<p>Unfairly picking on USNews? Thank you thinkingoutloud for making me laughoutloud.</p>
<p>The following is President Bennet?s Response which I presume was e-mailed to all the alumni (not just me!):</p>
<p>To the Editor:</p>
<p>When did diversity become a dirty word? John Leo's column "Campus Life, Fully Exposed" is old news and contains a number of important inaccuracies which do a disservice to his daughter's alma mater.</p>
<p>As Mr. Leo writes, many of the stories he tells happened years ago. I want to make sure we are clear about what is happening today.</p>
<p>Real debate does, and always has taken place at Wesleyan. We are proud of the academically rigorous and diverse learning community here, which includes a range of students of differing racial, socio-economic, religious and international backgrounds. These students are here to learn from the faculty and one another so that they can prepare for thoughtful, useful lives in a fast changing, complex world. Diversity is not an end in itself; it is an educational tool. It is not always easy to make diversity work. But it is the right thing to do. The current issue about fraternities arises because we want to open up opportunities to everyone on campus. Mr. Leo's assertions to the contrary notwithstanding, we are upholding the same standard with regard to all campus programs and facilities.</p>
<p>The greatest challenge for any university is to move forward in a way that both respects our distinct histories and allows a free exchange of ideas about our common future. To do so requires a diverse and open campus.</p>
<p>Douglas J. Bennet
President, Wesleyan University</p>
<p>The quickness with which people label and dismiss his article as "homophobic," rather than actually engaging the substance of what he has to say, proves his point about the lack of diversity of opinion at Wesleyan! It is very similar to saying that anyone who questions affirmative action must be racist. There are reasonable arguments that can be made both ways and using labels to shut off debate betrays the labeller's underlying insecurity about their position. Personally, when I visited Wesleyan last Spring, I was most disturbed by the use of obscenity rather than any type of reasoned argument when I read the Argus. Sometimes "homophobic" or "elitist" or "racist" was the only non-obscene adjective used by writers for whom the height of analysis seemed to be "such and such or so and so is full of s*** " It might make for good cathartic therapy but it would have been nice to see something more thought out.</p>
<p>Leo's article somehow equates the sexual freedom advocated at Wesleyan as "sexual confusion." He is clearly uncomfortable with any kind of change to traditional gender/sexual roles--he's homophobic but can't come out (pun intended) and say it in a respected magazine like US News.</p>
<p>Dharmabum - you've just committed the same sin some of us have accused Leo of making - made a sweeping accusation based on dubious analysis. First of all, you don't have to go all the way to Middletown to read a copy of TheArgus - it's available online. Maybe the online version is censored but I doubt it. The discussions I've read are lively and substantive and rarely, very rarely, obscene. All in all, I think the Argus is a more interesting student paper than the Brown Herald; people on campus actually read it (unlike the Herald) and contribute to it, even though it only publishes a few times a week.</p>
<p>I'm the online editor for the Argus, so I can tell you it's not censored (look for the brand-new website to be up in a couple weeks, it'll be sweet)</p>
<p>I was putting the latest issue online into the new database system the other day. There were over THIRTY Wespeaks. I know they expanded the print version of that issue to 24 pages (normally 16) because they didn't want to drop any of the Wespeaks addressing the Dec. 7 student protests (and a good half the letters were people who disagreed with the protests).</p>
<p>I'm also not very interested in engaging an argument about whether homosexuality is wrong or not. Literally, not interested. This isn't an issue which I'm really invested in at all, so I don't really care to debate the merits of it. I do, however, find those who condemn people for behaviors that don't adversely effect others to be not worth listening to most of the time.</p>
<p>And for those people who think Wesleyan never admits Republican kids, word comes that Jonathan Bush, the President's first cousin (son of Jonathan, Sr. and older brother of Billy, the co-host of Access Hollywood) went to Wesleyan:</p>
<p>Wesleyan was once considered on par with Williams and Amherst, the "little THree." No one thinks that today. Leo's article seems to explain why that is. If they pay attention to him, they might improve.</p>
<p>And "The Little Three" were once thought on a par with "The Big Three" (HYP.) No one thinks that anymore, either.</p>
<p>America as a whole has changed greatly since the early sixties and whether Wesleyan becoming a smaller, preppier, more sports oriented version of itself would be an "improvement", is a matter of opinon. The truth is that Amherst and Williams have moved closer to Wesleyan in the last twenty years than the other way around. That indicates that Wes is doing something right.</p>
<p>
[quote]
The truth is that Amherst and Williams have moved closer to Wesleyan in the last twenty years than the other way around. That indicates that Wes is doing something right.
[/quote]
What's your basis for saying this?</p>
<p>Based on a number of indicators: male/female student ratio; non-white enrollment; people who openly identify as "gay" or queer-- Amherst and Williams today are more nearly like Wesleyan than they've ever been (as late as 1983--nine years after formal co-education--men still outnumbered women by 2 to 1 at Amherst. It was nearly as bad at Williams.) Academically, Amherst had a core curriculum twenty years ago. Today, Amherst has no required courses and Williams plays down its distribution requirements (Wesleyan hasn't had required courses since 1968.) There have been major investments in the arts at Williams over the last twenty years, including a new professional quality theater complex that opened last year (Wesleyan has had one since 1970.) Um, and Amherst has done some things too:
<a href="http://halogen.note.amherst.edu/%7Eastudent/2001-2002/issue17/news/08.html%5B/url%5D">http://halogen.note.amherst.edu/~astudent/2001-2002/issue17/news/08.html</a></p>
<p>Thank you. It sounds liek Leo was off on a hootenanny!</p>
<p>
[quote]
He says events like the Queer Prom (a GLBT fundraiser/social event of the sort that happens at virtually every college in the country) and gender-neutral housing options promote "sexual confusion"
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Queer Proms, a GLBT fundraiser/social event happen pretty much on all campuses of LACs. For example, Ohio Wesleyan University has such events as well, not just Connecticut's Wesleyan. In the article itself, there is no critical remark about such events. All he says is "readers learned nothing from me about", so I don't know how you made the jump from "not learning" to "sexual confusion". I think you are barking up the wrong tree on that one.</p>
<p>I do have to say that there are quite a few things whose presence on the campus of Connecticut's Wesleyan may be indeed quite troubling at best for any academically serious incoming student: </p>
<p>Obscene chalkings, which included colorful references to the sexual practices of professors....that's just plain stupid. I see absolutely no substantive purpose. Although I do have to admit that I am not sure if that's anything to be taken anywhere as seriously as in a magazine like US News. </p>
<p>Is an anti-Semitic roadshow at Connecticut's Wesleyan not troubling? Well, I lived in the Middle east and I, too, think that the disctinction between the Anti-Israel and antisemitic discourse is a very subtle one and missed in most campus events. You can take a look at Omer Bartov's writing and read about "new forms" of anti-semitism.</p>
<p>What's with the campus club named crudely for a woman's private part? I think this one is probably worth the same attention as the first one above...probably shouldn't have been taken too seriously in the first place.</p>
<p>I think the political homogeneity of students is a major turn-off. In my own academic career since Ohio Wesleyan University, I have met a few grads of Connecticut's Wesleyan and I do have to say that they all fit a pattern. I am suspicious of the benefits of generalizations, but apparently these patterns that I have noticed are ingrained either in the admission process or in the self-selection of incoming students. And patterns of behaviour or political beliefs do form a campus culture. In various classes in which political discussions are perhaps the key and the best form of learning, I'd find it incredibly intellectually stifling to be surrounded by people.......who think like me. For one thing, it is not realistic, and for another, it is the worst way to learn. It is almost equivalent to a bunch of white guys discussing the problems in today's society of being African American. I am very thankful that this kind of political homogeneity did not exist on my undergraduate campus, Ohio Wesleyan University, when I was a student. Although it was pretty liberal, political heterogeneity still existed with probably 70% leaning towards liberals and about 30% conservatives.</p>
<p>i doubt it's as politically homogeneous on the wesleyan campus as most people like to think, comment on, bash, etc. i think you should continue to be suspicious of the benefits of generalization.</p>
<p>Yeah, really. Most Wesleyan students bend over backwards to give a respectful fair hearing even to views they disagree with, as these minutes from a Wesleyan Student Assembly meeting attest; about 3/4 of the way down you'll find the student representatives debating a comparatively mild resolution concerning the War in Iraq; it is obvious that even though a majority of them were against the war--and could have steamrolled a much stronger resolution-- that they were mindful that there others on campus who might hold different views: </p>
<p>johnwesley, thanks for the link.... you didn't explicitly quote anything from a page (which i presume you were not expecting me to read in its entirety). but it surely shows nothing but some disagreement on whether a resolution should be passed in the first place...
[quote]
Straw poll on whether the resolution should be explicitly for or against war: 7 for taking a strong stance, 18 for not taking a stance, 3 abstentions.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>might i pick a mroe appropriate response to a web link with a web link? <a href="http://wcsa.owu.edu/minutes.html%5B/url%5D">http://wcsa.owu.edu/minutes.html</a></p>
<p>:-) now, seriously, i'd be curious...though not that curious about what the data for connecticut's wesleyan is similar to what someone circulated around about oberlin college, ohio wesleyan university, kenyon college and wooster: </p>
<p>it is not the most accurate way to show what the political views of students are, but it is better than no data.</p>
<p>the answer is about 10. but that's to be taken with a grain of salt. who i meet says more about me than the ones whom i meet ;)</p>
<p>Seriously, indeed. That OWU cite was whack.
Anyway, to answer your question, I'd be disappointed if Wesleyan and Oberlin were not fairly similar politically. What's your point?</p>
<p>Also, just for giggles, here's the requested data from TheFacebook, that bastion of scientific accuracy.</p>
<p>"Very Liberal" 517 (23.9%)
"Liberal" 1078 (49.9%)
"Moderate" 237 (11.0%)
"Conservative" 53 (2.45%)
"Very Conservative" 32 (1.48%)
"Apathetic" 56 (2.59%)
"Libertarian" 34 (1.57%)
"Other" 154 (7.13%)</p>
<p>Total 2161</p>
<p>Run it for any other top northeast private (which OWU is not, in case you haven't noticed) and I doubt it'll be drastically different. The kids at all these schools come mostly from New England, NYC, NorCal, LA, Chicago, the Main Line, Westchester, and so on. I mean, what kind of politics do you think most of them will have? Think about it.</p>
<p>hahaha, this **** is funny. sorry man. apparently made you angry or something. three messages in a row with that??? there we go: how a student in that college deals with disagreement. aah, you make it so easy for me.</p>