As part of Homecoming/Family Weekend, the University community inaugurated Wesleyan’s 16th president Michael S. Roth ’78 last Friday in an elaborate and musical ceremony attended by students, parents, alumni, faculty, staff, representatives from 59 colleges, and three former University presidents—Doug Bennet ’59, William Chace, and Colin Campbell. Roth outlined the goals of his tenure with regards to teaching, scholarship, and institution building.
Recent criticisms of certain University classes within the national media have been met with surprise and skepticism by professors on campus. In fact, many faculty members usually seemed surprised that their classes would garner national attention at all.
Are hipsters and hippies mutually exclusive on a university campus? Why can’t activism be squeezed into skinny jeans or created through post modern dance? Mere life at Wesleyan has given Gawker enough ammunition for yet another anti-Wesleyan post. This time Gawker has its claws in Barry Chernoff’s innovative first year initiative “Feet to the Fire: The Art and Science of Climate Change,” a class that attempts to look at one of the biggest crises facing our generation through an interdisciplinary lens.
This past weekend, I was in the bathroom, and I was trying to read Martin Benjamin’s letter when by accident the newssheet slipped out of my hands and fell into the toilet. I was about to pick it up, but then on further review, I decided that’s exactly where it belongs.
Recently, James Watson, co-discoverer of the double helix structure, has come under fire for saying, in an interview with the Sunday Times for his new book Avoid Boring People and Other Lessons from a Life in Science, that he was “inherently gloomy about the prospect of Africa,” because “all our social policies are based on the fact that their intelligence is the same as ours—whereas all the testing says not really.” It was a bad move considering that he was speaking to a member of the press, not to mention offensive and impolitic. But all the same, I intend to defend Watson. I ask, why must Watson be PC?
The post-9/11 atmosphere has increased our awareness of the Muslim world, but in what capacity? All of us can easily call to mind instances when we knew that we were being exposed to a highly biased presentation of information, such as on particular news networks. However, even at times when the information we absorbed was accurate, it was still not the whole story.
Dear Mr. President Roth, We, the 8 Warren Avenue community, honored your inauguration properly. We provided fun, games, music, and signs of congratulations for you and the rest of the inauguration ceremony, yet all we got was a wave. While you claim to be accountable to the student body and have made availability a key principle of your newly crowned administration, you simply drove by in your motorcade while barely acknowledging the sacrifice that we made for you.
Last Friday’s presidential inauguration ceremony raised a few questions for me. Why was Alan Dachs, leader of one of the greatest corporate war profiteers of our time, publicly honored at Roth’s inauguration? Why is Dachs, board member of the Bechtel Group and president of this corporate Behemoth’s investment arm, still a member of Wesleyan’s Development Committee?
An article published in last Friday’s issue, entitled “Prohibition comes to Wes? All-campus ban of hard liquor considered,” stated that Assistant Dean of Student Services Scott Backer proposed changes in campus alcohol policy before the Drug Enforcement Policy Subcommittee, which he chairs.
Bon Appétit, our glorious campus food service, prides itself on its vast menu, which the company claims caters to all walks of life. To test this claim, The Argus had its most idiotic meat-eating reporter — yours truly — go vegan in order to critique the food.
The Senior Cocktails scheduled for December has been cancelled due to irresponsible behavior at the first cocktails event of the academic year, the four Senior Class Officers announced to the class of 2008 in an email on Monday.
This Thursday, legendary actor and comedian Robin Williams will sit down in Memorial Chapel to be interviewed by Jeanine Basinger, Chair of Film Studies, and Wally Hays ’10, the head of the Beta Lecture Series, who managed, through a family connection, to persuade Williams to visit campus.
According to Director of International Studies Carolyn Sorkin, an observable tension between international and American students was one reason for the creation of a weekly dinner discussion series which brought over one hundred members of the University community together on Wednesday, Oct. 24.
Earlier this week, Dan Lachman ’09 shipped off boxes of t-shirts to Lord and Taylor to be sold in their stores. And while the department store may be Lachman’s largest client yet, it is certainly not his first.
Last week, British newspaper The Observer published a troubling exposé about children as young as eight working in an apparel factory in India—a factory that made clothes for an American retail chain you might have heard of once or twice. It’s called Gap.
Recently, the esteemed paper which runs this column ran an article bearing what was probably intended as jubilant news—President Michael Roth had signed the “Presidents Climate Commitment,” a document designed to make Wesleyan “assess the University’s greenhouse gas emissions and put forth a detailed strategy to reduce them.” Obviously, this seemingly good news has caused nature fetishists to exit from the woodwork en masse, no doubt bearing celebratory grins which showcase the stray grains of granola still stuck in their teeth.
Initial perceptions play a major role in the outcome of a relationship, according to an article in Mind Matters, an annual psychology journal that publishes exclusively Wesleyan students’ research.
A few Sundays ago, Alice Goldsmith ’10 received a frantic phone call from her mother in Calabasas, a city just north of Malibu, Calif. The Goldsmith family, along with their entire neighborhood, was forced to evacuate, as the California blaze was merely hundreds of yards from their home.
Entering Berlin’s Starlight Diner engenders an assault on the senses. Standing in the doorway, sheltered from a windy autumnal Sunday, I was overcome with the scent of brewing coffee, the busy murmur of chatting customers, and the clang and simmer of cooking omelets and eggplant parmesan in the restaurant’s open kitchen.
Dear Class of 2009, We hope that you enjoyed the first senior mocktails event and thank those of you that have given us compliments for our effort. However, as many of you are aware the behavior of our class that night was unacceptable and all of us will feel the implications of such irresponsibility. We are not only referencing the lack of respect of your peers at the venue, but also the intolerable behavior exhibited towards the staff that helped facilitate the event.
While your parents were holding your hair back for you this past Homecoming Weekend, you may have noticed that Wesleyan has something of an alcohol problem... much in the way that Dumbledore has something of a hot pants problem. Last Friday’s Argus reported that Wesleyan is considering a ban on open containers of alcohol, kegs, and smiles. Also, at the first senior cocktails of the year, someone raped a puppy, or something along those lines.
The next meeting of Wesleyan Students Opposed to Being Really Intoxicated Enjoy Talking, Ya’ll (WeSobriety) will be this Wednesday, November 5, 2008 at 10 p.m. and it’s going to be SO MUCH FUN! Because last week’s turnout was huge, we are asking that students still on steps 1 to 5 meet in Sci150 and those who are on steps 6 to 12 meet in the field house. Remember — no matter what step you’re on, WeSupport You!
Schwasted (noun, verb) 1. A recycling receptacle filled with Schweppes’ ginger ale bottles. 2. A physical assault on a bus driver carried out by a Jewish person.
This month’s ice cream social, held at Psi U, was another rousing success, as the 200 available tickets sold out in a record 15 minutes. “The Ice Cream Social series has been successful beyond our wildest dreams,” said Wesleyan Social Club founder Donald Jenkins ’10. “I had no idea how much kids at Wes loved getting together with friends on Saturday nights over a sumptuous buffet of ice cream.”
Although we depend on Appalachia for our energy, we often remain incognizant of this region and the devastating environmental and social consequences it suffers and has suffered from decades of coal mining. Today over three million people live within one mile of abandoned mine land, where the majority not only experience great poverty, but also face water contamination in the form of acid mine drainage (AMD) and poisonous sewage discharges.
I was shocked to come home this evening to an email from the senior class officers explaining that the December senior cocktails event has been canceled for disciplinary reasons. Seriously, assaulting a bus driver? Leaving illegal substances on a bus that we all knew was going to be used to bring children to school in the morning? Whoever did that should be ashamed.
I’m well aware that Public Safety has stepped up their parking violation stringency, and I’m also well aware that there’s been plenty of discussion about it. But, under the cloak of common sense, I was not aware that by parking in the visitor’s parking lot, a lot specifically designed for anyone with no parking pass of any sort, I would get a parking ticket because I have a Wesleyan sticker on my car.
The football team dropped its Homecoming game for the third straight year on Saturday, falling 33-13 against visiting Williams College. Torrential rainfall, gusting winds, and atrocious field conditions forced the usually high-octane Cards offense to change its game plan.