The men’s and women’s basketball teams head north this weekend for the first rounds of the NESCAC tournaments. The women will play a tough Williams squad on Saturday after finishing the regular season with back-to-back wins over Bowdoin and Colby. Captain and senior Kendra Harris leads the young team that has plenty of momentum. Speaking of momentum, the men’s squad enters the tournament after a big win over Colby. All-time Wesleyan leading scorer Shasha Brown ’13 was named Player of the Week as the season wound down, and seniors (and career 1k scorers) Derick Beresford and Mike Callaghan are pumped up as they head for a showdown at Middlebury College. In their earlier meeting this season, the Cardinals lost a tense overtime game in Vermont. Go Wes!
Men’s ice hockey finishes its season with home and away games against Trinity College. The guys take the ice tonight (Friday) in Middletown at 7:00 pm. The team has had many standout performances (check out frosh goalie Nolan Daley!), and Keith Buehler ’14 was named a semifinalist for the Concannon Award, “given to the top American-born Division II/III Player in New England.”
On the other side of campus there are sure to be standout performances as Mabou Mines brings “Glass Guignol: The Brother and Sister Play” to the CFA Theater Saturday night at 8 pm. The play is conceived and adapted by Lee Breuer and Maude Mitchell. Breuer and Mitchell are an amazing team of theatrical innovators; you can read more about them here.
Classes Resume this morning (Tuesday) thanks to the extraordinary efforts of our Physical Plant and Stonehedge crews. I am so grateful to all those who kept us safe and well-fed (thanks Bon Appetit!) during the aftermath of Blizzard Nemo. It’s still messy outside, so please be careful.
Several hundred students from the Coursera version of The Modern and the Postmodern have checked out this blog recently. Welcome!
Recently the Washington Post asked me to review Jim Holt’s “Why Does the World Exist?” This review is cross-posted with Sunday’s newspaper.
WHY DOES THE WORLD EXIST? An Existential Detective Story. By Jim Holt. Liveright. 309 pp. $27.95
Jim Holt likes to pursue questions — big questions. And he does so with a sincerity and light-heartedness that draw his readers along for the ride. He’s written for the New Yorker on tough subjects such as string theory and infinity, but his last book was on the seemingly more accessible topic of jokes. In “Why Does the World Exist?” — a finalist for this year’s National Book Critics Circle Award in nonfiction — he takes on one of the biggest questions in conversations with philosophers and scientists: What is the origin of everything?By helping readers understand what some very smart people think an answer to this question might look like, he introduces us to advanced mathematics, theology, physics, ontology and epistemology — just to name some subjects he visits. Holt is usually very good about not losing us along the way, even when the math or the logic gets pretty esoteric.“The transition from Nothing to Something seems mysterious,” he writes, “because you never know what you’re going to get.” That might be true if one were asking as a disinterested party, but Holt is anything but that. The “Something” he has in mind is us — how did we and our world come to be? He wants to know how nothingness, a state in which absolutely no things exist, gave rise to a universe that includes all the things around us. “Conceptually,” he writes, “the question Why does the world exist? rhymes with the question Why do I exist?”There are two major kinds of answers to these twinned questions. The first kind emphasizes the “how” — how a specific cause leads to a particular effect. Why am I here? Because my parents had sex. The second kind of answer moves from cause to meaning. Did my parents want a child? Do I have a purpose in life? What am I doing here? Some of the intellectuals with whom Holt talks sound as though they believe that if they thoroughly answer the “how” version of the question (the one that details causes), they will have answered the “why” version of the question (the one that provides meaning). Or perhaps they think that an airtight explanation of the emergence of causality will make the meaning question irrelevant.There are some philosophers, it should be said, who think Holt is just asking the wrong question. Most interesting is philosopher of science Adolf Grunbaum, who cheerfully tries to show our author that his anxious astonishment with the existence of the universe is misplaced. Unexamined religious longing for mystery and a confused sense that we need to figure out why nothingness does not prevail generate a confused question with no rational response: “Go relax and enjoy yourself! Don’t worry about why there’s a world — it’s an ill-conceived question.” But Holt is only briefly deterred, declaring, “There is nothing I dislike more than premature intellectual closure.”Holt travels in England, France and the United States to talk with some very thoughtful men about some very thorny issues. It’s always thoughtful men. Somehow he didn’t find any women to interview about creation, though at the end of the book he movingly describes his mother’s death. She, a believer, did not think she was passing into nothingness. Respectful, Holt has no closure on this, either.How can the “first cause” not have a cause? How can one talk about anything prior to the Big Bang, if this event created time itself? What is the role of consciousness in the universe, and how is that related to simplicity, goodness, beauty? What if our universe is just one of many, many, universes and big bangs are relatively frequent occurrences? These are the kinds of questions that drive Holt back and forth between mathematics and ethics. String theory “builds matter out of pure geometry,” while “Plato thought that the ethical requirement that a good universe exist was itself enough to createthe universe.”So why is there something rather than nothing? “There isn’t,” replies the brilliant and witty philosopher Robert Nozick. “There’s both.” Physicist Ed Tryon, on the other hand, wondered whether the universe was the product of a “quantum fluctuation,” offering “the modest proposal that our universe is simply one of those things which happen from time to time.”
Periodically our despairing guide describes himself as retreating to a cafe for a strong espresso or, even better, a restaurant where he can treat body and spirit with some good food and wine. Lucky readers may find themselves taking breaks to do the same. But it’s worth getting back in the hunt for answers (or just questions) with Holt.
There are many intellectually stirring moments in the book, and I learned more than I would have thought I could about contemporary controversies in quantum mechanics and cosmology. Holt is an excellent translator of complex ideas and issues. But the highlight of his book is his description of rushing home to help his dog Renzo, who was suffering from advanced cancer. Help in this case meant holding the long-haired dachshund for 10 days, and then stroking him while a vet administered a lethal injection. Holt tells us about a mind game he plays with prime numbers to steady himself “in moments of unbearable emotion.” He used the game at the veterinarian’s office. The next day he called a physicist to talk about why the world exists.
When Holt asks why the world exists, he is also asking whether there is any point to our being here. He is struck by the extraordinary contingency of our lives and of our world, and he seeks to address that contingency with theories about the emergence of time, of causality, of something. But contingency is not erased by causal accounts; it is just described in minute detail. Holt recognizes this when the somethings he cares about disappear. His real concern isn’t creation but extinction — why somethings turn into nothings. He knows the causal explanation, but that is not answering his question. Focusing on causes can be a mind game to help us deal with “moments of unbearable emotion.”
Why do we lose those we love? Why do important parts of our world vanish? These are not questions for a detective story, existential or not. But they are the questions to which, in the end, Holt’s wonderfully ambitious book leads us.
Despite the heroic efforts of our Physical Plant and Stonehedge, we have decided to cancel classes for the day. I am hopeful that enough classroom buildings will be fully accessible so that we can get underway tomorrow (Tuesday). We will make another announcement at around 6 pm this evening.
To the Wesleyan Community:
Wesleyan is closed Monday, and classes will not be held this afternoon. Parking on campus remains limited, and a number of buildings are not yet accessible. Only essential personnel should report to work today. We are hopeful that classes will be held tomorrow, but that depends on how much snow removal gets done today. Our crews are working tirelessly, and we are very grateful for their dedication and good work. We will provide an update this evening around 6 pm.
Heavy equipment is in use, so students should continue to exercise considerable caution outdoors. Call Public Safety for help with storm-related matters, (860) 685-2345. For emergencies, call (860) 685-3333.
Lonely Snowman
Foss Hill, Morning, 2/11/13Mathilde to the Rescue (from Kari Weil)
We have been meeting to ensure that we are as prepared as possible for the heavy snow expected this evening. As I walked through the dining halls at lunchtime today at Usdan, spirits were high, and many were preparing to head to Foss Hill for some sledding. Winter in New England…
Foss Hill as seen from my office in South College
More than two feet of snow fell overnight, and it was a quiet, beautiful day when Kari and I got out of the house with Mathilde this morning. The path around Usdan was cleared already, and we talked with a Bon Appetit employee who walked miles (!!) through the snow to come into work. I am so grateful to the folks from Stonehedge Landscaping, Bon Appetit, and from our Public Safety and Physical Plant crews who are working through the storm to keep us safe and fed.
Here’s the path to my office at South College:
Path between 47 Wyllys and Usdan University CenterLooking back on College Row from base of Foss Hill
One of the significant changes to campus over the last few years was moving the Career Center, the College of Letters and the Art History Department to what had been the old Squash building. This McKim, Mead and White building had been empty for years, and for a while there was talk of using the space for a museum. Instead, we decided to move some crucial academic and career functions there, and under the leadership of John Meerts, Joyce Topshe and Alan Rubacha, we were able to design and build a strong addition to the core of campus. Yesterday I learned that this historic-modern structure earned a rare LEED “platinum” status as an environmentally sound building. So many dedicated people worked on the building that I’m just going to reproduce Alan’s email here:
It is with ebullient satisfaction that I am confirming that 41 Wyllys Avenue has been awarded the highest possible USGBC LEED rating of Platinum. Wesleyan’s 41 Wyllys Avenue building is now among the most elite recognized projects in the country. Please help me recognize my extraordinary team. Certainly John Meerts must be recognized for leading the entire process and pushing us all to be our best along with our entire building committee. Newman Architects led by Joe Schiffer, Dave Rodrigues and Jim Elmasry, helped spearhead the entire effort; they combined awesome architecture with sustainability. Van Zelm, led by Dave Madigan and Bev Cleaveland, provided the electrical, mechanical and lighting systems design to make us as efficient as possible. FIP Construction, led by Bill Hardy, Dan Burns and Mark Culligan, waded patiently and tirelessly through mountains of paperwork to provide all of the subcontractor management and required supporting documentation. We really need to recognize Newman’s LEED consultant Michele Helou. She guided us all through this extraordinary process. Michele demonstrated not only an incredible knowledge of the LEED process but of construction; and she did this all patiently while we struggled to keep up with her. Marvelous job Michele! I can’t say enough about you. Michele was supported by an excellent energy modeler, Maria Karpman. I look forward to having the pleasure of installing our LEED Platinum plaque in this truly incredible building. — Alan Rubacha
Congratulations to everyone who worked on this great addition to our increasingly sustainable campus!
Today I had lunch with a group of students whom our chief diversity officer Sonia Mañjon invited to my office for sandwiches and conversation. I learned a lot from the students’ candid comments about some of the barriers to inclusion that still exist on campus. We spoke about ways in which students can sometimes feel a lack of respect in the classroom, and how they can feel that the campus climate might prevent those from under-represented groups from getting the most out of their Wesleyan experience. We talked about ways of improving our recruiting and retention of students in the sciences, and I also heard about a plan to recognize those on campus who go the extra mile to help others succeed at Wesleyan. This was just one in a series of conversations I will have with student groups. These will help us develop policies to make our university a more equitable and welcoming place for all.
Developing a campus climate that makes excellence inclusive is the subject of our MLK celebration tomorrow, Friday, February 1. “Diversity University: From Theory to Practice,” is the theme of this year’s daylong commemoration.
Diversity University: Moving from Theory to Practice
Friday, February 1, 2013
Schedule of Events
10 a.m. – 12 noon: Session Block I 1 p.m. – 3 p.m: Session Block II
Film Screening & Discussion: Cracking the Code: The system of Racial Inequity Facilitators: Dr. Shakti Butler & Dr. Sonia Mañjon Location: Usdan 108 (Session I); PAC 001 (Session II)
Film Screening & Discussion: Mirrors of Privilege: Making Whiteness Visible Facilitator: Professor Sarah Mahurin & Professor Lois Brown Location: Usdan Multi-Purpose Room (Session I); PAC 002 (Session II)
Exploring Privilege by Examining Socialization
The messages we grew up with have implications for how we perceive ourselves and others. The power and privilege associated with our group identities often account for how we experience life. By reviewing the Cycle of Socialization and taking the Privilege Walk it will illuminate dynamics that impact the situations we find ourselves in on Wesleyan’s campus. Facilitators: Tanya Bowers & WesDEF’s Location: Fayerweather 106 – Theater Rehearsal Room (Session I & II)
Inside-Out & Outside-In: A Creative Identity & Ally Workshop
This workshop will use the arts to explore the perception and reality of our own identities. The impact of examining what we perceive from others and who we really are will inform an understanding of our own bias. We will then use that information to explore key concepts in allyship. Facilitators: Elisa Cardona & Joanne Rafferty Location: Usdan 110 (Session I & II)
I’m especially looking forward to the keynote address. You can learn more about the programs here.
The new exhibition at the Zilkha Gallery at Wesleyan gets pretty elemental. The Ortas are in the tradition of “social sculpture,” creating works of art that are meant to function, and, most importantly are meant to change the way we think about functionality. This exhibition is co-sponsored by the College of the Environment, and its themes include biodiversity and climate change. A cool feature of the exhibit is the short essay about the art written by Wesleyan faculty: Stewart Gillmor, Doug Charles, Dana Royer, Michael Singer, Gillian Goslinga, Barry Chernoff, Clement Loo, Courtney Fullilove and Bill Stowe have written pieces that you can see here.
The opening celebration for the exhibition is on Tuesday, January 29 from 4:30-6:30pm (gallery talk at 5pm). It’s a show that will repay attention and reflection!
Guns and Gun Violence
Attention and reflection must be devoted to current debates about guns and violence in the United States. And that’s exactly what the Allbritton Center for the Study of Public Life is doing. On Wednesday evening, Feb. 6 at 7.30 p.m., the Allbritton Center will host a panel and public discussion, “Guns and Gun Violence: Crisis, Policy and Politics” in the CFA Hall on the Wesleyan campus. The event will shine a spotlight on the rich scholarship on guns and gun violence, and the need for public debate informed by research from different domains, including the social sciences, public policy and public health.
The panel will be chaired by Leah Wright, Assistant Professor of History and African American Studies at Wesleyan. Following the panelist presentations, the audience discussion will be moderated by John Dankosky, WNPR News Director and host of “Where We Live.”
The three panelists for this event include: Saul Cornell (Paul and Diane Guenther Chair in American History at Fordham University, and a resident of Connecticut) is one of the nation’s leading authorities on American legal history and a specialist on the history of the 2nd Amendment. Prof. Cornell’s books include ‘A Well Regulated Militia’: The Founding Fathers and the Origins of Gun Control (2006) and Whose Right to Bear Arms Did the Second Amendment Protect? (2000). Kristin A. Goss (Associate Professor of Public Policy and Political Science at Duke University) specializes in public agenda-setting and the politics of gun control. The author of Disarmed: The Missing Movement for Gun Control in America (2006, 2009), she has published several articles about women and gun control and gun ownership and the institutional origins of the gun war. Matthew Miller (Associate Professor of Health Policy and Management at the Harvard School of Public Health) is a physician with training in health policy and the author of several articles on the effects of firearm legislation on rates of suicide and homicide.
Two events in the CFA that encourage us to think about (and deal with) some of the most pressing problems confronting us today.
Over this last week of break I have been traveling in Asia to visit with alumni, students, parents and prospective students. We started out in Seoul, where a group of Wes alums (WesKo, led by Sam Paik ’90 P’16, Jung-Ho Kim ’85 P’17) have been keeping the Cardinal spirit going for many years now. There were more than 40 people at our reception, and I had the opportunity to talk with them about many of the great things our students and faculty are doing on campus. This included current students and some potential pre-frosh who are anxiously awaiting word about their applications.
Great group of friends in Korea
Among the attendees was Injae Lee ’10, who has recently acted on his entrepreneurial passion and set up a Pedal Taxi company. He says he’s inspired by Wes.
Injae Lee ’10 ready to roll!
I think he’ll have many drivers around the city before long!
After just a couple of days in Seoul, I left for Hong Kong with Asian Studies alumnus Andrew Stuerzel ’05, now working in University Relations. There we fought through some airplane food poisoning to participate in a boisterous reception of more than 50 Wes friends at the China Club. Steve Young ’73, the US Consul General and Steve Barg ’84 welcomed us warmly, and we had great visits with alumni and parents. In Hong Kong, Simon Au ’07 asked about the changes to our financial aid policies, and that was a subject I talked a lot about on this trip. We receive generous support from our alumni overseas, and there is nothing more important to our fundraising than increasing endowment support for scholarships. That was, after all, a major reason for my trip. Financial Aid — now more than ever!
Wesleyan Reception in Hong Kong
After just a day, we were off to Beijing, where Ted Plafker ’86 P’15 and Roberta Lipson P’15 hosted a lively reception in their home. Again, there were many prospective students, all of whom seemed eager to hear more about what in their eyes seemed to be a very magical campus environment. There were also undergraduates home for winter break, and they were able to cut some of my propaganda with their personal insights into student life at Wes. Alumni seemed just delighted to see this much Wesleyan energy in China!
The next day I gave a lecture on liberal arts education at Peking University. It was very moving to hear my distinguished host, Prof. Tu Weiming, sing the praises of Wesleyan faculty Vera Schwartz and Stephen Angle. After teaching at Berkeley and Harvard, Prof. Tu is the Director of the Institute for Advanced Humanistic Studies at PKU, and he is very committed to developing partnerships that deepen liberal learning for all participants. I spoke to an audience of about 200 mostly graduate students and faculty about the genealogy of Pragmatic Liberal Learning in American intellectual history.
Liberal Arts Talk at PKU
I was especially delighted that Professor Ying Wang P’16 came up from Shanghai for the talk with her daughter Yangjun Chen ’16. Prof. Wang is spearheading the development of a liberal arts college at Fudan University.
Our last stop was Bangkok, where Tos ’85 P’14 P’17 and Sookta Chirathivat P’14 P’17 hosted our final reception on this trip.
We expected a smaller crowd in Thailand, but once again we had almost 50 attendees. There was a COL grad from more than 40 years ago (Alan Feinstein ’70), and high school students eager to hear about the university.
Parents of these applicants grilled current students about whether they really got as much out of their college experience as this president claimed. Our students said it all by showing how eager they were to get back home to Middletown. As I finish writing this post waiting for my final plane, that’s a sentiment I very much share!
Every year around this time I hear comments from parents and students about the length of winter break. Like most of our peer institutions, Wesleyan begins classes for the second semester around the time of Martin Luther King Day. This year, we start up on the Thursday following the holiday weekend. By that time, many students will be eager to be back on campus, and their parents will be more than ready to help them pack.
But for those on campus, there is anything but a “January break.” As I mentioned in a previous post, Wes athletes are already in stiff competition. On Monday, for example, swimmers were battling Hamilton in the water while the rest of us were side-stepping the melting snow outside. Over the next weeks, staff in Middletown are meeting to plan the rest of the year: developing ideas for new programs, for enhancements to the campus, and for greater efficiencies. It’s a time to make repairs and to dream big. This morning, I met with the whole crew for a second semester “kick-off,” and tomorrow I head out to maintain our fundraising momentum to support our highest priorities: financial aid and academic program endowment. It’s a privilege to ask for support knowing the dedication of the staff and faculty to providing the very best liberal arts education.
I see faculty members in the library, studios, labs and departmental offices busily trying to finish some of their research and their class preparation. Many of our professors have been at professional meetings sharing their scholarship, visiting archives, or just writing one more paper. Others are going over their syllabi to ensure that their students next semester will have access to the best work concerning whatever topic is at hand. Scott Higgins and I are scrambling to finish our Coursera classes, which launch on February 4. We are the first out of the gate in this new venture for Wesleyan. You can check out all the Wes offerings here.
So, there isn’t much of a “break” for faculty and staff at this time of year, and yet we are thinking now about new January programs that would be compelling for students. We’ll be consulting with student groups, faculty and others to figure out how to make future Januaries at Wesleyan even more lively!
update:
CONGRATULATIONS TO Benh Zeitlin ’04 AND THE TEAM FOR THE FOUR OSCAR NOMINATIONS FOR BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD!!
I was so pleased this fall when Wesleyan trustees approved an enthusiastic recommendation to grant tenure to Lois Brown, a distinguished literary critic and biographer who has contributed so much to our understanding of American cultural history and African-American Studies. Lois, who recently joined the Wesleyan faculty after teaching for years at Mount Holyoke College, is now Class of 1958 Distinguished Professor in the African American Studies Program and the Department of English.
Lois has been working with PBS as a scholarly contributor and series advisor for a three-part American Experience documentary series entitled The Abolitionists. The first of the three installments airs on Tuesday, January 8 at 9pm. The second and third segments will air on January 15 and 22 at 9pm. The series documents the abolitionist movement through the stories of five of the key participants: Frederick Douglass, William Lloyd Garrison, Angelina Grimké, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and John Brown. I’m told it is a compelling piece—gorgeously crafted—and it presents some especially stirring moments of American history.
Here are some web links to the PBS site and to the American Experience pages:
Short preview of The Abolitionists. Extended preview of The Abolitionists. Link to several PBS items on the series and supporting materials. A short promo piece that includes a clip from an interview Lois did about the overall project.
Next semester Lois is teaching courses on Slavery and the Literary Imagination and on Race, Romance, and Reform in 19th Century African American Women’s Writing. It’s great to have her at Wesleyan!
Baby, it’s cold outside. Here in Middletown the snow and ice make it a good time to head to the gym to see some hot action.
Tonight (Friday) the men’s and women’s basketball teams match up against Amherst. The men start at 6 pm, and the women get underway at 8pm. Just in the middle of these contests, the men’s hockey team will face off against Middlebury (at 7 pm). Women’s ice hockey is on the road at Middlebury, coming off a win against New England College on Tuesday night.
Tomorrow all the teams are back in action. Trinity dribbles to the gym for more b-ball, while Williams will skate into the rink for a mid-afternoon match. You can see complete schedules here.
This is a winter break for many, but Wes athletes are working hard! Go Wes!!
