Senior Packet 2020: Preparing for Graduation

This document contains important information about the graduation process and Wesleyan’s graduation requirements. As the you choose courses and build a program of study for your senior year, it is essential that you know exactly where you stand in terms of fulfilling Wesleyan’s graduation requirements so that everything goes smoothly when degree certification takes place in the Spring. Please review the contents carefully and contact Dean Phillips immediately (dphillips@wesleyan.edu, 860.685.2757) if you have any questions or concerns.

Graduation does not just happen; you must make it happen! It is important that you fully understand Wesleyan’s graduation requirements and that you are able to interpret your academic record in light of these requirements. Remember, you are responsible for your own graduation and must fulfill all graduation requirements by the end of the Spring 2020 semester in order to participate in the Commencement ceremony in May 2020.

  • Preparing for Graduation: This explains Wesleyan’s graduation requirements, the Major Certification Form, the Credit Analysis Report, oversubscription, December Completion, and honors.  Read it!
  • Frequently Asked Questions about the Senior Year: Answers to common questions about graduation requirements and the graduation process.
  • Academic History: Can be found in your WesPortal in the “Student Toolbox–>Academics” bucket.
  • Major Certification Form: Used to identify and track the courses you have taken and will be taking to complete your major, must be approved by an authorized advisor in your major department. Can be found in WesPortal in the “Student Toolbox–>Academics” bucket.
  • Credit Analysis ReportReviews your academic record in light of oversubscription and monitors your progress towards meeting graduation requirements. Can be found in WesPortal in the “Student Toolbox–>Academics” bucket.
  • Honors and Thesis Information: Deadlines and other important information for students undertaking honors theses.

Sign Up to Participate in the MASH


The MASH, to be held this year on Saturday September 7, welcomes all genres of music, everything from indie-rock to cover bands to rap groups and student DJs, with performance times ranging from 10-40 minutes (to accommodate any group regardless of experience and repertoire).

If you would like to participate, sign up here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfaQ8OEGjLlgtYdZmzdAmPzCyMElwWU4fhTnv5aTcBQ-XEYNA/viewform?usp=sf_link

End-of-Semester Checklist for International Students

Here is an end-of-semester checklist for international students:

  • Check your I-20 to see if you need a new travel signature: Check the bottom of page 2 of your I-20, if you don’t have a signature there, you need to get one. If you do have a signature, the date on it must be less than 12 months old from the date on which you will return to the U.S..
  • Check your I-20 for your program end date: Check page 1 of your I-20 where it says “program of study” and make sure that your program end date corresponds with your projected degree completion date at Wesleyan.
  • Check your passport expiration date: Your passport must be valid for at least six months past the date you plan to return to the U.S.. Make plans to renew your passport if you need a new one.
  • Check your F-1 visa expiration date: Your F-1 visa (attached in your passport) must be valid for at least 2 days past the date you plan to return to the U.S.. If you need a new F-1 visa, contact the U.S. consulate in your passport country. Check the visa appointment wait time and plan ahead.
  • Make summer storage arrangements: Wesleyan does not provide on campus storage to students. However, you can find a list of commercial storage facilities to support your summer storage needs.
  • Find a travel buddy to share the cost to the airport: Use the May 2019 Airport Rideshare Spreadsheet to find someone if you need a travel buddy.

Please note that all summer off-campus employment in the U.S. requires a prior work authorization.

If you need to adjust your program end date, get a new travel signature or have questions about off-campus employment during the summer, please email oisa@wesleyan.edu to schedule an appointment.

Space Still Available in Summer Session PSYC 200

PSYC 200: Statistics: An Activity-Based Approach

MTWRF. 09:00AM-10:40AM, BOGH114

This five-week course is an introductory-level statistics course for students interested in conducting psychological research and/or considering a psychology or neuroscience undergraduate major. The course will introduce the concepts and methods most commonly used in the analysis of quantitative data in psychological research such as behavioral experiments and life observations. Lectures will be provided to introduce the concepts and/or mathematical procedures of the core statistical topics and methods, including descriptive statistics, sampling distributions, t-tests, analysis of variance, correlation, simple regression and nonparametric tests such as chi-square tests. The course will emphasize activity-based learning by engaging students into practices of statistical methods and analysis procedure using statistical software for social sciences and task-based problem solving activities. The course will also include periodical reviews and unit tests to consolidate learning. Performance will be assessed using homework assignments, projects, and tests with objective problem items and objective scoring guides. To register, the prerequisite of other coursework (e.g., Psyc105) as a requirement for eligibility to enroll in my course section will be waived.

Please contact Dr. Chenmu “Julia” Xing at cxing@wesleyan.edu if you have any questions.

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.