Alex Ketchum '12 writes:
If you have a film that is under 12 minutes in length—or about that length—now is your chance to show it! We will be projecting student films at the upcoming WestCo festival on Saturday, Nov. 8. Submissions are due by Nov. 2.If you are interested, contact Alex at aketchum@wes.
"We've been surprised by the intensity of the pressure on us to allow it to continue, and in consultation with the Admissions Department we've tried to work out a way for the festival to continue with some modifications," Director of ResLife Fran Koerting said Monday. "Public Safety is being asked to play a much more prominent role this year in order to ensure that the Code of Non-Academic Conduct is followed."
Rumors have circulated that some Public Safety Officers will be out of uniform in order to present a less intimidating presence to revelers and, in the words of Director of Public Safety David Meyer, "Really show that we're not here to put a damper on your fun, demonstrate that we're just trying to keep you safe," adding that his main concern wasn't "some student smoking a little reefer in the privacy of their room and then going outside to play with paint," but rather "hostile elements, perhaps from outside the University, who may see the festival as an opportunity to take advantage of our students. Shank them and sell their iPods for crack, steal their sneakers, that kind of thing."
President Michael Roth couldn't be reached for immediate comment, but Dean of Admissions Nancy Meislahn, one of the architects of what has come to be known as "Operation Buzzkill," decried ResLife's "spinelessness, and just general inability to say no even when clear violations of our drug policy are happening right out in the open in front of parents and prospective students." She added, "I don't see anything wrong with calling the Middletown Police Department and having the whole lot of degenerates stripped, searched, cuffed and thrown in the slammer."
Privately, administrators have acknowledged that much credit for the shift is due to the chorus of alumni and trustee opinions they've heard in the weeks since the decision was announced. One senior-level administrator, speaking on condition of anonymity due to the sensitive nature of the deliberations, was surprised just how many people's parents seemed to be "both generous, committed allies of the University and simultaneously a pack of... well I don't know what else to call them besides rich, predominantly Jewish, dopefiends." She added, "There's a real sense of moral outrage against this kind of crackdown. Many alumni cherish countercultural memroies of Wesleyan, and feel heartbroken that the University is trying to whitewash its image in what they see as a dishonest, revisionist fashion." Many have threatened to withdraw their financial support, citing other progressive institutions such as Hampshire College as being potentially more deserving of their money.
Public Safety will be having a number of open workshops in the coming weeks in order to better prepare students to confront the challenges they'll undoubtedly be faced with at Zonker Harris Day this year. "We're really concerned about the potential for someone to overdose, or accidentally take a drug other than they intend," explained Meyer. "We're going to be having an outside expert come in and explain to students how to tell 'good shit' from 'brick weed', and we'll be distributing free drug-test kits in order to ensure that the pills students will undoubtedly be popping are pure and, you know, what they think they are." In not-so-oblique reference to Sunday's incidents, he added "Sure, we'd prefer students respect the Code and not ingest illegal drugs, but pragmatically speaking the last thing we want is for people to rush into something, take too much acid and then run down the halls naked defecating and urinating on everyone and everything in sight. I mean who knows, there is a real potential for a scatological situation involving a tour group. We're really trying to minimize that possibility, and so we're focusing our efforts along the lines of 'responsible use'-type education rather than, you know, TASERs and K9 units..."
Professer Pringle of the Chemistry department also volunteered to run state-of-the-art chromotography and NMR tests to determine the purity and identity of "you know, mystery pills, powders, things that might or might not be blotter acid" in an effort to ensure that no chemical accidents happen. Adding, "I know a little something about these drugs myself, you see. Back in the 60's and early 70's Wesleyan was actually a really wonderful place to work if you were into any of those kind of compounds, because there were so many of us Professors researching them. You could trade notes on lysergic chemicals with the Professor across the hall or, you know, go down a floor and get the skinny on the tryptamines from the guy who dug that kind of stuff. Man, we sure had some memorable faculty conferences."
Even Bon Appetit was relieved at the turn of events. Weshop will be stocking extra snack items, the most successful of which will likely be continued in subsequent weeks. "The whole Zonker Harris phenomenon really gives us a new way to market healthy food to students in a manner consistent with the Circle of Responsibility," gushed Delmar Crim. "It just really opens new doors in terms of trying new things. New flavor combinations, hip snacks and edgy uses for Nutella all form this kind of synergy which we're really trying to make the most of." Crim then showed off his "ZonkZuit," a tie-died mascot-style costume complete with a big filligreed spoon, which he'll be premiering at the festival. "I'm going to be walking around with a sample platter, of you know, 'munchies' and just really trying to educate people about how to eat better. This seemed like the best option to really connect with kids, you know, speaking the hip jive of the youths."
Tonight at 10 in the WestCo Lounge, Rachel Mastracchio '11 will be giving a lecture on MUFON, the Mutual UFO Network. Rachel is a licensed Field Investigator for MUFON, and will be talking about the history of ufology, the mechanics of the Mutual UFO Network, what her role is in the organization, what an investigation entails and a few historical sightings in Connecticut.
Current WestCovites invite you to check out WestCo, my freshman home (aww, hellz yeah, Up 2)! Ivan Maulana '11 writes:
OpenCo is happening tomorrow, for the benefit of rising sophomores who are curious about WestCo living. Some rooms will be open tomorrow from 3-5pm, just drop in at the lounge and follow teh arrows. You can visit the different kinds of dens we inhabit (one/two-rooms singles/doubles, balcony/courtyard/ foss view). For those who havent had the benefit of hanging with us during, uh, "Thursday Movie Nites", swing by and say hi. Also, Monday night, 10.07, is Open Guidance and everyone (ex/aspiring/non-residents) is invited to come break rulez and learn how to apply. Remember to say YesCo to WestCo.
Ivan Maulana '11 writes:
We would like to invite every rising sophomore cat to come apply to live in westco next year. it's not quite programme housing and not quite dormitory living but "community-based rocking". we could wax about the perks of living in westco, but winter it is too cold and the bed looks warm. anyhow, as we on this side of foss hill say, westco is the bestco. applications opened on friday and are due by the 29th (leap day). to access the application, go to My Student Portfolio>Student Life at Wesleyan>Room Selection. hurry and get on the westco train before it leaves and you're hanging on with your legs dragging over the rails.
This Sunday, February 10th, the first iteration of the WestCo Guest Lecture Series will be delivered by Ben Bernstein '10. Ben will be giving a "cultural, social, and artistic critique of the lolcat phenomenon, complete with pictures, which makes a lot of sense, because the lecture's on lolcats. It will take place in the WestCo Lounge starting at 10 PM. These lectures typically run about half an hour, with time for questions afterwards. There will be food, because this is typically combined with WestCo snacks, but probably no cheeseburger.
Date: Sunday, February 10
Time: 10:00 PM
Location: WestCo Lounge (knock, somebody will let you in)
For those who have no idea what I'm talking about, the original post on the Lecture Series is here.
Last semester, Ben Seretan '10 started a program in WestCo called the Guest Lecture Series, which ran biweekly throughout the fall. The Guest Lecture Series is, umm, a series of lectures delivered by anybody who wants to give one. The program in the fall had lectures on the basics of anarchism, the ecology of the suburb, tattoo culture, self-defense and subversive crafting. WestCo is continuing the program this semester, and anybody who wants to give a lecture is absolutely welcome. It runs biweekly on Sundays at ten, and there is sometimes food. The first one will not be during the Super Bowl, but rather the weekend after that.
If you're interested in delivering a lecture, email me at nmarshall@wesleyan.edu.
If you're interested in coming, just show up.
Seriously, it can be about anything that interests you.
By the way, I'm Nick Marshall, I live in WestCo and I'm running the series this semester. The lecture series isn't affiliated with Wesleying.
Ben Seretan '10 sent us an email last week about the WestCo Guest Leture Series, and we totally missed it. Even though we didn't get it posted in time for the last lecture, here's some relevant info anyway:
WestCo Guest Lecture Series
when: Every other Sunday 10pm
where: WestCo lounge
blurb: Westco is proud to be in the midst of a guest lecture series, where we invite anyone and everyone to come speak on an area of expertise. Everyone is welcome to either attend or speak, and there are snacks. Fuck Yeah, right!? We've covered a variety of topics thus far, from Anarchy and the Prison Industrial Complex to Self Defense and a super secret Subversive Art movement. Plans for the future include Meditation, a Salsa Instructional, the history of the Straight Edge movement.
WANT TO BE A GUEST LECTURER?
send an email to bseretan@wesleyan.edu. We are always looking for more lectures!
Rosina Belcourt '08 would like you to "come see Wesleyan bands Red Wire Black Wire and Babewatch, as well as Red Sails, a folk/experimental/blues/rock band visiting from New York. Red Wire Black Wire goes on first at 10:00, followed by Red Sails and then Babewatch."
Date: Friday, May 4
Time: 10:00 PM
Place: WestCo Café
Cost: Free
If OMGMUSIC isn't quite your cup of saturday night musical experience tea, or if you'd rather see bands composed of your wonnerful peers, you might want to check this out: "A TRIPLE FEATURE SPECTACULAR the likes of which you've never seen before... unless you have seen Grindhouse... while hopped up on Special K... while receiving a blow job... while smelling the scent of freshly baked apple pie... while feeling the kiss of a cool breeze...while tasting the salt of your tears as they trickle down your cheek."
ze Bands:
Guns Drawn:
Prospector: Joe Stankus
Sheriff: Jon Sirlin
Outlaw: Jake Greenberg
"Drummer": Dustin Brockner
The Boys:
The Dirrrty Clown
Big Joe Stankus
MC Testee
MC Unreliable
MC Grigorian
The Boca All-Stars
Miles Pearce: guitar
Miles Abraham Turner: Bass
Galen DeGraf: Drums
Time: 10pm, Saturday Night
Place: The Westco Cafe
Price: Sweat, Fear
Bands:
Bottle Up and Go, Swing Heil, Motionless, The Hill People, Young Republicans
Wes Poets: Kate Gavriel, Jesse Newberg, Fareed Sajan, Matt Leddy, Andrew Gorin, Leah Campbell, Marc Arena, Matt Valades, Erik Weiskott
Brooklyn Poets: Robert Snyderman, Chris Martiny, Chris Sweeney, MaryKate Chillemi, Chanelle Bergeron
Visual Art: Chaz Ganster, Silvie Deutsch, Travis Fitzgerald, Jesse Newberg, Nate Axle
Installation: Jack Johnson, Ben Rowland
Date: Friday, October 6th
Time: 9pm
Venue: Westco Cafe
Wine and Cheese is in Up 3Up 1 tonight.
So campus is getting really busy, and there's no possible way that Holly and I can cover everything that's going on. That said, if you're on the list of contributors (i.e. all you people on the list at the top right of this page!), please try to throw something up here once in a while. Once in a while being, like, once a week? Two weeks? We hate deadlines, but if you see something fun and quasi-relevant to Wes, do post.
To the readers: If you have an event/sighting/mischief and want us to post it here, e-mail us at wesleying(at)gmail.com and we'll probably throw it on the site. More importantly, some, uh, real life name-dropping would be cool, too. Like if this coming Saturday your friends are like,
Friends: "Yo, Reader, what's going on today?"
You: "There's the LoTR extended edition marathon at Alpha Delt, an Outhouse camping trip, apple picking at High Hill Orchards, a bike ride to Wadsworth Falls, a Smash Brothers Melee tournament in the Nic lounge, smoothies at Well Being House and Heart Play(s) in the '92."
Friends: "Wow, Reader, you're so sexyinformed! How did you know about all that?"
You: "WELL THERE'S A LITTLE BLOG CALLED WESLEYING THAT I LOVE VERY MUCH AND YOU SHOULD VISIT IT AT WESLEYING.BLOGSPOT.COM"
...You get the picture.
The first for-real Wine and Cheese (otherwise known as vino y queso, vin et fromage, chine and weese, or movie night) of the year is tonight! 9:13 in Up 2. For the frosh, wine and cheese is a Wes tradition that takes place every Thursday night in a different room in Westco. It is characterized by a lot of wine and not a lot of cheese. Throughout the year, variations sometimes occur, such as Tequila and Tortillas or Beer and Bread; the most strange of these I've had the pleasure to attend was an event called Whiskey and Bacon. But I digress. Wine and Cheese. Be there.
Afterwards at 10:30 is Schmooze with the Jews at the Bayit. I've been told there will be ice cream. Mmm.
So this one time last year I was peeing in Down 1, right? I'm in the bathroom and suddenly I hear the door open and the not-so-familiar sound of skateboard on bathroom tile. And some guy rolls in on his skateboard into a stall, pisses and flushes while standing on his board, then skates from the stall to the sink, washes up, and skates back out again. The entire time I'm sitting in my stall watching his feet from the gap at the bottom of the door, and the only time he even touches the floor is using one foot to push himself along once in a while.
I'm telling you this because Didi Dunphy at Modern Convenience designed these kind-of excessive, kind-of cool padded skateboards, called Inside Skate. Apparently it's for skateboarding indoors:Tuck n' Roll Upholstered Naugahyde Skateboards for a soft cushioned skate down your sweeping hall.
Sweeping hall? Down 1? I can see it happening. But what kind of skateboarder would let hirself be seen in public with these things? It looks like something Paris Hilton would push Tinkerbell around on. (And the first person to reply "That's hot!" is officially no longer my friend.)
Most people have heard of the news article that kicked off Wesleyan's naked dorm rumor, but very few current students have actually been able to read it. This is partially because the full text is no longer available for free on NYtimes.com, and since I'm a cheap bitch who's not about to pay $5 for her blogging audience, I was just going to let bygones be bygones. Luckily, I remembered Lexis Nexis from my policy debate days just in time before my 7 am bedtime.
There was apparently also a photo of two students stripping in the Westco Courtyard that accompanied the article, but as I can't find it, here's a picture of streakers during WesFest 2004.Naked Dorm? That Wasn't In The BrochureBy NEIL MacFARQUHAR
March 18, 2000, Saturday, Late Edition
MIDDLETOWN, Conn.
Finding herself assigned to what is often dubbed The Naked Dorm came as a shock to Martha Reicher, but now she would rather not live anywhere else. It took a while, though.
"The first week of school I would have said I live in The Naked Dorm, but now it would not be the first thing I say," Miss Reicher, a Wesleyan University freshman, said recently. "Still, it is definitely the part that gets the most attention."
This story, about how one well-choreographed rite of passage from high school to college life went unexpectedly awry, actually started last year. Miss Reicher, along with myriad high school seniors across the country, was eagerly awaiting a college acceptance letter. She dreamed of attending a strong liberal arts college in the East.
Naturally, she was ecstatic when Wesleyan accepted her, and doubly thrilled when she was assigned to her first choice of a residence hall, a place called West College. She had been particularly drawn to West College because it advertised itself as a diverse, multicultural, politically active dormitory for men and women.
Miss Reicher thought Westco (as it is known at Wesleyan) would be a welcome change from her hometown, Piedmont, Calif., an upscale community in the Oakland hills. Just how different was quickly evident.
"On the first night we had a dorm meeting, and the resident advisers said that it is a tradition of Westco that it is clothing optional," she said. "Most of the people were yelling things like, 'That is awesome!' "
But Miss Reicher doesn't recall yelling anything. Instead, she began considering everything she had read and heard about the dorm. "I was shocked, thinking 'Is this really what diverse means?' " she said.
Now, in the interest of full disclosure, it should be noted that Westco consists of four buildings housing about 175 students, most of whom stay clothed a lot. It's not as though residents shed their garments as they walk in the door.
Westco requires freshmen and sophomores to compete for spots in the dorm by writing essays about their interests.
Last year, the statement that students were supposed to work from said, in part: "In the past, residents have organized musical and artistic events, planned mid-semester festivals and been committed to artistic expression, political and social activism and community responsibility. West College strives to improve upon its tradition by giving residents the opportunity and resources to express themselves and create new group initiatives." It mentioned nothing about clothing, optional or otherwise.
When she found out, Miss Reicher, 18, called her parents. Her dad laughed. Her mother called the school and suggested that her daughter be allowed to move if she wanted. (Her cousin, somewhat later, called a reporter.)
The students soon learned that aside from residents who developed a habit of leaving the stall doors open while they showered in the mostly coed bathrooms, not that many people wanted to go naked. But they can if so inspired.
"I just sometimes feel the need to be nude; I have body piercings to show off," said Jacob Z. B. Goldsmith, a 19-year-old who neither volunteered, nor was asked, where the body piercings might be, but did strip off his pants as he talked. "There's an exhibitionist part of me. If I feel the need to take off my pants, I take my pants off. It's kind of cool that there is a place you can do that."
That is the point of Westco. It encourages students to expose all their interests in the theory that everyone will be enriched. If a time traveler wanted to find a place where the ethos of the 1960's still flowered, Westco would be a holistic choice.
Take the concept of time. Nothing officially starts on the hour -- or even the half-hour or quarter-hour -- in Westco. The regular wine-and-cheese social hours that rotate among the various hallways are supposed to start at 9:13 p.m. "Guidance," the name for weekly Monday night meetings, sort of open town halls where decisions about running the dorm are made, begins at 10:07 p.m. The odd times are intended to jog the memory.
Not a lot of students show up at Guidance, but its deliberations are considered worthy of tracking for posterity. The freestyle minutes are kept in a series of journals called "The Book of Love," kept in the head resident's room.
Amongst prodigious doodling, the books brim with notations of resolutions taken in recent years, like, "Make people aware of injustice on and off campus." Another entry recorded a discussion weighing a collective hair-dyeing session just before parents' weekend "just in case your parents thought you were normal."
At least once last fall the weekly telephone messages summoning all students to Guidance trumpeted that particular meeting as clothing optional. (The dorm's term of choice.) This tactic had mixed results, however, with some students avoiding the gathering and many present clad in just towels. (For those of you skimming this article looking for the naked bits, you are here.)
"People have realized that having a clothing-optional Guidance is not the best way to have a meeting," said Christopher C. Connor, 22, a senior and the head resident for all of Westco. "A lot of people don't want to participate, and a lot come just for the spectacle."
Aside from Guidance, there are other random moments when nakedness is encouraged, like one corridor's periodic "Naked Hour," when anyone in the mood can show up.
Of course, if one resident objects, Mr. Connor asks the naked to dress. He said he never encounters flak.
The university, for its part, sort of denies.
"There is folklore that it is a clothing-optional unit, but that is not true," said Freddye Hill, the dean of the college and the the administration's senior representative for students. "We tell students that nudity is offensive to some people and we have to tell people not to engage in it."
University officials said the written rules did not specifically ban nudity, out of concern that anything so specific would only encourage it. But they said anyone habitually walking around in the buff in public areas would risk being hauled in front of the Student Judiciary Board. No one could recall such a case.
Tamara Raimundi, a senior administration official for residential life, said one woman in Westco asked to be moved out this year, citing nudity as one reason. "Westco seems to be the place that people try to do that sort of thing because they hear the folklore and want to grab onto it," Ms. Raimundi said.
Westco has a more assertive student government than the other dorms, so naturally the very idea of letting a reporter visit had to go before the student government for a general discussion and vote. Then someone alerted the college newspaper, The Argus, which wrote a front-page story about the visit. Its reporter asked questions like, "Is it true that you wanted to write an article about sex and drugs and nudity at Westco four months ago but the university president wouldn't allow it?" (The only idea there that is vaguely accurate is that it took four months for the dorm consensus and the reporter's schedule to coincide.)
Parties at the dorm, understandably, are among the most popular on campus. And some students living elsewhere either find a way to move in or just hang out. Katrina E. Nordine, 19, moved from nearby Clark Hall. "There is no life there other than beer," she said. "It was not about being alive and creating things, it was about being drunk."
When it is warm enough, some Westco students take their clothing-optional selves outdoors. (At least the guys. It is usually the guys.)
Ms. Reicher recalls an early fall visit by her boyfriend, "He walked in and said that he hadn't seen anybody naked, and he didn't know what I was talking about, and then he looked to his left and there were 10 guys playing Frisbee naked."
The tradition, according to Adam D. Hurter, a sophomore and onetime resident, stems from the fact that in the late 1960's the dorm was devised as communal housing for students and faculty where they could delve more intensely into issues of the day. That particular experiment ended in 1974, he said, but some of the wackier traditions prevail.
"People aren't just generally wandering around naked just for the sake of being naked," said Matthew D. Lerner, 18, one of the dorm's five elected presidents. "It's the idea of not judging anyone, of respecting one another's beliefs. It does not have sexual undertones."
That last idea takes some acclimatizing. But residents swear that the disrobed gradually become part of the background tapestry in a dorm teeming with musicians, painters and political organizers.
"It's not all for attention, ooooooohhhhh, let's get naked and have fun," said Ms. Reicher, who has never joined in the dorm's unclad life. "I guess it's normal to me now. It is part of being not judged at all, I can be who I want to be. But I guess when I try to describe it to my parents or relatives, they can't see how it can be an acceptable thing."
I believe the tanned ass belongs to Lucas Carrico '08; if anyone knows who the pale dude is, let me know.
