Wesleyan Strategic Plan Review: August 2024
This memo—using the rubric of the three overarching goals of Towards Wesleyan’s Bicentennial—takes note of areas in which we have recently made progress and those in which progress has either been harder to come by or yet to be prioritized.
1: Enhance our distinctive educational program, capitalizing on academic strengths
Wesleyan is known for being an “engaged” university, and this past year, world events seized the attention of its community. Many reacted to the war in Gaza with outrage; others were disturbed by the vehemence and selective focus of this outrage which often ignored the massacres of October 7. Our campus saw more protest than it has in recent years, but the teaching and learning continued. It may be that—for some—the protests themselves were educational.
Our distinctive educational program is, first and foremost, the work of our faculty; and a number of their recent achievements is listed here, beginning with those of Jennifer Tucker, professor of technology, law, and visual culture, co-recipient in 2024 of an NEH award. Tucker, founding director of our Center for the Study of Guns and Society, publishes regularly on the on the role that guns have played in American society. Hers is a clarion example of how academic work at Wesleyan bears upon issues of societal importance.
Pre-major advising has not been a strength here, and last year our Senior Vice President of Academic Affairs and Provost, Nicole Stanton, worked with Vice President of Student Affairs, Mike Whaley, on how to improve it. At the center of their plan is a new technology platform, Stellic, that will make it easier for students and faculty to get accurate information about what they need to do when. This, together with additional training for faculty and improvements to the website, should result in higher levels of student satisfaction with pre-major advising.
With the help of AI tools to canvas the learning goals of every academic department, we identified eight core competencies: reading, writing and research skills; cross-cultural understanding; analytical and critical thinking; application of theory to practice; ethical awareness and social responsibility; communication skills; research methodologies and experimentation; active listening and appreciative inquiry. These competencies were shared with the Educational Policy Committee (EPC) to review and determine how best to leverage going forward.
In the run-up to the 2024 presidential election, we launched Democracy 2024, an initiative that encourages engagement in the public sphere. As a high-impact kickoff event, we held a two-day, on-campus convening, Democracy in Action, with the hope of inspiring Wesleyan students to get involved in politics and bolster what many believe is a democracy at risk. The initiative, which will continue leading up to and after the November election, has featured a number of notable speakers—including Adam Gopnik from The New Yorker and Nikole Hannah-Jones, Pulitzer Prize-winning creator of the 1619 Project. Promoting civic engagement is part and parcel of our educational program, and leading the effort going forward is Khalilah Brown-Dean, newly brought on board as the Rob Rosenthal Distinguished Professor of Civic Engagement and Executive Director of the Allbritton Center for the Study of Public Life.
In pursuing our objective to strengthen the connection of liberal learning to lifelong learning, the Board of Trustees created a task force on pragmatic liberal education. The task force landed on two key ideas: broadening and enhancing pragmatic experiences within the academic curriculum and instituting opportunities for students to reflect on what they are learning inside and outside the classroom. We will focus on how best to move forward with these two ideas next year.
During Winter Break the Gordon Career Center (GCC) hosted WesLink, which allows Wesleyan students to connect with alumni and parents virtually for individual career conversations. 150 alum volunteers met with 355 students; with some enjoying more than one conversation, there were a total of 449 matches. Over the course of the academic year, students also met with alumni at their offices as part of GCC’s career trek program: sites included the Connecticut General Assembly, Hartford Hospital, Jackson Lab, and Wall Street. GCC also collaborated with divisional deans on a trip to the New Britain Museum of American Art. This event topped off Humanities in Action Week, which brought together faculty, students, and GCC staff to celebrate and elevate career opportunities for those majoring in the humanities.
While we have shifted away from pursuing an online bachelor’s degree—having weighed the investment needed against the limits of our reach—we continue to explore how we can leverage online learning. Our partnership with the National Education Equity Lab has been a success. We offered four courses last year and provided college credit to 428 high school students from Title 1 high schools across the nation. We partnered with edX and launched our first course, Anorexia, taught by ex-provost Ruth Weissman. So far, that course has engaged 212 learners. Meanwhile, on Coursera more than a million students have enrolled in Wesleyan classes.
Furthering diversity remains a priority, and last year a majority of our new faculty hires were faculty of color. With respect to staff, 29% of new hires were people of color. In response to our WesThrives campus survey, we ran a series of engagement sessions on equity, inclusion and belonging for faculty and staff of color. Concerned about the different satisfaction levels of white and non-white employees, we have now established a WesThrives Equity and Inclusion Executive Committee to guide next steps and prioritize the actions to take in the coming year. Willette Burnham-Williams has joined Wesleyan as Vice President for Equity and Inclusion and hit the ground with energy and enthusiasm.
President Roth has been especially prominent in supporting the educative value of intellectual diversity. Struck by recent articles in the Wesleyan Argus on the topic, he met with the student authors and was heartened to hear that in their view the students here do find the classroom to be a space where differing views are encouraged and supported. It is outside of the classroom that students find it hard (especially with peers) to engage in such conversations or make them productive. This challenge was exacerbated by the intensity of emotions around the spring semester protests. It is perhaps unsurprising that not all faculty agree about that campuses suffer from a lack of intellectual diversity. Be that as it may, the faculty director of the Center for the Study of Public Life and associate professor of sociology, Robyn Autry, is leading an initiative to equip students with the skills to engage in difficult dialogue and create more opportunities out of the classroom for students to practice those skills.
This semester Wesleyan is welcoming another strong cohort of African Scholars: 11 new Scholars will be part of the class of 2028. The Internationalization Strategic Plan from Fries Center has made great progress which can be tracked here.
The Frank Center for Public Affairs, the hub for interdisciplinary work in the social sciences, opened this past spring. Designed to stimulate interaction, the Center immediately became a popular spot to study, meet and hold events. The new Pruzan Art Center has likewise been integrated into the flow of campus life, and the shows in the Goldrach gallery have been met with acclaim. Across the street, the construction of the impressive new science building continues on schedule—and on budget. How our physical campus contributes to the educational program is being transformed.
A recent enhancement to that program is our newly approved College of Design and Engineering Studies (CoDES). It just graduated its first major, and 5 others are declared for the coming year. CoDES is particularly popular as a minor, graduating 30 students last spring.
The Center for the Arts (CFA) celebrated its 50th birthday this past year with performances and exhibitions that reflected on its roots. We have seen growth in studio art and theater majors, and the Integrated Studio Project on Hamlin Street now under construction will arrive none too soon. We have rebuilt a section that needed shoring up, and the foundation has been set for the black box theater. What an addition to campus this will be!
Already making strong contributions to creative practice here is The Shapiro Center for Creative Writing and Criticism, which continued to thrive last year under Merve Emre’s leadership. Her speakers’ series, “The Critic and Her Publics” and “Ask Me Anything,” have been engrossing, and the former led to a popular podcast sponsored by the New York Review of Books. The Center also generated a number of internship opportunities for students with organizations such as The New York Review of Books and Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
Our foundation for creative practice extends beyond campus, and the advancement team recently hosted a number of events around WesCreatives in New York City. A three-day event began with a performance of Job at SoHo Playhouse followed by a talkback with playwright Max Friedlich ’17, Peter Friedman, Sydney Lemmon and Tony Award-winning producer Alex Levy ’08. The next day, alumni came together for a well-received listening session and networking happy hour. The celebration finished with a Wesleyan Arts Walk through Tribeca's galleries with Josh Lubin-Levy ’06, Director of the Center for the Arts, and Ben Chaffee ’00, Associate Director of Visual Arts. Attendees met with gallery staff Maya Hayda ’21 at Canal Projects, Audree Anid ’12 at James Cohan, and Evan Reiser at Bortolami who gave them a tour of their spaces and current works.
As usual in the Wesleyan community, the year boasted many success stories—just a few of which are mentioned below. Student-Veteran Desaree Edwards ’25 received the Truman Scholarship (8th Wesleyan student to receive, first since 1998). Receiving Guggenheim fellowships were Hari Krishnan (professor of Dance, Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, and Global South Asian studies) for his work in choreography and Tavia Nyong’o ’95 for his achievements in theater arts and performance studies. Jennifer Lame ‘04 received an Oscar for Best Editing for her work on the film Oppenheimer. Kennedy Odede ’12 was listed among Time's 100 Most Influential People in the World. And finally, Wesleyan was named Fulbright Program top producing institution for the 5th year in a row (with six students selected for Fulbright awards for 2023-24).
Success abounded in athletics as well. Men’s lacrosse won the NESCAC championship, and women’s lacrosse enjoyed one of their best seasons in team history, advancing to the NESCAC Championship. Men’s crew won the NESCAC and National Invitational title for the first time in the team’s 56-year history. Women’s tennis went undefeated until the NCAA final, and women’s volleyball made their sixth consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance, ending with a 24-2 overall record. Wesley Abraham '25 was named a Fourth Team All-American by D3football.com, becoming the 15th Cardinal and the first-ever defensive back in the history of Wesleyan football to earn All-American honors; and Stephanie Ager '26 qualified for the NCAA D3 Championships in the 10,000m, having obliterated the school record time back in March and bested her record in April.
2: Build on our reputation as a leader in pragmatic liberal education.
Wesleyan and Wesleyans were much in the news this year. The decision to end legacy admissions generated buzz in the national media, which also tapped Wesleyans (especially President Roth) frequently for opinions on such issues as freedom of speech and pro-Palestine encampments. You can find an archive of the president’s interventions here. Going forward, we want to gain a better sense of how our work with the media and our storytelling impact perceptions of Wesleyan and influence decisions to enroll in our university—or donate to it.
This year we had the largest application pool in our history at 14,521. American higher education is grappling with a decline in the college-age population, and Wesleyan is no exception. Our domestic applicant pool has declined 8% from 2022. Happily, the pool saw significant growth from overseas, and we expect to enroll our largest number yet of students from India and China.
We still need to make progress in improving our fundraising participation. Despite a goal to increase the number of unique donors, the number remained flat last year, and we need to do better. We did see strong engagement with our campaign events this past year with more than 600 registering for our campaign event in New York City, one of our largest registrations for any event on record.
Finally, the work of our pragmatic liberal education taskforce, as mentioned above, will provide us with concrete evidence that will allow us to strengthen our reputation as a leader among liberal arts schools.
3: While enhancing access, make Wesleyan more sustainable through prudent management and diversification of revenue sources.
We continue to seek alternative sources of revenue but have not been successful in identifying opportunities.
As planned, an additional 1% of tuition revenue is being devoted to financial aid, and with the announcement of our no-loan commitment, we have been able to move the needle in the percentage of middle-income students on campus. The yield among these students improved in the most recent admissions cycle. We have also been able to increase the number of low-income students after years of decline.
Significant progress has been made in becoming a more sustainable campus thanks to our steam to hot water conversion. Phase 6 of this conversion is being completed now: including the conversion of Foss 1-6 (heating and domestic hot water), Bennet and Fauver (heating hot water), and Van Vleck Observatory (VRF heating and cooling). We also will be completing the drilling of a ground source test well on Andrus Field.
In pursuing our objective to “replace least efficient student residences,” our focus now is on full renovations that “reset the clock” on deferred maintenance and generate more universally accessible beds. We have a chronic shortage of class appropriate residences, and a major capital project is needed to build new junior housing. Renovating High Rise would address the highest concentration of residential deferred maintenance.
In Conclusion
As with the economic crisis, the pandemic and the unrest after Oct 7, it will not be surprising if events beyond campus again put the resiliency of our university to the test. Notwithstanding whatever new issue becomes top of mind, we will continue to pursue the objectives of our strategic plan. We still have much work to do in many areas—among them, improving alumni fundraising participation and expanding the reach and predictive power of Admission. We will continue with annual progress reports as we head toward Wesleyan’s third century.