(2 of 2)
Off the Shelf. Wesleyan gives its students plenty of say in deciding what the university's future will be. Two students serve on the school's permanent educational-policy committee, a group Butterfield calls "the key to change." Three students are helping incoming President Edwin Etherington, former head of the American Stock Exchange (TIME, July 22), on a study of education policies and programs. A student committee on university development offers advice on campus construction plans. Wesleyan undergraduates also rate their professors. And their voices are not ignored: when Senior Dave Eger objected to administration plans to build a hockey rink before erecting a needed gymnasium, he rounded up 546 students' signatures on a petition. Thanks to his protest, the plans are being reconsidered.
Where, with all its money, is Wesleyan heading? Etherington hopes that all of the planning committees and consultants will come up with a variety of options. Wesleyan might go coed, develop new graduate studies, add law or medical schools, or reach out to expand its community services. Whatever the eventual choices, Wesleyan can afford to take its time. Says Etherington, with comfortable and enviable assurance: "The worst way to spend money is to buy the first thing off the shelf."