Professional soccer championAlex Wilkinson ’13has got a proposal for you:
The Argus Magazine is Wesleyan’s only publication focused on long-form journalism. We want to publish your long-form nonfiction, especially journalistic works: profiles (of places and/or people), interviews, investigative reporting, memoirs—we’ll take them all! We are looking for submissions that are 1500 words or longer, but we’ll consider shorter pieces too. Send your submission(s) to argusmagazine(at)gmail(d0t)com; we look forward to reading!
Deadline: April 5 Contact: argusmagazine(at)gmail(dot)com
Think you have ‘All Things Considered’? Like ‘Talk of the Nation’? Eat your breakfast to ‘Morning Edition’?
ARGUS NEWS RADIO on WESU 88.1FM invites you to the world of radio journalism. We broadcast every 2 weeks, exposing news and features stories that affect the Wesleyan and Middletown communities.
Breaking news, fun features, in-depth investigation, interviews. Learn to report, produce, write, or edit for radio news.
Robert Siegel – that could be you. Kind of. Come to our info sesh and see what you can bring to ANR!
Date: Sunday, January 27th. Time: 2:30-3:30 pm Place: Usdan 114 Cost: Nope. Gotta love public radio.
No, this isn’t that Argus Information & Advisory Services, LLC thing you keep getting emails about from the Career Center. Olivia Horton ’14writes:
Come chat with the editors of The Argus and learn how to get involved with the oldest bi-weekly college newspaper in the country. If you’re interested in writing, photography, copy editing, or layout, get at us. If your lofty journalistic aspirations aren’t enough motivation, we’ll also have snacks.
Date: Saturday, January 26, and Sunday, January 27 Time: 2 p.m. and 3 p.m., respectively Place: 41 Wyllys Room 114, Argus office (above Broad Street Books) respectively Cost: Monday and Thursday nights for all of eternity
What’s the Twittersphere saying about the Times piece? Click past the jump.
A weekend New York Timesarticle covers Wesleyan’s change in admissions policy, giving a national and international platform to some of the activism surrounding need blind here on campus. With little communication to the alumni and larger Wesleyan community about the recent change in admissions policy, for many alums this could be the first they hear of the policy shift, a topic we’ve been abuzz with for months. Not only did my mom text me this morning to check the article out, but other people are wildly sharing it, too: it is listed in the top-emailed articles on the NYT website, and the tweeting world is hot on the topic.
The article cites financial instability as threatening diversity at small elite colleges, specifically Wesleyan and Grinnell. Small schools like our own have been steadily raising tuition, while families are increasingly unable to meet rising costs in a weak economy. Richard Perez-Pena writes,
As a result, more students need financial aid than did a few years ago, they need much more of it on average, and colleges have fewer resources with which to provide it, though a major expansion of the federal Pell Grant program has made up some of the difference.
Wesleyan is described as having “had the most heated recent debate.” Disappointingly, then, no students are quoted in the piece, but President Rothgives a shout out to student activism, saying “I applaud the students’ commitment to our values,” and adds, “I did not think that the economic model we were using would be sustainable in even the midterm, over the next decade.” This is out of character given his recent confrontations with chalking Wesleyan students and Nemo Allen ’12 from Democracy Now!. Links in the NYT article direct readers to two Argus articles about student activism surrounding the barge-in at the Trustee meeting and protest at the Homecoming football game. Additional coverage here and here. Added to this semester’s memorably heated moments—but unmentioned in the Times—are the artistic chalk bomb, Alumni letter asking to withhold alumni donations, and parent assembly infiltrations.
Noam Sandweiss-Back ’15is really excited and not just because someone also named Noam is coming to speak:
Exciting News. This Thursday, from 12 to 1, J Street U at Wes is bringing Noam Sheizaf, the leading progressive Israeli blogger today, and Libby Lenkinski, a prominent voice for human rights in Israel, to campus. They’re kick-ass and ready to have a little discussion.
They have an hour to talk and are happy to discuss anything from alternative media, to the political implications of Obama’s re-election in Israel, to the state of human rights in Israel and the Occupied Territories. They are at the forefront of Israeli progressive politics, have a lot to share, and we are thrilled that they are coming to Wes. So come by in-between classes. We promise you won’t be disappointed.
Oh, and of course, a delicious lunch will be provided.
Date: Thursday, November 15 Time: 12:00-1:00 PM Place: 41 Wyllys Room 114 Facebook: Here
“There has been a lot of transparency. There has been a lot of transparency.”
Wesleying wasn’t the only media outlet filming last Saturday’s need-blind protest, in which roughly 50 student activists stormed across the sidelines during the football game, waving a banner proclaiming “DIVER$ITY UNIVER$ITY?” and chanting that “everyone deserves to learn.” Recent grad Nemo Allen ’12, a video production fellow for independent global news hour Democracy Now!, was also at the ready. After filming the protest, Allen stuck around for interviews with engaged students, faculty, and one alumnus who was fiercely involved in the 1982 protests to preserve need-blind at Wesleyan.
But when Allen attempted to interview President Roth, he found himself caught in a bizarre confrontation with the camera still rolling. In the footage, the president walks away from Allen, turns around, insists that “there has been a lot of transparency,” pushes his face close to the camera, grabs Allen’s microphone, grins, continues walking, confronts a police officer, explains the situation, and is asked to return the microphone. (That is not a sentence I ever expected to publish on this blog.) My personal favorite exchange is probably “You have to give that back.” “I don‘t have to!”, but the part where Roth sticks his head into the lens is slightly more conducive to meme-tastic GIFs.
The footage aired towards the end of Democracy Now!’s program this morning. You can also watch it on YouTube (above) as a stand-alone segment. Here’s the full transcript, as narrated by DN! host Amy Goodman:
Meanwhile, Ezra Silk ’10 takes on the Occupy movement firsthand: the former Argus editor and founder of Big Dog barbershop is is traveling around the country to write about the Occupy Wall Street protests and writing about it on America, Occupied, along with Ashik Siddique ’10, Gianna Palmer ’10, and Ryan Villareal. We’ve blogged about various Wes alums weighing in on the movement, but this is different. Silk writes:
The Boston Phoenix’s “Muzzle Awards” highlight rash acts of censorship, so it’s fairly disconcerting—but not altogether surprising—to see Wes and Betagate get a mention:
In an attempt to control student life outside the campus confines, Wesleyan proposed a prohibition, to take effect in August, on certain activities in “private societies that are not recognized by the University,” such as “taking meals” and “participating in social activities.” Recognizing that the policy was strikingly broad, Wesleyan students protested; after all, even houses of worship are private societies. The university responded with a policy revision in May. Problem solved?
“History is News That Stays News: How News Writing Impacts the Historical Record”
Gerard Koeppel ’79
Author, Bond of Union: Building the Erie Canal and the American Empire (Da Capo, 2009), former editor/writer/producer,CBS News (1989-2000)
Refreshments to follow.
Supported by the Wesleyan Writing Programs
Date: Friday April 23 Time: 4 p.m. Location: PAC 001
Award-winning independent journalist and author Dahr Jamail lived in occupied Iraq for nine months in 2003-2005, where he produced daily unembedded media reports on the massive destruction of the war, both to the people of Iraq, and to U.S. soldiers. Hear him speak on the escalating occupation of Afghanistan, the challenges for independent media in foreign warzones, and the expanding G.I. resistance movement. Don’t miss this monumental lecture! Featuring political activist and folk Singer/Songwriter David Rovics!
The Boston Phoenix’s “
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