Dean Wolfson outlines new housing policy
Interim Dean Adele Wolfson announced at Senate this week that there will be one notable change to the housing lottery that will take place this year. Instead of taking the highest lottery number in a blocked group, students’ lottery numbers will now be averaged. Lottery numbers are going to be released on the afternoon of Wednesday, March 9 along with housing preference forms. They are due by the end of the day on the March 16.
Internship provides students unique opportunity in the humanities
The Pforzheimer ’59 Fund, established by Betty Pforzheimer ’59 and her husband Carl, is an ongoing fund that will grant fourteen internships for students of the humanities. The internships will be awarded over a total of seven summers. Pforzheimer met with last summer’s interns, Leah C. Abrahms ’16 and Claire Bartlett ’16 to discuss the importance of the humanities. She said she and her husband decided to start the fund because “there is no way that we can learn everything we need to know about any subject, but there is a way to learn to think critically and to reason intelligently. The study of the humanities opens our minds to the kind of thinking required in every aspect of life—work included.”
Wellesley Greenhouses offer oasis and escape during harsh weather
The Margaret C. Gerguson Greenhouses are open most days of the year excluding weekends, and are free to the public. Self-guided tours are also available. The greenhouses, named after a staff member who taught in the early part of the twentieth century, are reported to be “the most diverse collection of plants under glass in the greater Boston area.” There are 16 different greenhouses that take up a total of 7,200 square feet and house a wide range of plants “ranging from tropical palms to desert cacti to carnivorous plants.”
Wellesley professors participate in new educational accessibility initiative
Online courses at educational website edX.org include a feature called “XSeries,” which offers several different classes focused on a particular field. Wellesley professor Neelima Shukla-Bhatt is one of the professors teaching a course in the world religion Xseries, titled “World Religions Through Their Scriptures.” This XSeries will be offered through HarvardX with five other professors. Shukla-Bhatt is just one of a few Wellesley professors participating in this new initiative. Students can also participate by signing up for these courses for free at any time, and for a fee can be upgraded to “verified status.” A student who completes entire an entire set of XSeries courses will receive a certificate.
