Going onto my fifth academic year at Wesleyan—the one of Middletown, Conn.—I am certain about several observations regarding this institution.
For example, the sore fact that Wesleyan is not content with being just one of like 10 other Wesleyans strewn across the Union.
However, in addition to their similar namesake, they appear to also want their physical environment (i.e. campus) to be similar too.
Like most places Wesleyan has changed; but on the hypothetical timeline/graph of activity, there is a major bump in these past five years. The Argus likes to refer to this bump as the campus “facelift.”
Although there are many good ideas being implemented around campus there are also a few bad and irresponsible ones.
It is important to acknowledge the fact that it is just people making all the decisions around here. It is easy to forget how much of our modern environments are the result of people’s decisions. I do not have as much confidence as I would like in the current decision-makers at Wesleyan.
Students are just passer b(u)yers (or passer bryers: chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry ice cream) getting eaten up and shat out by this institution.
They don’t have much of say about things, even if they’re on the omnipotent WSA. In order to have a say around here you need to graduate and have lots of money or graduate and make lots of money.
With that I will point out bad and irresponsible idea number one: the Zelnick Pavilion. I have been told a range of prices for the pavilion and (my educated guess) is that everything in between the ’92 Theater and the Chapel cost $10 million.
I have several comments about the pavilion. First, I think it is emblematic of the corporatization of Wesleyan in that it looks like a Route 66 McDonalds and was funded by rich corporate alumni who think Wesleyan needs to become mainstream to remain competitive with other schools. From an architectural standpoint there are many examples of poorly thought out relationships between material and form. In my opinion the building is sloppily sterile. I also am intrigued by the placement of the pavilion which demonstrates the University’s concern with their image, and the way they are viewed from the outside. I think this is literally evident in the way the pavilion recedes from the face of college row’s beautiful brownstones only to jut into a main pedestrian high way on the campus’ interior. The pavilion has greatly depreciated the sight-lines of college row’s rear end. Kind of like a tacky thong, but more like a diamond ring on a mother with starving children. The fact is Wesleyan is not that rich. Academic departments are begging for money needed to provide the best possible education to their students. One recent example is the government department’s classes are oversubscribed so instead of offering more they’re making it more difficult to become a major. Examples like this are abound year after year and will continue to be. I think the appearance of Wesleyan five years ago reflects a different set of priorities than the Wesleyan of today. My sophomore year there was an official evaluation committee here to evaluate Wesleyan. This committee has all sorts of formulas that they apply to institutions to make them into more efficient businesses. The issues raised by the committee were immediately answered through several parts of the Wesleyan Master Plan. The administration seemed to bow down to their superiors who seem to think Wesleyan would be better if it conformed. However, much of this contradicts Doug Bennett’s statement in the New York Times about not caring about the best college poll. These trends seem to be part of the times on all levels. My hometown, Providence, RI, has their own “Master Plan” (Providence 2020) in which they don’t want to share the waterfront with the public ($$$) and then the U.S. of A. with their plan for a new century ($$$). I just hate it when the interests of the populus get ignored because of $$$.
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