When I attended Wesleyan I used to brag that I was the only conservative in a class of 1,000. Turns out I was one of the few Christians too. My apparent differences from my classmates gave rise to many interesting and educational discussions and we all learned from each other. There was never any animosity or belligerence displayed and collegiality reigned. I still have many alumni friends with who I continue to have this dialogue and have traded emails with one friend in particular who was greatly distressed by the results of the 2024 presidential election. But these results didn’t keep us from maintaining the collegiality and friendship that we’ve always enjoyed.
But President Roth’s desire to make Wesleyan a totally partisan institution which completely supports only one political ideal absolutely flies in the face of any description of a “liberal” education. It will mean that anyone without hard left views will be unwelcome, excluded and crazy to want to have anything to do with the University. The partisanship he desires will be exclusionary in the extreme and all applicants should be warned that this is the environment they will experience.
Wesleyan has always considered itself to be the home of a liberal education. The reference to “liberal” has always been used with reference to the University. It’s often use preceded my years, dominated everything I ever heard while in attendance and continues to be the single most applied term of reference. However, now President Roth has made it anything but a liberal center of education.
Richard N. Morash ’65 can be reached at Rnmorash@aop.com.
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