Founded in 1842, Iowa Wesleyan University is a fully accredited, coeducational liberal arts university. IW has a rich history of innovation in education; is a pioneer in the sciences; and at the forefront of educational opportunities for women. Iowa Wesleyan has been a leader in service-learning for over 60 years.

Graduates include Dr. James Van Allen ’35, a space scientist who discovered the Earth’s radiation belts that now bear his name; and Dr. Peggy Whitson ‘81, NASA astronaut who has twice served as station commander for the International Space Station and holds several NASA records. In 1869, seven female Iowa Wesleyan students founded the P.E.O. Sisterhood on campus that boasts international membership.

Main Campus

The Iowa Wesleyan campus is located in Mount Pleasant, Iowa, and offers a variety of arts and cultural opportunities for Southeast Iowa. Art shows, concerts, lectures, and plays take place throughout the year and most are open to the public at no charge. The Southeast Iowa Symphony Orchestra is based on campus.

Iowa Wesleyan athletics sponsors twelve NCAA sports and boasts academic scholars. The Tigers compete in the St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) in all sports except football, which competes in the upper Midwest Athletic Conference (UMAC).

Institutional Learning Outcomes

Iowa Wesleyan University’s Institutional Learning Outcomes – of Communication, Critical Reasoning, and Civic Engagement help foster coherence across the curriculum. They embrace the meaning of community to include learning from each other and from the whole of the larger community to which Iowa Wesleyan University belongs. As student’s progress through curricular and co-curricular experiences, students develop communication, critical thinking, and civic engagement skills.

Communication: Students will show proficiency in acquiring, processing, and transferring information in a variety of ways, including written communication, oral communication, and information literacy.

Written Communication: Students will develop and express ideas in writing, including working with various genres, styles, texts, technologies, data, and/or images.

Oral Communication: Students will deliver a prepared, purposeful presentation designed to increase knowledge, to foster understanding, or to promote change in the listeners’ attitudes, values, beliefs, or behaviors.

Information Literacy: Students will show the ability to know when there is a need for information, to be able to identify, locate, evaluate, and effectively and responsibly use and share that information for the problem at hand.

Critical Reasoning: Students will strategically apply critical thinking and problem-solving skills.

Problem Solving: Students will design, evaluate and implement a strategy to answer open-ended questions or achieve desired goals.

Critical Thinking: Students will comprehensively explore issues, ideas, artifacts, and events before accepting or formulating an opinion or conclusion.

Civic Engagement: Students will develop the knowledge, skills, values, and motivation to actively engage in communities to promote social justice and human welfare.

Civic Engagement: Students will demonstrate their ability to make a difference in the civic life of communities and develop the combination of knowledge, skills, values, and motivation to make a difference in the quality of life of those communities.

Global Learning: Students will critically analyze complex, interdependent global systems and legacies (such as natural, physical, and social, cultural, economic, and political) and their implications for people’s lives and the earth’s sustainability.