Once constructed and installed on Long Lane Farm, the chicken coop will be able to hold 20 chickens. These potential chickens will then lay eggs that Bon Appétit will be able to serve at Usdan. Far from your stereotypical mini-shack, the coop has been specially designed to give the chickens outdoor mobility and maximum comfort.

North Studio, which houses Wesleyan’s Architecture program, has won multiple American Institute of Architects awards and had previous years’ projects appear in a variety of architecture magazines. Huge explained that the main project of the University’s Architecture II class is to contract, conceive, and build a large-scale building and/or landscape project.

“Typically, we do one of these projects with a local government agency or nonprofit every year,” Huge said. “This is the second time we’ve ever worked with the University…we’ve worked with the Audubon Society, we’ve worked with Connecticut Forest and Parks.”

Architecture II has been tailoring the coop since the beginning of the semester to fit Long Lane Farm’s needs. From the beginning, a degree of mobility for the coop was a high priority so that the chickens would be able to move around the farm. Therefore, in the first several months of the semester, the class split into three groups that each designed coops based on varying levels of movement: one for weekly movement, one for seasonal movement, and a stationary model that was ultimately chosen for practical reasons. Kelly Lee ’14 explained the different options.

“Weekly movement was basically a bunch of little module boxes that you stack together, move together,” Lee said. “The second option, seasonal movement, was a big coop that was a cylinder that you would physically roll every couple months. The fixed coop, which is the one that was chosen, is this S-shaped polycarbonate wall, which is this plastic material used in greenhouses…In one curve, there’s the coop, in the other curve, there’s the chicken range, and [the structure allows for] movement in between.”

Huge described this design as bringing together the two main locations of a chicken’s life.

“One of the things that the studio had really worked hard to do is to integrate the coop itself and the run,” Huge said. “Chickens need both a place to reach their nest and feel protected, and a place to run around during the day…We [conceived] the coop and the run to be visually integrated, to feel like they’re part of one holistic, organic whole.”

Other features of the coop include a slanted roof to prevent accumulation of snow and debris and a door that allows farmers to feed the chickens and collect eggs from the coop without entering the structure.

Although the end of the coop’s construction is in sight, its completion was not always assured. At the beginning of the semester, the administration gave the class the go-ahead to construct a coop that would house 50 chickens. In March, the students proposed the coop to Vice President for Finance and Administration John Meerts, who went on to suggest the formation of the Long Lane Farm Advisory Committee to oversee the project’s development.

In middle of the semester, the coop ran into some roadblocks: According to several students in the class, the administration threatened to pull the class’s funding. Nick Devane ’13 stated that the issue was primarily over the coop’s sustainability and efficacy.

“There were a couple of concerns because in the past [Long Lane has] had chickens, and they’d froze to death over wintertime,” Devane said. “They were hesitant to do it because they didn’t think it would be effective, I guess.”

There were also concerns over the coop related to the morality of housing chickens. Some members of the Wesleyan community were opposed to the coop based on ethical grounds. Professor of Philosophy Lori Gruen maintained that keeping chickens on Wesleyan’s campus for food production purposes was problematic.

“I am concerned about bringing animals to campus and killing them here,” Gruen wrote in an email to The Argus. “Ending the life of another being who has her own life to live raises profound emotional, social, and ethical issues. It isn’t the construction of the coop that raises the issues, it is keeping live animals (that must be done carefully and humanely under the guidance of experts and an oversight committee) and then killing them that raise issues. My view is that the only ethically defensible way to have live chickens at Wesleyan, is if there is a clear system of responsible, knowledgeable care and oversight and that the farm should commit to allowing the hens to live out their natural lives.”

All of the current members of Architecture II maintained that they take the ethics of animal living conditions seriously and that the coop will serve the chickens’ best interests.

“They’re not for meat, obviously,” Lee said. “The issue is what you do with the chickens after they can’t lay eggs anymore, that’s really where the philosophical issue is.”

“Any industrial chicken operation is incredibly inhumane,” Devane added. “It’s not like these chickens are going to go somewhere more humane if we don’t build this chicken coop. In reality, we’re following the strictest standards for how you’re supposed to be hospitable.”

“We spent, like, two hardcore weeks in the beginning of the semester just studying the psychology of chickens,” Lee said.

“We know our chickens well, and we’re giving them the full amount in terms of even what the experts say the chicken needs in order to be comfortable,” Devane said.

After months of conceptual work, North Studio is currently in the process of constructing the actual coop at Long Lane. Whether the coop receives chickens, however, remains to be seen.

“The Long Lane Farm Advisory Committee has met and will continue to meet throughout the summer to address questions and concerns surrounding the chicken project,” Sustainability Coordinator Jen Kleindienst wrote in an email to The Argus. “If the Committee is able to come to consensus, we may recommend to John Meerts that chickens be approved.”

Despite their current uncertainty of whether or not the chickens will move into the coop, the students at North Studio are excited to have it all finally come together.

“It was a lot of fun to break ground and start putting in the foundations,” Devane said. “Particularly from Architecture I to now, you’re building all these models and it’s not materializing in an actual architectural sense, so it’s really cool to be actually building something and seeing all of those ideas materialize a little bit more.”

For those unfamiliar, taiko is a type of music incorporating a wide variety of Japanese drums. There are a couple of different kinds of drums, ranging from the smaller, one man shime-daiko, to the much larger o-daiko. Between the different sizes of drums, there is also a wide variety of set-up styles. For example, the o-daiko can be resting face down on the ground and played by a single drummer, or it can be elevated above the ground so that the musicians need to throw their entire bodies at it just to be able to reach it with enough strength.

Students in the ensemble are enrolled in the full-credit course led by Karo Watanabe, whom the students respectfully address as Sensei. The course is divided into beginner, intermediate, and advanced levels.

The Argus spoke with Francesca Moree ’14, a member of the beginner class, about her experience in learning the unique musical style.

“The more difficult songs incorporate a lot of different styles, often requiring big and dramatic flourishes,” Moree said.

These dramatic flourishes were what made the drumming show such an impressive experience. As the performances went in order from the beginner class to the advanced class, the drummers stood with a pose of intense and immutable discipline, constantly delivering total unison in their rhythms. The styles started to become more and more complex with each class, with two drummers on a single o-daiko steadily delivering intricate and impressive movements with each drum beat while also undergoing subtle, yet obviously complicated, variations to their different sequences. This form of music requires immense focus and a lot of physical exertion; at the end of each piece, in the midst of applause, each drummer took a moment to catch his or her breath.

The advanced students also played two impressive compositions created by Wesleyan students. One, composed by Atticus Swartwood ’14, combined the taiko drums with a more Western style to create an incredibly interesting and fast-paced piece. The night concluded with a piece by Eriq Robinson ’15 who performed on the fue, a Japanese flute that allowed for a very calm and peaceful complement to some of the more aggressive drumming pieces.

The journey from the first drum beats to the Friday performance was a long and arduous one, beginning with a series of auditions that evaluated not only drumming experience, but also simply general musical talent and personality. During rehearsals, a lot of students actually had to practice with drumming on garbage cans, with their Sensei occasionally remedying this situation by bringing in his own drums from Brooklyn.

However, the whole experience was obviously also an immensely gratifying one.

“I got interested in it because I wanted to try some kind of music before I graduated,” Moree said. “It’s definitely reflective of the Wesleyan experience. It looks hard, but when you start to work on it, it becomes a lot of fun.”

Ultimately, what makes this ensemble so cool is not only the impressive music it produces, but also the opportunity it offers students to try their hand at a music group, even if they weren’t previously musically inclined. Any student who desires to try out a little music and has a credit to spare should definitely consider giving this group a try next semester.

Shannon Welch/Photo Editor

The Sexual Misconduct and Assault Policy in the Student Handbook states, “Wesleyan University prohibits all forms of sexual misconduct and assault which can include but is not limited to sexual coercion, stalking, intimidation, assault, and rape. Sexual misconduct includes any sexual activity for which consent is not given.”

The 2011 Wesleyan University Uniform Campus Crime Report, compiled in compliance with the Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act, states that 17 forcible sex offenses occurred at Wesleyan from 2009 through 2011.

In recent years, the University has received a great deal of media attention for reports of sexual misconduct on its campus. Wesleyan University, like a number of other colleges, including Swarthmore College, Occidental College, and Amherst College, has been accused of mishandling cases of sexual assault.

The current lawsuit against the University, which was filed by a former Wesleyan student (“Jane Doe”) who was raped during a Halloween party at the Beta Theta Pi (Beta) fraternity house in 2010, charges the University with a violation of Title IX, a federal law that prohibits educational institutions that receive federal funding from discriminating on the basis of sex.

According to the U.S. Supreme Court, such discrimination can include acts of sexual harassment, sexual assault, and rape when a federally funded school’s response is “clearly unreasonable in light of the known circumstances.”

However, these reported statistics and high-profile cases do not fully illustrate the prevalence of sexual assault, as rape is considered one of the most underreported crimes. The reasons for this underreporting are varied and include confusion about the judicial process or belief that it may be ineffectual, fear of judgment or punishment, uncertainty about what qualifies as assault, and misplaced guilt.

The Argus conducted an investigation into the University’s handling of sexual assault—the reporting process, the judicial process, consequences for the accused, resources for survivors, and efforts at prevention.

The Argus spoke with administrators, Public Safety (PSafe), Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS) staff members, Residential Life (ResLife) employees, and current and former Wesleyan students who are survivors of sexual assault or harassment. Survivors who requested anonymity are referred to under pseudonyms.

The views of survivors represented here cannot adequately portray the range of experiences resulting from sexual misconduct on campus. However, the stories shared with The Argus indicate that certain aspects of the process do not sufficiently meet the needs of survivors and that there is more work to be done.

The Judicial Process

The first step of the judicial process is reporting. After an incident of sexual assault or harassment, survivors may choose to share their experiences with a confidential or mandatory reporter.

Some members of the Sexual Assault Response Team (SART) are not obligated to report assaults or harassment to PSafe or the students’ deans. These confidential reporters include Psychotherapist Larry Antosz, Physician Associate Sandy Frimel, Rabbi David Leipziger Teva, and Therapist and Sexual Assault Resource Coordinator Alysha Warren. Although not specifically trained to respond to sexual assaults, Davison Health Center clinicians, CAPS therapists, and clergy members are also confidential reporters.

Students can also report assaults to class deans, Residential Life (ResLife) staff members, SART Intern Rachel Verner, or professors. These people are mandatory reporters, meaning they are required to report instances of sexual assault to the Office of the Dean of Students.

In addition, or alternatively, survivors can officially report incidents to the Middletown Police Department (MPD), to PSafe, to both, or not at all. Warren is available to talk through the options with the survivor.

“We try to keep our process very survivor-centered, so it’s what that person wants to do,” Warren said. “... We also talk about [the fact that] there’s no pressure. If you don’t want to report at this moment, you don’t have to, that you can report later. So we just want to make sure that people know what all their options are.”

If a survivor of sexual assault chooses to report the assault to the MPD soon after it occurs, the survivor will first be sent or escorted to a hospital to be examined by a nurse. Clothes and, if applicable, linens that could potentially contain bodily fluids will be submitted to a state lab and inspected for evidence.

Following a visit to the hospital, the survivor will be interviewed by a detective. If the survivor feels uncomfortable speaking with a detective of a particular gender, ze can request to speak with a detective of hir preferred gender.

Police will then lead an investigation into the case. PSafe officers may be asked to help locate students or to allow MPD officers access to buildings when necessary. If evidence, facts, and witness accounts lead to the identification of the assailant, the MPD will apply for an arrest warrant through the state’s attorney. If the warrant is granted, the assailant will be arrested and the case taken to court.

If the survivor decides to address the case within the University soon after the incident, ze will be encouraged to do a rape kit. If ze decides to press charges within the University framework, PSafe completes an investigation and turns the findings over to an administrative judicial board.

The board, which is separate from the Student Judicial Board, is composed of four administrators, two male and two female, taken from a pool of between 12 and 15 members who have been trained to adjudicate cases of sexual assault.

According to Vice President for Student Affairs Rick Culliton, 17 cases have been brought before the judicial board in the past five years.

Warren stressed that the decision of whether or not to officially report and to whom is in the hands of the survivor. She also noted that, because the judicial process is specifically aimed at making rulings on cases of sexual assault, the administrators cannot address or punish other actions that could, under other circumstances, be reason for punishment, such as underage alcohol consumption.

“I think sometimes that can be a deterrent to reporting because I think people don’t always understand or don’t always know that,” she said. “But if someone is intoxicated at the time of their assault, they’re not going to have a drinking violation [if they report the assault].”

When checking in with the survivor and assessing hir safety and comfort, Warren can also discuss with the survivor any accommodations ze might need to help hir avoid coming into contact with the alleged perpetrator. If requested and possible, the University can move the perpetrator from a class or residence hall that ze shares with the survivor.

“What we’re trying to do is not to create more havoc and crisis in a survivor’s life, as they’re already going through a really tough time,” Warren said. “So the other student is the person who’s most likely to get moved.”

On a small campus, contact between the survivor and the perpetrator may still be hard to avoid. Survivor A, who wrote to The Argus under the condition of anonymity, said ze was raped by someone ze knew early in hir first year at the University. Ze also said that hir assailant tried to get in touch with hir after the incident.

“I woke up the next morning to a text saying ‘sorry if I made you uncomfortable last night,’” ze wrote in an email to The Argus. “Uncomfortable does not even begin to cover it.”

Warren noted that the perpetrator often tries to contact the survivor to explain or normalize the situation. She explained that a no-contact order, administered by the University, or a legal restraining order can be granted in order to prevent this from occurring.

However, no-contact orders may not be effective.

“The thing is, it is a small campus,” said Eve ’10, who was sexually assaulted by another student while working in Olin Library in the spring of 2010 and was granted a no-contact order. “The individual was not supposed to get within a certain number of feet of me, but before you know it, he’d be behind me at the coffee line. I would call up the administration and tell them, and they would talk to him—you know, ‘If this behavior continues...’”

If the survivor decides to pursue official judicial action, ze and the defendant each writes a statement detailing what happened and turns it in to the Office of the Dean of Students. Before the hearing, which usually takes place in North College, each person can see the other’s statement and provide more information or edit hir statement in response.

In cases involving alleged student perpetrators and student survivors, the survivor and the alleged perpetrator can each bring a process advisor and witnesses to the trial. Warren noted that this process does not include lawyers and that the process advisors are present to silently support each party, not to “represent” them. Warren often serves as a process advisor for survivors, although survivors can choose from a variety of people to sit with them during the trial. Alleged perpetrators also have many options, and class deans, professors, and advisors are often the ones asked to sit in.

At the beginning of the hearing, there is an announcement to both parties explaining the process and format of the hearing. The charges are read, and the accused pleads “responsible” or “not responsible.” Following that, the survivor’s statement is read, and then the administrators on the panel have the opportunity to ask any clarifying questions that they feel are necessary. The same process then happens for the alleged perpetrator. If either side has brought witnesses (who are typically students), witnesses have the chance to give statements and be questioned. Each party can then give a closing statement. The chair of the hearing informs the parties that they will be notified of the outcome of the hearing as soon as the board comes to a decision, which is usually within a day of the hearing.

The process often involves both the alleged perpetrator and the survivor sitting in the same room. For some students, this may be traumatic.

“One thing that really stuck in my mind was they chose possibly the smallest room,” Eve said. “It was in the administrative offices. We were placed as far apart as we could, but we were still probably no more than six feet apart. So I was surprised, on reflection, that they didn’t choose a room where you could have had more physical distance, which I think at that juncture, when you’re overcoming an incident like this, that could have made a big difference as well.”

JoAnna Bourain ’12 wrote a Wespeak titled “Wesleyan’s Great, Unless You Get Raped” discussing her experience sophomore year when she was raped on campus and went through the University reporting procedures. She had a similar experience during her hearing.

“After I was raped I had to go through this horrific trial where I sat feet away from the man who raped me,” Bourain wrote in an email to The Argus. “In front of my rapist and a room of strangers I had to ‘defend’ myself and prove my case.”

Warren explained that as the judicial process is currently structured, there are accommodations that can be made if the survivor does not want to be in the same room as the alleged perpetrator during the judicial hearing. The survivor can call in from another room or request for a partition to be put up between hir and the other person. She also noted that the survivor can request to take a break from the hearing at any time if it becomes overwhelming.

The parties leave the hearing room; their departures are usually staggered in time and they use different exits in order to avoid contact between the parties. If Warren serves as process advisor for a survivor, she then debriefs the survivor on the hearing and suggests scheduling a follow-up counseling appointment so that ze has the space to talk about the issue further.

Nico Vitti ’12 explained that he was repeatedly sexually harassed by a University professor and reported the incident to his class dean David Phillips in a written statement. As is typical in cases involving faculty or staff, Vitti was interviewed by Vice President for Institutional Partnerships and Chief Diversity Officer Sonia Mañjon and Director of Human Resources Julia Hicks as part of an investigation into the incident. Like in hearings with the administrative panel, each interview includes the reading of the survivor’s statement aloud. Vitti described the issues he had with this aspect of the procedure.

“During the interview, they started reading out loud to me from that statement and asked me questions about it, which, if you have even any basic knowledge of trauma—it’s a really bad idea,” Vitti said. “So, I asked them to stop, and they did.”

Some students expressed frustration with what they considered a convoluted judicial process.

“I think the system is designed to exhaust the person reporting to the point where they can’t advocate for themselves anymore,” Vitti said.

Based on her frustrating personal experience with the University-reporting track in 2010, Bourain advised students who are sexually assaulted to go to the MPD.

“First of all, if someone is sexually assaulted on campus do not go to Public Safety,” Bourain wrote. “You need to go to the police. You need to go to the hospital. Do not call Public Safety until you have spoken to the police. I wish someone had told me that. I had thought that going through Public Safety and through the Wesleyan channels would be easier and safer but they have no continuity and no clarity. The entire system at Wesleyan is fucked.”

Process Reform

In an attempt to address some of these concerns, a Wespeak written in May 2010 and signed by 536 members of the University community called for the creation of a full-time staff position that would focus on issues of sexual and gender violence, in addition to the existing SART intern position.

In the fall of 2010, a new Sexual Violence Task Force was convened to address concerns about sexual assault on campus. The Task Force issued a series of recommendations the following spring, which included the creation of a position within the Office of Behavior Health Services (now CAPS) that resulted in Warren’s hiring, increased sexual violence response training, and the creation of a team to consider the implementation of a Women’s/Gender Center at the Davison Health Center. Additionally, the Wesleyan Student Assembly issued a series of recommendations for the improvements of policies relating to sexual assault.

In April 2011, the University designated Mañjon the Title IX Coordinator, in accordance with a mandate by the U.S. Department of Education. Mañjon is responsible for ensuring that the University carries out its duties as they pertain to Title IX.

“In a nutshell, our responsibility is to make sure first of all that there’s education, that there’s a clearly delineated protocol in terms of if there is a sexual assault on campus, that victims know what their rights are,” Mañjon said. “We are mandated to, in a timely manner, investigate the alleged harassment or crime, contact the proper authorities if that’s needed, follow up with the victim, make sure that whatever course of action the victim might want to take, that we’re supportive of that, that we alert the community, so on and so forth.”

University President Michael Roth commented on the University’s efforts thus far and noted that there is still room for improvement, calling for input from the campus community.

“We’ve come a long way, but we know that more can, and must, be done,” Roth wrote in an email to The Argus. “I want to hear from students, faculty and staff about what they think we should do. I plan to hold a series of structured conversations in the fall, which I hope will result in concrete action steps to improve the campus climate.”

As an underclassman, Vitti was involved in activism focused on sexual violence and the administration’s response to sexual assault and harassment, including encouraging the creation of new positions in CAPS focused on sexual assault cases. Despite advances, he said that the process is still imperfect.

“It was pretty trippy to then go through the process that I had helped design and realize that it was still pretty terrible,” he said. “It was better than it had been before, so I was grateful for that. I was grateful that the director at CAPS, Dr. D’Andrea, has specialization in this and is fantastic, which didn’t exist when I was a freshman; we didn’t have anyone like that. But yeah, it’s still terrible.”

Ruling and Afterward

Judgments of alleged violations of the Code of Non-Academic Conduct are made using the standard of “fair preponderance of evidence presented.” According to Culliton, in 8 of the 17 sexual misconduct cases adjudicated in the past five years, the alleged perpetrator was found “responsible”; the remaining 9 accused were found “not responsible.”

According to the Hearing Sanctions subsection of the Judicial Procedures section in the Student Handbook, students can receive between 1 and 10 judicial points for a violation of the Code of Non-Academic Conduct. If a student receives or accumulates more than 10 points, “the board will likely recommend a separation from the university for a specified period of time.”

If a student accused of sexual assault or sexual misconduct is found “responsible” by the Judicial Board, the student receives between 5 and 10 points; the punishment can go up to suspension or expulsion. Five points is one of the highest minimum numbers with which a student can be charged for a violation, tied with “operating under the influence” and “hazing” and second only to participation in this spring’s Tour de Franzia, which will result in a minimum penalty of six judicial points.

Additionally, in the case in which a student is found “responsible” for sexual misconduct, according to the same section in the Handbook, “[t]he board may recommend restriction of individual access to specific university facilities, limitation of individual participation in specific university activities, or curtailment of privileges that are enjoyed by a student, so long as these restrictions are directly relevant to the violation.”

In Eve’s case in 2010, although some of the sanctions were eventually appealed, the accused student was first put on probation, ordered to perform 30 hours of community service, forbidden from attending Commencement celebrations and walking at graduation, and placed under a no-contact order.

For cases of sexual harassment or assault in which professors are involved, the sanction process is different. As Vitti’s graduation approached, he requested that the professor who reportedly harassed him not be allowed to attend Commencement services. After confronting then-Provost Rob Rosenthal, Vitti learned that the administration would not honor his request because the professor had provided a “special favor” to the University.

“Vice President Whaley told me that the general process for a complaint of harassment or discrimination against a professor is that a note will be put in the professor’s file but that because of tenure agreements professors are rarely fired on a first offense,” Vitti wrote in his Wesleying post. “I asked if my case was considered a first offense, even though the professor harassed me multiple times. He said he didn’t know.”

Vitti noted in his Wesleying post that the policy surrounding survivor notification of the outcome of an investigation into cases involving faculty and staff is vague. According to the Policy on Discrimination and Harassment, both parties will be notified “to the extent appropriate.” It also notes that “this process may not be appropriate in every circumstance and should be considered a flexible one that can be modified to suit the situation, with advance notice to all parties.”

In the case of student-student sexual misconduct, if the complainant or the accused is unhappy with the results of a hearing, ze may make an appeal to Roth. The Judicial Procedures section, Adjudication Procedures subjection of the Student Handbook states, “Either party will be provided an opportunity to appeal the decision of the administrative panel to the President” based on the following criteria: “violation of fair process,” “excessive or inappropriate sanction,” “new evidence that was not reasonably available at the time of the hearing,” or “procedural error.” Such appeals must be submitted to the President of the University in written form within five business days of the hearing decision. The President then decides the outcome of the appeal and may recommend a new hearing or alter the judgment of the case.

Eve reported that one of her biggest frustrations with the administration with regard to the judicial process was the appeal. In 2010, when her hearing took place, the administration was not required to notify survivors if the accused party chose to appeal. Without Eve’s knowledge, her assailant filed an appeal, which was subsequently granted. Since then, however, the policy has been changed: if one party files for an appeal, the other party is informed, and according to Culliton, both are given the opportunity to present new information.

Other survivors have been displeased with the University’s efforts to make them feel comfortable on campus as they went about their day-to-day lives post-hearing. Bourain expressed frustration with the University’s broad authority in cases involving sexual violence.

“The Wesleyan admin attempted to victimize me,” Bourain wrote. “They wanted me to shy away from public events, let him have free reign and make sure I police my movements. They told me to go to therapy. I decided to give the admin a hearty fuck you and to take care of myself. I decided to surround myself with friends who would support me and protect me. People who believed in me and would remind me that it wasn’t my fault. The administration and Public Safety can’t play god, the police, and the judicial system just because they have declared the United State of Wesleyan.”

Other students have been dissatisfied with Roth’s response to their complaints.

“When Jane Doe and her family sought redress from Wesleyan’s deliberate indifference by seeking an audience with President Roth, he added to the deliberate indifference by refusing to speak with them,” the Complaint and Jury Demand of the Doe case reads.

Describing his role post-hearing and in the appeals process, Roth noted that he makes an effort to meet with any student who requests to do so.

“I generally arrange to get together with any student who requests a meeting, regardless of the circumstances,” Roth wrote. “When either party in a sexual assault case appeals a ruling from the judicial board, I am the one who reviews the written appeal and issues a decision. At the appropriate time during the process, or afterwards if the student so desires, I have met with those who have made allegations or been accused of wrongdoing. I will continue to do so in the future.”

Eve reported that it was difficult to set up a meeting with Roth, both immediately after the incident and when she wanted to talk to him about the appeal.

“[Initially,] President Roth refused to meet with me, even immediately after,” Eve said. “And I started pushing. It wasn’t until I went to the head of the faculty, and I told them my story. And I started telling professors I was close to what had happened and how this wasn’t fair [that] nobody would talk to me. And that was so incredibly frustrating. It took me weeks to get a meeting with President Roth, and even when I finally did get a meeting one-on-one, he was just very condescending, very clearly wasn’t going to change his opinion—he certainly never gave me a straight answer.”

Although Roth eventually met with Eve, he didn’t meet with her parents when they were on campus for her graduation.

“And then the other thing with Roth that was particularly frustrating is that my parents tried a number of times to get in contact, calling, sending letters, and they asked if they could speak to him for like five minutes during graduation weekend—they were here for like four or five days,” she said. “And President Roth could not spare five minutes for my parents. I would have hoped that he could have squeezed in some time during that whole weekend.”

Beyond emotional ramifications, a number of the survivors interviewed found that their academic and professional careers were negatively affected as a result of their assaults or harassments and the subsequent judicial process. Bourain, Vitti, and Doe all withdrew from classes; Doe went on medical leave.

Given the small size of the University, survivors frequently can be faced with reminders of their hearings.

“I never felt comfortable at Wesleyan again,” Bourain wrote. “I used to see the people who sat through my rape ‘trial’ (I don’t even know what it is actually called) at places around campus.”

Support

Regardless of whether or not a student chooses to report a sexual assault, ze can take advantage of the numerous resources and support groups that exist on campus for survivors. Warren explained that while no student is forced to attend therapy sessions, therapy is available to all students, and survivors are encouraged to seek counseling through CAPS to aid with the recovery process.

Since Warren was hired by the University in the fall of 2011, she has begun several peer support groups for survivors. Warren explained that, due to the importance of establishing and maintaining trust among members, all survivor support groups are closed.

“What happens over the course of the group is they really build a lot of trust,” Warren said. “That can be hard to build and can be disrupted if you’re constantly having people coming in and out of the group.”

The first support group, established by Warren in the fall of 2011, was composed of four females.

“It was really an opportunity for people to come together and connect and to heal in connection with other people,” Warren said.

In a typical meeting, Warren opens a support group by giving survivors a few minutes to transition from their daily activities to a space in which they feel comfortable discussing painful memories.

Warren checks in with each member to see how ze is doing and whether there is a particular topic ze would like to discuss. Warren then opens the group up to conversation. She explained that the topic of conversation on any particular night depends entirely on whatever is of most concern for survivors and that it may not necessarily revolve around sexual assault.

“It might be triggers that they’re experiencing,” Warren said. “It might just be stress that they’re experiencing through school. It’s really just whatever comes up.”

Warren stated that her role in the discussions is to add psychoeducational context.

“If I hear common myths, or if I hear self-blame or things like that, I’ll interject and point that out and share information,” she said.

Warren also distributes literature that she feels might be helpful and pertinent to the evening’s conversation. The group concludes with a check-out.

In addition to the first support group, Warren established several other groups, including an eight-week-long Experiences of Healing group.

“Each week, we talked about a different element of the healing process,” she explained. “We usually explore that through art. Sometimes it’s discussion. Sometimes we’ve done some movement. We’ll do that for about half an hour, and then the group opens up into a regular, open support group format.”

This semester, Warren, along with a trauma-assistive yoga teacher, began a group called “Befriending the Body: Yoga as Healing.” Between two and four survivors attend each yoga session.

“We’re really looking at recognizing the connection between trauma and the body and how, especially for sexual assault people’s bodies are where things all happened,” Warren explained. “It’s the scene of the crime in a lot of ways. It can be very difficult for people to reconnect to their bodies.”

An all-male survivor support group, begun this semester by Warren and led by Information Technology Senior Database Administrator Stephen Windsor, implements the same model used in female support groups. This semester, the group has five members. Warren explained that male survivors represent a group that is often overlooked in dialogue on sexual assault and mentioned that the creation of a gender-neutral group is being considered for next semester.

In addition to these closed groups, Warren has held several one-time workshops and meetings open to all survivors. An art workshop, held on April 27, gave survivors a space to paint, draw, and collage. Warren also organized “Mindfulness and Movement,” a retreat for survivors.

For some survivors, these channels for discussion on sexual assault aided in the healing process.

“I went to one meeting/open discussion about sexual assault and it definitely helped me recover,” Survivor A wrote. “It provided an outlet for my feelings, confusion and self-blame, and I left with a sense of support and solidarity.”

Prevention and Training

Though the University has increased its resources for survivors through CAPS, administrators also hope to improve the campus climate surrounding sexual assault. In Mañjon’s view, decreasing sexual violence will involve combating high-risk drinking.

“When you look at the sexual harassment, violence, assault that takes place, it’s more [likely] than not...always connected to overdrinking,” she said. “I think that we really need to do a better job in curtailing the drinking.”

Roth echoed Mañjon’s sentiment.

“We have to do more, and I really want to hear from students what they think that more should be,” Roth said. “I’ve never had a report of sexual violence that didn’t include alcohol or drugs, so what does one take away from that? In fact that’s an interesting question for students. It doesn’t mean that everybody who drinks commits sexual violence, but there is a pattern there that’s very disturbing. [There are also the questions of] how to raise awareness about sexual violence among men and women, that no means no, simple as that, and also for women how to protect themselves.”

However, not everyone believes that the connection between alcohol use and sexual violence is so clear-cut. According to a September 2012 Argus article titled, “Important Sexual Assault Resources on Campus,” Warren “challenged the notion that alcohol made people more susceptible to rape by explaining that such an idea allows people to distance themselves from sexual violence.”

“I think that alcohol and sexual assault are linked, but not in the traditional way that people think,” Warren explained in the article. “They’re linked in the way that alcohol is often used as a weapon. So when sexual assault happens, [it’s] not that someone was drinking excessively but that someone targeted someone that was drinking excessively.... I think it’s really important to change that dialogue. We’re looking at the offender’s actions, as opposed to the person who is the potential victim...because the offender is making the decision. Like ‘this is someone who is in a vulnerable position and I’m going to exploit that vulnerability.’”

In addition to addressing excessive alcohol use on campus, Mañjon explained that a large part of her role as Title IX coordinator is educating the community in an effort to combat sexual violence.

“[The University] is interpreting [its responsibility as] doing all that we can do to make sure that we have a safe campus, that people have the type of education and information that they need,” she said.

The University’s efforts include training for certain members of the campus community. Among those who receive training are faculty, PSafe officers, and ResLife staff.

According to the University Handbook of Policies and Procedures for Administrative Staff, Connecticut law states that “all faculty and staff members who have supervisory responsibilities are required to attend a sexual harassment prevention training program within six months of their assumption of those responsibilities. This training should include guidance regarding the investigation of sexual harassment complaints.”

According to Director of PSafe David Meyer, all PSafe officers are required to periodically participate in training on a variety of topics, including sexual assault. Although these training sessions do not occur with any official regularity, Meyer estimated that they happen roughly annually. The most recent, led by Warren, took place over spring break.

“There’s no set schedule per se, but we try to be inclusive with these things,” Meyer explained.

According to the 2012 Campus Report Card published by Connecticut Sexual Assault Crisis Services, which tracks the policies that Connecticut universities have in place to handle and prevent sexual assault, Wesleyan University does not require sexual assault training for all members of Greek life, athletes, or coaches.

ResLife staff members receive twice-annual training in August and January, which includes information on how Residential Advisors (RAs) should help residents who come to them and report being sexually assaulted. According to Associate Director of ResLife Maureen Isleib, Alysha Warren led training that followed a bystander-intervention model. New staff members also participate in an emergency procedures workshop and have the opportunity to practice what they learn in simulated situations.

Head Resident James Gardner ’13 reported that, when these cases arise, RAs first make sure the resident who approaches them knows that RAs are mandatory reporters. The RA will make sure the resident feels safe and comfortable and knows the options ze has for reporting the incident if ze chooses to do so and that ze is aware of the logistics of doing a rape kit.

The RA will then file a communication report that goes to hir own Area Coordinator or the Area Coordinator on duty.

Gardner said he feels that, ultimately, ResLife staff members are well equipped to deal with cases of sexual assault when they arise.

“I mean, it’s jarring for anyone,” he said. “You can train all your life for it, and you can still be thrown out of the water by something. I think RAs are given the tools and giving the appropriate amount of material to provide that person with support and get them going in the right direction, depending on what they decide to do with the scenario. One, I think it’s hard for anyone, and two, I think we give them enough support and enough resources and information.”

Though the amount of training and support resources offered by CAPS and through student initiatives has increased in recent years, Vitti and other survivors noted that the existing administrative policies are still in need of improvement.

“It’s a pattern in the administration, not listening to students, trying to just shut them up, and giving them generalized answers to their very personal questions,” Vitti said.

Bourain noted in particular the lack of transparency and called for increased accountability on behalf of the administration and the community at large.

“That is what is so fucked up about the Wesleyan judicial process—there is no transparency and no one to be held accountable,” Bourain wrote. “I see that lack of transparency across various aspects of Wesleyan student life—from chalking to bigoted public safety practices. No one wants to be accountable for how fucked up these processes are and so they become increasingly more frustrating for the student population and more difficult for the administration to address.... I think the entire Wesleyan community needs to feel more accountable and responsible for each other’s safety.”

The University will now offer a three-year graduation option to students in the hope that it will create a more affordable alternative for students. This will accompany the University’s 3-2 engineering program to create a more diverse array of options for students.

Students Sanctioned for Protesting Board of Trustees Meeting
October 2012

Seven to nine students were issued citations for entering a Board of Trustees meeting that was closed to students. The students entered in the hopes of voicing their concerns about need-blind policy changes to the Board. The students were sanctioned under Regulations 14 and 15 of the Code of Non-Academic Conduct.

Lawsuit Filed Against Wesleyan and Beta Theta Pi
October 2012

The survivor of a sexual assault that occurred at the Beta Theta Pi (Beta) fraternity house in October 2010 filed a federal lawsuit against the University for an amount greater than $75,000. The lawsuit claims that the University did not inform the student of the potential risks of entering the house, and that administrators did little to aid the student in the aftermath of the event. The perpetrator of the assault, a non-student named John O’Neill, is currently serving a 15-month sentence after pleading no contest to the charge of unlawful restraint.

Series of Public Safety Alerts Over One Weekend Worry Campus
October 2012

Over the course of the weekend of Saturday, Oct. 20, four Public Safety (PSafe) all-campus emails were sent out notifying the campus about incidents of assault and harassment on campus. These events prompted Director of PSafe David Meyer to supplement PSafe’s staff with additional patrols and Middletown Police officers. The incidents began on Friday night when a non-Wesleyan student approached a female student and put his arm around her. Another altercation occurred on Friday night, followed by one on Sunday morning and an incident on Sunday night.

Students Protest Amendments to Need-Blind Over Homecoming
October 2012

During Homecoming Weekend, students participated in a variety of need-blind protests, including dropping two banners that read “DON’T CUT AID” and “DON’T DISCRIMINATE.” Protesters also walked down the sideline of the Homecoming football game with signs featuring current financial aid statistics. Protesters aimed to create a dialogue between parents, alumni, students, and faculty. In addition, students questioned University President Roth’s reactions to chalking and other forms of activism. Roth reportedly attempted to physically restrain two students from chalking and walked away with a reporter’s microphone when probed about need-blind policy changes.

Film Studies and French Departments Introduce Minors
October 2012

Following the Educational Policy Committee’s spring 2012 decision to allow minors, two minors were approved in French Studies and Film Studies. Departments are able to submit minor proposals to the Academic Affairs Committee (AAC), who will then review the amount of student interest in the program. French Studies and Film Studies were chosen as the two of the first minors at the University in part because of the overwhelming student interest in these subjects.

Administration Refuses Housing for New Greek Societies
November 2012

The University denied the Greek societies Alpha Epsilon Pi (AEPi) and Rho Epsilon Pi (Rho Ep) on-campus housing. The societies joined together and requested to occupy the former Interfaith House located at 230 Washington St. Although their request was ultimately denied, President of Rho Ep Melody Oliphant ’13 and President of AEPi Alex Pack ’14 were hoping that President Roth would agree to co-ed Greek housing.

University Hosts First Diversity University Forum
November 2012

On Nov. 12, the University hosted its first student-organized forum called “Diversity University: In Theory and In Practice.” The purpose of the discussion was to address sources of racial tension on campus, including Anonymous Confession Board comments, PSafe alerts, and racial profiling. The forum became heated at times, especially when students addressed Meyer. Roth sent an all-campus email afterward announcing that another forum would occur in the spring to discuss the University’s progress surrounding issues that were brought up at the first forum.

Winter Storm Nemo Hits Campus Hard
February 2013

The winter storm, Nemo, hit campus on Friday, Feb. 8 and continued into Saturday, Feb. 9, accumulating 36 inches of snow. The University was closed Monday, Feb. 11. Usdan University Center was the only dining facility open the entire weekend. The snow was particularly difficult to clean up, due to its heaviness, the rapid rate of snowfall, and freezing rain.

New College of Film and the Moving Image Announced
February 2013

Roth announced that the University is creating a College of Film and the Moving Image, which will begin in Fall 2013. The new College will encompass all film-related studies, allowing students to work together and attempting to foster a campus-wide film culture. New York Times film critic, A.O. Scott, will be teaching a course at the University in the fall.

Senior Events Reassessed For Future Classes
February 2013

Due to reported inappropriate behavior at a “senior cocktail” event this year at the Connecticut Science Center, the University is deliberating whether future senior classes will hold senior events. There were reports of alleged drug use, sexual activity, and a senior riding a dinosaur. The event was shut down early and jeopardized the senior week event.

WSA President and Vice President Announced for 2013-2014 School Year
April 2013

Nicole Updegrove ’14 and Andrew Trexler ’14 were elected Wesleyan Student Assembly (WSA) President and Vice President, respectively, for the 2013-2014 academic year. Updegrove is preparing for her role by meeting with leaders of various student groups on campus and hoping to talk to many students on campus, attempting to make everyone’s voices heard. Trexler is looking forward to building on work that he did as Chair of the Finance and Facilities Committee and increasing his canvassing efforts. Updegrove is the first female president since the 2004-2005 school year.

*No Argus Arts editors have seen any of the below mentioned plays performed. For all we know, they could be awful.

“The Cardioluthier”
Fayerweather 106
Wednesday, May 8, 7 p.m.
Friday, May 10,  6 p.m. and 9 p.m.
Saturday, May 11, 12 p.m., 3 p.m., and 7 p.m.

Director Dylan Zwickel ’14: So I wrote my play. It is set in a world in which human hearts look like mini violins. You get it when you’re a kid—you switch out your human heart for a violin heart, and then it’s there, so then if it breaks, you have to take it to someone to fix it, and someone has to make it in the first place. So the first act is about the person who makes the hearts, and the second act is about the person who fixes the hearts and their relationships with different people. So it’s the same actors in both acts but as different characters, and they’re connected in a way that will become apparent. And the fun thing about this production is that I wrote it so that any of the characters could be cast with either gender, so you’re supposed to just cast the person who’s best for the part. So we have four actors even though it’s only a two-person cast, and so each performance is a different combination of two actors. For example, if you come on Friday at nine, you’ll see Leah [Rosen ’13]and Tess [Jonas ’15], but if you come Saturday at seven, you’ll see Leah and Scotty [Shoemaker ’13].

Actor Rosen: We all get a chance to play all four of the characters in the play.

DZ: You should come multiple times because then you can tell us what you think of how it works with different actors, different genders, all that stuff. We’re having talkbacks. People should stay and give us their feedback. This is a staged reading going up in Fayerweather. I wanted it to be about the script and the actors, not the production value.

“The Language Archive”
’92 Theater
Friday, May 10, 8 p.m.
Saturday, May 11, 2 p.m. and 8 p.m.

Director Josh Cohen ’14: “The Language Archive” is written by Julia Cho. It’s a play about a linguist who’s incredibly drawn by how languages build worlds and how the way that we communicate forms our relationships. Except he and the people around him are incredibly incoherent in getting their messages across. He and his wife are just bickering about how they have no idea what the other one means, his lab assistant has unrequited love for him for years and years that she just never [expressed]. He brings in a couple from a far away land that speaks a dying language to record it. But they’re such an old married couple, and they’re fighting so much, and their language is so beautiful that they refuse to fight in it and will only speak in English.

It’s a play that goes to a lot of places and touches on how disconnected we really are just because we don’t really know what other people are trying to say to us and what they’re thinking. Our cast is five people playing…I should know this, but I want to say 12 characters. There are three actors—Richie [Starzec ’14], Sophie [Zinser ’16], and Olivia [May ’14]—playing one character, and Matt [Krakaur ’14] and Margaret [Curtis ’16] are playing the remainder.

“Hamlet in Wonderland: A Work in Progress”
Russell House Backyard
Friday, May 10, 8 p.m. and 9:30 p.m.
Saturday, May 11, 8 p.m. and 9:30 p.m.

Director Zach Libresco ’13: We’re trying to decontextualize some narratives in the common consciousness. We were hypothesizing different ideas and stories, and this is the one we liked the most. ’Cause you take Hamlet and you put him in Alice in Wonderland, and it kind of makes sense. You combine these characters, and their given circumstances are really different, but the way they interact with their madness has points of contact. So we wanted to see what that would be like. Since sophomore year, I’ve been thinking about doing an immersive theater Hamlet piece with the old Sarah Wolfe [’12], and seeing Lily [Haje ’13]’s thesis [“Fire and Bone”] and seeing how you can use space in really interesting ways was part of the motivator behind this too.

[On why you should come see it:] Well, the energy is going to be really high. I mean, it’s two stories that you already know and love combined. It’s under an hour—it’s 50 minutes—, [so] it’s definitely worth the time investment. There’s nothing I hate more than a two-and-a-half-hour play that you get nothing out of. We’re hoping if you’re not entertained, you’ll at least be offended—that’s what we’re aiming for. [Laughs.]

[On his last show at Wes:] There are people from all different backgrounds, we pulled in a couple of our friends to play some parts not from an actor background but more from a movement background, and what they have to contribute is mind-blowing. My teacher [Associate Professor of Theater] Claudia Noscimiento is always saying that theater is an interdisciplinary genre—like performance art tries to claim one thing, music another thing, dance another thing, and theater is using the visual arts, it’s using music, it’s using dance, it’s using all these different things, and we’ve got people from all these different backgrounds coming together on this piece. So what I like doing is asking the cast a question, and then they figure it out because they’re so smart. I couldn’t have asked for a better group of people for a last performance, not one bit.

“I wouldn’t want to use only student models because it is important to get different body types and force students to think outside of their preconceived notions of the body,” said Visiting Assistant Professor of Art Kate TenEyck. “My students actually make more accurate drawings of the older models because they are familiar with what a young person looks like because that’s what they look like. When you get an older model who’s got wrinkles and may be overweight, then you can’t guess. It’s not part of your idea of what a body looks like.”

The Arts Department is not the only forum for nude modeling. The student-run Drawing Co-Op, which meets on Mondays from 4:30-6 p.m., also uses students as models, though those students are not paid. The group focuses on nude drawings because, unlike landscapes and still-lifes, which students can draw on their own time, these drawings require someone to pose. Head of the Co-Op Yiyang Wang ’15, who models as well as draws, explained that it can be difficult to recruit student models with diverse body types.

“People are obviously more likely to nude model if they’re comfortable with their bodies, and a lot of those people are fit, healthy, and active, and it’s just not as interesting to draw,” Wang said. “You want shadows, and you want folds and fat. We’ve had a hard time asking people of different body types to come because it’s like, ‘Oh, we’d really be interested in having you model,’ and they’re like, ‘Well, I don’t want to because I’m not in shape.’ So then we have a hard time being like, ‘But that’s why we want you…’”

As a student at the Rhode Island School of Design, TenEyck only ever drew professional models. Upon arriving at Wesleyan, she was initially surprised by the practice of employing students.

“When I came here and learned there were student models, I thought it was interesting because, you know, you’re going to go around and see these people,” she said.

Dorothy Ajayi ’15, who models for Drawing I, commented on that experience.

“Almost every night I go out or even during the day walking around campus, people will be like, ‘Hey, have you ever nude modeled before? I think you modeled for my class,’” she said.

David Stouck ’15, another model for Drawing I, said that nude modeling is strangest when the artists aren’t strangers.

“I didn’t know anyone [in the room], and then someone who I did know walked in, and it was a really sudden shift in the way I felt,” Stouck said.

Ajayi added that the most nerve-racking part of the experience is the anticipation, not the actual pose.

“Up until you disrobe, knowing that you’re going to get up and get naked and be super vulnerable in front of a lot of people can be really, really frightening,” she said.

Literally disrobing isn’t a luxury afforded to Wang and other models in the Drawing Co-Op, although she may seek Student Budget Committee funds to get robes for next semester.

“For the drawing classes, the models will have a robe on in the beginning, but for Co-Op, we’re all rushing there, like after class or after whatever, and we get there just in time,” Wang said. “I’ll have to strip in front of everyone. Being naked isn’t a big deal, but taking off your clothes just feels so personal and strange.”

According to TenEyck, some of the best student models have theater or dance experience, which seems to help them with their posing. She explained that she does her best to make sure the models feel at ease, making sure they don’t pick a position that’s hard to hold or might make them dizzy if they have to hold it for too long. Still, as Angela Converse ’14 explained, models may feel pressure to pose in a way that is visually interesting, sometimes sacrificing comfort in the process.

“Once for a long pose I had one leg tucked in and the other kind of backwards a little bit, and I just completely lost blood flow to that leg, and it took five minutes for me to be able to feel it,” she said. “I had pins and needles like crazy. It was one of my first times modeling, so I was really embarrassed to tell the professor I couldn’t hold the position. I didn’t realize that was an option.”

Models have relative freedom to choose their own poses, though they occasionally get feedback from the class or the professor. TenEyck’s Teaching Assistant Miles Cornwall ’15, for example, will tell models to imitate a Rodin sculpture if they are at a loss for inspiration. Wang likes poses where the model’s back is twisted but acknowledges that it can cause discomfort after a while. Stouck likes the way an isolated limb looks in charcoal drawings, so he generally tries to pose with an arm or leg extended from his torso.

Naturally, models tend to get lost in their thoughts when standing still for such a long period of time. Converse said that she uses the time productively.

“A lot of times I’m just thinking about the things I need to get done later,” she said. “Other times I like to think about my creative work. Like, I’ve been taking a novel-writing workshop this semester, so I’d use the times when I was modeling to think about my work and where I wanted it to go. It was just such a long stretch of time where I couldn’t do anything else, so I could just devote all my mental energy to that.”

During breaks or at the end of the session when students are cleaning up, models have the opportunity to walk around and look at all the drawings.

“It’s interesting to see how different each drawing is from another one even though they’re all drawing the same person,” Converse said. “It’s just kind of neat to see how you’re reflected through somebody else’s eyes and talent and style.”

Because the figure drawings are often headless, the models have a hard time recognizing themselves in the students’ work.

“I like that you can’t tell it’s me because it makes it more about [the students],” Stouck said. “It’s really about them becoming better artists, and it’s cool to help out when you can.”

Wang noted that the experience of seeing oneself on paper can be jarring.

“Your figure’s so distorted because of your pose, but from your pedestal you wouldn’t know,” Wang said. “It’s a little disconcerting when you’re like, ‘Is that fold really there? Do I actually look like this?’ But then you realize it’s fine. Everyone’s seeing you from a different perspective.”

There is a ton of pressure on us to look our best when we go out in public, especially during spring or summer when people are supposed to take advantage of the weather and wear clothes that show off the beautiful parts of their bodies. Advertisements pressure us to try to lose weight or improve our bodies so that we can look good. I’ve seen ACB posts that denigrate women with “fat” bodies or women with “tiny” breasts, and frankly, I’m sick of it. You should celebrate your body and wear what makes you feel attractive, and whoever is worth being your friend or being your significant other will recognize how beautiful you are.

I’m body-conscious; I have never had an eating disorder, but all my life I’ve been told that I am thin and underweight. I eat healthily and heartily, but I’ve always had a high metabolism rate, and people used to ask me often whether I was anorexic. Earlier this semester, my metabolism changed, and I developed curves; my doctors celebrated the fact that for the first time ever, I had a normal body mass index, and I was looking healthier and happier. I’ve poked at “fat” on my body because I’ve had trouble adjusting to the new me whose ribs don’t show through my skin and who can no longer fit into size zero clothing, whose belly is no longer flat and whose rear end is finally noticeable. Sometimes, I glance at myself and I notice how clothes flatter my body more, or how nice my silhouette is. We all worry about our body image and pay attention to our appearance, but now more than ever, it is time to celebrate our shapes and our bodies and rejoice in ourselves.

Don’t ever pay attention to the people who say that you don’t look good. Maintain the weight that is healthy for you, not the one that society and the media say you should have.  Wear clothes that flatter you, not a mannequin, and if you genuinely look like a mannequin, don’t worry about maintaining that slender body image but rather about embracing your body. Recently, there have been reports of modeling agencies trying to recruit at one of Sweden’s premier eating disorder clinics; it’s a stark illustration of the priorities of the fashion industry, and of popular media culture. You should not become a victim of that culture.

This spring, I’m urging every single one of you, regardless of gender or appearance, to go soak up some sun in your favorite clothing; fight the end-of-the-semester blues and breathe in some fresh air. Get off the ACB and away from other negative influences; grab a nice snack and a towel and make some new friends. Don’t worry about what you have to do or feel you need to accomplish with your life; success comes with confidence, so take the time to gain some self-esteem. There’s no need to be body-conscious, and the only way to fight it is to prove to yourself that you have a great body. I promise to take my own message to heart, too; see you all on Foss!

In their first heat of the day, the men’s varsity eight took the water against Trinity College, Boston College, the United States Coast Guard Academy, University of Connecticut, Colby College, and Worcester Polytechnic Institute, with the top three boats moving on to the Grand Final. The Cardinal team had beaten Colby and WPI earlier in the season but had lost to the Trinity Bantams in their final race of the season.

Wesleyan completed the 2000-meter course in a swift 5:54.855, just over two seconds behind the Bantams’ 5:52.542. WPI was the final qualifying team from this heat, finishing seven-tenths of a second behind Wesleyan at 5:55.571.

Williams, University of Rhode Island, and Bates College qualified for the final from the second heat, and the Grand Final lineup was set. Wesleyan had previously rowed against each of the five teams against whom they were rowing in the final round, having beaten URI, Bates, and WPI but falling to Williams and Trinity.

In the final, Wesleyan pledged to leave it all on the water as they stepped into their biggest race of the season. As expected, Trinity and Williams got off to a quick start and competed with each other for first place in the race, with Trinity ultimately edging out Williams 6:02.795 to 6:03.693.

The pair that looked to compete for third was Wesleyan and Bates, but WPI made a strong push that challenged the two NESCAC rivals. Eventually, Bates avenged their regular season loss to the Cardinals, clocking in at 6:09.292, over two seconds ahead of Wesleyan’s 6:11.339. WPI captured fifth place, two seconds behind Wesleyan, and URI brought up the rear, five seconds behind WPI.

The women’s varsity eight were looking to get back to their winning ways in the championship; they started the season by winning ten straight matches but ended it by losing three in a row. They were in the water competing against Bates, Trinity, Simmons College, Tufts University, Bryant College, and Mount Holyoke, with the top two teams advancing.

Bates dominated the opening heat, finishing in 6:49.630. Wesleyan battled for the other qualifying spot against the Tufts team and ultimately bested them by four seconds, 6:57.538 to 7:01.927, the same margin of victory they had over that squad during the regular season.

Williams and Trinity took the top spots in the two other heats, with University of New Hampshire and Wellesley College qualifying for the final as well. Wesleyan had not competed against UNH or Bates this season but had lost to Trinity, Williams, and Wellesley, so they had their work cut out for them in this Grand Final.

Wesleyan was unable to avenge any of their losses and finished sixth in the race of six, coming in at 7:04.46. Trinity, Bates, and Williams made up the top three, as Williams won with a time of  6:41.268.

The men’s second varsity eight took the top spot in their qualifying race and were in the final competing against Trinity, Williams, WPI, URI, and Boston College. The team had lost to Williams by just a quarter-length earlier in the season and had beaten Trinity and WPI.

In the final race, they finished in third place at 6:20.100, 4.1 seconds behind top finisher Williams. They were third of the 11 teams in the competition.

Meanwhile, the women’s second varsity eight was edged out by just two tenths of a second in the qualifying round for the finals, finishing in 6:55.164, and thus ended up competing in the Petite Final. They finished first in this final, at 7:24.715, seventh of the 14 competitors.

The men’s third varsity eight finished first in their qualifying round, but were beaten handily in the finals by Trinity, completing the course in 6:27.381, six seconds behind first place, and good for second of the nine competing squads. The men sent a second varsity four team to compete, as well, who finished sixth of seven at 7:42.86.

The women’s third varsity eight, meanwhile, also missed out on the Grand Final, finishing fourth in the qualifying round but they won the Petite Final with a time of 7:40.087, seventh of the ten teams competing.

Both teams will compete in their final race of the season this weekend on the same Lake Quinsigamond course in the Eastern College Athletic Conference.

“Opposable Plays” was a collection of short plays allegedly centered on the theme of fingers (although, for all the hype, I was a tad disappointed that there weren’t more digits involved). They ranged from witty to tragic, frequently employing the same pool of actors, and even involved a four-piece band.

Beckham was an excellent venue: a stage had been erected at one end of the hall in front of a red velvet curtain, and the playwrights and directors had assembled a simple but effective series of gauze curtains on wheeled poles to serve as walls and backdrops. The lighting design, by Alice Lee ’14 and Rachel Verner ’15, made good use of the gauze with a variety of colored washes to distinguish the plays and individual scenes from one another.

The opening play, “Ring Shop Regular,” was fairly standard fare from young playwright Coz Deicke ’15, whose previous Wesleyan credits include “About Face,” which debuted last week, and “Beauty Pageant Massacre” last fall. A silly short play about a brother-sister couple who run a ring shop and get scammed by an older couple selling a fake ring, it established the “fingers” theme and included some fine one-liners. For instance, the older man, after asking the brother whether he has a girlfriend and hearing a “no,” replied “Sorry, I forgot what century we’re in—any serious MEN in your life?”

It also gave me the pleasure of seeing Zach Stretten-Carlson ’15 on stage for the first time, as I was not present for his Wesleyan theater debut last fall in “This is Our Youth.” Stretten-Carlson played two roles that evening and proved himself a talented caricaturist. Amara Davila ’13 played Jenna Moriarty, the older woman to Stretten-Carlson’s Arthur MacArthur, and did her best to carry off some of the play’s weaker dialogue. (Her character was pretending to be a down-on-her-luck single mother and stripper.) Ali Goldberg ’15 and Conor Boughton ’15 were solid, static characters as the brother-sister couple, and though their incest gag at the end of the play felt rather gratuitous, the result was, overall, a pleasant mini-con comedy.

The second play, “Man Alone,” was the brainchild of Alice Lee ’14, Eleonore Finkelstein ’14, and Lindsay Schapiro ’14, who spearheaded the entire evening. “Man Alone” suffered somewhat from being more ambitious than the physical realities of the space would allow for: Scene changes were sometimes lengthy in comparison to the scenes, and one farce sequence (already entertaining) would have been a stitch with a proper, multi-door set to allow for overlapping entrances.

At its heart, though, the play was a fundamentally lighthearted romp through the unraveling lives of two men—one a new divorcé, the other a failed actor—as they retreat to a rental cabin in the woods and fail to encounter each other. Stretten-Carlson gave his second performance as the actor, and though the direction of his scene with a writer was rather ham-handed, his deadpan at such moments as discovering a recently killed rabbit in his kitchen was hilarious. Boughton played Stuart, the divorcé, with aplomb, displaying more range than he’d been allowed in the previous play. They were backed by a strong supporting cast, and the final moment of the play—with the two men speaking in overlapping, sometimes-synchronized monologue—was well staged, though it felt unclear as an ending.

“One by One,” penned by Verner, was the third and most disturbing play of the evening. A story of three little girls all killed by the same murderer (Boughton, in his third and final role for the evening), “One by One” made one of the best uses of the limited scenery and lighting, shifting the walls to create a claustrophobic backyard shed and plunging the stage into a crimson nightmare wash with the lights.

The three actresses playing the girls (Davila and Hanna Bahedry ’14 as already dead girls and Goldberg as a still-living one) all gave solid performances within the confines of the play, and Boughton was appropriately menacing. But despite (or perhaps because of) the high ick factor, the play as a whole felt overwrought, like a dire public service announcement, and profoundly unsubtle. While giving voice to the victims of abuse is a worthy goal, it’s important to remember that not every murderer/rapist is a black-clad, glove-wearing older man.

The final play, “Reflection Theory,” was Schapiro’s creation, and it tracked the mental dissolution of a teenage girl who “carries tension in her fingers” (bringing it back to the evening’s nominal theme). Schapiro proved herself a capable writer and even better composer: This was a musical, and Schapiro’s stage-rock tunes were excellent. If anything, the music left me wanting more, a superb contrast to other student-written musicals I’ve encountered, which seemed to adhere to some notion that songs must be five minutes each.

The play also featured strong leads: Davila returned as the girl’s mother, and Molly Balsam ’14 gave sturdy voice and engaging physical life to the teenaged “Girl,” slouching and wheedling about the set. Kara Wernick ’15 and Gabriel Elkind ’15 also gave solid performances as Girl’s illusive doctor and boyfriend, appearing in one haunting sequence behind the transparent gauze curtains that formed her bedroom walls. Although the staging was sometimes stagnant and the story became heavy fairly quickly near the end, “Reflection Theory” was a remarkably well-devised work all in all.

At the end of the evening, the entire cast of the four plays gathered for the curtain call, an extremely silly final ode to fingers in general. As hinted at by the lyrics, they were unprepared for the ode; they hadn’t even rehearsed the song. Despite their aversion to responsibility, “Opposable Plays” was an enjoyable evening of rough works from new playwrights, always some of the most important contributions to the Wesleyan theater scene. I hope Wesleyan can look forward to more from these writers in the future: musical, funny, tragic, and, of course, weird.

The styles of each choreographer came through in the different pieces, and distinct messages could be translated from the dances. Stellar Levy ’15 choreographed an abstract-yet-comprehensible piece titled, “Love You Infinitely.” Her dancers clearly conveyed the development of love in some unconventional forms, complete with distorted hugs and an interesting transition from solo works to group interactions.

Miranda Orbach ’15 also kept her choreography consistent with her piece title, “Sleepwalk” (written in sign language on the program). Each move by the dancers was made with deliberate specificity, and the dancers gracefully controlled one another in a dreamlike state. Dat Vu ’15 and Coady Johnson ’15 also displayed some impressive core strength with a few headstand poses that audience members may have previously thought were only possible in a place where the laws of gravity are more lenient.

Another standout piece of the night was choreographed by Tess Jonas ’15, titled “face forward.” Jonas incorporated her theatrical background into the intro of the piece by having Gabe Gordon ’15 answer a series of questions, chorused by the rest of the dancers. The piece reflected a contradiction between the innocence of childhood and the surrounding world, with the dancers using each other as jungle gyms against music that included news reports of Columbine. The dance as a whole was powerful yet succinct, making it a fan favorite.

Other choreographers took a more stylistic approach to their pieces, as opposed to conceptual focuses. Min Suh ’15 played with lighting in her piece “Never Let Me Go.” A small flashlight and strobe light were used to highlight the dancers in an otherwise pitch-black stage, causing the audience to shift focus from their silhouettes to their shadows against the walls of the ’92. This visual differed from the other performances of the night. Ibironke Otusile ’15 experimented with music selection in “Silent Silhouettes,” in which the music made shifts from dance to reggae selections. This musical variety allowed the dancers to try out many different dance styles. In “Box of Subsets,” Judy Lee ’13 used her choreography to clearly display everyday actions, such as commuting on a train or bus. This realistic depiction set the scene and contrasted well with the more combative dance moves shown throughout the rest of the piece.

The show was consistent in its display of innovative choreographic ideas, no matter where the other focuses of the piece may have fallen. “Empathy” by Emily Jones ’14 ignited a particularly passionate performance from her dancers, specifically Sarah Greizer ’16, who ran around the stage in an energized yet purposeful manner. Harry Zhu ’15 successfully used his moves to create both overlap and conflict between his dancers, who were split into teams of black and white through their costumes in “CCACMA.H.”

Some of the most eye-catching movements came from “Unsounded” by Nora Thompson ’15. The piece was intriguing in its intricate balance of subtleties and exaggerations, from large, shaking movements to more discrete shuffling and rocking from the dancers. This successful juxtaposition allowed the audience to comfortably shift from watching the image of the dancers as a group to concentrating on the individual body part of only one, such as the small movement of one foot.

The concert was an overall successful display of both the choreographers’ intuition towards movement and the hard work they put towards honing their craft over the spring semester. In the spirit of arts at Wes, this was an excellent opportunity for students to come together and collaborate on original works, producing noteworthy results and a fun time for all involved.