GRS success: No housing points for sophomores, juniors

Every year, something which Director of ResLife Fran Koerting can only describe as "bizarre" happens during General Room Selection (GRS). This spring, partly because a total of 80 students inexplicably did not participate in the process, everybody in the rising class of sophomores and juniors were able to get housing during GRS.

Wesleyan Fund grows, despite current economic downturn

In the face of difficult economic times spurred on by less consumer spending, University parents and alumni are defying the odds by making larger donations than ever to the Wesleyan Fund. According to Director of the Wesleyan Fund Pam Vasiliou, the average individual gift size this year has increased from $85 to $105, and total gift giving is up by $39,000, or 13 percent.

Students hold mixed views on Usdan fare

When Bon Appetit replaced longtime University food service provider Aramark last year, it came with a promise to "create food that is alive with flavor and nutrition, prepared-from-scratch using authentic ingredients." So, with a school year of meals behind them, how do students feel about the food?

University appoints new VP for Diversity

Beginning this summer, President Michael Roth will be joined by another veteran of the California College of the Arts (CCA): Sonia BasSheva Mañjon. Dr. Mañjon will become the University’s first Vice President for Diversity and Strategic Partnerships.

Olin lobby distractions include a cappella, art displays, debates

From time to time, Olin lobby entertains more than just students taking a break from stressful workloads. This often-frequented campus locale is also a primary spot for various events, from art exhibits to Hanukkah celebrations.

Smells Like Green Spirit: Composting

There are green, cylindrical composters all around campus. They are beautiful. We told you a while back, in this very column, that we would get them, and we did. Because you can trust EON. What, precisely, do these things do? Well, first of all, they spin, which is really exciting.

WesCeleb: Elissa Gross '08

Elissa Gross ’08 has a lot of fears, but she’s far from shy. She hosts her own radio show, choreographs and performs for Terpsichore, dressed up as a grandma for the sex party, and carries a purse shaped like a watering can. We met up in PAC, where she told me about her upcoming job at a fat camp and the secret behind Bret Michael’s hair.

Making the grade

Spring is here and finals are just upon us. Time to evaluate this past semester in all its glory.

How we can show support for the Times Readership Program

In this important election year the influence of the media on society has been contested and questioned. The Clinton campaign, for example, has complained that the liberal media is biased in favor of Obama. This issue even permeated late-night comedy shows, with a notable skit on SNL poking fun at the liberal media's obsession with Obama.

EPC clarifies study abroad policy

I am writing in response to the article entitled “EPC debates study abroad GPA policy,” which appeared in the April 29 issue of the Argus (Volume CXLIII, Number 44), in order to clarify a few points made in that article. The EPC (Educational Policy Committee) has voted to propose a set of academic regulations governing international study to the faculty for its approval at its meeting on May 6.

Count abroad GPAs

People study abroad for many reasons. As a student enamored by comparative ecology studying abroad for the entire 2008-2009 academic year, I looked solely at biodiverse countries with different ecosystems than I am accustomed to, which is why I will study next year in Brazil and Tanzania.

Holt, halt criticisms

In his last column (“Mytheology: ‘Wesploiting’ our bleeding hearts,” April 29, Volume CXLIII, Number 44), Mytheos Holt decided to apply something he called “scrutiny” to the article I had written about the Physical Plant march (“‘No Wesploitation’: Physical Plant workers protest contract,” April 22, Volume CXLIII, Number 42) and decided that he had revealed that, and I quote, “if one actually examines the union’s arguments, one finds gaping holes which make the arguments smack more of a cynical appeal to Wesleyan students’ predisposition towards ‘social justice’ than of a principled fight against exploitation.”

Not “disturbing”

The Wesleyan student community has always been known for its active engagement in helping those who need it. I do not understand how President Roth can say that the enlistment of students in protests for Physical Plant is “disturbing” (“Marching forward? Physical Plant workers protest in Usdan,” April 25, Volume CXLIII, Number 43).

Real math on Physical Plant

I don’t know that I am a spokesperson for the union, but I do know that I speak for what I feel is right. So as not to leave questions open either inadvertently or out of intentional dishonesty, I will clarify our statements. I and 60 other members of Physical Plant have lived with the negotiations, and worked without a contract, for the past 11 months.

Reclaim MPR space

How many of you have been to the Multi Purpose Room (MPR) in the basement of Usdan? Maybe you dropped in for senior pictures for the yearbook and noticed it has comfy couches and is otherwise devoid of character. More than likely you’ve passed by on the way to pick up a package and that’s about it.

Flatten Wes!

Remember in those SimCity style games, where you could just click a button and BAM, the entire city is all level? Well, I think we should find the God-buttons on Middletown, and “adjust terrain,” as it were. Save a quadricep! Flatten Wes!

P-Safe lurking?

P-Safe is slowly acquiring a fleet of subtle-yet-creepy unmarked cruisers and unmarked SUVs. What’s with that?!? Who decided to take the “public” out of “public safety?”

Women's lax loses to Amherst, has high hopes for next season

After trailing 8-3 in the opening minutes of the fourth quarter of their first round NESCAC matchup with Amherst, the women's lacrosse team fought back to close the gap to 8-7 with five minutes remaining in the game. Unfortunately, the Cards were unable to get a shot in their last effort to tie the score, and fell to the Lord Jeffs for the eighteenth-straight time since 1994, and for the third year in a row in the NESCAC tournament.

Tennis finishes 11-7

On April 21, the women’s tennis team entered its last regular season match against NESCAC rival Bates College hosted at the home courts determined to win. “We knew we had to win this match and that we should win this match,” said Anika Fischer ’10. “We needed that momentum going into NESCACS.”

Men’s crew looks to right its ship

The men’s crew team, coming off defeats in its last two races, will look to rebound this weekend at the New England Regatta in Worchester, Mass. The team followed a disappointing loss to Williams two weekends ago with another setback last weekend against the Trinity College Bantams. Now standing at 7-2 on the spring, the squad is looking to regain their early season form.

Men’s tennis record improves

The men’s tennis team finished its season with a 5-4 victory at home against Brandeis last week. It was the Cards’ second consecutive win by that score and it gave them three wins out of their last four to finish the year at an even 8-8, an improvement from last year.

Cohen on the Court: Halt the coaching carousel

It’s happening again. Avery Johnson was the first to go. Now there are rumors that Mike D’Antoni may be ousted in Phoenix. And don’t forget about the impending one-year anniversary of Jeff Van Gundy’s departure.

A look at an overlooked poet

Though little known in light of his canonical contemporaries, which included Robert Browning and Matthew Arnold, Loren Fitzgerald Almsley (1821-1864) wrote subtle, quietly beautiful poems, counterbalancing the urge for fame in his youth with acquiescence to a life of observation in middle age.

Sculptures win national award

Provisional arrangements. Order and Disorder. Structure and counter structure. These are some of the ideas Art Professor Jeffrey Schiff will investigate as part of his current sculpture project, “Contingencies,” a project for which he has been awarded a 2008 Guggenheim Fellowship.

“Real Thing” offers real emotion

The boundaries between theater and reality are what Grace Overbeke ’08 seeks to find in “The Real Thing,” written by Tom Stoppard. The play follows two couples and investigates how their adulterous relations develop in a play-within-a-play context. In all, viewers are left with an investigation of the emotional relationships between characters. We discover that they can develop from a seemingly presentational milieu to what we can define as real.

Faculty dancers channel passion, anguish, grace in performance

Culture and identity are common themes—tenets even—in the art of dance. That said, choreographers are often faced with the challenge of emotionally engaging the audience in order to connect them with what is often unfamiliar subject matter. Last weekend’s spring faculty dance concert, “The Energy Which Remains,” focused heavily on both subjects, but blended them with the broad human themes of passion and struggle to create moving, captivating narratives.

Movie Review: “The Signal”

So this is it. The last review of the year. Maybe a few people read some of these, and maybe someone saw a movie they wouldn’t otherwise have seen. Maybe not—all I can do is write ’em. And to round out the year, I’ve chosen a film that embodies some of the sentiment and ideals of this column.

The Cine-Files

Well, here we are at the end of another year at Wesleyan. Sure, you did maybe half the reading for half of your classes, but man, have you had fun! Think of all the amazing movies you saw in our beloved Goldsmith Family Cinema. Remember all the way back to “The Holy Mountain”? That was fucking sweet. And could we forget “Stop Making Sense?”

Inventive Clatter: Andy Palacio

The list of visionaries who died young is long and tragic. Musically, John Lennon and Jimi Hendrix, at least in my experience, come up the most in conversation. Sadly, a great Belizean musician by the name of Andy Palacio was added to the list just a few months ago. Palacio died of a sudden stroke, leaving behind an impressive legacy of music and activist cultural influence in his native Belize.

MP3 of the week

I’ve been trying to stay away from mash-ups, but The Hood Internet has done it again and turned a relatively mediocre rap song into your new favorite dance track.

“Essence of She” rouses crowd

We see them first as silhouettes: six dark figures bending into careful arrangement and freezing. The lights go up and Beckham Hall explodes in whoops and whistles-—with their matching vests, oversized sunglasses and jutting hips, the women onstage are a vision of sass. They smile out at the crowd, with eyes not sheathed by a performer’s unseeing passivity, but penetrating with a frank, intimate gaze. The crowd clamors lightly, their noise punctuated by a hail from the back of the room that will refrain for the rest of the show: “Okay, Ayesha! I see you Ayesha!”