History of Ohio Wesleyan University - Campus Expansion

Campus Expansion

By the end of the 19th century, the University grew to contain several schools: a College of Liberal Arts (founded in 1844), a School of Music (1877), a School of Fine Arts (1877), a School of Oratory (1894), and a Business School (1895). Recognizing the need for new departments and the value of specialized instruction, the Ohio Wesleyan administration improved the college's facilities and offerings to make its curriculum and buildings on par with its new academic position. Construction during that period included Monnett extensions, University Hall and Slocum Library. Athletics and physical education facilities were established and a start was made for a new gymnasium.

During these years OWU added departments for natural science (physics, zoology, geology), speech, history, French, English and economics. The new ideal of specialization brought an emphasis on professional preparation for the Doctor of Philosophy degree and on travel and study in Europe. Three professional schools—Law, of Medicine and Theology—were formed and the Doric Front was demolished.

The speciliazation of the curriculum, a process that started during the Bashford presidency, influenced a lot of undergraduate students to take on further graduate study at other universities. Two Rhodes Scholars from Ohio Wesleyan were appointed during the first ten years of the 1910s: E.R.Loyd (1905) and E.E. Lincoln (1909). In 1907, the United Societes of Phi Beta Kappa, the oldest undergraduate honors organization in the United States installed its first chapter on campus.

It was decided during the Welch presidency years that despite the expansion and the institution's name, Ohio Wesleyan University was to remain a college, not a university. In the interest of wider degree legitimacy, the Bachelor of Science degree was dropped and only the Bachelor of Arts was offered. The mantle of the old classical degree would be used to invoke a wide variety of fields, not just classical studies. Academic requirement for the bachelor's degree were cut and the emphasis on Latin and mathematics came to an end during the 1920s.

During the Hoffman years, the Academy and the School of Business came to an end in 1916. The Academy had started in 1842 as a preparatory school and throughout its seventy-five years of existence frequently outnumbered the college in enrollment. The academy's demise was precipitated by the expansion of enrollment in public high schools and the Ohio centralized school system that started during the years of the Welch presidency. Decreasing demand for college preparatory services coincided with more stringent Department of Education conditions.