Wesleyan University

Wesleyan University, private, coeducational institution of higher learning in Middletown, Connecticut, U.S. It comprises the College of Letters and the College of Social Studies and departments in the sciences, mathematics, humanities, arts, and social and behavioral sciences. Altogether it offers 50 major fields of study for undergraduate students, 11 master’s degree programs, and doctoral programs in music, mathematics, and sciences. Research facilities include the Van Vleck Observatory, which houses a 24-inch (61-cm) reflecting telescope. The campus also includes the Center for Humanities, the Center for African-American Studies, and the East Asian Studies Center. Total enrollment is approximately 3,300.

Wesleyan University was founded in 1831 by a group of Methodists led by educator-clergyman Wilbur Fisk, who became its first president. Its early curriculum emphasized science, modern languages, and literature as well as the traditional education in the classics. A master’s degree program was first offered in 1889, and doctoral degree programs were developed in the 1960s. Since its founding, the university has been committed to nonsectarian education; its first non-Methodist faculty member (1888–90) was Woodrow Wilson. Noteworthy alumni of Wesleyan include the poet Charles Olson and scientists Wilber Olin Atwater, G. Brown Goode, and Albert Francis Blakeslee.