There’s something about a lovely liberal arts college up on a hill that arouses political awareness without stimulating political participation. It’s like there’s an invisible barrier that keeps students from activating their political ideals through advocacy or political work in the public sphere. I like to call this the ‘snow globe effect.’ As an alum who taught middle school for a year before returning to Wes for […]
Two days ago, I joined members of SJP to unfurl banners with messages of Palestinian solidarity at a Wesfest event. President Roth somehow spun our demonstration into another pitch for Wesleyan’s embrace of democratic learning and Roth’s own magnanimity. Afterwards, an individual told me that they were impressed by the fact that Roth had invited […]
Nina Jakobson’s senior capstone project ‘Small Mouth Sounds’ was really awesome but I would like to bring light to the elements of the production that the last Argus article failed to mention. I was the only actor not included in the original article, or rather I was alluded to as “Kieran’s possible love interest.” I […]
Dear avid readers of The Argus, Happy Friday! We hope you all enjoyed our annual edition of The Blargus and are excited for the weather to start getting warmer. As we shiver through the last gasps of winter, we wanted to let you all know that we will not be publishing next Tuesday, April 9, […]
Last week we learned something sickening: Wes too. According to anonymous testimony in an online zine (Begging for Table Scraps) the Chair of our Board of Trustees “made inappropriate contact” with, or “had harmful interaction with” (some might say “harassed”) a student serving drinks at a board function. Reports indicate the University “followed its policies […]
I am an openly gay student on campus. Wesleyan was the first non-religious institution I have ever attended in my life. Growing up, I went to a catholic elementary school and an all-boys catholic high school. I came to Wes because of its environment that was branded as somewhere where people were unique and open […]
Here’s some good news about viewpoint diversity in the American academy! We think of our elite institutions as being populated by well-informed, thoughtful types, most of them from culturally rich backgrounds. There’s a worry that this may lead to a lack of viewpoint diversity, though: are our schools too lefty? At Harvard there is at […]
What are you? I often find myself asking this question. With objects, the answer almost always seems simple. Parasol? Oh, that’s just an umbrella. A palindrome? Words that are spelled to be read the same forwards and backwards. One way or another, we can easily search for synonyms or definitions that describe that which we […]
I can assure you that I am firmly in the progressive camp at Wesleyan. I approach every issue in American politics from the left: I am an ardent supporter of increasing spending on healthcare, insurance, climate resilience, and education at the expense of defense and border security. I am pro-abortion, anti-gun, and pro-immigration. But my opinion is thus: as liberals, progressives, moderates, socialists, and everything […]
At this year’s family Christmas gathering, an uncle asked me if I believed a peaceful, bilateral solution in the Middle East remained possible. I was a bit taken aback. Not because it was a strange question or because I hadn’t expected him, a high school history teacher, to pose it, but because no one had […]