| Eastern Mennonite University | |
|---|---|
| Motto | "Preparing students to serve and lead globally." Guiding biblical verse: "Do justice, love mercy and walk humbly with God." (Micah 6:8) |
| Established | 1917 |
| Type | Private four-year university, with seminary and graduate programs |
| Religious affiliation | Mennonite Church USA |
| President | Loren Swartzendruber, DMin |
| Academic staff | 162 (10-1 faculty-student ratio)[1] |
| Undergraduates | 1,075, including 202 students older than traditional undergrads [2] |
| Postgraduates | 467 in seminary and in four masters programs – conflict transformation, education, counseling, business[2] |
| Location | Harrisonburg, VA, USA |
| Colors | White and Royal Blue |
| Athletics | NCAA Division III, Old Dominion Athletic Conference Men's and women's basketball, cross-country, soccer, indoor and outdoor track & field, volleyball; baseball for men; softball and field hockey for women. |
| Nickname | Royals |
| Mascot | HeRM (His Royal Majesty) the Lion |
| Website | www.emu.edu |
Eastern Mennonite University (EMU) is a private liberal arts university in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, affiliated with one of the historic peace churches, the Mennonite Church USA.[3] Its 97-acre (390,000 m2) located in Harrisonburg, Virginia and operates a satellite campus in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, which primarily caters to working adults.[4]
Worldwide, EMU is probably best known for its Center for Justice and Peacebuilding (CJP), especially its graduate program in conflict transformation.[5][6] CJP has educated and trained more than 3,000 people from 119 countries.[7] CJP's founding director, John Paul Lederach, and its expert in restorative justice, Howard Zehr, are considered to be international leaders in the fields of peace and justice.[8] In October of 2011, CJP alumna Leymah Gbowee was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
Half of EMU's undergraduate students do not come from Mennonite backgrounds,[9] though the majority are Christian.[10] EMU's graduate students represent a diversity of faiths, as exemplified by the mini-bios on Islamic, Jewish, Buddhist, and Hindu alumni posted on EMU's website.[11] About 57 percent of EMU's undergrads are from out of state (32 states; 21 countries), and 19 percent are persons of color, non-U.S. origins, or minority ethnicity.[12]
EMU describes itself as a "leader among faith-based institutions" in emphasizing "peacebuilding, creation care, experiential learning, and cross-cultural engagement."[13]
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Eastern Mennonite University was launched in 1917 by a handful of Mennonite church members. They recognized that their church-centered communities needed to offer schooling beyond the basic level for young-adult Mennonites who were hungry for more knowledge and for opportunities beyond the farm.[14] These church leaders sought to stem the tide toward enrolling in secular educational institutions.[15] One of that founding group, Bishop George R. Brunk Sr., stated that “the world standard of education is self-centered, self-exalting, and materialistic.” By contrast, he advocated a form of Christian education that “expands and develops the God-given powers both natural and spiritual, guides them [students] into channels of activity most conducive to God’s glory and the blessing of mankind.”[16]
From exclusively serving members of the Mennonite church in the early and mid 1900s, EMU has evolved to educating thousands far beyond its original constituency of “Anabaptists,” a broad term for Mennonites and kindred subscribers to the theology of Anabaptism.[17] EMU and its seminary are affiliated with the Mennonite Education Agency of the Mennonite Church USA, as are five other higher education institutions in Kansas, Indiana and Ohio – Bethel College (Kansas), Goshen College, Bluffton University, Hesston College and Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary.[18] Of these colleges, only Goshen College has a higher percentage of Mennonite students (53%) than EMU (50%).[19][20]
Though it is to sum up almost five centuries of evolution and differentiation among the Anabaptists,[21] five distinctive attributes of Anabaptist Christians can be discerned: Firstly, they do not practice infant baptism – they believe it is important for someone to be old enough to make a mature choice about whether to be baptized and to be a church member.[22] Secondly, Anabaptists have put special emphasis on the New Testament’s teachings on nonviolence and peacemaking.[23] They also have stressed simple, non-materialistic lifestyles,[24] and communities based on service to others or “works of love.”[25] Finally, they have tried to put their understandings of Jesus' teachings into daily practice.[26] As explained by Menno Simons, the 16th century leader from whom the term “Mennonite” comes: “True evangelical faith cannot lie dormant. It clothes the naked, it feeds the hungry, it comforts the sorrowful, it shelters the destitute and it serves those who harm it. It seeks those who are lost. It binds up what is wounded. It becomes all things to all people.”[27]
These core beliefs are shared by the Anabaptists who belong to the conservative Mennonite streams (including the Old Order, horse-and-buggy-driving groups) – who tend to dress distinctively and to live separately from mainstream society, thus avoiding higher education[28][29] – as well as those modern Anabaptists who attend EMU and who go on to become physicians, nurses, social workers, counselors, lawyers, business people, teachers and other highly educated citizens fully functioning in the larger world.[30][31] A study of the 80 members of EMU's class of '59[32] found that three quarters went into three fields of human services – education, social work and health, including 10 who became physicians (comprising one-eighth of the class of '59). Many of the remaining class members did church work. More than 25 percent of the class spent at least one year in work or service assignments outside of the continental United States, most often in the developing world. The countries or regions where they served included: Vietnam, Nigeria, Costa Rica, Puerto Rico, Honduras, Korea, Lithuania, China, Colombia, Egypt, Belize, Zambia, Taiwan, Ethiopia, Israel, Greenland, Haiti, Cuba, East Africa and Central America.[32]
As its class of '59 suggests, EMU tends to graduate people oriented toward the wider world and toward helping others. "Motivated by faith and a philosophy of service, the Mennonites – cousins to the generally more conservative Amish – have come to be regarded as leaders on the international relief stage," stated an article in the Philadelphia Inquirer on August 10, 2010. The article described "massive volunteer effort" to ease suffering worldwide, especially in the face of disasters, "despite the fact that there are fewer than 370,000 Mennonites in the United States and only about 1.5 million worldwide."[33]
This culture of service is reflected in the university's mission statement.[34] EMU’s insists on linking peace and social justice – it is home to the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding, and its mission statement refers to Micah 6:8 on doing justice, loving mercy and walking humbly with God. This distinguishes it from most of the other 108 members of the Council for Christian Colleges & Universities, whose mission statements sometimes mention justice but almost never mention peace work.[35] ”It’s no exaggeration to say that the graduate program in conflict transformation epitomizes the mission of EMU as a whole,” reported All-American Colleges in 2006.[36] University president Loren Swartzendruber has said: "We're a people who don't always talk a lot about our faith. But we do put it into action."[37]
In 1948-49, EMU quietly admitted two local African American students, becoming one of the first historically white colleges in the U.S. South to integrate, defying written and unwritten rules enforcing segregation prior to the Civil Rights Act of 1964.[38] (The University of Arkansas also admitted African American students, beginning in 1948.)[39]
In the last 20 years in particular, EMU has attracted people from all over the world and various faiths who are interested in the way it combines peace, social justice, simplicity and community.[40][41] EMU orients its students toward “experiental learning” (i.e. hands-on learning, connected to real-world work), “creation care” (environmental sustainability), and “cross-cultural engagement” (required of all undergraduates).[34][42]
In August 2010, a 1991 graduate of EMU, Glen D. Lapp, was among a group of 10 unarmed volunteers with International Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, who were shot and killed while returning from providing health care in a remote region. "As with many of our alumni around the world, Glen was fulfilling EMU's mission of serving and leading in a global context, which often involves great personal sacrifice," said university president Loren Swartzendruber.[43] Suraya Sadeed – an Afghan-American candidate for EMU's MA degree in conflict transformation and the founder and executive director of Help the Afghan Children[44] – told a newspaper reporter that such murders would not deter her and others from continuing to provide humanitarian assistance in Afghanistan.[45]
EMU claims that it is a leader among universities nationwide in low-energy consumption, solar energy production, sustainable new construction, and recycling efforts.[46][47][48][49] Its newest building, a dormitory, meets the gold-level requirements of LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design).[50]
In the mid-Atlantic region of the United States, EMU positions itself as a university that produces "servant leaders" who, it says, are readily hired or accepted to graduate schools.[51] The university says the acceptance rate into medical school for students who complete EMU's pre-med program is over 95%.[52] For education majors, 99% who seek teaching positions are employed within six months of graduation, according to EMU.[52] In total, the university claims that 91% of EMU grads find work or pursue further education in their field within a year of graduation.[52]
EMU's current undergraduate programs include 35 majors, 16 teacher education certification programs, 9 pre-professional programs such as pre-engineering and health sciences, and 4 associate degrees.[53] A relatively new major, digital media arts, focuses on internet, digital video, audio and photography.[54][55] A popular option at both the Harrisonburg and Lancaster locations is called the Adult Degree Completion Program.[56][57]
EMU was one of the earliest colleges to require cross-cultural study of all undergraduates, with a university-sponsored program beginning in the 1970s.[58] EMU recommends that its undergraduate students earn 15 semester hours of credit by living, studying and serving in cross-cultural settings.[59] Nine cross-cultural credits are the minimum number required for graduation; these can be earned through in-class study and a summer stint of three to six weeks in a cross-cultural setting.[59] Most undergraduates embark on semester-long, faculty-led, cross-cultural experiences, usually involving home stays in non-U.S. settings, such as Israel, Guatemala, South Africa, India, Spain and Morocco.[60] But some students opt to satisfy the cross-cultural requirement by studying and interning in Washington D.C., while living in EMU-owned housing supervised by faculty members.[61] Others choose individualized alternatives, such as a summer of studying business with an international manufacturer or 11 months of service with the SALT program of Mennonite Central Committee.[62]
More than 75% of EMU's faculty members have lived in a cross-cultural context.[63] The leaders of EMU-sponsored trips are drawn from the ranks of faculty and staff members who have had extensive experience in the settings to which they are leading students.[64] Since 2001, three EMU faculty members have been Fulbright Scholars.[65][66]
Each year EMU offers a dozen high-achieving high school students the opportunity to be part of the university's honors program. To be eligible for this program, students must have a minimum high school GPA of 3.5 and a minimum 30 ACT or 1350 SAT (reading and writing combined). Selected students receive 50% to 100% tuition scholarships, renewable for each year of undergraduate study. They also receive mentoring from assigned faculty members and attend honors seminars and social gatherings together.[67]
Students who struggle academically – whether for reasons of native language, learning or physical disability, poor quality of previous schooling, or a combination of reasons – receive free support through EMU's academic support center. "Many students with diverse backgrounds come to the university to pursue their degrees," wrote graduate student Sanjay Pulipaka in 2006 in The Hindu, a national newspaper in India. "Given their diverse backgrounds," he continued, "there is disparity in the communication skills of the students. Instead of indulging in deprecatory humorous statements about the alleged low standards of incoming students, the university runs an academic support center where the students are provided with various services such as proofreading and editing of their term papers."[68] A young woman hit by a drunk driver – leaving her unable to walk, track with her eyes, retain information in her short-term memory, or write by hand – was able to graduate from EMU after five years, with the help of the academic support center and one-on-one help from faculty members and fellow students.[69] In 2006 Fadi El Hajjar, a blind man from Lebanon, completed a master's degree in conflict transformation on a Fulbright scholarship, after EMU personnel made it possible for him to learn to walk with a white cane, cook for himself, use an electronic reader, listen to books on tape, dictate his papers for transcribing, and receive support from fellow students.[70]
Eastern Mennonite Seminary has been accredited by the Association of Theological Schools in the United States and Canada since 1986.[71] It is approved as an institution for the training of candidates for ordination in the United Methodist Church,[72] in addition to being approved by the Mennonite Church USA. Students from many branches of Christianity, however, have studied at this seminary.[73]
EMU offers graduate programs, accredited to offer master degrees, in business administration, conflict transformation, counseling, education, and ministry. It is common for graduate students to take courses that cross these disciplinary lines.[74] Extensive summer study programs are available through:[74][75] EMU's Summer Peacebuilding Institute (four consecutive sessions); Washington Community Scholars' Program; Summer Bridge Scholarship Program, in which EMU collaborates with the National Science Foundation to offer scholarships for incoming science students to spend a summer working with faculty; a Ministry Inquiry Program in which upper-level students are able to spend 11 weeks as an intern in a congregation; nine-day Summer Institute for Spiritual Formation; graduate-level courses for teachers (i.e., 16 courses offered through the Lancaster site for 2011[76] and two offered online).[77] The Intensive English Program typically attracts students who need to improve their mastery of spoken and written English before continuing into higher studies at EMU or another American college. Some simply use it to advance in their careers around the globe.[78]
Eastern Mennonite University is situated on the rural-flavored edge of a small (45,000 population[79]), non-bustling city in the scenic and historic Shenandoah Valley of Virginia.[80] Heading south and east from EMU, a traveler reaches hubs of urban activities in five minutes; heading north and west from EMU, a traveler immediately enters rural farming scenes laced with meandering two-lane roads that may be unpaved.[81]
As a result of EMU's location, many faculty and students enjoy bicycling to commute, do errands, and take recreational jaunts around the countryside, both on and off roads.[82][83] Biking also fits the EMU community's stated desire to be good stewards of one's body (i.e. physical exercise by biking) and good stewards God's earth by not using fossil fuels unnecessarily.[84] The Shenandoah Valley Bicycle Coalition regroups people of all ages, often affiliated with one of the three universities in the area (EMU, James Madison, and Bridgewater College) to advocate for and practice safe, sustainable and enjoyable cycling on roads, trails, and streets.[85]
Other popular outdoor activities are kayaking & canoeing, swimming, golfing, hiking, horseback riding, hunting & fishing, spelunking and skiing & other winter sports at nearby private and public parks and centers, such as Shenandoah National Park, George Washington and Jefferson National Forests, and Massanutten Four-Season Resort.[80] On campus, students, staff and faculty maintain a greenhouse, an arboretum, and a large vegetable garden.[86]
Indoor recreational possibilities include gyms (for basketball, volleyball, indoor soccer, etc.), fitness center with exercise equipment, and climbing wall.[87] Swimmers head 2.1 miles to the year-round municipal swimming pool at Westover Park.[88]
The Campus Ministries program says that it offers a "supportive community, place to nurture and form faith, and caring faculty and staff who mentor students" and sponsors activities such as: campus-wide chapels on Wednesday and Friday mornings, a student-led praise-style service on Sunday evenings, monthly hymn sings and Taize worship services, annual "spiritual life week," and service experiences under the Young People's Christian Association.[89] Campus Ministries is led by the three trained pastors, assisted by students at various stages in their education, including in graduate-level studies in the seminary at EMU. A Ministry Assistant lives on each hall of every residence building.[90]
EMU's sports teams are known as the Royals. In most sports, EMU competes as NCAA Division III, a member of the Old Dominion Athletic Conference. Sports include field hockey, basketball, volleyball, soccer, baseball, softball, and track and field (indoor and outdoor). At the end of the 2009-10 season EMU's men's basketball team had 25-5 record and was ranked No. 4 in the nation by D3hoops.com, an unprecedented achievement.[91] In the spring of 2010, women's softball entered in the ODAC Tournament as the eighth seed team. They beat Guilford, Lynchburg, and Randolph- Macon and went on to face Virginia Wesleyan on April 25, 2010 for the championship game. The lady royals defeated Virginia Wesleyan 5 to 1 to become the 2010 ODAC Champions with a tournament record of 4-0. The Royal's softball team then advanced to the D-III National Softball Championship for the first time in school history.[92]
Team victories and individual record-breaking are celebrated,[93] but EMU stresses a holistic approach to athletics: "The athletic program provides men and women with the opportunities to integrate personal growth in leadership, athletic skills, wholesome attitudes and spiritual understanding," says a statement posted online by the athletics department. "EMU emphasizes a balance between academic achievement and athletic accomplishment" and aims to graduate every student-athlete.[94]
Two-thirds of EMU's students participate in intramural sports, playing against peers as well as college employees, in friendly, often coed competitions.[95] In 2009-10, dozens of teams competed at various levels in basketball, billiards, floor hockey, flag football, golf, table tennis, and dodgeball.[96]
Beyond physical activities, students at EMU are involved in clubs and groups typical of college campuses, such as student government, the student newspaper, literary magazine and theater productions.[97] Many students also are involved in choral or musical groups, both formal and informal.[98] This reflects, in part, the presence on the faculty of well-known hymnal editor Ken J. Nafziger – he's an accomplished conductor who also directs the Bach Festival each summer[99] – and a wide-ranging instrumental music program,
Residential undergraduates, faculty and staff gather for twice-weekly chapel services, planned by the campus pastoral team. Voluntary Bible study and worship also occur in smaller settings during the week and on weekends.[100]
EMU expects its employees and students to commit themselves to a lifestyle based on "clearly stated expectations [to] promote orderly community life," coupled with "trust in and responsibility to one another."[101] This includes refraining from "sexual relationships outside of marriage, sexual harassment and abuse, pornography, acts of violence, abusive or demeaning language and the use of illegal drugs." EMU also expects community members to "respect and abide by the university policy that prohibits the use of alcohol and tobacco on campus or at university functions and the misuse of alcohol off campus."[102] EMU calls for "stewardship of mind, time, abilities and finances," and takes the unusual step of asking for "social responsibility in my standard of living and use of economic resources." The 361-word statement, adopted by EMU's board of trustees in 2001, also refers to "forgiveness" in three places, including seeking forgiveness and extending it in the spirit of "unselfish love."
This "Lifestyle Commitment," which reflects the official position of the Mennonite Church USA, has been cited as reason for ending the employment of faculty and staff members who are actively homosexual or lesbian and who live with a partner.[103] President Loren Swartzendruber says the university's policy that sexual relationships are reserved for a man and a woman in marriage applies equally to faculty members who are heterosexual, and that a number of heterosexual employees have been let go after having extramarital sexual relationships.[104] He has repeatedly said that he wishes the campus to be hospitable to people regardless of their sexual orientation, adding "we will not tolerate bigotry, poor language, inappropriate comments about persons of any sexual orientation."[104]
Is Eastern Mennonite University liberal or conservative? George Duncan, former editorial page editor of the Harrisonburg (Va.) Daily News Record, noted that it was hard to pigeonhole EMU, because on some matters (e.g., internationalist views rather than nationalist ones) it tends to side with traditional "liberals," and on other matters (e.g. "religious critiques about the awful materialism and consumerism of American society"), EMU tends to sound conservative.[105]
In the fall 2006 issue of the EMU alumni magazine, university president Loren Swartzendruber wrote a four-page essay on refusing the mantle of either liberal or conservative and daring to be "different from other colleges," in keeping with Anabaptist tradition and theology. "How do we define ourselves within a cultural context that wants to reduce complex realities to simplistic cliches?" he asked rhetorically.[106] He told the online journal Inside Higher Ed: "We are, I think, a different kind of Christian... If [students] assume they’re going to find at EMU what they would also find at Liberty University [the nearby institution founded by the Rev. Jerry Falwell] they’re not going to be very happy here. They’re going to run into it headlong. They’re going to hear about the peace tradition. They’re going to hear a lot of language about what it means to be a follower of Jesus in this world. From our perspective, that means less nationalism, and a much more global perspective, care for creation. What they would find here is a concern for personal piety … but we’re not willing to stop there because we also believe that the New Testament is pretty clear that there is a social dimension to what Jesus called us to be and to do.”[107]
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