A look back at the 2023-2024 academic year - April 26, 2024

To all employees,

As another successful academic year winds down, I write to express my gratitude to each of you for your hard work and dedication to our students. In this note, we’ll look back at the past year and begin looking forward to the challenges and opportunities we will face in the coming years.

2023-2024: A great year for EMU

This past academic year continued to demonstrate EMU’s tremendous value as a public university. We provide unmatched educational and engagement opportunities for our students that lead to outstanding careers for our graduates. 

  • Here are a few of your many collective accomplishments of the past year:
  • EMU ranked highly in several U.S. News & World Report categories, including:
  • For the seventh consecutive year, the University was named the No. 1 Military Friendly school in Michigan for veterans. Eastern was also ranked No. 9 in the U.S. 
  • The student forensics team continued its decades of excellence, finishing in third place in the National Forensics Association Competition and in fourth place in the American Forensics Association Competition.
  • Our aviation program secured accreditation – an important step as we grow this program that prepares students for careers in a high-demand industry.
  • Our Welcome Home initiative remains on-time and on-budget. Renovated housing opened in August 2023 and additional renovations – as well as construction of the new Lakeview and Westview apartments – will be completed in August 2024. On-campus housing occupancy in fall 2023 was higher than the previous fall, and is on track to be even higher in fall 2024.
  • EMU continued to be recognized for our sustainability efforts. Following our bronze ranking as a sustainable university, EMU was one of only three universities in the world recognized by the Sustainable Campus Index for a perfect submission to the sustainability rankings system, and we were also included on the Princeton Review guide to “green colleges”.
  • Our student-athletes continued to shine on the field and court and in the classroom, with a highlight of the year being the opening of the new GameAbove Golf Performance Center.
  • Governor Whitmer signed legislation authorizing the planning process for Roosevelt Hall to undergo a State-funded renovation.
  • Our annual MLK Celebration continued to showcase EMU’s leadership in promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion.
  • We celebrated the end of the Give Rise campaign, which was EMU’s largest and most successful fundraising campaign in our 175-year history.
  • Speaking of 175 years, we celebrated EMU’s 175th birthday on March 28, with a festive party attended by hundreds of campus and community members. This was the first of several events that will take place in the coming year to reflect on our past and look forward to our bright future!
  • We launched an employee survey, “Empower You, Build Us” for the first time in several years and were pleased to have a high response rate. The results are being analyzed by senior leaders and will be shared with other administrative leaders this spring. After this, results will be shared with the broader employee community as leaders and employees work together on action planning.
  • The recent solar eclipse brought together hundreds of students and employees outside the Student Center in a fun event hosted by Campus Life, and a student-faculty research team launched a high-altitude weather balloon as part of a NASA initiative. 

There is so much more that took place on our great campus this past year. Including all of these accomplishments would turn this message into a lengthy essay! Indeed, the best is yet to come with Commencement ceremonies occurring tomorrow. 

Looking forward

Over the last several years, EMU has successfully navigated the obstacles facing higher education caused by many factors, such as declining college enrollment across the country, political challenges, and COVID-19. Most of those obstacles remain and thus our work to prepare for a rapidly changing future is ongoing. 

In the next few days, I will share some updates and initial plans for how we will continue to address those challenges in the coming months and years.

Thank you again for your dedication and hard work over the past year. We should take pride in our many accomplishments.

James Smith, Ph.D.