From Ohio Wesleyan University
Ohio Wesleyan University has raised a record-breaking $50 million in just three months to fund a visionary, fine arts-infused library – and launched a public-private partnership delivering Ohio’s largest onsite campus solar initiative. The two announcements stunned a packed crowd of students, faculty, staff, alumni, and local leaders today at an on-campus news conference.
“Closing Beeghly Library just days after I arrived proved a crucible moment for OWU,” said President Matt vandenBerg, Ed.D. “What could have been a crisis instead became a defining chapter – one that inspired our community to dream big, act urgently, and innovate boldly. Thanks to a galvanized faculty and staff and a handful of visionary philanthropists acting in record speed, Ohio Wesleyan is completing an epic rebirth into a whole new realm of possibility.”
A World-Class Library
Highlighting today’s news conference, vandenBerg announced that Ohio Wesleyan graduates and trustees John F. Milligan and Kathryn Bradford Milligan of Hillsborough, California, are investing $20 million in the library project – by far the largest gift in Ohio Wesleyan’s 183-year history.
The new John F. Milligan Library will transform the heart of campus into a world-class immersive learning, collaboration, and creative arts hub. The facility will include community-building spaces, study areas, high-tech classrooms, and lots of glass to showcase the building’s warmth and light.
“We’re not just building an ordinary academic library; we’re redefining what a liberal arts campus looks and feels like,” vandenBerg said. “Our concept takes liberal arts creativity and aesthetic sensibility from the metaphorical and physical periphery of campus and delivers it to the center of every student’s experience.”
The university will break ground on the project this summer and open the completed Milligan Library in January 2027. New York City-based Perkins Eastman and Miamisburg, Ohio-based Levin Porter Architects are overseeing the work. The project involves renovating the existing L.A. Beeghly Library, which was closed during the summer of 2023 due to pervasive moisture, thereby preventing an unplanned disruption of the academic year. The project also will relocate the Department of Fine Arts to the facility, with studios, classrooms, and gallery spaces.
Matt Franklin, president of Levin Porter, said his company is excited about the unique project.
“Our team of architects, planners, and engineers design academic library projects all around the country, and we think this is a one-of-a-kind library concept among American higher education institutions,” Franklin said. “The benefits of connecting the arts and library into one complex are endless.
“Of course, this project will be beautiful and physically transform the JAYwalk area, but more importantly, it will provide so many opportunities for collision learning experiences among all students on campus,” Franklin said. “Imagine heading to the library to study for a biology final and seeing an art student diligently turning a new piece on a ceramic wheel or watching digital content being created in a state-of-the-art studio. We hope these collisions encourage OWU students to embrace the many benefits of a liberal arts education.”
John and Kathie Milligan, both members of the OWU Class of 1983, were in attendance for the announcement, with John Milligan sharing:
“Kathie and I are very supportive of the efforts at OWU to create independent thinkers and leaders for the future. We know that today’s students need learning facilities vastly different from the libraries of 60 years ago. We are thrilled to be able to support the dramatic redesign of the library to create a place for students and faculty to gather, learn, and constructively discuss ideas right in the heart of the campus.”
John Milligan, Ph.D., is executive chairman of Emeryville, California-based 4D Molecular Therapeutics (4DMT). A chemistry major at Ohio Wesleyan, he previously served as president and chief executive officer of Gilead, leading teams that developed, manufactured, and commercialized therapies including the first single-tablet regimen for HIV treatment and the first 12-week, all-oral cure for Hepatitis C.
Record-Shattering Support
Five additional donors made seven- or eight-figure commitments to elevate the total raised to more than $50 million: Michelle Mulkern Kilkenney, Class of 1999, and Ryan S. Kilkenney of Chicago, Illinois; Frederick “Fred” W. Newton and Bridget Donnell Newton, both Class of 1980, of Rockville, Maryland; Thomas W. Palmer, Class of 1969, and Susan Palmer of Toledo, Ohio; Michael Payette, Class of 1969, of Chicago; and Kara Trott, Class of 1983, of Columbus, Ohio.
In addition, multiple donors, including Jason Downey, Class of 2002, and Elizabeth Long Downey, Class of 2006, of Columbus, Ohio, have created a combined seven-figure endowment to support programs in the facility and to maintain and modernize the building in perpetuity as needs and technologies evolve.
Previously, Ohio Wesleyan’s largest single commitment was $12 million earlier this academic year from Kathrine Trine Grissom, Class of 1992. Grissom’s pledge created the Mary Ellen Grissom Endowed Fund to enable first-generation college students to pursue their bachelor’s degrees without the financial concerns that often accompany higher education.
A New Campus-Community Paradigm
Ohio Wesleyan will leverage the Milligan Library and forthcoming central campus improvements to facilitate even stronger connections with the Delaware community.
“Historically, college facilities have tended to look inward,” vandenBerg said. “We’re upending that model by blurring the lines between campus and community for the betterment of both. We are removing the loading docks and other physical barriers that currently separate us from our community so we can properly welcome them in to learn and grow with us.
“We’re also transforming our surrounding exterior spaces into places where OWU community members can learn, socialize, and recreate together,” he said. “We believe these new outdoor living rooms will help transform the JAYwalk into the JAYstay.”
Learn more about OWU’s John F. Milligan Library and see additional renderings at owu.edu/MilliganLibrary. To support the project with a financial gift, visit owu.edu/give.
A State-Leading Solar Initiative
Also at today’s news conference, vandenBerg shared that Ohio Wesleyan is taking a revolutionary step to become a solar powerhouse, entering into a public-private partnership with GRP|WEGMAN to provide clean, solar power to the university at the most competitive market price.
Once completed, OWU will achieve a leadership position among Ohio’s universities in carbon reduction, delivering over 82% reduction in carbon emissions associated with electrical power consumption on campus. The project is the most ambitious carbon reduction and onsite solar energy project in Ohio higher education history.
“With this agreement, Ohio Wesleyan is doing more than creating a better university; we’re leveraging the university to create a better world,” vandenBerg said. “OWU will join the vanguard of American universities in onsite renewable energy production, energy stewardship, and environmental innovation – all while saving tens of millions of dollars and addressing significant planned maintenance.”
This innovative collaboration will bring a state-of-the-art 6-megawatt solar photovoltaic system and a 2-megawatt energy battery storage facility to campus and address campus infrastructure. The installation will generate 8.2 million kilowatt hours of clean energy annually on campus, while also providing both backup power capabilities and energy load-shifting opportunities.
The full environmental project to launch this fall requires zero capital outlay or borrowing from the university, fits within existing operational budgets, and shields the campus from exposure to rising utility rates.
“The partnership between GRP|WEGMAN and Ohio Wesleyan University represents two organizations committed to excellence and innovation coming together to create something truly extraordinary,” said Tim Bakker, chief operating officer of Bethalto, Illinois-based GRP|WEGMAN. “OWU is a nationwide model for how organizations can be bold, take action on sustainability, invest in infrastructure improvements without upfront capital costs, and innovate responsibly for the benefit of current and future generations.”
The campus project also will serve as a living laboratory for students, providing hands-on learning opportunities in renewable energy, sustainability, engineering, and advanced technology.
A committee currently is working to identify the best sites on campus to locate the solar panels, including roof, carport, and ground-mounted arrays. The work is expected to begin before fall and take up to 18 months to complete.
Learn more about the initiative at owu.edu/solar.
OWU’s Surging Momentum
Today’s announcements build upon Ohio Wesleyan’s recent newsmaking progress, highlighted by growing student enrollment, improved retention, and several groundbreaking initiatives launched during and since vandenBerg’s April 2024 inauguration as OWU’s 17th president. These initiatives include:
- Entering into a groundbreaking collaboration with the Constructive Dialogue Institute (CDI) to make free civil discourse training available to all students, faculty, and staff.
- Launching the tuition-free Delaware County Promise program for qualified local high school students.
- Signing a historic sister school memorandum of understanding with South Carolina’s Claflin University.
- Launching collaborative new Tuition Match, Teach Now, and Preferred Pathway programs with Columbus State Community College.
- Creating the U.S. Entrepreneurship Competition – Ohio’s most lucrative business plan contest.
- Becoming Columbus-based I Know I Can’s largest scholarship provider with the Charles Thomas Scholarship.
These and other initiatives have resulted in vandenBerg being invited to participate in a United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) panel discussion on creating more inclusive experiences in schools and workplaces and to join organizations including the Coalition for Transformational Education, the international Young Presidents’ Organization, the Committee on Student Aid for the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities (NAICU), the Presidents’ Council of the North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC), the Investment Committee of the Ohio Foundation of Independent Colleges (OFIC), and the I Know I Can Board of Directors.
“Achieving this level of transformation with such speed does not happen through traditional thinking or incremental philanthropic support,” vandenBerg said. It happens when extraordinarily generous, visionary leaders step forward with investments and effort that match the magnitude of the moment. But let’s be clear: For OWU, this is not mission accomplished. This is mission launched. This is an OWU revolution of boldness, kindness, and innovation.”
Watch the StreamOWU live stream recording from this event.
Photo: Ohio Wesleyan’s new John F. Milligan Library will transform the heart of campus into a world-class immersive learning, collaboration, and creative arts hub. It is expected to open in January 2027. (Rendering courtesy of Levin Porter Architects)
