Too many colleges students are expected to have it all figured out by the time they arrive on campus. That's just one of the issues that Ohio Wesleyan University President Matt vandenBerg takes with higher education today.
Universities, he said, put way too much pressure put on 18-year-old freshmen to choose a major and a career path before they even move into their dorm rooms and register for classes. But about 80% of college students end up changing their major at least once, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.
"They are the exploratory majority, and higher education simply does not serve them well enough," vandenBerg told students, faculty and alumni at an Oct. 23 campus event.
It's for that reason that OWU is reimagining
itself as "America's university for ambitious self-discovery," the university announced at the event. It also celebrated its latest philanthropic gift of $40 million to establish the Mecum College of Arts and Humanities and raise the bar for faculty salaries campuswide.
VandenBerg said the university's new strategic direction is a result of the "higher education rebellion" he started at his inauguration in April 2024.
Since then, OWU launched the Delaware Promise, which provides full-tuition scholarships to Ohio Wesleyan for qualifying students from Delaware County; established new transfer pathways from Columbus State Community College and established the Palmer Center for First-Generation Student Success. Enrollment is growing and the record philanthropic gifts keeps coming.
"My fellow Bishops, we have the receipts," vandenBerg said.
In practice, vandenBerg and other university officials said OWU is repositioning itself to serve that "exploratory majority," expand programs that encourage exploration and build the skills students need to enter the workforce in an era of rapid change and anxiety.
First-year students aren't required to declare majors, and they spend their first two semesters taking classes that build what vandenBerg calls "power skills": formal and quantitative reasoning; writing and speaking effectively; and creative thinking. The kind of skills that employers are looking for in new hires, he said.
Every OWU student is also required to participate in experiential learning, like internships, undergraduate research, study abroads, service projects or launching their own business. Students should feel empowered to enjoy "risk-free self-discovery" with grace, time and support, vandenBerg said.
That was the case for Aliyanna Badger, an OWU senior studying theater and communications. She came to OWU dead-set on becoming a high school theater teacher. But after having the opportunity to study at OWU's sister school Claffin University, emcee campus events and meet actors she admires, Badger said she sees opportunities beyond the classroom.
"My dreams do not have to compete with each other," she said.
While many universities are cutting programs and questioning their futures, vandenBerg said OWU is entering a "renaissance."
“OWU is proactively building the model we believe is an antidote to many of the issues facing the sector: structured exploration; hands-on, real-world learning experiences; and a renewed focus on the arts and humanities," he said.
VandenBerg said the university is also making good on another promise he made at his inauguration: investment in faculty. He promised faculty and staff that he would invest in better compensation and professional development, starting with doubling merit awards for faculty on top of cost-of-living adjustments.
OWU's median full-time faculty nine-month base salary for this academic year is $82,820, according to university data.
One way it's doing that is through a $40 million trust commitment from OWU alumnus Dudley Mecum II and Harriet Zahn Mecum. The gift is among the largest ever made to an Ohio liberal arts institution and the largest in OWU history.
The Mecum family's gift will create an endowment dedicated to faculty compensation, as well as promote the university’s arts and humanities division into the Mecum College of Arts and Humanities. It is the first of OWU’s three academic divisions to be elevated to college status.
Several other donors also pledged an additional $4 million toward the endowment to support faculty compensation before the Mecum trust funds arrive in full.
"At a time when many institutions are cutting the arts and humanities, we are proud to be running back to them," vandenBerg said.
Higher education reporter Sheridan Hendrix can be reached at shendrix@dispatch.com and on Signal at @sheridan.120. You can follow her on Instagram at @sheridanwrites.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Ohio Wesleyan gets $40 million gift for faculty salaries, arts and humanities college
