President Michael Roth spoke to the Wesleyan Student Assembly (WSA) on Sunday night about his vision for the University’s future, as well as issues discussed during September’s Board of Trustees retreat.

Roth described plans for promoting the University beyond New England and abroad, encouraging an interdisciplinary “project learning” curriculum, increasing access for students from high-need socioeconomic backgrounds, and funding building projects, specifically the new science center.

Roth emphasized the need to “spread the word” about what makes the University distinctive and in what areas it excels as an institution.

“Most people have never heard of Wesleyan,” he said. “Most people can’t get into Wesleyan.”

As part of an ongoing plan to increase geographic diversity in the student body, Roth spoke about creating a more coherent communications strategy, particularly by having Admissions work more closely with media centers in the Midwest, Southeast and Southwest

“We need to make sure we have a message we’re delivering to the world…celebrating our values of freedom, innovation and high standards,” Roth said. “Impressions of Wesleyan don’t cohere into a picture of actual student life at Wesleyan. Some of my peers from the 70’s are worried about the image. Is it distorted? Is it too wacky? We should take the best accomplishments of students and faculty and shine the light on them.”

Roth also mentioned the University’s interest in international recruitment, especially the possibilities for spreading awareness of Wesleyan in the Middle East, where there is less of a history of liberal arts institutions.

Praising the University’s “sense of adventure,” Roth cited former Wesleyan President Victor Butterfield as an example of creating ground-breaking interdisciplinary academic programs. Under Butterfield’s tenure, both the innovative College of Letters and the College of Social Studies were founded.

“What are the new curricular initiatives that are like that?” Roth asked. “I’m looking at project learning: students working on a project that exists as a problem off-campus.”

Roth sees accessibility to higher education, and to Wesleyan in particular, as one such problem that all liberal arts colleges face. With an endowment at around $710 million, the University will continue to use low-interest student loans as part of its financial aid packages. Roth cited the University’s endowment (which is lower in comparison to other institutions that have eliminated loan-based aid, such as Amherst and Williams) as the preventative factor in completely phasing out loans in financial aid packages, although he does see eliminating loans as a viable goal.

“We can’t eliminate loans but we can reduce student indebtedness,” Roth said. “How can we pay for that in the context of the budget? I’d like to increase money for financial aid, but we’re not going as quickly as I’d like. I think access to Wesleyan is the most crucial issue for the next 10 years.”

Roth also hopes to vastly increase the endowment.

“In the long term, I’d like to see the endowment doubled,” he said, adding that he would know how long that would take in six to eight months.

Besides a commitment to providing competitive, need-blind financial aid packages, the $160 million cost of the new Molecular and Life Sciences Building is another challenge for the University’s finances.

“We could delay the start date in order to have more time to fund-raise, but for every year that we delay the start date, the cost of the building goes up by $7 million,” read a WSA report on September’s Board of Trustees Retreat, distributed at the meeting.

The WSA report also stated that Wesleyan just concluded its best fundraising year to date, raising $36.2 million for the Wesleyan Fund, the most in the University’s history. This information, as well as other details regarding the University’s endowment, was discussed at September’s Board of Trustees retreat.

“The Board retreat was a time to educate me on how the board works,” Roth said.

In between discussing Wesleyan’s future, the meeting also included lighter moments.

“When are the training wheels going to come off?” WSA President Matt Ball asked during a question-and-answer session.

“Ouch,” Roth joked, pausing, prompting an apology from Ball.

“I don’t think there are training wheels,” the president added. “I’m sorry if I gave you that impression.”