DOVER, De. - In just two days, Wesley College in Dover will be no more.
The small liberal arts college, which was founded in 1873, is being acquired by Delaware State University on July 1st. The acquisition has been about a year in the making, but a student who spoke with WBOC says that her and her fellow classmates are still in the dark about what comes next.
Abbie Sherman committed to Wesley College when she was just a junior in high school, and was rewarded over $60,000 in scholarship funds for her academics. She told WBOC that while she had toured University of Delaware and Wilmington University, Wesley was where she wanted to continue her education.
"I figured out this was home. It was so nice everybody so kind and I really loved it here," she explained Tuesday while standing outside campus.
After spending her first two years at the college, the special education major found out that Wesley would be acquired by Delaware State University. But during a March 2021 meeting, Sherman was informed that her scholarship would not be honored at DSU.
"That's when I started to panic because I got almost a full ride, a couple thousand away from a full ride, so that's a hard thing to swallow, you're not going to have the money that you were given. I was given that money for academics," explained Sherman, who said she considered transferring, but worried about cost and whether other schools would transfer all the credits she had earned over the past two years.
DSU spokesman Carlos Holmes says any student in good standing at Wesley is being considered a continuing student at Delaware State University, and does not need to reapply to school. But when asked about scholarships for students like Abbie, Holmes confirmed that the university is not accepting them.
"There was no requirement or obligation on the part of Delaware State University to honor any scholarships that were awarded by Wesley College," Holmes explained in a zoom interview from his office Tuesday. He added that students will be saving money simply because tuition at DSU is considerably less than Wesley, which is a private institution.
"The tuition at Delaware State University is markedly lower than the tuition at Wesley, so they are getting a break that way, and all of the Wesley students have the opportunity to apply for financial aid. Now they do have to apply," he told us.
Sherman says she has applied for financial aid, but has yet to hear back from the university whether she will receive any assistance. She says her class schedule was made for her by her Wesley advisor, or she wouldn't know how to make sure she was registered for her junior year classes. Sherman added that ultimately, both she and her fellow classmates need transparency as the fall semester inches closer.
"I don't have an advisor from DSU, I don't have any information about DSU stuff and I can't ask any of my Wesley people because they don't even know if they work there," Sherman said, expressing her frustration. "I just feel like answers would be great. They're saying we're all one, but they're not treating us as one. We are all left in the dark, they just threw us to the curb, basically. They bought us, and threw us to the curb."
Holmes acknowledged the difficulties of merging the two institutions today, but said DSU is ready to welcome Wesley students and faculty with open arms.
"This has not been a very easy situation for the folks at Wesley College, and now they're transitioning - those that are coming over to us - they're transitioning over faculty and staff. They are a part of Delaware State University, so we're embracing them with open arms and so we look forward to having them," said Holmes, adding that the last he heard, DSU had offered 70 faculty and staff positions to continue working with them after the acquisition.
We did reach out to Wesley to try and ask them if they knew scholarships they had given students would not be honored at DSU after the acquisition, but they referred us back to Carlos Holmes and said Wesley and DSU are coordinating all communications now.
For more information and resources for students during the acquisition, Delaware State University is referring people to this site.
