Eastern Michigan University
PRE-2: Points of Distinction

The U.S. News and World Report recently ranked Eastern Michigan University among the best universities in the country in the social mobility category. The distinction is based on the opportunities colleges offer disadvantaged students with federal Pell Grants. Programs at EMU help disadvantaged students navigate and afford college, support students while in college, and prepare students beyond college.

EMU supports disadvantaged students to get into college through financial and other support. EMU Upward Bound works collaboratively with Ypsilanti Community High School during the school year and provides a month-long residential camp during the summer for its students that includes workshops, college trips and college coursework. Education First Opportunity Scholarship for traditional freshman pays all tuition that Pell Grants do not. Students who have left Eastern or are considering leaving due to financial constraints can complete 30 hours of volunteer service in a University community program throughout the semester. Successful completion will lead to a partial forgiveness of outstanding debt owed to the University. Students can participate in financial literacy programs to learn skills essential to financial security such as creating a budget, maintaining good credit, and investing. Pell Grant recipients can use their financial aid to opt in Comcast’s Internet Essentials, giving them free or discounted internet access. Formerly incarcerated individuals can join the Returning Citizen Fellows program to help navigate both the complexities of higher education as well as the challenges to reentry, post-incarceration.

Once enrolled EMU supports students success in college. EMU Academic Success Partnerships (ASP) equip students with relevant skills and training to be active learners focused on persistence and degree completion. Holman Success Center offers academic support from peers and professional staff as well as tutoring,
study tables, and success coaching. The EMU Edge is a four-year academic support program designed to help students realize their higher education goals, beginning with the transition from high school to college, and continuing until graduation.

EMU also has programs to support underrepresented minorities achieve success beyond a traditional college degree. The Ronald E. McNair Post-Baccalaureate Achievement Program was begun in 1989 to offer support services to high-achieving students on their quest to attain the doctoral degree. Eastern Michigan University is one in a highly elite group of institutions, selected by the Department of Education, to host a McNair Program. As such, EMU McNair Scholars figure among the students in our nation with the greatest potential to become leaders in their academic disciplines.

EMU has dramatically increased its incorporation of sustainability in university leadership and advisory positions. The university created the chief diversity officer position for the University in 2022. The chief diversity officer position reports to the university President with a dotted-line report to the University’s provost and executive vice president of Academic and Student Affairs. The position is part of the University’s senior leadership team. The chief diversity officer’s responsibilities will include, among other tasks, developing and implementing the University’s diversity, equity and inclusion strategic plan in alignment with the University’s Strategic Plan and leading the Office of Diversity and Community Involvement.

The President's Commission on Sustainability serves in an advisory capacity to the president regarding issues and opportunities related to sustainability. The President's Sustainability Commission has adopted the Sustainability Tracking, Assessment and Rating System (STARS) as the framework for fostering sustainability at the university and will measure, document and publicly communicate the university’s progress toward achieving each of the framework’s criteria. The Commission will develop a sustainability plan guided by this framework and our definition of sustainability to strategically plan and implement measures through policy recommendations directly to the president for continuous improvement of our campus sustainability and to our STARS rating.

The President's Commission on Diversity and Inclusion serves in an advisory capacity to the president. The Commission was launched in 2018 and charged with providing policy recommendations to the President to enhance diversity, equity, and inclusion on EMU’s campus. Those recommendations have been submitted and several have been completed.

Eastern Michigan University received the Carnegie Classification in Community Engagement in 2008 and recertified in 2016. The Carnegie Classification recognizes higher education's commitment to community engagement. These community engagement activities continue today and include the Southeast Michigan Stewardship Coalition (SEMIS), the Family Empowerment Program (FEP), Upward Bound, and The Collaborative: Ypsilanti YMCA Child Development Center. SEMIS facilitates school-community partnerships to develop students as citizen-stewards of healthy ecological-social systems. EMU Upward Bound works collaboratively with Ypsilanti Community High School during the school year and provides a month-long residential camp during the summer for its students that includes workshops, college trips and college coursework. The Collaborative is a collective community-centered response to providing quality child care to low-income families in Ypsilanti and to EMU students with children. The Collaborative partners include Eastern Michigan University (Engage@EMU Office and the Office of the President), Ypsilanti Community Schools and the Ypsilanti Housing Commission and is licensed and managed by the Ypsilanti YMCA.