As campus-wide e-mails from Public Safety have indicated, two students were mugged this past Monday: the first at 1:15 a.m. at the corner of Broad and William Streets, and the second at 10:45 p.m. in front of Denison Terrace. One individual has confessed to both muggings, but it is unclear as to whether the same man in both muggings accompanied him.
Following a string of thefts and two robberies that left University students anxious about their safety on campus, three individuals have confessed to unrelated campus crimes. Two individuals are under arrest, one of whom admitted to committing six thefts in Freeman Athletic Center, and the other of whom confessed to one theft in the Butterfield dorms but who is believed to be involved in more.
As a result of plans to build a new Molecular and Life Sciences Building and to reduce University costs for students with the highest needs, the University is projecting an annual deficit of just under $2 million beginning in the 2012-13 school year. With annual deficits projected to continue through the 2017-18 school year, University officials are hopeful that a new fundraising campaign will counteract these deficits.
Three thousand graduating seniors from 50 schools filled out applications for the Thomas J. Watson Fellowship. Now, six months later, two University seniors have been awarded the fellowship, and will receive $25,000 each for one year of independent study outside of the United States. The catch? They must create, execute and evaluate their own projects without the heavy hand of students, parents, teachers and administrators.
On March 26, the University announced that five professors—Christiaan Hogendorn, Allan Isaac, Andrea Patalano, Aradhana (Anu) Sharma, and Gina Ulysse—had been granted the esteemed honor of tenure. “The Wesleyan community is fortunate to have in its midst vibrant and esteemed junior faculty,” wrote President Michael Roth in a campus-wide e-mail.
The dry erase board to the left of the cash register at Red and Black Café features the daily sandwich specials and a declining count down to graduation. Some people in line at the Café are too busy deciding on which grilled sandwich to have for lunch to notice the countdown. These people are not in the class of 2008.
Over spring break, Director of International Studies Carolyn Sorkin and Director of Jewish and Israel Studies Professor Jeremy Zwelling both traveled to the Middle East. Sorkin visited two programs in Amman, Jordan to look into expanding the list of University approved study abroad options, and Zwelling visited Jerusalem, Israel to prepare for the reopening of the Wesleyan program in Israel.
This year the African American Studies (AFAM) program will say goodbye to two much-loved professors, Gayle Pemberton and Renee Romano. Both have taken on leadership roles for African American Studies during their time here and many students are anxious to see how their departure will affect the program.
As part of a reorganization of the University’s Public Affairs Office, Vice President for Public Affairs Justin Harmon will leave the University on June 30, 2008. Harmon has worked at the University since 2000 and previously held the title of Director of University Communications.
Last Sunday, Wesleyan Student Assembly (WSA) President Matt Ball ’08 introduced a plan to create an endowment financed and managed by the student government. The authors of the proposal believe that this program would be the first of its kind. “It’s an innovative idea and it’s financially prudent,” said University Vice President for Finance and Administration John Meerts.
The first annual Social Justice Day was held on Saturday, March 29. The idea behind the event was to bring students, student groups, staff members and faculty together to discuss a topic that tends not to get a lot of attention. While attendance was lacking, the event was well received by both the University and the attendees.
While most senior thesis writers spend their days hunched over a sea of books in a claustrophobic library carrel, Max Horwich '08 spends his in a recording studio. Actually, the music major is working on a senior project that is part recital, part recording and part academic paper.
The following is a hypothetical, yet highly probable, cell phone conversation between a Wesleyan student and his or her parent who is driving towards campus and is oh-so-close.
Maybe you’ve seen him on stage as the lead singer and guitarist of one of his many bands, or maybe he’s cooked your dinner at the Star and Crescent. Perhaps you know him as “that guy with the green Mohawk, wait, rat-tail. Wait…bald kid? With mutton chops?” Or maybe you simply know him as that doe-eyed romantic crooning love songs as profound as “I wanna kidnap your family.”
Since 2001, the University has invested $3,200 per year to subscribe to a plagiarism detection online program called Turnitin.com. Started almost 11 years ago, Turnitin now supports 6,000 institutions of higher learning across the United States, according to Turnitin support staff.
Wesleyan being a liberal campus, it’s not surprising that divestment has become a major issue amongst its most politically active students. Walking past the investment office, I’m reminded of the student activism calling for the University’s divestment from two corporations that manufacture weapons being used by the United States in Iraq.
In the past few weeks, I’ve been impressed by the passion and care displayed by the recent string of environmental Wespeaks in The Argus. However, I’ve noticed subtle—yet serious—problems in them as well, most importantly apathy and inertia.
I am a third-generation Wesleyan alumnus, and my 50th reunion is coming up this June. In the late 1940s, Daniel Woodhead, Jr. ’34 (my father), John Baird ’38 (of Baird & Warner) and a couple of other alumni created the University shield that you see today. It hangs proudly in the gothic, cathedral-like dining hall of the University Club of Chicago, along with a host of other college shields.
Reading the recent Argus article regarding the stalled Physical Plant contract talks (“Stonewalled: Physical Plant contract talks go,” March 28, 2008, Volume CXLIII, Number 35), I can not help but be disturbed by the suggestion that it is not “fair” that Physical Plant employees are paying less than other University employees for their healthcare.
Dear Michael, from your inaugural address: “We should require that every student have the experience of producing original research.” Would the benchmark be your senior essay? You couldn’t call it a thesis, that plain vanilla synopsis of Freudian theory. A chapter dealing with the Hegel-Freud connection you borrowed from “Life Against Death,” you said, then labeled the borrowed-from study alternately mysterious and simpleminded.
The Cardinals’ bats have been on fire this past week, as they captured their fourth victory in a row and third victory by mercy-rule. Wesleyan opened up play on their brand-new field this weekend against Hamilton College. After sweeping the Continentals, the Cards took on Coast Guard on Wednesday and came up victorious again. The final score was 12-4, and the game ended early due to the eight-run mercy-rule.
After a Spring Break trip to the land of the Devil Rays, retirement communities and sunny weather, Wesleyan’s track and field teams made the short drive on Saturday to the city of wind, insurance and cold. Despite discomfort, cramps and lack of feeling in the extremities, the Cardinals placed well at the Bantam Invitational in Hartford, hosted by Trinity College.
During its annual spring trip, the baseball team traveled to California and experienced some ups and downs in the win-loss column. The trip started out with a three game series at Menlo College, a small school in northern California. The Cardinals jumped out with a 7-0 lead in the first game, including a solo homerun by Graham Douds ’08.
The men’s lacrosse team is riding high after a pair of NESCAC wins moved the team to 3-0 in conference play and 5-2 overall. With the wins, the Cardinals stayed on the heels of unbeaten Middlebury (5-0 NESCAC; 7-0 overall) and put some distance between themselves and the rest of the conference pack.
Not only does the women’s tennis team wear great outfits, but it has also been featured on television and in magazines. Highlighted last year in U.S. Tennis Association (USTA) Magazine for its efforts in fundraising for the Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, the team believes that it is important for athletes to volunteer in social causes.
The men’s crew team took first place last weekend in the first varsity-eight competition, on a chilly day in Worcester, Mass., defeating the Coast Guard Academy and Holy Cross College. Wesleyan took the race by a 4.2-second margin, good for its second consecutive Sullivan Cup, awarded to the winning crew.
This past weekend, Wesleyan tennis suffered a pair of losses in NESCAC play after facing two nationally-ranked teams in Amherst and Bowdoin. On Saturday, the Cards traveled up to face their Little Three rival for both teams’ first action in division play. The squad only managed to pull out one win during the affair: a 6-3 victory at #1 for Matt O’Connell ’09.
On the nights of March 27, 28 and 29, the Senior Thesis Dance Concert “Instadance” premiered. The concert featured work by nine senior dance majors, performances in conjunction with semester- and year-long research.
Face of Cain is tired, and they don’t care who knows it. “We’ve been in the car now for seven days,” the band’s vocalist intoned between songs, his voice coarse from sickness and, we might presume, too much screaming in dark, smoky spaces. He affected weariness for a moment before letting his mouth curl into a smile. “And now we’re having a contest to see who can fuck up their voice more.”
Some say the measure of a man is what he can accomplish without help, what he can make out of nothing. If so, director Ti West does pretty well for himself and for his skill at making movies. “Trigger Man,” which West also wrote, filmed and edited, tells the story of three friends on a hunting trip in rural Delaware.
Yesterday marked the beginning of the 2008 Transmodern Festival in Baltimore, Md. The festival, which will continue until Sunday, is arguably the country’s most egregiously radical display of avant-garde performance, sound, film and installation art. Like a drunken cousin at your brother’s wedding, the festival’s wares seem to be a mix of hilarity, complete lack of taste, and occasional shining genius.
Oh dear, it seems as if this may be my last column. I’m sure this comes as a relief to most readers, who after a fit of excitement in late August over the highly anticipated Cine-Files 07-08 edition, found themselves quickly turning the page in search of Ed Klein. I do have my fans though—my own mother, Molly, for instance, commented, “Why don’t you have them change that horrible photograph of you? You’re much better looking than that!”
M.I.A’s “20 Dollar” already rips off the Pixies and New Order in the best possible way, so its makes sense that mash-up all-stars The Hood Internet take the track that extra step your ears beg for and splice it with the actual New Order song (“Blue Monday”). The result is a spacey electro romp that’s the perfect light-dimming number at your next dance party.