Roth on Wesleyan has moved to Wesleyan University’s new website and can be found at wesleyan.edu/news. Blog posts made between 2007 through 2021 will remain on this archive site, while posts made after 2021 are now hosted on wesleyan.edu.| Roth on Wesleyan
I love seeing our students perform at the highest level, whether it be in athletics, the arts or in poster sessions about their research. I bet almost everybody at Wesleyan has friends on a team or in a dance, theater or orchestral performance, or in a band, and that you take the opportunity to cheer them on!| Roth on Wesleyan
September 11, 2001. Like many, I have a clear memory of that fateful morning. I was living in Berkeley, up early with the news on. I watched the replays of what I first thought was a crash, and then came to realize was an attack.| Roth on Wesleyan
I’m looking forward to seeing students engage in the full range of co-curricular activities, from athletics to theater, from poster sessions to art installations, as we get back in the swing of things. Although I taught in person last year, I so missed celebrating student, staff, and faculty accomplishments in person.| Roth on Wesleyan
Across the country, and in various places around the world, the COVID-19 pandemic is surging again, fueled by the highly contagious Delta variant. This is the bad news. The good news is that people who are vaccinated have excellent protection against the worst disease outcomes.| Roth on Wesleyan
For years, on July 4th I turned to Frederick Douglass' great speech ("What to The Slave is the 4th of July") as a reminder of the promise and the painful hypocrisy of the Declaration of Independence. If you look look back on this blog's July 4th posts, you'll find excerpts and reflections.| Roth on Wesleyan
Like many, I was delighted when President Biden yesterday signed legislation making Juneteenth a federal holiday. June 19th has long marked the day in 1865 when Union troops rode into Texas with the news that “all slaves were free.” Months later the 13th amendment to the Constitution solidified the abolition of slavery in the United States. As Vice-President Kamala Harris noted, national holidays “are days when we as a nation have decided to stop and take stock, and often to acknowledge...| Roth on Wesleyan
Every June we make a year-end effort to garner support for Wesleyan -- from current use scholarships to athletics, to support for research and creative practice. This year's Cardinal Challenge comes from Trustee Susannah Gray ’82, who will give $1M to Wesleyan when we receive 1,000 gifts (from alumni, parents, and friends) by June 30.| Roth on Wesleyan
Last weekend was Memorial Day, and I published this book review on memory and monuments in the Wall Street Journal.| Roth on Wesleyan
As many Wesleyans begin time away from campus this summer, it’s good to remember that the needs of Middletown continue beyond the academic year. One of the inspiring things we saw during the pandemic, was the level of care and cooperation that students showed their fellow citizens in Central Connecticut. We not only wanted to keep our campus healthy, we wanted to be responsible neighbors to those with whom we interacted in Middletown and beyond.| Roth on Wesleyan