When "The Wesleyan University" opened its doors in September 1831, it had 48 students and a faculty consisting of President Willbur Fisk, three professors, and one tutor. Today Wesleyan offers instruction in 41 departments and programs and 50 major fields of study and awards the Bachelor of Arts and graduate degrees. Master's degrees are awarded in 11 fields of study and doctoral degrees in six. Students may choose from about 960 courses each year and may be counted upon to devise, with the faculty, some 1,500 individual tutorials and lessons.
The student body is made up of approximately 2,700 full-time undergraduates and 620 graduate students, including part-time students in the Graduate Liberal Studies Program, which has its primary enrollment in the summer. An ongoing faculty of more than 280 is joined each semester by a distinguished group of visiting artists and professors. But despite Wesleyan's growth, today's student/instructor ratio is an enviably low 11 to 1, and nearly 63 percent of all courses enroll 20 or fewer students.
The oldest of 22 schools that bear Wesleyan as part of their names, Wesleyan University was founded as a Methodist college. The late E.E. Schattschneider, former professor of government and one of the college's best-loved professors, wrote of the university:
We get our name from a fellow named John Wesley. John Wesley wasn't a rich man,
he didn't manufacture anything, not even cigarettes or soap, he didn't give his
college a nickel, and he isn't buried here. But the Methodists who founded this
college loved the name so much that they used it over and over again. And this
has caused some confusion. This confusion may be a good reason for other
colleges changing their names but not for us. Because Wesleyan is the first of
the Wesleyans. It's the oldest, the original Wesleyan, the one with the best
right to the name. Wesleyan is no longer a Methodist college, but the name
belongs to us by the best historic right imaginable and we bear it with pride.
At a time when the classics dominated the American college curriculum, emulating the European model, Wesleyan's founding president sought to put modern languages, literature, and the natural sciences on an equal footing with the classics. "Education," President Fisk said, "should be directed in reference to two objects - the good of the individual educated and the good of the world."
The faculty forged a professional commitment to research in the late 19th century. Recruitment of non-Methodist scholars began in 1888 with Woodrow Wilson, who taught history and economics here for two years before moving on to Princeton. By 1900 Wesleyan had a widely known and respected faculty, particularly in the natural sciences.
Since World War II, Wesleyan has been a leader in developing new modes of instruction. It began an ambitious plan to bring students and faculty closer together in interdisciplinary study; it created the Center for Advanced Study (now the Center for the Humanities) to attract outstanding scholars and public figures to campus; it originated two advanced degrees, the M.A.L.S. (master of arts in liberal studies) and the C.A.S. (certificate of advanced study), now offered through the Graduate Liberal Studies Program; and it developed a model program in world music.
Wesleyan's 11th president, Victor L. Butterfield, laid the foundation for the modern Wesleyan and established its national reputation. Under Butterfield, the notion of diversity took root. When Butterfield resigned in 1967, the trustees chose Edwin D. Etherington, president of the American Stock Exchange and the fourth alumnus to head the college, to succeed him. Taking office at a time when student concerns were exploding across American campuses, Etherington plunged immediately into a variety of new programs as the trustees voted to admit women, as recruitment of minority students was intensified, as the faculty liberalized the general requirements for graduation, and as new buildings were planned and approved.
Colin Campbell served as vice president of Wesleyan under Etherington and when Etherington resigned, Campbell was chosen as successor. Campbell guided the transition to coeducation and ensured that Wesleyan maintained its firm commitment to minority enrollment. During an 18-year period of expansion, Wesleyan opened new facilities for the arts, for the sciences, and for physical education. A campus center was opened and a new addition built for Olin Memorial Library, all part of a $63.4 million fundraising campaign.
William M. Chace, Wesleyan's 14th president, an award-winning teacher and noted scholar, strengthened Wesleyan's central academic mission while establishing financial equilibrium at the institution. He viewed the University's mission as a twofold one, the parts inseparable: to advance knowledge and to educate students to be active, self-aware, critical, and responsible citizens of the complex world they will soon inherit.
Douglas J. Bennet, who began his tenure as Wesleyan's 15th president on July 1, 1995, brings a distinguished career as a public servant and skilled manager of complex organizations. A Wesleyan alumnus and former president of National Public Radio, he has led an ambitious academic planning process, involving faculty, alumni, and students to ensure Wesleyan's continued leadership role in the 21st century.
In pursuing this mission, the University places a high priority on diversity in the faculty and administrative staff, in the student body, and in the curriculum. The primacy of the role of the teacher-scholar, the synergy of teaching and research, sets the keen and demanding intellectual culture of Wesleyan apart from its peers.
