RESOURCES AND FACILITIES

Wesleyan is privately endowed and supported in good part by gifts from alumni and friends. The total resources of the University amount to more than $600 million, with a physical plant valued at $100 million and investment funds of $500 million.

The resources of the University that reach beyond the immediate uses of advanced study and research have made the campus an unusually lively center of intellectual activity. In addition to the departmental units, the University has established a number of experimental ventures in learning. These centers, colleges, and programs are interdisciplinary in nature and innovative with regard to methods. The College of Letters is a program that combines studies in Western literature, history, and philosophy. The College of Social Studies is an integrated program in government, economics, and history. The Center for the Humanities, inaugurated in 1969–70, brings together distinguished visitors and local faculty and students concentrating on a single thematic problem within the broad area of humanistic studies. The Center for African American Studies, which grew out of the African American Institute (founded in 1969) was established in 1974.

Exley Science Center

A spacious multi-unit Science Center houses all of the departments of natural sciences and mathematics except astronomy. The Hall-Atwater Laboratories, connected to Shanklin Laboratory, provide approximately 110,000 square feet of floor space for chemistry and biology. The seven-story Science Tower provides 250,000 square feet of floor space for earth and environmental sciences, mathematics, physics, the computing center, and extensive machine shops and other science service facilities. Connecting Hall-Atwater and the tower building is a three-story science library wing with a collection of more than 100,000 volumes and a section containing a 300-seat auditorium and a 70-seat lecture hall equipped with modern audiovisual and other devices for science instruction.

Center for the Arts

Defining the northern boundary of the campus is a modern complex of 11 buildings, housing the departments of art, dance, music, and theater. Designed by Kevin Roche, John Dinkeloo and Associates, the architecture allows the individual identity of each of the arts to be maintained while encouraging the creative interaction that characterizes the arts at Wesleyan. In addition to satisfying the academic needs of the art, dance, music, and theater departments, the Center provides a theater, cinema, gallery, concert hall, and a smaller recital hall for the world music programs. Situated within the arts complex is the Davison Art Center, a distinguished classical revival house built by the Alsop family in 1838. The house is used as a center for art history, the art library, and the Davison Art Center Collection and gallery.

Center for Film Studies

The Center for Film Studies, which opened in 2004, has a 412-seat, state-of-the art screening room and new production classrooms.  The center incorporates faculty offices of the Film Studies Department and the Cinema Archives, which contains the papers of actress Ingrid Bergman; actor and director Clint Eastwood; director Frank Capra, Jonathan Demme, Federico Fellini, Elia Kazan, Martin Scorsese, Raoul Walsh, and John Waters; and editor William Hornbeck.  The archives also house the records of the Omnibus television series, an extensive collection of film posters, and a variety of additional film documentation and memorabilia.

Library Facilities

The Wesleyan University Library, recognized as one of the finest small university libraries in the country, contains 1.3 million volumes and receives 3,363 periodicals. Students have complete access to the stacks. The University Library includes Olin Memorial Library, the Science Library, and the departmental libraries of art and psychology.

Olin Memorial Library, the central library, was rededicated in 1986 after a $10-million renovation and expansion that added space for 200,000 volumes and created new reference, periodical, study, and reading areas.

The Science Library collection has about 120,000 volumes, with extensive mathematics and computer science holdings. More than 250 subscriptions to mathematics and computer science journals, and approximately 100 new mathematics or computer science books arrive each month.

Athletic Facilities

The Freeman Athletic Center consists of a natatorium with a 50-meter pool and diving area; an eight-lane, all-weather Andersen outdoor track; and the Bacon Field House, all adjacent to the Spurrier-Snyder Rink for varsity hockey games and skating activites.

A new addition to the center, which opened in 2005, has a 1,200-seat Division III gymnasium, the 7,500-square-foot Andersen Fitness Center with nearly 100 machines and a full array of free weights, the Rosenbaum Squash Center with eight international courts.

The University also has 16 outdoor tennis courts and a variety of playing fields for intramural and intercollegiate competition.

Davenport Campus Center

The Campus Center houses the Wesleyan Station post office, University box office, student information center, pizza shop, grill, and deli. It also has a number of small lounges and larger meeting places, including a video-game room and an ATM machine.