Rock Jones

About Ohio Wesleyan UniversityFor more than 160 years, thousands of Ohio Wesleyan students, professors, andstaff members, as well as citizens of the surrounding city of Delaware, have playedimportant roles in building and enriching the University’s heritage and history.Founded in 1842 by the Methodist Church, Ohio Wesleyan is an independentundergraduate national liberal arts university at which students obtain a breadthof knowledge through the study of the arts, humanities, natural sciences, andsocial sciences. Our 1,850 students, almost equally men and women, are from 47states and 50 countries of the world. Classes afford personalized attention fromprofessors, with a student-faculty ratio of 12 to 1.The story of Ohio Wesleyan’s beginning and its first campus building, ElliottHall, bespeak the closely knit residential environment of today’s campus as wellas its intertwining with the surrounding city of Delaware. It was because of therallying efforts long ago of three Methodist leaders, who agreed on the need toestablish a university “of the highest order” in central Ohio, that the good citizensof Delaware—172 in number—signed the circulating petition and contributedthe $10,000 needed to purchase OWU’s first building, Elliott Hall, home today forthe departments of sociology/anthropology, history, and politics and government,received a prestigious historical marker from the Ohio Bicentennial Commissionin 2003.Exceptional teaching and academics are hallmarks of an OWU education thattranslates into alumni who span the globe and are leaders in science, medicine,the fine and performing arts, business, and myriad other arenas. Unique OhioWesleyan features such as the Woltemade Center for Economics, Business, andEntrepreneurship, the Arneson Institute for Practical Politics and Public Affairs,and the Sagan National Colloquium set us apart from other institutions of ourkind. Our institutional mission places a premium on community service learningand practical experiences for OWU students, with a high percentage of themparticipating in community service activities before graduating. Twice the nationalaverage, the rate of community service participation of our alumni is more than 80percent.Ohio Wesleyan is just a 35-minute drive from Columbus, the state capital.Our students enjoy the small-town charm of Delaware as well as the welcomingcultural features of Columbus, a larger metropolitan city. The campus encouragesa sense of community while celebrating the progress and achievement of theindividual.