Monday, June 23, 2025



Hermes considers new direction

In 1969, 160 University students occupied the president’s office for 27 hours in protest of military recruitment on campus. In 1973, 1,165 students signed a petition to impeach Nixon.

And in 1975, a group of student activists founded the political journal named after the God of Mischief, Hermes, as a rival to the University’s official school newspaper, The Argus. Now in its 33rd year of publication, the Hermes is the longest-running progressive student publication in New England.

Still, times have changed. Jean Pockrus ’08, who has written, edited and laid out for the Hermes since hir freshman year, believes the paper is now entering a mid-life crisis.

“There used to be things students roundly disliked,” ze said. “Now they’re confused and content. They don’t know what to organize around anymore.”

Matt Valades ’08 started working for Hermes last semester, contributing an article about press coverage of the Jena Six case.

“The political activism thing is played up so much before you get [to Wesleyan], and then you realize how subterranean it’s become inside of what people are actually doing,” he said. “It’s extracurricular, you know, like Frisbee or crafts or something. People are here a couple months and realize that it’s an advertisement.”

Though Pockrus thinks the new president and campus center had a hand in this crisis, ze also holds the Hermes staff accountable.

“The magazine always leaned to the left, focusing on activism and campus issues,” ze said. “But it has become so radical and polarizing that it’s difficult to get coverage.”

For example, Pockrus recalled e-mailing the Wesleyan College Republicans about submitting to Hermes; they “respectfully declined.” Pockus, however, assumes they took it as a joke.

To expand its base, Pockrus plans to lead organizational meetings to teach underclassmen the basics of how to get involved with Hermes, with an emphasis on submission collection, collaborative decision making and publishing. Hir goal is to print four more issues this semester, although each issue will be 16 pages instead of the usual 24.

“We have to re-establish it as a provocative magazine,” Pockrus said. “It’s a catch-22 because I need to recruit freshmen and sophomores, but a lot of them are new at writing. They would be good writers. They just don’t know it yet. They have to learn to take a chance.”

In addition to recruitment and training, Hermes is also revising its design and content.

“I want to break the monotony, add more variety, get out of all text and just covering activism,” Pockrus said. “It will always lead towards [activism], that reputation precedes the magazine, but I want more creative writing, memoirs, academic papers, poetry, that interview with your grandma that used to be a nuclear war activist, and art work, not even necessarily political.”

Valades hopes that by the time he graduates, social activism and art won’t be the polarizing forces they are now.

“We have to become a provocative force,” he said. “This is a simple frame that anyone can do, and we have to put our energy on a larger scale. Artists are active people who can help, and there are a lot of them here…art for the sake of art is over.”

Hermes is also trying to expand beyond just producing the magazine itself, bringing activists and events to campus. For example, last November they brought in Alfonso Bui, a student filmmaker at Trinity College, who directed “Some Place I Call Home,” a film about racism on college campuses. Last Monday, the magazine also sponsored the Sex Workers’ Art Show.

“I think it’s a bit trapped in being only a magazine,” Valades said. “Commentary and analysis are necessary, but those are things we don’t lack at this university or any university. Hopefully, as it has been before but not lately, the Hermes can be a magnet point and media outlet for activists and dissidents who aren’t just writing, but doing.”

The next Hermes will also expand its coverage, analyzing national issues such as AIDS, immigration and environmental racism. Though Pockrus describes Hermes as an open forum, as there are no deadlines or word count requirements, ze said the publication still has a hard time getting students and campus groups to submit.

“It makes people nervous,” ze said. “Anyone could read it. They back out or take a really long time to write and dilute what they are trying to say. But it inspires a critical eye, since the worse thing you can do to your reader is bore them.”

In May 2005, former President Doug Bennet commended the Hermes for its political work in his commencement speech.

“If you look at the centerfold of the most recent campus Hermes magazine, you’ll see the self-described working-class students talk about their experiences at Wesleyan,” he said. “Get it—it’s worth reading.”

Pockrus and Valades hope Hermes continues to be a noteworthy presence on campus. This May, there will be a Hermes alumni reunion, which could serve as a networking opportunity for current staff members to meet Hermes graduates. Former Hermes staff members have gone into everything from union organizing to publishing to environmental activism.

“We want to be a pain in the ass,” Valades said. “We hope to be a pain in the ass. People here are too passive, too much lip service… We are transferring ideas, but these ideas should be instructive or offer something that’s happened that you can learn from and apply to a public, disruptive presence. This is happening selectively as it is. I think people need a push and Hermes should be part of it.”

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