Wesleyan University

Dynamic Pluralism in Chaotic Times

by

This morning I sent the following message to the campus community.

Dear friends,

It is so good to be back on campus with colleagues and students. I’ve met with my class a couple of times, and I still get a thrill teaching in the new Frank Center for Public Affairs. Early in the morning, Kari, Lola, and I see athletes heading to practice before dawn; there are art openings in the afternoon; and I’m told the libraries are abuzz late into the night. Wes is alive and well.

Yet looking around the world, we recognize these are anxious times. And sad times, too. Wednesday night’s plane accident in Washington, D.C., reminds us how suddenly an experience we take for granted can become a tragedy. In the chaos of this past week many of us have realized how much we, and our institutions, took for granted our dependence on the government. From Pell Grants and student loans to research support and so much more, universities across the country have relied on governmental support while maintaining their autonomy to teach and learn as they see fit. Freedom of expression—with respect to artistic practice or scholarly research—has long been compatible with government support. This has been good for the country, for our students and teachers—and for the wider world of learning.

Internationalization has also been good for learning. Each year Wesleyan welcomes hundreds of students from around the world, along with dozens of teachers, researchers, and artists. These visitors, along with immigrants to the United States, make an enormous contribution for which we are grateful.

If we hadn’t fully realized it before, we surely now recognize that elections have consequences. But that doesn’t mean that we should be silent in the face of intimidation, scapegoating, and violations of the rule of law. As I’ve said in the past, the University will do everything it can to protect the most vulnerable among us. We remain committed to principles of non-discrimination, including equal protection, regardless of gender, national origin, or citizenship. I am appalled by the attacks on trans people and immigrants. Defending the most vulnerable among us is a duty.

Our university has for decades worked to enhance the educational power of diversity, and we continue to do so. While powerful forces have demonized a caricature of DEI, we remain steadfast in our efforts to treat everyone in our community fairly while helping them feel they belong. These efforts are key to the dynamic pluralism that we seek to cultivate.

In the coming weeks and months, you may have questions about how you or how Wesleyan will be affected by changes in governmental policies. Please reach out to Human Resources or to Academic and Class Deans for help. My office stands at the ready to do what it can.

Wesleyan is almost 200 years old and has seen turbulent times before. We will navigate the current situation consistent with our mission to create “a diverse, energetic community of students, faculty, and staff who think critically and creatively and who value independence of mind and generosity of spirit.” It is so good to be in your company!

Sincerely,

Michael S. Roth
President

Welcome to the New Semester!

by


This message was sent to the Wesleyan campus community earlier this week.

Welcome back to campus! As we prepare for the spring semester, we are mindful of the challenges faced by so many—from wildfires to war. We are also cognizant of signs of hope, whether it is rebuilding neighborhoods or building peace. A commitment to education, I’ve long believed, is itself a sign of hope, a sign that together we can learn to enhance our own capacities while contributing to making the world a better place. It is with this commitment and these hopes that I welcome you back to Middletown. Have a great semester!


Giving Tuesday!!

by

Today, December 3rd, is Giving Tuesday, a chance to support organizations around the world working with those in need. The needs seem greater than ever, and whether you are supporting education, healthcare, community organizations, peace efforts, or the environment, this Tuesday after Thanksgiving is a great day to find your generosity.  Over the years, thousands of alumni, parents, students, and friends have chosen to support their alma mater on this day. By giving to Wesleyan, donors have added millions of dollars to our  Financial Aid resources. This is the power of collective action. By joining others to help those with need, we all grow stronger.

Giving Tuesday is a powerful reminder of what we can achieve through collective generosity. Annually, Wesleyan alumni, parents, students, and friends make an incredible impact on a range of priorities at Wesleyan, from financial aid and first-generation student support to student life and athletic programs. 

Whether you choose to focus your generosity on Giving Tuesday, at calendar year-end, or on Wesleyan Giving Day this upcoming February during Engagement Month, I hope you will give to your favorite and most pressing causes this year, and I hope that Wesleyan will be among them. 

Thanksgiving Break

by

The first snow of the season has fallen a couple hours north of Middletown, and as I make my way through leftovers and get ready for the last week of classes, I send best wishes to my fellow-Wesleyans, near and far. 

 

Serving pre-Thanksgiving dinner with colleagues at Usdan

On the Tuesday before Thanksgiving I sent the following message to campus:

 

 

Do you need a break? I know I am feeling it this year as we head toward Thanksgiving. I’m looking forward to taking time with family, to sharing meals, laughs, and expressing gratitude together. I am so thankful for my teachers—people who opened for me worlds of thinking, dreaming, listening, and looking. I am also thankful for my students—people who have questioned my certainties, probed my doubts, and opened themselves up to living more expansive lives, often with deeper purpose. I am thankful for my colleagues here at Wesleyan—co-workers who make our university sing. I draw on my connections to teachers, students, and colleagues for comfort and inspiration.

I also draw on some poets, like the great W.S. Merwin:

Listen
with the night falling we are saying thank you
we are stopping on the bridges to bow from the railings
we are running out of the glass rooms
with our mouths full of food to look at the sky
and say thank you
we are standing by the water thanking it

The poem turns much darker, but I’ll let you read that yourselves. It still speaks gratitude, as does the final section of the lovely Praise Song for the Day by Elizabeth Alexander:

Praise song for struggle, praise song for the day.
Praise song for every hand-lettered sign,
the figuring-it-out at kitchen tables.

Some live by love thy neighbor as thyself,
others by first do no harm or take no more
than you need. What if the mightiest word is love?

Love beyond marital, filial, national,
love that casts a widening pool of light,
love with no need to pre-empt grievance.

In today’s sharp sparkle, this winter air,
any thing can be made, any sentence begun.
On the brink, on the brim, on the cusp,

praise song for walking forward in that light.

I hope your Thanksgiving celebrations will be filled with mighty love, and that you return to campus refreshed, ready for “walking forward in that light.”  

Happy Thanksgiving!

 

Welcome Home!

by

Today marks the start of Homecoming + Family Weekend, and it should be a lovely few days. The Advancement team has planned a spectacular array of programs, from a conversation with artist Glenn Ligon ’82, Hon. ’12 this afternoon to seminars, lectures, and, of course, plenty of athletic events. We have a constellation of special events for our Latine families and alumni, and we are grateful for all the work of our volunteers and staff who put this together. 

Our athletes are pumped! Not only is the football team playing for the Little Three Championship (and more) at Corwin Stadium on Saturday afternoon, but the women’s soccer team looks to continue its unbeaten streak when they meet Conn College on Jackson Field at noon. Field Hockey, too, will be showing off its new field as it hosts the beginning of the NESCAC Championship for the first time since 2005. 

Theater, music, art, and so much more awaits you on campus. Welcome home!!

 

Follow the rainbows!

The Semester Begins!

by

This morning the following message went out to the campus community. Written a few days ago, it arrives in boxes amidst more tragic news from Gaza and intense uncertainty here at home. What can we do in such times? We can commit to education — to learning from one another, from traditions that inform our lives and through modes of inquiry that will shape our futures.  I am so happy that tomorrow we will begin classes, and I am thrilled to be meeting my new Virtue and Vice students for the first time. Across this beautiful campus and beyond, we will learn together.

Dear friends,

To the Class of 2028 and our newest transfer students—welcome! I hope by now you have settled into your dorms, begun to make connections, and are feeling ready for the journey ahead. To our returning students, faculty, and staff—including those who have worked tirelessly this summer to prepare for the fall semester—welcome back!

We are starting the 2024-25 academic year at a time that feels immensely consequential. With America in the throes of a heated presidential election and global conflict at dangerous levels, there is much to be concerned about—and much to attend to. At Wesleyan, we believe that our work should be committed to both the good of the individual and the good of the world. Here we seek to empower individuals through a pragmatic liberal education that also cultivates our ability to attend to one another, understand broadly diverse perspectives, and engage with the issues in positive ways. To do this, we foster an environment that supports free inquiry and expression and that is “safe enough,” encouraging passionate debate free of intimidation or harassment.

We are excited by the arrival of Khalilah L. Brown-Dean as the Rob Rosenthal Professor of Civic Engagement and the Executive Director of the Allbritton Center for the Study of Public Life. Dr. Brown-Dean has already developed some stirring initiatives to encourage students to take action at this important moment for American democracy, which you can read more about in a recent post. I hope you will find meaningful ways to engage with Dr. Brown-Dean and her team’s work in the months ahead as well as our broader programming through the Democracy 2024 initiative. Remember that National Voter Registration Day is Sept 17!

At the Center for the Arts, we can look forward to inspiring programming from this year’s CFA Artist-in-Residence Anna Deavere Smith and a new music theater work by Sunny Jain  that looks to performance’s power to assemble community across diaspora. The new Pruzan Art Center will soon feature an exhibit from the Davison Art Collection featuring works by Glenn Ligon ’82, Hon. ’12 and Jasper Johns. At the Shapiro Center for Creative Writing and Criticism, Merve Emre’s speaker series, “The Art of Editing,” will welcome to campus the likes of Emily Greenhouse ’08 (New York Review of Books), Radhika Jones (Vanity Fair), and Kaitlyn Greenidge (Harper’s Bazaar), among other important figures.

And make sure to catch some athletics action this season—perhaps a field hockey game on our brand new blue AstroTurf field. You may have seen a similar one this summer at the Paris Olympics. Or catch the night game that opens our home football season on September 21. Our athletes do us proud!

Given the times, this will likely turn out to be a political semester as Wesleyans engage with important local, national, and global issues. We will not protect individuals from opinions they don’t like, but we will protect each and every person from harassment and intimidation. There will surely be protests, but we will not allow these to disrupt the educational mission of the University. That mission includes cultivating attentiveness and care for one another across our many differences. We shouldn’t just expect agreement, but at Wesleyan we trust that disagreement can lead to learning.

I look forward to the exciting semester ahead.

Sincerely,

Michael S. Roth
President

Colin G. Campbell

by

Yesterday I shared the following message with the Wesleyan community.

Dear Friends,

I am saddened to report the death of President Emeritus Colin G. Campbell, MA ’71, Hon. ’89 on Friday at the age of 88.

Colin guided Wesleyan through an exceedingly challenging time with great skill and fortitude. When he became president in 1970 at the age of 34, Wesleyan was adapting to profound social changes at the very moment when financial instability threatened to jeopardize the University’s future. He had the unenviable task of managing retrenchment in order to align Wesleyan’s high aspirations with constrained resources, all the while keeping vocal constituencies in productive dialogue. His ability to manage this daunting task while eliciting universal respect was nothing short of remarkable.

Colin believed deeply that the only way to reach a sound decision was through a sound process in which all parties had an opportunity to participate and be heard. He exuded civility and mostly, though not always, received it. His patience for process, for digging down to the nugget of a hard problem, was legendary. He dealt with campus controversies, such as divestment from U.S. firms in South Africa, by insisting that students immerse themselves in issues and learn from them. He rarely showed impatience, and if he needed relief from the demands of a turbulent campus, he found it on the water at his beloved Black Point home on the Connecticut shore.

A full list of Colin’s accomplishments during the 18 years of his presidency would be lengthy indeed. He oversaw Wesleyan’s transition to a fully co-educational campus while the University also sought to be more open and welcoming to students of color, a task that began a decades-long effort to address the persistence of racism in higher education. He worked with the faculty to bring more coherence to the curriculum, led Wesleyan’s first successful capital campaign, and oversaw numerous improvements to the physical campus, ranging from the opening of the Center for the Arts to the expansion of Olin Library.

He had a prodigious memory for the names of people, their children, and their concerns. His personal warmth, his rapport with students, and his devotion to Wesleyan were evident in all he did. He and his gracious wife, Nancy, were a welcoming presence at innumerable campus and alumni events. Wesleyan honored them with the Colin Goetze Campbell and Nancy Nash Campbell Reference Center overlooking Andrus Field and the Colin and Nancy Campbell Chair for Global Issues and Democratic Thought. The couple was instrumental in preserving Wesleyan’s history even as they steered the University into the future.

Colin was my Wesleyan president. I shook his hand when I crossed Denison Terrace in 1978, and he was among the first to call me with congratulations when I was appointed president in 2007. For his many contributions to Wesleyan’s growth as a leading liberal arts institution, we acknowledge his passing with gratitude, admiration, and deep respect. May his memory be a blessing.

He is survived by Nancy, chair emerita of the National Trust for Historic Preservation; four children, Betsy Campbell, Jennifer Celata, Colin M. Campbell, and Blair Campbell; as well as son- and daughters-in-law Robert Celata and Liz Campbell; and eight grandchildren.

A service will be held at Bruton Parish Church in Williamsburg, Virginia, at 2 p.m. on Monday, July 8, 2024. In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut, and Hospice of the Lowcountry in Bluffton, South Carolina.

Michael S. Roth
President

Wesleyan Ends Encampment

by

This afternoon (May 18th) I sent the following message to the Wesleyan community. Over the weeks and months to come, I look forward to working with students, faculty, alumni and staff to help our university continue to be a force for positive contributions to the public sphere. THE WORLD NEEDS MORE WESLEYAN!

But now, we will be preparing for Reunion and to celebrate the class of 2024 at Commencement!

Dear friends,

Over the course of the past three weeks, the Administration has been in meaningful engagement with the group of pro-Palestinian protesters on campus. Our conversations have been rooted in a shared affection for Wesleyan and a desire that the institution be aligned as fully as possible with its community’s values. Provost Nicole Stanton and Dean Mike Whaley have now successfully concluded their discussions with representatives of the group of protesting students and their faculty monitors.

In these meetings, the University explained that as of December 31, 2023, 1.7% of Wesleyan’s endowment was invested in companies categorized as Aerospace and Defense businesses. None are directly involved in the manufacturing of weapons. As of the same date, 0.4% of the endowment is invested in companies in Israel, all of which are software companies. The protesters did not ask for information about investments in any other countries, but we can say that Wesleyan’s endowment is not invested in any companies listed by the protesters.

Later this month representatives from the pro-Palestinian protest will meet members of the Investment Committee. In the fall, the Committee for Investor Responsibility (CIR)—a standing representative body of students, faculty, alumni, and staff—will be able to propose changes to the Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) framework for investment/divestment for consideration by the Board at its fall meeting.

Agreement Ending Wesleyan’s Encampment

The protesters have agreed to clear their camp by Monday morning. No students will face disciplinary sanctions for being in the encampment, but after the camp is cleared normal university regulations will be enforced. The protesters agreed not to disrupt Reunion and Commencement events. Individuals who refuse to comply will be suspended and face legal action.

It is always important that we maintain a safe enough environment on campus for people who disagree with one another and who embrace opportunities to learn from people with various points of view. Yes, protests are demanding for all constituencies of a university. At their best, they help turn our attention to issues that really matter. I am hopeful that soon we can re-direct our collective efforts to urging our lawmakers, both here in Connecticut and in Washington DC, to do everything in their power to create a resolution in Israel and Gaza that will result in the return of the hostages, an end to the fighting, and a commitment to a process that will recognize the rights of all parties. More generally, I have hopes that the political energies recently displayed by our students will play a positive role in addressing the momentous questions before this country in the coming elections.

Sincerely,

Michael S. Roth
President

On protests, encampments, freedom of expression

by

I’ve been writing about the situation in Israel and Gaza since October 7th when I posted a blog entry here. More recently, I have called for a humanitarian cease fire, considered issues of academic freedom, and thought about the relevance of Passover to these events.

Yesterday, I sent the following message to the Wesleyan community about protests on campus. I reproduce it here:

Dear friends,

This morning you can find pro-Palestinian protesters camped out behind North College. The students there know that they are in violation of university rules and seem willing to accept the consequences. The protest has been non-violent and has not disrupted normal campus operations. As long as it continues in this way, the University will not attempt to clear the encampment. The University will not tolerate intimidation or harassment of students, staff, or faculty. Protesters assure us that they have no intention of engaging in these kinds of actions. We will continue to monitor the situation to keep everyone safe and will send updates as necessary.

There will be many on campus who cheer on the protesters, and many who are offended or even frightened by their rallies and messages. But as long as we all reject violence, we have opportunities to listen and to learn from one another. This may not happen during the chanting and drumming, but it can happen during some of the planned discussion sessions and deep conversations that will take place throughout the week.

This is a challenging time in world affairs and in the lives of many—including college students—concerned about their own relation to the brutal war in the Middle East. May we at Wesleyan find ways to learn from this difficult moment—determining what it is we can do to serve the goal of a sustainable peace—even as we finish out this academic year.

With hope,

Michael S. Roth

Thanksgiving Wishes

by

Yesterday I sent the following message to the campus community:

Dear friends,

As we prepare for Thanksgiving, we remind ourselves of all the things for which we are grateful. This is a time of year for connection, gratitude, and compassion—all much needed in these days of brutal conflict.

I believe more than ever that it is through openness to learning that we can find common ground. On many campuses, instead of searching for connection, people seem to be honing hate and gleeful intimidation. This will not happen at Wesleyan. Instead, we will learn together, acknowledging our differences. Whether this be through the study of a classic text, current events, or historical context, we will expand, not narrow, our understanding and our sympathies. Our faculty and staff are stepping up to offer guidance. We strive to find ways to comfort one another, to learn with one another, to generate hope for peace in a time of brutal war. I can’t think of a better place to be right now than here at Wesleyan.

I wish you all a peaceful holiday with family or friends. And I look forward to seeing you back on campus as we prepare to end the semester with boldness, rigor, and practical idealism.

Warm regards,

Michael Roth