Wesleyan-Middletown Community Connection

What is the relationship between Wesleyan University and greater Middletown? Here are a few facts that reflect the impact of the university locally. 

·        About 45% of the Wesleyan faculty, administration and staff participated in the 2007-2008 Middlesex United Way Campaign and contributed more than $136,000 to meet local community needs. This effort places Wesleyan as one of top three contributors in Middlesex County and among the top 4% of colleges and universities nationwide. 

·        The Center for the Arts (CFA), over the past 8 years, has increased community attendance for its programming by over 60%, and the CFA continues to offer high caliber events and exhibitions for the region.  

·        Feet to the Fire is an eighteen-month project and is co-presented by Wesleyan University’s Center for the Arts and Environmental Studies Program, the Jonah Center for Earth and Art and the City of Middletown. It aims to “assemble a diverse array of artists, scientists and other thinkers to address the environmental challenges that face us today on a global scale and in our communities.” It began with an eco-friendly festival at Middletown’s Veteran’s Park on May 10 with an eclectic mix of artists and performers as well as interactive displays and exhibits on energy conservation and sustainability. It also featured a mini-farmer’s market with local organic food vendors. Over 2000 people attended the event. Over the course of the project, Feet to the Fire organizers hope to continue to engage the communities to learn more about the impact of climate change on our world.   

The festival is funded in part by a grant from the Association of Performing Arts Presenters Creative Campus Innovations Grant Program, a component of the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation. Additional partners are the Center for Creative Research and the Green Street Arts Center.  

·        To further enhance and support university and community collaborations, Wesleyan University established The Center for Community Partnerships, which opened in Fall 2003.  It comprises the Service-Learning Center, the Office of Community Service and Volunteerism, and the Office of Community Relations, and aims to serve the development of both the individual and the community, guided by principles of mutual respect and shared responsibility. For the past five years, the CCP staff has strived to enhance connections with community partners, and it has become seen as the “one-stop shop” for community collaborations. 

·        Since 2005, the Green Street Arts Center has served as an anchor for the north-end of Middletown. With the City of Middletown and the North End Action Team as partners, Green Street has established itself as a vibrant community arts center offering classes and workshops for children and adults in music, visual arts, dance, theater, literary and media arts.  

·        Broad Street Books, the Wesleyan Bookstore and Café, continues the tradition of being a community bookstore. The renovated space is bright and welcoming. Red and Black Café offers great coffee and delectable for Middletown and Wesleyan folks to enjoy. 

·        Wesleyan students are active volunteers, especially in the local schools. On average, they provide over 30,000 hours of community service each year. 

·        The facilities at Wesleyan’s Freeman Athletic Center are made available regularly to local schools. Public and parochial high school track teams use the track in the Bacon Field House for practices and meets. 

·        Each fall and spring, volunteer docents provide tours of exhibitions at the Davison Art Center, the Mansfield Freeman Center for East Asian Studies, Ezra and Cecile Zilkha Gallery, and other Wesleyan arts venues to about 500 fourth and fifth grade students in the Middletown Public Schools. 

·        Wesleyan University is a table-sponsor at the annual Freedom Fund Dinner of the local NAACP chapter. It also supports the efforts of the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Scholarship Committee every year. 

·        The Inn at Middletown, a 100-room hotel and conference center that opened its door in October 2003, serves as the “official hotel” for Wesleyan University. As an anchor for the south-end of Middletown, the Inn at Middletown is a welcoming place for business people and Wesleyan parents alike. 

·        In collaboration with District 13 (Durham, Middlefield, and Rockfall) and Cromwell, Wesleyan University, through the Offices of Human Resources and Community Relations, supports the Middlesex Transition Academy, which places eight high school students with disabilities in a job-training program on campus. They have worked with athletics, food services, landscaping, and bookstore since Spring 2003. 

·        For over forty years, Community and University Services for Education (CAUSE) has facilitated cooperative programs between Wesleyan University and local area schools, and thousands of students have benefited. The High School Humanities is one such valued program. Each year, 75 or so students from local public (Middletown High School, Vinal Technical High School, and Haddam-Killingworth High School) and parochial schools (Mercy and Xavier) participate in lectures, films, and discussion – led by Wesleyan’s most esteemed faculty on a variety of liberal arts subjects.  

·        The Art Show is another program supported by CAUSE. For more than 25 years, this event showcases the artistic talents of local public school children (K-12) with more than 1,200 pieces of artworks at the Zilkha Gallery.  

·        Working with the Middletown Public Schools, and under the leadership of the Center for the Arts and the Middletown Cultural Council, the Silent Sound project encourages literary competition of public school students from Grade 6^th to 12^th. This project has been ongoing since 2001. 

·        Wesleyan employees are active volunteers with the Middlesex County Chamber of Commerce. They serve as board members, committee members and volunteers in a number of their functions, including the Business/Education Advisory Council, Creative Juice, Health Care Council, Holiday on Main Street, and the Taste of Downtown.

·        When the Class of ’98 entered Wesleyan a little over a decade ago, service-learning did not exist at Wesleyan. Thanks to a few members of the Class of ’98 and a few faculty members, the concept of service-learning was turned into reality. It began with one course, Sociology 316: Community Research Seminar. Now, this course has established roots. Thirty-six research projects have been completed with findings that benefit the local communities. In addition, it has given rise to the creation of 25 other service-learning courses across the disciplines. Hundreds of Wesleyan students and dozens of faculty members have participated and benefited from this mode of community-based learning. Check out the Center for Service-Learning Web-site to learn more: www.wesleyan.edu/slc. 

·        With expert assistance of Wesleyan University’s ITS staff members, Russell Library successfully implemented a new Windows 2003 server, upgraded several of their computers to work with this server, and re-architect their systems to introduce high reliability, security, and ease of use. 

·        In collaboration with the technology subcommittee of the Middlesex County Chamber of Commerce, Wesleyan University’s ITS department played a major role in the Main Street Middletown WiFi project. ITS also helped to broker the donations of wireless network hardware from Cisco Systems and the project management services of WesTel. Three strategically placed wireless access points have been identified on Main Street. The first phase is expected to be ready by mid-April, and Middletown will be the first town in Connecticut to offer free wireless access to the Internet.