Swim

The biggest story in Olympic swimming this year is undoubtedly the domination of Léon Marchand, the 22-year-old French phenom who took gold in every individual event he entered, along with helping France win bronze in the 4x100m medley relay. It was not Marchand’s first Olympics for France, but his first he went medal-less. He has since spent four years developing on the University of Florida’s swim team, building to a performance where he broke a Phelps record and went unchallenged in most fields. The best part? He got to do it at home.

On the women’s side, it was a tough contest between the Australians and the Americans, with the US narrowly winning more gold medals, 8-7. Katie Ledecky continued her untouchable streak in the 800m freestyle, along with winning the 1500m freestyle. In the 1500, she won by a comically large margin of 10 seconds.

Courtesy of NBC

The Americans also set a world record for the 4x100m medley relay, defeating the previous record by .75 seconds. However, women’s swim was not completely dominated by the US and AUS; Canada’s Summer McIntosh, at just 18 years old, won gold comfortably in the 200m butterfly, 200m IM and 400m IM. 

Additionally, the Wellesley News is incredibly proud of Lara Dashti ’26’s participation in the 100m Breaststroke representing Kuwait. We look forward to watching you this season!!

Soccer

They’re BACK! After a long drought in American dominance in women’s soccer worldwide, the US women’s team managed to pull off a gold medal finish in this year’s Olympics. New coach Emma Hayes was hired only last November, and made some dramatic changes to the roster only months before the competition began. Soccer experts seemed to come to the consensus that the team was too fresh, not sufficiently bonded, and that more experienced teams would go the distance this year. That was until the US dominated their group stage and pulled off a win against Japan in the quarterfinals. Most then expected their journey to end against Brazil in the finals, yet they managed to emerge victorious, having silenced the doubts surrounding their team and proven that the dynasty US women’s soccer has been revived.

Track

Speaking of people who are back, Sha’Carri Richardson, in her Olympic debut, earned silver in the 100m and gold with her teammates in the 4x100m relay. In the 100m race, she was bested only by St. Lucia’s Julien Alfred. Though it could have been a devastating moment, Richardson’s sportsmanship was admirable, and Alfred’s reaction to winning St. Lucia’s first ever olympic gold medal was heartwarming. 

The Americans did earn gold in many other individual events, but the victories of Gabby Thomas and Sydney McLaughlin were the most impactful. Thomas, a Harvard graduate who works in a healthcare clinic for people without insurance, was coming off of a slightly disappointing bronze medal in her Tokyo olympic debut. She was the overwhelming favorite this year, and she delivered, finally winning her gold. Then, of course, there is Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, the best 400m hurdles track runner the world has ever seen. She has broken the world record in the event six times; this year, with an outstanding time of 50.37 seconds. She dominated the field, while fellow American Sierra Cockrell earned silver.

Gymnastics

The best comeback story in history. Simone Biles returned to Olympic competition as if she had never missed it; she won the gold medals in the individual and team all-around competitions as well as the vault and silver on floor, making her career collection 11. The most decorated gymnast of all time had the performance of her life at 27 years old. Should you get the chance, the Wellesley News urges you to watch her performances on YouTube — she defies physics. Her teammates Suni Lee and Jordan Chiles also saw incredible performances, and Jade Carey won silver in the vault competition. Biles was often followed in ranking by Brazil’s Rebeca Andrade, who at 25 years old proved that the age at which female gymnasts can perform is not just larger on Biles’ account. Andrade performed beautifully on floor in the individual competition, the only one in which she bested Biles, but the two share an inspiring friendship. Women’s gymnastics not only brought us inspiration, but a shining example of women supporting women.

Contact the editors responsible for this story: Julee Sharma (js115@wellesley.edu) and Finley Tipton (ft101@wellesley.edu)

“No longer defined by what we are not, we are proud to call ourselves the WOAW faculty – the Wellesley Organized Academic Workers,” they wrote, in an open letter to the Wellesley College community. 

The statement detailed the demands of the FIPs regarding their salaries and benefits as non-tenure track faculty, specifically noting that there have been only incremental changes to FIP faculty salaries, including the 9% raise in 2019, and the salary bump in 2022. From 2008 to 2020, the starting salaries for FIP faculty were frozen after the economic recession at $55,000. According to Professor Brubaker, Senior Lecturer in the Writing Program, the catalyst for organizing the union was the demand for salary benchmarking, which is to make the starting salary at Wellesley for FIP faculty members comparable to colleges and universities in the area, so that FIP faculty can have a livable wage. 

“[The benchmarking] was something that we worked with the Budget Advisory committee to develop a proposal that would allow for us FIPs to have a benchmarking system just like staff and tenure-track faculty have,” she said. “We put together a report, and several of us met with Provost Andy Shennan, and that really didn’t go anywhere. We never got a follow-up from them. We pulled all the levers we could pull with the existing governance structure that we had.”

The starting salary at Wellesley College for Visiting Lecturers and ISLs, who are classified as FIP faculty, is $63,500 , which is 42% less than the starting salaries for Assistant Professors. After becoming a Lecturer, Professor Heather Bryant did not get a raise but did get a course reduction. In order to make a livable wage, she had to take course overloads in order to make a livable wage, which when she started were $7,500 per course. But after Wellesley for the Abolition of Militarism and Incarceration (WAMI) Union and Labor Advocacy task force (UniLAD) organized a teach-in in Spring 2022, and created more awareness about non tenure track faculty’s compensation issues, the overload pay was changed to $10,000. 

After her subsequent promotion to a Senior Lecturer in the Writing Program in 2021, Prof. Bryant got a raise of $5,000. Bryant has taught four or five classes every year, sometimes along with two courses in the summer. For her, one of the major issues for FIP faculty is the lack of stability, not only with their contracts but also in their wages for overload.

“Our salaries are essentially kind of chaotic. It’s just what they think they can get away with,” Bryant said. “They always point to the bad job market, and say that there’s crowds of people flocking to get these jobs, so we should be happy to have them.”

The low salaries also weigh heavily on short-term contract faculty who struggle to attain job security at colleges and universities. Visiting Lecturer in American Studies, Ian Alexander, spoke about the workload that makes it difficult for new faculty to break into academia. 

“Something that is happening in the U.S. across colleges and universities is the increasing casualisation of academic labor, and the increasing precarity of more workers within colleges and universities are facing similar challenges, but very specifically, for contingent faculty, for people who are on short-term contracts like myself, or renewable contracts, or people who are teaching in labs, or postdocs,” Alexander said. “It’s very difficult to establish job security and to find space to be able to grow as a researcher, while also satisfying all of the requirements of teaching, and what is usually a heavier teaching load than our tenure counterparts. We’re often forced to negotiate and bargain individually and to not really know the kind of latitude we have to bargain.”

Discussion about forming a union began in the summer as FIP faculty reached a point where they felt that administration was not listening to their demands. After FIP faculty discussed among themselves, they began speaking to union representatives that worked with academic workers in the area. The faculty decided to join the United Auto Workers (UAW) union, which has more than 100,000 academic workers as members.

Hannah Grimmett ’25, who is involved in UniLAD, WAMI’s union and labor task force, has been advocating for the formation of a union for the past two years, as she believed non-tenure track faculty would not make any major gains without forming a union, which organized the non-tenure track faculty teach-in in spring 2022 that she credited with increasing the awareness of the challenges non-tenure track faculty face. 

Grimmett has experience working with labor organizations, specifically the Kansas National Education Association and Workers United of Upstate New York, and emphasized the importance of academic workers unionizing, especially at Wellesley. While not working as part of UniLAD with WOAW, she spent a significant amount of time advocating for the creation of a union for FIP faculty, considering that the administration seemed resistant to their demands. For her, one of the major issues was specific contract language, specifically language regarding “just cause,” which refers to concrete, defined rules regarding disciplinary action or terminations.

“As we are all familiar with, non-tenure track faculty can be fired at will, which is insane, because they go to school for nearly a decade to get a PhD and they can be fired at will,” she said.

“In particular, [sociology professor] Matt Kaliner being terminated without cause very much inspired me to really push just cause [as a focus of the union’s demands].”

Each of the interviewees pointed to the lack of transparency from the College administration as a major obstacle to creating awareness around the issues FIP faculty face on campus. Brubaker specifically noted that there are no specific numbers provided regarding just how many FIP faculty there are.

“It’s in their best interest in some ways to not signal how many of us there are… They want to promote an image of a residential college that has award-winning faculty who are committed to their research, but also to students,” she said. “The picture of that may change if confronted with the reality that there’s many more people who are moving in and out of the community as faculty.”

The lack of transparency from the College pushed the union to understand the employment status of faculty at Wellesley. Senior Lecturer in the Writing Program, Erin Battat, shared that 40% of Wellesley’s faculty is non-tenure track faculty. 

“The other thing that really matters is that non-tenure track labor, the whole system, our titles, the way we’re paid, and  the culture relies on the assumption that we are temporary and replaceable. That we’re not real faculty,” Battat said. “The truth is that Wellesley actually relies heavily in order to function, in order to run its academic programs. We are vital to the operation of most of the departments. We are vital to the first-year experience.”

 Grimmett also noted specifically that the devaluing of the teaching and mentorship that non-tenure track faculty provide by the administration impacts students on a day-to-day basis.

“The union has put out a lot of information on the devaluing of teaching and mentorship roles, and greater value put on research, which tenure track faculty do more of, “ she said. “Research is what people on the outside see, but mentorship and teaching is what we students experience in our day-to-day lives, and the administration clearly values one more than the other.”

On Dec. 11, the College Government Cabinet released a statement of solidarity with the WOAW-UAW union, encouraging students and alums to show their support by signing the letter from the FIP union outlining their reasons for forming a union. 

“We encourage the College to recognize the union, to issue a statement of neutrality, and to set fair terms for the NLRB election. FIP faculty are valued members of our campus community. We firmly believe that unionizing all FIPs at Wellesley will lead to a better environment for all and that students’ learning conditions will improve when faculty’s teaching conditions improve,” the statement read. 

On Dec. 12, the union held an event in the Science Center innovation hub titled “Sip N’ Solidarity.” The event was an opportunity for the College community to learn more about the intentions of the union, and to hear updates from members about their path to achieve their goals.

“The best thing we can do is to provide security for people who are not going to access this old model of security, which is through tenure,” Alexander said. “Finding ways for faculty to build a life and not have to wonder if they’re going to have to pick up and move, or reapply for their jobs every two to three years and have to face a job market that wants research when they’ve been doing so much teaching that they haven’t kept up with research.”

1. We are right in the thick of football season, and the NFL trading period for the next season just ended,spookily, of course, on Oct. 31.. Starting with Week eight of the 2023-24 season, which spanned from Thursday Oct. 26 to Monday Oct. 30, we saw some big names fall in unexpected ways. Thursday saw the Buffalo Bills beat the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 24-18, with Quarterback Josh Allen fighting through a shoulder injury, while the Bucs stumbled out of the gate with costly mistakes and couldn’t crawl their way back fast enough. Sunday’s biggest shock came when the Kansas City Chiefs fell disastrously to the previously-struggling Denver Broncos, with Travis Kelce and Patrick Mahomes missing the mark consistently (Travis, Is It Over Now?). Major moments of Sunday also include the Patriots losing to the Dolphins despite a strong defensive showing this year, and Joe Burrow coming out strong with the Bengals to take over the 49ers, pulling them back into the top AFC competitors this year. Coming into Week nine, we watched as the Steelers pulled off a win over the Titans, despite inconsistent offensive efforts. 
2. We witnessed the 2023 MLB season end with a comeback story 63 years in the making. The Texas Rangers pulled out a 5-0 World Series knockout against the Arizona Diamondbacks Wednesday night, Nov. 1. The score was not a tight one, but the pitching matchups sure were: Rangers’ Nathan Eovaldi kept pace with Diamondbacks’ Zac Galle for a shutout until the seventh inning, when the streak was finally broken against Galle. The Rangers were the oldest team in the league without a series win, so this victory was a long time coming. Corey Seager won World Series MVP due to his three home runs in the series, becoming only the second player ever to win MVP with multiple teams The Rangers return to Texas with a pennant, an underdog story, and a hope for this momentum to carry them into the 2024 season. 
3. We started off our NHL recap with Connor Bedard and the Chicago Blackhawks. Bedard has been getting his bearings after coming to the Blackhawks as the No. 1 2023 draft pick, and they came out on top over the strong Vegas Golden Knights on Oct. 27. NHL Central Scouting says that he’s going to be making impacts in the League in the next few years, and is one of the most promising rookies we’ve seen. The Edmonton Oilers were able to end their losing streak by beating the Calgary Flames on Sunday, during the 2023 Tim Hortons NHL Heritage Classic. Following that, the Bruins were out for revenge this Monday, Oct. 30, rematching with and beating the Panthers since their Game seven  home turf loss in the Eastern Conference First Round last year. 
4. The NBA started back up again last week, and already, people are taking bets on who’s going to perform the best this season, especially following such an explosive trade year. Despite being only 10 days in as of Nov. 3rd, there are already some emerging statistical stars. Luka Doncic of the Dallas Mavericks is leading in points per game so far, with an average of 33.8, while when it comes down to the wire, Doncic closely follows Lebron James of the Los Angeles Lakers in clutch points. The Boston Celtics are leading in offensive ratings, and their defense is also performing strong, ranked fifth in defensive rating, while the Timberwolves lead in defense.
5. The biggest news in Formula 1 racing this past week was the Sao Paulo Sprint Shootout, a short and high-energy race that follows the new Sprint Shootout format introduced this year. Friday, Nov. 3rd, was the qualifying race for the Shootout, and we saw Max Verstappan, the famous (or infamous, depending on who you ask) Dutch racer, establish his pole position early in Q3, despite the race ending early due to rain complications. Charles LeClerc from Monaco pulled second position, with the Mercedes representatives Lance Stroll and Fernando Alonso placing in the next two spots. However, the poor performance of Lando Norris — placing seventh in qualifying — didn’t stop him from clenching P1 in the Sprint Shootout on Saturday, Nov. 4. But the biggest news of the Shootout wasn’t Norris’s epic comeback, but the crash between former Alpine teammates Fernando Alonso and Esteban Ocon. The F1A stewards summoned the two racers after their Q1 crash created a delay and took both racers out of qualifying, but appear to not be pursuing any further action. Ocon blames Alonso for the crash, while Alonso remains impartial, but the F1A determined that there was no one person to blame. The Grand Prix takes place on Sunday, Nov. 5, and the next race happens two weeks later in Las Vegas, on Nov. 19. 

• Paul McCartney 
• Elton John
• Joan Jett
• P!NK
• Brandi Carlile
• Stevie Nicks
• Cyndi Lauper
• Annie Lennox
• Steven Tyler
• Steve Perry
• John Fogerty
• Miley Cyrus

These artists she listed as collaborators with her album have many histories with collaborations with modern day artists. 

Paul McCartney worked with Kanye West and Rihanna in 2015 for their song “FourFiveSeconds,” which is McCartney’s most streamed song on Spotify. He has also worked with Hollywood Vampires, Dave Grohl, Pat Smear, etc. Back in the 80s and 90s, he worked with Stevie Wonder, Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash, Micheal Jackson, Billy Preston and so many more classic artists who have shaped the way rock music is heard and thought of today. Paul McCartney is perhaps one of the most influential artists because of his creation of The Beatles, Wings, and his amazing solo career, where he has written/co-written at least 500 songs. 

Elton John has worked with pop artists of his generation, such as Britney Spears, Dua Lipa and Ed Sheeran.  He has also worked with Stevie Wonder, Ozzy Osbourne, Little Richard, Aretha Franklin and Kiki Dee in the iconic “Don’t Go Breaking My Heart.” Elton John has also worked with many artists from Dolly Parton’s list, including Stevie Nicks. 

Joan Jett is an iconic rockstar from the 70s, who continues to collaborate with the rockstars of this generation, including Dolly Parton’s Goddaughter, Miley Cyrus, who will also be in the album.

Everyone  else on this list has had incredible success and collaborations, and people are eagerly awaiting to see what they will do on this album. 

There are many songs that will be covered on the album that people are really excited to hear her sing, including, “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” by The Rolling Stones and “Stairway to Heaven” by Led Zeppelin. With Dolly Parton’s career originating from country music, it is really exciting to see how her music has changed and been shaped by the rock music and all the stars she will be working with.

With psychedelic twists, the band’s guitar and achingly beautiful vocals have a chilled out yet engaging feel, with callbacks to iconic musicians and songs such as Muddy Waters, Chuck Berry, and “Roxanne” by The Police. “Drop Stop Roll” has a simple chorus that lends itself well to live performances — an audience loves a chance for engagement. However, as much as I have generally enjoyed RKS in the past, I don’t know if I can say that I like this song. Don’t get me wrong, it isn’t a bad song! It just isn’t something particularly memorable.

It feels like a song that would play in that scene of a coming-of-age movie where the main protagonist puts her earbuds in and leans her head against the bus window. Or, now that I think about it, like a song that would have been featured in the soundtrack for “Life is Strange.” And I don’t think that’s a negative — not every song needs to be a spectacularly original and memorable work. We need music that can serve as a cooldown during live music sets or as the background of a video game. This single doesn’t detract from RKS’s discography, but rather serves to highlight the rest of the band’s work, which has value in and of itself.

Just as the works’ connections to the theme vary, so do the mediums used. Some of my favorites are the photo installations. Hannah Dong’s ’22 “Fragmented Realities” is located in the Jewett Art Gallery and consists of eight archival inkjet prints on a plastic surface. They’re all on small stands so that they are upright to the viewer and have the subject face outward from two  pedestals. Each one is distorted, with the images sometimes being out of focus or having been printed so the ink would pool or bubble up. Dong uses the distortion to explore self-identity and how one navigates reflections and presentations of the self and others. Often the eyes of the subject would be scratched, replaced by pooled ink, or blotted out entirely, alluding to the warped perception one may develop of themself by looking at through the world’s lens. 

Not every print has a person on it though — some have hands. These hands are extended upward in varied degrees of being opened. The background of the hand prints are blue, seeming as though they were hands reaching up towards the sky. In one of the hand prints it isn’t reaching towards anything, but rather holding a rose that acts as an extension of the arm. The varying state of open or closed might read as the resistance one puts forth against the limitations society has, or the pursuit of freedom beyond these limitations.

Out in the Jewett Hallway Gallery is Maxx Aguilar’s ’22 “Nicotiana,” which is an acrylic painting on gessoed tempered masonite. They depicted two Black people watching a plant bud. The bud is in front of both of the people’s faces, casting luminescence onto them. There’s unity between the colors of the bud and plant and the people which visually represents the spiritual connection between them. The petal that is beginning the transformation of the bud has a sharp angle that is seen again in the corner of one eye on both of the figures, which connects the development and growth of the people and nature. Aguilar created this unity between Black people and nature to explore healing from colonialism and enslavement. Specifically, they’re centering Black transgender identity and the growth and healing beyond gender identities and heirarchies imposed by white people. It’s a beautiful piece that uses warm colors and swaying, soft brush strokes to represent the path forward. There must be healing for those, both people and nature, who have been harmed.

Finally, in the Sculpture court is Sarah Pado’s ’22 “Getting ready for Bed.” It is a portrait of the artist and her partner in pencil on paper. They are in a bathroom near the sink, where she’s drying her face with a towel and he is brushing his teeth. In the foreground of the drawing is the perspective of her partner, with her back to him and his hand on her shoulder. In the background is the mirror reflecting them. The scene depicted is one of everyday domesticity, but the gentle touch on her shoulder makes it intimate. In the mirror his eyes are shown to be looking at Pado, and so both the inclusion of his perspective and what is given through the objective perspective invites the viewer to take the place of the person expressing the affection rather than the one receiving it. This gesture shows how important small moments of romantic connection can be for those involved, whether they are the displayer or recipient of affections, for romantic relationships.

These are just a few of many works on display in Jewett, and they don’t even cover all of my favorites! If you need a study break, have some spare time, or are taking one last walk around campus before you leave for summer break, you should definitely visit Jewett to see all these works. 

This edition features voices from Wellesley Students of Education. The answers to these questions were written by current members of the organization. Answers were lightly edited for grammar and formatting.

1). What is the Elementary Teacher Licensure Program and what are its benefits?

The Wellesley Teacher Scholars Program (WTSP) encompasses both the Elementary and Secondary Teacher Licensure Programs; these opportunities have, for many years, allowed WTSP students to complete their teacher licensure by the time they graduate. Traditionally, this means that WTSP students spend the majority of their final semester at Wellesley as a student teacher at a local school, and can begin teaching immediately after finishing their undergraduate degree. The education department offers a variety of courses for WTSP cohorts to learn both technical teaching skills and pedagogy rooted in the educational justice movement. While both programs are structured similarly, the administration currently plans to keep the Secondary Teacher Licensure Program and “sunset” (phase out) the Elementary Teacher Licensure Program (ETLP).

This type of opportunity for licensure is quite rare in the US, as aspiring teachers usually have to spend time in a teacher preparation or graduate program after getting their bachelor’s degree. Both licenses save students a huge amount of time and money, allowing them to immediately look for jobs in a high demand field. Additionally, the certification provided through the WTSP holds reciprocity with most other states, meaning that graduates can search for and accept positions throughout the country (rather than being limited to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts). Student teaching also acts as internship experience, which can bolster a resume and provide insight into working with children that can be valuable to many fields beyond teaching.

2). How have/will the decisions of the administration to sunset the Elementary Teacher Licensure Program affect students in the department? Are you aware of how the administration came to this decision?

The Office of the Provost and Education Department are currently working together to ensure that current ETLP students are able to complete their licensure as promised; as of now, the teaching methods courses designed for ETLP students are planned to be offered for the last time during the 2022-2023 academic year. This means that ETLP students that are currently first-years and sophomores will have to take those courses next year, despite them mostly being intended for seniors. Prospective and incoming students will not have the opportunity to join the ETLP, despite this decision being made with little time before the College commitment deadline in May. Students that are Education Studies or Teaching and Learning Studies majors/minors will not be directly impacted, but the loss of these courses may disrupt their academic planning nonetheless.

At this time, we have received little communication from the administration in regards to their reasoning behind this decision (despite asking many times). The most commonly cited point is the low enrollment in the program, but we have not been provided with the data or timeline used to make this claim.

3). How does the group feel about Wellesley’s general treatment of the education department? 

As education studies majors, we share a deep love for the Wellesley education department and its amazing faculty. We have been offered extraordinary mentorship, exciting job opportunities, and impactful lessons from the education professors, and it’s very difficult to find anyone who has had a negative experience with the department. Despite the education studies major only being created in 2019, the department has experienced high popularity and rapid growth; this is really exciting and demonstrates the value of the department to so many students, but the administration has refused to provide adequate support to meet this growth. The chair of the department, Professor Soo Hong, is the only tenure track professor, despite departments of similar size having anywhere from three to eight. This means that the department’s faculty are expected to keep up with advising 66 students, managing the WTSPs, teaching full courses and conducting their own research, all while being denied the recognition, stability and compensation afforded to tenure-track professors. Until now, the administration has not been responsive to requests for hiring additional faculty or opening additional courses (despite the clear demonstrated need). Even when putting the ETLP aside for a moment, we feel that this wonderful group of professors deserves more. We have received an outpouring of support from current and former students that similarly cherish their experiences with the department, many of them (ourselves included) crediting the faculty’s teaching and mentorship with leading them to milestones in their professional, academic, and personal lives. Wellesley Students of Education seek to show that above all else, we love and value our education professors as a community, and believe that administrative support should reflect that.

4). What sort of actions would you like to see the College take to create an improved experience for students in the Education department?

Above all, we cannot get very far without more transparency. We have not been told how the decision to sunset the ETLP was made, who was involved, what data was referenced, or how these resources will be reallocated to support the needs of the growing department. We have many arguments as to why this decision is a poor choice: many of the first education studies majors are only just beginning to take upper level courses and therefore aren’t included in enrollment numbers; the pandemic has drastically changed the expectations of education and teaching, understandably prompting students to make changes in their academic plans; student teaching was difficult to organize over the last few years, which could’ve deterred prospective ETLP students; with all of these factors in mind, it seems hasty to make a permanent change in such a tumultuous period of time. However, without the administration providing their reasoning, we are left in the dark as to whether or not these were considered or disputed.

The Office of the Provost has communicated to faculty that they planned to reach out to prospective students who indicated an interest in the ETLP, and the website has been updated to reflect the change. While we hope that this prevents any prospective ETLP students from committing to Wellesley solely because of this opportunity, we believe that there needs to be a more deliberate and public statement issued. The meetings to discuss this decision have not been advertised, and it is generally not being discussed outside of EDUC courses. This excludes students (both prospective and current) who may have interest in the ETLP but haven’t officially expressed it anywhere, members of the community who wish to advocate for the program and alumni. If the administration plans to make this decision, we believe that they should take accountability and address the concerns of those who are directly affected.

5). What future plans does this student group have to prevent the College from ending the Elementary Teacher Licensure Program? How can Wellesley students not directly affected take action?

As of now, we are still waiting on a response from the Office of the Provost after sending our letter and petition last week. Depending on the response (if any), there may be plans to further organize in the future and involve more of the larger Wellesley community; if this does happen, we hope to widely communicate this via all school email and our COIL. As of now, we invite you to read over our letter and sign our petition! There are cute posters all over campus (thank you to Carolyn and Clem for their design expertise!) with QR codes to access the documents. We have also compiled a number of testimonials shared with us by students and alumni; they’re all very touching and convey the long term impact of the education department, so go read some if you can. If students want to send emails to show support, they can address them to Dean Jeffries and/or the Office of the Provost. Finally, take some EDUC courses! They are always super fun and interesting, and increased enrollment demonstrates an additional need for more courses and professors in the department.

Wellesley Swim & Dive placed sixth at the 2022 NEWMAC Championships hosted by MIT last weekend. Wellesley scored 482.5 points in total, just behind WPI and Coast Guard. Jessica Wegner ’22 led the Blue, placing first in the 100-yard butterfly in 55.30, her third time winning the event at a NEWMAC Championship. Her swim scored her the NEWMAC record as well as the Wellesley program record. She is currently ranked 11th in the nation in the 100 fly, and will be traveling to Indianapolis, Indiana for the NCAA Division III Swimming & Diving Championships on March 16-19. Here, she will compete in the 50-yard freestyle, the 100-yard butterfly and the 100-yard backstroke. Wegner is the first swimmer to represent the Blue at the NCAA Championships since 2012. 

Track and Field

The Blue sent four runners, Ari Marks ’22, Maya Bradbury ’22, Claire Anderson ’23 and Ellie Murphy-Weise ’22, to the New England DIII Championships at Colby College in Waterville, ME last weekend. Marks finished first in the 3k meter run and the 5k run scoring All-Region Honors. Marks’ time of 9:41.73 set the 3k record at the Colby College indoor track. Bradbury, Anderson and Murphy-Weise took 14th, 16th and 20th place, respectively, in the 3k. The Blue will be heading to the Tufts National Qualifying Meet next Saturday, March 5. 

Fencing

On Saturday, Wellesley Fencing earned a third place finish at the NEIFC Championships at Brandeis University. The Blue finished second in the foil squad, fifth in the sabre squad and fourth in the epee squad. Brooke Dodrill ’23 was the Blue’s highest finisher in the sabre, scoring fifth. In foil, the Blue’s top finisher was Alexia Gilioli ’23 placing fourth in the A pool. Kimberley Kimura ’23 placed third in the A pool in epee. Wellesley Fencing will compete at the NCAA Northeast Regional at Vassar College on Sunday, March 13. 

Lacrosse

The Blue competed in their season opener last week against Framingham State. The Blue finished in a 18-3 loss. Liz Sugg ’23 finished the game with two goals, while Eleanor Mallett ’22 scored the third for the Blue. Lorna Li ’22 and Hannah Pangborn ’23 led the defensive side with a combined 14 saves. The Blue will host their home opener next Wednesday, March 9 against Curry College. 

Tennis

Wellesley Tennis hosted their home opener against RPI on Saturday afternoon. The Blue defeated their opponent 5-4. Highlights from the match include Cristiana DeAgazio ’24 and Michelle Shen ’22 earning their first victory (8-2) in a doubles match. Additionally, the No. 1 doubles team of Annissa Mu ’24 and Melinda Alviar ’24 earned a close 8-7, 7-5 victory against their RPI counterparts. On the singles side, Mu earned a 6-1, 6-4 victory. DeAgazio finished the match for the Blue with a pair of singles wins. Wellesley will travel to NYU next Saturday, March 5 for a 1 p.m. match. 

Crew

Blue Crew will begin their season on March 26 at the Washington College Invitational in Chestertown, MD. The College Rowing Coaches Association (CRCA) recently announced the NCAA Division III Rankings, in which the Wellesley College Crew team is ranked preseason No. 1.

Over the past school year because of COVID… we didn’t really operate as a team. We had practices, but we couldn’t have contact so they were just throwing the ball around. This season, I think everybody was so excited to get into playing. We had a pretty big rookie class, which was really exciting. We actually had enough people to build a team. Our first actual game of the season was just … it had been a year and a half since anybody on the team had actually played a Rugby game. I think that was a really big moment for our team.

Carrie Goeke-Morey ’24

One of my favorite memories was our Halloween practice. It was the Friday before Halloween, and our coach was like guys, we’re just gonna do some fun games and everyone came in costume. We all went around the circle and said what we all were dressed as and people were pissing themselves laughing, and people were acting out their costumes and running around Sev green. I was wearing a blonde wig and just running around. My coach brought her dog too, and it was just a very special night.

Emerson Rogers ’22

“The team has been such an important community. It’s a place where I’ve felt the safety to come into myself. I think at Wellesley there’s this feeling that you can’t try unless you know you’re gonna be good. And I think that Rugby, because so few people have tried it before… . everybody is going to be different levels of successful and going to learn and it’s a safe place to learn. I think that extends beyond just drills and tackling and running. It’s been such a fantastic and inclusive space for me, and I wanted to continue to do that for other people.

Jenn Betancourt ’22

My favorite memory from this season was probably one of our last practices where it was raining and it was cold, and we were all exhausted. And there was like a moment during practice where we all kind of just laughed, and it was like this is insane. This is ridiculous. Like how are we [a] thing right now? But we kind of just laughed and push[ed] through. That’s kind of just our overall perspective on life.

Childcare as Commodity: The Impact of Capitalism on Children, Parents and Communities

My Tanner was called Childcare as Commodity and the Impacts of Capitalism on Children, Parents and communities. It was based on my time as a live-in full time nanny for four years. I learned that it’s really hard to take care of kids and being a parent and choosing to have kids … it’s mentally and physically and financially taxing to have children, and it’s not a light decision … and [yet] we’re still constantly pushed to have this nuclear family, and to have children. I was advocating to rethink that decision, and to move away from the form of the nuclear family. I was advocating for community support and mutual aid when it comes to raising children. There are various levels [to how] you can help with kids, you can say ‘Hey I’ll make you a meal for tonight’ or … send me your grocery list, I’ll get your groceries while I’m out, too.’ I just wanted people to rethink their perceptions of children and how we address childcare.

I got more confidence in myself, and just reaffirmed my experiences. I also had to deal with my internal patriarchy and misogyny because I was decounting what is traditionally women’s work. I think that was probably what I got the most out of it was having these like internal reflections.

Jordan Bates ’22

Centering Compassion: Putting Love Pedagogy to Practice at Aga Khan Primary School

My internship was supposed to be in Uganda, but it was virtual. I worked at a school, Aga Khan, over the summer. As an education studies major and someone who is also doing the early elementary school certification program here, it was an internship that resonated a lot with me as someone who’s also trying to get certified and wants to become a teacher. The education classes, and even the Africana Studies classes that I have taken here at Wellesley talked a lot about pedagogy and the different teaching practices. I was able to kind of see firsthand how pedagogy connects to real life classroom experiences.

One thing that I thought was really cool about presenting was introducing everyone to Lisa Arrastia’s Love Pedagogy and talking about how you teach the classroom with a center on compassion and community and humanizing yourself, but also humanizing and putting at the center children’s experiences and their lived experiences. I really loved the experience, and I’m still talking with some of the teachers there now. It was really great to kind of get to share what I have been constantly reflecting on in my education classes, and thinking about the type of teacher that I want to be as well.

Lillie Godinez ’24

Auditing YouTube’s Information Panels: What Do They Cover and How?

This past summer I was basically auditing YouTube, trying to figure out what their policy is for discouraging conspiratorial content on their platform, and how widespread that policy is, and how it’s being used basically.”

I think the best part was feeling like a researcher. You know what I mean! It felt really good to tell people about my research, and it was also really nice to present it in front of people. I thought I would be nervous but I wasn’t, because I was just talking about what I know and what’s interesting to me.

If you’re looking for opportunities, my biggest advice is to go to office hours. It was nice to have that connection with my professor. I went to office hours to ask her what is something that I can do over the summer to improve my CS abilities and teach myself Python, and that’s how I got introduced to this opportunity.