Wesley College was a private liberal arts college in Dover,

Delaware Delaware ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Maryland to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and New Jersey and the Atlantic Ocean to its east. The state takes its name from the adjacent Del ...

. It was acquired by

Delaware State University Delaware State University (DSU or Del State) is a public historically black land-grant research university in Dover, Delaware. DSU also has two satellite campuses: one in Wilmington and one in Georgetown. The university encompasses four colle ...

in 2021 and is now the DSU Downtown campus.

History

The institution was founded in 1873 as Wilmington Conference Academy, a prep school. During this period Annie Jump Cannon, a prominent astronomer who pioneered stellar classification, graduated valedictorian from Wilmington Conference Academy in 1880. It became a two-year college in 1918 and renamed the Wesley Collegiate Institute. It was renamed again in 1941 as Wesley Junior College, and again in 1958 as Wesley College. The institution conferred its first four-year degrees in 1978. In its last decades, the college experienced significant financial challenges and relied on state funding and grants. At one point in 2019, had the state not given Wesley $3 million, students would have lost access to federal financial aid and salaries would have been at risk. In early 2021, members of the college faculty voted "no confidence" against Wesley's last president, Robert E. Clark II, but the college's board of trustees subsequently dismissed the resolution and supported him. On June 30, 2021,

(DSU) began the formal process of purchasing Wesley College. This made DSU "the first historically Black college or university to acquire another college." The acquisition was finalized one year later, on July 1, 2021. Approximately 60 percent of the Wesley community were offered employment by Delaware State University. DSU took on Wesley College's debts and did not directly pay to purchase the university. All Wesley students with non-adverse records were permitted to become DSU students. After the acquisition, the campus was known as DSU Downtown, while the Wesley name remained attached to the Wesley College of Health and Behavioral Sciences housed at the campus.

Academics

Prior to ceasing operations, many of its students pursued a

liberal arts Liberal arts education (from Latin "free" and "art or principled practice") is the traditional academic course in Western higher education. ''Liberal arts'' takes the term '' art'' in the sense of a learned skill rather than specifically th ...

program of study. At its close, Wesley College had 917 students.

Athletics

The institution competed in

National Collegiate Athletic Association The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges ...

Division III In sport, the Third Division, also called Division 3, Division Three, or Division III, is often the third-highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Association football *Belgian Thir ...

athletics in the

Atlantic East Conference The Atlantic East Conference is an NCAA Division III collegiate athletic conference in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. History Beginning play in July 2018, the league consists of seven private universities, each former members o ...

. Its teams were known as the Wolverines.

Notable alumni

Wesley Junior College, Dover, Del (74686)

* William N. Andrews (1898) lawyer and Republican Party politician, including serving as

U.S. Representative The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the Senate being the upper chamber. Together they c ...

for

Maryland's 1st congressional district Maryland's 1st congressional district encompasses the entire Eastern Shore of Maryland, including Salisbury, Maryland, Salisbury, as well as parts of Baltimore County, Maryland, Baltimore, Harford County, Maryland, Harford, and Carroll County, M ...

(1919–1921) * Colin R.J. Bonini (1991) Republican Party politician, including serving as a member of the

Delaware Senate The Delaware Senate is the upper house of the Delaware General Assembly, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Delaware. It is composed of 21 Senators, each of whom is elected to a four-year term, except when reapportionment occurs, at wh ...

from the 16th district (since 1995) * Joe Callahan (B.S. 2016)

quarterback The quarterback (commonly abbreviated "QB"), colloquially known as the "signal caller", is a position in gridiron football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive platoon and mostly line up directly behind the offensive line. In modern Ame ...

for the

Philadelphia Eagles The Philadelphia Eagles are a professional American football team based in Philadelphia. The Eagles compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) East division. The team play ...

of the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...

(NFL) * Annie Jump Cannon (1880) Astronomer *

Wayne Gilchrest Wayne Thomas Gilchrest (born April 15, 1946) is an American politician who served as a Republican member of the United States House of Representatives representing . In 2008, Gilchrest was defeated in the Republican primary by State Senator Andy ...

(A.A., 1971) Republican Party politician, including serving as

for

(1991–2009) *

Matt Gono Matthew Gono (born May 10, 1996) is an American football offensive tackle who is a free agent. He played college football at Wesley College. He went undrafted and signed with the Atlanta Falcons and New York Giants. Professional career Atlanta ...

(2017) professional football player for the Atlanta Falcons of the

(NFL) *

Charles M. Oberly, III Charles Monroe Oberly III (born November 9, 1946) is an American attorney from Delaware. He had served as United States Attorney for the United States District Court for the District of Delaware, District of Delaware from 2010 to 2017 and had serv ...

(A.A., 1966) lawyer and Democratic Party politician, including serving as

Delaware Attorney General The attorney general of Delaware is a constitutional officer of the U.S. state of Delaware, and is the chief law officer and the head of the State Department of Justice. On January 1, 2019, Kathy Jennings was sworn in as the 46th attorney general ...

(1983–1995); U.S. Attorney for the District of Delaware (since 2010) * Bryan Robinson professional football player; awarded all-American football player * Carolyn Bunny Welsh Republican Party politician, former sheriff of

Chester County Chester County may refer to: * Chester County, Pennsylvania, United States * Chester County, South Carolina, United States * Chester County, Tennessee Chester County is a county located in the U.S. state of Tennessee. As of the 2020 census, th ...

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

References

External links

*
DSU & Wesley
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