Senior Class Officer Elections

Are you interested in planning fun senior events?? If so, consider running for Senior Class President, Senior Class Vice President, Senior Class Secretary, or Senior Class Treasurer. Having these positions filled with enthusiastic leaders is integral to ensuring you have a great senior year planned.

In order to run, all candidates must submit a statement of 200 words before Friday, May 3rd, at 11:59pm to wsa@wesleyan.edu. You must fill out a Senior Class Officer Petition and bring it to the mandatory candidate’s meeting on Sunday, May 5th, at 5:30PM in Boger room 114. If you cannot attend the meeting, you must notify the Elections Committee 24 hours in advance with the name of someone who will be attending in your place and bringing your petition. The elections will be held from 12:01 am on Monday, April 23rd to 11:59 pm on Friday, April 27th.

Only the Class of 2020 may vote in this election. Election rules and guidelines can be found in our bylaws, which are on our website.  If you have any questions, please email the Elections Committee at wsa@wesleyan.edu. If you’d like to learn more about the position, please reach out to Sanam Godbole, Jackie Manginelli, Aaron Cheung, and Justin Campos

Best of luck,
WSA Elections Committee

Course Withdrawal Deadline 5/1

The last day to withdraw from full-semester and second-quarter classes for the Spring 2019 semester is Wednesday, May 1.  Completed forms are due in the Registrar’s Office by 5:00 p.m. and must include the following signatures: instructor, faculty advisor, and class dean.

If you are thinking about withdrawing from a course:

  • Do use this time to talk to your professors, your advisors, and me about your concerns. If you can’t make my drop-ins, please email me at dphillips@wesleyan.edu or call me at x2757 to schedule an appointment.
  • Do make sure you are taking advantage of all the resources available to you.
  • Do get the signatures of your instructor and advisor on your drop/add form. I cannot sign for either without his or her permission, so please save yourself the trouble of waiting to see me during drop-ins just for me to tell you that.
  • Do not wait until Wednesday at 4:00 p.m. to see me or you may find yourself waiting in a very long line!

Drop-in Hours: M 2-3, Tu 3-4, W 4-6, Th 11-12, F 2-4

Senior Wisdom for Juniors Dinner 4/29

Monday, April 29, 6:00-7:00 p.m., Usdan 1o8

Advice from seniors to juniors on how to navigate one’s final year at Wesleyan.

Senior panelists include: Rachel Chung, Taylor Dillon, Alli Fam, Meghan Jain, Jackie Leete, Sarah Padgett.

Catered by Haveli

Chicken Tikka Masala
Saag Paneer
Vegetable Biriyani
Vegetarian Samosas
Naan

Please RSVP through this link

Summer Session Financial Aid Deadline this Friday at Noon

Please note that THIS FRIDAY APRIL 19 at noon is the deadline for for Financial Aid, Housing and Dining.

Financial Aid form: in WesPortal/Courses/Summer Session – a simple, 2-minute, no-obligation application.

Housing Request link and Dining Request link are also in WesPortal/Courses/Summer Session.

Summer Session registration is open now and will remain open until the classes begin, although courses will be cancelled for low enrollment on May 10.  So if you intend to register, please do so as soon as possible.

To Register:

  • Download the form from WesPortal/Courses/Summer Session
  • Meet with your advisor and get approval to register for the courses you want
  • Prepay the tuition here: https://wesleyan.afford.com/
  • Bring your completed registration form and proof of payment to the Summer Session office.
  • We are located at 74 Wyllys Ave, next door to Admission and our hours are M-F, 8-5

If you are off-campus for the fall term, instructions on registering can be found in WesPortal/Courses/Summer Session.

Helpful links:
Course descriptions: wesleyan.edu/summer/curriculum/index.html
Calendar: wesleyan.edu/summer/Calendar.html
Summer Session Homepage: wesleyan.edu/summer/

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact us. We look forward to hearing from you!

The Summer Session Staff
summer@wesleyan.edu
(860) 685-2005

Wesleyan Resilience Project

We would like to encourage you to be a part of the Wesleyan Resilience Project. The mission is to create an opportunity to reflect, understand and creatively engage regarding issues of failure and resilience. Sharing these narratives enables us to rethink success and grow from one another.  We would love anonymous stories of how you grew from a difficult moment and we will then collect them together and put them on a website for others to look to when they’re in a similar situation.

The Peter Morgenstern-Clarren ’03 Social JusticeAward

The Peter Morgenstern-Clarren ’03 Social JusticeAward was created in memory of Peter Morgenstern-Clarren who pursued social justice while a student at Wesleyan.  His activism included securing benefits for Wesleyan custodial staff, participating in the United Student and Labor Action Committee, and contributing his leadership to the campus chapter of Amnesty International.  We are grateful to Dr. Hadley Morgenstern-Clarren and The Honorable Pat Morgenstern-Clarren for their generosity in sponsoring this award that honors their son’s activism for the public good.  A committee will select the sophomore or junior who best embodies the pursuit of social justice. The winner will receive a cash award of $1,500.  The application process is described below. Any sophomore or junior in good standing may submit an essay that addresses the following:

Describe in detail the most influential social justice effort in which you played a leadership role that sought to make our local and global communities more equitable (The effort should have a direct effect on the Wesleyan campus and/or on external communities.)

  1. Explain your level of involvement in the work for example: your role in raising awareness about a particular issue on campus, coordinating events, implementing programming and campaigns in the pursuit of social justice.
  2. n addition to your essay, you must include a letter of support from a faculty or administrator involved in your effort and submit evidence of impact that the social justice effort had on making our society more just by contributing testimonies from individuals (excluding family and friends) directly involved, artifacts from your social justice effort (e.g., past printed programs, presentations, and articles), and/or your work from courses. You may include non-print items, such as DVDs.

You must submit all items electronically to Dean Teshia Levy-Grant (tlevygrant@wesleyan.edu), North College, 1st floor, Room 122 by 5 p.m. Friday, April 12th, 2019.  All essays, letters of support and printed items must be in by the deadline.  By submitting your packet, you agree to allow the Office of Equity & Inclusion to use it (or excerpts from it) for assessment, archival, and promotion purposes. If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to contact Dean Teshia Levy-Grant.

Honors Thesis Information Session 4/8

Monday, April 8, 4:30-5:30 p.m.
PAC 001

Refreshments will be provided

This session will provide information on dates, deadlines, paperwork, and logistics for all students who are interested in pursuing an Honors Thesis.

Presenters

Reinhold Blümel, Professor of Physics and Chair of the Honors Committee
Andrew White, University Librarian
Susan Krajewski, Registrar’s Office and Honors Coordinator
David Phillips, Dean for the Class of 2020

Please RSVP through this link.

Be The Change Venture Pitch Competition

Join Be the Change Venture 509(a)(2) and Kai Wes on Thursday, April 25, 2019, from 6-8 p.m. for a pitch competition at Wesleyan RJ Julia Bookstore. This opportunity is open to high school students and college undergraduates. A $500 -college and $200- high school seed grant will be given to the best pitch competitors. The deadline to apply is Friday, April 12, 2019 at 11:59 p.m.Submit an application and or register here.

Improv Comedy to Improve Interviewing and Communication Skills

Improvisational comedy exercises can help develop comfort engaging with others in job interviews, presentations and group discussions. Come join nationally recognized facilitator, Jake Livengood of MIT in this highly interactive workshop. Participants should expect to participate in activities in a supportive and fun environment and leave with great results. Come for an evening of good fun and food. Open to all students.

Presented by WesSpeaks With support from CAPS, English Department, Fries Center for Global Studies, Resource Center, Writing Department and Gordon Career Center. Dinner provided (Indian food)

Thursday, April 4, 5-7:30 pm
Albritton 311

Toby McNutt: Relational Dance

Relational Dance
Open Class. No experience necessary, all are welcome!

Friday April5, 1:20-4:10PM, Schonberg Dance Building, 247 Pine Street

Working as a group requires consensus, a shared understanding of goals, boundaries, and trust. To negotiate this consensus, each group member needs to be able to communicate their needs, and that requires understanding them. We’ll practice locating our own physical and emotional boundaries, and blending them safely into duos and groups. We’ll also explore some specific tools for leaderless thinking as a group, and creating, strengthening, and straining relationships with choreography.

This lecture/demonstration is sponsored by the Dance Department and Disability Studies Course Cluster, the Division II Dean’s Office and the Center for Pedagogical Innovation.

BIO Toby MacNutt  https://www.tobymacnutt.com is a queer, nonbinary trans, and disabled dancer/choreographer, author, and teacher living in Burlington, VT. They make dance work for crutches, wheels, ground, and aerial. In June 2018 Toby premiered ENTER THE VOID, a performance installation in the darkness of space, accompanied by a sci-fi poetry guidebook. Toby has been creating performance work since 2014 and has also performed with Heidi Latsky’s GIMP Project, Tiffany Rhynard/Big APE, Nicole Dagesse/Murmurations Dance, and Lida Winfield, among others.

Beyond Assimilation: Seeking a Disabled Aesthetic 4/4

Beyond Assimilation: Seeking a Disabled Aesthetic
Lecture/Demonstration with Toby MacNutt  https://www.tobymacnutt.com

Thursday, April 4, 4:30-6PM, Schonberg Dance Building, 247 Pine St

As disability in dance becomes more visible and mainstream, there is pressure to assimilate to mainstream dance aesthetics. But disability presents an enormous range and variation of potential in movement, perception, and thinking, by its very nature, which can expand upon and challenge the existing field. What does it mean to embrace a disabled aesthetic? How does it change dance practices and performance? Toby MacNutt will discuss these questions, show some sample work, and speculate on the future of disability in dance and why it matters.

This lecture/demonstration is sponsored by the Dance Department and Disability Studies Course Cluster, the Division II Dean’s Office and the Center for Pedagogical Innovation.

Shu Tokita Prize For Students of Color Studying Literature

The Shu Tokita Prize, established by friends and relatives of Shu Tokita, ’84, will be awarded to a student of color majoring in literature, in area studies, or a language major with a focus on literature, who demonstrate need for substantial financial assistance. If you have any questions about whether or not you are eligible, please contact us.  Recipients will be selected on the basis of commitment to the study of literature as evidenced in the content and quality of their essays, and financial need. Awarded to one or two sophomores and/or juniors for the remainder of their time at Wesleyan, the Prize is usually $1,500 per year. The recipient(s) of the Shu Tokita Prize will receive the annual award at the start of the following fall semester, that is, for their junior and/or senior year(s).

The Prize was established in memory of Shu Tokita, Class of 1984, who passed away in January of 1989 from leukemia. He had received a B. A. in English Literature from Wesleyan University and an M. A. in Japanese Literature from Tsukuba University. He studied literature as a pursuit that spoke to his life, and from which he gained insights and, ultimately, strength. The Prize seeks to reflect Shu’s interest in literature and his belief that it should be accessible to people of all backgrounds; thus, the Prize is focused on supporting students of color, for whom the study of literature, Shu’s family and friends felt, is often considered a “luxury.” Through the Prize, we hope to encourage and assist Shu Tokita recipients in their decision to pursue literature as an academic endeavor. We hope that they will likewise share their insights and wisdom with their communities. Current Wesleyan student winners of the Shu Tokita Prize are Kalee Kennedy ‘19 and  Brynn Assignon ‘20.

ELIGIBILITY:

  1. Any domestic student of color (U.S. citizen, permanent resident, or undocumented student) who is a full-time Wesleyan sophomore or junior and is African American, Asian/Pacific American, Latino/a American, or Native American, is eligible to apply. The applicant must be in need of substantial financial aid.
  2. The applicant’s major or focus of study must be in literature. Applicants may be affiliated with the following departments: English, College of Letters, other language/literature departments, or area studies, e. g., East Asian Studies concentrating on Chinese or Japanese literature.

SELECTION CRITERIA:

The selection is based on the submitted 750-word essay on one of the two topics identified in the application form, and on financial need, and not on academic standing.

SELECTION: Selection is based on review of applicant’s written essay and financial need.

DEADLINE for submission of applications: 5 p.m., Wednesday, April 17.

ANNOUNCEMENT OF PRIZE WINNER: In time for the prize reception in May.

TO APPLY: Prize application form is attached. For further information, please contact the campus coordinator of the Shu Tokita Prize committee, Alice Hadler (Downey House 209, x 2832, ahadler@wesleyan.edu, campus mail: English Dept., 294 High St.). Please submit your application and essay as an email attachment to Prof. Hadler by the Wednesday April 17 deadline.

THE SHU TOKITA MEMORIAL PRIZE APPLICATION FORM

Name: _____________________________________ Class: _________________________

Campus Box #: ____________________________ Telephone: _____________________

WesID#: __________________________ E-Mail: _________________________

Home Address: _____________________________ Home Telephone: _______________

______________________________

Major: ________________________________________________________________________

Program with a focus on literature: _________________________________________________

Please check:

__________ I am a domestic student of color currently enrolled full-time at Wesleyan.

Please also check:

_____ I hereby give permission to the members of the Shu Tokita Memorial Prize Committee to share among themselves information concerning my Financial Aid status for the purpose of evaluating my application. I understand that the Committee members are Prof Emerita Yoshiko Samuel, East Asian Languages and Literatures, Teiji Kawana, ’84, Daphne Kwok, ’84, Alice Hadler, English Department and Dean’s Office, Renee Johnson-Thornton, Dean for the Class of 2018, Amy Tang, English Dept., Marguerite Nguyen, English Dept.  Current prizewinners may also be asked to read application essays, but will not see other application information.

Please include a 750- word essay on one of the two topics below with your application:

  1. How do you plan to use your major, or focus of study, to make literature more accessible to people of all backgrounds? Please offer a specific example from either your own experience or perhaps a literary text that can illustrate your views.
  1. What is your response to someone who asserts that a major in literature is “impractical?” Please offer a specific example from either your own experience or perhaps a literary text that can illustrate your views.

Applications should be submitted by email by April 17, 2019 to:

The Shu Tokita Memorial Prize Committee
ahadler@wesleyan.edu