Robin Williams, Academy Award-winning actor and comedian, spoke yesterday in the Memorial Chapel before the roughly 200 audience members lucky enough to purchase tickets to the sold-out event. Tickets to the event went on sale on Tuesday at 10 a.m. and sold out within two hours.
Seeing her perched on the corner of her light blue comforter, with her preternaturally tan complexion and blonde-streaked hair falling down around her shoulders, it is not difficult to peg Zuleikha Hester ’11 as a California girl. But at first glance, few guess the rest of Hester’s heritage.
Currently, about 39 percent of Wesleyan’s graduating class ventures out into the working world with an average tuition debt of $16,834. When President Michael Roth met with Dean of Admission and Financial Aid Nancy Meislahn earlier this semester to discuss financial aid, he felt this number was way too high.
It may not seem to come often, but we’d like to offer the administration our unequivocal praise for the University’s new financial aid initiative. Replacing loans with grants will offer important financial assistance for the University’s neediest students. All other financial aid students will undoubtedly benefit from an average four-year loan indebtedness reduction of 35 percent.
Dear Mytheos: You are correct. No one has proven that anthropogenic climate change is occurring, or that it will occur. The science behind it is not completely exact and can never be scientifically proven. Just as debate continues to rage in this country about whether evolution really happens or whether God steers our generational genetics in a certain direction, there is a sizeable faction of people—though few are scientists and most have special interests to promote—who purport that the notion of climate change is, in fact, a hoax.
Every few decades, there are moments in time—small windows of our transient existences—that serve to define us, becoming touchstones of a generation. They become “I-remember-where-I-was-when…” moments, etched forever in our collective memories. The Kennedy assassination, the fall of the Berlin Wall, the premiere of “Two and a Half Men” on CBS; all have defined past generations, permanently and irreversibly altering the way we live our lives and the way we view the world.
Fun fact, Mytheos: Richard Lindzen, the “very educated” MIT professor of Meteorology you use as one of your few skeptic references, doesn’t believe in the link between smoking and lung cancer! Do you know who else doesn’t believe in the link between smoking and lung cancer? The answer, Mytheos, is crackheads.
To the Editor: It pained me to read Hannah Dreier’s criticism of Alan Dachs. First, Ms. Dreier’s Wespeak comes across as an emotional outburst rather than a well-reasoned argument. For example, she ignores the fact that Bechtel is primarily a construction company. It builds things—airports, hospitals, roads, water treatment facilities.
You guys, I know all of the Fauvers have free extended cable and some woodframes do, too. Mine doesn’t. That sucks. Even worse, Bravo was on basic cable until a few hours ago, when Comcast decided to switch it to extended. I love “Real Housewives of Orange County” and “Project Runway,” but I’m not going to spend $40 each month on them.
The last thing a fellow suspected of being a fool should do is open his mouth and remove all doubt. Pay that advice no heed, Mr. Dorman. I’m sure that I speak for President Roth, as well as myself, in saying that I’m always more than glad to hear from a product-in-the-making of ‘new and improved’ Wes.
As part of the Wesleyan Writing Program’s “Distinguished Writers” series, renowned comic book artist Art Spiegelman delivered a spirited lecture last Saturday, Nov. 3. Despite the numerous seminars, lectures and cultural events competing for attention over Homecoming/Family weekend, the pews of the Memorial Chapel were filled to capacity.
It’s impossible for me to address this performance without taking a moment to commend director Ted Kelly on his excellent taste in pieces. On the night of the performance I attended, there were quite a few audience members being exposed to “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead” for the first time.
Upon entering the newest exhibit at the Zilkha Gallery, “Who’s Looking?” the viewer is asked: “What obligations do humans have to our closest evolutionary relatives?” “Who’s Looking?” according to the website chimpanzees.wesleyan.edu, is “a collaborative, multi-disciplinary investigation of human relations to chimpanzees.”
On Friday, Oct. 26, Wes-leyan’s division of Americans for Informed Democracy (AID) hosted “Stung,” a night of funk music at Psi U that marked the culmination of a week-long initiative on campus to raise awareness of malaria. The show featured three University bands but was headlined by Half Krunk, a trio from the Berklee School of Music in Boston, Mass.
When Amy Bloom ’75 reads to a gathered audience, she speaks so quickly her words seem to fly past the listener. Everyone in attendance knits their brow and ponders, and those with the best concentration fall right into her world. Those that do are in for a treat: “Away,” her new novel, is a vivid and captivating ride, a colorful portrait of early Yiddish theater that doesn’t skimp on startling plot twists and dense political commentary.
The ’92 Theater was packed last Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights for the Senior Thesis Dance Concert, entitled “Four Lessons in Astrotextuality.” The concert showcased four dance pieces choreographed by senior dance majors as part of their Honors thesis work for the fall semester.
The volleyball team fell in the first round of the NESCAC tournament last Friday, dropping a 3-0 decision to Connecticut College. The first-round exit was the team’s fifth in the last six seasons since advancing to the finals during 2001. However, the team finished the season 17-8, good enough for its highest winning percentage (.680) since 2001 (30-6; .833).
Anyone paying even a small bit of attention to recent film production has to have noticed Hollywood’s newest favorite child—the graphic novel. The success of Robert Rodriquez’s “Sin City,” movies have been springing to life from the pages of the world’s newest forms of storytelling.
The sun is gone. My circadian rhythms are ruined. The weather is turning colder under the graying November sky. The thermostat in my house is accurate. I need to find my silk long underwear. I’ll wear it underneath my women’s jeans in the Goldsmith Family Cinema, watching “Rocky” on Friday evening.
Thirty-five years ago, several college-age idealists, one of whom was a student at Wesleyan, decided to create an organization that would transform access to affordable health services in the Middletown area. On Nov. 1, the Middletown Community Health Center (CHC), the product of these efforts, held its thirty-fifth anniversary gala, attended by 220 dignitaries, supporters, and members, at Beckham Hall in Fayerweather.
The second Islam in Conversation Week (ICW) kicked off on Monday with a packed audience in PAC 001, marking the start of what organizers—the Muslim Students’ Association (MSA)—hope will become an annual event. Themed “Islam and the Contemporary World,” the program intends to showcase the richness and relevance of modern Islamic faith and culture.
In 1985, Louis Farrakhan, minister and leader of the Black Nation of Islam, came to speak on campus—and was met with two different protests: one by students and one by the Ku Klux Klan. Farrakhan, a proponent of black separatism, anti-Semitism, and homophobia, came to speak upon invitation from Ujamaa, the University’s black student group.
When members of Ujamaa wanted to host an event focusing on the takeover of Fisk Hall in the late 1960’s, they used the Alumni and Parents Speakers Network (APSN) to get Evans Jacobs ’73 to speak on his role in the takeover.
Some people might be afraid of admitting to their fear of developing a sexual attraction to animals, but Malwina Andruczyk ’08 is not one of them. You’ve seen Malwina tear up stage in Punchline and maybe you’ve even read some of her work in The Pedestrian, but only here in this exclusive interview will you learn all of Malwina’s deepest hopes and fears. And more.