President’s Letter

2012 Issue 3December 15, 2012February 26, 2014

Early in the fall semester, Coursera announced that Wesleyan University is joining its partnership of schools offering MOOCs—massive, open, online classes that often enroll tens of thousands of people. MOOCs are not uncontroversial. Some see them as triggering watershed changes in higher ed, while o…

2012 Issue 1January 15, 2012February 26, 2014

PRESIDENT’S LETTER

Education depends fundamentally on our ability to generate optimism and find reasonable (defensible) ways to sustain it. When our faith in the future is shaken, whether it be by technologies we don’t understand, economic…

2011 Issue 2June 15, 2011April 16, 2014

PRESIDENT’S LETTER

I am spending a good part of the summer off campus, doing research for a book on why liberal education matters. Recently I’ve been reading Thomas Jefferson and also some of his contemporaries. The political importance of…

2011 Issue 1January 15, 2011April 16, 2014

PRESIDENT’S LETTER

A current debate about higher education seems actually to be an old one: practical science training vs. general education in the liberal arts. The contrast persists in the public mind even though the sciences are part of…

2010 Issue 3September 15, 2010April 16, 2014

PRESIDENT’S LETTER

A current debate about higher education seems actually to be an old one: practical science training vs. general education in the liberal arts. The contrast persists in the public mind even though the sciences are part of…

2010 Issue 2June 15, 2010April 16, 2014

PRESIDENT’S LETTER

Like many students, when I began my college education, I had little idea of what course of study would best respond to my interests and hopes. I chose some history classes that sounded familiar themes, looked to the scie…

2010 Issue 1January 20, 2010April 16, 2014

PRESIDENT’S LETTER

Recently I wrote to the Wesleyan community about our focus on building the endowment over the next decade. I indicated that our goal now is to direct no more than 25 percent of gift income toward operating expenses. This…

2009 Issue 3December 20, 2009April 16, 2014

PRESIDENT’S LETTER

I am writing this column after meeting new and returning students full of infectious energy and optimism. I feel less like a rookie at the outset of my third year, which means less time playing catch–up, and have spent t…

2009 Issue 2June 20, 2009May 16, 2014

PRESIDENT’S LETTER

The 2008–09 year began with triumph and fanfare as we celebrated a Tony Award-winning production on Broadway. As the year ended, we were shaken by the tragedy of the murder of Johanna Justin-Jinich ’10. In these instance…

2009 Issue 1January 20, 2009May 16, 2014

PRESIDENT’S LETTER

Wesleyan alumni know our proud history of engaging with the world, but it is always nice to have one’s self–perception acknowledged by other institutions. During the break between semesters, the Carnegie Foundation for t…