Our hearts go out to those whose lives have been devastated by the super-typhoon that struck the Philippines. We are reaching out to our students and alumni from the region to see if we can be of help. For those of you looking for ways to send assistance to the Philippines, you can find information here.
We see them all the time around campus: students who are holding down jobs either as part of a financial aid package or just to make ends meet while they pursue their studies. They may be sitting at the information desk at Usdan, passing out appetizers at receptions, assisting faculty or athletic teams, or working as RAs or in Admissions helping others find their way. These jobs can be pretty challenging, and it’s important to remember that many hold more than one – and all are full-time students.
I worked in the kitchen at the Star and Crescent Eating Club when I was a student, and it was an important part of my undergraduate experience. I usually had a pretty good time with my fellow dishwashers and waitresses, but once in a while we had to deal with the ‘unpleasantly entitled.’ Recently I was hearing from student workers about how things are today on campus. The anecdotes below are (loosely) derived from what I’ve been told.
Think of the student, “Enrique”, who passes out appetizers at receptions, usually wearing a crisp white shirt and a bowtie. Sometimes he sees classmates at the receptions and often his teachers. Usually these interactions go smoothly, but occasionally people he thought he knew pretty well act strangely. They aren’t exactly rude, but they look right through him. Enrique likes his job, the other waiters are fun, and the boss makes sure they eat well. But it’s disturbing when students or faculty seem embarrassed to see him or just pretend they don’t seem him.
Or consider “Anna,” who works at the information desk at Usdan. Most of the time things are pretty slow. She gives directions, helps folks find the restrooms, matches visitors to campus with some of the things going on that might interest them. Other student workers hang out from time to time, and they can even get some schoolwork done. But sometimes on the weekend shifts, drunk students come through and act like jerks. Anna says that isn’t as upsetting as the fact that the sober bystanders just stand there and pretend not to notice. She isn’t invisible, she knows.
“Alex” works two jobs –she is a research assistant in a lab on top of being a Resident Advisor. Most of the time she manages to juggle her various obligations, but recently there was a crisis in her residence unit and she was up much of the night talking a first year student out of doing something really stupid. The frosh gave her a big “thank you” and a bigger hug, but by that time it was 4 am. Even coffee didn’t allow her to mask the yawns the next day in the lab. “Too much partying, Alex?” asked her professor. This was the first personal comment he’d made that semester. No big deal, Alex said, but she felt rotten the rest of the day, and she didn’t have the energy to study for her history exam.
On a daily basis student workers just do their jobs, finish their homework, write their papers, but once in awhile, the conditions on campus make it extra difficult for them. Some of us forget that many here are under more than the usual pressures. What should we do about that? For starters, let’s just treat student staff, like all who work here, with respect and kindness. The whole university benefits from their contributions. Taking the time to acknowledge those contributions is a benefit as well.
We have received more than 60 proposals for improvements to the campus that would enhance the university’s ability to make the most of our residential dimensions. These range from very specific facilities improvements to programs that would allow students to learn all sorts of specific skills. I’m delighted to see the range of topics covered, and the input from staff, students, faculty — and even some alumni.
Provost Ruth Striegel Weissman will lead a group from various constituencies to discuss the merits of the proposals. When we narrow down to a group of “semi-finalists,” we will ask for more detailed proposals. After getting input from students, faculty and staff, I expect to be announcing some pilot projects early in 2014.
Wesleyan’s residential dimensions foster a learning, research and creative culture that is one of our greatest assets. We will use those strengths in even more intentional ways in the future. Stay tuned!
It was an amazing weekend, filled with artistic, athletic and academic achievements. It was great to see the crowds at the Alumni Show II art exhibition (which you can still see at the Zilkha Gallery), and I enjoyed meeting some of the artists there. My early bedtime prevented me from seeing the play in the Olin stacks, but I heard it was an enlivening experience.
I was also thrilled to learn that Gail Jenkins Farris ’84, P’14, P ’16, one of the founders of our volleyball program, was awarded a special Letter over the weekend. A great athlete herself, Gail has been a tireless advocate for women’s sports. She was still pretty jazzed about being recognized for her work when I saw her at a reception later in the day.
![photo[12]](https://roth.blogs.wesleyan.edu/files/2013/11/photo12-e1383592954251.jpg)
This swim team had a successful meet, and men’s soccer won a tough match against Connecticut College in the first round of the NESCAC tournament. We were all very excited by football’s first Little Three championship in over forty years! Lacrosse, softball, soccer, and baseball have won Little Three crowns in recent years, and we are delighted with football’s success. I was very moved when Coach Whalen presented me with the game ball.
![photo[13]](https://roth.blogs.wesleyan.edu/files/2013/11/photo13.jpg)
Alumni Association Chair Megan Norris ’83, P’17 distributed a very cool video today on football’s victory. You can see it here.
Today marks the beginning of Homecoming/Family Weekend. There are many great seminars, concerts, sporting events and recitals planned. Some families will just want to spend time together enjoying Connecticut in the fall, and many alumni will simply want to re-visit their favorite haunts. Whatever your pleasure, I hope you find Wesleyan welcoming, stimulating and festive.
I’m particularly excited about the Dar Williams concert Friday night at 9 pm in Crowell Concert Hall. I’ve been listening to Dar’s CDs for a long time, and recently I’ve been able to hear her play live on campus. It’s great to have her back at alma mater, especially since this concert is a fundraiser for financial aid. We are all working hard to establish more scholarships that meet student needs without high loans, and this concert is an important addition to our efforts.
There are some great seminars, panels and lectures during the weekend. One of the highlights: the 21st Annual Dwight L. Greene Symposium: Women of Color: 40 Years at Wesleyan, and Beyond will take place at 4 pm in the Chapel. You can find a list of events here.
There will be plenty of sports excitement over the weekend. The volleyball team will be in the Silloway gymnasium battling Little Three Rivals, while cross country, women’s soccer and field hockey are playing in NESCAC tournaments on the road. Men’s soccer will have a home contest in the tournament on Jackson field Saturday at 12:30. The mighty Wes football team will take this year’s undefeated streak into a battle against Williams. The game starts at 1:00 pm at Corwin Stadium. Connecticut Public Television is broadcasting the game, and we will have a video link here.
I’m looking forward to seeing old friends and meeting new ones. THIS IS WHY!
This morning I read a moving op-ed in the Washington Post about Dima Litvinov ’86, a Greenpeace activist recently arrested in Russia. Having organized protests against Russia’s exploitation of the Arctic, Dima was originally arrested with several others on charges of piracy. After protests against this dramatic over-reaching, the charges were reduced to hooliganism. The charges in this case were prompted by Greenpeace activists trying to put a banner on a Russian oil rig.
The op-ed piece is by Dima’s father, and this is how it concludes:
Dima and the others are threatened with long prison terms because they love and defend nature. That includes the Russian Arctic, which is threatened by senseless and dangerous drilling.
I know only too well what a prison term in Russia means. I was arrested for participating in 1968 in a demonstration against the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia. Lev Kopelev, Dima’s grandfather on his mother’s side, a Soviet writer, spent eight years in Soviet prison camps because he protested the looting and raping of the German population by Soviet officers and soldiers during World War II, when he fought the Nazi army.
Dima’s grandfather was arrested under Joseph Stalin, and I, Dima’s father, was arrested under Leonid Brezhnev. The Soviet Union doesn’t exist anymore, but Dima has been arrested under Russian President Vladimir Putin — a former member of the Soviet secret police, the KGB. Is it not the time to break the cycle?
The Wesleyan community has been asked to support Dima and the other Greenpeace activists. They were peacefully protesting, but they are no hooligans.
In mid-September I put out a call to faculty, staff and students for “1-2 page proposals for initiatives that have the potential to significantly improve the distinctive educational experience of Wesleyan students by leveraging its residential dimensions. What kinds of programs should we strengthen or create to offer our students deeper opportunities for learning? What kinds of programs should we create or strengthen to extend the impact of the years spent on the Wesleyan campus?” We already have heard about some exciting ideas, and we look forward to receiving more proposals by the end of this week.
During a time of enormous change in American higher education, there is a great opportunity to rethink how we can make the most of our work together on campus. How do first-year students become part of an inclusive, creative community? How do the possibilities for campus learning change as students move through the curriculum? What is the role of the faculty in the residential life of the university? How do student interests while they are on campus affect the evolution of the curriculum, or specific course offerings? How are the arts, athletics, and independent research encouraged by our residential facilities, and how can we do even more in these areas?
These are only some of the questions we will be thinking about as we read the proposals. If you are thinking about submitting your ideas, please get your 1-2 pages in by the end of the week to 2020@wesleyan.edu!
Since coming back to Wesleyan in 2007, I’ve had the pleasure of getting to know Joseph Fins ’82, who was on the Board of Trustees (and the presidential search committee) when I was hired. Joe is a proud graduate of the College of Letters, a physician and a bio-ethicist. I just read his powerful critique of experiments in Romania on children who had the misfortune to grow up in that country’s orphanages. Joe questions the ethics of randomized studies with children, when it is very likely that those children will be harmed by the conditions being studied. In a recent Hastings Center forum he writes:
One of the salient lessons of twentieth-century bioethics is that scientists cannot always do the experiment they would like to do. When you are not in a lab and unable to control all the variables, if you try to control all the variables, people can get hurt. That is what happened in Romania. And it is a double tragedy because investigators could have had the same policy impact if they had done their research in a different way. They could have been more attentive to the fact that some of the children suffered harm from ongoing early exposure to the orphanages that could have been interrupted.
Joe quotes his COL teacher, philosopher Elisabeth Young-Breuhl:
It is the great task of human beings–the essential task–to understand what adults should give children; what is–to use a legal phrase–“in the best interests of the child.” The basic needs of all children are the same; there are universal needs. And it should be the task of any and all adults to understand those needs and meet them. Children depend upon adults for this understanding, and if it is not applied, not translated into the actions of child-rearing and education, children cannot grow and develop freely and become adults who, in turn, give such understanding and action to their own children.
Fall break is usually a busy time for me, and this year is no exception. It started off with a bang at Amherst. All our athletes competed superbly, and our football team won at Amherst for the first time in many years. It was an exciting game, and there was a great Wesleyan turnout in the visitors’ bleachers. I’m not sure if our lusty cheering helped all that much, but it didn’t hurt. In the end the team left Amherst at 5-0. This is a result for which Alumni Director John Driscoll ’62 has been waiting for a long time!
![photo[6]](https://roth.blogs.wesleyan.edu/files/2013/10/photo61.jpg)
This morning I headed down to Washington, D.C., to talk about improving learning outcomes in higher education at an event sponsored by the Hamilton Project. Our session was chaired by former Secretary of the Treasury Robert E. Rubin, and I was joined by University of North Carolina President Thomas Ross and Chancellor Francisco G. Cigarroa from the University of Texas. Although the challenges of these large public systems are quite different from those we face at Wesleyan, I was proud to learn that many were looking to our work at Wesleyan for innovative ideas that might translate to a variety of educational contexts.
Tomorrow I head West for a great THIS IS WHY event in San Francisco with Michael Pollan P’15 and Jonathan Bloom ’99. They will be talking about food as pleasure, necessity, and industry. I can hardly wait!
UPDATE:
We had a great turnout last night for the conversation about food, politics, culture and the environment. I saw several recent alumni and alumni from decades back (some who are also current Wes parents). Jonathan was a wonderful interviewer, and Michael described both the systemic issues in the way we produce (and waste) food and what we can do about it. I was particularly glad to hear him describe the massive political challenges while also analyzing the positive steps that we can take that make a difference immediately. And he gave a great shout-out to Wesleyan farmers at Long Lane and to our environmental activists more generally.
This is Why.
Today we sent an announcement to the campus community about new offerings for early January.
We are introducing Winter at Wesleyan – academic offerings and Career Center programs designed to provide students with immersion-style classes and a variety of opportunities to help with life after Wesleyan.
The faculty has approved Winter at Wesleyan, which will run for two weeks beginning January 8. We will be offering four Winter Session classes for full credit at a cost of $2,900 per course, and students may live in residence halls at no additional cost. An optional meal plan is available. These classes will be small, allowing for close interaction with faculty, and registration is now open. Limited financial aid will be available to students receiving aid during the academic year.
This is a small pilot program, and the faculty discussed at length the pros and cons of intensive courses of this kind. After thoughtful deliberation, they decided that we ought to proceed with this experiment to determine how effectively these kinds of classes complement the courses offered during the semester.
Winter on Wyllys includes a variety of career-related initiatives. For the first time, the Fullbridge Program will run its “internship edge” intensive at Wesleyan, which provides intensive training in business fundamentals. In addition, Career Center staff will be presenting two concurrent, week-long intensive programs: CareerLab for those preparing to enter the job market, and Choosing Good Work for those students trying to make sense of their options and personal goals. The Career Center also will offer their WEShadow externship program, as well as an alumni guest speakers series. For more information, please contact the Career Center.
I’m pleased to see the beginning of 2014 bringing to Wesleyan students new options and opportunities.
