Frustrated with the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, a handful of Wesleyan students who participated in Our Spring Break devoted their two-week breaks to protesting, dancing, chanting and marching against wars that they feel are unjustified and immoral.
As contract negotiations with the University enter their ninth month, fed-up Physical Plant union members are breaking the silence by denouncing an offer that will double their insurance expenses and, in their view, insufficiently compensate for the added costs.
As part of President Roth’s push for new academic initiatives, both Roth and University faculty hope to double the number of international students on campus, as well as develop a Middle Eastern Studies Program.
Despite the setback posed by a ban on the name “Zonker Harris Day,” WestCo still plans to hold its traditional music and arts festival during WesFest weekend. In late February, the administration decided that the festival could no longer use its historic title because of its association with drug culture.
No progress has been made in the search for two paintings stolen from the lobby of Olin Memorial Library in October 2007. Efforts by Olin staff and Public Safety have not resulted in either potential suspects or clues regarding the current whereabouts of the paintings.
Food service workers and students expressed dismay at the slow pace of contract negotiations at a United Student Labor Action Coalition (USLAC) meeting last Tuesday. The union that represents all food service workers on campus, UNITE HERE Local Chapter 217, is currently in talks with foodservice provider Bon Appétit to negotiate the details of their contract.
At a meeting on divestment from weapons contractors, trustee Michael Klingher revealed the exact amount of money that the University has invested in weapons contractors"$1.6 million in General Dynamics and $600,000 in Raytheon. This information was previously unavailable to the campus community.
Cupcakes and several schmoozing Cardinal mascots formed part of the hoopla last Wednesday in Usdan, as the Red and Black Calling Society Tuition celebrated its first ever Tuition Transition Day. The experimental event was meant, in part,to raise awareness among students that much of their stay at Wesleyan is funded by alumni and other donors.
When asked if he is still administratively involved with the university, a relaxed and convivial former President Doug Bennet could not help but chuckle. "No, ma'am," he said. Since stepping down as president, Bennet and his wife, Midge, have moved to a small farmhouse in Lyme, CT along the Connecticut River, where they are enjoying all the perks of retired life.
On Sunday afternoons the Butt C lounge transforms into a makeshift yoga studio, drawing University students into a calming atmosphere separated from the hubbub of college life. Yoga at the University is currently offered through the office of WesWELL for a fee of $125 per 12-week session.
Saturday night, two a.m., lost and alone in Dublin. Two of my friends are drinking in Temple Bar, where the music is loud and cellphones buzz in vain. I discover too late that my own cell isn’t working, thanks to an automated message that tells me, in a glacial news anchor’s voice, that I seem to have left the UK.
Entering Karla Hargrave’s senior thesis studio, one is greeted by five enormous, abstract and colorful structures, each with a unique style evoking a different feeling. “Many people think they look like little monsters,” Hargrave laughed. “They each have a different story to tell and their own personality.”
As an avid thespian, Anthony Nikolchev ’08 has been on many a Wesleyan stage. You’ve seen him improvising in the WestCo cafe, becoming that mythical mother-lover Oedipus while wearing a creepy leather mask and women’s shoes, and soon, you will see him embody his very own father and a bunch of his other Bulgarian family members in his non-thesis thesis.
As Physical Plant workers enter their ninth month of contract negotiation, the University is arguing that it's only fair that the workers contribute the same amount for health insurance as faculty do. Unfortunately, this line of reasoning isn't fair at all.
Last season, the men's lacrosse team had four attackmen score a combined 118 goals and also boasted one of the country's top defenses, led by Spike Malangone '09, who earned second-team All-American laurels. All five of these players are back this season.
While it may not be a sentiment echoed by the rest of the student population, at least the Wesleyan track and field team is excited to be back in Middletown. With a solid team showing in Florida and two all-time team records under their belts already, the Cardinals are ready to take on the cold weather and NESCAC competition in order to continue what’s shaping up to be a promising outdoor season.
The men’s crew team started its spring season off on a great note, finishing fourth out of twelve boats in the Mayor’s Cup Regatta. The event was held on March 15 in Tampa, FL and was part of the team’s week long training stint in the Sunshine State.
The Wesleyan men’s tennis team headed to Florida with high hopes after a solid 3-2 record in the Fall Season. Led by tri-captains Michael Frank ’08, Pauri Pandian ’08 and Max Schenkein ’08 the Cardinals were able to start the spring season with a strong 4-3 victory over Youngstown State, who had beaten the Cards soundly just a year ago.
This year’s softball squad will look to recapture the magic of last year’s record-breaking season, where they made their inaugural appearance in the NESCAC tournament. Last season saw their best record-to-date (21-15 overall, 9-3 in their division) as well as an exciting mid-season 12-game winning streak.
Some people find beauty in the view from mountain tops; for others nothing can outmatch a sunset. To a New York sports fan, nothing could be more beautiful than seeing Isiah Thomas get the pink slip. But to scholars and philosophers, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Thus, to every New York Mets fan, beauty can be defined in two words: Johan Santana.
The golf team began its spring season in Fort Pierce, FL over spring break, taking on NESCAC rivals Williams College and Hamilton College at the Indian Hills Golf Club. The Cards finished third in the match, shooting a total of 314 to Hamilton’s 294 and Williams’ 291.
“The Mormon Church was officially a racist organization until 1978. It did not believe that black people had souls and refused to allow them into the church,” (“Religion in 2008,” March 4, vol. CXLIII, no. 34). This is totally ridiculous and shows a lack of research. The Mormon Church always allowed blacks into the Church, but until 1978 they could not be ordained to the priesthood.
On March 2, I attended the most recent WSA meeting, during which there was a discussion of Wesleyan's camera surveillance policy, which is currently being written in the Public Safety Advisory Committee (PSAC). I believe it will go to the Student Life Committee (SLC) on Thursday and be voted on after Spring Break.
You know the drill... A half-year from now, I’ll refer to this Wespeak when the Rockies make the playoffs and say, “I told you so.”
Dear Alexa, I am a little confused about how you hope to “talk it up” with those “better informed” than you if you don’t even want to “hear about” the critical issues facing us. In general, your Wespeak (“Missing the forest for the trees,” March 4. vol. CXLIII, no. 34) was confusing and provided an unnecessary negative outlook on what your peers/professors have been doing on campus to incite change.
As an alum of both the university and WestCo, I was dismayed to read about ResLife’s underhanded tactics to forcibly change the name of Zonker Harris Day (“Blunt refusal: ResLife says no to funding Zonker Harris Day,” Feb. 29, vol. CXLIII, no. 33). Maybe President Roth thinks that Zonker Harris Day is “stupid,” but to many of us alums, it is one of those great traditions that made our years on campus so memorable.
Tuesday afternoon [March 4, 2008] in the ST Lab, there were three young adults using the computers for personal use. One of the students was seemingly “white,” the other was “Latino,” and the other was “black.” All three kids were wearing “urban” attire. Needless to say, they did not look like “Wesleyan” students, whatever the hell that means. The monitor profiled them for sitting quietly in the ST lab.
As an African-American Mormon leader, I was both outraged and disappointed to see your newspaper publish a Wespeak filled with slanderous, wildly inaccurate statements lifted from anti-Mormon propaganda.
Scott Ugras, in his “Religion in 2008” Wespeak (March 4, vol. CXLIII, no. 34), asserts that the Mormon Church (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) was “officially” racist because it refused “black people” membership. Actually, African Americans and people of any race or ethnicity have always been able to be baptized into the church.
It is not often that I find myself enjoying the writing in The Argus. With no offense intended for the less inspired journalists of our lovely school newspaper (at one point, myself included), I have found myself quite drawn to Mytheos Holt’s clever, cynical writing which inspires in me laughter (who else has dared to call Roth a “Choo Choo train?”) and provoked some deep thought (unlike my usual haze on Sunday mornings).
In a Music department colloquium a few hours before his March 5 presentation, "New Yorker" music critic Alex Ross introduced music in the words of Bulgarian novelist Elias Canetti: "the living history of mankind." No one's work exemplifies this idea more than Ross'--since his undergraduate years at Harvard University, the author and journalist has been animated by a desire to understand music in its historical context.
On March 4, Akron/Family’s extensive tour found itself at Beckham Hall in front of a mostly eager crowd of University students. The band has risen to international prominence over the last four or so years, and has now played at Wesleyan for two consecutive years, thanks to the sponsorship of seniors Max Horwich ’08 and Adam Tinkle’s ’08 music organization, the ICBM.
It’s good to laugh at things. In a lot of ways, the world is a pretty horrible place, and if people couldn’t make fun of things it would be damn near unbearable. Director Goran Dukic seems to agree with his lighthearted tragedy, “Wristcutters: A Love Story.”
While the original version of the song leaves some production value to be desired, hip-hop remix extraordinaire edIT adds just the right snarling beat to The Grouch’s gut-punch flow. Warning: some of you may find the lyrics a little too close to home.
Adrian Tomine’s latest effort, “Shortcomings,” reflects the continued rise of the graphic novel, a form initially received with skepticism. Currently, several authors, including Tomine, have garnered enough critical acclaim and demonstrated the literary prowess necessary to bring an amount of respect to their art.
On the night of Tuesday, March 11, Danish art school students living in Crown Heights sat shoulder-to-shoulder with trendy eight-year-olds playing with their parents’ BlackBerries on the dusty drill hall floor of the Park Avenue Armory.
As poet Rae Armantrout prepared to read from her new manuscript “Dark Matter,” she fussed with a momentarily malfunctioning podium lamp, trying to illuminate the pages of her black bound notebook. “If I could only light it,” she sighed.
Four weeks after the close of Skittles, the second annual Student of Color art show, several of the participating artists reflected on the purpose of the show and its place among studio art opportunities within the University.
Shortly before spring break, President Michael Roth proposed an explicit, prescriptive program for art at the University. He fearlessly recommended that the administration exclude whole genres, movements and subcultures from University-funded cultural events. Defying the vogue for aesthetic inclusiveness, he declared, “The institution should make it clear that it’s not supporting things that are stupid.”