College to host TedxWellesley
The College will host TedxWellesley this Saturday, Feb. 22 in the Ruth Nagel Jones Theater, the black box styled theater inside Alumnae Hall. The Tedx Program gives communities and individuals opportunities to stimulate discussion at the local level. TedxWellesley includes four different speaking sessions, “Reexamining Connections,” “Reimagining Design,” Reenvisioning Society,” and “Redefining Boundaries.” The theme of the event is consilence, or the idea that society may combine multiple, independent subjects to achieve solutions. The event opens at 8 a.m. and ends with closing remarks at 6 p.m.
Shadow grading readies for implementation in the fall
The shadow grading implementation group has been developing a plan to communicate the policy to external audiences including graduate and professional schools, parents and employers. The College will employ the shadow grading policy for the class of 2018 this fall. All grades during the first semester will appear as having received credit or no credit on a student’s transcript. The Writing Program also successfully proposed that courses taught to fulfill the first year writing requirement should abide by shadow grading. The College will also integrate the policy into its Spring Open Campus and fall orientation programs.
“Sleepwalker” sculpture working group convened last week
President Bottomly created a working group that includes students from College Government, Sexual Assault Awareness for Everyone (SAAFE) and Active Minds to address concerns and foster discussion about the “Sleepwalker” sculpture by Toni Matelli. The group first convened last week. In a recent college announcement, Bottomly updated the campus on the progress the working group has made thus far. The group has discussed triggers, safe spaces and media reactions to the statue. The group will meet again next week to continue the discussion.
Professor Xia Yeliang teaches at Cato Institute
Professor Xia Yeliang became a visiting fellow at Cato Institute in Washington D.C. on Monday after Peking University (PKU) dismissed him from his job as an economics professor. Xia believes his dismissal occurred because he used social media to urge the reform of the Communist Party’s leadership in China, while PKU claims that it fired him for bad teaching practices. Wellesley College has a formal relationship with PKU, and more than 130 professors signed an open letter last summer declaring that they would seek to revoke the relationship if PKU fired Xia for political reasons. The College has continued its relationship with PKU and the Freedom Project at Wellesley aims to bring Xia to campus as a visiting lecturer
