Dean Danny Leaving Wes

Dean of Diversity Danny Teraguchi is apparently leaving Wesleyan next month to take up a similar position at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. Vice President for Diversity Sonia Mañjon will temporarily take over his job until a successor is found.

Dean Mike Whaley's campus-wide email:

During his two years at Wesleyan, Danny has helped build our collective intercultural competence and fostered our ability to have meaningful conversations about difficult diversity issues. He has played a major role in supporting students and student-led initiatives focused on improving the campus climate.

At Hopkins, Danny's position will focus on excellence in student diversity within the School of Medicine. This job opportunity was also compelling for Danny because his wife lives and works in Washington, D.C.! I will certainly miss his perspective and contributions as a member of my leadership team. Please join me in thanking Danny for his significant work and wishing him well in his new role.

Farewell Reception for Dean Danny Teraguchi (open to public)
Date: Wednesday, September 24th
Time: 3:30 pm-4:30 pm
Place: Beckham Hall

Argus: University Welcomes First Dean of Diversity

Dean Mike Gets an Upgrade

Dean Mike Whaley is now Vice President for Student Affairs Mike, effective immediately, as Michael Roth has announced via campus-wide email:

"Dean Mike" (as I suspect he will always be called!) has been serving as Interim Dean of the College. In addition to supervising a large and complex office, he has worked imaginatively with the Vice President for Academic Affairs to develop programs that connect faculty and students outside the classroom in a variety of co-curricular activities. The change of title to Vice President for Student Affairs more accurately reflects the duties of the position as it has evolved at Wesleyan, and positions the office as an integral part of the educational enterprise.

Mike has a true gift for hearing students, for understanding their issues, and for working with them to enhance the meaningfulness of their time at Wesleyan. That's part of the reason why the Wesleyan Student Assembly so strongly expressed support for this appointment. The importance of his efforts cannot be overstated; the academic success of our students and the impressions of Wesleyan they take to heart depend heavily upon what happens outside the classroom. Mike believes we can do much more to infuse co-curricular activities with intellectual excitement, and I share his enthusiasm.

Mike holds a B.S. in microbiology from Cornell, and masters degrees in counseling and higher education from Central Connecticut State University. Since 1997, he has served with distinction as Dean of Student Services, becoming Interim Dean of the College in 2007. He has worked with students and faculty in numerous capacities, including the development of a strategic facilities plan, improvement of relations with city residents, enhancement of services for students with disabilities, oversight of the student judicial system, and improvements to orientation activities. Throughout his tenure he has been a strong advocate for effective student governance as well as active student participation in institutional decision making.

Mike is well known on campus and admired for his sensitivity and his thoughtfulness, his leadership and his ability to engage diverse aspects of the student body in building a joyful community of learning. Please join me in congratulating him!

WTF is the internet?

Dean Mike sent out an all-students-on-campus email today regarding the RIAA's lawsuit-fest-07, reminding us that illegal filesharing can get us caught. He continued on to quote the ITS computer usage policy.

"ITS' computer usage policy states that, "users must observe intellectual property rights including, in particular, copyright laws as they apply to software and electronic forms of information. For example, running a program which allows illegal sharing of copyrighted music or video is prohibited.""

Uhoh... I can think of lots of things that allow for illegal sharing of copyrighted music or video. Should we be deleting Mac OS X's Finder and Windows' explorer.exe?Save me from myself.