William Arnold Shanklin (April 18, 1862 – October 6, 1924) was a Methodist minister and an American university president.

[2] His younger brother, Arnold Shanklin, served as consul general of the United States at Panama beginning in 1905.

[1] Shanklin was educated at public schools in Missouri before attending Hamilton College (A.B., 1883) and at Garrett Biblical Institute (S.T.B., 1891).

After graduating from Garrett Biblical Institute in 1891, Shanklin was ordained to the Methodist Episcopal ministry and held pastorates in Kansas, in Spokane and Seattle, in Washington, in Dubuque, Iowa, and in Reading, Pennsylvania.

In 1908, he was elected to succeed Bradford P. Raymond as the ninth president of Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut beginning in June 1909.