Ohio Wesleyan launches 'most ambitious' expansion in school history

Sheridan Hendrix, Columbus Dispatch

Mon, December 1, 2025 at 9:12 PM UTC

3 min read

Ohio Wesleyan University will launch a new endowed School of Engineering, thanks to more than $17 million in alumni donations. The university is calling it the most ambitious academic expansion in OWU's 183-year history.

OWU President Matt vandenBerg announced the new Conrades School of Engineering during a Dec. 1 campus event. The school is named in recognition of OWU alumni George Conrades and Patricia "Patsy" Belt Conrades, who contributed $13 million to its formation.

Currently, Ohio Wesleyan does not offer its own engineering programs but rather pre-engineering programs.

OWU's pre-engineering program is an interdisciplinary program in which students earn two degrees: an Ohio Wesleyan bachelor of arts degree with a major in physics with pre-engineering option, pre-chemical engineering, pre-computer engineering or biomedical engineering, and an engineering degree from another university's engineering school.

Ohio Wesleyan President Matt vandenBerg celebrates the announcement of OWU's Conrades School of Engineering with a selfie including faculty members Hanliang Guo, Brad Trees, Scott Linder, and Matt Vollrath, sporting new OWU engineering T-shirts.

Ohio Wesleyan has transfer agreements with four schools — California Institute of Technology, Case Western Reserve University, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and Washington University in St. Louis — where students complete their studies after three years at OWU.

With central Ohio's growing manufacturing economy, vandenBerg said OWU is aligning its resources to meet urgent regional needs.

“The Conrades School of Engineering does more than create a stronger Ohio Wesleyan,” vandenBerg said in a statement. “It creates a stronger world. Our purpose isn’t self-improvement but the public good – an act of boldness, kindness, and innovation that reflects who we are. By aligning our resources with the urgent needs of our community, we embody the true promise of the liberal arts: to educate, empower, and serve."

OWU will officially welcome its first mechanical engineering majors in fall 2027.

Jason Hall, CEO of the Columbus Partnership, said more manufacturing companies coming to the area has resulted in those companies asking, “Can you show us the engineers in the Columbus region?”

“That is what stands out about what is happening here at Ohio Wesleyan,” Hall said. “A liberal arts university looking at the future of this economy and saying, we are going to be part of shaping it. We are going to take responsibility for how the next generation of problem-solvers is prepared."

Oct 2, 2024; Delaware, Ohio, USA; Students bustle to and from classes at Ohio Wesleyan University. Several Ohio universities announced record-setting enrollment figures this fall, thanks to particularly large freshman classes, according to institutional data. It's a sign some experts say bodes well in a confusing higher education landscape on the precipice of change.

While building Ohio Wesleyan’s School of Engineering, vandenBerg said university leaders worked with industry partners who need well-rounded, liberal arts-trained engineers.

Vertiv — a Westerville-based company that makes cooling and energy distribution systems for computer centers — will give OWU engineering students priority interview consideration for the company’s summer internships.

Ansys, part of engineering firm Synopsys, will also provide structural finite analysis software and fluid simulation software to the school through the company's academic program.

In addition to the Conrades' gift, the School of Engineering is supported by a $2 million donation from Doug Dittrick Jr. and his wife, Gina Boesch, and a $2 million donation from alumni couple Gordon Smith and Helen Crider Smith.

George Conrades credited two of his OWU mathematics and physics professors — Robert Wilson and Howard Maxwel — for their mentorship during his time at the university. They steered him toward a career that has included leadership positions with IBM Corporation, Bolt Beranek and Newman, Akamai Technologies, and Oracle Corporation.

“All this because two beloved Ohio Wesleyan professors cared so much,” Conrades said, “Just as our professors do to this day."

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 launches Conrades School of Engineering in expansion

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