On the same date as the announcement of Wheaton’s President-Elect Dennis Hanno, Together We All Prosper (TWAP) House also elected Juwan Mimes ‘15 as president. TWAP is an all-male theme house at Wheaton whose “primary goal as a house is to build strong, educated men for the future” and “hope to develop a mutually-beneficial relationship between the TWAP house residents and the larger Wheaton community” according to their Facebook page.
Mimes, also known as his nickname Jay, will replace current house President Olasunkanmi Afolabi. Calou Beckford and Christopher Bittner founded the house in 2012 in their senior year. Despite the changes the house have undergone over the past couple of years, the members of the house still aim strongly for similar objectives. “Our main, overarching goal is to integrate and motivate students from urban and lower income backgrounds into the Wheaton community, namely males,” said Mimes. “We also aim to define and create successful men for the 21st century.”
In December of 2013, the house was put on probation for violations against themed house school policies. The incidents were not explicitly publicized in order to “treat matters involving student conduct with confidentiality, out of respect for individual privacy” as stated by President Crutcher in a campus wide email.
“The shock we felt when told we were not likely to have our house for the following semester was indescribable. TWAP had become a home for each and every one of us,” said Mimes. “Our actions were not totally validated, but we felt so desperate, so backed into a corner that we essentially did what we had to in order to keep what had become our sanctuary at Wheaton.”
In response to the scandal around TWAP in the fall semester of 2013, the house now aims to, “play an active role in bridging the gap between students and the administration and also in helping foster a better, more accessible and diverse social life here at Wheaton,” said Mimes.
Mimes said conversation expanded from beyond TWAP to the topics of discrimination and prejudice. To make efforts in inspiring a range of emotions, ideas, and discourse, TWAP has decided to present a film series called “Unveiled Cinema.” Their objective is to bring important issues to the foreground through the medium of film.
The first showing of the film series is the screening of Fruitvale Station this Thursday, February 27th at 8 PM in the Knapton Lecture Hall. “The discussion after the movie will revolve around a number of prompts written by my fellow housemates and me,” said Mimes regarding this weeks film.
“Progress must be constant and the same goes for our house’s goals. We hope to continually move forward with exciting and educational programs,” said Mimes.