- the “primal scream” Monday at midnight (to release all tension and frustration built on over the semester, Wes students will emerge from their dorms/libraries/rooms/etc. at the stroke of midnight, screaming at the top of their lungs outside for a full minute – it’s really interesting to be around so many people who are ready for finals!)

- music concerts

- dance performances

- comedy troupe shows

- and much, much more!

It’s that time of the year!!!

CHEERS!

H. Rizk ‘08
Senior Interviewer

No matter how you spell it, Channukkah is an awesome time of the year. For the first time in years, all 8 days of Channukkah fall during the Wesleyan University Academic Year and the Jewish Community has thought of lots of fun ways to celebrate.

This year the Wesleyan Jewish Community will be hosting communal candle-lighting in different lounges and locations throughout campus. And yes, there will be chocolate gelt and dreidels. All are invited.

Dates and locations:

• Tuesday, Dec. 4: Olin lobby
• Wednesday, Dec. 5: Nics lounge
• Thursday, Dec. 6: SciLi lobby
• Friday, Dec. 7: Bayit
• Saturday, Dec. 8: Usdan, ground floor
• Sunday, Dec. 9: Butt C lounge
• Monday, Dec. 10: Bayit
• Tuesday, Dec. 11: WestCo lounge

And, there is a huge annual Channukkah Party in the Bayit ( Jewish Program House ). This is always a well attended event ( by celebrators and non-celebrators alike ) with campus bands, home made latkes, and gelt galore.

So, to all celebrating: Happy Channukkah.

To all: Have a wonderful Holiday Season and a Safe New Year!

Emily Einhorn ‘08
Senior Interviewer

A small sampling of some of the best speakers to come to campus in the past four years:

Music and Art:

Dar Williams ‘89 – a folk singer-songwriter

Patti Smith – singer-songwriter, poet, musician, who was one of the women most influential in the birth of punk rock.

Sol LeWitt - minimalist and conceptual artist specializing in wall drawings with exhibitions in museums such as the Museum of Modern Art.

Amiri Baraka - author and poet, former Poet Laureate of New Jersey.

Books and Literature:

Art Spiegelman - comics artist, editor, and Pulitzer-Prize winner for his best selling graphic memoir, Maus.

Daniel Handler/Lemony Snicket ‘92 – author, screenwriter, and musician. Best known for his children’s series A Series of Unfortunate Events. He has played accordion with The Magnetic Fields.

Eric Schlosser - author best known for Fast Food Nation and Reefer Madness.

Journalism and Politics:

Ralph Nader - consumer advocate and presidential candidate.

Seymour Hersh – Pulitzer-Prize winning investigative journalist and author.

Amy Goodman – progressive broadcast journalist and host of the radio program “Democracy Now!”

Madeline Albright - former United States Secretary of State.

Film and Television:

Joss Whedon ‘87 – Academy-Award nominated writer and director famous for his show Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Alexander Payne – Academy- Award winning director and screenwriter best known for Election.

Michael Bay ‘86 – director and producer best known for The Rock, Transformers, Armageddon, and Pearl Harbor.

Paul Weitz ‘88 – director and screenwriter best known for American Pie, American Dreamz, and In Good Company.

Jonathan Demme – Academy- Award winning director, producer, and writer best known for Silence of the Lambs, Stop Making Sense, and Philadelphia.

Martin Scorsese – Academy-Award winning director, producer, and writer best known for Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, Goodfellas, Gangs of New York, The Aviator, and The Departed.

and… finally… gracing our campus this coming Thursday …

Robin Williams – Academy-Award winning actor and comedian best known for Mork and Mindy, The Birdcage, Patch Adams, Jack, Aladdin, Mrs. Doubtfire, Good Will Hunting, and Dead Poet’s Society.

Enjoy!

Emily Einhorn ‘08 and Jeff Wong ‘08
Senior Interviewers

While there are far more options at Wesleyan than I can list here (or remember), I’ve gathered a few of them for your perusal. Some especially good places to look are the Financial Aid Office’s work study job postings and the Office of Community Service’s volunteer listings.

Some internship/work/experience building opportunities at Wes:

Peer Leadership/Organizing/Administrative:

• ResLife Residential Advisors, House Managers, and Head Residents
• Office of Student Activities and Leadership Development Leadership Intern
• Queer Community Intern
• Student of Color Coalition Intern
• Student Judicial Board
• Senior Interviewers
• Tour guides
• Career Resource Center Peer Career Advisors
• Student Academic Resources Network Peer Advisors

Writing/Research:

• Writing Workshop Tutors
• Research with professors/labs
• Middlesex County Historical Society Intern
• Argus student newspaper
• Wesleyan University Press Internship

Arts:

• Davison Art Center Curatorial Internship
• Davison Art Center museum internships
• Second Stage student theater production company
• Oddfellows Playhouse TAs
• Green Street Arts Center TA or volunteer
• Center for the Arts Marketing, Programming, Box Office Interns
• Film Board – students who run the Wesleyan Film Series

 Health/Science:

• Volunteer EMTs in Cromwell, CT after a training course at Wes
• Community Health Center
• WesWell (Office of Health Education) Peer Health Advocates

Activism/Environment:

• Environmental Organizers Network
• Long Lane Farm
• Student Organizing Center Intern

Education/Tutoring:

• KidCity Children’s Museum volunteer
• Community Tutoring (T-Square, Woodrow Wilson Middle School, etc.)

Peter Hill ‘08
Senior Interviewer

The Colloquium Vibe
The colloquia are lively seminars, and the students are as actively engaged as the faculty. With two professors in the room, there is no sense that any question has a right or final answer, but through discussion students and faculty explore ideas and texts together. Because of this format, COL students have a high tolerance for ambiguity, allowing questions to be raised and discussed, but ultimately linger unresolved. The class grows together through these colloquia, and the ability to draw on previous discussions and readings makes the discussions progressively richer through the program. Classes also see the development of a strong class dynamic that makes the group understand each others’ speaking, learning, and thinking styles and habits, and react more effectively to them. In most colloquia, students are in charge of initiating the conversation, with one or two students given responsibility for leading any day’s discussion and providing relevant background (we occasionally assign each other extra reading, but generally just send out some provocative questions to get everyone ready for the discussion).

Because all classes taken in the COL for major credit are ungraded (we use written evaluations instead), there are a lot of opportunities to take risks—why play it safe when you could come up with something brilliant by going out on a limb, or learn a lot from a spectacular failure? This idea is carried through in COL colloquium papers, where there are rarely specific assignments. Instead, students choose individually how they want to formulate the questions, selecting their texts, framework, and the style of the paper. With two professors commenting on your work, it is common to elicit different reactions to the papers, which gives students a fuller understanding of the strengths and weaknesses in their work, and a good sense of how to improve.

The Application Process
Students apply to the College of Letters at the end of their first year. While acceptance to the major is based on a brief application essay and interview, the process is far from competitive. COL students are a self-selecting bunch, and those students who are passionate about their studies will generally do well in the program. The one strict requirement is that students be advanced enough in a European language to study abroad in their sophomore year.

Sophomore Spring Abroad
COL sophomores study abroad in the Spring semester, and after having had a class together, having all these friends spread across Europe can be really helpful when you’re traveling. COL students study mostly in Wesleyan’s programs in Madrid (Spain), Paris (France), Regensburg (Germany), and Bologna (Italy), though other options are available for those interested in studying in Africa, Eastern Europe, Latin America, or an ancient language. During my semester abroad in Madrid, I was with three other COL students on the Vassar/Wesleyan program, but also visited the COL majors in Paris, and accidentally ran into one while we were both on vacation in Florence, waiting in line at the Uffizi. The abroad experience gives COL students confidence and fluency in the language they study, and also provides a good background for continued study in the junior and senior years—when we talked about the connections between Medieval scholasticism and Gothic architecture, I had actually seen the buildings!

The Social Aspect
Because of its unique structure, the COL has a strong social aspect. The majors in each graduating class form a tight bond, with a series of five classes together, a shared study abroad experience with many students from the major, and the intense Spring semester of junior year spent studying for Comprehensive Exams together. In addition to these elements, there are also a series of faculty/student dinners each semester, as well as lectures and social hours that bring students and faculty together for food and intellectual engagement outside of class. In addition to the official departmental functions, it is not uncommon for the majors to have parties of their own, welcoming the new sophomores, welcoming the juniors back from abroad, celebrating the end of junior comps, or just to talk about Sartre some more. My class has also organized COL tea, and recently, has had several film viewings outside of class (after all, if you have to read Beowulf, why not see the Angelina Jolie movie version, too?).

What do you read?
The COL is often thought of as the “dead white men” major, but this is only partially true. COL doesn’t use a fixed canon, but rather the texts are selected anew each semester, so we read works that professors and students continue to find relevant and interesting. We follow Western ideas, but don’t necessarily confine ourselves to geographical limitations. In the Ancient Colloquium, the movement of ideas from the fertile crescent through Northern Africa and eventually up to Europe, as well as out of Greece and Rome and into Asia Minor are particular focuses. This concept of the movement of ideas continues strongly in the 19th and 20th centuries, as we look at colonial and postcolonial reinterpretations of the Western canon, and at how the ancient ideas of the Western world can be adapted and used in new ways. Because COL is not just a series of fixed courses but allows a great deal of flexibility, a lot of students take a particularly modern bent on their studies, using the Classical education they can get in the COL to inform their ideas about gender, race, postcolonial theory and literature, etc.

As for the actual books we read, here are a few sample reading lists from my colloquia:

20th Century Colloquium, “Precedence and the Void,” Fall 2005
Dostoevsky, Yeats, Freud, Engels, Eliot, Kafka, Woolf, Hemingway, Benjamin, Orwell, Borowski, Arendt, Sartre, Beauvoir, Camus, Rubenstein, Fanon, Friedan, Garcia Marquez, and Foucault.

Ancient Colloquium, “Geographies of Identity,” Fall 2006
The Bible (Old and New Testaments), Hesiod, Sophocles, ancient historians Herodotus and Livy, Plato, Aristotle, Virgil, Ovid, and St. Augustine.

If you have questions about the College of Letters, please don’t hesitate to email me at pshill [at] wesleyan [dot] edu—I’d love to tell you more about it!

Peter Hill ‘08
Senior Interviewer

A great example of this is WesRugby (and I’m not just saying this because I’ve been playing for 4 years). We are a team-taught-team, so seasoned captains run practice and teach the new rookies the ins and outs of the game. Rugby is a particularly complex sport (no one, not even referees, seem to know all the rules) and one that most people haven’t ever played before college, so we’re all learning brand new skills together. To put it simply, rugby is kind of like a mix between soccer and football. The goal is to score a “try”– like a touchdown– by passing the ball to your teammates and running down the field. The way you stop the opposing team from making progress, however, is by tackling them to the ground…without any padding. It may sound like it hurts, but if you do it right it’s actually quite graceful. And plus, what better way to get out your aggression?

A really unique part of rugby is the socializing aspect. Unlike any other sport I’ve encountered, rugby teams traditionally have socials, where the home team hosts the visitors for a party after the game. No matter what’s happened on the field or who won, the teams come together afterwards to socialize and get to know each other as more than just opposing team members.

Last weekend, WesRugby played University of Rhode Island (URI) on our home field. URI is a much larger school and team than Wesleyan, so it wasn’t a huge surprise when they beat us, but we held our own quite well. Two weeks ago, though, we played Trinity College and won by a landslide. Because we have a small team this year, some of our starting players had only just started this season, and boy oh boy did they step it up: one of our tries was scored by someone who was playing her very first game!

Not only is rugby fun to play, it is also fun to watch. Come out to Long Lane field most Saturday mornings in October and April (we play fall and spring seasons), and you’re sure to catch a game in action. This is a sport, whether you’re participating or a spectator, that you don’t want to miss!

Jessie Spector ‘08
Senior Interviewer

Screening movies from Wednesday – Saturday night, the film series offers students an affordable and fun venue for seeing both contemporary and historic films. In your four years at Wesleyan you will never see the same movie twice, which means that over 350 movies will be screened during your time here. With the ability to show films in all different formats ( from digital to 70mm), watching a film at Wesleyan is a unique and different experience.

Going to the film series is not like going to your local cinema. Audience members often shout at the screen ( such as during Bob Saget’s rendition of the dirtiest joke in showbiz during “The Aristocrats”), dance along ( as was the case with the Talking Heads concert film “Stop Making Sense” and the Disney musical “Newsies”) , and laugh in one big wave ( constantly during films like “Knocked Up” and “40-Year Old Virgin). More politically oriented movies often spur passionate conversations that can both be heard in the lobby after the film and throughout the next week. The once a semester midnight screening is always a blast and one of the most popular features.

So, if you consider yourself a film buff or just enjoy a casual flick with friends every now and then, the film series will inevitably have something for everyone. And, if you don’t see it when you get here, you can always request it from the completely student run film series board.

Enjoy!

Emily Einhorn ‘08 and Jeff Wong ‘08
Senior Interviewers

Hey all,

I wanted to update you all on the efforts of students, faculty and the university to go green. Last night we had our weekly EON meeting, and it was exciting to see the progress that has been made over the last several years. EON stands for the Environmental Organizers’ Network – it’s basically the place where students come together to talk about environmental stewardship on campus and in the community. We then break up into smaller ‘campaigns,’ where we will work with the community to get a specific goal accomplished.

I’ve been going to EON meetings since my RA (resident advisor) dragged me to a meeting my frosh year. I had never been interested in environmental activism before, but I kept coming to meetings because it was a group of incredibly passionate people, and they had a track record for getting things done. The group has become a big part of my experience at Wes – and I think it proves the point that if you come to Wes, you will undoubtedly get interested in something that you never could have predicted back in high school.

OK, back to the green. EON has worked closely with administrators to become more environmentally conscious. Walk into WESHOP (grocery store on campus) and you will without thinking buy organic, cage-free eggs – thanks to an EON campaign that occurred even before my time. Walk through the dorms and you will see nifty labels for cans/bottles and paper, thanks to pressure from students and support from administrators. We also have an up-and-growing composting program that has taken off thanks to the help of Bon Appetit, the new food service, which will compost all pre-production waste from Usdan.

Most exciting is that the university has started a Sustainability Committee, again with the help/prodding of students. Together with faculty and staff (and the people who hold the purse-strings), we meet to talk about new initiatives and how we can improve sustainability as a school. We have had a couple good meetings and we’re looking forward to the next one, where we will be discussing the possibility of President Roth signing a university commitment to combating climate change.

I’ll keep updating you all on the progress we’re making as a school. But look out on your next visit for recycling labels and compost bins, or ask a student what they think of the environmental awareness here. And, of course, you can do your own part in making your own lifestyles more sustainable.

Izaak Orlansky ‘08
Senior Interviewer

P.S. If you’re interested in following EON more closely, check out our blog at http://www.wesleyaneon.blogspot.com

THE BEST PLACES TO TALK TO STUDENTS AT WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY:

• The Usdan University Center - the new student center. (you can check out a live webcam of the Usdan here!)
• Foss Hill on a sunny day
• Outside Olin Library during students’ study breaks
• Pi Café
• WEShop

GREAT QUESTIONS TO ASK CURRENT STUDENTS:

• What is your favorite part about college? What would you change?
• What is the best class you took while here? Listen to how passionately they talk about their academic experience.
• What surprised you about the school when you got here? When you got to college what parts of student life, academia, or social life became more important than you originally thought they would be?
• What’s an average day like for you?

Enjoy your visit and just remember everyone was in your shoes once, too!

Emily Einhorn ‘08 and Jeff Wong ‘08
Senior Interviewers

This is just one example of the kind of events that Wesleyan brings through the CFA every semester, and the kind of involvement those visiting artists have with the community. For more listings, check out the CFA’s events page.

Peter Hill ‘08
Senior Interviewer