Wesleyan in the News: March 2026
President Michael S. Roth ’78 wrote a letter to The Chronicle of Higher Education emphasizing the impact of the Mellon Foundation and its support of intellectual research and curiosity. “The arts and humanities… flourish when they open new fields for study, and when they redirect our attention to enduring questions and text,” Roth wrote. “I expect the Mellon Foundation will continue to do its best to support that flourishing, even if it occasionally incites the spleen of irate Senators, eager journalists, and the current occupant of the White House.”
The New York Times published a reflective essay on the impact of Jeff Galloway ’67, creator of the run-walk-run method, following his passing on Feb. 25. Galloway was an All-American athlete during his time at Wesleyan and represented the United States in the 1972 Olympic Games. “Mr. Galloway’s discovery that taking strategic walk breaks during runs could allow people of all fitness levels to accomplish otherwise insurmountable athletic feats has propelled me across three marathon finish lines,” Times contributor Danielle Friedman wrote. “Perhaps more important, it has taught me how to endure, both on and off the race course.”
Khalilah L. Brown-Dean, executive director of the Allbritton Center for the Study of Public Life and Rob Rosenthal Distinguished Professor of Civic Engagement, reflected on the life and work of the late civil rights leader Rev. Jesse Jackson, Sr. in a piece for Washington Monthly. “As a scholar of civic engagement and voting rights, I believe democracy is strongest when those historically excluded claim their voice and participate,” Brown-Dean wrote. “Reverend Jackson embodied that truth long before it was widely embraced. He understood that expanding the electorate is not a partisan act. It is a democratic imperative.”
Bloomberg quoted Gary Yohe, Huffington Foundation Professor of Economics and Environment, emeritus, in a story on a new public tool in Connecticut that shows residents the estimated risk their property is exposed to from climate disasters like flooding, wildfire, and windstorms. “There’s always tension when information changes how people perceive risk,” said Yohe, who also noted the tool is an important step in leveling out the information available to homeowners and insurers. “Suppressing information doesn’t make the underlying risk disappear.”
For Responsible Statecraft, Peter Rutland, Colin and Nancy Campbell Professor in Global Issues and Democratic Thought, analyzed Ukraine’s position as it heads into a fifth year of the full-scale war with Russia. “Ukrainians are losing so much—a true, fair negotiated peace will ensure they don't lose more,” Rutland wrote. “Four years into the war neither side has won, and both have all the incentive right now to stick with negotiations to end it.”
Rutland also co-authored an article for The Conversation discussing the Russian public’s response to the continued conflict, particularly in light of recent polls showing steady rates of approval. “Polling has consistently placed Putin’s approval rating above 80% since the beginning of the Ukraine conflict,” said Rutland and co-author Elizaveta Gaufman. “Of course, the validity of the results of polls in an authoritarian society at war cannot be taken at face value. Yet, one shouldn’t rule out that some of that support is genuine and rests not just on a stable economy but also on popular endorsement of Putin’s pledge to restore Russia’s power and influence on the world stage.”
Carycruz Bueno, assistant professor of economics, spoke with The Cap Times about test scores for students at virtual charter schools in Wisconsin. “Even if you want to attribute (lower scores) to some of these things that the school can’t control, that we can’t see in the data … we still have these large (negative) impacts,” said Bueno. “These numbers are much lower than what we would expect for quality education for students.”
Zachary Fine, postdoctoral fellow in criticism, visited the collection of Noah Davis’s works at Philadelphia Museum of Art and wrote about the experience for The New Yorker. “The work is light and dark, solid and liquid, empty and busy, earnest and tongue in cheek,” Fine wrote. “Don’t be surprised if you leave the show feeling both healed and brokenhearted.
Blue Man Group, a live drumming trio founded by Chris Wink ’83, was featured in the Hartford Courant as it returns to Connecticut for three shows in March as part of its current North American tour.
