New Student Information

Office Hours with Orientation Intern Anya Kisicki

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Hey Hi Hello Incoming Students!

As January Orientation approaches, I imagine that you might have some questions about the orientation program, preparing for campus arrival, and getting involved in the Wesleyan community! Feel free to reach out to me through the orientation email (orientation@wesleyan.edu) and I can get back to you. Additionally, I will be holding office hours on Mondays from 1:00 – 3:00 PM EST. Feel free to hop in and ask a couple of questions, get advice about preparing for move-in, or just say hello! As an Academic Peer Advisor and Orientation Intern,  I love meeting incoming students and I am psyched to help you all get ready for your arrival to campus. As always, never hesitate to reach out!

Office Hours Zoom Meeting ID: 968 6827 6721

Warmest wishes,

Anya Kisicki
Orientation Intern

Drop-In Meetings with Dean Phillips

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When classes are in session, Dean Phillips offers drop-in meetings on a daily basis (Eastern Time):

Mondays, 2:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m.
Tuesdays, 3:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.
Wednesdays, 5:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.
Thursday, 11:00 a.m. – 12:00 noon
Fridays, 2:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.

Drop-in meetings can be scheduled through this link:

https://calendly.com/dphillips2024

If you need to schedule a meeting outside of drop-in hours, send Dean Phillips an email letting him know your availability and he will get back to you with an appointment.

Invitation from the Muslim Students Association

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Welcome to Wes! We hope that everyone is safe and healthy at this time as well as taking the new semester in stride. The Muslim Students Association on campus strives to create a family and a safe place for students from various backgrounds, culturally and religiously. During a normal semester, we host Jummah every Friday as well as study sessions and social events throughout the semester. As you can guess, this semester will look very different. Although we’re not exactly sure how we will operate, we will do our best to keep the community together!

Our first event this fall will be a Zoom dinner held in the second week of quarantine. We are working on the financials and once everything is set, we will confirm on a date. Until then, please join your community and help us grow our family! If you have any questions or concerns about MSA or Wesleyan life, please reach out to us on any social platform!

We’d also like to highlight that all animal meat served as hot food during quarantine is halal! If you have any questions about this, please reach out to the Bon Appetite District Manager Micheal Strumpf at mstrumpf@wesleyan.edu.

If you’d like to join our MSA WhatsApp group, please email us your number at msawesleyan@gmail.com and we will add you! Use this link to be added to the listserv and receive updates on Jummah prayers and what we are up to as a community. Also, follow us on Instagram and Facebook @wesleyanmsa. The current board members and MSA members are all looking forward to meeting you and hope you will reach out if you have any questions!

Enrolling in the University and Resolving Action Items

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Starting on Monday, August 24, at 8:30 a.m. EDT you will be required to enroll in the University. To enroll, login to WesPortal, click through the yellow alert banner at the top of the page, then click on the “Enroll Me” button.  Please be aware that you will not be able to participate in drop/add until you have enrolled in the University.  You must enroll in the University by Friday, September 11, at 11:59 p.m.

In addition to enrolling, you must resolve any holds in your list of Action Items.  To access your list, go to:

Portal > Enrollment Checklist & Addresses > Hold/Enroll

Instruction on how to resolve each action item are provided on the page.  Many action items can be resolved with a simple click of the mouse.

All action items must be resolved by Friday, September 4, at 5:00 p.m. EDT.  Please be aware that you will still be able to participate in drop/add even if you have unresolved action items (as long as you have already enrolled in the University using the “Enroll Me” button).

Getting and Giving Good Advice: A Conversation between Dean Phillips and the Academic Peer Advisors

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This Friday, August 21, from 12:00 noon to 1:00 p.m. EDT, Dean Phillips and the Academic Peer Advisors will be hosting a Zoom panel on the topic of “Getting and Giving Good Advice.”

Life at Wesleyan, as with life in general, is full of ups and downs, which is why every Wesleyan student needs to know where to find help on campus, whether for themselves or for a friend.  During this Zoom session, Dean Phillips and APAs Darshana Banka ‘22, Anya Kisicki ‘22, Chaiyeon Lee ‘22, and Andi Wiley ‘22 will discuss the variety of academic and personal support services that are available to students, and will give advice on how to recognize when you or a friend could benefit from asking for help.

The recorded session can be viewed through this link:

https://wesleyan.zoom.us/rec/share/_-pTK5TL1ztLTI3G90r2VaonP42-eaa81HdP-PcJmEvm2gfnTzX2eiZ03qmT3-O0

Final Newsletter

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The last “Get Ready for Wes” newsletter will be published on August 19. Future communications will take place through the Class of 2024 blog and the Class of 2020 email list.

Before the semester gets underway, please be sure to login to WesPortal to complete the Academic Integrity and Code of Conduct Moodle course (due August 21), and submit the Religious & Spiritual Life Survey (due August 28).

As you begin your first year at Wesleyan, you should review the academic regulations and the Student Handbook, because they will help you successfully navigate Wesleyan and inform your decision-making. Look over the degree requirements and review the information about academic standing as well as academic review and promotion. It is also important that you explore the general regulations because they discuss course enrollment, attendance, and grading. The student handbook features information and policies concerning student conduct. As these are the university’s regulations and expectations, you are responsible for knowing them as you enter into this community.

Preparing to Meet your Faculty Advisor

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The objective of the pre-major advising program is to help first-year students and sophomores think seriously about their educational objectives in the context of the liberal arts education offered at Wesleyan. Together with your faculty advisor, you should develop a challenging and coherent educational plan for the first two years, one that achieves curricular breadth while preparing for the depth that the major will bring in the last two years.

Here are some things to think about as you plan for your first meeting with your faculty advisor:

  • Breaking the ice. A good way to introduce yourself to your advisor is to tell them about your high school experience. A good way to get to know your advisor is to ask them how they became a college professor.
  • Know the curriculum. Familiarize yourself with WesMaps and with the websites of departments in which you plan to pursue coursework. What was the logic behind your course pre-registration strategy?  Be receptive to questions and suggestions.
  • Have goals in mind. What are your academic strengths?  What are your academic weaknesses and how do you plan to address them?  How do you plan to pursue breadth? How do you plan to pursue depth? Share concerns that may affect your success in the upcoming semester.  Be sure to make arrangements to schedule your next meeting.

For more information, please see the Faculty and Student Advising Handbook.

A Message from the University Librarian on Library Services for Students, Fall 2020

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With the start of this most unusual semester nearly upon us, I write to let you know you can see full details and connect with library services and people here: https://www.wesleyan.edu/libr/services.html

Changes for the fall semester include:

  • Contactless request and pickup for circulating collections and ILL
  • We can make arrangements to get books to you if you are studying remotely
  • Course reserves fully online
  • Special Collections & Archives open by appointment only
  • Limited individual study seats, group study, and meeting rooms

As of this writing, we are planning on reopening both Olin and Science Libraries on August 24th for limited hours, with regular semester hours scheduled to begin August 31st. You are required to wear your mask and observe all campus social distancing guidelines when visiting or studying in the libraries.

I also invite you to join the library in our on-going work towards building and sustaining an antiracist environment. You can see our action steps here: http://wescollections.blogs.wesleyan.edu/2020/06/16/black-lives-matter-a-message-from-the-wesleyan-university-library/. 

We look forward to seeing you again very soon, both on campus and online.

Andrew White, University Librarian
awhite02@wesleyan.edu

Top Ten Recommendations for the First Year and Beyond

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  1. Make Wesleyan yours: Find or create your spaces at Wesleyan, whether by joining an a cappella group or by loving your Physics lab. We have over two hundred student groups that you can sign up for. There are also jobs on campus.
  2. Build relationships: Seek out your instructors during office hours. This can be intimidating, but it is how you build a relationship and come to understand the course material better. Get to know your faculty advisor, work supervisor, your class dean, etc., as it’s important for you to know people; it’s also very important for them to know you!
  3. Learn from your classmates and try new things: Your peers have had a vast array of experiences, so make sure you’re supporting one another and growing together. Upperclassmen will be an invaluable resource as you transition to Wes. Also, make sure you try new things! Explore a new language, study abroad in a different part of the world, select a course with a topic that is completely new to you.
  4. Don’t be afraid to ask for help: Wesleyan has an abundance of resources, whether the Writing Workshop, Academic Peer Advisors or Peer Tutors, as well as your Faculty Advisor, instructors and teaching assistants. Asking for help is hard, because it means being vulnerable, but it is essential to your success. First-year students sometimes see asking for help as a sign of weakness, but it is not. Asking for help is really a sign that you can make savvy use of your resources that will enable you to thrive.
  5. Wesleyan has its own culture with its own language: I have built a list of acronyms that might be helpful to you.
  6. Use your time wisely: You will suddenly have lots of unstructured time. Given the COVID situation and the need to practice social distancing, it will be challenging to to find ways to manage your time. High school is extremely structured, down to the minute, which is not the case in college. Now it’s up to you to be mindful of how you’re using your time, whether studying for a test, writing a paper, doing homework, getting to class, etc. Most students use a planner, whether electronic or paper. For example, once you have all of your courses set, you should look over all of your syllabi and then plan out all of the assignments across the semester, as you’ll know when your intense weeks will be. If those weeks include papers as well as tests, try to get those papers done earlier so that you can focus on just the tests during that week.
  7. Make sure that you’re having fun! Find ways to connect with friends.  It’s hard to be social when practicing social distancing, but with a little bit of imagination and determination it can be done. Practice mindfulness.
  8. Take care of yourself. Sleeping and eating well, avoiding as much stress as possible, all of these are important aspects of self-care. WesWell offers self-care education, programs and workshops, as does CAPS. We have at Wesleyan the Rule of 7, a guideline that recommends that you can pursue four courses and three activities, but really no more than that.
  9. Don’t let a disappointing grade derail you. If you don’t do as well on something as you had hoped, go see your instructor and discuss where you went wrong in order to improve your performance on the next assignment. A disappointing grade does not mean that you aren’t capable or that the Admissions Office made a mistake (they do not make mistakes!). Make sure that you’re reaching out for help in this moment rather than pulling back, as this has happened to countless students before. Check out the Wesleyan Resilience Project for stories of students who have gained from their moments of challenge.
  10. Your dean is here to help: Dean Phillips is available to you via email or zoom this summer and once the semester is underway.  You can schedule a drop-in appointment with him through his Google Calendar, or you can an email him at dphillips@wesleyan.edu to schedule a meeting if drop-in hours don’t fit your schedule.

Navigating Being Minorities in STEM/Pre-Med at Wes

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via Zoom 3pm EDT Wednesday, August 5
Zoom Meeting ID: 965 9981 5672
Zoom Passcode 401493
Zoom link: https://wesleyan.zoom.us/j/96599815672?pwd=dGl3NzlRcXR5b1lRWlQvemJ6VHV3QT09

Please RSVP through this link: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSf59iFx81EIncZu50Lx_xlIybMWH5-tD5IM4wk1YNdQD0MdGQ/viewform

MAPS contact: wesleyanumaps@gmail.com

MAPS (Minority Association of Pre-Medical Students) Wesleyan Chapter, formerly known as BLAC, is a group organization that is under the Student National Medical Association (SNMA). Wesleyan’s MAPS Chapter is paired with its big sibling SNMA chapter of Quinnipiac Medical School. MAPS’ aim is to provide a support system enriched with advice, informative events, resources, etc. for minority students that are on the pre-med track. To kick start the 2020-2021 academic year, MAPS will be hosting an informative panel titled: ​Navigating Being Minorities in STEM/Pre-Med at Wes. ​This panel will feature Wesleyan’s AMSA (American Medical Students Association) Chapter and will be moderated by MAPS Co-President, Shantel Sosa ‘21 and FTF Orientation Leader, CeCe Payne ‘21. This panel is aimed for incoming and current minority students who are interested in learning about how to make the best out of their Wesleyan career as a STEM/Pre-Med student.

Panelists include

  • Matiza Sacotingo ‘21​, MAPS Co-President, French Studies major and Chemistry minor
  • Ivie Uzamere ‘21​, MAPS Secretary, Biology & Science in Society double major and Chemistry minor
  • Tashfia Jilu ‘22,​ Co-MAPS Representative and AMSA President, Biology and Science in Society double major
  • Khari Derrick ‘22,​ MAPS Co-Underclassmen Liaison, Government major w/ an American government concentration and Chemistry minor
  • Edrea Jiang ‘23, ​AMSA Vice President, prospective Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry and Economics double major

Please click here for a link to the Zoom recording of the panel.