Author Archives: izmasterflex

EVENT
Campus Sustainability Day Planning

Haley Greenberg ’14 writes in:

Interested in what your fellow Wesleyan students are doing to make our community a more sustainable place? Interested in participating in Campus Sustainability Day on October 24 to broadcast all the great initiatives we have? Interested in helping plan the day of festivities on campus?

Check out AASHE and Campus Sustainability Day here!

Next week we will hold a brainstorming session with Jen Kleindienst, our Sustainability Coordinator, to get the ball rolling. Contact hgreenberg(at)wesleyan(dot)edu for more information.

Date: Thursday, October 4
Time: 5 pm

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New England Campus Sustainability Forum

Haley Greenberg ’14 demands your attention:

Are you excited about sustainability and want to meet other people who want to make the world a better place?  Are you lucky enough to not have any Friday classes?

The first New England Campus Sustainability Forum is going to be held next Friday, September 21st from 8 AM to 5:15 PM at the Colleges of the Fenway in Boston (Wentworth, Wheelock, Simmons, Emmanuel, Mass Art, and Mass College of Pharmacy).

 The New England Campus Sustainability Forum is designed to build the skills that will help campus change agents advance sustainability programs at their institutions, including skills uniquely tailored to our region. The conference and its sessions are focused around this year’s theme, Leveraging Collective Resources for the Future, and follow three tracks, “Organization and Coalition Building,” “Campus as a Living Laboratory,” and “Financial Strategies.” The program is designed to foster conversation and linkages between all stakeholders, administrators, staff, faculty, and students in order to provide new insights on ways to think about and initiate campus sustainability programs.

 If you’re interested in going, register online and contact Jen Kleindienst, Sustainability Coordinator (jkleindienst[at]Wesleyan[dot]edu) to coordinate transportation.

Date: Friday, September 21st
Time: All Day (8:00 AM-5:15 PM)
Place: Boston, MA (Colleges of the Fenway)
Cost: $35
Deadline: Register by Wednesday 9/19

EVENT
Student Activism Orientation Event

Think Wesleyan students are active?  Here’s some of what happened last year alone, from the UOC interns:

Defending Wesleyan’s long-standing need-blind policy, re-imagning our campus as a closed, sustainable system, diving into Middletown politics, organizing around queer issues, escorting women to a local abortion clinic, sleeping in Zucotti Square, organizing cultural events, working at Long Lane Farm, promoting awareness around student mental health, disability rights, safe sex and sexual assault, protesting the visit of a controversial Supreme Court Justice, writing for the Hermes, starting a Skill Share Collective, allying with Wesleyan’s service workers for fairworking conditions, organizing a day of action to divest from big banks, and exposing institutionalized prejudice in higher education.  And the list goes on!

Wesleyan students stand up for issues that matter to them.  Are you passionate about social justice and ready to make a difference on campus? Just curious about what resources are available to help launch a new creative idea?  Come meet other students and leaders at the helm of Wesleyan’s activist community! Time pending, the reception will make a visit to the University Organizing Center, an open space for student group organizing at 190 High St.

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Wesleying Unofficial Orientation Series: Athletics and Athlete Life

For all you ’16 athletes, would-be athletes, and fanatics, look forward to college! Whatever your sport, here’s a bit of wisdom on navigating the sports scene here at good ol’ Wellesleyan. (“There are sports at Wesleyan??” Yes. There are.)

First, the Freeman Athletic Center. You will live here. (Especially if you’ve been assigned to Fauver Bennet Hall.) Get to know its shiny, new, sweaty interior. A head start on some Freeman secrets: the weight room is open from early to evening. If you’re just going to work out, try to avoid the 4 pm rush, when most sports teams are using the gym and other students get out of class. The pool (okay, “natatorium”) is another great resource for working out.

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Donate Extra Points to Middletown Food Not Bombs

Dan Schniedewind ’12 writes in:

Flushed with extra points and about to leave campus? Unlike Middletown Ca$h, this Wes-specific currency does not carry over from semester to semester. Middletown Food Not Bombs, an informal anti-authoritarian network dedicated to the principles of mutual aid and direct action against hunger, militarism and inequality, will convert these surplus points into food for hungry bellies. Simply approach one of the ‘adult’ cashiers at WeShop before it closes on Monday (the 7th) and say you would like to donate to Food Not Bombs. The points will be deducted from your balance and put toward a substantial bulk order to be distributed for free on Main Street over the coming weeks. M-FNB hosts a weekly vegetarian picnic on the corner of Liberty and Main each Sunday at 1 PM. Food is made available to everyone, rich or poor, drunk or sober. Diners serve themselves and anyone can contribute.

Donate some points or, better yet, join us for a tasty, free meal this Sunday 1pm at the Buttonwood on Main Street!

Date: Thursday – Monday
Place: Weshop
Cost: Points

Reel Youth Film Festival

Yona Golding ’14 writes in:

This Saturday, Wesleyan will be hosting a screening of the internationally touring Reel Youth Film Festival, a festival aimed at empowering youth through film.

Here is a blurb from the festival’s website.

“The Reel Youth Film Festival empowers young artists to express their creativity, entertain audiences, and share their visions for a more just and sustainable world.  The festival is a model for community engagement, a celebration of youth culture, and a showcase for the richness and diversity of a new generation of film makers. The festival screens short films made by young people under 20, and tours in partnership with youth media organizations, high schools, community groups and other established film festivals.  The festival tour kicks off at the Vancouver International Film Festival and goes on to tour in partnership with screening partners across Canada and around the world.”

Date: Saturday, May 5
Time: 7:00 pm – 8:15 pm
Place: PAC 001
Cost: Free

EVENT
Journey Through Palestine: A Brief History of a People in Conflict with Khaled Fahmy

Mariama Eversley ’14 writes in:

Come to hear about Palestinian conflict from the perspective of the Khaled Fahmy. Khaled Fahmy is professor and chair of the Department of History at the American University in Cairo. He is the author of several scholarly books on 19th century Egyptian social history, including All the Pasha’s Men: Mehmed Ali Pasha, His Army and the Founding of Modern Egypt (Cambridge University Press).

Date: Tuesday, May 1
Time: 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm
Place: PAC 002
Cost: Free

EVENT
Archiving Workshop

Did something important happen on campus, or with your student group this year? Which initiatives worked and which did not?

Keeping a record of student initiatives is important for continuity, learning and remembering our past, and building more effective and long lasting change in the projects we are working on.

This Sunday, as part of the Skillshare Extravaganza (more details to come) you are invited to the archiving workshop. Let’s meet together to archive materials like notes, fliers, photos, testimonials, and articles. Come with materials, or just for brainstorming. Stay for all or some of the workshop. During the workshop in a group setting we can begin to strategize how to record in an accessible way what has happened this past year. There will be more workshops to follow with the Special Collections Librarian from Olin if you are not able to make this one. Keeping an archive of what happened this past year can make it easy for next year to pick up from where we left off, learn from mistakes, and for many many next years to get insight into and inspiration from the history they are coming from. Anyone is welcome to help with these projects. Please contact igauthier(at)wesleyan(dot)edu for more info.

Date: Sunday, April 29
Time: 1 pm – 5 pm
Place: UOC
Cost: Free

EVENT
Panel Discussion: Youth Activism for Reproductive Justice

Zak Kirwood ’14 writes in:

As part of the Week for Reproductive Justice, Tuesday there will be a panel discussion about Youth Activism  and Reproductive Justice. Don’t miss it!

On the panel are Lauren Casey, Coordinator of the CLP Conference at Hampshire College; Courtney Hooks, a legal advocate with Justice Now who works on reproductive justice issues in the prison system; Kathleen Adams, the co founder of Mama’s Hip Hop Kitchen; and Liana Brown, a community educator at Planned Parenthood.

Date: Tuesday, April 17
Time: 4:30 pm – 5:30 pm
Place: Center for African American Studies, Vanguard Loung
Cost: Free

EVENT
Movement Building in the Belly of the Beast: Organizing in the Nonprofit Era

Meggie McGuire ’10 writes in about a conversation and workshop with Lex Horan ’10:

As non-profit organizations multiply, more and more people are questioning the ways that non-profits manage and limit social movements, within the U.S. and around the world. What are the opportunities and dangers in the non-profit model? How does thinking about activism as a “career” keep us from building mass movements? How does funding impact the politics and structures of organizations? Most importantly, how do we keep our organizing creative and fierce in this context? In this workshop, we’ll learn, critique, brainstorm, and look beyond the non-profit industrial complex to think about how we can build movements that win.

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