<p>Whether it's Soros's relative who attended, or Julia Louis-Dreyfus (heiress to billions), or some other superwealthy alum who donates, Wesleyan's paltry endowment needs a massive infusion of cash. However specious and unfair rankings are, Wesleyan's free fall from the top ten to just above 20 in USNews will powerfully influence the kids who apply. Making matters worse are the various institutional "initiatives" designed by Michael Roth that scream "low rent"--a 3-year BA, dropping standardized test requirements (all well and good if you're Bowdoin and at the top of the heap but not for Wes where it is right now), MOOCs!! Truly accomplished high school students are no longer taking Wesleyan seriously. And what's with the half-assed approach to fraternities--making them go co-ed. Just follow the example of Amherst, Williams, Bowdoin, and Middlebury: abolish, abolish, abolish. The current plan will simply piss off rich alumni members who have probably long since stopped donating anyway. At the level of curriculum, Wesleyan should emphasize writing across all the majors in the way that Amherst and Davidson do. A mandatory senior thesis wouldn't hurt either. The current president inspires little confidence. I've read his Freudian musings and just want to laugh hysterically. It's as if he has not digested the profound developments in psychoanalysis over the past 60 years--object relations, self-psychology, relationality/intersubjectivity. In his communications (and failures to communicate with students), he comes off as a mean-spirited cipher, and I honestly have no idea how he got the job.</p>
<p>Not sure I understand your logic on fraternities at Wesleyan. They will eithaer accept women (in which case, they won’t really be fraternities in the strict sense of the word), or they’ll be abolished anyway. Patience, my friend.</p>
<p>Wesleyan should not be 25 years behind Bowdoin on this issue.</p>
<p>Oh please. Bowdoin, Amherst and Williams abolished fraternities because they were antisemitic bastions of WASP privilege. Wesleyan fraternities were defying their nationals by admitting Jews and later, blacks, as far back as the early 1950s. Who do you think Beckham Hall is named after? If you knew anything about Wesleyan history you would be able to answer that.</p>
<p>You’re talking out of your ass. Bowdoin realized the regressive obsolescence of a Greek social scene and phased them out accordingly. When I visited they had no shortage of Jewish representation. Whatever Wes’s frats may once have stood for, that history now is completely irrelevant, overshadowed by their present vileness. In any event, the fraternity issue was at most a tertiary issue in my original post. Wesleyan, once a formidable school, has now been overtaken by the illustrious likes of Hamilton, Washington & Lee, and Colby. As an alum, I’m embarrassed by the poor stewardship of the school. You can only get so much mileage out of claiming Michael Bay (soulless hack), Joss Whedon (puer aeternus), Matt Weiner (misogynist), HIMYM (the quintessence of American comedic mediocrity), one-note bands MGMT (they wrote their only decent material while tripping as undergrads) and Das Racist (novelty act) as evidence of institutional vitality. I love Wes and want it to get somewhat serious again. Annie Dillard’s long gone and the film department will lose much of its luster when Basinger retires. Are there any grown-ups involved in steering the place? </p>
<p>The fraternity issue illuminates a point: Wesleyan has kept them for so long because Wesleyan believes in giving students responsibility. Bowdoin, et al, had to eliminate them by administrative edict. You can make fun of Wesleyan’s amazing influence on pop culture if you want to. But, every one of the individuals you named - and I can name a lot more - are grateful for their Wesleyan experiences and have given back to the college where they first found their voices. That’s what a strong and independent student culture does and Wesleyan, by your own admission, does it better than nearly any other LAC in the country.</p>
<p>I went to school with several of those media kids–Craig and Carter, Santi White, Amanda Palmer–and can say that they would very likely have done the same thing if they’d gone elsewhere or nowhere at all. Maybe Wes will become the new Bennington, a kind of academically unmoored Montessori art school. In some ways, Pomona today seems to have become what Wesleyan was when I attended. The intention behind these criticisms is not to bash Wesleyan, a place that means so much to me, but to express frustration about the sketchy leadership (if it can be called leadership) and what seems now an inexorable descent into the lower reaches of the better LACs. </p>
<p>And, I knew Santi White’s dad; Santi White’s dad was a friend of mine. Believe me, there would be no Santi White today, if Wesleyan hadn’t taken a calculated gamble on admitting her father. Maybe, you should cut your alma mater some slack.</p>
<p>I thought you were going to go full Admiral Stockdale there and write “You’re no Santi White’s dad” lol. Had no idea her dad was an alum. Much of my ire comes from having been so in love with Wes during my time there after a not-so-happy first year at Bowdoin, and in the years since watching Wes’s reputation dim while Bowdoin’s remained strong (and its endowment doubled). Perhaps Wes needs a bold new addition that will set it apart, like an interdisciplinary materials engineering program that concentrates on sustainability. That would attract kids who are both idealistic AND committed to challenging academics, not to mention the potential windfall of grants and non-alum contributions if Wes were perceived as pioneering a field that makes a real difference. Just a thought.</p>
<p>^That was Sen. Lloyd Bentsen (D-TX), in his debate with then Senator, Dan Quayle, both running for VP. Admiral Stockdale, I believe was Ross Perot’s running mate. Can you tell I was a Government major? LOL.</p>
<p>Oh, right! How could I have forgotten Lloyd Bentsen? 
I was a sophomore in high school that election year. One afternoon we heard a helicopter landing outside and were informed that George H.W. Bush was making a surprise stump visit. We were all frisked within an inch of our lives before lining up to meet him. I took a big Dukakis pin off my friend’s backpack and put it on my shirt while awaiting my brief audience with the man Nixon said “would do ANYTHING for our cause.” His “energy,” if one can speak about such things, was dark and entirely inauthentic. By contrast when I met Jerry Brown (my friend’s uncle) a few times, it was like hanging out with an old friend. </p>
<p>And, for bonus points, the law firm Nicholson, Hewitt and West was involved in what famous scandal?</p>
<p>No idea. But just the word “Hewitt” brings to mind painted cinderblock walls and a design aesthetic indebted to mid-60s turnpike motels. Made some great friends there though!</p>
<p>This is COMPLETELY off topic…Where has johnwesly been? He was always around in years past. Especially on the Wesleyan threads!! </p>
<p>Pretty sure he’s circuitrider.</p>
<p>.</p>
<p>@wesleyan97‌: So you use the US News and World Report rankings as your sole source for judging a school’s quality? Interesting. Well, Wesleyan’s peer scores haven’t really changed at all over the years- Wesleyan’s ranking drop is solely due to the endowment, and that problem has been rectified. The problem is it takes years for investment changes to have the desired effect, especially with regard to the rankings that you hold in such high esteem. Wesleyan now invests most of its income instead of spending it. Wes spent most of its income for years after its endowment had fallen behind (thus compounding the effect of the small endowment). The current capital campaign is doing quite well and will help push the endowment up. </p>
<p>Also, ask 1,000 people which school is better, Bowdoin or Wesleyan, and I bet the responses would pretty much be 50/50. A couple spots difference on US News doesn’t make Bowdoin “top of the heap” and Wesleyan not being taken seriously by talented students. You’re parsing small numbers, and numbers that are subjective at that. Wesleyan’s average SAT scores and other metrics of the class haven’t changed during Wesleyan’s recent fall from 9 to 17 and up to 15 (actually improved slightly). With an acceptance rate around 20%, Wes has plenty of talented applicants from which to choose for its class. As for MOOCs - I recommend checking Coursera’s (or EdX’s) sites - plenty of elite schools have MOOCs, including Harvard and Princeton. Wesleyan’s social psych course is the most popular course on Coursera.</p>
<p>I referred to rankings as “specious,” hardly an endorsement, but people’s ideas about schools are strongly mediated by them. Peer scores were always considered incredibly suspect, even among the bizarre criteria used in college rankings. The endowment problem isn’t a single problem; it affects every aspect of university operations: need-blind admissions, faculty salary (and therefore quality of faculty), ability to go no-loan (which affects the number of applicants and yield of accepted students), money to support summer research and internships, food quality, building projects (Wes desperately needs a new science center). As for Bowdoin, rankings aside it has double Wes’s endowment and half its enrollment; it accepts a smaller percentage of students than Williams; the classes are more challenging (I attended both schools); it’s located in spectacular coastal Maine; and it has the best food in the country. I preferred Wesleyan because of the quirky students but by nearly every other metric Bowdoin was clearly superior. Some of those advantages (location) can’t be changed, but with some pragmatic creativity Wesleyan can fight its way back into the top ten. </p>
<p>About SAT/ACT scores, have you noticed that Wes seems to provide its median scores while most other schools give their means? Pretty misleading.</p>
<p>When you say that people’s ideas about schools are strongly mediated by rankings, you need to realize you are one of those people. I know you claim otherwise, but what you say supports that. No harm in that, but don’t run away from it. </p>
<p>Double the endowment and all those university operations problems either shrink or go away entirely. Maybe it is a single problem. By the way Bowdoin’s endowment is 50% larger than Wesleyan’s, not double. Bowdoin has released their endowment return numbers for the year already (they were great), but Wesleyan along with almost all other LACs has not yet. </p>
<p>I do want to know what specific kind of pragmatic creativity Wesleyan should muster to vault back into that important top ten. Remember it has to be something that can improve the six year graduation rate, or reduce the number of classes with 50+ students, or increase the freshman retention rate, or get high schools counselors to rate Wesleyan higher, or etc. Those are the things that that ranking looks at. </p>
<p>Just one more thing. You were at Bowdoin for one year and then finished up at Wesleyan, right? And I think this was quite a few years ago too. Is that all you have to support the claim that classes at Bowdoin are more challenging than the ones at Wes currently? You could be right, but everything comes off as either black or white from you. So I wonder.</p>