Virginia Wesleyan University will change its name to Batten University in summer 2026 to reflect the school’s institutional transformation and decades of philanthropic support from Jane Batten, former chair of the university’s board of trustees, and her family.
President Scott Miller announced the renaming at an event celebrating the Batten family legacy on Aug. 20. The board of trustees approved the name change earlier this month.
“We’re no longer simply a university in Virginia. We’re Virginia's innovative university of the arts and sciences,” said Miller during the celebration.
Wesleyan is expected to complete several expansion efforts around the time of the name change. The Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art will open on the Virginia Beach campus in the spring, a new Chesapeake campus will launch in the fall and the Sentara College of Health Sciences is expected to complete its integration by next summer.
According to Miller, Jane Batten’s involvement with Virginia Wesleyan began in 1978 and has shaped the institution for nearly five decades. Batten's late husband, Frank Batten, made the family's fortune in media. He created and later sold the Weather Channel and owned Landmark Communications, which controlled local TV stations and newspapers across the nation, including the Virginian-Pilot.
"My husband was an accomplished business man, but he always felt that education was the single most important thing that he could focus on," Batten said in a video played during the celebration. "And he always said, 'you take money out of a community, you put that money back in the community.' And I've been able to do that."
Batten funded the university’s Environmental Sciences Center and established the Batten Honors College with an $80.3 million endowment that provides full- or partial-tuition scholarships for 160 students each year. She also supported the development of a collaborative campus in Tokyo and served as the lead donor for the relocation of the Virginia MOCA to the Virginia Beach campus.
“She has given of her time, her talent and of her family's resources to advance this institution from being a local institution to one with an international constituency and a worldwide reputation,” Miller told WHRO ahead of the announcement.
University officials said they will continue honoring the “Virginia Wesleyan” name through archives, traditions and celebrations, but all diplomas issued after July 1, 2026, will reflect the Batten University name. Diplomas under the former names—Virginia Wesleyan College or Virginia Wesleyan University—will remain valid. Any alumni who want updated diplomas may request one.
NOTE: VWU President Scott Miller is a member of WHRO’s governing board. Miller is not involved in editorial decisions for WHRO News.
