President Michael Roth spoke about his ongoing campaign to spread and strengthen the University’s reputation, as well as redefine academic priorities, at Sunday night’s Wesleyan Student Assembly (WSA) meeting.
For next spring, Public Safety is considering placing security cameras in the High Rise and Low Rise area, in the lobby of Exley Science Center, in front of the Public Safety building, and on Vine Street.
Although divestment was not a major focus at the recent Board of Trustees meeting, Chairman Jim Dresser raised the issue at the Board’s otherwise confidential Executive Session. The trustees will begin to look into the possibility for divestment in the coming months, but details of how the investigation will be conducted are still in the works.
What is more important to Wesleyan students: their laptop or their privacy? While such an extreme decision may not have to be made, news of Public Safety’s plans to install cameras in strategic places around campus will give most students pause. While Public Safety’s intention to cut down on violent crime and thefts in certain problem areas around campus is hard to knock, not enough information has been given to students to truly understand the implications of this decision.
I completely agree with Christian Lorentzen: the Hipster must die. In fact, any group of people with qualities so consistently un-redeeming as those conjured by Loentzen and Christine Speir is nothing more than the detritus of an otherwise glorious society. However, with my tongue out of my cheek, let me get to the point for Christine: the Hipster is a cultural phantom. The Hipster does not exist.
I would really like to thank Davy Knittle for raising a very important point in the last Argus edition. The first issue is that the Trans Day of Remembrance display focused on the manner of death of individuals and not their stories. This was partly because the stories of all those killed within the last year, which we normally write out completely, were not findable in time for the display to go up. Needless to say, we put up as much of the information we could find. Unfortunately, much of the power was lost in the process. A more important issue Davy raises, however, is the lack of discourse about the installation. Where were the spaces for conversation and understanding for Trans Day of Remembrance? Or better, why were there none?
Have you ever wondered exactly who the Iraqi “insurgents” are? Journalists Molly Bingham and Steve Connors were working in Iraq during the March 2003 US invasion and wondered precisely this. Bingham spent eight days in late March detained in Abu Ghraib prison by the Iraqi government security services before being released in Jordan and working her way back into Iraq; Connors was present throughout the invasion.
In his most recent “The Truth According to Ed Klein,” aspiring journalist and male chauvinist Ed Klein (again) misuses gender-neutral pronouns. I don’t dare guess whether this is an accidental mistake, that Klein actually doesn’t understand the difference between “ze” and “hir,” or that “ze’s stomach” is the grammatical equivalent of “she’s stomach,” or whether this is an intentional mistake, meant to mock the gender-neutral pronouns used by the Wesleyan community.
Claudia Hill, the Summerfields cashier who was fired by Bon Appétit in late October without explanation, has been rehired under similarly unclear conditions.
According to an update on the endowment, presented during Saturday Nov. 17th’s Board of Trustees meeting, the university’s endowment grew by $91 million in the last fiscal year, an increase from roughly $620 million to $711 million. John Meerts, Vice president for Finance and Administration, presented the report.
When Thomas Morgan, Professor of Physics, went on sabbatical to Dublin, Ireland 10 years ago, he found himself intrigued by more than just his intellectual pursuits. During his two years teaching at Queens University in Belfast, Morgan developed an interest in Irish music.
Last week, someone described as “one of the greatest social theorists of our time” appeared on campus, bearing a joyful message that surely brought warmth to the heart of every radical on this campus: in 30 years, the capitalist system will not exist. To prove such a statement would be a tall order for anyone, but perhaps “the greatest social theorist of our time” could fill it, and indeed the speaker, one Immanuel Wallerstein, did try to make such an argument.
Gillian Gibbons, a native of Liverpool, was working inside the Unity School in Sudan last week when she was arrested for blasphemy. Gibbons, who taught a class of seven-year-olds in the Sudanese capital of Khartoum, had asked her students to name a teddy bear they were adopting as part of a project on animals. The children came up with eight possible names. After Gibbons explained what it meant to vote, her students resoundingly chose to name the toy Muhammad.
The natural world often offers itself as a playground, and with a little (or sometimes substantial) bit of money can be tailored for total entertainment. Students are taking advantage of this, as the University sponsors a variety of sports teams and clubs that practice or compete outdoors. The following are student clubs whose athleticism is not often considered in the narrow scope of the sports world.
Presidents have lots of meetings. The other day I had to go to a MENSA meeting. They didn’t let me inside, but there were lots of smart dudes in the parking lot. I stared at the sun for a while, did a very tricky Parade crossword puzzle [hint for 19 down: The sixteenth president who also freed the slaves is “Michael (space) S (space) Roth”], then did a few puzzles in my Black Belt Sudoku book, and figured out a riddle (his horse is named Friday).
So, Argus, you’re gonna try and lowball us, eh? Think you can compete with the lowbrow humor we churn out? Think you can just pop out a Friday Argus with a frontpage headline about fellatio and think we won’t notice?
Last Friday, David Kaczynski, brother of serial mail-bomber Ted Kaczynski, lectured at Buddhist House. Apparently, Kaczynski, executive director of New Yorkers Against the Death Penalty, was so well-received that the administration has begun a “Brothers of Homicidal Murderers Lecture Series.”
Hear ye, hear ye! It is the most splendiferous of pleasures to extend a hearty congratulations to Mister Andrew Perechocky, member of the graduating class of the year 2008, and the first official winner of the Ampersand Reverse Caption Contest.
The men’s basketball team made it back into the win column on Saturday with a hard-fought, 71-67 overtime victory over a scrappy Roger Williams (RWU) squad. With the win, Wesleyan improved to 2-5 on the season and snapped a six-game overtime losing streak.
The women’s basketball team picked up another win Saturday, extending their streak to four games. The Cards rolled over Mitchell College 78-50 in what was the first-ever meeting between the two schools.
The women’s squash team struggled through its second weekend of competition, dropping five of six matches at the Wesleyan Round Robin tournament.
Following an impressive season debut at the Doug Parker Tournament, the Cardinals made the journey to Rochester, New York to take on the competition at the RIT Tournament. The tournament provided the team with a chance to get top-notch match experience before starting dual matches.
The women’s swimming and diving team has started the 2007-08 season strong, going 1-1 in dual competition and 5-1 overall, placing first in the Cardinal Invitational Meet this past weekend.
The women’s ice hockey team split a two-game set with Utica College this past weekend, winning the first game 1-0 while dropping the second one 2-1. The victory on Saturday was the Cardinals’ first of the season and first for new head coach Jodi McKenna. It was also the first victory for Wesleyan over Utica in five career meetings.
The men’s squash team captured a 6-3 victory against Connecticut College this weekend at the Wesleyan invitational. They fell, however, to Colby and George Washington University to post a 1-2 overall record for the weekend.
The men’s hockey team fell in two conference games at home this past weekend, unable to pick up any points in the NESCAC standings.