Wesleyan in the News: September 2025
President Michael S. Roth '78 spoke with Bloomberg for a story on schools like Vanderbilt University that have taken a position of institutional neutrality in higher education. “The argument is you want to protect your school,” Roth said. “I actually want to protect the country.”
Last Week Tonight with John Oliver aired a segment of Roth’s interview on CBS’ Face the Nation in an episode on President Donald Trump’s targeting of higher education on Sept. 7. Roth said, “the idea that [Trump is] attacking antisemitism by attacking universities I think is a complete charade. It’s just an excuse for getting universities to conform.”
The New York Times profiled ventriloquist and actor Sophie Becker ’16 on her journey from performing in theatrical productions to ventriloquism on stage at venues throughout downtown New York City. “Ventriloquism has given me the gift of an artistic practice, so I feel like I can’t give up on it,” Becker said, who studied performance art at Wes. “I hope there’s a future for me in it, but I don’t really know what will happen.”
Instrumentalist and composer Mary Halvorson ’02 was noted in a story by The New York Times that previewed upcoming new work and shows from artists throughout the music industry. Halvorson was also profiled by the Lexington Herald-Leader, which highlighted her experience at Wesleyan and inspiration she took from John Spencer Camp Professor of Music, Emeritus Anthony Braxton. “I had gone to that college intending to study biology,” Halvorson said. “…Then I signed up for one of [Braxton’s] classes in the first semester and it just completely changed everything for me.”
For The Hill Sebastian Zimmeck, associate professor of computer science, wrote about a recent trend of the government buying the private data of citizens from data brokers, circumventing federal privacy law in the process. “This practice represents a profound threat that transcends consumer rights,” Zimmeck wrote. “It is a structural threat to the very foundation of democracy. The cooperation between commercial data collection companies and state power creates a chilling effect on free speech, association and dissent—bedrock principles of a functioning democracy.”
Assistant Director in the Office of Religious and Spiritual Life Tracy Mehr-Muska appeared on WNPR's Where We Live to talk about self-care and stress mitigation. “My invitation for people is to be attentive to your body, mind, and spirit, and be conscious of what you’re feeling,” Mehr-Muska said.
An analysis by the Wesleyan Media Project, Brennan Center, and OpenSecrets, which projected that political advertisers spent at least $1.9 billion on online advertisements during the 2024 election cycle, was cited by yahoo! creators in a piece on Meta’s artificial intelligence spending.
Jordan Sears ’18 was hired as an assistant coach by the Dallas Mavericks under head coach Jason Kidd for the 2025-26 season. Sears had previously worked for two seasons as the Mavericks head video coordinator before spending the last two seasons as the head coach of the Texas Legends, the Mavericks G League affiliate.
WGBH’s The Culture Show featured a charcoal still life from art studio major Daniel Chan ’27 on its community digital mural on Sept. 2.
