Here is a Letter to the Editor from an alum in today’s Courant about that article:
A Disconnect At Wesleyan
In response to the March 6 article “Students Want Wesleyan To Keep The Weirdness” [Page 1]:
The comments of Wesleyan University’s vice president for public affairs, Justin Harmon, which belittled Wesleyan students, illustrate the growing unfortunate disconnect between the university administration and its student body (of which I am a proud alumnus).
Wesleyan attracts the nation’s elite students to Middletown: the world’s future intellectuals and activists. Yet the underlying message in Harmon’s comment that “students … may lack some perspective” is that they can hardly be trusted with a halogen lamp or toaster because the building will go up in flames.
The valedictorians and newspaper editors I went to Wesleyan with certainly could be trusted with the occasional lit candle. Sadly, the administration lumbers with a bureaucracy befitting a university twice its size and views its students more like widgets than human beings whose opinions are valued.
Why the sudden rush to tax an already overworked maintenance staff with painting over three decades of graffiti in unused tunnels when leaky toilets and burned out lightbulbs go ignored for weeks?
If Wesleyan focused all this energy on improved course selection, financial aid and the like instead of over-parenting by proxy, students would learn to trust the administration and think that it actually had their best interests at heart.
Alden Ferro New Haven
Hmm, a student body that values being ‘weird’. I fear the future. Someday you’ll realized how silly you are.
Hmm, a student body that values being ‘weird’. I fear the future. Someday you’ll realized how silly you are.
No the Argus never misquotes anyone, or positions rumors as fact. And Bush never lies.
No the Argus never misquotes anyone, or positions rumors as fact. And Bush never lies.
argus represent represent’sent
argus represent represent’sent
As for the tunnel repainting, it was only a few walls of the in-use laundry hall under Butt B. There was still no reason for it, but they didn’t repaint them all.Although, one can only wonder if they would have repainted all the walls if students did not immediately re-tag the freshly-painted walls.
As for the tunnel repainting, it was only a few walls of the in-use laundry hall under Butt B. There was still no reason for it, but they didn’t repaint them all.
Although, one can only wonder if they would have repainted all the walls if students did not immediately re-tag the freshly-painted walls.
Alden knows what he’s talking about. And actually, he was the Argus EIC the year before the class of 2007 came in as freshmen….And it’s all about public relations here these days because education’s big business….And how about the delicately-worded explanation e-mail that we got about fire safety? …In which they said there were no plans for the dorm building. I suppose there were no certain plans, but it was a suggestion and a possible option until it became widely-known and people began talking publicly about what a stupid idea it was.I am sure that Ezra Silk, in his article, did not make up the quotes from Fire Safety Officer Christine Cruz, which discussed burning the $40,000 as a possibility…
Alden knows what he’s talking about. And actually, he was the Argus EIC the year before the class of 2007 came in as freshmen.
…And it’s all about public relations here these days because education’s big business.
…And how about the delicately-worded explanation e-mail that we got about fire safety? …In which they said there were no plans for the dorm building. I suppose there were no certain plans, but it was a suggestion and a possible option until it became widely-known and people began talking publicly about what a stupid idea it was.
I am sure that Ezra Silk, in his article, did not make up the quotes from Fire Safety Officer Christine Cruz, which discussed burning the $40,000 as a possibility…
here here. I tried to respond in the last one, but blogspot ate my comment… The fire code explicitly lasts as prohibited wall hangings, three-to-two prong adapters and coffee pots without an auto-off.Exactly how dumb do they think we are?-esb
here here. I tried to respond in the last one, but blogspot ate my comment… The fire code explicitly lasts as prohibited wall hangings, three-to-two prong adapters and coffee pots without an auto-off.
Exactly how dumb do they think we are?
-esb
word
word
I think it’s edifying that the only person who wrote in support is a recent Wes grad. I thought we came off looking pretty silly in that piece – it was almost like a parody: “All these weird people think that the weird place they live (when compared to, say, any oher college campus in the US) doesn’t measure up to their fantasies/aspirations of weirdness, and it’s giving them angst. Which is kind of weird.” To be honest it weirded me out. ;)
I think it’s edifying that the only person who wrote in support is a recent Wes grad. I thought we came off looking pretty silly in that piece – it was almost like a parody: “All these weird people think that the weird place they live (when compared to, say, any oher college campus in the US) doesn’t measure up to their fantasies/aspirations of weirdness, and it’s giving them angst. Which is kind of weird.” To be honest it weirded me out. ;)
Ferro’s comments on the bloated bureaucracy definitely ring true. As do his views on the administration’s distrust of students. It’s lacking in any sense of modesty, but yeah, good letter.
Ferro’s comments on the bloated bureaucracy definitely ring true. As do his views on the administration’s distrust of students. It’s lacking in any sense of modesty, but yeah, good letter.
…great letter.
…great letter.
He’s right – Wes place is not the place some people thought it was. And guess what, it’s not a gulag, either. There are plenty of other schools the “I’m-so disaffected-that-this-isn’t-a-time-capsule-to-1969-Woodstock-lifestyle-biosphere” can go to if they truly hate it here. But I defy them to find a place that’s weirder (ok, a place that’s weirder and not, say, a community college).
He’s right – Wes place is not the place some people thought it was. And guess what, it’s not a gulag, either. There are plenty of other schools the “I’m-so disaffected-that-this-isn’t-a-time-capsule-to-1969-Woodstock-lifestyle-biosphere” can go to if they truly hate it here. But I defy them to find a place that’s weirder (ok, a place that’s weirder and not, say, a community college).