The North Carolina Wesleyan College Board of Trustees Friday announced plans for the college to become North Carolina Wesleyan University.
Since 2015, the college has been moving in this direction with the addition of its first two master’s programs, a key component of being considered a university.
“The evolution of NC Wesleyan from a college to a university represents the culmination of the excellent work of many dedicated people over previous years and the commitment of the current administration, faculty, staff and Board of Trustees in expanding the institutional offerings to its students for research, as well as career development,” stated Dan Crocker, chairman of the trustees. “The impact of this effort on the students and the area will be tremendous.”
Some of the criteria that were considered when changing the name to university included: Serving adult students
Offering professional programs
Offering graduate programs
Serving a large percentage of international students and having multiple instructional locations
Despite this update to Wesleyan’s name, its values will remain the same:
To provide one-on-one mentoring opportunities for students with faculty and staff to align their passions with their future career and life aspirations
To provide career and research opportunities to all students to enhance their
marketability and skills beyond college
To create world citizens with vast educational and hands-on experiences to be competent, intelligent, and competitive in a changing world.
To provide adult students with applied learning assignments and flexible instructional
formats to advance their career and life goals
“Becoming a university demonstrates the evaluation of our impact on students and the community over the last 65 years. We are moving in a direction to offer additional academic offerings for a more diverse community of students,” stated Evan D. Duff. “Our foundation in becoming North Carolina Wesleyan University started over 45 years ago when we began offering various modes of instruction to working adult students. With this change, we will continue to be committed to one-on-one mentoring opportunities, hands-on experiences with faculty, research opportunities for undergraduate students, career exploration from day one and remain a teaching-focused institution.”
This announcement comes toward the conclusion of Wesleyan’s 65th anniversary.
Over the next several months, North Carolina Wesleyan will transition to its new identity, working with the state and its regional accreditor to finalize this change.
Rebranding of its website, social media, campus signage, literature, advertising, and much more will occur during this time as well.
