Ohio Wesleyan University history

The first college classes were offered in 1844.

Sturges Hall was constructed as the university's first library in 1855.

In 1873, the school added the Department of Natural History housed in Merrick Hall.

It was not until 1877 that the Female College became part of Ohio Wesleyan University.

Every four years, OWU hosts a two-day Mock Presidential Nominating Convention, a campus tradition dating back to 1884.

Two professional schools for law and medicine were formed in 1896.

In 1905, the Board of Trustees decided to keep Ohio Wesleyan a college, despite the expansion of the curriculum and campus and the word "university" in the institution's name.

Edwards Gymnasium was built in 1906.

Frank Stanton, in full Frank Nicholas Stanton, (born March 20, 1908, Muskegon, Mich., United States—died Dec.

Students were allowed to declare a major for the first time in 1919.

In 1946, Ohio Wesleyan introduced a new "Centennial Curriculum", which enacted seven distribution requirements across the sciences and humanities; the new requirement for a foreign language course was added to the existing humanities requirement.

In 1971 he argued in hearings in Washington, D.C., that broadcasting should enjoy the same freedoms as the press under the First Amendment of the United States Constitution.

The president, David Warren, increased admission standards in 1985, engaged students in a "live-in" presidency, expanded media exposure and established a National Colloquium focused on the liberal arts.

The Hamilton-Williams Campus Center opened in 1991.

The Memorial Union Building was renovated in 2001 to accommodate the Economics Department, the Academic Resource Center, the Information Services portion of the combined Libraries and Information Services department, and the Woltemade Center for Economics, Business and Entrepreneurship.

The Schimmel/Conrades Science Center opened in 2004 to provide 52,000 square feet (4,800 m) of additional space for the science departments.

In 2011, the Meek Aquatics Center opened as a state-of-the-art facility, also used by the Delaware community.

In 2018, the university opened the Delaware Entrepreneurial Center at OWU in collaboration with the City of Delaware and Delaware County.