Highlights
Wesleyan University is a highly-selective liberal arts college in Middletown, CT. Founded by Methodists in 1831, the university was all-male until 1872, when it began admitting a limited number of female students. However, some male alumni believed coeducation diminished the school's stature, and in 1911, pressured the university to end the experiment. Wesleyan did not become fully coeducational again until 1970....
Wesleyan University is a highly-selective liberal arts college in Middletown, CT. Founded by Methodists in 1831, the university was all-male until 1872, when it began admitting a limited number of female students. However, some male alumni believed coeducation diminished the school's stature, and in 1911, pressured the university to end the experiment. Wesleyan did not become fully coeducational again until 1970. The university has a long tradition of progressive activism and a reputation for embracing diversity, dating back to the abolitionist movement in the 1840s. During the 1960s, Wesleyan began actively to recruit students of color and many faculty members and students were civil rights activists. In recent years, Wesleyan pioneered gender-neutral housing and made national headlines for its naked dormitory (which, it turned out, was more rumor than reality). For years, its robust brand of political activism took the form of statements scrawled in chalk on sidewalks around campus. Then in 2002, former President Douglas Bennet provoked an uproar by banning chalking. In late 2006, a group of students launched a drive to preserve the university's quirky character called "Keep Wesleyan Weird.'' However, the university's anything-goes ethos can't conceal the fact that it is an intellectually rigorous school, one that accepts less than 30 percent of those who apply. The university has a strong science program, a renowned film studies department and world-class music and theater programs. Since the summer of 2007, Wesleyan has been led by Michael Roth, a former student who graduated in 1978. Other prominent alumni include Joss Whedon, creator of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer,'' New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick, film director Michael Bay ("Armegeddon," "Transformers"), author Sebastian Junger ("The Perfect Storm") and John Hickenlooper, Jr., mayor of Denver. Wesleyan admits students without regard to their financial situation; 40 percent of its 2,900 students currently receive grant aid. Annual tuition and fees at Wesleyan totaled about $47,000 for the 2007-08 academic year, according to the university's website. Wesleyan's endowment, about $710 million in 2007, lags behind those of its peer institutions, Amherst and Williams. Together, the three elite liberal arts colleges are known as the "Little Three.''
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Dallas County district attorney a hero to the wrongfully convicted
DALLAS — On the way to witness his first execution in the town known as the "Execution Capital of the World," the Dallas County district attorney stopped at the prison cemetery to find his great-grandfather's grave. Captain Joe Byrd Cemetery in...
Tags: Republican Party, Lawyers, Prisons, Science and Technology, Social Sciences
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Our too-thirsty forests
Ronald Reagan once justified logging with "a tree is a tree; how many more do you need to look at?" Besides, he warned, "trees cause more pollution than automobiles." We cringed at his biases. Yet due to forces none foresaw, Reagan's gaffes may now ring...
Tags: Forests, Conservation, Agriculture, Ronald Reagan, Natural Resource Industry
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Negative ads increase dramatically during 2012 presidential election
A study by Wesleyan University shows a staggering leap in negative advertising during the 2012 presidential campaign, coinciding with a huge growth in spending by outside groups eager to influence voters. In a campaign that already has been noted as...
Tags: Newt Gingrich, Politics, Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum, Ron Paul
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Virtual campus tours courtesy of Google
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Bob Burnett dies at 71; member of folk group the Highwaymen
The members of the folk group the Highwaymen were freshmen in the same fraternity at Wesleyan University in Connecticut when they came together to perform at a campus party in 1958.
By their senior year, the quintet had a No. 1 single with their haunting...Tags: Country and Western (genre), Kris Kristofferson, Lawyers, U.S. Army, Mystic
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Former Sen. George McGovern stable after fall
Nation NowFormer Democratic presidential candidate George McGovern was resting in stable condition at a South Dakota hospital Saturday after he hit his head during a fall, hospital officials said.... -
Did Magic Johnson play high school ball with WWE's The Undertaker?
The Fabulous ForumBASKETBALL URBAN LEGEND: Magic Johnson played high school basketball with WWE's The Undertaker. A popular game to play with celebrities is to look at them "Before They Were Famous," particularly when they were younger (heck, MTV recently had a show...... -
Book review: 'Nicholas Ray' by Patrick McGilligan
Special to the Los Angeles TimesNicholas Ray faced a roomful of film students. They had come to learn from the director who'd made James Dean an icon in "Rebel Without a Cause" and a gunslinger of Joan Crawford in the distaff western "Johnny Guitar." Ray began a mock exercise in filming...Tags: Crimes, Natalie Wood, Celebrities and Health Issues, Orson Welles, Joan Crawford
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Blake Edwards dies at 88; 'Pink Panther' director was master of slapstick comedy
Blake Edwards, a writer-director who battled depression in his personal life yet was known as a modern master of slapstick and sophisticated wit with hit films such as the "Pink Panther" comedies, "10" and "Breakfast at Tiffany's," has died. He was 88....Tags: Middletown, Bo Derek, Literature, Cary Grant, Movies
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2010 Los Angeles Times Book Prize finalists announced
Jacket CopyL.A. Times 2010 book prize finalists announced: Christopher Hitchens, Patti Smith and Jonathan Franzen make the cut.... -
Book review: 'Encounter' by Milan Kundera
Special to the Los Angeles TimesEncounter Essays Milan Kundera, translated from the French by Linda Asher Harper: 192 pp., $23.99 "Up to what degree of distortion does an individual still remain himself?" Milan Kundera asks this question in writing about the painter Francis Bacon,...Tags: Culture, Anatole France, Arts, Francis Bacon, Milan (Italy)
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Denis Dutton dies; author, philosopher, brother to L.A. booksellers
Jacket CopyAuthor Denis Dutton has died; the New Zealand philosophy professor and editor of Arts and Letters Daily was the brother of Doug and Dennis Dutton, legendary Los Angeles booksellers....
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