In 1925, the Founder's Day convocation at UND featured a lecture by Dr. J.J. Cornelius titled “The Religions of India.” The lecture was sponsored by Wesley College, which began as a Methodist school in Wahpeton in 1891 under the original name Red River Valley University. Twenty years later, in 1905, at the invitation of UND president Merrifield, it relocated next to UND in Grand Forks and was renamed Wesley College.