Author: Kaye Dyja

Vienna Kaylan ’19 has filled a void at the University, bringing affordable and trendy vintage clothes to campus with a series of pop-up shops. Her brand, You and Ayla (@you.and.ayla), sells a collection of vintage items hand-picked and curated by Kaylan over a number of years. The Argus recently sat down with her to discuss the success of her business, the future of the brand, and advice she has for other young entrepreneurs.

The Argus: Why don’t you start by telling me a little bit about your business.

Vienna Kaylan: I have a business called You and Ayla, which is a vintage clothing company of pieces that I’ve sourced and collected from across the U.S. We fix up and re-sell at a really affordable price, to really focus on a sustainable clothing option that is also affordable for people at Wesleyan. I feel like when I think of sustainable clothing options now, they are always really expensive, and there is a lot of online shopping at Wesleyan that accumulates a lot of waste. I’m obsessed with clothing and styling, so I just kind of wanted to bring that to campus and share it with people, and price it at a point where everyone could participate in both being sustainable and feeling stylish and beautiful.

A: When did it start?

VK: I started it over the summer. I’ve been collecting pieces since I got back from abroad last fall, but I started selling this year at Wesleyan in the fall. It’s me, and [grad student] JR Bascombe helps me. He helps with the business side, and my friends help, whether it’s lending me a car to come down to Usdan to sell there, or just really showing support and advertising it. It’s been a community effort which has been really fun.

A: Have you seen a lot of success at Wesleyan?

VK: Definitely. It’s interesting how accessibility is really helpful at Wesleyan. Being able to walk through Usdan and find stuff has been really great for people, and it’s something that I know I love, like when I walk through clothing being sold at Usdan, I love that. I love not having to go off campus to look for stuff. We’ve seen a lot of people buy a lot of things at once, which is really exciting, and transitioning from seasons being able to price really warm jackets really well, and see people stock up and bring themselves into the next season has also been really special. Every single piece I’ve picked out myself, and would wear myself, and adore, so it’s really cool to see people wearing them around campus. That’s been really, really rewarding.

A: Where do you get the clothing?

VK: A lot of the stuff I’ve been collecting from my mom for years and years, since she’s a huge fashion junkie. A lot of the stuff is from vintage shops across the Midwest. I did a trip there over the summer, which was so much fun. A lot of my friends from home donate really beautiful pieces that they don’t have space for in their closets anymore. Some stuff I got abroad and brought back, from London, and a lot of old family pieces I’ve collected. It’s been a process of me collecting pieces for years, that [don’t] all fit me or anything like that.

A: Where do you keep all of these pieces?

VK: We store a lot of stuff on Brainerd, where my friend has an apartment. 

A: Do you want to continue this after you graduate?

VK: Yeah, definitely! I want to do it in New York, and I want to do deliveries. I’m always thinking about how to minimize, because I know the weight that e-commerce does have in terms of generating waste. I’m not super educated on the ways that you can minimize that, but I do want to sell online and figure out a delivery system, or just start traditional e-commerce and figure out how to reduce waste from a traditional e-commerce kind of bracket. I do want it to live on after Wesleyan. I want it to continue to be a resource for really cute pieces that you know you’re going to get at a good price, and that you know are going to be really good quality. I want to be a first-stop shop for people if they’re thinking about adding another really beautiful piece to their collection. I also want to be an alternative to going to these fast-fashion marketplaces, like Zara or Urban Outfitters. There, you are finding something really cute that’s like $70, but you can’t even begin to trace the train of production. I would love to continue to be a one-stop shop where people can buy really well-priced and sustainably sourced clothing.

A: How many pop-up shops have you done at Wesleyan?

VK: I’ve done four or five, and we’ve done them outside and inside of Usdan. They’ve all been really fun, and getting to talk to people is so nice. I am hoping to do one more before school ends, but it’s a really big endeavor getting everything out and set up. Also, my last semester is so swamped, so I’m not sure. People come and look through the stuff all the time though, which is nice, so people can always come and take stuff. I hope to keep it kind of alive as a resource if anyone does want anything.

A: Any advice you’d give to anyone who’s trying to break into this type of work?

VK: Totally. I think just really think about how you can bring value to people, whether that’s being affordable or presenting another option to engaging in the fast-fashion market. Think about what is really important to you. I think the most important thing to me is selling pieces that I’m really passionate about, and that I really love, and that I know other people would love. Also, being an affordable resource. I don’t know a ton logistically [about] how sustainability and fashion interact, but I know that presenting people with another option to ordering online is a good first step, and that’s important to me. Think about what you could feasibly get done when you’re at Wesleyan and how you can make that happen.

 

Kaye Dyja can be reached at kdyja@wesleyan.edu.

Jane Herz can be reached at jherz@wesleyan.edu.

When Sara Philippe ’19 isn’t tutoring students in Middletown, she’s usually standing on tables in Usdan or riding her bike around campus. The Argus sat down with the history and Romance Languages & Literature double major to discuss her thesis, her outgoing personality, and her time studying abroad in Brazil.

The Argus: Why do you think you were nominated as a WesCeleb?

Sara Philippe: I think I was nominated as a WesCeleb because I am very loud and obnoxious and make myself known in that way.

A: That’s something great to be known for!

SP: Yes. Well, mostly I think I have really good friends who love me a lot. It was very sweet of them, and they feel like I’m important on this campus.

A: That’s a feat. What are your majors?

SP: History and Romance Studies [Romance Languages & Literature]. I always tell people just “romance,” or sometimes just “love” so no one knows what I’m talking about. It’s a little-known major so I’m just like, “Yeah, you know, love.”

A: Have you liked that major?

SP: Yeah, I really like it. It’s so cool because I just love learning languages. It’s what I love most. So I get to do that that way. It’s pretty easy to do if you just take a lot of languages.

A: What languages do you speak?

SP: I speak Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese. I have also taken Arabic throughout my time here.

A: Do you take all of these languages at Wesleyan?

SP: Spanish, Italian, and Arabic have all been here, and then Portuguese I never took here, but I did before I got here and over the summer. Then I went abroad in Brazil and did a lot of Portuguese there.

A: Are you involved in clubs on campus?

SP: I am a coordinator of Wesleyan’s middle school tutoring partnership. That’s what I’ve been involved in since the beginning of freshman year. I started tutoring, and then starting junior year through this year I was a coordinator with the wonderful Sophia Antonio ’19 and Paul Willems ’20. So that’s been my main thing on campus. It’s a really great program that I care a lot about.

A: How have you seen yourself grow throughout your time at Wesleyan? Do you wish you’d gotten more involved with anything, less involved in anything, or tried something different?

SP: I’m very happy with exactly what I did. I’ve had an amazing time. I don’t know, I feel like people don’t think I’ve grown because most people think I’m a freshman or a sophomore. So this article will probably be a surprise to a lot of people who don’t think I’m a senior.

A: I don’t think you carry yourself like a freshman at all!

SP: [laughs] Just ask my Italian class. But I think I’ve grown in terms of interpersonal relationships. I’m always trying to be a better, kinder person. That’s more important to me than academics or anything else. Just like, my friendships with people and interacting with people, expressing love to people, making people feel special, and that kind of thing I feel that’s maybe why people know me on this campus—just like being very present and enthusiastic about people.

A: Has there been any moment this year that’s been a quintessential senior year moment? I feel like you must have one.

SP: [laughs] I don’t know what’s appropriate and what’s not. It’s so hard to think. At the end of everyday I just think so much has happened, because I’ve stood on five tables and yelled and heckled people and have five new friends. So it’s hard to remember. I don’t know, I had a great time on the day theses were due.

A: Oh, you wrote a thesis! Tell me about that.

SP: I wrote a history thesis. I actually lied to most people about it. Most people think it was about brothels throughout time. But the truth is coming out. I wrote about a colony of Confederates who emigrated from the U.S. to a city in the Amazon after the Civil War.

A: So what did they do?

SP: There’s not a lot of scholarship on them, so I kind of randomly heard about them in a class that I was taking first semester junior year. I ended up going to the city that I wrote about while I was abroad. After I was abroad I stayed and traveled to do research there. I was just super interested in the idea of people who were once slaveholders or members of a slaveholding society who could not fathom the idea of staying in a place where they could no longer hold slaves or live in a slaveholding society. So I was just fascinated by the idea of going to a place where it was still legal—which it was, in Brazil—and just looking at how that community worked. And also the idea of going to the Amazon because there are so many ideas throughout history of colonization of the Amazon and it’s this little-known thing that there are actually Americans that enacted a plan to colonize a small part of the Amazon.

A: Did you enjoy studying abroad in Brazil?

SP: Yes, I had the time of my life in Brazil. I love it so so much. It had been a dream of mine to go there, and I think Portuguese is absolutely the most beautiful language. And so it was amazing to just spend a semester of my life speaking Portuguese every day. And I think Rio—that’s where I was—is the most beautiful city. It was so amazing to be there, and I’d love to go back and spend time there again. Highly recommend.

A: What other communities are you involved in on campus? What’s your typical day like?

SP: I wouldn’t say I’m involved in a lot of communities, besides all the secret societies and sororities I’ve started…. But anyway, I would say my typical day…mostly, when the weather is nice, I go for a bike ride. That’s a big part of my life here, it’s so beautiful. I think it’s underrated, how many beautiful areas there are around here. The road, mountain biking. I spend a lot of time in Usdan; it’s kind of a trap for me. I come here, and three hours have gone by, and I’m sitting at the same table. I’m also ubiquitous in Olin. I’m sure it’s been hard for people, not seeing me in Olin the last week. People are probably really struggling. But also probably getting more work done.

A: What’s been your favorite class at Wesleyan?

SP: I’ve got a few. One of my all-time favorites at Wesleyan was a Cervantes class, a Spanish class with Professor Michael Armstrong Roche. It was the kind of thing that I had no idea what I was getting into when I started the class. But I ended up having so much fun in that class. We just read Don Quixote, and I’m not exactly the most literary person, but that was a really amazing class. I got to have a lot of fun, be a little silly, and get away with it. I would just say any class with Professor [Demetrius] Eudell is my favorite class. I always tell everybody that everyone should take a class with him before they graduate. So that’s my plug for Professor Eudell.

A: Were you always this outgoing?

SP: I think it became more pronounced in college. I think, starting freshman year into now, it’s been pretty consistently. I was very, very outgoing as like, a small child. And then I became a little bit more subdued, maybe, in the middle years. And now I’ve reverted to my three-year-old self. But also, I think being on a campus like this, where it’s easy to get to know so many people and feel like you know everybody…. It’s easy to feel very comfortable.

A: Would you offer advice to your freshman self?

SP: I think I feel exactly the same as my freshman self. [laughs] I guess I would say to do exactly what I did. Just to have a good time, and not take things too seriously.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Kaye Dyja can be reached at kdyja@wesleyan.edu. 

For five years now, Sarah’s on Main in Portland, Conn. has been serving homemade breakfast and local flavors to Wesleyan students. But as the restaurant has grown in popularity, wait times have become longer, and customers have struggled to fit large parties into the one-room restaurant.

Now, Sarah’s lovers can rejoice—the beloved breakfast spot is growing.

The renovation has been in the works since November, but only recently did the opportunity to expand present itself to owners Sarah and Dan Weeden.  

“When we first got here, this side was open when we first opened the restaurant, but we just couldn’t make it happen because we didn’t have enough funds to do both sides at the beginning,” Dan said. “So, when the vapor store left—they vacated in November—our landlord was like, ‘Dude, let’s do this.’”

The expansion will include not only 24 additional seats but will also provide new kitchen space, more refrigeration space, a new paint job, and new floors. Now, instead of walking into a snug, one-room restaurant, there will be an entirely new side with about ten new tables.

A primary reason the Weedens pushed for the restaurant’s expansion was to alleviate wait times. In the past, customers have waited up to an hour for their food, and while the Weedens appreciate customers’ patience, they are eager to shorten wait times by expanding the amount of seating available and welcoming reservations.

“[The expansion] is going to alleviate the wait on the weekends, which is great,” Dan said. “We’ll be able to take reservations and book smaller parties, especially for parents’ weekend and stuff like that. Students call and say, ‘Hey, can we come in with a party of ten at 10 o’clock on Sunday morning?’, and we’re like, ‘We can’t take reservations but you can give it a shot!’ So now that we’re doubling in size, it will be great to be able to book those parties.… We’ve been super lucky, and people have been really loyal to us. They’ve been super patient.”

Another key reason the Weedens wanted to expand is to maintain the quality of their food. While the couple has worked hard to maintain a high standard—anyone that has tried the Semi-Classic Bennie can vouch—it can be really difficult to keep up.

“We’re still feeding the same amount of people, just over a longer period. We’re just barely keeping up our standards,” Dan said. “Now, with the expansion, when you come and sit down. You can get a cup of coffee, look at the menu, just relax. Before there was such a small area to wait—or outside. So this will be much better.”

Sarah also feels like she hasn’t had the time to explore different farmers markets in the area or try new recipes because she’s always in such a time crunch.

“Something I always envisioned when we opened this place was to be able to step out and go to a farm stand, and we’ve been so busy—I’m still going to farm stands, I go to Gotta’s Farm and Draghi’s [Farm] outside of Glastonbury—that I’m always in a rush,” Sarah said. “I have to get back, I have to pick up my kids, I have to do this or do that. Now, I’ll actually be able to step off on a Wednesday afternoon and leave for a couple hours to go pick up something special for the weekend.”

In addition to creating more time for Sarah to grab more farm-fresh ingredients, the restaurant’s expansion will include another cook during the week to help prep for the busier weekends. The hope is that the addition of another cook will relieve some pressure and provide more time to prepare new dishes.

“It’ll be nice to have some administrative time to sit and plan menus and prep a little more, especially in season, when you get to go to farmers markets and everything is as fresh as possible,” Dan said.

The Weedens are also eager to showcase more local art in their restaurant. Before the expansion, they could only fit a limited amount of art on the walls, but now they have more room to show off local artists’ work. Many new tables, for instance, will be painted with little flowers by a local artist, and an elaborate mural will be featured in the new dining space.

While the expansion has been an exciting process, the Weedens have faced some struggles, such as finding funds, establishing a firm timeframe, and trying to stay true to the restaurant’s roots as it expands.

“The hardest part [of the expansion] is probably coming up with the funds,” Dan said. “Everything is more expensive than you think it’s going to be, and the length of time. We would’ve liked to have it done a couple months ago.”

Since the landlords are doing the work themselves, the Weedens are at the mercy of their schedules, which can make the process take longer than anticipated. The landlords are both business owners themselves, as Sarah explained, so they can only work on the restaurant during their time off.

“I’m grateful for the fact that they’re doing it, and they really want to make sure it’s done right…. [The landlord] doesn’t want anyone coming in and half-assing it,” Sarah said.

“Some of the nervousness is also that you hope it gets done right, and be the vision of what you wanted it to be,” Dan added. “You only do this once.”

The Weedens attribute a lot of their success to Wesleyan students and are thankful that they have become a part of the greater Wesleyan community.

“With all the kids from Wesleyan, it’s been amazing,” Dan said. “They kind of dripped in at the beginning, and then they all kind of came. I was saying last year to Sarah, ‘We’ve had a full freshman-to-senior cycle,’ and it was pretty cool seeing some of the kids as freshman in the beginning came at graduation with their families here. It was pretty cool.”

Students across campus are excited about the expansion. Many students have eaten at Sarah’s since their freshman year and are enthusiastic about the restaurant’s growth.

“Sarah’s is the happiest place I’ve encountered since coming to Wesleyan,” Ainsley Kass ’20 said. “They make everyone feel like family, and it’s great that they’re expanding because recently they’ve been completely overrun by Wesleyan students who think it’s a Usdan-sized cafeteria.”

“I’ve been going to Sarah’s for the past year on the weekends with my housemates,” Nikki Ladd ’20 agreed. “It’s a really warm community, and it’s going to really nice to bring bigger groups there of people that I’m close with to have some time away from Wesleyan. So, I’m really excited for the expansion.”

 

Kaye Dyja can be reached at kdyja@wesleyan.edu. 

You’ve probably seen him at the ’Swings counter, or at a Tiny Shed concert. Or maybe you’ve seen him at Psi U. But do we really know psychology major and film minor Ellis Richmond ’19? The Argus sat down with Richmond to talk about his time at ’Swings, his experiences managing senior ko-op, and his radio show Al’s Bum Review.

The Argus: Why do you think you were picked as a WesCeleb?

Ellis Richmond: I feel like I try to meet as many people as possible here, and I work way too many shifts at ’Swings. I also live next to Sam [Prescott ’19] and Will [Halliday ’19], so that must’ve been part of it. [laughs]

A: What’s it been like working at ’Swings?

ER: It’s a great job. A little exhausting, but Ed [Thorndike ’89] and Karen [Kaffen-Polascik]—the owners—are the best people in the world. You get to see so many people at the register. I work at the register, so I literally see every face that walks in there. It’s been really fun to have micro-interactions with people I would never even see on campus.

A: Have you worked there since freshman year?

ER: I’ve worked there since the beginning of junior year, but some of the people who kind of brought me, who kind of showed me the ropes, were some of the older people there. So I kind of started to pretend that I was one of the people who worked there the whole time. So at this point, it’s as if I was.

A: Is there a community of people that become really close working at ’Swings?

ER: Oh, definitely. It’s a little family. It’s an odd family, but it’s family.

A: What’s your major?

ER: I’m a psychology major and a film minor.

A: What’s that been like?

ER: It’s been fun. I came in here thinking that I was going to be a psychology and econ double major, and do like, marketing after, and quickly realized that I just could not do econ. That just was not something that was up my alley. So then sophomore year…yeah, sophomore year sounds right. I took one film class. And realized that I really, really like this, but I was a little too late to become a major. So I joined the minor, and I think between the two of those things, psychology and film, it’s been really eye-opening. I think I’ve learned a lot about how people work, t…. I think the combination of the two has been really helpful, and really helpful for things like internships and stuff like that.

A: Where have you worked?

ER: I worked at Viacom, which is a media company that owns a couple of television stations my sophomore year. And then I worked at Mass Appeal, which is this really fun place. It’s a media company where basically they make a lot of documentaries about music and film.

A: Do you know what you’re doing next year?

ER: Oh, no. Still figuring it out.

A: And you’re a part of Psi U, what’s that experience been like for you?

ER: It’s been a crazy ride. I think the craziest part for me—the most interesting part—has been just the changes that have happened over the past three years I’ve been there. We didn’t have the house before I started, and the first co-ed pledge class was the one two before mine, so there’s just a different mentality about what that space is used for, what it’s supposed to be, and who should be there. I think just every year we get these people that have new ideas for it, and it kinda changes the whole place. But at this point, I’m kind of out, so it’s just like me trying to watch from the outside instead of trying to actually make a real impression.

A: Have you enjoyed it?

ER: Oh, I’ve loved it. I think that was one of the reasons I met a lot of the people that I know on campus. Just like, people that were from totally different corners of campus that I would meet, and then I would meet their friends, and it just kind of built on itself.

A: Do you think the pledge classes have changed since you started?

ER: I think that Wesleyan has changed, and that it’s very visible through Psi U as a microcosm of Wesleyan.

A: And you run senior ko-op, right?

ER: I do run ko-op, with Fred Wills [’19] and Jordan White [’19].

A: What’s that like?

ER: It makes my Thursdays pretty hectic. [laughs] Basically it’s just a lot of organizing, a lot of talking to seniors. It’s senior-run, and it’s made for seniors to basically have people from every part of campus come together every Thursday, and just kind of enjoy themselves and start the weekend off right.

A: Oh, and you’re also a part of Tiny Shed, right?

ER: Yeah, so that started I wanna say right in the fall of this year. It was kind of a crazy idea Jordan [White] and a few other people had to just kind of have a concert every week, just combine film and music and kind of showcase all the talent we have on campus because I think there’s so many different types of musicians out here who do so many different things. So I film there, and I produce a little bit. Megan West [’19] does all the editing. And it’s just a really fun opportunity to kind of see all these different people perform some of the best music I’ve ever seen in person. And we really utilize the shed that’s in the back of the Fountain. That’s kind of the center of it.

A: Have there been shows that have been particularly awesome?

ER: Yeah, for Isaac Gotterer [’19]’s thesis, they had a preview that they did for us, and that was really theatrical and really fun. I think that was the first one where we got all of our techniques and how we wanted to stylize it down. And it just looks pretty, in my mind. It’s one of the best ones we’ve ever done.

A: Have you seen yourself grow throughout your time at Wesleyan? Do you wish you had gotten more involved in anything? Or less involved in anything?

ER: I mean, I’ve definitely seen myself grow. I came in here very, very shy, and very introverted. And I don’t think that that’s completely changed, but I think through a lot of the people I’ve been able to meet around here, I’ve really come out of my shell in a way that I wouldn’t have if I didn’t have all this support. I think at this point in my career, I’m involved in enough things that I feel kind of overwhelmed all the time. I have a radio show too, with my housemate Jake Margolis [’19].

A: Oh, what’s your radio show about?

ER: It’s an album review show, it’s called Al’s Bum Reviews. It meets every other Tuesday from 12 to 1, and we just review an album and kind of go through a whole album, and just go through some of the artist’s interests and contemporaries and collaborators.

A: When did that start?

ER: That started junior year, as well. So I think that’s the thing. I really feel like I wasn’t involved enough freshman and sophomore year, and then something changed.

A: What was one of your best shows?

ER: The first one we did was Mac Miller’s Swimming. It’s honestly kind of sad, it was right when he died, and that one made me realize how much his music really meant to me. We did one on Stevie Wonder, Music on My Mind, that was really really one of my favorites and one that just allowed me to study one of the musicians that I grew up on. My mom is a huge fan of Stevie Wonder, so I’ve always had his music around. That was kind of one of my favorite ones, easily. I heard that album for the first time a couple of months before I did the show, so it was really fun to do a kind of deep dive past a surface level understanding of the music.

A: Has there been any particular experience at Wesleyan that really encapsulates your time here in some way?

ER: I don’t know if there’s one experience that has really done it for me. I think it’s a type of experience. Those moments when, like, just the most random people all come together on campus and are all doing the same thing and just enjoying themselves, and not caring about like, the politics or whatever of being on this campus. A lot of the darties this year have been beautiful spaces where everyone is really just there, and enjoying themselves. I think the SOC fashion show was an amazing experience for me at least. I just met so many people that I really should’ve known for a long time. And the senior semi-formal was really really fun, just because of the same idea of everybody celebrating the same thing and coming together and doing something with a purpose.

A: What advice would you give your freshman self?

ER: What would I say to that kid? I would say…. I was very intimidated by, like, personality when I first came here. Because the school was so small I guess, some of these people who were just kind of big faces on campus. Like bigger than life. And I guess I would say to my freshman year self, like, if you put everyone on an even playing field and just try to interact with as many people as possible, you’re going to meet some amazing people. And just like, don’t be afraid to be the person to talk to somebody, or to start a conversation.

 

Spencer Arnold and Kaye Dyja can be reached at sjarnold@wesleyan.edu and kdyja@wesleyan.edu.

As the University’s in-house congressional scholar, Assistant Professor of Government Logan Dancey teaches and researches topics concerning U.S. Congress, campaigns and elections, as well as public opinion. Currently teaching “Congressional Reform” and “Congressional Policy Making,” Dancey is an esteemed member of the Government Department. The Argus sat down with him to talk about what books he’s reading, his research, and what he sees happening in the 2020 elections.

The Argus: So, what’s on your bookshelf?

Logan Dancey: One of my colleagues was joking that I don’t have a very organized bookshelf. But this semester I’m teaching two Congress classes—“Congressional Policy Making” and “Congressional Reform”—so I’m reading a lot of Congress books and rereading a lot of books on Congress. One of the books that I actually didn’t assign for my classes that I read for the first time recently is this book by a Yale history professor, Joanne Freeman, and it’s called “[The Field of] Blood.” It looks at violence in Congress proceeding the Civil War. That has been fun to read because I mostly study the contemporary Congress, and we talk a lot about polarization, and it was interesting to read a time when congressional animosity actually led to violence in Congress or among members of Congress outside the institution.

A: When did you know you wanted to be in the political world? What sparked that interest?

LD: I mean, I don’t know if I think of myself in the political world, as much as I think of myself studying it. When I went into undergrad, I was kind of leaning towards being a political science or government major, but I didn’t necessarily think that I would go into academia. I just really enjoyed my classes in college and really enjoyed engaging with the topics and thinking about these things from a political perspective, and so it was probably junior year of college that I kind of started seriously considering pursuing that path.

A: Considering you teach a lot of Congress courses, what’s your favorite aspect of Congress to teach?

LD: I think I’m probably most interested in questioning and teaching about representation in Congress: how members of Congress go about seeking to represent their constituencies and the ways in which members’ personal identities and experiences shape their legislative goals and priorities.

A: Like Grace Meng [D-NY6]!

LD: Yes, exactly! It’s something I enjoy talking about with students. Those sections are always my favorite parts of my classes. We do a lot of stuff on congressional procedure in some of my classes too, and that stuff is important and aspects of it can be fun, but it’s not always as exciting of a topic as elections and representation.

A: Do you think the way you teach classes about Congress has changed due to the current political climate? Have this new class of freshman Congresspeople changed your courses on Congress and how have you adapted to that?

LD: A lot of the core parts of the syllabus don’t change in major ways. I still think there’s a lot of ways of thinking about what motivates members of Congress or how does Congress operate that remains constant. But I do try to update things with the times, and I think that this semester there was much more interest—at least from what I saw from students—in the new incoming Congress. I think a lot of the new members on the Democratic side have brought a new energy and potentially have reached out to young people in a way that wasn’t always the case in the past. So, I’ve tried to some degree to use that to frame some of these broader discussions that we’re having and thinking about these new members in relation to some of the theories we’re reading. And so I think to the extent that exciting things happen in Congress, it is always good to capitalize and use those as a lens into some of the broader questions we’re discussing.

A: If you are conducting separate research now, what are you working on or researching?

LD: I’ve got two kind of main projects that I’m working on. One is a book project on judicial confirmation hearings, and in particular, confirmation hearings below the Supreme Court level and what members of Congress seek to gain from these hearings. Whether they’re using them to scrutinize the nominees or using them as an opportunity to kind of try to signal to the judiciary what Congress’ priorities are. Perhaps even position-take for election purposes. And then I have another strand of research that looks at how people evaluate their members of Congress, what they know about their members of Congress, what positions they want their members of Congress take, and how they think about the ways in which members of Congress can go about representing them.

A: I have to ask—what do you see happening in 2020? Who do you think has the best shot to win in the current Democratic field? Do you see Trump getting reelected?

LD: I mean, I think Donald Trump could get reelected. Incumbent presidents tend to win reelection, and so I think you have to start from the assumption that Donald Trump stands a good chance of being reelected. I think he has, you know, lower approval ratings than most presidents have at this point in their presidency and it seems not to have ever gone up much above kind of the mid-forties. So, I think he has some weaknesses that mean he’s probably more vulnerable than previous incumbent presidents have been. I’m not sure what I think his chances are relative to where we might expect an incumbent president to be because he’s a unique political figure in so many ways.

On the Democratic side, I mean, the field is so big it’s hard to pick one candidate. I think Kamala Harris has a lot of strengths and seems to be, of the people so far declared, maybe has gotten the most positive media coverage. Or at least, that’s just my impression. I also think the fact that California is voting earlier in the cycle this year, and her being from California helps her. So, I would think of her as one of the clear front-runners on the Democratic side. I still think that Joe Biden, if he gets into the race, has a chance just given his name recognition and the fact that most Democrats have a positive impression of the Obama presidency and his clear, obvious association with that. Beyond that, it’s hard to say because I think that there are just so many people out there. I think part of the reason why the field is so big is because Democrats feel like they have a real chance at winning the election. And so a lot of strong Democratic contenders have decided that this year is a good year to run and think that they could beat Donald Trump. So you’ve just seen a lot of really high profile, well known political figures consider the race which makes it difficult to predict, I think.

A: Lastly, what advice would you give to students who are potentially interested in campaigns and elections?

LD: I think they should take my campaigns and elections class!

A: When is that offered?

LD: Typically in the fall of election years. But you know, I don’t have as much experience on the campaign side and breaking into the campaign world, and so some of my advice is more limited. I do think getting involved in campaigns is clearly kind of the best way to get a sense of what it is that campaign work involves and what different jobs are available in campaigns. It also starts building a network for you of people that you know. I know students that have been involved in campaigns who just kind of decide that they want to work for a presidential campaign or even decide they want to work for a local Connecticut House race, or state legislative race, and have built up networks that way and been able to use those to move into the world of political organizing. I also think students should take advantage of the alumni network. Wesleyan has a lot of politically active students, and I think I know and other people know people that are working in the political world who I’m sure would be happy to talk to Wesleyan students about that work. Lastly, I think that there’s different routes to go probably in campaigns. I can think of students that graduated that do field organizing, even at the presidential level in states. I also know students that have gone and worked for data driven companies that do a lot of data analysis as ways of trying to measure the effects of campaigns or figure out the most effective way to mobilize voters. And so I think people can take different routes to get into the campaign world, and I imagine there are different skill sets that people can build up that can apply to different jobs there.

 

Kaye Dyja can be reached at kdyja@wesleyan.edu or on Twitter @kayedyja.

Last weekend, I made the trek down to Main Street to try Middletown’s hottest new restaurant: Whey Station(ary). Yes, you read that right, our beloved Whey Station has opened a restaurant, and it’s just as tasty and cheesy as you would expect. 

When I first arrived, I talked to Jillian Moskites about her experience with Whey Station and the process of opening the restaurant. As she explained, the restaurant officially opened to the public last Wednesday but has been in the works for about three months.

“I never really wanted to [open a restaurant], to be honest,” Moskites explained. “I told Josh, I said if we’re ever going to do a spot, it has to be the perfect location and exactly the look I want. I want a dive bar, and I want it to be perfect. And then when he found this, we were like ‘oh crap, we found it!’”

Transforming Keagan’s Irish Pub into Whey Station(ary) was an ambitious endeavor, to say the least. The team of Jillian and Josh Moskites as well as General Manager Rachel Knowland supervised and worked alongside a construction team to redo the floors, remove the TVs that lined the walls, recreate the kitchen, and reimagine the bar, which was falling off the wall.

“Our contractor fell through the floor behind the bar because the walk-in was under him,” Moskites described, laughing. “He was up to his knees!”

She already felt like the interior was industrial, so she and Josh leaned into that aesthetic while adding their own personal touches, like colorful wall decorations, bright chairs, modern chandeliers, and white mugs lining the bar space.

“Josh and I are pretty eclectic taste-wise, so we kind of wanted it to look like us,” she said. “As much as it’s all kind of random, I think it makes sense. There’s a little bit of who we are. A lot of people have walked in and been like, it’s kind of like the truck, but not! And I love that. It makes me super happy.”

Opening a restaurant, as Moskites says, is a lot less difficult than controlling a truck. To run an effective food truck, you have to book events, pull permits, make sure you have enough product (but not too much product!), and deal with external forces like weather or technical glitches. A restaurant, on the other hand, allows a certain level of stability.

Differences in cooking styles between a truck and restaurant drove Moskites to also hire a new kitchen manager, Ryan Clark, who had worked previously for Nora’s Cupcakes and pizzerias in the area. Together they’ve conceptualized a bunch of new, exciting menu options like a fire cider vinaigrette and butterscotch pudding.

“We’ve known him forever,” she said. “He’s opened like five different restaurants, so I felt really good going into this with someone who knows what it’s like to start…. He can conceptualize my thoughts and we can be really creative together.”

The menu itself has grown and evolved, but it still incorporates all of the Wesleyan favorites. I tried an assortment of options, including the AvoMelt, tater tots, the Big Sal(ad), and a French raclette, which is a new dish where melted cheese is scraped over a variety of different foods, like potatoes, tots, or even broccoli rabe. There are also other new additions like short rib entrees, patty melts, and lots of vegetarian options as well, like veggie mac and cheese and different types of French raclette over vegetables.

“We’re starting slowly, and every week we’re gonna add more to the menu,” Moskites said. “It’s a tiny kitchen so I don’t want to overload it.”

Even though Whey Station has moved on to the restaurant life, Moskites promises that the truck will still grace the University’s campus on weekend nights.

“We’ve done a lot with Wesleyan,” Moskites exclaimed. “You guys are how we started! You know what we mean? We love Wes! It’s our home! People ask if the trucks are still going out, and I’m like, hell yeah! They’ll always be there.”

 

Kaye Dyja can be reached at kdyja@wesleyan.edu.

When Sam Bidwell ’21 was 11 months old, he contracted meningitis, which led to profound hearing loss.     

“By the time I was 14 months old, they already deduced that hearing aids did nothing and that I was eligible for cochlear implants, so they got me replacements,” Bidwell said. “I gained hearing almost immediately.”

Bidwell is a recent recipient of the Cochlear Americas Graeme Clark Scholarship, a four-year grant for high-achieving students with a particular model of the cochlear implant, the Nucleus. The scholarship is offered to only five students each year and is awarded based on a combination of academic achievement, leadership experience, and community involvement, according to the organization that provides the grant and developed the cochlear implant technology itself.

Cochlear implants, meant to aid those with moderate-to-profound hearing loss, help people like Bidwell better understand speech. The technology is distinct from hearing aids in that—rather than amplifying sound—implants mimic the parts of the inner ear that send sound signals to the brain. The technology was young enough when Bidwell received it that he has had to work through a number of repairs and updates throughout his lifetime.

“There have been a few issues,” Bidwell noted. “Thankfully not major ones. One of the internal parts failed, and it was the second one in the world [of its model] to fail, so that was unexpected. It was never easy. You can’t take anything for granted. But ever since then, the implants have been a large part of getting me to where I am, both good parts and bad.”

Bidwell has often found himself needing to adapt to other unexpected circumstances as well. When he was originally attending his local public school, the school wanted him to take special education classes, even though he doesn’t have a learning disability.

“I learn the same way everyone else does, the only difference is I have a little bit more trouble hearing,” Bidwell said. “That ticked off both me and my parents, and so they took me out of school and put me into a local private school.”

And though he attributes many of his successes to the opportunities his private school education provided, Bidwell continued to face many obstacles throughout his educational life. He recalls especially teachers that weren’t respectful or accommodating of his deafness.

“There was one coach when I was on a swim team who tried to get me kicked off the team because I couldn’t hear his instructions while I was swimming,” Bidwell said. “They had a workaround where they would write instructions on the board while I was in the pool. He felt that I was ignoring him, which my mom didn’t like and didn’t sit well with USA Swimming, which sponsored the program. We managed to get the guy removed from his coaching position because you don’t really want a coach who doesn’t like you just because you can’t hear as well and it doesn’t affect the way you swim.”

At the University, however, Bidwell has found professors and students to be fairly understanding and sensitive to his deafness. To make sure he hears everything professors are saying, he carries an FM, which is a portable microphone that a professor will put on so he can clearly hear what the professor is saying. He also uses vibrating bed alarms instead of loud ones and a pen that records as he takes notes, so he can play back anything he has potentially missed.

“All of my coaches have been pretty much fine with it, and all of my professors were pretty much fine with it,” Bidwell said. “None of my teachers have complained about using it except joking that they’ll forget to take it off, which is understandable. I may just be oblivious about these sorts of things, but everyone at Wesleyan has been pretty cool and okay with it.”

Bidwell came to the University last year to study math—following in the footsteps of his mother who graduated from Wesleyan, and his grandfather, who graduated from the University with a degree in mathematics. 

“That was part of the original reason why we chose Wesleyan,” he explained. “Also, it’s a good school, so there’s no reason not to apply. And in the end, of the schools that accepted me, Wes was the one I wanted to go to most. In retrospect, I don’t think I would have had a good experience at other schools I applied to. I may have originally applied because my mom suggested it, but it worked out really well.”

Despite the support he receives on campus and his satisfaction with his choice, Bidwell doesn’t find himself engaging with deaf communities on campus. In fact, he’s not even sure if a deaf community exists.

“I certainly know people who are hard of hearing, but I’m not sure if there is any sort of deaf community on campus,” Bidwell said. “Even the sign language house is mostly sign language enthusiasts and not actual deaf people…. It’s, as I understand it, a very supportive community, just not one that feels right for me.”

In terms of the “capital D” Deaf community, as he puts it, at large, Bidwell has encountered tension between deaf people that use sign language and deaf people who choose to obtain cochlear implants. As he recounted, when Bidwell was a child, his parents faced someone who was disappointed in him for choosing implants, which made his parents averse to exploring more of Deaf culture. Consequently, Bidwell never learned sign language and never experienced Deaf culture as a large part of his life.

 “There’s significant amounts of friction between people who are in the capital D Deaf community and people who choose to use cochlear implants because it’s seen as a rejection of that culture and a [rejection of the] need to engage with the [Deaf] community,” Bidwell said.

As Bidwell reflects on his life, he often returns to a single idea: perseverance.

“Whatever people say you’ll do, that’s not necessarily what you’ll do,” he said. “You can always do more than that. When I was young, my doctor said I would never read past a second-grade level and that was not the case. You can work hard. If I hadn’t worked hard, I wouldn’t be here at Wesleyan in the math major. Don’t take no for an answer if it’s given unfairly.”

 

Edit: This article erroneously categorized Bidwell’s hearing loss as “severe”. The correct categorization is “profound”. Additionally, Bidwell’s mother and grandfather attended Wesleyan, not his father. The article has been updated to reflect these corrections.

 

Kaye Dyja can be reached at kdyja@wesleyan.edu or on Twitter @kayedyja.

Spencer Arnold can be reached at sjarnold@wesleyan.edu. 

After its establishment in 2011, Chabad at Wesleyan is now expanding with a new house on 132 Church Street. Throughout the years, Chabad at Wesleyan has offered social, educational, recreational, and religious programming, but its new construction will now offer new opportunities for more students and faculty to engage with Jewish life on campus.

Managed and organized by Rabbi Levi Schectman and his wife, Chanie Schectman, Chabad provides a homey atmosphere by hosting Shabbat dinners every Friday and other community-oriented events like shofar making for Rosh Hashanah and matzah baking. Along with that, Chabad also offers many extracurricular classes where students can research and learn about topics of their choice with Rabbi Schectman and Chanie.

“We provide that home, family-like atmosphere and provide a comfortable environment for students to engage or sometimes also re-engage with their Jewish identity and Jewish heritage,” Rabbi Schectman said.

Functioning as a private organization, Chabad itself is a global Jewish movement whose vision is to spread Judaism and be inclusive of all Jews, regardless of their background. According to the Chabad at Wesleyan website, there are over 4,000 emissaries around the globe and over 80 branches on U.S. college campuses. Funding for local chapters comes from parents, alumni, donors, and other individuals.

“Chabad is the largest Jewish outreach organization in the world today,” the site reads.

Students have found this family particularly warm and welcoming. Those at Wesleyan who desire to be a part of an active Jewish community have found Chabad to provide just that.

“Shabbat dinners and Jewish holiday programming have fostered a community on campus, which I have found very meaningful to be part of over the last few years,” Andrew Schwartz ’20 said.

The construction of the new house at 132 Church Street, which began in March 2018, has been a very exciting moment for the organization. After hosting students for the past seven years, the Schectmans off-campus home was bursting at the seams with the growing number of students attending Shabbat dinners each week. To accommodate the plethora of students, the Schectmans bought a three-family home from an individual that often rented to University graduate students. Initially, the Schectmans tried to maintain the original structure, but Rabbi Schectman explained that there were too many issues that it was ultimately unfeasible.

“No matter which way we looked at it, it didn’t make sense. That’s why we had to start from scratch,” Rabbi Schectman said.

The new structure, which is closer to the heart of campus, will include a large, multi-functional dining room for 75 students, a spacious kitchen, a student lounge, a library and conference room, the Rabbi’s office, and guest suites in the basement for visiting alumni and families. The second floor will be reserved for the Rabbi’s family, which will include their three sons and baby daughter. The goal of the new house is to create a home away from home that offers a vibrant Jewish experience for more students and faculty. Rabbi Schectman hopes that the expanded house will allow the organization to host more students and have larger events than ever before. In that same vein, the new house will also improve the quality of events that take place as the organization will finally have its own distinct space.

“With what we have now, in our home, it’s already full and we can’t really add much more,” Rabbi Schectman said. “[The new house] will be far more accessible for more people. And in quality, the type of events and programs that we’ll be able to have here will improve, making each one nicer, better, and more thought out.”

Multiple students find the new construction exciting as well, particularly emphasizing the new house’s newfound accessibility for more students on campus.

“I think that the new construction will allow Chabad to provide more to the community,” Chabad Board Member Jessica Mason ’20 said. “Mainly, the new space would just allow for more people to participate in Chabad events, especially Shabbat dinners. I also would hope that the new space will allow for more interaction with the WJC [Wesleyan Jewish Community]. I think the hope is that this new space will change our role into a more present organization in the community, but that change also depends on the students already involved.”

Construction is likely to be finalized in the beginning of March, but Rabbi Schectman is itching for the completion of the house.

“The worst part [of the construction process] is that it cannot come fast enough,” Schectman said. “But the best part is that once every part of the process happens, and the walls go up, we get to see how it went from nothing to something, and see how it’s going to be used.”

 

Kaye Dyja can be reached at kdyja@wesleyan.edu or on Twitter @kayedyja.