Prefrosh and current students bask on Foss Hill, chatting and enjoying the sunshine. Down on Andrus field, students join in on a pick-up game of Frisbee. Others attend one of the many student- or university-run events taking place over the weekend. Yes, it’s that time of year again. WesFest is here.
“WesFest is like Wesleyan on steroids or speed,” WesFest intern Andrew Walker ’09 said.
Behind the chaos, fun, and dizzying variety of cultural events, is a single goal: condense the wonders of the University into a single weekend, and convince as many different kinds of accepted students to attend.
“WesFest is Wesleyan’s greatest opportunity to showcase itself to prospective students,” said WesFest intern Lauren Russman ’09.
For many former WesFest attendees, the weekend confirmed their feelings that the University was the place for them.
Tony Dhani ’10 says that although he was leaning toward the University, his time at WesFest convinced him.
“I saw there was a very familial atmosphere here, even more so than at other small schools I was considering,” he said.
WesFest is a chance for the University to display the diversity that it banks its reputation on.
“There was so much going on, so many different cultural events to attend, so many different kinds of people to meet,” Kara Hayward ’10 said. “I thought Wesleyan was really perfect.”
Russman, who did not attend WesFest as a prefrosh but was a host her freshman year, enjoys the weekend’s atmosphere.
“For me, WesFest was one of the first times I felt a true sense of community on campus,” Russman said.
Paul Edwards ’09 said that, although WesFest gives prefrosh a favorable view of Wesleyan, it can be somewhat misleading.
“WesFest is a good representation of what people are like when they are not working,” he said. “The one thing is, people here work a lot.”
Beginning a little earlier than WesFest, Student of Color Weekend (SCW) has been around longer than WesFest itself. SCW started in 1971, when students organized the event to encourage more minority applicants to attend the University. With its own orientation and events geared specifically towards students of color, this weekend has been integral to the University community.
Tiffany Knuckles ’10 attended SCW as well as WesFest.
“I experienced the diversity and culture of Wesleyan, which was great,” Knuckles said. “It really made me fall in love with the school and the people who go here.”
That being said, Knuckles felt as if the reality of life on campus for students of color was a bit obscured by the volume and variety of events that took place.
“They clumped us all together to make it seem as if there are more minorities at this school then there actually are, which felt intentionally misrepresentative,” Knuckles said, quick to add, though, that her time here thus far has been wonderful overall.
Many current students say that the atmosphere they witnessed at WesFest has held true upon their attendance.
“I was struck by [Wesleyan] then, and I still am,” Greenstein said, “Everyone here is so nice it’s like we’re all on the same team.”
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