Last night we had an energetic kickoff event in Hollywood. About 100 Wesleyans showed up to drink a toast to alma mater and listen to a conversation with Julia-Louis Dreyfus P’14 and Governor John Hickenlooper ’74. Julia talked about her career in comedy — leaving Northwestern before her senior year to pursue theater and television in Chicago (and SNL). John discussed his amazing variety of jobs: from geologist to brewer/restaurateur to mayor of Denver and now governor of Colorado. What’s next for Julia? She loves her award-winning HBO show, VEEP, and with some film work between seasons is plenty busy. And what’s next for John? He is very happy being governor and will be running for re-election next year.
It was great fun to see old LA friends and to meet new ones. Julia and John had much to say about contemporary politics, education, and the connection of cynicism to laughter. In their case being funny is just part of being engaged in their communities. They came out last night to help us raise more money for financial aid. The group there has already donated more than $1.4 million for scholarships.
Last night a few hundred Wesleyans gathered at the Director’s Guild Theater in New York to hear from Matthew Weiner ’87, creator of Mad Men. This was one of the kickoff events for our THIS IS WHY fundraising campaign, and the energy was terrific. I met some recent graduates who were eager to hear how Matt went from being a College of Letters major to a film and television writer. Older alumni were comparing notes with me about how the mania for period detail in Mad Men got the epoch just right.
Matt told a hilarious story about his poetry thesis and spoke warmly of the creative friends and teachers at Wesleyan who helped launch him into the world of ideas and media. Was it the Freud seminar taught by Elisabeth Young-Breuhl and Paul Schwaber, or the work in writing seminars with Anne Greene? COL director Kari Weil seemed to think that it was all those discussions about books that matter, and Matt provided plenty of evidence for that when he talked about Don Draper’s tenuous existentialism. It was a wonderful evening, and at the end we announced a new $600,000 donation to financial aid from an alumnus who wanted to celebrate the occasion. It was a great night for alma mater!
I’m heading back to campus today. There is so much happening on campus this weekend — from music and public life in Indonesia to great international theater at the CFA (not to mention Company at the Second Stage). Lots of great athletic action, too! Check out the calendar and find out why we keep saying, “THIS IS WHY.”
I was in New York yesterday meeting with alumni and parents who are supporting our financial aid program. It was a great day; I am always so inspired by members of our extended family who dig deep to provide scholarship support so that talented students in the future will be able to experience fully the benefits of a Wesleyan education.
Last night there were alumni parties for graduates of the last decade. John Usdan ’80, P’15 sponsored our gathering in Hell’s Kitchen, and we had more than 200 attendees. Ellen Jewett ’80, P’17 very generously agreed to match gifts given last night, and there were lots of credit cards being swiped.
I’ve been president long enough now so that about half of these alums graduated while I’ve been at the helm. It was great to see some familiar faces and to meet new people doing exciting things in New York. There were even a few alumni there who were student members of the search committee that hired me in 2007. Any regrets, we asked one another? None on my side, that’s for sure.
Actors, teachers, financiers, librarians, community organizers and county prosecutors…Wesleyan folks doing it all.
THIS IS WHY.
GOLD party in N.Y.C.GOLD party in Denver.GOLD party in Providence.
This past weekend the Trustees were on campus for our regular winter meeting. This year’s gathering was punctuated by the news that we were launching our fundraising campaign, during which we will aim to raise 400 million dollars. I made a formal announcement of this at a dinner to celebrate Wesleyan volunteers on Friday night, and I was especially excited to share the news that we had already received more than 283 million dollars in gifts and pledges toward our goal. That means we have already raised more money in this effort than in any previous campaign, and I should add that we have already put more than twice as much money into the endowment than we have ever been able to do in a comparable period in the past.
I reflected on the early days of our planning for this campaign, which took place in the spring of 2008. The US economy was trembling on the brink of disaster, and yet we were talking about an ambitious effort to raise hundreds of millions of dollars. I was a brand new president, and I have to admit that I was filled with trepidation. I’ll always remember that John Usdan ’80, P’15, now our campaign chair, leaned over to me and said with a smile that it was just the perfect time to plan to raise money. When the economy began to improve again, he assured me, we would be in the perfect position!
John Usdan ’80, P’15, Campaign Chair
We have three priorities in our fundraising efforts. The first is financial aid. We intend to at least double the endowment dollars dedicated to scholarships, raising more than $200 million for financial aid. The second is support for academic programs, with $140 million dedicated to support teaching and research. The third goal will increase the impact of our work beyond the campus, with $60 million to support student efforts to translate what they’ve learned at Wesleyan into engagement with the world. You can read more about these goals and make a gift HERE.
It was fitting that we made this announcement in front of a group of university volunteers. Megan Norris ’83, P’17, who has served this university so well as a trustee and now heads the Alumni Association, joined Board Chair Joshua Boger ’73, P’06, P’09 in speaking about the powerful role that graduates can play in raising more money for financial aid.
Megan Norris ’83, P’17 Addressing the CrowdJoshua Boger ’73, P’06, P’09 at the Podium
The evening was punctuated by dances from the Wes Precision Dance Troupe. They even got some of senior staff up on the floor to celebrate.
During the next few years the administration is not going to tell you why we think you should support Wesleyan, but we are going to ask you why you think Wes is a cause worth fighting for. You’ll tell us about opportunities that opened up for you, about friendships that have changed your lives, about teaching that has changed the way you see the world…about why we must continue to work so that Wesleyan can live up to its promise to deliver the best in progressive liberal arts education. We will record your stories and create an archive of your photos. And when you tell us why you support Wesleyan, we will agree: THIS IS WHY.
I’m writing this from Los Angeles, where last night we gathered with more than 200 Wesleyans to celebrate film studies. Each year Rick Nicita ‘67 hosts this great party on President’s Day at the spectacular offices of the Creative Artists Agency. We had much to celebrate this year. I announced that Wesleyan was creating the College of Film and the Moving Image. The college integrates the Film Studies Department, the Cinema Archives, the Center for Film Studies, and the Wesleyan Film Series in ways that will allow Wesleyan to accelerate the success of an already dynamic, high-impact program.
Mike Fries ’85 was at the event to announce his gift to the endowment to honor his father, television producer Chuck Fries. These funds (with help from the National Endowment for the Humanities) have allowed us to hire Andrea McCarty for a new curatorial position at the Cinema Archives. Chuck and his wife Ava joined Corwin-Fuller Professor of Film Studies, founder and curator of the Wesleyan Cinema Archives, Jeanine Basinger, Rick, Mike and me in marking this occasion.
Jeanine arrived at the events after a hard day of book signing. Her I Do and I Don’t: A History of Marriage in the Movies is selling like hotcakes and receiving rave reviews. We met up with Joss Whedon, the 2013 commencement speaker, to take a THIS IS WHYphoto.
This year is particularly exciting for the Wes Film Empire, with Beasts of the Southern Wild nominated for the Best Picture Oscar (among others). At the reception I met up with some of the producers of the film, and we had a vigorous conversation about recent changes to our financial aid programs. (I also dropped to my knees to pay homage to their extraordinary movie.)
Hey, it’s Wesleyan. We aren’t supposed to agree on everything. But we did agree that raising more money for financial aid should be an institutional priority, and that’s what the fundraising campaign is all about.
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!
In preparing my syllabus for a seminar on photography and philosophy, I’ve been thinking about how the arts and the other academic programs intersect at Wesleyan. The recent lectures and concerts of Music and Public Life were a great example of such intersections. And in general, I’m just so impressed by the variety and quality of creative work on campus. Here’s just a sampling as we begin the week before the Thanksgiving break.
Tomorrow, Monday November 12, English Prof. Lisa Cohen will be giving a talk at the Center for Humanities entitled “Minerals Alone Escape It: Mourning Time.” She will read “from work in progress, a multi-genre project about the temporalities of friendship, illness, grief, and activism in the context of the AIDS crisis. A book in three parts and three genres, it also dramatizes three different historical moments, their echoes and discontinuities.” Lisa’s recent and very successful book, All We Know, also has three parts — delicate, incisive biographies of Esther Murphy, Mercedes de Acosta and Madge Garland. Lisa brings art and research together in stunning ways.
Speaking of bringing art and research together, I am very much looking forward to Rinde Eckert‘s play “The Last Days of Old Wild Boy,” which presents a man who, having been raised by wolves, has “risen” to heights of culture and success. But he wants to go back to the wildnerness of his early years… What does it mean to go back to one’s animality, to one’s wild youth? Rinde is a musician, composer, playwright and (by all accounts) an extraordinary artist. This play has been commissioned by the Center for the Arts and has benefited from the involvement of students and faculty. Performances from Thursday-Saturday.
Tomorrow (Monday) night Benh Zeitlin ’04 Michael Gottwald ’06, and Dan Janvey ’06 of Beasts of the Southern Wild will be at the Goldsmith Family Cinema at the Center for Film Studies at 8 pm to talk about about their extraordinary movie. Check out the exhibition about the film in the Rick Nicita Gallery there.
And on Wednesday, New York Times jazz and pop music critic Ben Ratliff will be talking in the Daltry Room (Rehearsal Hall 003) at the CFA.
Let’s not forget the drawing workshop, a great place for those who want to develop their figure drawing practice. Students gather every Monday, 4:30-6pm in Art Workshops 105.
The arts…intersecting with almost everything we do at Wesleyan.
Over the last 10 days I’ve traveled to Houston, Dallas and Chicago, with teaching and storm preparation on campus in between trips. The travels are opportunities to discuss with parents and alumni what’s been happening on campus, and to continue raising money for our highest priority, financial aid. It’s been good to meet members of the extended Wes family while also reconnecting with old friends. Their generosity and affection for Wesleyan is inspiring.
Among the most inspirational alumni and dearest friends to Wesleyan was John Woodhouse, who passed away earlier this week. John was a member of the class of ’53, a parent ‘79, and a trustee emeritus of Wesleyan.
Two true Cardinals
John served as a member of the Board of Trustees from 1976 through 1979 and again from 1980 through 1992. After retiring from the Board, John chaired the Wesleyan Campaign from 1997 through 2005, meeting with countless alumni all over the world to seek support for Wesleyan. Following the Wesleyan Campaign, John was an active member of the Development Committee (2005-2008) and, most recently, the current Campaign Council (2008-present). In recognition of his loyal service to Wesleyan, John was honored with the Baldwin Medal in 2005. He received the Distinguished Alumnus Award in 1993 during his 40th Reunion and he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Wesleyan in 1997. He will be deeply missed by his family and friends, and all of us fortunate enough to have worked with him.
Over the last few days I’ve been hearing from Wesleyan friends who are still dealing with the aftermath of super storm Sandy. While things on campus have returned to normal, we realize that for many the hardships caused by the storm are very far from over. Our hearts go out to all those who suffered devastating losses, and we look with admiration on the work being done to restore normalcy in these challenging times.
Students are winding up midterms, writing papers and preparing for performances. The semester has been growing more intense, and that’s why it’s good to have a moment to catch one’s breath during Fall Break. It’s just a couple of days tacked onto this weekend, but for professors and their students it offers a happy holiday before the pressures of the second half of the term kick in.
Lots of folks, though, don’t get much of a break at all. Tennis, cross-country, volleyball and football will all be busy competing. The gridiron crew heads back to Maine after earning a tough victory there last week. Sebastian Aguirre ’14 earned special team player of the week honors for kicking the winning field goal with less than a minute to play. Coach Whalen’s boys are undefeated going into the fourth week of the season, something we haven’t seen around here for many a year. Wes plays Bates this weekend, and they promise to be a challenging opponent.
Here on campus, Dean of the Arts and Humanities Andrew Curran is welcoming more than 100 18th century scholars for a conference that focuses on the Enlightenment. I understand they kicked things off with a plenary talk on the banjo! There are many people on campus getting ready for the Navaratri festival, which gets underway on Wed, October 16. That will lead us right into Homecoming Family Weekend!
I’ll be spending time meeting with alumni and parents, raising money for scholarships and the curriculum. Some of those meetings will be with Jeanine Basinger, recently singled out in Variety’s “Women’s Impact Report” as one of only two academics for her work at “helping turn [Wesleyan’s] film program into one of the best in the nation, as well as developing some of the industry’s most powerful talent, with protégés like Joss Whedon ’87, Paul Weitz ’88 and Alex Kurtzman ’95.” I’m star struck!
The extended Wesleyan family loves hearing news from campus. I hope to be able to return with some news (and support) from them!
Thanks to the suggestion of some parents, over the weekend I’ve been checking out the wonderful Wesleyan student website, Swerved.org. It’s a great collection of creative work in a variety of media. As I explored photography and video and listened to cuts on the “Sound” section, my admiration for our students’ work grew with each click.
We’re now in the final days of the semester, so I’d like to wish all our students the best of luck with finals! I’m looking forward to a fabulous Commencement/Reunion Weekend, as we honor the class of 2012 along with Senator Michael Bennet ’87, Planned Parenthood head Cecile Richards ‘P13, and artist Glenn Ligon ’82. We’ll also be honoring President Douglas Bennet ’59, P’87, P’94 and his family by re-naming Fauver Frosh Bennet Hall.
I have an extra graduation ceremony to attend this year. I’m proud to be receiving an honorary doctorate from Eastern Connecticut State University this week. I give the Commencement Address tomorrow in Hartford for our state’s public liberal arts university.
Kari and I hope to spend lots of time during the next few months in the Berkshires (where I am supposed to make progress on a book project). Recently, I sat down with the head of our local NPR affiliate for an interview about Wesleyan, Freud, memory and history…
