Category Archives: Causes

EVENT
What’s Happening in Syria? Humanitarian Aid and Response to the Crisis

Caroline Kravitz ’19 writes in:

Wesleyan Refugee Project presents “What’s Happening in Syria? Humanitarian Aid and Response to the Crisis” on Thursday, November 15, 2018 from 5:00 pm to 6:30pm in the Usdan University Center, Room 108.

Join us and speakers from the Multifaith Alliance for Syrian Refugees (MFA) for an overview of the humanitarian crisis in Syria and what you can do to help. MFA is a New York City based NGO that mobilizes the interfaith community to deliver humanitarian aid and to advocate for sensible and humane refugee policies.

The speakers will include Ahed Festuk, a Syrian refugee from Aleppo who organized peaceful demonstrations in 2011 before working at a front-line field hospital and aid organizations in Syria, and Bennett Gross, Executive Director of MFA.

This event is cosponsored by The Albritton Center, The Government Department, the Middle Eastern Students Union, the Interfaith Council, Resource Center, and the Fries Center for Global Studies

This event is free and open to the public. Dinner from Typhoon will be served.

Date: Wednesday, November 15
Time: 5:00-6:30 PM
Place: Usdan University Center, Room 108
Facebook Event

EVENT
Advocating for Refugees: Student Experience Panel

From Caroline Kravitz ’19:

Students who were working with organizations that support refugees in Chicago, California, Greece, and Jordan this past summer will share their experiences and give an overview of the organizations they were working with.

This event is free and open to the public. Dinner will be provided at this event!

This event is cosponsored by the Gordon Career Center and Fries Center for Global Studies as a part of International Education Week (see http://bit.ly/iew2018).

Date: Tuesday, November 13
Time: 5:00-6:30 PM
Place: Gordon Career Center
Facebook Event

EVENT
Wes STILL Needs CAPS: Campaign Demands Brainstorm Meeting

From Wesleyan Democratic Socialists:

Come to a meeting on Friday, November 2nd at 4:30 PM in the Resource Center to share your ideas and develop the demands of the CAPS Campaign!!!

This year WesDS is organizing a campaign around recent CAPS staffing shortages, and ongoing concerns about CAPS staffing and accessibility mental healthcare access at Wesleyan. If you were at Wesleyan in 2016-17, you may remember a similar “Wes Needs CAPS” campaign from that time, which resulted in new CAPS hires. As you can see, these types of issues are recurring, and we want to make sure Wesleyan addresses them sustainably so that we don’t have to continue fighting for adequate mental health care year after year.

As we organize, we want to make sure that this campaign takes the specific needs and concerns of marginalized students and identity-based groups into account so that we can fight for real transformative change in how CAPS supports student mental health. We have drafted some preliminary demands already, based largely off of the previous “Wes Needs CAPS” campaign and research we’ve done this year. However, we want to ensure that the demands we’re making are inclusive of all Wes students before we publicize and start organizing around them.

Please take a look at the draft demands and then come to the meeting to share your thoughts!

Date: Friday, November 2
Time: 4:30-6:00 PM
Place: The Resource Center
Facebook Event

FEATURED
All-Campus Email: CAPS Update

In the never-ending CAPS saga, we’ve received another update from the powers that be in the form of an all-campus email. Some highlights include:

  • CAPS has received authorization to hire another full-time therapist in addition to the two full-time therapists have already been hired to replace the two full-time therapists who left.
  • There is still no APRN/prescriber, though they “hope to have this position filled very soon”
  • CAPS acknowledges that it is bad at connecting students to off-campus care (~understatement of the decade~), despite often claiming that students cannot continue using CAPS because they need “more intensive counseling and support than CAPS is able to provide.” To address this, they’re bringing in a consultant.

The full text of the email can be found below the jump:

Continue reading →

EVENT
Havdalah and Kaddish

From the Wesleyan Jewish Community:

Every week, the Jewish community comes together to do a short ceremony called havdalah, where we mark the end of Shabbat and the beginning of the new week. Today, we will also be saying kaddish, the mourner’s prayer, in honor of those who were killed in an act of antisemitism and white supremacy today in a synagogue in Pittsburgh. This will happen in the Bayit at 6:40pm. Please note that this ceremony will center the experiences of the Jewish community, including Jews by choice and Jews who don’t typically attend the havdalah ceremony.

Date: Saturday, October 27
Time: 6:40 PM
Place: The Bayit

FEATURED
Write-Ins and All Campus Email: Wesleyan Responds to Federal Proposal on Defining Gender

Editor’s Note: This post contains references to transphobia/trans-erasure. If you are upset or disturbed by this news and need support, please reach out to CAPS at (860) 685-2910 and alert the CAPS staff you are in need of a same day appointment. If you are unsure if your issue is a “crisis,” please contact CAPS to discuss.

Wesleying aims to provide a safe(r) space for trans voices, and we are very willing to listen if you feel there are things we can be doing better towards this goal.

Cover Photo from the Trans at Wes Facebook page

Upon returning from Fall Break, students were greeted with an email from Interim VP for Equity and Inclusion Debbie Colluci and VP for Student Affairs Mike Whaley about the federal proposal on defining gender. This proposed federal policy would eliminate protections for trans and gender non-conforming individuals under Title IX, which has in recent years been one of the sole policies guaranteeing trans and gender non-conforming (GNC) people rights within institutions like the university.

In the email, Colucci and Whaley attempt to quell fears about trans and gender non-conforming students losing protections by pointing to Connecticut State laws and University Policy which prohibit discrimination on the basis of gender, gender identity and/or gender expression. However, not everyone at Wesleyan lives in Connecticut full-time, and there are countless trans and gender non-conforming people in our wider community who don’t have the protections of the university, not to mention all of the trans/GNC folks who live in much more hostile environments.

We reached out to some trans/GNC members of the Wesleyan community to share their thoughts and feelings on the matter. Given the intent of the federal policy to literally erase trans and gender non-conforming people’s identities, we wanted to make sure we amplified trans/GNC voices in this post.

If you are trans/GNC and have thoughts or feelings you’d like to share (on this or any topic), please email them to staff[at]wesleying[dot]org and we can post them here at Wesleying! These can be published as anonymously or with your name, depending on your comfort level.

Read on for responses from members of the trans/GNC Wesleyan community, along with the full text of the email, below the jump:

Continue reading →

FEATURED
All Campus Email: 2018 Campus Climate Survey Results & Opportunities for Feedback

Last Spring, the Office for Equity and Inclusion completed climate and culture surveys with both students and faculty/staff. This week, the results of this survey were emailed out to the campus community. The results of this survey—including the jarring statistic that “nearly half of staff respondents did not agree that Wesleyan’s review process rewards strong job performance”—come in the wake of yet another Title IX case filed against the university by a female faculty member, this time Former Assistant Professor of Physics Christina Othon.

In the survey results report itself, there are a several items of particular interest:

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FEATURED
Guest Post: Wesleyan, It’s Time to Rise Up for Custodial Workers

“Janitorial workers provide essential labor in our homes, dorms, classrooms and athletic facilities. Our failure to see, support and organize with these workers must end.”

María with her grandchildren.

Some of you may have seen students tabling with petitions in Usdan or sharing a GoFundMe on social media in support of María Sarabia this week. Students for Custodial Workers has written this guest post to explain the conditions of custodial workers at Wesleyan and what you can do to help! Read below the jump for their post:

Continue reading →

EVENT
Reflecting on Dr. Ford: Student-Centered Gathering for Support and Solidarity

From a whole bunch of groups/offices around campus:

This week of testimony and media coverage has been painful for many individuals across campus. We invite you to gather as we hold space for anyone looking to process, vent, grieve, or speak our truths.

Reflecting on Dr. Ford: Student-Centered Gathering for Support and Solidarity

Tuesday, October 2, from 4:15pm – 5:15pm in Downey Lounge (294 High Street)

An optional gathering for survivors will follow from 5:15-6:00pm in Downey 200

This gathering is hosted by ASHA, SFCC, WSA, Title IX Student Advisory Committee, Survivor Advocacy and Community Education Office, Office of Religious and Spiritual Life, and Counseling and Psychological Services.

If you are looking for emotional support during this challenging time, please reach out to any of these confidential resources:

Date: Tuesday, October 2
Time: 4:15-5:15 for everyone, 5:15-6:00 for survivors
Place: Downey Lounge, Downey 200
Facebook Event