When Teach For America (TFA) corps member Laura Goldblatt '06 arrived to Greenville, Miss., ready to begin her first year teaching high school English, she wasn't expecting to find a school without a principal, and an administration that didn't seem to care.
For many students, the Iraq War is a distant tragedy. For others, the war has hit close to home, with friends and family serving overseas. On a campus where the vast majority of students are personally disconnected from the war, those who have been affected by it harbor conflicting views of patriotism, duty, and sacrifice.
On Thursday, March 27, Annemarie Bean, a visiting associate professor in the African American Studies Program, was informed that her tentatively one-year teaching position at the University would not be extended to a second year, a possibility that was stated in her contract.
At this year’s approaching commencement, University seniors will not be the only ones receiving kudos for their work. Writer Jamaica Kincaid, photographer Phillip Trager ’56, and Williams College President Morton Schapiro will be the recipients of three Honorary Doctorate Degrees, an award given annually to three or four recipients at commencement ceremonies.
Politician Mike Gravel wants to put the power of government in the hands of the people. On April 8, the newly-Libertarian presidential candidate spoke candidly for over two hours to a crowd of University students in the Woodhead Lounge.
Starting this week, over 40 student groups will be contacting students admitted to the class of 2012 in an effort to excite them about University life as they consider their college options.
Professor of Psychology Scott Plous and other staff members of the Social Psychology Network recently launched IraqTheVote.org, a website aimed at ending the Iraq War and improving human rights in Iraq. The website centers on a petition proposing that Iraqi citizens be allowed to vote on whether they want foreign troops withdrawn from their country.
It was not surprising that the students introducing Palestinian activist Dr. Ghada Karmi, who was soon to speak to a bustling PAC 001 on the highly controversial question of a Palestinian homeland, made sure to warn the audience to behave respectfully.
On Wednesday night, student journalists packed Usdan 108 to hear ABC News Senior Vice President Paul Mason ’77 discuss press coverage of the 2008 election in his speech “The 2008 Political Campaign: News Coverage in the Digital Age—Blogs, debates, and why your vote might not count.” Mason talked about the shift in the conveyance of information, contrasting this campaign season to the 1994 general election in South Africa at the end of Apartheid.
After being rejected from the art studio major at the end of her sophomore year, Sasha Portis ’09 felt she needed to take a break, even if that meant possibly not coming back. “I was floundering around, not knowing what I was doing, not getting great grades except for in art classes, so I decided to take time off and either come back or not,” she said.
Basketball lovers at Wesleyan will soon be able to enjoy pick-up games in the great outdoors, thanks to the advocacy efforts of hoops enthusiast Eli Sevcik-Timberg ’08 and the cooperation of the Wesleyan Student Assembly (WSA).
I tend to avoid television these days, less out of a cranky Luddite’s inherent distrust of the media as a wannabe-intellectual’s uncompromising preference for books. Those few times when I do watch something—Scrubs, usually, or pirated clips from the Office—I tend to feel drained afterwards, sacked with the distinct impression that nothing was there to miss. But there are exceptions.
We use paper in so many forms: we write on it, we print on it, we wipe with it, we blow our noses into it, we read from it, we dry our hands on it. Our paper towels, until now, were made of un-recycled material and gleamed a brightly bleached white.
While studying abroad at the Swarthmore College Grenoble program during the fall of her junior year, Alicia Collen ’08 was lucky enough not only to enjoy France’s bread, wine and cheese, but also to find inspiration for her senior thesis.
Cute as a button and with an outfit to match the attitude, Isa Nakazawa ’08 just might be the nicest person I’ve met on the Wesleyan campus. But don’t let her smiling exterior fool you—this girl is a force to be reckoned with. While she’s been involved in a number of student groups and activities during her time at Wesleyan, in her senior year Nakazawa has chosen to focus on what she is really passionate about: Writer’s Block.
We all know that the "visit" that a visiting professor takes to Wesleyan is a short one--most visiting professors are here for fewer years than the average undergraduate. This situation creates a stripe of faculty that current visiting professor of African American Studies Mandi Isaacs Jackson rightly calls "contingent faculty."
The view from WestCo Down One consists of Weshop patrons, the courtyard and its European beech tree. This view has accompanied years of underclassmen as they pull all-nighters or observe the weather before dressing. As a freshman, it's easy to get caught up in my own drama, and I often neglect to see that I'm just pedestrian to this experience, a visitor to the University, a trial subscriber to the 177 years of community.
During Spring Break, I had an opportunity to visit the Dominican Republic because my friend from Wesleyan and her family had been kind enough to invite me. This trip made me realize how spoiled I have been after living in the United States for almost seven years (I was born in Thailand and came to the U.S. in May 2001).
While in Miami last month, I bumped into Michael Bay ’86 at Nobu and chatted with him about the ungrateful shit-stain-like students of Wesleyan University. After Bay cut a check for $300,000.00 (that’s a lot of zeroes), some slouching nerd and/or virgin asked the esteemed director if he had Megan Fox’s phone number, and another archetypal assfuck asked how much money he has.
A recent front page of the Wesleyan Argus featured a story about a student fined $219 for flinging a Sour Patch Kid into the street (“Bitter end: Sophomore fined $219 for throwing candy,” April 8, Volume CXLIII, Number 38). Just for a piece of candy. Well, I’d like to applaud the Middletown police officer that wrote the ticket.
In the April 8 Argus (Volume CXLII, Number 38), the Roving Reporter asked seniors the question, “So, how’s your thesis going?” One of these seniors was Constance Smith, who at the time had already handed in her Art Studio thesis. But there she was, raising her middle finger in apparent anger and having a chuckle on the inside at all those still running the gauntlet.
The reality and truth of a matter is often muddled with personal perceptions. We attempt to distinguish between illusions and facts, using the rational, reductive process of our mind. But sometimes we need to rid ourselves of our predispositions and desire for an ideal reality, in order to fully witness an experience.
Paul West is an extremely stubborn writer. He has not deviated from his desired subject matter, rather attaining critical success through the mastery of his unique form. Unfortunately, West’s writing is better known for the awards it has won than for outstanding sales. His oeuvre is notable for its breadth, encompassing novels, short stories, personal essays, criticism, poetry, and autobiography.
President Michael Roth introduced renowned author and journalist Philip Gourevitch at the Memorial Chapel on Wednesday night for his lecture, entitled “Shrinking the World to Fit a Book.” Invited as a part of the Distinguished Writers/New Voices series, Gourevitch is perhaps best known for his 1998 non-fiction book “We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families,” which recounts the story of the genocide in Rwanda.
Believe it or not, the Wesleyan Student Assembly (WSA) has a tremendous amount of influence on the way things are run here at Wesleyan. It’s time we stand up and use it. That’s why I’m running for President of the WSA with Saul Carlin ’09 as my Vice President.
I am writing regarding the article written by Ezra Silk in the April 8 issue of The Argus titled “Bitter End: Sophomore fined $219 for throwing candy” (Volume CXLIII, Number 38). I read the article and noticed numerous inconsistencies throughout the article, and I wanted to take the opportunity to address the Wesleyan University community and set the record straight.
I’ve been an art major at Wesleyan for three years now. I’ve taken classes with the majority of teachers in the department, and I go to all of the shows and lectures I can fit on my schedule. Yet the circle of artists I know on campus has barely expanded from the students I took painting with my freshman year.
It has recently been announced that the Korean language program will be discontinued next year. As concerned students past, present and future of the program, we wish to express our extreme displeasure and regret regarding this decision. This is a top-down decision, and the reasons for this change have not been revealed to the students.
The men's lacrosse team picked up a crucial NESCAC win on Wednesday afternoon, defeating Amherst, 9-8, for its 11th consecutive win over the Lord Jeffs. The win came on the heels of a 10-7 defeat at Williams on Saturday and improved the Cardinals to 4-1 in NESCAC play, allowing them to remain in second behind undefeated Middlebury (6-0 NESCAC).
After two tough losses last week, the women’s tennis team pulled off three great wins in a row against Trinity College (5-4), Colby College (5-4) and Smith College (7-2). The team had focused all week on strengthening their doubles play, and it certainly paid off.
This past weekend, the men’s tennis team took the long bus ride up to Maine to take on the Colby Mules. The Cardinals hoped to reverse their fortunes from just a year ago when the visiting Mules came away with the 5-2 victory in seven very competitive matches. Going into the match, Wesleyan had a 0-2 record in NESCAC play.
Our sincerest of apologizes to all the members of the women’s crew team who have competed in two regattas since March 29 and have not received ample coverage from the Argus Sports section. Our bad, writers are hard to come by these days.
During the offseason, Alex Rodriguez agreed to a 10-year deal with the New York Yankees worth an estimated $275 million. The MVP third baseman is poised to make millions more if he breaks Barry Bonds’ all-time career home run mark and reaches certain milestones outlined in his record contract.
In “Fool The World,” the Pixies’ collected oral history, Kim Deal recalls a particularly raucous night out with Throwing Muses’ Tanya Donelly, whose songs, like Deal’s, were grossly underrepresented on her band’s albums. Long story short, it ended with Deal locking Donelly in a bathroom, only releasing her when she had promised to dedicate herself to the future of their side project, The Breeders, then in its infancy.
This week on the Film Series…the new Film Board swings into action! I know we all love this year’s seniors, despite their tweaked behavior in the last couple weeks (you’re almost done! I swear!). But sadly, it’s the middle of April, and you know what that means: sunshine; Foss Hill; hook-ups that maybe shouldn’t happen; awesome movies on the Film Series, and a whole mess of seniors getting totally trashed in preparation for their departure from their alma mater.
In the wake of last year’s electro-dance explosion came a wave of dime-a-dozen Simian Mobile Justice-style DJ collectives. But Guns’n’Bombs’s Johnny Love and Filip Turbotito (of Ima Robot) still manage to distinguish themselves in a genre that’s running out of bass lines to sample. Be sure to pick up this free download of “Crossover Appeal,” a track that tinkers with ambient beats before launching into a hard-hitting rhythm that will make your speakers break a sweat.