Whether it's Soros's relative who attended, or Julia Louis-Dreyfus (heiress to billions), or some other superwealthy alum who donates, Wesleyan's paltry endowment needs a massive infusion of cash. However specious and unfair rankings are, Wesleyan's free fall from the top ten to just above 20 in USNews will powerfully influence the kids who apply. Making matters worse are the various institutional "initiatives" designed by Michael Roth that scream "low rent"--a 3-year BA, dropping standardized test requirements (all well and good if you're Bowdoin and at the top of the heap but not for Wes where it is right now), MOOCs!! Truly accomplished high school students are no longer taking Wesleyan seriously. And what's with the half-assed approach to fraternities--making them go co-ed. Just follow the example of Amherst, Williams, Bowdoin, and Middlebury: abolish, abolish, abolish. The current plan will simply **** off rich alumni members who have probably long since stopped donating anyway. At the level of curriculum, Wesleyan should emphasize writing across all the majors in the way that Amherst and Davidson do. A mandatory senior thesis wouldn't hurt either. The current president inspires little confidence. I've read his Freudian musings and just want to laugh hysterically. It's as if he has not digested the profound developments in psychoanalysis over the past 60 years--object relations, self-psychology, relationality/intersubjectivity. In his communications (and failures to communicate with students), he comes off as a mean-spirited cipher, and I honestly have no idea how he got the job.
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