Wes is the perfect size - if you like familiarity. After four years at Wes, you'll know at least 50{4a082faed443b016e84c6ea63012b481c58f64867aa2dc62fff66e22ad7dff6c} of your class, even if you like to keep just a few close friends. But most of the people you'll meet will be interesting and lead multifaceted lives. It's difficult to pin any Wes student to one category.
It's a small but beautiful campus. Housing is shit your sophomore and junior years, but it's worth the tribulation if you find yourself in a senior woodframe or fauver apartment in your last year. Foss hill is maybe the greatest part of Wes. You'll hear every single Wes student mention it fondly. It's in the center of campus, and is best described as a great slope of grass, which looks onto Andrus baseball field. It's the site of WesFest, Spring Fling concerts, student concerts, and everyday lounging. On the first warm days of spring, it is packed full of kids playing catch, reading, singing, smoking, and kicking it. It is too glorious to describe: you'll have to see it yourself to get it.
In the past decade, Wes campus has been completely overhauled. Since 1998, Freeman Athletic Center has been constructed (a gorgeous complex complete with a new, huge weight room, basketball gym, new locker rooms, and 10 squash courts...which are awesome), a turf field has been laid down for the field hockey and lacrosse teams, a new softball field has been constructed, the new Usdan Campus Center has been built, two new dorms (Freshman and Senior Fauver) have been constructed, and construction on a new science center is planned for 2010. The facilities are incredible, although many students miss the old Campus Center, and the old dining hall Mocon, which were both torn down last year upon Usdan's arrival.
Wesleyan's relationship with Middletown is a tenuous one. Middletown is a very diverse community of mostly blue-collar residents. Main street is just blocks from the center of campus, and offers a quirky array of shops and restaurants. The food is decent, and there are a few bars. If you know where to look, there is a lot of fun stuff to do in Middletown. But most students don't look. Most students stay completely detached from Middletown. It is this detachment which causes some of the resentment of the local community. Still, there are plenty of students who engage regularly with the community. It is difficult to get to and from Middletown without a car - to get to New York or Boston, you'd need a ride to either the New Haven train station (about a 30 minute ride), or Hartford bus terminal (about a 20 minute ride).
Wes administration is mostly receptive to student needs and requests. At least, that's the reputation the administration likes to exude. With regard to some academic departments, the administration has done a very poor job meeting needs. Last year, Wes alum Michael Roth as chosen to become the new President of Wes. He has done an excellent job raising funds for the school, and has made some good choices, especially the choice to exempt students from low-income households from paying tuition. He also responded well to recent confrontations between Middletown Police and Wesleyan students, in an incident known now as the Wesleyan Riots. At around 3am during the standoff, some Wes students went to Roth's on-campus residence, and explained to him the situation. Roth came down to the scene, and issued a statement which asked both students and police to be more reasonable. That is the nature of the relationship between students and administration at Wes - lines of communication are open, and many students form incredible relationships with staff.