DELAWARE — A new $40 million gift to Ohio Wesleyan University will raise faculty salaries and establish the Harriet Zahn Mecum College of Arts and Humanities.
Ohio Wesleyan University President Matt VandenBerg announced Friday that a gift from the late Dudley C. Mecum II, a 1956 graduate, and his family will help OWU students explore vocational interests before declaring a major.
The college is named after Mecum’s wife, Harriet Zahn Mecum.
“As a society we put way too much pressure on young people to know who they are and what they want to become before they’ve even had a chance to discover either,” VandenBerg said.
Nationwide, it’s estimated that about 80% of college students change their major at least once within three years of initial enrollment, according to a press release from OWU.
“OWU is repositioning to serve the exploratory majority, expanding programs that encourage exploration and build the skills students need to enter the workforce in an era of rapid technological change,” the release reads.
New college will expand exploration
The $40 million trust ranks among the largest gifts ever made to an Ohio liberal arts college, VandenBerg said.
According to a university news release, the gift has already helped establish the Mecum College of Arts and Humanities, making it the first of OWU’s three academic divisions to be elevated to college status.
Now, as a dedicated college, the Mecum College contains two divisions with 18 departments and 12 programs.
The Mecum College includes six departments: English, fine arts, history, performing arts, philosophy and religion, and world languages and cultures. It also offers programs in creative writing, film studies, and ancient, medieval and Renaissance studies.
Natural sciences and social sciences remain separate academic divisions at OWU. Natural sciences contains the chemistry, psychology and other departments, and social sciences contains education, communications and other departments.
VandenBerg said the way OWU’s curriculum is designed, students already have the opportunity to try new things and change their majors without any additional time or money.
Establishing the Mecum College of the Arts and Humanities allows students to explore majors that offer “the skills the workforce and our communities need most,” which VandenBerg said “are the ones the arts, humanities and social sciences are disproportionately good at building.”
“At a time when many institutions are cutting the arts and humanities, we want to stand out as the place running back to them,” VandenBerg said.
He said there are no immediate plans to add departments or programs, but the gift will provide resources to strengthen existing offerings and potentially expand them in the future.
“We’re going to be at a much stronger foundation to be able to add and strengthen our offerings to students,” VandenBerg said.
Gift will also raise faculty salaries
In addition to the $40 million gift from Mecum II, several donor families have already pledged about $4 million in additional endowed support “to allow faculty compensation to grow before the Mecum trust funds arrive and increase the total scale of the investment,” according to the release.
“We believe in what is possible when a student encounters someone that believes in them. This investment recognizes the extraordinary value of that work,” Humanities and Arts College Chair David Counselman said.
“It affirms that faculty are not simply a part of what makes OWU special, we are in fact central to its promise and its future.”
OWU’s median full-time faculty 9-month base salary for 2026-2027 is $82,820, according to Director of Media and Community Relations Cole Hatcher.
VandenBerg did not give any specifics about what increases will look like or when, but he did note they will be across all divisions, not just the arts and humanities college.
