TOWARDS WESLEYAN'S BICENTENNIAL

1: Enhance our distinctive educational program, capitalizing on academic strengths

• While we have once again refined our list of key competencies for student learning, the EPC has not yet reviewed these competencies. It will be an agenda item for the EPC next year.
• We implemented a new advising software, Stellic, which we trust will improve pre-major advising.
• The Allbritton Center launched new programming to facilitate dialogue across difference and support intellectual diversity outside the classroom. All the residential life student staff and many more students, faculty and staff have now been trained in dialogic skills. In the fall, the Allbritton Center was focused on getting students registered to vote in the presidential election both on campus and in nearby high schools. The Center took a group of students to North Carolina to attend HBCU Democracy Day. The nonpartisan event brought together scholars, journalists, and civil rights activists to discuss the current state of American democracy and the long legacy of Historically Black Colleges and Universities in contributing to its stability and advancement. Building on this momentum, Academic Affairs will be announcing a major initiative around Democracy and Dialogue in the fall of 2025, and Allbritton is developing programs that will function as a dynamic repository of democratic practices.
• This year, the Gordon Career Center engaged with 65% of all students through an event or advising appointment. The biggest jump in engagement came from first year students with 77% of first year students visiting the Gordon Career Center at some point in the academic year (a 19-percentage point increase from first year class prior). One driver of this growth has been the integration of campus employment into the Center. The Gordon Career Center’s largest program, WesLink, which connects alumni to students, engaged a record 162 alumni and 379 students.
• Our partnership with National Education Equity Lab continues to grow. Last year, we offered four for-credit online courses that reached over 1,200 high school students nationwide (a growth rate of more than 250% from the year prior). We expect to reach over 2,000 students in fiscal year 2026.
• While the federal government no longer allows us to focus on racial diversity in employee recruitment and retention, our goal has always been to become a destination for the most talented faculty and staff. To ensure that Wesleyan is a place where everyone feels they can thrive, we continue to focus on our WesThrives initiative. This year, based on feedback from the community, we revamped our performance review process, created two new faculty/staff events and created a formal structure for Employee Resource Groups (what we used to refer to as affinity groups). This new structure was developed to ensure that the efforts of groups such as Administrators and Faculty of Color Alliance (AFCA), Pride at Wes (PAWS), and Wesleyan International Network (WIN) are aligned with the goals of our Office for Equity & Inclusion strategic plan.
• The Office for Equity & Inclusion completed their three-year strategic plan.
• Thanks to a generous alum, we have partnered with Kenya Education Fund to provide an international experience for a few Wesleyan students every year.
• We completed construction of our new Fries Arts Building (FAB). FAB is a marvelous addition to our arts facilities, and students are eager to start making and presenting work in its great spaces.
• The construction of our new science building remains on budget and on schedule (opening Fall 2026).
• Each year, the Center for the Arts (CFA) partners with visiting artists who are at critical and transformative junctures in their practice. While providing time and space, our residency is distinguished by the opportunity for artists to integrate into campus life, working closely with students and faculty to incubate new work and develop a course of study that exceeds the traditional classroom. Last year, the CFA partnered with innovative dramatist, actress, teacher and author Anna Deavere Smith.
• The Shapiro Writing Center developed a number of literary internships two years ago. There are now dozens of these, and we are naming them the Anne Green Internships in the Literary Arts in honor of the late Professor Green, our long-time beloved writing instructor.
• We had a faculty member, Roger Mathew Grant, receive the distinguished honor of being names a Guggenheim Fellow.
• Remarkable athletics successes. To name just a few: Men’s Basketball became the first NESCAC team to go undefeated in the regular season since the league became a formal playing conference and championships began for basketball in the 2000-01 season. Wesleyan captured their first-ever outright NESCAC Championship, defeating Trinity 27-17 in Hartford in a de-facto NESCAC Championship game between the top two teams in the conference. Softball had their most-successful season in over a decade as the Cardinals won a team record 29 games. Wesleyan Women’s Soccer completed an undefeated regular season, finishing 12-0-3 (7-0-3 in NESCAC play) to earn the #1 seed for the NESCAC Tournament for the first time in team history. Wesleyan’s Women’s Ultimate Frisbee team Vicious Circles won the 2025 USA Ultimate D-III College Championship
• Our students showcased their ability to perform at the highest levels through various avenues. A few examples, out of many, are provided below:
  • A team of Wesleyan students won the grand prize of Oxford’s Map the System competition, for the second year in a row! This is the first time in the program’s history at Oxford that a university has won twice. There were 130+ teams competing this year from 17 countries.
  • Two students led the inaugural Shark Tank event which featured an afternoon of high-energy pitches, Q&A, and networking at Ring Family Performing Arts Hall.

2: Build on our reputation as a leader in pragmatic liberal education.

• While we met our 12,000 donors goal this year, there is still much work to do in this area.
• Wesleyan once again garnered national media attention—President Roth’s advocacy for higher education being especially notable.
• This year we have been holding Campaign events in smaller cities, and we’ve been pleased by the turnout and enthusiasm.
• Once again Admission received a record number of applications, just under 15,000. However, most of the growth in applications stems from abroad; the number of domestic applications actually declined. We need to figure out how to grow interest domestically despite the decline in the domestic college age population.
• We piloted our first online course for Wesleyan parents and alumni. While demand seemed promising at the start, only a couple dozen people ended up joining the online conversations. With some lesson learned, we will offer another online learning opportunity this coming year.
• We are launching a fee-based lecture series next year in New York City. This will test our capacity to offer continuing education and the market for that in the city.
• The new Wesleyan website improved storytelling and navigation for prospective students and donors. Total users of our website jumped up 3.6% in August from the previous year, suggesting loyalty alongside new discovery. Pageviews per user also rose 11.6% year over year, showing deeper exploration per visit.
• Ten recent Wesleyan alumni accepted grants through the Fulbright U.S. Student Program, the most successful year for Wesleyan since the establishment of the Fulbright program in 1946.
• To help students understand the power of a pragmatic liberal education, we piloted a new reflection questionnaire for students in the class of 2028, asking them to think about what they have recently learned and how that informs their choices for the coming academic year. More than 80% wrote about their accomplishments and setbacks of the prior term, and how they used campus resources along the way. We will ask the class of 2028a new set of reflection questions as they begin their fall semester.

3: While enhancing access, make Wesleyan more sustainable through prudent management and diversification of revenue sources.

• The Campaign commitments have been strong; we should meet our new pledges target and are further along towards our overall goal than expected.
• At the end of this summer, 75% of campus will be converted to hot water leaving only Exley, Butterfield and Central Power Plant remaining to be completed. The second biggest user of steam, next to Exley, is Hall-Atwater, which will be removed from campus in fall 2026. Our district energy use has been reduced by 22% since we began the hot water conversion in 2019.
• Renovations at Foss Hill dorms and plans for High Rise aim to reduce deferred maintenance and improve accessibility.
• Continued design planning for new junior housing to address the shortage of class-appropriate housing.

In Conclusion

Wesleyan’s mission is to provide an education in the liberal arts characterized by boldness, rigor, and practical idealism, and we have never been more confident of that mission’s importance. As we have been saying, “the world needs more Wesleyan.” Our planning will ensure that despite the headwinds, we will continue to have “impact disproportionate to our numbers.”