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EMU celebrates 160 years this month; longtime employees reflect on campus changes through the years

Editor's Note: Eastern Michigan University celebrates its 160th anniversary this month. FOCUS EMU talked to some longtime EMU employees about their reflections and the changes they've seen on campus from the 1960s to the present.

Today, Sally McCracken reflects and sees Eastern Michigan University as a choice school for high school students in southeastern Michigan, especially the Detroit suburban area.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, EMU: Eastern Michigan
University celebrates its 160th year of
existence this month. March 28 is the
offiicial date that marks the milestone.

But when the commication, media and theater arts professor first came to EMU 40 years ago, she saw dollar signs. She initially came to EMU because the university offered $300 more than The University of Southern California-Long Beach.

"Isn't that awful," she laughs. "I was mercenary."

In recognition of the university's 160th anniversary, some longtime faculty and staff shared their reflections on their EMU experience, how the university has changed, and even how it hasn't.

"We're regional, and that's never changed. What has changed is we're comprehensive now," McCracken said. "We offer everything with the exception of a medical school and a law school. You can come here and get everything else."

McCracken, who teaches conflict resolution, has watched the University double in physical size and roughly triple its student population. But it's never been homogenized. Departments still have their own unique cultures and personalities. Students still get to communicate directly with professors, though — in an age of e-mail, cell phones, texting and instant messaging — they may do it a little differently.

"I'm still a bit old-fashioned," McCracken said. "I like to see people face-to-face."

When McCracken accepted that "mercenary" offer to teach at EMU, she figured she'd stay a few years and move on. Now she's come to see what she does not as a job, or even as a career, but as a life. Her friends are here, her social life, her cultural life. She even moved from Plymouth to Ypsilanti Township just to be closer to all of it as she approaches retirement.