Ohio Wesleyan University
Encyclopedia
Ohio Wesleyan University (also known as Wesleyan or OWU) is a private
liberal arts college
in Delaware
, Ohio
, United States
. It was founded in 1842 by Methodist leaders and Central Ohio residents as a nonsectarian
institution, and is a member of the Ohio Five
— a consortium of Ohio liberal arts colleges. Ohio Wesleyan has always admitted students irrespective of religion or race and maintained that the university "is forever to be conducted on the most liberal
principles." In this capacity, Ohio Wesleyan has espoused internationalism and community activism
.
The 200 acres (80.9 ha) site is 27 miles (44 km) north of Columbus, Ohio
. It includes the main academic and residential campus, the Perkins Observatory
, and the Kraus Wilderness Preserve
.
In 2010, Ohio Wesleyan had the eleventh highest percentage of international student
s among liberal arts colleges for the seventeenth straight year. U.S. News & World Report
ranked Ohio Wesleyan in tier 1 among U.S. liberal arts colleges in its 2010 edition. Notable alumni include former U.S. Vice President
Charles W. Fairbanks
, First Lady
Lucy Webb Hayes
(wife of U.S. President Rutherford B. Hayes
), theologian and author Norman Vincent Peale
, baseball executive Branch Rickey
, and Nobel Laureate
Frank Sherwood Rowland
.
spirit of teaching", which was approved by the Ohio
State Legislature
. Early in the following year they opened the college preparatory Academy and formed a Board of Trustees. Ohio Wesleyan University, named (like several other U.S. colleges and universities) after John Wesley
, founder of Methodism
, opened on November 13, 1844 as a Methodist-related but nonsectarian
institution, with a College of Liberal Arts for male students.
Ohio Wesleyan's first president, Edward Thomson
, stated in his inaugural address
on August 5, 1846 that the school was "a product of the liberality
of the local people." This liberal philosophy contributed to Wesleyan's vocal opposition to slavery
in the 1850s. In the annual celebration for George Washington
's birthday in 1862, second president Frederick Merrick endorsed Ohio Wesleyan's "ideals of democracy" during his oration.
During the mid-19th century, Ohio Wesleyan focused on attracting students, adding fields of study, and fundraising, by which it significantly increased its endowment. Sturges Hall was constructed as the University's first library in 1855. In 1873, the school added the Department of Natural History housed in Merrick Hall. The Ohio Wesleyan Female College
, established in 1853, merged with Wesleyan in 1877. Between 1876 and 1888, enrollment tripled and music education
greatly increased, yet no major buildings were built in this time.
By the end of the 19th century, Ohio Wesleyan had added a School of Music (1877), School of Fine Arts (1877), School of Oratory (1894), and Business School (1895) to the original College of Liberal Arts (founded in 1844). To address the need for new departments and specialized instruction, the administration improved the facilities and courses to make them on par with OWU's new academic position. University Hall, Slocum Library, extensions to the Monnett campus
, and athletic facilities were all constructed during that period.
Between 1891 and 1895, Wesleyan specialized the curriculum by establishing departments for physics
, zoology
, geology
, speech
, history
, French
, English
, and economics
. This specialization encouraged undergraduates to continue studies at graduate level, allowed professional preparation for the Doctor of Philosophy degree, and promoted exchange study in Europe. Two professional schools for law
and medicine
were formed in 1896.
In 1905, the Board of Trustees decided to keep Ohio Wesleyan a college, despite the expansion of the curriculum and campus and the word "university" in the institution's name. The Bachelor of Science
degree was abolished, which left only the Bachelor of Arts
. Two students were selected as Rhodes Scholars in 1905 and 1909. Edwards Gymnasium
was built in 1906. In 1907, the United Societies of Phi Beta Kappa, the oldest undergraduate honor society in the United States, installed the "Eta of Ohio" ΦΒΚ chapter on campus. In 1909, the school added Sanborn Hall, housing the Music Department.
In the 1920s, academic requirements for the bachelor's degree were reduced, and Latin and mathematics were no longer emphasized. During the presidency of John W. Hoffman (1916–1928), the Academy and School of Business were closed; the Academy had started in 1842 as a preparatory school
, and throughout its seventy-five years frequently outnumbered the college in enrollment. Also in the 1920s, the chapel service was dropped and sororities were formed. Wesleyan also increased the number of buildings on campus, including Selby Stadium, Austin Manor, and Perkins Observatory
; another building, Stuyvesant Hall, was in planning; and Edgar Hall was opened.
(1938-1939), and Herbert John Burgstahler (1939–1949).
The administration adjusted the curriculum during the early 1930s to address these problems. Greek and Latin declined, while business administration and economics thrived and the highest enrollments were in the social sciences, English, pre-medicine, and history. The registrar reported that, in these years, the number of students from New England
states, urban Ohio areas, and from international locations increased. By the 1930s, the Methodist students were a minority among the student body; formal ties to the Methodist church were severed in the 1920s and led to debate among Board members in the 1930s, eventually resulting in the university's current active but loose historical affiliation with the United Methodist Church
. In a study into the relationship between American educational institutions and the Christian denominations they were historically affiliated with, James Tunstead Burtuchell writes that it was during this period that "in its personnel, its resources, and its students", Wesleyan lost its "symbiotic intimacy with the United Methodist Church."
In 1946, Ohio Wesleyan introduced a new "Centennial Curriculum", which enacted seven distribution requirements across the sciences and humanities; the new requirement for a foreign language course was added to the existing humanities requirement. Thomson and Bashford Halls, originally men's dorms, were built between 1951 and 1954. In the 1960s, faculty, staff and administrators fought over administrative structure and control. They eventually settled on a new "statement of aims" that stressed values, rather than religious goal statements, and instituted a more internationalized curriculum, a new Women's Studies Program, and an International Business major; the faculty senate also introduced a new academic calendar with three 10.5-week terms.
Thomas Wenzlau's presidency (1968–1984) began with the challenge of campus unrest: Wesleyan students took over the ROTC building, demanded its shut-down, and eventually eliminated ROTC in 1970. Students also demanded participation in departmental meetings and faculty committees, and the democratic process in the governance of Wesleyan grew in this period. Wenzlau's presidency witnessed decline in students' test scores, an unusually high attrition rate, lack of adequate research to identify potential major donors and a growing "party school
" image, leading to a rocky relationship between him and the student body. Between 1979 and 1982, the campus newspaper The Transcript
frequently criticized Wenzlau's presidency, blaming it for "severely affecting the reputation of the college". This exchange resulted in a Washington Post report on the school that eventually precipitated the end of Wenzlau's presidency.
and NBC
networks.
More recently, Ohio Wesleyan has achieved several academic and athletic recognitions. A 1986 study, titled "Educating America's Scientists: The Role of the Research Colleges," identified Ohio Wesleyan as one of 48 highly selective "science-active" liberal arts institutions in the nation. The Battling Bishops
won NCAA Division III national championships in men's basketball
(1988) and men's (1998) and women's (2001, 2002) soccer.
Wesleyan continues to undertake construction projects. The new Hamilton Williams Campus Center opened in 1991. The Memorial Union Building was renovated in 2001 to accommodate the Economics Department, the Academic Resource Center, the Information Services portion of the combined Libraries and Information Services department, and the Woltemade Center for Economics, Business and Entrepreneurship. The Conrades-Wetherell Science Center opened in 2004 to provide 52000 square feet (4,831 m²) of additional space for the science departments. As of 2010, the university is engaged in a fundraising campaign to improve athletics facilities by adding a new turf facility, a new field house and a pool, and a gateway connecting all sports facilities on campus.
, and is a member of the Great Lakes Colleges Association
, the Oberlin Group
, and the Five Colleges of Ohio
, a consortium of Ohio liberal arts colleges which also includes Kenyon College
, Oberlin College
, The College of Wooster
, and Denison University
.
For 2011, Wesleyan accepted approximately 52% of its regular decision
applicants, 33% of its transfer applicants, and had a yield rate of 26%. In 2010, the college accepted 36% of its international applicants. The middle 50% range of matriculating students for the class of 2010 was 1125–1320 for the SAT
(old scale) and 24–30 for the ACT
. Approximately 35% of accepted applicants were granted internal scholarship
s. Wesleyan follows a need-blind admission
policy; financial circumstances are not considered when deciding whether to admit applicants. As of 2010, OWU's 1,950 students come from 43 states and 57 countries; 47% are from Ohio
, 11% are international, and 54% are female. The student body is about 10% Asian
, 6% Hispanic
, and 9% Black
. Fifty-nine percent of Wesleyan students claim no religious affiliation. The student-faculty ratio is 12.5:1 and faculty members teach all classes. Excluding independent studies and senior theses, nearly 60% of Wesleyan's class sections have fewer than twenty students enrolled. Wesleyan is generally known for a strong "left-leaning"
student body and an administration with a "permissive" attitude. In 2007, 60% of OWU students favored the Democratic Party
.
Ohio Wesleyan admits students of all cultures, lifestyles, and socio-economic backgrounds. An index examining gay-friendly policies places OWU among the nation's gay-friendly colleges, and the university enacts policies to meet the six criteria developed by the Campus-Pride organization for recruiting and supporting students from a lesbian, gay, bi-sexual, and transgender
population. Nearly 18% of students at Wesleyan receive Federal Pell Grants, which mostly go to students whose family incomes are below $40,000. This measure indicates the degree to which economically disadvantaged groups are represented at OWU. As measured by percentage of Pell Grant recipients, economic diversity at OWU compares to that of Vassar College
, Reed College
, Colorado College
and Hampshire College
.
The faculty consists of 142 tenure
d members. As of 2010, all the university's tenured or tenure-track faculty members hold a PhD
or other terminal degree
. The faculty is 37% female and 63% male, with 10% from underrepresented groups. Also as of 2010, women constitute 37% of the tenured professors and earn 93.8% of what male professors earn—numbers which suggest favorable gender circumstances.
, Bachelor of Fine Arts
, or Bachelor of Music
. Wesleyan has research departments and teaching faculties in most academic disciplines; as of 2005, OWU offered 39 majors. OWU departments conduct all research and lectures internally.
In its early days, OWU's curriculum began with classical studies, for the course catalogue maintained that "the classical course in Greek and Latin and pure mathematics bring correctness in mental processes that an applied art, or a living and slightly inflected language, do not permit." Scientific courses were added to Wesleyan's curriculum in 1849, and since then, scientific
subjects have become a foundation to the liberal arts curriculum. OWU also has a highly respected music
department.
since its early years; since the 19th century, the college has established links with several international schools. In 1879, OWU alumna Elizabeth Russell founded Kwassui Women's College
in Nagasaki, Japan
, when predominant Japanese culture considered women's education unimportant. Today, Kwasuii College is one of the top finishing schools for young women in Japan. In 1899, William Ehnis (from the class of 1898) traveled to Africa
and opened a school in Mutare
, Zimbabwe
, that eventually became the Africa University
.
The school also manifests international interest in the percentage of international students it recruits and enrolls annually. Since 1983, Ohio Wesleyan has been listed in U.S. News & World Report
among colleges that attract the highest percentage of international students. The percentage of international students grew in the early and mid-1990s. In a study adjusted for school size, Wesleyan came ninth among 118 American colleges and universities in total aid awards to international students and 69th in average award per international student among both large universities and small liberal arts colleges. South East Asian students have significantly contributed to this growth. The United Nations
flag, along with the flags of more than sixty represented nations and the U.S. flag, flies in University Hall in honor of the ideal of peaceful international relations.
High participation in formal exchange programs constitutes a third target of the school's international focus. Under a Great Lakes Colleges Association
agreement, OWU established an exchange program with Waseda University
in 1962 to provide approximately 30 American students with opportunities to study in Japan
and 30 Japanese students to study at Wesleyan each year. The Salamanca program, founded by Conrad Kent in 1988, conducts the exchange of approximately one hundred students and faculty between OWU and the University of Salamanca
in Spain
. The academic collaboration frequently extends to joint participation in academic symposia: in 1993, members of the Salamanca faculty participated in a symposium on the Golden Age
in Salamanca.
, The Strand Theatre
, and the Kraus Wilderness Preserve
.
Perkins Observatory is situated in Delaware on land separate to the main campus. The observatory is named after Hiram Perkins
, a former professor of mathematics and astronomy at the college. When the observatory was built in 1931, it housed the third-largest telescope
in the world, which has since been moved to Arizona
. The Perkins dome now houses a 32 inches (812.8 mm) telescope, which is the second-largest in Ohio.
The university also maintains offices for study abroad
, US domestic study, and internship programs. Such programs include: Wesleyan in Washington, which allows students to study for a semester in Washington, D.C.
, in research and internship positions. The Philadelphia Center offers students hundreds of internship and field placement opportunities off-campus and the chance to live independently. and the New York Arts Program, which allows students of the arts to gain a semester of hands on experience in the arts in New York City
.
partnership between OWU and Columbus public schools. More than 150 Wesleyan students from this program tutor and mentor underprivileged pupils from Columbus.
The Wesleyan Ambassadors Program (ISAP) promotes cultural diversity and ethnic awareness within the local community, and exposes international students to American culture
through the community. The program's ambassadors visit local schools to give presentations and participate in events for local non-profit community organizations.
Campus organizations cooperate with local residents on issues of civic engagement
and activism
. Progress OWU allows students from Wesleyan and local schools to express their voices on politics
, public policy
, and corporate and social issues
, both on campus and in the local community.
Cultural programs also take part in community relations. In the 1960s, Wesleyan donated the Arts Castle, then part of the Fine Arts department, to the City of Delaware. It is now home to the Delaware County Cultural Arts Center. The Arts Castle hosts a variety of community programs in art, and offers classes ranging from ballet to fine arts. In 2004, the OWU received a donation to rehabilitate the historic Strand Theatre
in downtown Delaware.
The university and the City of Delaware sponsor several events in town throughout the year: the Delaware Arts Festival, the Little Brown Jug
, the Delaware County Fair, and the Castle Arts Affair. The Delaware Arts Festival is an annual event held the weekend after Mother's Day
on the streets of Historic Downtown Delaware. The festival hosts over 170 booths featuring works of local, regional, and other artists. OWU professors chair the committees that select winners. The Little Brown Jug, a harness race
, is run during the Delaware County Fair in September. The OWU president and the college mascot traditionally award the trophy for the first division of the first heat of the race.
and other religious groups for its students. Its social organizations cover a wide range of interests, including chess
, ultimate
, finance
, and medieval sword fighting. There are two a cappella
singing groups on campus, "The OWtsiders," a student-run group formed in 1999, and the all-female "Pitch Black" established in 2005. Another entertainment-related club is "The Babbling Bishops", an improvisational comedy troupe. The "Babbling Bishops" started in the fall of 1990 when a group of theatre concentration students formed a performance-oriented project for their theatre degrees. The project became an improv comedy troupe, rehearsing in Stuyvesant Hall and performing with other college improv troupes since 1996.
Socially conscious students can join organizations such as the activist
group "ProgressOWU" or participate in student government groups, such as the Campus Programming Board and the Wesleyan Council on Student Affairs. The "PRIDE" organization offers support to OWU's LGBT
students.
Fewer than a third of Wesleyan's students are involved in Greek life
, but that percentage has fluctuated significantly throughout the university's history. All twelve fraternities and seven sororities on campus are currently involved in many philanthropic
and community programs.
Wesleyan has four religious chaplains: A Protestant minister, a Roman Catholic priest, and a Jewish rabbi. In addition to student groups and services associated with these three religions, there are groups associated with Islam
, Buddhism
and Unitarian Universalism
, and even a group which holds services that are simply "spiritual" and separate from any organized religion. Services are also available for Quakers, Christian Scientists, Hindu
s, and Baha'is, and there are many local religious groups in Delaware, Ohio.
OWU's oldest student organizations are its literary clubs, including a number of student journals, magazines, and newspapers. The school's student-run weekly newspaper, The Transcript
, is the oldest continuously published, independent, college newspaper in the United States. The OWL, an annual literary publication, features students' work and is one of the nation's oldest college literary magazine
s. Other student publications include The Civic Arts Review, the electronic Connect2OWU bulletin, and @Wesleyan, a quarterly online magazine. Radio station WSLN
broadcasts from Slocum Hall and is run by students supervised by the journalism department.
The university also has a student government, the Wesleyan Council on Student Affairs (WCSA).
Activism
as represented in OWU's founding vision has had a significant role in Wesleyan's history.Tull, p.132.
The first president, Edward Thomson
, staunchly supported the abolition of slavery
and liberalism
. Other individuals associated with the university have fought racism. Branch Rickey
, an alumnus, broke the racial barrier
in baseball. Mary King, a civil rights activist, worked alongside Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in the U.S. civil rights movement
while she was a staff member of OWU's Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee
(SNCC). In the 1980s, Wesleyan's administration, moved by student activism, pledged and eventually fully divested holdings connected to South Africa. As of September 2007, Ohio Wesleyan joined a small group of liberal colleges that actively opposed the methodology and usefulness of US News and World Report college rankings, despite the fact that the magazine ranked Wesleyan among the top national liberal arts colleges. Wesleyan's concern intensified with disclosures about institutions flagrantly manipulating data in order to move up in the rankings in U.S. News and other popular college guides.
OWU has partisan political groups ranging from liberal to conservative, such the College Republicans and the College Democrats, and several activism awareness groups such as ProgressOWU, Black Men of the Future, Student Union on Black Awareness, PRIDE, ECHO, Amnesty International, and Rafiki Wa Afrika. Due to the school's proximity to Columbus, the Ohio state capital, many politically inclined students serve internships for state representatives. In the 2000s, students have been active on the Iraq war, race, globalization
, and women's reproductive rights
.
, where female students danced around the Maypole
, while men were barred. The men, in turn, developed their own tradition: they arrived at Monnett Campus early in the morning, and concealed themselves in trees to watch the festivities, discreetly.
In 1884, Ohio Wesleyan held its first Mock Convention, which has recurred in every presidential election
year since 1920. Its purpose is to inform participants, students, faculty staff, and Ohio residents about the presidential nominating convention, presidential candidates, and key issues in the upcoming election
.
Beginning in the 1920s, all freshmen were required to wear "dinks", red caps with black brims and a black W on the front. Disobedient students who refused to wear the "dink" were tossed into the Sulphur Spring (see later reference). This tradition ended in the 1960s. The freshman class of 1957 wore dinks for half the first semester. .
Ohio Wesleyan's Homecoming
takes place in early October, while the Wesleyan football
team plays one of its traditional rivals. New events, such as a bonfire and a five kilometer run, have been added from as recently as 2004.
The President's Ball, a recent gala organized by the college president, takes place on the first Saturday of December. Other traditions include OWU vs. Denison, which stages a "fierce" athletic rivalry between Wesleyan and Denison University
; the Sagan Colloquium, spanning the fall semester, recently expanded to include the spring semester, which consists of speeches focusing on an issue of concern to the liberal arts
; and Orchesis, an annual celebration of modern dance and the arts, which occurs at the end of the academic year. "Fresh-X" is an optional program for newly admitted students that occurs just before orientation in which students may choose between hiking, backpacking and other outdoor activities to make friends with their new classmates.
There are two major musical events, Unity through Music and Springfest. Unity through Music occurs once a year in the fall semester, and covers various musical styles in a carnival
atmosphere, during the day; while, during the evening, a huge dance is held in the Hamilton-Williams Campus Center. Springfest, the second musical event, proceeds in mid-April and in recent years has featured well-known music groups such as Counting Crows
, The Roots
, Guster
, Ben Folds
, and most recently, Gym Class Heroes
. It is organized by the Campus Programming Board.
A rock next to Hayes Hall has been part of the residential campus for the last 50 years, and students continually repaint it with graffiti
and slogans.
Thomson, Bashford, Stuyvesant, and Smith Halls are large mid-rise dormitories on campus. Welch Hall is designated as a "quiet" dorm for honors students. Hayes Hall is an all-female dorm.
Approximately 200 non-freshmen students live in Small Living Units (SLUs), which are co-ops
united voluntarily to meet shared economic, social, and cultural needs and aspirations in democratically controlled houses. The houses allow students to live cooperatively with one another by sharing regularly scheduled house chores, participating in the decision process, and, in some, sharing the cooking duties. Each unit houses a group of 15 students, and is organized to promote a common theme, usually indicated by the co-op's name. As of the 2008–2009 academic year, the SLUs consist of The Peace
and Justice
House, The International
House, The House of Black Culture, The Creative Arts
House, The Women's House, The Modern Foreign Language
House, The House of Thought, The Tree
House, and The Interfaith House. The University owns these houses; the co-ops, therefore, must follow the University's living policies. The co-ops do, however, elect their own officers and do not have Resident Advisers
or faculty in residence like other on-campus residence halls. They have a House Moderator who undergoes the same training as a Resident Advisor. At the end of each academic year, every existing and potential co-op must submit a house proposal describing its plans for theme promotion for the next academic year. The University Housing office places co-ops in houses every year on a competitive basis.
Off-campus housing is available only to junior and senior students, and students residing in Delaware, OH while living with their spouse or direct family; 17% of students live off-campus. Most students assert Wesleyan's policy of off-campus housing as one of the "worst things" about Ohio Wesleyan because of the resulting shortage of the number of lottery tickets allowing people to live off due to the off-campus lottery cap.
Division III as a member of the North Coast Athletic Conference
(NCAC). Known as the Battling Bishops, Wesleyan competes in 21 sports. The official school colors are red and black.
Formal athletics at the college date to 1875, when the first football teams were organized to play against other institutions. In the late 1880s, Ohio Wesleyan had perhaps the strongest amateur baseball team in the state of Ohio behind the pitching of Phil "Lefty" Saylor
. The school joined the Ohio Athletic Conference
along with Oberlin College
, Kenyon College
, Ohio State
, and Case Western
in 1902. In 1983, Wesleyan joined with nine other colleges in Ohio, Indiana and Pennsylvania to create the North Coast Athletic Conference. The NCAC seeks to bring together a group of liberal arts institutions that value the primacy of the academic mission over the athletic one.
The men's lacrosse
, golf
and soccer teams are the most historically successful of the varsity teams, and soccer is the university's most intently followed sport. For seven of the last twelve years, Wesleyan has won the NCAC conference All-Sports Trophy for excellence in both women's and men's sports. In the Sears Director's Cup
standings, OWU is among the top 25 overall collegiate athletics programs in the country. Because of the North Coast Athletic Association athletic agreement, the university is not permitted to offer academic scholarships for athletic recruiting.
Ohio Wesleyan has won four NCAA Division III Championships, including men's basketball (1988
), men's soccer (1998
), and women's soccer (2001
and 2002
). In addition, Ohio Wesleyan's varsity athletic teams have been NCAC champions over 100 times, leading the teams of Denison University
and Kenyon College
.
The nickname The Battling Bishops dates to 1925. This is also the name of the Wesleyan's mascot, The Battling Bishop. Due to its ironic
name, the Wesleyan mascot has been listed as one of the weirdest college mascots. Due to its red robe, The Battling Bishop looks actually like a Cardinal
. Prior to 1925, Wesleyan's teams were previously referred to as "The Red and Black" and "The Methodists". Many schools, including several other Methodist ones, also claimed crimson and black as their colors, so the university decided to change the name. In 2005, attention was directed to the religious insensitivity of the historically based name.
Ohio Wesleyan maintains athletic rivalries
with other NCAC institutions. The men's lacrosse team has a historic rivalry with Denison University
, the soccer team with Kenyon College
, and the field hockey
team with Oberlin College
. Both Denison and Wesleyan issued alerts to their fans specifically for the OWU-Denison lacrosse game about unsportsmanlike behavior and profanity.
In addition to the school's varsity athletics, club sports teams, including chess
, hockey
, cricket
, rugby
, ski
, and scuba
, have been organized as student organizations under the auspices of the Office of Student Activities. Ohio Wesleyan's intramural program includes 16 sports. Sports such as skiing
, squash
and water polo have been offered, as well as a sports trivia competition.
"Oh we're from dear old Wesleyan" is Ohio Wesleyan University's primary fight song
. The song's lyrics were written in 1914 by Chass Cupett '1916.
, and a few have served as interim president. Former presidents include lawyers, literary scholars, politicians, executives, and clergymen.
After several disagreements between Huddleston and the Wesleyan administration, Huddleston accepted a position as president of the University of New Hampshire
and left Wesleyan on June 30, 2007, giving him the second shortest presidential reign in Wesleyan's history, behind David Lockmiller, 1959–1961. On 29 May 2007, the appointment of current university provost Dr. David O. Robbins as interim president was unanimously endorsed by OWU's Board of Trustees. Dr. Robbins' term as Interim President began on 1 July 2007.
On 17 December, 2007, Dr. Rockwell "Rock" Jones was elected to serve as the 16th president of Ohio Wesleyan University. Dr. Jones' inauguration ceremony took place on October 10, 2008 in Ohio Wesleyan's Grey Chapel, located in University Hall.
In academia, Frank Sherwood Rowland
(class of 1948) won the 1995 Nobel Prize
for chemistry
for his research on the depletion of the Earth's ozone layer. Ezra Vogel
(1950) is a prominent author on China-Japan issues and was the director of Harvard's
Fairbank Center for East Asian Research from 1995 to 1999. William Hsiao
(1963) is an economist in the field of international health at Harvard
, and the designer of a landmark study to examine the United States' system of reimbursing physicians for medical services. Dennis R. Appleyard (1961) is the author of an international economics
textbook.
In politics, Charles Fairbanks (1872) was the 26th Vice-President of the United States. Jo Ann Emerson
(1972) serves as a U.S. Representative from Missouri
. Arthur Flemming
(1927) was a Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare, was known for his commitment to civil rights
, and was the recipient of two Presidential Medals of Freedom. Lucy Webb Hayes
(1853), wife of U.S. President Rutherford B. Hayes
, was the first woman to be called First Lady
, and the first First Lady to hold a college degree.
Notable journalists and media personalities include Frank Stanton
(1930), a president of CBS
known for supporting broadcast journalism before Congress; Byron Pitts
(1982), a national correspondent for CBS News
; Wendie Malick
(1972), an Emmy
-nominated actress known for her role on the NBC sitcom Just Shoot Me!
and now as "Victoria Chase" on the TV Land sitcom "Hot in Cleveland"; Melvin Van Peebles
(1953), an actor, director, screenwriter, playwright, and composer; Patricia Wettig
(1974), the actress who plays vice president Caroline Richards on Prison Break
; and Clark Gregg
(1984), the actor playing Richard in The New Adventures of Old Christine with Julia Louis-Dreyfus
.
Numerous Ohio Wesleyan alumni have been associated with social justice
. Branch Rickey
(1904) was a baseball manager and executive known for signing Jackie Robinson
as the first African-American in Major League Baseball
. Another graduate, Mary King (1962), worked alongside the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
in the U.S. civil rights movement
when she was a young student, and was a member of the staff of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee
(SNCC). Rev. Norman Vincent Peale
(1920) was the author of The Power of Positive Thinking and the winner of a Presidential Medal of Freedom
for his theological contributions. Others found fame in other forms: Mildred Elizabeth Sisk (aka Axis Sally) was the first American woman to be tried and sentenced for treason
, convicted of broadcasting
for Nazi Germany
during World War II
. In 1917, she majored in dramatic arts, but did not graduate due to her failure to meet all university requirements. After serving a 12-year sentence, Sisk returned to OWU, where she received a bachelor's degree in speech in 1973.
Private university
Private universities are universities not operated by governments, although many receive public subsidies, especially in the form of tax breaks and public student loans and grants. Depending on their location, private universities may be subject to government regulation. Private universities are...
liberal arts college
Liberal arts colleges in the United States
Liberal arts colleges in the United States are certain undergraduate institutions of higher education in the United States. The Encyclopædia Britannica Concise offers a definition of the liberal arts as a "college or university curriculum aimed at imparting general knowledge and developing general...
in Delaware
Delaware, Ohio
The City of Delaware is a city in and the county seat of Delaware County in the United States state of Ohio. Delaware was founded in 1808 and was incorporated in 1816. It is located near the center of Ohio, is about north of Columbus, and is part of the Columbus, Ohio Metropolitan Area...
, Ohio
Ohio
Ohio is a Midwestern state in the United States. The 34th largest state by area in the U.S.,it is the 7th‑most populous with over 11.5 million residents, containing several major American cities and seven metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or more.The state's capital is Columbus...
, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. It was founded in 1842 by Methodist leaders and Central Ohio residents as a nonsectarian
Nonsectarian
Nonsectarian, in its most literal sense, refers to a lack of sectarianism. The term is also more narrowly used to describe secular private educational institutions or other organizations either not affiliated with or not restricted to a particular religious denomination though the organization...
institution, and is a member of the Ohio Five
Five Colleges of Ohio
The Five Colleges of Ohio is an academic consortium of five selective private liberal arts colleges in the U.S. state of Ohio. It is a nonprofit educational consortium established in 1995 to promote the broad educational and cultural objectives of its member institutions...
— a consortium of Ohio liberal arts colleges. Ohio Wesleyan has always admitted students irrespective of religion or race and maintained that the university "is forever to be conducted on the most liberal
Classical liberalism
Classical liberalism is the philosophy committed to the ideal of limited government, constitutionalism, rule of law, due process, and liberty of individuals including freedom of religion, speech, press, assembly, and free markets....
principles." In this capacity, Ohio Wesleyan has espoused internationalism and community activism
Student activism
Student activism is work done by students to effect political, environmental, economic, or social change. It has often focused on making changes in schools, such as increasing student influence over curriculum or improving educational funding...
.
The 200 acres (80.9 ha) site is 27 miles (44 km) north of Columbus, Ohio
Columbus, Ohio
Columbus is the capital of and the largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio. The broader metropolitan area encompasses several counties and is the third largest in Ohio behind those of Cleveland and Cincinnati. Columbus is the third largest city in the American Midwest, and the fifteenth largest city...
. It includes the main academic and residential campus, the Perkins Observatory
Perkins Observatory
Perkins Observatory is an astronomical observatory in Delaware, Ohio. It is owned and operated by Ohio Wesleyan University.-Early history:The observatory is named for Hiram Perkins, a professor of mathematics and astronomy at the Ohio Wesleyan University in Delaware, Ohio from 1857 to 1907...
, and the Kraus Wilderness Preserve
Kraus Preserve of Ohio Wesleyan University
The Kraus Wilderness Preserve of Ohio Wesleyan University was founded in 1976 when the John Kraus provided the University with a 53-acre land "for instruction in agriculture, horticulture, and related subjects"...
.
In 2010, Ohio Wesleyan had the eleventh highest percentage of international student
International student
According to Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development , international students are those who travel to a country different from their own for the purpose of tertiary study. Despite that, the definition of international students varies in each country in accordance to their own national...
s among liberal arts colleges for the seventeenth straight year. U.S. News & World Report
U.S. News & World Report
U.S. News & World Report is an American news magazine published from Washington, D.C. Along with Time and Newsweek it was for many years a leading news weekly, focusing more than its counterparts on political, economic, health and education stories...
ranked Ohio Wesleyan in tier 1 among U.S. liberal arts colleges in its 2010 edition. Notable alumni include former U.S. Vice President
Vice President of the United States
The Vice President of the United States is the holder of a public office created by the United States Constitution. The Vice President, together with the President of the United States, is indirectly elected by the people, through the Electoral College, to a four-year term...
Charles W. Fairbanks
Charles W. Fairbanks
Charles Warren Fairbanks was a Senator from Indiana and the 26th Vice President of the United States ....
, First Lady
First Lady
First Lady or First Gentlemanis the unofficial title used in some countries for the spouse of an elected head of state.It is not normally used to refer to the spouse or partner of a prime minister; the husband or wife of the British Prime Minister is usually informally referred to as prime...
Lucy Webb Hayes
Lucy Webb Hayes
Lucille "Lucy" Ware Webb Hayes was a First Lady of the United States and the wife of President Rutherford B. Hayes.Historians have christened her "Lemonade Lucy" due to her staunch support of the temperance movement...
(wife of U.S. President Rutherford B. Hayes
Rutherford B. Hayes
Rutherford Birchard Hayes was the 19th President of the United States . As president, he oversaw the end of Reconstruction and the United States' entry into the Second Industrial Revolution...
), theologian and author Norman Vincent Peale
Norman Vincent Peale
Dr. Norman Vincent Peale was a minister and author and a progenitor of the theory of "positive thinking".-Early life and education:...
, baseball executive Branch Rickey
Branch Rickey
Wesley Branch Rickey was an innovative Major League Baseball executive elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1967...
, and Nobel Laureate
Nobel Prize in Chemistry
The Nobel Prize in Chemistry is awarded annually by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences to scientists in the various fields of chemistry. It is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the will of Alfred Nobel in 1895, awarded for outstanding contributions in chemistry, physics, literature,...
Frank Sherwood Rowland
Frank Sherwood Rowland
Frank Sherwood Rowland is an American Nobel laureate and a professor of chemistry at the University of California, Irvine. His research is in atmospheric chemistry and chemical kinetics....
.
Founding
In 1841, Ohio residents Adam Poe and Charles Elliott decided to establish a university "of the highest order" in central Ohio. To that end, they purchased the Mansion House Hotel, a former health resort with its Sulfur Spring, using funds raised from local residents. Poe and Elliott wrote a charter emphasizing "the democraticDemocracy
Democracy is generally defined as a form of government in which all adult citizens have an equal say in the decisions that affect their lives. Ideally, this includes equal participation in the proposal, development and passage of legislation into law...
spirit of teaching", which was approved by the Ohio
Ohio
Ohio is a Midwestern state in the United States. The 34th largest state by area in the U.S.,it is the 7th‑most populous with over 11.5 million residents, containing several major American cities and seven metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or more.The state's capital is Columbus...
State Legislature
Legislature
A legislature is a kind of deliberative assembly with the power to pass, amend, and repeal laws. The law created by a legislature is called legislation or statutory law. In addition to enacting laws, legislatures usually have exclusive authority to raise or lower taxes and adopt the budget and...
. Early in the following year they opened the college preparatory Academy and formed a Board of Trustees. Ohio Wesleyan University, named (like several other U.S. colleges and universities) after John Wesley
John Wesley
John Wesley was a Church of England cleric and Christian theologian. Wesley is largely credited, along with his brother Charles Wesley, as founding the Methodist movement which began when he took to open-air preaching in a similar manner to George Whitefield...
, founder of Methodism
Methodism
Methodism is a movement of Protestant Christianity represented by a number of denominations and organizations, claiming a total of approximately seventy million adherents worldwide. The movement traces its roots to John Wesley's evangelistic revival movement within Anglicanism. His younger brother...
, opened on November 13, 1844 as a Methodist-related but nonsectarian
Nonsectarian
Nonsectarian, in its most literal sense, refers to a lack of sectarianism. The term is also more narrowly used to describe secular private educational institutions or other organizations either not affiliated with or not restricted to a particular religious denomination though the organization...
institution, with a College of Liberal Arts for male students.
Ohio Wesleyan's first president, Edward Thomson
Edward Thomson
Edward Thomson was an American Bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church , elected in 1864.-Early life:Thomson was born in Portsea, part of Portsmouth, England...
, stated in his inaugural address
Inauguration
An inauguration is a formal ceremony to mark the beginning of a leader's term of office. An example is the ceremony in which the President of the United States officially takes the oath of office....
on August 5, 1846 that the school was "a product of the liberality
Classical liberalism
Classical liberalism is the philosophy committed to the ideal of limited government, constitutionalism, rule of law, due process, and liberty of individuals including freedom of religion, speech, press, assembly, and free markets....
of the local people." This liberal philosophy contributed to Wesleyan's vocal opposition to slavery
Slavery
Slavery is a system under which people are treated as property to be bought and sold, and are forced to work. Slaves can be held against their will from the time of their capture, purchase or birth, and deprived of the right to leave, to refuse to work, or to demand compensation...
in the 1850s. In the annual celebration for George Washington
George Washington
George Washington was the dominant military and political leader of the new United States of America from 1775 to 1799. He led the American victory over Great Britain in the American Revolutionary War as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army from 1775 to 1783, and presided over the writing of...
's birthday in 1862, second president Frederick Merrick endorsed Ohio Wesleyan's "ideals of democracy" during his oration.
Curriculum growth and fundraising
Ohio Wesleyan Female College
Ohio Wesleyan Female College was founded in 1853 in Delaware, Ohio. It is also known under the name Wesleyan Female College in Cincinnati...
, established in 1853, merged with Wesleyan in 1877. Between 1876 and 1888, enrollment tripled and music education
Music education
Music education is a field of study associated with the teaching and learning of music. It touches on all domains of learning, including the psychomotor domain , the cognitive domain , and, in particular and significant ways,the affective domain, including music appreciation and sensitivity...
greatly increased, yet no major buildings were built in this time.
By the end of the 19th century, Ohio Wesleyan had added a School of Music (1877), School of Fine Arts (1877), School of Oratory (1894), and Business School (1895) to the original College of Liberal Arts (founded in 1844). To address the need for new departments and specialized instruction, the administration improved the facilities and courses to make them on par with OWU's new academic position. University Hall, Slocum Library, extensions to the Monnett campus
Ohio Wesleyan Female College
Ohio Wesleyan Female College was founded in 1853 in Delaware, Ohio. It is also known under the name Wesleyan Female College in Cincinnati...
, and athletic facilities were all constructed during that period.
Physics
Physics is a natural science that involves the study of matter and its motion through spacetime, along with related concepts such as energy and force. More broadly, it is the general analysis of nature, conducted in order to understand how the universe behaves.Physics is one of the oldest academic...
, zoology
Zoology
Zoology |zoölogy]]), is the branch of biology that relates to the animal kingdom, including the structure, embryology, evolution, classification, habits, and distribution of all animals, both living and extinct...
, geology
Geology
Geology is the science comprising the study of solid Earth, the rocks of which it is composed, and the processes by which it evolves. Geology gives insight into the history of the Earth, as it provides the primary evidence for plate tectonics, the evolutionary history of life, and past climates...
, speech
Public speaking
Public speaking is the process of speaking to a group of people in a structured, deliberate manner intended to inform, influence, or entertain the listeners...
, history
History
History is the discovery, collection, organization, and presentation of information about past events. History can also mean the period of time after writing was invented. Scholars who write about history are called historians...
, French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
, English
English studies
English studies is an academic discipline that includes the study of literatures written in the English language , English linguistics English studies is an academic discipline that includes the study of literatures written in the English language (including literatures from the U.K., U.S.,...
, and economics
Economics
Economics is the social science that analyzes the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. The term economics comes from the Ancient Greek from + , hence "rules of the house"...
. This specialization encouraged undergraduates to continue studies at graduate level, allowed professional preparation for the Doctor of Philosophy degree, and promoted exchange study in Europe. Two professional schools for law
Law
Law is a system of rules and guidelines which are enforced through social institutions to govern behavior, wherever possible. It shapes politics, economics and society in numerous ways and serves as a social mediator of relations between people. Contract law regulates everything from buying a bus...
and medicine
Medicine
Medicine is the science and art of healing. It encompasses a variety of health care practices evolved to maintain and restore health by the prevention and treatment of illness....
were formed in 1896.
In 1905, the Board of Trustees decided to keep Ohio Wesleyan a college, despite the expansion of the curriculum and campus and the word "university" in the institution's name. The Bachelor of Science
Bachelor of Science
A Bachelor of Science is an undergraduate academic degree awarded for completed courses that generally last three to five years .-Australia:In Australia, the BSc is a 3 year degree, offered from 1st year on...
degree was abolished, which left only the Bachelor of Arts
Bachelor of Arts
A Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences, or both...
. Two students were selected as Rhodes Scholars in 1905 and 1909. Edwards Gymnasium
Edwards Gymnasium
Edwards Hall is a 1,800-seat multi-purpose arena at Ohio Wesleyan University in Delaware, Ohio, located on Sandusky Street. It is home to the Wesleyan Battling Bishops swimming and handball teams...
was built in 1906. In 1907, the United Societies of Phi Beta Kappa, the oldest undergraduate honor society in the United States, installed the "Eta of Ohio" ΦΒΚ chapter on campus. In 1909, the school added Sanborn Hall, housing the Music Department.
In the 1920s, academic requirements for the bachelor's degree were reduced, and Latin and mathematics were no longer emphasized. During the presidency of John W. Hoffman (1916–1928), the Academy and School of Business were closed; the Academy had started in 1842 as a preparatory school
University-preparatory school
A university-preparatory school or college-preparatory school is a secondary school, usually private, designed to prepare students for a college or university education...
, and throughout its seventy-five years frequently outnumbered the college in enrollment. Also in the 1920s, the chapel service was dropped and sororities were formed. Wesleyan also increased the number of buildings on campus, including Selby Stadium, Austin Manor, and Perkins Observatory
Perkins Observatory
Perkins Observatory is an astronomical observatory in Delaware, Ohio. It is owned and operated by Ohio Wesleyan University.-Early history:The observatory is named for Hiram Perkins, a professor of mathematics and astronomy at the Ohio Wesleyan University in Delaware, Ohio from 1857 to 1907...
; another building, Stuyvesant Hall, was in planning; and Edgar Hall was opened.
Years of change, 1930–1984
During the Great Depression, both enrollment and alumni donations shrank. While the faculty size remained stable, lack of tuition and alumni revenues precipitated financial problems which threatened the college's survival in the administrations of Edmund D. Soper (1928–1938), Acting President Edward Loranus RiceEdward Loranus Rice
Edward Loranus Rice was a biologist and educator who served as the acting president of Ohio Wesleyan University. He was best known for his 1924 debate with William Jennings Bryan on the topic of biological evolution and serving as a scientific consultant to Clarence Darrow before the 1925 Scopes...
(1938-1939), and Herbert John Burgstahler (1939–1949).
The administration adjusted the curriculum during the early 1930s to address these problems. Greek and Latin declined, while business administration and economics thrived and the highest enrollments were in the social sciences, English, pre-medicine, and history. The registrar reported that, in these years, the number of students from New England
New England
New England is a region in the northeastern corner of the United States consisting of the six states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut...
states, urban Ohio areas, and from international locations increased. By the 1930s, the Methodist students were a minority among the student body; formal ties to the Methodist church were severed in the 1920s and led to debate among Board members in the 1930s, eventually resulting in the university's current active but loose historical affiliation with the United Methodist Church
United Methodist Church
The United Methodist Church is a Methodist Christian denomination which is both mainline Protestant and evangelical. Founded in 1968 by the union of The Methodist Church and the Evangelical United Brethren Church, the UMC traces its roots back to the revival movement of John and Charles Wesley...
. In a study into the relationship between American educational institutions and the Christian denominations they were historically affiliated with, James Tunstead Burtuchell writes that it was during this period that "in its personnel, its resources, and its students", Wesleyan lost its "symbiotic intimacy with the United Methodist Church."
In 1946, Ohio Wesleyan introduced a new "Centennial Curriculum", which enacted seven distribution requirements across the sciences and humanities; the new requirement for a foreign language course was added to the existing humanities requirement. Thomson and Bashford Halls, originally men's dorms, were built between 1951 and 1954. In the 1960s, faculty, staff and administrators fought over administrative structure and control. They eventually settled on a new "statement of aims" that stressed values, rather than religious goal statements, and instituted a more internationalized curriculum, a new Women's Studies Program, and an International Business major; the faculty senate also introduced a new academic calendar with three 10.5-week terms.
Thomas Wenzlau's presidency (1968–1984) began with the challenge of campus unrest: Wesleyan students took over the ROTC building, demanded its shut-down, and eventually eliminated ROTC in 1970. Students also demanded participation in departmental meetings and faculty committees, and the democratic process in the governance of Wesleyan grew in this period. Wenzlau's presidency witnessed decline in students' test scores, an unusually high attrition rate, lack of adequate research to identify potential major donors and a growing "party school
Party school
A party school is a college or university that has a reputation for heavy alcohol and drug use or a general culture of licentiousness. The best-known list of alleged party schools is published annually by The Princeton Review. The magazine Playboy also releases a list of party schools on an...
" image, leading to a rocky relationship between him and the student body. Between 1979 and 1982, the campus newspaper The Transcript
The Transcript
The Transcript, published at Ohio Wesleyan University, is the oldest independent college student newspaper in the United States. The newspaper dates back to 1867 when it first appeared under the name Western Collegian. Joseph B. Battelle was the first editor of Western Collegian, at that time a...
frequently criticized Wenzlau's presidency, blaming it for "severely affecting the reputation of the college". This exchange resulted in a Washington Post report on the school that eventually precipitated the end of Wenzlau's presidency.
1984–today
The new president, David Warren, increased admission standards in 1985, engaged students in a "live-in" presidency, expanded media exposure and established a National Colloquium focused on the liberal arts. Warren engaged in forty-one interviews on the ABCAmerican Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
and NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
networks.
More recently, Ohio Wesleyan has achieved several academic and athletic recognitions. A 1986 study, titled "Educating America's Scientists: The Role of the Research Colleges," identified Ohio Wesleyan as one of 48 highly selective "science-active" liberal arts institutions in the nation. The Battling Bishops
Wesleyan Battling Bishops
The Battling Bishops is the name of the sports and other competitive teams at Ohio Wesleyan University. The men's and women's Bishops teams are NCAA Division III teams that compete in the North Coast Athletic Conference...
won NCAA Division III national championships in men's basketball
Basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams of five players try to score points by throwing or "shooting" a ball through the top of a basketball hoop while following a set of rules...
(1988) and men's (1998) and women's (2001, 2002) soccer.
Wesleyan continues to undertake construction projects. The new Hamilton Williams Campus Center opened in 1991. The Memorial Union Building was renovated in 2001 to accommodate the Economics Department, the Academic Resource Center, the Information Services portion of the combined Libraries and Information Services department, and the Woltemade Center for Economics, Business and Entrepreneurship. The Conrades-Wetherell Science Center opened in 2004 to provide 52000 square feet (4,831 m²) of additional space for the science departments. As of 2010, the university is engaged in a fundraising campaign to improve athletics facilities by adding a new turf facility, a new field house and a pool, and a gateway connecting all sports facilities on campus.
Profile
Ohio Wesleyan University is accredited by The Higher Learning CommissionThe Higher Learning Commission
The Higher Learning Commission is part of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools. The Higher Learning Commission oversees the accreditation of degree-granting colleges and universities in nineteen Midwestern and South-Central states, including Arkansas, Arizona, Colorado, Iowa,...
, and is a member of the Great Lakes Colleges Association
Great Lakes Colleges Association
The Great Lakes Colleges Association , is a consortium of 13 liberal arts colleges located in the states around the Great Lakes. The 13 schools are located in Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Indiana...
, the Oberlin Group
Oberlin Group
The Oberlin Group is an "informal consortium of the libraries of approximately 80 selective liberal arts colleges in the United States. The group developed as a result of conferences held in 1984-85 at Oberlin College when the presidents of 50 colleges met to discuss the role of science...
, and the Five Colleges of Ohio
Five Colleges of Ohio
The Five Colleges of Ohio is an academic consortium of five selective private liberal arts colleges in the U.S. state of Ohio. It is a nonprofit educational consortium established in 1995 to promote the broad educational and cultural objectives of its member institutions...
, a consortium of Ohio liberal arts colleges which also includes Kenyon College
Kenyon College
Kenyon College is a private liberal arts college in Gambier, Ohio, founded in 1824 by Bishop Philander Chase of The Episcopal Church, in parallel with the Bexley Hall seminary. It is the oldest private college in Ohio...
, Oberlin College
Oberlin College
Oberlin College is a private liberal arts college in Oberlin, Ohio, noteworthy for having been the first American institution of higher learning to regularly admit female and black students. Connected to the college is the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, the oldest continuously operating...
, The College of Wooster
The College of Wooster
The College of Wooster is a private liberal arts college primarily known for its Independent study program. It has roughly 2,000 students and is located in Wooster, Wayne County, Ohio, United States . Founded in 1866 by the Presbyterian church as the University of Wooster, it was from its creation...
, and Denison University
Denison University
Denison University is private, coeducational, and residential college of liberal arts and sciences founded in 1831. It is located in Granville, Ohio, United States, approximately 30 miles east of Columbus, the state capital...
.
For 2011, Wesleyan accepted approximately 52% of its regular decision
Rolling admission
Rolling admission is a policy used by many colleges to admit freshmen to undergraduate programs. Many law schools in the United States also have rolling admissions policies. Under rolling admission, candidates are invited to submit their applications to the university anytime within a large window...
applicants, 33% of its transfer applicants, and had a yield rate of 26%. In 2010, the college accepted 36% of its international applicants. The middle 50% range of matriculating students for the class of 2010 was 1125–1320 for the SAT
SAT
The SAT Reasoning Test is a standardized test for college admissions in the United States. The SAT is owned, published, and developed by the College Board, a nonprofit organization in the United States. It was formerly developed, published, and scored by the Educational Testing Service which still...
(old scale) and 24–30 for the ACT
ACT (examination)
The ACT is a standardized test for high school achievement and college admissions in the United States produced by ACT, Inc. It was first administered in November 1959 by Everett Franklin Lindquist as a competitor to the College Board's Scholastic Aptitude Test, now the SAT Reasoning Test...
. Approximately 35% of accepted applicants were granted internal scholarship
Scholarship
A scholarship is an award of financial aid for a student to further education. Scholarships are awarded on various criteria usually reflecting the values and purposes of the donor or founder of the award.-Types:...
s. Wesleyan follows a need-blind admission
Need-blind admission
Need-blind admission is a term in the United States denoting a college admission policy in which the admitting institution does not consider an applicant's financial situation when deciding admission...
policy; financial circumstances are not considered when deciding whether to admit applicants. As of 2010, OWU's 1,950 students come from 43 states and 57 countries; 47% are from Ohio
Ohio
Ohio is a Midwestern state in the United States. The 34th largest state by area in the U.S.,it is the 7th‑most populous with over 11.5 million residents, containing several major American cities and seven metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or more.The state's capital is Columbus...
, 11% are international, and 54% are female. The student body is about 10% Asian
Asian people
Asian people or Asiatic people is a term with multiple meanings that refers to people who descend from a portion of Asia's population.- Central Asia :...
, 6% Hispanic
Hispanic
Hispanic is a term that originally denoted a relationship to Hispania, which is to say the Iberian Peninsula: Andorra, Gibraltar, Portugal and Spain. During the Modern Era, Hispanic sometimes takes on a more limited meaning, particularly in the United States, where the term means a person of ...
, and 9% Black
Black
Black is the color of objects that do not emit or reflect light in any part of the visible spectrum; they absorb all such frequencies of light...
. Fifty-nine percent of Wesleyan students claim no religious affiliation. The student-faculty ratio is 12.5:1 and faculty members teach all classes. Excluding independent studies and senior theses, nearly 60% of Wesleyan's class sections have fewer than twenty students enrolled. Wesleyan is generally known for a strong "left-leaning"
Social liberalism
Social liberalism is the belief that liberalism should include social justice. It differs from classical liberalism in that it believes the legitimate role of the state includes addressing economic and social issues such as unemployment, health care, and education while simultaneously expanding...
student body and an administration with a "permissive" attitude. In 2007, 60% of OWU students favored the Democratic Party
Democratic Party (United States)
The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...
.
Ohio Wesleyan admits students of all cultures, lifestyles, and socio-economic backgrounds. An index examining gay-friendly policies places OWU among the nation's gay-friendly colleges, and the university enacts policies to meet the six criteria developed by the Campus-Pride organization for recruiting and supporting students from a lesbian, gay, bi-sexual, and transgender
LGBT
LGBT is an initialism that collectively refers to "lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender" people. In use since the 1990s, the term "LGBT" is an adaptation of the initialism "LGB", which itself started replacing the phrase "gay community" beginning in the mid-to-late 1980s, which many within the...
population. Nearly 18% of students at Wesleyan receive Federal Pell Grants, which mostly go to students whose family incomes are below $40,000. This measure indicates the degree to which economically disadvantaged groups are represented at OWU. As measured by percentage of Pell Grant recipients, economic diversity at OWU compares to that of Vassar College
Vassar College
Vassar College is a private, coeducational liberal arts college in the town of Poughkeepsie, New York, in the United States. The Vassar campus comprises over and more than 100 buildings, including four National Historic Landmarks, ranging in style from Collegiate Gothic to International,...
, Reed College
Reed College
Reed College is a private, independent, liberal arts college located in southeast Portland, Oregon. Founded in 1908, Reed is a residential college with a campus located in Portland's Eastmoreland neighborhood, featuring architecture based on the Tudor-Gothic style, and a forested canyon wilderness...
, Colorado College
Colorado College
The Colorado College is a private liberal arts college in Colorado Springs, Colorado, United States, in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. It was founded in 1874 by Thomas Nelson Haskell...
and Hampshire College
Hampshire College
Hampshire College is a private liberal arts college in Amherst, Massachusetts. It was founded in 1965 as an experiment in alternative education, in association with four other colleges in the Pioneer Valley: Amherst College, Smith College, Mount Holyoke College, and the University of Massachusetts...
.
The faculty consists of 142 tenure
Tenure
Tenure commonly refers to life tenure in a job and specifically to a senior academic's contractual right not to have his or her position terminated without just cause.-19th century:...
d members. As of 2010, all the university's tenured or tenure-track faculty members hold a PhD
Doctor of Philosophy
Doctor of Philosophy, abbreviated as Ph.D., PhD, D.Phil., or DPhil , in English-speaking countries, is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities...
or other terminal degree
Terminal degree
A terminal degree is, in some countries, the highest academic degree in a given field of study. This phrase is in common use in the United States, but is not universal in an international context: the concept is not in general use in the United Kingdom, for example, and the exact definition varies...
. The faculty is 37% female and 63% male, with 10% from underrepresented groups. Also as of 2010, women constitute 37% of the tenured professors and earn 93.8% of what male professors earn—numbers which suggest favorable gender circumstances.
Curriculum, degrees and majors
Freshmen are paired early in their first year with academic advisors who oversee their students' academic progress. Upon completing 34 units of coursework, students may earn diplomas in Bachelor of ArtsBachelor of Arts
A Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences, or both...
, Bachelor of Fine Arts
Bachelor of Fine Arts
In the United States and Canada, the Bachelor of Fine Arts degree, usually abbreviated BFA, is the standard undergraduate degree for students seeking a professional education in the visual or performing arts. In some countries such a degree is called a Bachelor of Creative Arts or BCA...
, or Bachelor of Music
Bachelor of Music
Bachelor of Music is an academic degree awarded by a college, university, or conservatory upon completion of program of study in music. In the United States, it is a professional degree; the majority of work consists of prescribed music courses and study in applied music, usually requiring a...
. Wesleyan has research departments and teaching faculties in most academic disciplines; as of 2005, OWU offered 39 majors. OWU departments conduct all research and lectures internally.
In its early days, OWU's curriculum began with classical studies, for the course catalogue maintained that "the classical course in Greek and Latin and pure mathematics bring correctness in mental processes that an applied art, or a living and slightly inflected language, do not permit." Scientific courses were added to Wesleyan's curriculum in 1849, and since then, scientific
Science
Science is a systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe...
subjects have become a foundation to the liberal arts curriculum. OWU also has a highly respected music
Music
Music is an art form whose medium is sound and silence. Its common elements are pitch , rhythm , dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture...
department.
Emphasis on internationalism
Ohio Wesleyan has upheld academic internationalismInternationalism (politics)
Internationalism is a political movement which advocates a greater economic and political cooperation among nations for the theoretical benefit of all...
since its early years; since the 19th century, the college has established links with several international schools. In 1879, OWU alumna Elizabeth Russell founded Kwassui Women's College
Kwassui College
was founded in 1879 in Nagasaki, Japan by Elizabeth Russell. The Kwassui Institute operates the university, which until September 2010 was known in English as Kwassui Women's College, as well as Kwassui Junior High School, and Kwassui High School....
in Nagasaki, Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
, when predominant Japanese culture considered women's education unimportant. Today, Kwasuii College is one of the top finishing schools for young women in Japan. In 1899, William Ehnis (from the class of 1898) traveled to Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
and opened a school in Mutare
Mutare
Mutare is the fourth largest city in Zimbabwe, with a population of around 170,000. It is the capital of Manicaland province.-History:...
, Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe is a landlocked country located in the southern part of the African continent, between the Zambezi and Limpopo rivers. It is bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the southwest, Zambia and a tip of Namibia to the northwest and Mozambique to the east. Zimbabwe has three...
, that eventually became the Africa University
University of Africa
Africa University is a, "private, Pan-African and United Methodist-Related institution." It has more than 1,200 students from 22 African countries. It is located 17 km northwest of Mutare, Zimbabwe's fourth largest city. It grants both Bachelor's and Master's degrees in various...
.
The school also manifests international interest in the percentage of international students it recruits and enrolls annually. Since 1983, Ohio Wesleyan has been listed in U.S. News & World Report
U.S. News & World Report
U.S. News & World Report is an American news magazine published from Washington, D.C. Along with Time and Newsweek it was for many years a leading news weekly, focusing more than its counterparts on political, economic, health and education stories...
among colleges that attract the highest percentage of international students. The percentage of international students grew in the early and mid-1990s. In a study adjusted for school size, Wesleyan came ninth among 118 American colleges and universities in total aid awards to international students and 69th in average award per international student among both large universities and small liberal arts colleges. South East Asian students have significantly contributed to this growth. The United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
flag, along with the flags of more than sixty represented nations and the U.S. flag, flies in University Hall in honor of the ideal of peaceful international relations.
High participation in formal exchange programs constitutes a third target of the school's international focus. Under a Great Lakes Colleges Association
Great Lakes Colleges Association
The Great Lakes Colleges Association , is a consortium of 13 liberal arts colleges located in the states around the Great Lakes. The 13 schools are located in Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Indiana...
agreement, OWU established an exchange program with Waseda University
Waseda University
, abbreviated as , is one of the most prestigious private universities in Japan and Asia. Its main campuses are located in the northern part of Shinjuku, Tokyo. Founded in 1882 as Tokyo Senmon Gakko, the institution was renamed "Waseda University" in 1902. It is known for its liberal climate...
in 1962 to provide approximately 30 American students with opportunities to study in Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
and 30 Japanese students to study at Wesleyan each year. The Salamanca program, founded by Conrad Kent in 1988, conducts the exchange of approximately one hundred students and faculty between OWU and the University of Salamanca
University of Salamanca
The University of Salamanca is a Spanish higher education institution, located in the town of Salamanca, west of Madrid. It was founded in 1134 and given the Royal charter of foundation by King Alfonso IX in 1218. It is the oldest founded university in Spain and the third oldest European...
in Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
. The academic collaboration frequently extends to joint participation in academic symposia: in 1993, members of the Salamanca faculty participated in a symposium on the Golden Age
Golden Age
The term Golden Age comes from Greek mythology and legend and refers to the first in a sequence of four or five Ages of Man, in which the Golden Age is first, followed in sequence, by the Silver, Bronze, and Iron Ages, and then the present, a period of decline...
in Salamanca.
Campus
The Ohio Wesleyan campus is located adjacent to downtown Delaware, and is bisected by Sandusky Street, the main north/south street through the heart of the city. The street informally divides the campus into an eastern sector composed mainly of academic buildings and a western sector composed mainly of residential and administrative buildings. Many facilities have been constructed in the last two years, with substantial benefit to science, art, and athletic programs on campus.Other facilities and off-campus programs
OWU operates several facilities outside campus: The Philadelphia Business Center, Wesleyan in Washington, The New York Arts Program for the performing, visual and media arts (a GLCA arts program), Perkins ObservatoryPerkins Observatory
Perkins Observatory is an astronomical observatory in Delaware, Ohio. It is owned and operated by Ohio Wesleyan University.-Early history:The observatory is named for Hiram Perkins, a professor of mathematics and astronomy at the Ohio Wesleyan University in Delaware, Ohio from 1857 to 1907...
, The Strand Theatre
The Strand Theatre
The Strand Theatre, is a movie theater located at 28 East Winter Street in downtown Delaware, Ohio, near the campus of Ohio Wesleyan University. Opened in 1916, the Strand is the tenth longest operating movie theater in the United States.-History:...
, and the Kraus Wilderness Preserve
Kraus Preserve of Ohio Wesleyan University
The Kraus Wilderness Preserve of Ohio Wesleyan University was founded in 1976 when the John Kraus provided the University with a 53-acre land "for instruction in agriculture, horticulture, and related subjects"...
.
Perkins Observatory is situated in Delaware on land separate to the main campus. The observatory is named after Hiram Perkins
Hiram Perkins
Hiram Mills Perkins was Professor of Mathematics and Astronomy at Ohio Wesleyan University and benefactor of the Perkins Telescope in the Perkins Observatory.-References:...
, a former professor of mathematics and astronomy at the college. When the observatory was built in 1931, it housed the third-largest telescope
Telescope
A telescope is an instrument that aids in the observation of remote objects by collecting electromagnetic radiation . The first known practical telescopes were invented in the Netherlands at the beginning of the 1600s , using glass lenses...
in the world, which has since been moved to Arizona
Arizona
Arizona ; is a state located in the southwestern region of the United States. It is also part of the western United States and the mountain west. The capital and largest city is Phoenix...
. The Perkins dome now houses a 32 inches (812.8 mm) telescope, which is the second-largest in Ohio.
The university also maintains offices for study abroad
Study abroad
Studying abroad is the act of a student pursuing educational opportunities in a country other than one's own. This can include primary, secondary and post-secondary students...
, US domestic study, and internship programs. Such programs include: Wesleyan in Washington, which allows students to study for a semester in Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
, in research and internship positions. The Philadelphia Center offers students hundreds of internship and field placement opportunities off-campus and the chance to live independently. and the New York Arts Program, which allows students of the arts to gain a semester of hands on experience in the arts in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
.
Community relations
OWU has strong community ties with the City of Delaware. Students participate in Delaware's community through a variety of educational, social, and cultural programs. The student-led Columbus Initiative, founded in 1989, is an experiential learningExperiential learning
Experiential learning is the process of making meaning from direct experience. Simply put, Experiential Learning is learning from experience. The experience can be staged or left open. Aristotle once said, "For the things we have to learn before we can do them, we learn by doing them." David A...
partnership between OWU and Columbus public schools. More than 150 Wesleyan students from this program tutor and mentor underprivileged pupils from Columbus.
The Wesleyan Ambassadors Program (ISAP) promotes cultural diversity and ethnic awareness within the local community, and exposes international students to American culture
Culture of the United States
The Culture of the United States is a Western culture originally influenced by European cultures. It has been developing since long before the United States became a country with its own unique social and cultural characteristics such as dialect, music, arts, social habits, cuisine, and folklore...
through the community. The program's ambassadors visit local schools to give presentations and participate in events for local non-profit community organizations.
Campus organizations cooperate with local residents on issues of civic engagement
Civic engagement
Civic engagement or civic participation has been defined as "Individual and collective actions designed to identify and address issues of public concern."-Forms:...
and activism
Activism
Activism consists of intentional efforts to bring about social, political, economic, or environmental change. Activism can take a wide range of forms from writing letters to newspapers or politicians, political campaigning, economic activism such as boycotts or preferentially patronizing...
. Progress OWU allows students from Wesleyan and local schools to express their voices on politics
Politics
Politics is a process by which groups of people make collective decisions. The term is generally applied to the art or science of running governmental or state affairs, including behavior within civil governments, but also applies to institutions, fields, and special interest groups such as the...
, public policy
Public policy
Public policy as government action is generally the principled guide to action taken by the administrative or executive branches of the state with regard to a class of issues in a manner consistent with law and institutional customs. In general, the foundation is the pertinent national and...
, and corporate and social issues
Social issues
Social issues are controversial issues which relate to people's personal lives and interactions. Social issues are distinguished from economic issues...
, both on campus and in the local community.
Cultural programs also take part in community relations. In the 1960s, Wesleyan donated the Arts Castle, then part of the Fine Arts department, to the City of Delaware. It is now home to the Delaware County Cultural Arts Center. The Arts Castle hosts a variety of community programs in art, and offers classes ranging from ballet to fine arts. In 2004, the OWU received a donation to rehabilitate the historic Strand Theatre
The Strand Theatre
The Strand Theatre, is a movie theater located at 28 East Winter Street in downtown Delaware, Ohio, near the campus of Ohio Wesleyan University. Opened in 1916, the Strand is the tenth longest operating movie theater in the United States.-History:...
in downtown Delaware.
The university and the City of Delaware sponsor several events in town throughout the year: the Delaware Arts Festival, the Little Brown Jug
Little Brown Jug (horse racing)
The Little Brown Jug is a harness race for three-year-old pacing standardbreds hosted by the Delaware County Agricultural Society since 1946 at the County Fairgrounds in Delaware, Ohio. The race takes place every year on the third Thursday after Labor Day. Along with the Hambletonian, a race for...
, the Delaware County Fair, and the Castle Arts Affair. The Delaware Arts Festival is an annual event held the weekend after Mother's Day
Mother's Day
Mother's Day is a celebration honoring mothers and celebrating motherhood, maternal bonds, and the influence of mothers in society. It is celebrated on various days in many parts of the world, yet most commonly in March, April, or May...
on the streets of Historic Downtown Delaware. The festival hosts over 170 booths featuring works of local, regional, and other artists. OWU professors chair the committees that select winners. The Little Brown Jug, a harness race
Harness racing
Harness racing is a form of horse racing in which the horses race at a specific gait . They usually pull a two-wheeled cart called a sulky, although racing under saddle is also conducted in Europe.-Breeds:...
, is run during the Delaware County Fair in September. The OWU president and the college mascot traditionally award the trophy for the first division of the first heat of the race.
Organizations and activities
Ohio Wesleyan University has 95 student clubs and organizations. The university offers three chapels as well as several ChristianChristian
A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...
and other religious groups for its students. Its social organizations cover a wide range of interests, including chess
Chess
Chess is a two-player board game played on a chessboard, a square-checkered board with 64 squares arranged in an eight-by-eight grid. It is one of the world's most popular games, played by millions of people worldwide at home, in clubs, online, by correspondence, and in tournaments.Each player...
, ultimate
Ultimate (sport)
Ultimate is a sport played with a 175 gram flying disc. The object of the game is to score points by passing the disc to a player in the opposing end zone, similar to an end zone in American football or rugby...
, finance
Finance
"Finance" is often defined simply as the management of money or “funds” management Modern finance, however, is a family of business activity that includes the origination, marketing, and management of cash and money surrogates through a variety of capital accounts, instruments, and markets created...
, and medieval sword fighting. There are two a cappella
A cappella
A cappella music is specifically solo or group singing without instrumental sound, or a piece intended to be performed in this way. It is the opposite of cantata, which is accompanied singing. A cappella was originally intended to differentiate between Renaissance polyphony and Baroque concertato...
singing groups on campus, "The OWtsiders," a student-run group formed in 1999, and the all-female "Pitch Black" established in 2005. Another entertainment-related club is "The Babbling Bishops", an improvisational comedy troupe. The "Babbling Bishops" started in the fall of 1990 when a group of theatre concentration students formed a performance-oriented project for their theatre degrees. The project became an improv comedy troupe, rehearsing in Stuyvesant Hall and performing with other college improv troupes since 1996.
Socially conscious students can join organizations such as the activist
Activism
Activism consists of intentional efforts to bring about social, political, economic, or environmental change. Activism can take a wide range of forms from writing letters to newspapers or politicians, political campaigning, economic activism such as boycotts or preferentially patronizing...
group "ProgressOWU" or participate in student government groups, such as the Campus Programming Board and the Wesleyan Council on Student Affairs. The "PRIDE" organization offers support to OWU's LGBT
LGBT
LGBT is an initialism that collectively refers to "lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender" people. In use since the 1990s, the term "LGBT" is an adaptation of the initialism "LGB", which itself started replacing the phrase "gay community" beginning in the mid-to-late 1980s, which many within the...
students.
Fewer than a third of Wesleyan's students are involved in Greek life
Fraternities and sororities
Fraternities and sororities are fraternal social organizations for undergraduate students. In Latin, the term refers mainly to such organizations at colleges and universities in the United States, although it is also applied to analogous European groups also known as corporations...
, but that percentage has fluctuated significantly throughout the university's history. All twelve fraternities and seven sororities on campus are currently involved in many philanthropic
Philanthropy
Philanthropy etymologically means "the love of humanity"—love in the sense of caring for, nourishing, developing, or enhancing; humanity in the sense of "what it is to be human," or "human potential." In modern practical terms, it is "private initiatives for public good, focusing on quality of...
and community programs.
Wesleyan has four religious chaplains: A Protestant minister, a Roman Catholic priest, and a Jewish rabbi. In addition to student groups and services associated with these three religions, there are groups associated with Islam
Islam
Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
, Buddhism
Buddhism
Buddhism is a religion and philosophy encompassing a variety of traditions, beliefs and practices, largely based on teachings attributed to Siddhartha Gautama, commonly known as the Buddha . The Buddha lived and taught in the northeastern Indian subcontinent some time between the 6th and 4th...
and Unitarian Universalism
Unitarian Universalism
Unitarian Universalism is a religion characterized by support for a "free and responsible search for truth and meaning". Unitarian Universalists do not share a creed; rather, they are unified by their shared search for spiritual growth and by the understanding that an individual's theology is a...
, and even a group which holds services that are simply "spiritual" and separate from any organized religion. Services are also available for Quakers, Christian Scientists, Hindu
Hindu
Hindu refers to an identity associated with the philosophical, religious and cultural systems that are indigenous to the Indian subcontinent. As used in the Constitution of India, the word "Hindu" is also attributed to all persons professing any Indian religion...
s, and Baha'is, and there are many local religious groups in Delaware, Ohio.
OWU's oldest student organizations are its literary clubs, including a number of student journals, magazines, and newspapers. The school's student-run weekly newspaper, The Transcript
The Transcript
The Transcript, published at Ohio Wesleyan University, is the oldest independent college student newspaper in the United States. The newspaper dates back to 1867 when it first appeared under the name Western Collegian. Joseph B. Battelle was the first editor of Western Collegian, at that time a...
, is the oldest continuously published, independent, college newspaper in the United States. The OWL, an annual literary publication, features students' work and is one of the nation's oldest college literary magazine
Literary magazine
A literary magazine is a periodical devoted to literature in a broad sense. Literary magazines usually publish short stories, poetry and essays along with literary criticism, book reviews, biographical profiles of authors, interviews and letters...
s. Other student publications include The Civic Arts Review, the electronic Connect2OWU bulletin, and @Wesleyan, a quarterly online magazine. Radio station WSLN
WSLN
WSLN is a radio station broadcasting a college radio format. Licensed to Delaware, Ohio, USA, the station serves the Ohio college area. The station is currently owned by Ohio Wesleyan University....
broadcasts from Slocum Hall and is run by students supervised by the journalism department.
The university also has a student government, the Wesleyan Council on Student Affairs (WCSA).
Activism
Student activism
Student activism is work done by students to effect political, environmental, economic, or social change. It has often focused on making changes in schools, such as increasing student influence over curriculum or improving educational funding...
as represented in OWU's founding vision has had a significant role in Wesleyan's history.Tull, p.132.
The first president, Edward Thomson
Edward Thomson
Edward Thomson was an American Bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church , elected in 1864.-Early life:Thomson was born in Portsea, part of Portsmouth, England...
, staunchly supported the abolition of slavery
Abolitionism
Abolitionism is a movement to end slavery.In western Europe and the Americas abolitionism was a movement to end the slave trade and set slaves free. At the behest of Dominican priest Bartolomé de las Casas who was shocked at the treatment of natives in the New World, Spain enacted the first...
and liberalism
Classical liberalism
Classical liberalism is the philosophy committed to the ideal of limited government, constitutionalism, rule of law, due process, and liberty of individuals including freedom of religion, speech, press, assembly, and free markets....
. Other individuals associated with the university have fought racism. Branch Rickey
Branch Rickey
Wesley Branch Rickey was an innovative Major League Baseball executive elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1967...
, an alumnus, broke the racial barrier
Racial segregation
Racial segregation is the separation of humans into racial groups in daily life. It may apply to activities such as eating in a restaurant, drinking from a water fountain, using a public toilet, attending school, going to the movies, or in the rental or purchase of a home...
in baseball. Mary King, a civil rights activist, worked alongside Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in the U.S. civil rights movement
Civil rights movement
The civil rights movement was a worldwide political movement for equality before the law occurring between approximately 1950 and 1980. In many situations it took the form of campaigns of civil resistance aimed at achieving change by nonviolent forms of resistance. In some situations it was...
while she was a staff member of OWU's Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee
Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee
The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee ' was one of the principal organizations of the American Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s. It emerged from a series of student meetings led by Ella Baker held at Shaw University in Raleigh, North Carolina in April 1960...
(SNCC). In the 1980s, Wesleyan's administration, moved by student activism, pledged and eventually fully divested holdings connected to South Africa. As of September 2007, Ohio Wesleyan joined a small group of liberal colleges that actively opposed the methodology and usefulness of US News and World Report college rankings, despite the fact that the magazine ranked Wesleyan among the top national liberal arts colleges. Wesleyan's concern intensified with disclosures about institutions flagrantly manipulating data in order to move up in the rankings in U.S. News and other popular college guides.
OWU has partisan political groups ranging from liberal to conservative, such the College Republicans and the College Democrats, and several activism awareness groups such as ProgressOWU, Black Men of the Future, Student Union on Black Awareness, PRIDE, ECHO, Amnesty International, and Rafiki Wa Afrika. Due to the school's proximity to Columbus, the Ohio state capital, many politically inclined students serve internships for state representatives. In the 2000s, students have been active on the Iraq war, race, globalization
Globalization
Globalization refers to the increasingly global relationships of culture, people and economic activity. Most often, it refers to economics: the global distribution of the production of goods and services, through reduction of barriers to international trade such as tariffs, export fees, and import...
, and women's reproductive rights
Reproductive rights
Reproductive rights are legal rights and freedoms relating to reproduction and reproductive health. The World Health Organization defines reproductive rights as follows:...
.
Traditions
Many Ohio Wesleyan traditions originate from Wesleyan's early years. Monnett Weekend, beginning in 1896, welcomes female alumni, parents, and friends of Wesleyan. Events include a "People's Parade" with clowns, banners and marching, faculty lectures, Maypole dancing, Choral Arts Society, and an all-campus carnival. It started as a girls' athletic fête held at the Monnett Athletic Club for Mothers Day. All events were held at the Monnett CampusOhio Wesleyan Female College
Ohio Wesleyan Female College was founded in 1853 in Delaware, Ohio. It is also known under the name Wesleyan Female College in Cincinnati...
, where female students danced around the Maypole
Maypole
A maypole is a tall wooden pole erected as a part of various European folk festivals, particularly on May Day, or Pentecost although in some countries it is instead erected at Midsummer...
, while men were barred. The men, in turn, developed their own tradition: they arrived at Monnett Campus early in the morning, and concealed themselves in trees to watch the festivities, discreetly.
In 1884, Ohio Wesleyan held its first Mock Convention, which has recurred in every presidential election
Presidential election
A presidential election is the election of any head of state whose official title is president.- United States :The United States has elections on the state and local levels...
year since 1920. Its purpose is to inform participants, students, faculty staff, and Ohio residents about the presidential nominating convention, presidential candidates, and key issues in the upcoming election
United States presidential election
Elections for President and Vice President of the United States are indirect elections in which voters cast ballots for a slate of electors of the U.S. Electoral College, who in turn directly elect the President and Vice President...
.
Beginning in the 1920s, all freshmen were required to wear "dinks", red caps with black brims and a black W on the front. Disobedient students who refused to wear the "dink" were tossed into the Sulphur Spring (see later reference). This tradition ended in the 1960s. The freshman class of 1957 wore dinks for half the first semester. .
Ohio Wesleyan's Homecoming
Homecoming
Homecoming is the tradition of welcoming back alumni of a school. It most commonly refers to a tradition in many universities, colleges and high schools in North America...
takes place in early October, while the Wesleyan football
American football
American football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...
team plays one of its traditional rivals. New events, such as a bonfire and a five kilometer run, have been added from as recently as 2004.
The President's Ball, a recent gala organized by the college president, takes place on the first Saturday of December. Other traditions include OWU vs. Denison, which stages a "fierce" athletic rivalry between Wesleyan and Denison University
Denison University
Denison University is private, coeducational, and residential college of liberal arts and sciences founded in 1831. It is located in Granville, Ohio, United States, approximately 30 miles east of Columbus, the state capital...
; the Sagan Colloquium, spanning the fall semester, recently expanded to include the spring semester, which consists of speeches focusing on an issue of concern to the liberal arts
Liberal arts
The term liberal arts refers to those subjects which in classical antiquity were considered essential for a free citizen to study. Grammar, Rhetoric and Logic were the core liberal arts. In medieval times these subjects were extended to include mathematics, geometry, music and astronomy...
; and Orchesis, an annual celebration of modern dance and the arts, which occurs at the end of the academic year. "Fresh-X" is an optional program for newly admitted students that occurs just before orientation in which students may choose between hiking, backpacking and other outdoor activities to make friends with their new classmates.
There are two major musical events, Unity through Music and Springfest. Unity through Music occurs once a year in the fall semester, and covers various musical styles in a carnival
Carnival
Carnaval is a festive season which occurs immediately before Lent; the main events are usually during February. Carnaval typically involves a public celebration or parade combining some elements of a circus, mask and public street party...
atmosphere, during the day; while, during the evening, a huge dance is held in the Hamilton-Williams Campus Center. Springfest, the second musical event, proceeds in mid-April and in recent years has featured well-known music groups such as Counting Crows
Counting Crows
Counting Crows is an American rock band originating from Berkeley, California. Formed in 1991, the group gained popularity following the release of its debut album in 1993, August and Everything After, which featured the hit single "Mr. Jones"...
, The Roots
The Roots
The Roots is an American hip hop/neo soul band formed in 1987 by Tariq "Black Thought" Trotter and Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. They are famed for beginning with a jazzy, eclectic approach to hip hop which still includes live instrumentals...
, Guster
Guster
Guster is an American alternative rock band from Boston, Massachusetts. Formed in 1991, the group is known for its live performances and humor, founding members Adam Gardner, Ryan Miller, and Brian Rosenworcel came about to begin practice sessions while attending Tufts University in Medford,...
, Ben Folds
Ben Folds
Benjamin Scott "Ben" Folds is an American singer-songwriter, record producer, and television personality. From 1995-2000, Folds was the frontman and pianist of the alternative rock band Ben Folds Five. Since the group disbanded, Folds has performed as a solo artist and has toured all over the world...
, and most recently, Gym Class Heroes
Gym Class Heroes
Gym Class Heroes is an American hip hop rock band from Geneva, New York. They have collaborated with Fall Out Boy's Patrick Stump on numerous occasions, notably for providing backing vocals on the song "Cupid's Chokehold." Stump also produced the majority of their album The Quilt.The group formed...
. It is organized by the Campus Programming Board.
A rock next to Hayes Hall has been part of the residential campus for the last 50 years, and students continually repaint it with graffiti
Graffiti
Graffiti is the name for images or lettering scratched, scrawled, painted or marked in any manner on property....
and slogans.
Housing
The university can house up to 1,600 students on campus. First-year students are required to live on campus during their first two semesters. A lottery system matches second to fourth-year students with dormitories and another lottery system determines how many students are allowed to live in off-campus housing. Housing options include dormitories, small living units, fraternities, and cooperative housing.Thomson, Bashford, Stuyvesant, and Smith Halls are large mid-rise dormitories on campus. Welch Hall is designated as a "quiet" dorm for honors students. Hayes Hall is an all-female dorm.
Approximately 200 non-freshmen students live in Small Living Units (SLUs), which are co-ops
Cooperative
A cooperative is a business organization owned and operated by a group of individuals for their mutual benefit...
united voluntarily to meet shared economic, social, and cultural needs and aspirations in democratically controlled houses. The houses allow students to live cooperatively with one another by sharing regularly scheduled house chores, participating in the decision process, and, in some, sharing the cooking duties. Each unit houses a group of 15 students, and is organized to promote a common theme, usually indicated by the co-op's name. As of the 2008–2009 academic year, the SLUs consist of The Peace
Peace
Peace is a state of harmony characterized by the lack of violent conflict. Commonly understood as the absence of hostility, peace also suggests the existence of healthy or newly healed interpersonal or international relationships, prosperity in matters of social or economic welfare, the...
and Justice
Justice
Justice is a concept of moral rightness based on ethics, rationality, law, natural law, religion, or equity, along with the punishment of the breach of said ethics; justice is the act of being just and/or fair.-Concept of justice:...
House, The International
Internationalism (politics)
Internationalism is a political movement which advocates a greater economic and political cooperation among nations for the theoretical benefit of all...
House, The House of Black Culture, The Creative Arts
ARts
aRts, which stands for analog Real time synthesizer, is an audio framework that is no longer under development. It is best known for previously being used in KDE to simulate an analog synthesizer....
House, The Women's House, The Modern Foreign Language
Language
Language may refer either to the specifically human capacity for acquiring and using complex systems of communication, or to a specific instance of such a system of complex communication...
House, The House of Thought, The Tree
Ecology
Ecology is the scientific study of the relations that living organisms have with respect to each other and their natural environment. Variables of interest to ecologists include the composition, distribution, amount , number, and changing states of organisms within and among ecosystems...
House, and The Interfaith House. The University owns these houses; the co-ops, therefore, must follow the University's living policies. The co-ops do, however, elect their own officers and do not have Resident Advisers
Resident assistant
A resident assistant , commonly shortened to RA is a trained peer leader who supervises those living in a residence hall or group housing facility...
or faculty in residence like other on-campus residence halls. They have a House Moderator who undergoes the same training as a Resident Advisor. At the end of each academic year, every existing and potential co-op must submit a house proposal describing its plans for theme promotion for the next academic year. The University Housing office places co-ops in houses every year on a competitive basis.
Off-campus housing is available only to junior and senior students, and students residing in Delaware, OH while living with their spouse or direct family; 17% of students live off-campus. Most students assert Wesleyan's policy of off-campus housing as one of the "worst things" about Ohio Wesleyan because of the resulting shortage of the number of lottery tickets allowing people to live off due to the off-campus lottery cap.
Athletics
Ohio Wesleyan participates in the NCAA'sNational Collegiate Athletic Association
The National Collegiate Athletic Association is a semi-voluntary association of 1,281 institutions, conferences, organizations and individuals that organizes the athletic programs of many colleges and universities in the United States...
Division III as a member of the North Coast Athletic Conference
North Coast Athletic Conference
The North Coast Athletic Conference is an NCAA Division III athletic conference composed of schools located in the Midwestern United States. When founded in 1984, the NCAC was a pioneer in gender equality, offering competition in a then-unprecedented ten women's sports...
(NCAC). Known as the Battling Bishops, Wesleyan competes in 21 sports. The official school colors are red and black.
Formal athletics at the college date to 1875, when the first football teams were organized to play against other institutions. In the late 1880s, Ohio Wesleyan had perhaps the strongest amateur baseball team in the state of Ohio behind the pitching of Phil "Lefty" Saylor
Phil Saylor
Philip Andrew Saylor was a 19th century college baseball pitcher and American football quarterback for Ohio Wesleyan University, and best remembered for a "cup of coffee" appearance with the Philadelphia Phillies....
. The school joined the Ohio Athletic Conference
Ohio Athletic Conference
The Ohio Athletic Conference was formed in 1902 and is the third oldest athletic conference in the United States. It competes in the NCAA's Division III. Through the years, 31 schools have been members of the OAC. The enrollments of the current ten member institutions range from 1,100 to 4,500...
along with Oberlin College
Oberlin College
Oberlin College is a private liberal arts college in Oberlin, Ohio, noteworthy for having been the first American institution of higher learning to regularly admit female and black students. Connected to the college is the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, the oldest continuously operating...
, Kenyon College
Kenyon College
Kenyon College is a private liberal arts college in Gambier, Ohio, founded in 1824 by Bishop Philander Chase of The Episcopal Church, in parallel with the Bexley Hall seminary. It is the oldest private college in Ohio...
, Ohio State
Ohio State University
The Ohio State University, commonly referred to as Ohio State, is a public research university located in Columbus, Ohio. It was originally founded in 1870 as a land-grant university and is currently the third largest university campus in the United States...
, and Case Western
Case Western Reserve University
Case Western Reserve University is a private research university located in Cleveland, Ohio, USA...
in 1902. In 1983, Wesleyan joined with nine other colleges in Ohio, Indiana and Pennsylvania to create the North Coast Athletic Conference. The NCAC seeks to bring together a group of liberal arts institutions that value the primacy of the academic mission over the athletic one.
The men's lacrosse
Lacrosse
Lacrosse is a team sport of Native American origin played using a small rubber ball and a long-handled stick called a crosse or lacrosse stick, mainly played in the United States and Canada. It is a contact sport which requires padding. The head of the lacrosse stick is strung with loose mesh...
, golf
Golf
Golf is a precision club and ball sport, in which competing players use many types of clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a golf course using the fewest number of strokes....
and soccer teams are the most historically successful of the varsity teams, and soccer is the university's most intently followed sport. For seven of the last twelve years, Wesleyan has won the NCAC conference All-Sports Trophy for excellence in both women's and men's sports. In the Sears Director's Cup
NACDA Director's Cup
The NACDA Learfield Sports Directors' Cup is an award given annually by the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics to the colleges and universities with the most success in collegiate athletics...
standings, OWU is among the top 25 overall collegiate athletics programs in the country. Because of the North Coast Athletic Association athletic agreement, the university is not permitted to offer academic scholarships for athletic recruiting.
Ohio Wesleyan has won four NCAA Division III Championships, including men's basketball (1988
NCAA Men's Division III Basketball Championship
The NCAA holds an annual tournament to determine the Division III Men's Basketball Championship.Since 1996, the Division III men's basketball championship has been held at the Salem Civic Center in Salem, Virginia. The event has been hosted by the Old Dominion Athletic Conference and the City of...
), men's soccer (1998
NCAA Men's Soccer Championship
The NCAA began conducting a Men's Division I Soccer Championship tournament in 1959 with an eight-team tournament. Currently, the tournament field consists of 48 teams...
), and women's soccer (2001
NCAA Women's Soccer Championship
NCAA Women's Soccer Championships are divided into three divisions. This article lists NCAA Women's soccer championships.-Division I:The NCAA began conducting a Women's Division I Soccer Championship tournament in 1982 with a 12-team tournament...
and 2002
NCAA Women's Soccer Championship
NCAA Women's Soccer Championships are divided into three divisions. This article lists NCAA Women's soccer championships.-Division I:The NCAA began conducting a Women's Division I Soccer Championship tournament in 1982 with a 12-team tournament...
). In addition, Ohio Wesleyan's varsity athletic teams have been NCAC champions over 100 times, leading the teams of Denison University
Denison University
Denison University is private, coeducational, and residential college of liberal arts and sciences founded in 1831. It is located in Granville, Ohio, United States, approximately 30 miles east of Columbus, the state capital...
and Kenyon College
Kenyon College
Kenyon College is a private liberal arts college in Gambier, Ohio, founded in 1824 by Bishop Philander Chase of The Episcopal Church, in parallel with the Bexley Hall seminary. It is the oldest private college in Ohio...
.
The nickname The Battling Bishops dates to 1925. This is also the name of the Wesleyan's mascot, The Battling Bishop. Due to its ironic
Irony
Irony is a rhetorical device, literary technique, or situation in which there is a sharp incongruity or discordance that goes beyond the simple and evident intention of words or actions...
name, the Wesleyan mascot has been listed as one of the weirdest college mascots. Due to its red robe, The Battling Bishop looks actually like a Cardinal
Cardinal (Catholicism)
A cardinal is a senior ecclesiastical official, usually an ordained bishop, and ecclesiastical prince of the Catholic Church. They are collectively known as the College of Cardinals, which as a body elects a new pope. The duties of the cardinals include attending the meetings of the College and...
. Prior to 1925, Wesleyan's teams were previously referred to as "The Red and Black" and "The Methodists". Many schools, including several other Methodist ones, also claimed crimson and black as their colors, so the university decided to change the name. In 2005, attention was directed to the religious insensitivity of the historically based name.
Sports rivalry
A sports rivalry is intense competition between athletic teams or athletes. This pressure of competition is felt by players, coaches, and management, but is perhaps felt strongest by the fans. The intensity of the rivalry varies from a friendly competition on one end to serious violence on the...
with other NCAC institutions. The men's lacrosse team has a historic rivalry with Denison University
Denison University
Denison University is private, coeducational, and residential college of liberal arts and sciences founded in 1831. It is located in Granville, Ohio, United States, approximately 30 miles east of Columbus, the state capital...
, the soccer team with Kenyon College
Kenyon College
Kenyon College is a private liberal arts college in Gambier, Ohio, founded in 1824 by Bishop Philander Chase of The Episcopal Church, in parallel with the Bexley Hall seminary. It is the oldest private college in Ohio...
, and the field hockey
Field hockey
Field Hockey, or Hockey, is a team sport in which a team of players attempts to score goals by hitting, pushing or flicking a ball into an opposing team's goal using sticks...
team with Oberlin College
Oberlin College
Oberlin College is a private liberal arts college in Oberlin, Ohio, noteworthy for having been the first American institution of higher learning to regularly admit female and black students. Connected to the college is the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, the oldest continuously operating...
. Both Denison and Wesleyan issued alerts to their fans specifically for the OWU-Denison lacrosse game about unsportsmanlike behavior and profanity.
In addition to the school's varsity athletics, club sports teams, including chess
Chess
Chess is a two-player board game played on a chessboard, a square-checkered board with 64 squares arranged in an eight-by-eight grid. It is one of the world's most popular games, played by millions of people worldwide at home, in clubs, online, by correspondence, and in tournaments.Each player...
, hockey
Hockey
Hockey is a family of sports in which two teams play against each other by trying to maneuver a ball or a puck into the opponent's goal using a hockey stick.-Etymology:...
, cricket
Cricket
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players on an oval-shaped field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard long pitch. One team bats, trying to score as many runs as possible while the other team bowls and fields, trying to dismiss the batsmen and thus limit the...
, rugby
Rugby football
Rugby football is a style of football named after Rugby School in the United Kingdom. It is seen most prominently in two current sports, rugby league and rugby union.-History:...
, ski
Ski
A ski is a long, flat device worn on the foot, usually attached through a boot, designed to help the wearer slide smoothly over snow. Originally intended as an aid to travel in snowy regions, they are now mainly used for recreational and sporting purposes...
, and scuba
Scuba diving
Scuba diving is a form of underwater diving in which a diver uses a scuba set to breathe underwater....
, have been organized as student organizations under the auspices of the Office of Student Activities. Ohio Wesleyan's intramural program includes 16 sports. Sports such as skiing
Skiing
Skiing is a recreational activity using skis as equipment for traveling over snow. Skis are used in conjunction with boots that connect to the ski with use of a binding....
, squash
Squash (sport)
Squash is a high-speed racquet sport played by two players in a four-walled court with a small, hollow rubber ball...
and water polo have been offered, as well as a sports trivia competition.
"Oh we're from dear old Wesleyan" is Ohio Wesleyan University's primary fight song
Fight song
A fight song is primarily an American and Canadian sports term, referring to a song associated with a team. In both professional and amateur sports, fight songs are a popular way for fans to cheer for their team...
. The song's lyrics were written in 1914 by Chass Cupett '1916.
Administration
Under the charter granted by the State of Ohio, the Board of Trustees possesses the legal authority to operate the college. The charter and bylaws stipulate a board of 34 trustees, of whom one is the president. In general, it is the board that elects the president. Since Wesleyan's beginnings, sixteen people have held the title of presidentPresident
A president is a leader of an organization, company, trade union, university, or country.Etymologically, a president is one who presides, who sits in leadership...
, and a few have served as interim president. Former presidents include lawyers, literary scholars, politicians, executives, and clergymen.
After several disagreements between Huddleston and the Wesleyan administration, Huddleston accepted a position as president of the University of New Hampshire
University of New Hampshire
The University of New Hampshire is a public university in the University System of New Hampshire , United States. The main campus is in Durham, New Hampshire. An additional campus is located in Manchester. With over 15,000 students, UNH is the largest university in New Hampshire. The university is...
and left Wesleyan on June 30, 2007, giving him the second shortest presidential reign in Wesleyan's history, behind David Lockmiller, 1959–1961. On 29 May 2007, the appointment of current university provost Dr. David O. Robbins as interim president was unanimously endorsed by OWU's Board of Trustees. Dr. Robbins' term as Interim President began on 1 July 2007.
On 17 December, 2007, Dr. Rockwell "Rock" Jones was elected to serve as the 16th president of Ohio Wesleyan University. Dr. Jones' inauguration ceremony took place on October 10, 2008 in Ohio Wesleyan's Grey Chapel, located in University Hall.
Alumni
Ohio Wesleyan alumni are active in several annual events, organizations, and initiatives. The events and associations with significant alumni involvement are Homecoming, 'W' Association, and A/PART (the alumni admission team). For the 2005–2006 fiscal year, Ohio Wesleyan's alumni giving rate was 35%. A number of the school's alumni have made notable contributions in the fields of government, law, academia, business, arts, journalism, and athletics, among others.In academia, Frank Sherwood Rowland
Frank Sherwood Rowland
Frank Sherwood Rowland is an American Nobel laureate and a professor of chemistry at the University of California, Irvine. His research is in atmospheric chemistry and chemical kinetics....
(class of 1948) won the 1995 Nobel Prize
Nobel Prize
The Nobel Prizes are annual international awards bestowed by Scandinavian committees in recognition of cultural and scientific advances. The will of the Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, established the prizes in 1895...
for chemistry
Chemistry
Chemistry is the science of matter, especially its chemical reactions, but also its composition, structure and properties. Chemistry is concerned with atoms and their interactions with other atoms, and particularly with the properties of chemical bonds....
for his research on the depletion of the Earth's ozone layer. Ezra Vogel
Ezra Vogel
Ezra Feivel Vogel is an Henry Ford II Professor of the Social Sciences Emeritus at Harvard University and has written on Japan, China, and Asia.-Early life:...
(1950) is a prominent author on China-Japan issues and was the director of Harvard's
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
Fairbank Center for East Asian Research from 1995 to 1999. William Hsiao
William Hsiao
William C. Hsiao an American economist, is the K.T. Li Professor of Economics at the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston, Massachusetts...
(1963) is an economist in the field of international health at Harvard
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
, and the designer of a landmark study to examine the United States' system of reimbursing physicians for medical services. Dennis R. Appleyard (1961) is the author of an international economics
International economics
International economics is concerned with the effects upon economic activity of international differences in productive resources and consumer preferences and the institutions that affect them...
textbook.
In politics, Charles Fairbanks (1872) was the 26th Vice-President of the United States. Jo Ann Emerson
Jo Ann Emerson
Jo Ann Emerson is the U.S. Representative for , serving since 1996. The district consists of Southeast and South Central Missouri and includes the Bootheel, the Lead Belt and the Ozarks. Emerson is a member of the Republican Party....
(1972) serves as a U.S. Representative from Missouri
Missouri
Missouri is a US state located in the Midwestern United States, bordered by Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska. With a 2010 population of 5,988,927, Missouri is the 18th most populous state in the nation and the fifth most populous in the Midwest. It...
. Arthur Flemming
Arthur Flemming
Arthur Sherwood Flemming was United States Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare between 1958 to 1961 under President Dwight D. Eisenhower. Flemming was an important force in the shaping of Social Security policy for more than four decades. He also served as president of the University of...
(1927) was a Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare, was known for his commitment to civil rights
Civil rights
Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from unwarranted infringement by governments and private organizations, and ensure one's ability to participate in the civil and political life of the state without discrimination or repression.Civil rights include...
, and was the recipient of two Presidential Medals of Freedom. Lucy Webb Hayes
Lucy Webb Hayes
Lucille "Lucy" Ware Webb Hayes was a First Lady of the United States and the wife of President Rutherford B. Hayes.Historians have christened her "Lemonade Lucy" due to her staunch support of the temperance movement...
(1853), wife of U.S. President Rutherford B. Hayes
Rutherford B. Hayes
Rutherford Birchard Hayes was the 19th President of the United States . As president, he oversaw the end of Reconstruction and the United States' entry into the Second Industrial Revolution...
, was the first woman to be called First Lady
First Lady
First Lady or First Gentlemanis the unofficial title used in some countries for the spouse of an elected head of state.It is not normally used to refer to the spouse or partner of a prime minister; the husband or wife of the British Prime Minister is usually informally referred to as prime...
, and the first First Lady to hold a college degree.
Notable journalists and media personalities include Frank Stanton
Frank Stanton
Frank Nicholas Stanton was an American broadcasting executive who served as the president of CBS between 1946 and 1971 and then vice chairman until 1973. He also served as the chairman of the Rand Corporation from 1961 until 1967.Along with William S. Paley, Stanton is credited with the...
(1930), a president of CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
known for supporting broadcast journalism before Congress; Byron Pitts
Byron Pitts
Byron Pitts is an American journalist and author, who is currently a chief national correspondent for The CBS Evening News and a contributor to the newsmagazine 60 Minutes. He has covered the September 11, 2001 attacks and Iraq....
(1982), a national correspondent for CBS News
CBS News
CBS News is the news division of American television and radio network CBS. The current chairman is Jeff Fager who is also the executive producer of 60 Minutes, while the current president of CBS News is David Rhodes. CBS News' flagship program is the CBS Evening News, hosted by the network's main...
; Wendie Malick
Wendie Malick
Wendie Malick is an American actress and former fashion model, known for her roles as Judith Tupper Stone on the HBO series Dream On , Nina Van Horn on the NBC sitcom Just Shoot Me! , Ronee Lawrence on the NBC sitcom Frasier and Victoria Chase on the TV Land sitcom Hot in Cleveland .-Early...
(1972), an Emmy
Emmy Award
An Emmy Award, often referred to simply as the Emmy, is a television production award, similar in nature to the Peabody Awards but more focused on entertainment, and is considered the television equivalent to the Academy Awards and the Grammy Awards .A majority of Emmys are presented in various...
-nominated actress known for her role on the NBC sitcom Just Shoot Me!
Just Shoot Me!
Just Shoot Me! is an American television sitcom that aired for seven seasons on NBC from March 4, 1997 to August 16, 2003, with 148 episodes produced. The show was created by Steven Levitan, the show's executive producer.-Description:...
and now as "Victoria Chase" on the TV Land sitcom "Hot in Cleveland"; Melvin Van Peebles
Melvin Van Peebles
Melvin "Block" Van Peebles is an American actor, director, screenwriter, playwright, novelist and composer.He is most famous for creating the acclaimed film, Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song, which heralded a new era of African American focused films...
(1953), an actor, director, screenwriter, playwright, and composer; Patricia Wettig
Patricia Wettig
Patricia Wettig is an American actress and playwright. She is best known for her roles in the television series Thirtysomething, Prison Break and Brothers & Sisters...
(1974), the actress who plays vice president Caroline Richards on Prison Break
Prison Break
Prison Break is an American television serial drama created by Paul Scheuring, that was broadcast on the Fox Broadcasting Company for four seasons, from 2005 until 2009. The series revolves around two brothers; one has been sentenced to death for a crime he did not commit, and the other devises an...
; and Clark Gregg
Clark Gregg
Robert Clark Gregg is an American actor, screenwriter and director. He co-starred as Christine Campbell's ex-husband Richard in the CBS sitcom The New Adventures of Old Christine, which debuted in March 2006 and concluded in May 2010...
(1984), the actor playing Richard in The New Adventures of Old Christine with Julia Louis-Dreyfus
Julia Louis-Dreyfus
Julia Scarlett Elizabeth Louis-Dreyfus is an American actress and comedienne, widely known for her sitcom roles in Seinfeld and The New Adventures of Old Christine....
.
Numerous Ohio Wesleyan alumni have been associated with social justice
Social justice
Social justice generally refers to the idea of creating a society or institution that is based on the principles of equality and solidarity, that understands and values human rights, and that recognizes the dignity of every human being. The term and modern concept of "social justice" was coined by...
. Branch Rickey
Branch Rickey
Wesley Branch Rickey was an innovative Major League Baseball executive elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1967...
(1904) was a baseball manager and executive known for signing Jackie Robinson
Jackie Robinson
Jack Roosevelt "Jackie" Robinson was the first black Major League Baseball player of the modern era. Robinson broke the baseball color line when he debuted with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947...
as the first African-American in Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball is the highest level of professional baseball in the United States and Canada, consisting of teams that play in the National League and the American League...
. Another graduate, Mary King (1962), worked alongside the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Martin Luther King, Jr. was an American clergyman, activist, and prominent leader in the African-American Civil Rights Movement. He is best known for being an iconic figure in the advancement of civil rights in the United States and around the world, using nonviolent methods following the...
in the U.S. civil rights movement
Civil rights movement
The civil rights movement was a worldwide political movement for equality before the law occurring between approximately 1950 and 1980. In many situations it took the form of campaigns of civil resistance aimed at achieving change by nonviolent forms of resistance. In some situations it was...
when she was a young student, and was a member of the staff of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee
Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee
The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee ' was one of the principal organizations of the American Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s. It emerged from a series of student meetings led by Ella Baker held at Shaw University in Raleigh, North Carolina in April 1960...
(SNCC). Rev. Norman Vincent Peale
Norman Vincent Peale
Dr. Norman Vincent Peale was a minister and author and a progenitor of the theory of "positive thinking".-Early life and education:...
(1920) was the author of The Power of Positive Thinking and the winner of a Presidential Medal of Freedom
Presidential Medal of Freedom
The Presidential Medal of Freedom is an award bestowed by the President of the United States and is—along with thecomparable Congressional Gold Medal bestowed by an act of U.S. Congress—the highest civilian award in the United States...
for his theological contributions. Others found fame in other forms: Mildred Elizabeth Sisk (aka Axis Sally) was the first American woman to be tried and sentenced for treason
Treason
In law, treason is the crime that covers some of the more extreme acts against one's sovereign or nation. Historically, treason also covered the murder of specific social superiors, such as the murder of a husband by his wife. Treason against the king was known as high treason and treason against a...
, convicted of broadcasting
Broadcasting
Broadcasting is the distribution of audio and video content to a dispersed audience via any audio visual medium. Receiving parties may include the general public or a relatively large subset of thereof...
for Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. In 1917, she majored in dramatic arts, but did not graduate due to her failure to meet all university requirements. After serving a 12-year sentence, Sisk returned to OWU, where she received a bachelor's degree in speech in 1973.
Further reading
- Pope, LorenLoren PopeLoren Brooks Pope was an American writer and independent college placement counselor.In 1965, Pope, a former newspaperman and education editor of The New York Times, founded the College Placement Bureau, one of the first independent college placement counseling services in the United States...
. Colleges That Change LivesColleges That Change LivesColleges That Change Lives is a college educational guide by Loren Pope. It was originally published in 1996, with a second edition in 2000, and a third edition in 2006...
, Penguin Group, 2000, ISBN 0-14-029616-6 - Easterbrook, Gregg. (2004). Who Needs Harvard?, The Atlantic Monthly, October 2004.
External links
- Ohio Wesleyan University - Official website
- Libraries
- The Transcript
- Athletics