yoke, that you will also emancipate those who have been all their life time subject to bondage.” I take this quote from columnist Jamelle Bouie, who wrote “The story of the changing meaning of the Declaration should be a reminder…that we had more than one founding — and far more than just one set of founders.” Perhaps each generation needs a new set of founders!

Here’s one of those re-founders, the poet Walt Whitman. I Hear America Singing:

I hear America singing, the varied carols I hear,

Those of mechanics, each one singing his as it should be blithe and strong,

The carpenter singing his as he measures his plank or beam,

The mason singing his as he makes ready for work, or leaves off work,

The boatman singing what belongs to him in his boat, the deckhand singing on the steamboat deck,

The shoemaker singing as he sits on his bench, the hatter singing as he stands,

The wood-cutter’s song, the ploughboy’s on his way in the morning, or at noon intermission or at sundown,

The delicious singing of the mother, or of the young wife at work, or of the girl sewing or washing,

Each singing what belongs to him or her and to none else,

The day what belongs to the day—at night the party of young fellows, robust, friendly,

Singing with open mouths their strong melodious songs.

Let’s try to hear that singing even as we await a time when we live our values, a time of re-founding. And with the great poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti, we can say “I am perpetually awaiting a rebirth of wonder.” So many good things begin in wonder, don’t they!

Happy 4th!!

On the Supreme Court Ruling

June 29, 2023 by Michael S. Roth '78

Dear friends,

Today’s Supreme Court decision on the consideration of race in college admissions is extremely disappointing. Appealing to a principle of “color-blindness” at odds with history and law, the Court’s conservative majority says “trust us” while it imposes its will on higher education’s admission policies.

Wesleyan remains deeply committed to admitting a class of students that will lead to a diverse learning community on our campus. By using a reductive sense of how race is dealt with in college admissions, the conservative majority of the Supreme Court has challenged the University’s ability to select and enroll a racially diverse class.

The University is encouraged, however, that the Court has recognized the importance of considering race as a factor impacting the lived experience of an applicant. As the Court ruled, “all parties agree, nothing in this opinion should be construed as prohibiting universities from considering an applicant’s discussion of how race affected his or her life, be it through discrimination, inspiration, or otherwise.”

Wesleyan has never simply looked at the box students checked when considering their racial background. We take an individualized, holistic view of an applicant’s lived experience, through their essays, letters of recommendation, and interactions with our community. Our decision to admit a student is based on diverse facets of the individual’s history, talent, and potential. Applicants’ achievements and promises are carefully considered in the context of their respective schools, communities, and personal circumstances.

The liberal arts education we offer is stronger because our campus community is built on a dynamic array of socioeconomic, religious, intellectual, geographic, and racial diversity. Asking people to consider ideas and experiences that might challenge their own preconceptions is a crucial step towards helping individuals become engaged citizens leading lives of purpose.

We are studying the decision to better understand how we can comply with the law while pursuing our mission. We are determined to create a diverse community, and our admission and financial aid teams have been preparing over the last several months to craft policies that will do that. While our ability to do this work has been undermined by today’s ruling, our values are unwavering. We will follow up later this summer with updates and news of Wesleyan’s specific plans for moving forward in the wake of this decision.

Sincerely,

Michael S. Roth ’78, President

Amin Abdul-Malik Gonzalez ’96, Vice President and Dean of Admission and Financial Aid

Practicing education is like practicing democracy

June 27, 2023 by Michael S. Roth '78

Earlier this month the Boston Globe published an op-ed I wrote based on my remarks to the Class of 2023. I thought I’d share it here.

As the school year draws to a close, it’s easy to see that teaching and learning are no simple matters these days. Questions around education have become more urgent in the face of the powerful forces of discrimination and censorship at work in our country.

Of course teaching has always faced obstacles. Throughout the modern period, theories of education have been hotly debated, and as secular governments assumed responsibility for schooling, educators focused on preparing independent thinkers who could also be free citizens. But it’s always been a paradox that one can really learn independence from another.Today many are asking whether schools are truly helping students think for themselves or only indoctrinating them into the latest campus orthodoxies. Others have noted that while higher education can lead to inventions that benefit society as a whole, it can also create self-serving justifications for the inequalities associated with economic development. Educational thinkers in America have been responding to such questions for a long time. Real students, said Ralph Waldo Emerson, are provoked away from conformity; they think aversively. Freedom is tied to learning and neither is just an intellectual matter. They are bound together by living with an intensity opposed to convention.

W.E.B. Du Bois didn’t need Emerson to tell him that a real education involved an intense opposition to convention. As a Black intellectual, Du Bois pursued learning with a steeliness forged by the racist opposition to his talents and ambitions. As a student, he aimed for freedom through empowerment. Then, as he made his way in the world, he in turn used his education to empower others who knew they must change the world around them to have any chance at real opportunity and freedom. His contemporary, JaneAddams, who worked with poor immigrants in Chicago, also recognized that a profound education should be put in the service of the most vulnerable. She rejected facile and performative critical thinking in favor of what she called the sympathetic imagination — a faculty that led to understanding perspectives and experiences very different from one’s own. This was at the core of her rethinking of what it meant to be a student or a teacher.

Emerson, Du Bois, and Addams remind us that the most effective teachers are the ones preparing students for more than replicating the world as it is. They are empowering people to intervene to protect those who are treated unjustly and to choose with discernment those who would govern. In other words, teachers are contributing to civic life.

Strong students make better teachers, and both help create better citizens. I have had the good fortune of working with students whose seriousness and joy, playfulness and purpose have illuminated for me the very subjects I was trained to teach. Working with students has also made me more attentive to the concerns of others. By exploring the complexities of the world, students and teachers practice making connections that are intellectual and affective. And today, when parochialism is encouraged under the guise of solidarity, it’s more important than ever for schools, colleges, and universities to promote citizenship by helping students increase their powers of aversive thinking, critical feeling, and of the sympathetic imagination.

Strong teachers often provoke powerful emotions, and the best teach in ways that eliminate the need for their teaching: “Your educators cannot go beyond being your liberators,” philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche underscored in 1874. To be a good art teacher, said John Baldessari about a century later, means knowing when to get out of the way. The goal of the teacher is to help the student be more than a spectator, more than a consumer of lessons.

Teachers can help students get to a place where it is more likely that they’ll find modes of feeling and thinking with which they are at home and which they can share with others.Part of being free, part of political participation and of leaving one’s childish immaturity behind, is finding that new home. Long after official graduations, many students remain enormously grateful to the gifted educators who opened up possibilities of inquiry and appreciation that might otherwise have never been discovered — teachers who also recognized the right time to get out of the way. It’s not just that teachers know subjects that the student aspires to understand; it’s also that through their own advanced studies they have developed habits of paying attention, analysis, and openness that students want for themselves.

Teachers point students toward experiences and discoveries that become available through collaborative exploration. We must be on our guard against those who are afraid of that exploration; we must stand up against those who fear fluidity, who ban books, and who are frightened by free expression and creative transformation. Practicing education is like practicing democracy — both are collaborative, experimental paths of improvement.

I’ve been teaching for over 40 years, and I’d like to think I’ve remained a student throughout this time. In the courageous company of my fellow learners, I’m encouraged to believe that society may be able to reject the cynical status quo that mobilizes rage, that we may be able to build a politics and a culture of compassionate solidarity rather than one of fear and divisiveness. Our education, the ability to productively learn from others, should help people shape the future lest it be shaped by those for whom justice and change, generosity and equality, diversity and tolerance, are too threatening.

When we work with others, when we are open to learn from them across our differences, we will feel the power and promise of our education as it helps us tackle the enormous challenges ahead while finding joy in creating new possibilities.

Michael S. Roth is president of Wesleyan University. His new book, “The Student: A Short History,” will be published in September.

Crew! Crew!

June 7, 2023 by Michael S. Roth '78

Have you seen the bumper sticker, “I Can’t, I have Crew“? Student-Athletes are often incredibly busy as they juggle challenging schedules, but rowers may have the most intense calendars of all. And yet, they get little in the way of cheers and support in the moment. THEY ARE IN THE MIDDLE OF A BODY OF WATER, after all. So, let’s take a moment to cheer for the Wesleyan crew teams!!

The women’s team finished the season in the number two spot in the whole country– right behind #1 Wellesley (who clearly has name issues). They had a tremendous season and peaked at just the right moment. You can read more about it here.

The men’s team also finished number two in the whole country (who cares which school was just a few strokes ahead)! Again the team built on success over the course of the season to finish at this most elite level. More on their accomplishments here.

V8 IRA National Championship

Let’s hear it for some of the hardest working student-athletes out there! Go Wes!!

Celebrating the Class or 2023!

June 1, 2023May 31, 2023 by Michael S. Roth '78

The following message was sent to Wesleyan students, faculty and staff.

Commencement is over, and mortar boards, it seemed to me, flew even higher than usual. It was such a beautiful day with strong speakers and a celebratory crowd. The graduating seniors seemed especially joyous. They had every reason to be proud of how they had stayed focused through the disruptions caused by the pandemic. Their achievements were not theirs alone, however, and their enthusiastic applause for faculty and staff showed how grateful they were. I hope all our faculty, staff, and students can take a moment to recognize their individual and collective accomplishments of this past year.

Our commencement speakers stressed the importance of how we develop civic engagement on campus, and they urged our graduates to carry those lessons forward—as citizens. At a time when jarring voices across the country question the benefits of higher education, we can be confident that those who receive a Wesleyan education will showcase its benefits to the world.

Here on campus, we must continue to pursue our mission with passion and purpose. That mission does not change, but we pursue it in light of changes in the world. By fall semester, there will likely be a Supreme Court decision on affirmative action. Regardless, we will redouble our efforts to build a diverse community in which all—students, faculty, and staff—can thrive. Work is already underway on the three organizational priorities identified through the WesThrives Campus Survey—diversity, inclusion, and belonging; performance management; and communications—which we will more deeply focus on when our entire community is together again in the fall.

Summer approaches, and I hope these next months bring you the balance of rest, enjoyment, and productivity that you seek.

Athletic Honors

May 8, 2023 by Michael S. Roth '78

This time of year there are just too many prizes and honors to count, but I wanted to signal some really stand-out performers. Let’s start with Grace Devanny ’23, who won the Sabasteanski Award, given to the NESCAC’s Most Outstanding Performer from the track & field championship meet. Devanny is the first Cardinal to win the NESCAC’s highest individual honor. She’s set records in so many races this year, I’ve lost count. And the thrills she’s provided in soccer will long be remembered. Wesleyan’s only first team All-American Women’s Soccer player, a National Champion in the 400M in Indoor Track and a SEVEN Time All-American in Track and Field. No slouch in the classroom, Grace will be inducted into Phi Beta Kappa this month!

Speaking of stand-out individual performers, Nika Vesely ’25 was named NESCAC’s Player-of-the-Year just before the women’s tennis team hosted the NCAA’s regional tournament here in Middletown. Nika and her teammates won both their matches and head to the final four! Coach Mike Fried will be guiding the team having earned Coach-of-the-Year honors this year. His leadership of this program is nothing short of remarkable.

I don’t spend enough time talking about our crew teams, but they have had a fine season this year. The men are ranked #2 in the country, and they are heading to the National Invitational on Friday. The women’s team is ranked #7 and will also be racing at the National Invitational on Friday. These scholar athletes have become formidable teams that make the most of coordinated hard work, strength and endurance.

There are many other athletes to celebrate, and we’ll have a chance to do so at a banquet this week. Go Wes!

Little Threes

April 24, 2023 by Michael S. Roth '78

Sending out a big cheer for our Little Three Champs in Women’s Tennis and Women’s Lacrosse. These teams have been excellent for several years now, but there is still a great thrill in coming out on top against Amherst and Williams. Congratulations to coaches Mike Fried and Kim Williams and all their players!

How to Choose A (Our) University

April 14, 2023April 14, 2023 by Michael S. Roth '78

Throughout the spring, high school seniors with the acceptance letters in hand are once again visiting campuses as they try to decide where to attend college. They are trying to envision the school at which they will be most likely to thrive. Where will I learn the most, be happiest, and form friendships that will last a lifetime? How to choose? As I do each spring, I thought it might be useful to re-post my thoughts on choosing a college. We have been hosting many campus visitors, and today we begin WesFest. I invite you to visit our Admitted Students website to learn more about Wesleyan.

In the wake of the pandemic, many students today are wondering what campus life will be like in the fall. At Wesleyan we are planning for a normal university year. Sure, we expect to continue to take health precautions, including ensuring that all students are vaccinated and boosted before they begin the semester. Of course, we will monitor the pandemic’s course should things take a turn for the worse.

For many, the decision about where to attend college will be made on an economic basis. Which school has given the most generous financial aid package? Wesleyan is one of a small number of schools that meets the full financial need of all admitted students according to a formula developed over several years. Wesleyan has made a commitment to keep loan levels low, and we have replaced them with grants for high need families. We also offer a three-year program that allows families to save about 20 percent of their total expenses, while still earning the same number of credits.

After answering the question of which schools one can afford, how else does one decide where best to spend one’s college years? Of course, size matters. Some students are looking for a large university in an urban setting where the city itself plays an important role in one’s education. New York and Boston, for example, are popular college destinations, but not, I suspect, for the classroom experience. If one seeks small classes and strong, personal relationships with faculty, then liberal arts schools, which pride themselves on providing rich cultural and social experiences on a residential campus, are especially compelling. You can be on a campus with a human scale and still have plenty of things to do. Wesleyan is somewhat larger than most liberal arts colleges but much smaller than the urban or land grant universities. We feel that this gives our students the opportunity to choose a broad curriculum and a variety of cultural activities on campus, while still being small enough to encourage regular, sustained relationships among faculty and students.

All the selective small liberal arts schools boast of having a faculty of scholar-teachers, of a commitment to research and interdisciplinarity, and of encouraging community and service. So what sets us apart from one another after taking into account size, location, and financial aid packages? What are students trying to see when they visit Amherst and Wesleyan, or Tufts and Pomona?

As students scan the Wesleyan website, go to chatrooms and listen to current students talk about their experiences, I hope they feel the brave exuberance and ambition of our students, the intelligence and care of our faculty, the playful yet demanding qualities of our community. I would like prospective students to get a sense of our commitment to creating a diversity in which difference is embraced and not just tolerated, and to public service that is part of one’s education and approach to life. Our students have the courage to find new combinations of subjects to study, of people to meet, of challenges to face.

Whatever college or university students choose, I hope they get three things out of their education: discovering what they love to do; getting better at it; learning to share it with others. I explain a little bit more about that in this talk to admitted students a few years ago:

We all know that Wesleyan is hard to get into, but even in the group of highly selective schools, Wes is not for everybody. We aspire to be a community committed to boldness as well as to rigor, to idealism as well as to effectiveness. Whether in the sciences, arts, humanities or social sciences, our faculty and students are dedicated to explorations that invite originality as well as collaboration. The scholar-teacher model is at the heart of our curriculum. Our faculty are committed to teaching and to shaping their disciplines. At Wesleyan, we know how to work hard, but we also know how to enjoy the work we choose to do. That’s been magically appealing to me for almost 50 years. I’ll bet the magic will appeal to many of those who are still in the process of getting to know our extraordinary university.

Spring Senior Harvest Underway

April 3, 2023 by Michael S. Roth '78

Spring of senior year … a time of celebration, some anxiety, and often great achievement. You can see our seniors performing in all sorts of things across campus over the next month.

I am fortunate to have several tennis players in my classes this year, and this weekend I got to watch some of them play in tough matches against NESCAC rivals. Sunday afternoon was Senior Day and the women were awesome! There was baseball and lacrosse to watch outside as well, and many Wesleyans were already taking advantage of the sun to watch their classmates on Andrus Field from those great seats on Foss Hill.

Kari and I also had the pleasure of seeing the spring senior dance recital this weekend. The choreography was smart, creative and graceful — the dancers gave their all to an appreciative audience in the 92 Theater. Congratulations to Amaal Ladha, Keren Lebrón Ramos, Charissa Lee, and Halle Newman for their fine work. Today I strolled over to the Zilkha Gallery to catch the end of the first week of senior theses exhibitions. Riya Devi-Ashby, Alec Black, Peter Ketels Fulweiler, Skye Gao, Eden Lanois, and Bell Rush had impressive works displayed in a wide variety of genres.

Week two of the art thesis shows begins Tuesday. Music recitals are also underway, and I hope to be able to listen to some of them this month. You can find out more about all the arts events here.

Happy Spring!