Musical Madness: an Inter-Class Competition

The class deans encourage some good-natured inter-class rivalry with "Musical Madness: A Musical Competition between the Classes", to be held on Thursday, February 19 at Crowell Concert Hall. All undergrad musicians, singers, and performers are welcome to join:

Acoustic, elecric, or a capella. Ensemble or solo. Original or cover. Prizes for Best Performances and Best in Class. Get your act together and feel the love! All performers must be in the same class year for ensemble entries. Performances must be no longer than five minutes.

Available equipment: Five mics, a couple of monitors, and a piano. You must bring your own amps and drum kit, if necessary. Return your completed entry form to your class dean by February 12.

Date: Thursday, February 19
Time: 7 pm
Place: Crowell Concert Hall

PETA's Most Veg-Friendly College of 2008: Last Call To Vote

Wesleyan is still battling it out against American University for the title of PETA's "Most Vegetarian Friendly College" of 2008. While both American and Wesleyan are run by Bon Appetit, the title would surely help to lure more prefrosh to Wesleyan, so go ahead and vote one last time. Voting ends November 17th.

Bon Appetit Offers PETA2 Voting Incentives

All I know about this PETA2 vegetarian contest thing is that Wesleyan is somehow winning in its group (we just beat SUNY Fredonia), and I would assume that people other than Bon Appetit higher-ups are voting for us.

Bon Appetit employee Bernice Laille says:

"It's a victory in itself to have made it this far in the contest, but now the competition is really kicking into high gear! We're facing off against Ohio University, who has really rallied the student body through on-campus email promotions. We must definitely want to pull out all of the stops to help drive in as many votes from everyone as soon as possible before the third round ends!"

And in case you hadn't already noticed from a trip to Usdan this week, Bon Appetit really wants us to win:So if you'd like to continue this victory streak and prove our veg-friendly prowess against Ohio University, or want an an apparent chance to win a $100 Best Buy gift certificate, vote here, the third round ends Wednesday at 5.

Wesleyan Won Round 1 Of PETA's Most Vegetarian- Friendly College Contest

Wesleyan won Round 1 of PETA2's 2008 Most Vegetarian-Friendly Colleges. After surpassing our first series of competitors, Wesleyan is now up against SUNY Fredonia, Georgetown, Ohio University, UCLA, SUNY Purchase and ten other schools.

We have already outranked UC Berkeley, Yale, UPenn, Temple and UNC Chapel Hill.

Cast your vote NOW! Voting ends on November 10th.

Wesleyan's Youtube Contest

The administration has launched a video competition for students, "Your Minute with the President-Elect", in an apparent effort to show that we are smart in addition to being effortlessly hip.

The administration using the Internet for community-building like this is unprecedented. :

"You have one minute to meet with the next president of the United States. What would you say?" You're invited to respond to this challenge by creating an original video describing how you would advise America's 44th President, and submit it before midnight on November 30th to www.youtube.com/wesleyan.

What's in it for you? A chance to give the White House a piece of your brilliant mind, win the $100 cash grand prize for best video as judged by viewer count and video rankings, show the world what Wesleyan is made of, and gain a worldwide following for your creativity.

Videos may be up to 2:00 minutes in length and should not violate YouTube standards. Other than that, anything goes.

The goal of the Wesleyan "Minute with the President-Elect" Video Contest is to raise awareness of the stimulating intellectual environment at Wesleyan.

Wesleyan's "Minute with the President-Elect" Video Contest is made possible by the Office of University Communications and the New Media Lab.

Click here for the official rules, videos will be accepted until midnight on November 30.

If you've got ideas, go for it, be as wacky/intellectual/masterful in your viral-video-making as you can be. The best entries will definitely be posted here on Wesleying, even if your video doesn't go on to multimillion-view YouTube fame.

Links:
Youtube: Official Wesleyan Channel
"Minute with the President-Elect" Contest Rules
Contest Entry Form

PETA's Most Vegetarian-Friendly Colleges

Wesleyan is in the running for PETA2's 2008 Most Vegetarian-Friendly Colleges in the Nation, along with 31 other schools competing in a sort-of-geographically-arranged online elimination grid.

Our most immediate competitors are the University of Rhode Island, Brandeis, and SUNY Fredonia. Seeing as how we are the only one among these schools with a significant Internet presence, that much should be in the bag.

PETA2 has this to say about vegetarian eating at Wes:

At a university legendary for its student activism (particularly with issues relating to sustainability, animal rights, and labor wages), the dining halls have responded by giving students what they want—amazing vegan options. With regular meat-free choices available at each dining hall, some of the many standouts include barbecue tempeh wraps, Moroccan-style chickpea and tomato stew, and seared tofu with broccoli over sticky rice.

Fair enough. Even if you love eating meat, who here doesn't appreciate Wesleyan winning Internet competitions? Vote here, the first round ends on November 6:

Screenplay contest

Brenna Galvin '11 writes:

Do you want your script to be made into a movie? Submit your screenplay to the Film Cooperative's Fall Screenplay Contest. Scripts must be 3 to 5 pages in length, and must be submitted by October 29. Email submissions to bgalvin@wes.

Wes-related paintball outfit seeks logo design

Put your artistic skills to work and get a sweet $75 in the process, all while helping a Wesleyan alumnus. Pauri Pandian '08 writes:

I'm in the process of starting a paintball company in Lancaster, MA (about 30 minutes northwest of Boston). The name of the company is Orchard Hills Paintball, or OHP for short. I was hoping to enlist the Wesleyan community's help in designing a logo, since I know that someone at Wes can undoubtedly do a better job of it than I can.

We're pretty open to anything, so long as it includes either the words Orchard Hills Paintball or OHP. We're offering a $75 prize to the creator of the logo we use. You can email the submissions, as well as a mailing address where we can mail a check, to me at pauri.pandian@gmail.

Take Back the Night T-shirt designs needed

The organizers of Take Back the Night are looking for T-shirt designs. Jordan Collins '09 writes:

Take Back the Night is Oct. 16 this year and we're looking for creative designs for this year's T-shirt. If you'd like to contribute, please send your drawing (and email address) to Box 92275 by Monday, Sept. 29. If your design is chosen, we will bake you some kind of tasty dessert for your help. Have any questions? Email Carolyn Ariori '09 at cariori@wes.

Wear your seniority on your sleeve

Anand Satchidanandan '08 writes:

Every year, the Wesleyan Fund makes the senior class a T-shirt in recognition of their senior gift. This year’s "Senior Tee" needs a funky, smart, absolutely senior-esque design that showcases Wes ‘09ers.

Winners of the contest will receive a free Senior Pass courtesy of the Wesleyan Fund! Designs:

• Must encourage financially supporting Wesleyan
• Must contain the words “Wesleyan Fund”
• Can use up to 3 colors on a white background
• Can use both the front and back of the T-shirt
• Cannot contain profanity, offensive language, or slurs

Designs are due by October 1 at 4:00 PM. Winners will be selected and informed by mail, and will receive recognition at senior class events in the spring. Please mail/email your name, class year, contact details, and designs to:

Anand Satchidanandan
Wesleyan Fund
164 Mount Vernon St.
tsv@wes

Senior T-shirt contest

NYTimes Essay Contest Entries

Last summer the New York Times held a "What's the Matter With College" essay contest in response to an essay by historian Rick Perlstein about the decline of campus activism in the past decades. I don't know how we missed this, but three Wes students' essays were posted on the website:

Vanessa Kurzweil '07: Commonplace? Or a Common Space?

Toni Latimer '09: Decline of the Teenage Wasteland

Katie Boyce-Jacino '10: We the Students

Congrats on being conscious of the challenges facing today's apathetic youth! Clearly these three are not among them.

[EDIT] The Argus wrote about this in October, they win.

It's not April Fools day. JKz APRIL FOOLS!

Yes, it's that time of year again, which means we are kicking off...


Here's the deal. Send us pictures/videos and descriptions of your on-campus April Fools' day pranks, and we'll put the best ones up on here, thus prolonging the shame of your victim and securing your place among the best of the best. Bonus points if it involves none of the Wesleying staff (don't hurt me).

So go for it. Make your hungover roommate wake up in the graveyard. Change your friend's Chapstik up with blood-red lipstick. Mess with some official doctor stationary and make your friend think ze's pregnant. The possibilities are endless, and so are the possible consequences for your actions ("Yes, officer, I technically murdered him, but it was really just an April Fools' prank on his entire family.")

That's the gist of it. Send your submissions to...

Submit by 11:59pm, April 1st (midnight tonight) for a chance at glory.

break it down, wes style

Bored at home this break? Looking for something to do?

Why not create a cover or remix of a booty-bass rap song? Yeah? Yeah? Well, you're in luck. I've just been granted permission to run the first ever Yo Majesty remix/cover competition from my music blog. If you'd be interested, check out the details. If you're not interested, perhaps quoting a few lyrics would make you interested...*ahem*,

"Fuck that shit. Fuck that shit. Fuck that shit. Say fuck that shit."

This is perfect for any weskids that don't like to write love songs, but would like to get their tunes out there. What else do you have to do this break but write an arrangement of this song for your band or a cappella group?...Yeah, that's what I thought. Nothing.*** As a thank you for anyone who takes up the challenge, I will post all Wes-related results here on wesleying. And I'll use my excess of points to buy you some food. Deal?

*** By nothing, I mean saving orphans from trees, or whatever real Wesleyan students are supposed to do on winter break. Speaking of being a real Wesleyan student, I have to get back to working on my thesis or else I will never graduate. Never.