Orientation

FYM Seminars and Discussion Groups Today!

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Be a part of the solution and learn more about water issues at the FYM Feet to the Fire faculty seminars this afternoon from 4-5:30 p.m. 

f2fh20The Water Crisis in the American West – Prof. Peter Patton, E&ES, Shanklin 107

Oceans, Boats, and Human History – Prof. Vijay Pinch, HIST, PAC002

Water, Water Everywhere, Nor Not a Drop to Drink – Prof. Krishna Winston, GRST, and Prof. Brian Steward, PHYS,   Woodhead Lounge in Exley Science Center

On the Waterfront – Prof. Richard Adelstein, ECON, PAC001

FYM Common Reading discussion groups with faculty, staff and peer advisors follow after dinner from 7-8:30 p.m. to deal with the resource challenges.  Be a part of the solution!

Traffic Alert for Arrival Day

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thumbnailCALPQOBUPlease take note as you make your driving plans for arrival day.

The Connecticut Department of Transportation has notified Wesleyan University that road construction on Washington Street (Route 66) between Bernie O’Rourke Drive and Plaza Drive is expected to cause heavy traffic delays weekdays between 6:00 am and 2:30 pm. Work is expected to continue for the next 2 years, except during the winter.  Travelers from New Haven, New York and points south and from Waterbury and points west are encouraged to find alternate routes to Wesleyan via 91 Northbound to Route 9 Southbound. For the latest project updates, please check the DOT web site at http://www.ct.gov/dot/cwp/view.asp?A=2135&Q=445400.

International Students Arrive!

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thumbnailCAFSJQD1On Friday, August 28, we will be welcoming to campus the nearly 70 international members of the Class of 2013! They will have a full four-day schedule of events designed to help them acclimate to Wesleyan, get a full introduction to the American liberal arts college academic system, shop for the essentials they could not bring across the oceans, and sleep off jetlag. 

The international students, including Americans who live abroad, hail from 30 countries and 5 continents, from Argentina to Myanmar, Yemen to Zimbabawe.  Along with the 160 or so upper-class international students, this is Wesleyan’s international community.

New on the agenda this year: We plan to invite international students and their roommates to a few special events, so that they too will contribute to the cross-culturally “hyper-aware” community that we expect Wesleyan to be. 

We extend a warm welcome to these international classmates who will be making the same big adjustments now that the rest of the class will be making a few days later—plus more, as you all embark together  on this most exciting adventure.

Alice Hadler, Associate Dean of International Student Affairs

Creating a Course Schedule

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thumbnailCA7Z1T6RAs you think about developing your fall semester course schedule, there are a couple of things to keep in mind.  Overall, you want to think about how your courses relate (or not) to one another and to think about taking courses across divisions (H&A, SBS, NSM) and within a division rather than loading up on several courses in one department, so that you get both breadth and depth.  Your first year is a time to explore while keeping connected to areas of interest and possible majors.  Other suggestions are to: 

  • challenge yourself in a new subject area—maybe in a course unique to Wes—as well as in a subject you love;
  • choose courses with different kinds of work: analytic, creative, quantitative, experiential, written (not all thumbnailCAYAHNW0reading and writing);
  • enroll in courses with means of evaluation that differ from one another (papers, tests, labs,  performance, etc.) and that come at different points in the semester;
  • get courses that vary in size (seminar and an intro);
  • begin fulfilling General Education Expectations;
  • strengthen your Essential Capabilities;
  • distribute your courses throughout the week (not all Tues./Thurs.);
  • spread your courses throughout the day (three in a row is a killer!); and
  • make sure you schedule time for lunch!

For each of the four courses in your ideal schedule, you should identify a back-up course (in case you do not get in due to classes being full, schedule conflicts, etc.).  Then you should identify a back-up for each of your back-ups (for the same reasons), keeping in mind your overall educational goals.  This strategy will generate good course options to discuss with your faculty advisor in your individual meeting on Thurs., Sept. 3.  In this focused discussion, it is important to stay open to your advisor’s suggestions as well.  Your peer advisor will be available to work with you on Wednesday, if you would like help in your planning.   

This “back-up” strategy also will help you stay organized and on track during adjustment and drop/add.  While you may not get all four of your ideal courses, you will certainly get some of the twelve you have identified, and will continue to find new course possibilities through this process.   With the permission of your faculty advisor and the course instructor, you also may drop and add classes during the first two weeks of classes.

FYM’s Common Moment and Water Footprint

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f2fh20cmThis year’s Common Moment promises to be a memorable experience!  Produced by the amazing staff at Wesleyan’s Center for the Arts, it will include incredible drumming, rhythmic movement, Prometheus (Wesleyan’s fire spinners), a human histogram, and of course, ice cream. 

 As a class, you get to showcase drumming and dance movements from six different cultures—Korean, Cuban, West African, Japanese, Irish and South Indian—where water is an important component of their cultural traditions.  Assigned to one of the six cultural groups, you will be taught a drumming and movement piece, choreographed by Nicole Stanton, chair of the dance department, and Bill Carbone, a graduate student in the music department.  After spending about 20 minutes with a choreographer and student staff to learn the piece, each group will perform for the entire class. 

The evening will culminate with the Class of 2013 forming a human histogram about its own water footprint.  On Andrus Field, you will embody your responses to a survey that you completed in discussion groups the night before, which was developed from the information in the Water Footprint website in your Common Readings.  It will be a night not soon forgotten!

Check out the Water Footprint website in Blackboard or at http://www.waterfootprint.org/?page=files/home .   Complete the questions to find out how your water footprint measures up with the rest of the world’s!

First Year Matters (FYM) Seminars

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The First Year Matters program will offer four faculty seminars during New Student Orientation that will explore this year’s theme of water from the discipline of the faculty presenter.  One seminar features a discussion between two professors, a humanist and a scientist, who will talk about issues connected to water contamination, ground water depletion and rising sea levels in the context of sustaining human and animal life on earth.  Another seminar will focus on the critical nature of fresh water in the western part of the United States, and explore possible responses to long-term problems there that range from the prolonged drought in the southwest to the mega forest fires in California.  The third seminar will explore the historical role that water has played in human development, focusing on the challenges that large bodies of water presented to early humans and how those barriers were eventually exploited for growth and economic expansion.  The fourth seminar will explore water’s role in modern development from a legal and economic perspective, and discuss the consequences of property and ownership rights for the natural environment. 

You get to choose one of these great seminars to attend on the afternoon of Thursday, September 3.  The seminars, along with the summer readings, will inform the discussions that take place later that evening. 

You can see the full descriptions for all four seminars on the FYM website (http://www.wesleyan.edu/deans/firstyearmatters/index.html) and on the Blackboard course page.  There will be a bibliography of supplemental readings also posted on the Blackboard course page, if you choose to explore further.   The readings can be found through the Blackboard course page which you can access from the FYM website.  Make sure to read the common readings before you arrive on campus!

Wescard: Photo Deadline

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July 19 is the deadline to upload a 2″ by 2″ passport photograph for your Wesleyan ID Card and, like all deadlines, it is rapidly approaching.  Please go into your e-portfolio now under “Student Life” to upload your picture.  

If you are unable to upload a picture you can send it to:  Wesleyan University, WesCard Office, North College Room 111, 237 High Street, Middletown, CT   06459.  Please include your name and Wesleyan ID number, and mark the outside of the envelope with “Photo Enclosed.”  Do not write on the photograph.

You will need your ID for access to the residential halls and for meals as well as for other activities on campus.   Upload or send your picture today so that your ID will be ready for pick up on Arrival Day at the Exley Science Center.

If a picture is not received, your ID will not be ready for you. You will need to come to North College, Room 111 on Arrival Day and stand in line to have your picture taken.  Try to avoid having to do this as Arrival Day is hectic enough as it is.  Thank you in advance for your cooperation.

Cathy Rizza, WesCard Coordinator

Placement Testing

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Placement testing in math is required of all new students. In addition, foreign language placement tests are required of new students who have studied a language previously and are considering further study while at Wesleyan. Placement tests are available online through the e-portfolio. For additional information, click here.

Sign up for the Chinese and Japanese language placement exam by July 7.  The deadline to complete all online testing is September 2.