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-acre (81 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 students 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.
Famous quotes containing the words ohio and/or university:
“Heaven is not one of your fertile Ohio bottoms, you may depend on it.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“I had a classmate who fitted for college by the lamps of a lighthouse, which was more light, we think, than the University afforded.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)