Latin: Wesleyanum Collegium Virginiae Occidentalis | |
Former name | Wesleyan University of West Virginia (1905–1906) |
---|---|
Type | Private college |
Established | 1890 |
Accreditation | HLC |
Religious affiliation | United Methodist Church |
Academic affiliations | CIC NAICU IAMSCU |
Endowment | $42.4 million |
President | James Moore |
Academic staff | 137 |
Students | 1,055 |
Undergraduates | 971 |
Postgraduates | 84 |
Location | , , United States 38°59′19″N80°13′18″W / 38.98861°N 80.22167°W |
Campus | Rural |
Colors | Orange and black |
Nickname | Bobcats and Lady Bobcats |
Sporting affiliations | NCAA Division II - MEC |
Mascot | Bobcat |
Website | wvwc.edu |
West Virginia Wesleyan College is a private college in Buckhannon, West Virginia, United States. It has an enrollment of about 1,055 students from 35 U.S. states and 26 countries. The school was founded in 1890 by the West Virginia Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church and is currently affiliated with the United Methodist Church. West Virginia Wesleyan College is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission.
West Virginia Wesleyan College was founded in 1890 by the West Virginia Annual Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church. The school opened in 1890, in a new three-story brick building where the current Lynch-Raine Administration Building now stands. Ohio Wesleyan University and Boston University School of Theology alumnus Bennett W. Hutchinson was the college's first president.
Following ten years focusing on college preparatory work, college-level instruction was first offered in 1900 culminating in the first baccalaureate degrees in 1905. For one year the institution was named Wesleyan University of West Virginia but it was quickly changed to West Virginia Wesleyan College in honor of John Wesley, the founder of Methodism. Pre-college instruction continued until 1923 when it was discontinued because the high schools in the state had grown enough to adequately perform that task.
Pamela Jubin Balch, a 1971 graduate of Wesleyan, became the college's 18th president in July 2006. Dr. Balch is the first woman to serve as president in the college's history. At the outset of her tenure as president, Balch reinstated the college's briefly-discontinued nursing program as well as its 3-2 engineering program. The college has since expanded its academic programs, adding graduate degrees in athletic training, business administration, English Writing, and nursing.
The college offers over 50 undergraduate majors and 33 minors. Wesleyan also has 3-2 engineering partnerships with Marshall University and West Virginia University. Undergraduate degrees are awarded in Bachelor of Arts, Bachelor of Science, Bachelor of Science in Nursing, and Bachelor of Music Education. Graduate degrees awarded include the Master of Science in Athletic Training, Master of Business Administration, Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing, Master of Science in Nursing and Master of Clinical Mental Health Counseling
Approximately 80% of West Virginia Wesleyan's faculty have earned doctorates or comparable terminal degrees within their field. The student-faculty ratio is 11.6 to 1, with an average class size of 15.
The campus boasts 23 major buildings of Georgian architecture. The grounds are situated in a park-like setting of more than 100 acres.
Wesleyan has retained its residential character; about 90% of the students live on campus.
There are 21 NCAA Division II sports teams, and 70 clubs and organizations.
The college's athletics teams are the Bobcats, which compete in the NCAA Division II Mountain East Conference, of which it was a founding member in 2013. The Bobcats were former members of the West Virginia Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WVIAC), having been recognized as having the top athletic program in the WVIAC.[ citation needed ]by winning, over 151 conference championships and earning a conference dominance of 18 Commissioner's Cups during the past 20 years[ when? ] and eight Presidents' Cups in 14 years. Each year, Wesleyan's 21 NCAA II teams successfully[ clarification needed ] compete at the regional and national levels.
The Greek system was initiated on campus in 1925, and many fraternities and sororities have been founded since.
Some Wesleyan students participate in community service through the Center for Community Engagement and Leadership Development (CCE). [1] [2] Students in the CCE also organized the first collegiate Jump Rope for Heart events in the United States. [3]
The college currently boasts 21 sports, competing in NCAA Division II. The college offers varsity men's sports in baseball, basketball, cross country, football, golf, soccer, swimming, tennis, indoor track and field and outdoor track and field. The college offers varsity women's sports in basketball, cross country, golf, lacrosse, soccer, softball, swimming, tennis, indoor track and field, outdoor track and field and volleyball. The 21st varsity sport, women's lacrosse, formally began competition in the fall of 2010.
With the ability to seat 1,800 people, [4] [5] Wesley Chapel annually hosts the West Virginia United Methodist Annual Conference each June.
This article's list of alumni may not follow Wikipedia's verifiability policy.(August 2023) |
The West Virginia Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WVIAC) was a collegiate athletic conference which historically operated exclusively in the state of West Virginia, but briefly had one Kentucky member in its early years, and expanded into Pennsylvania in its final years. It participated in the Division II ranks of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), originally affiliated in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) until 1995, but held its final athletic competitions in spring 2013, and officially disbanded on September 1 of that year. Its football-playing members announced in June 2012 that they planned to withdraw to form a new Division II conference at the end of the 2012–13 season; this led to a chain of conference moves that saw all but one of the WVIAC's members find new conference homes.
Alderson Broaddus University (AB) was a private Baptist university in Philippi, West Virginia. It was founded in 1871 and suspended its operations on August 31, 2023.
Kentucky Wesleyan College (KWC) is a private Methodist college in Owensboro, Kentucky. Fall 2018 enrollment was 830 students.
Iowa Wesleyan University was a private university in Mount Pleasant, Iowa, United States. It was Iowa's first co-educational institution of higher learning and the oldest of its type west of the Mississippi River. The institution was affiliated with the United Methodist Church. It closed at the end of the 2022–23 academic year due to financial challenges.
Oklahoma Wesleyan University (OKWU) is a private university of the Wesleyan church in Bartlesville, Oklahoma. OKWU offers over 30 undergraduate degrees to students at its Bartlesville campus, and it also offers six graduate degree programs as part of its online offerings.
The University of Charleston (UC) is a private university with its main campus in Charleston, West Virginia. It also has a location in Beckley, West Virginia, known as UC-Beckley.
Bluefield State University is a public historically black university (HBCU) in Bluefield, West Virginia. Despite being an HBCU, Bluefield's undergraduate student body is now over 80% white.
West Virginia University Institute of Technology is a public college in Beckley, West Virginia. It is a divisional campus of West Virginia University.
Salem University is a private for-profit university in Salem, West Virginia. It has about 250 students on campus and about 600 online students that are enrolled in undergraduate as well as graduate programs. The university was founded by the Seventh Day Baptist Church in 1888.
Indiana Wesleyan University (IWU) is a private evangelical Christian university headquartered in Marion, Indiana, and affiliated with the Wesleyan Church. It is the largest private university in Indiana.
Texas Wesleyan University is a private Methodist university in Fort Worth, Texas. It was founded in 1890 by the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. The main campus is located in the Polytechnic Heights neighborhood of Fort Worth. Its mascot is the ram.
Bluefield University is a private Baptist university in Bluefield, Virginia. It offers 22 majors and is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. The 82-acre (330,000 m2) campus is about 150 ft (46 m) from the state line between Virginia and West Virginia. It is affiliated with the Baptist General Association of Virginia. Bluefield University merged with Edward Via College of Osteopathic Medicine which is on the campus of Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia.
Ferrum College is a private college in Ferrum, Virginia. The college was established in 1913 as the Ferrum Training School for primary and secondary education to serve the mountain communities of rural Southwest Virginia.
The West Virginia Wesleyan Bobcats are the athletic teams that represent West Virginia Wesleyan College, located in Buckhannon, West Virginia, in NCAA Division II intercollegiate sports. The Bobcats compete as members of the Mountain East Conference for all twenty-one varsity sports.
The West Virginia State Yellow Jackets are the athletic teams that represent West Virginia State University, located in Institute, West Virginia, in NCAA Division II intercollegiate sports. The Yellow Jackets compete as members of the Mountain East Conference for all ten varsity sports. West Virginia State was a founding member of the conference following the demise of the West Virginia Intercollegiate Athletic Conference in 2013. WVSU's main rivals are the University of Charleston (WV), Central State University (OH), and Kentucky State University.
Ohio Valley University was a private Christian college located between Parkersburg and Vienna in West Virginia. Founded in 1958, the school integrated education with teachings of the Christian faith. The college was physically located on two separate campuses totalling 267 acres (108 ha). At one time, OVU offered bachelor's degrees in more than 30 different subject areas, but scaled back its academic options as enrollment numbers and financial stability dropped significantly. The college was accredited by the Higher Learning Commission, and was placed under academic probation in 2020 by the Higher Learning Commission due to ongoing long-term financial struggles. In December 2021, the OVU Board of Directors voted to close the college after the Fall 2021 semester. The West Virginia Higher Education Policy Commission voted to revoke OVU's authority to grant degrees shortly thereafter. Seniors were allowed to finish their degrees without the loss of any credit hours in the spring semester of 2022 at several other institutions of higher education related to Churches of Christ through "teach out" agreements.
The Mountain East Conference (MEC) is a college athletic conference affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) at the Division II level and officially began competition on September 1, 2013. It consists of 11 schools, mostly in West Virginia with other members in Maryland and Pennsylvania.
The Wheeling Cardinals are the athletic teams that represent Wheeling University, located in Wheeling, West Virginia, in intercollegiate sports as a member of the Division II level of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), primarily competing in the Mountain East Conference (MEC) as a founding member since the 2013–14 academic year. The Cardinals previously competed in the defunct West Virginia Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WVIAC) from 1957–58 to 2012–13.
The 1936 West Virginia Wesleyan Bobcats football team represented West Virginia Wesleyan College as a member of the West Virginia Athletic Conference (WVAC) during the 1936 college football season. Led by 12th-year head coach Cebe Ross, the Bobcats compiled an overall record of 8–2 with a mark of 4–0 in conference play, placing second in the WVAC.
The 1961 West Virignia Wesleyan Bobcats football team was an American football team that represented West Virginia Wesleyan College of Buckhannon, West Virginia, as a member of the West Virginia Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WVIAC) during the 1961 college football season. In their fourth season under head coach Samuel Ross, the Bobcats compiled an 8–1 record, won the WVIAC championship, and outscored opponents by a total of 243 to 64.
The chapel seats 1800 people and has a complete sound system, grand piano and the largest pipe organ in West Virginia.
67. Wesley Chapel and Martin Religious Center: Wesley Chapel, which is a designated United Methodist historical site, is truly one of the iconic landmarks of Wesleyan's campus. From its 204-foot tall steeple, to its 1,800-person sanctuary, to the classrooms, meeting rooms, and offices in Martin Religious Center, Wesley Chapel stands as the literal, as well as the spiritual, religious and intellectual heart of West Virginia Wesleyan College, just as it was intended to be when it was constructed in 1966.