University Recognitions

For the third time in four years, Eastern was named to President Obama's Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll for the University's work in serving local communities through volunteer programs and other activities. The President's Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll recognizes higher education institutions that reflect the values of exemplary community service and achieve meaningful outcomes in their communities. The award program celebrates the transformative power and volunteer spirit that exists within the higher education community. In all, Eastern students, faculty and staff donate 106,000 hours of time annually to local communities, a value of $2.3 million.

For the third year in a row, Eastern was ranked in the top 30 public universities in the North Region in U.S. News and World Report's 2013 edition of Best Colleges. Eastern was the highest-ranked university among the four Connecticut state universities. Eastern was also in the top 100 regional universities - both public and private - in the region. In August, the Princeton Review announced that it also has once again rated Eastern as one of the "Best in the Northeast" in its feature "2013 Best Colleges: Region by Region."

For the fourth year in a row, Eastern was named by the Chronicle of Higher Education as a "Great College to Work For" in 2012. Only 103 colleges out of 5,800 institutions of higher education in the United States were awarded the honor for specific best practices and policies. Eastern won honors in three categories this past year: "Collaborative Governance"; "Compensation and Benefits"; and "Facilities, Workspaces and Security." The program is the second largest workplace recognition program in the country, after Fortune Magazine's "100 Best Companies to Work For" program.

Eastern was also named one of the nation's most environmentally responsible colleges in the United States and Canada, according to The Princeton Review and the U.S. Green Building Council. In their profile on Eastern, they highlight Eastern's Climate Action Plan, detailing its commitment to achieving a zero carbon footprint by 2050, and cite the University's effort to create a campus-wide culture of sustainability through green operational initiatives; green-minded education for first-year students; and its Environmental Earth Science and Sustainability Energy Studies majors. This is the third year in a row that Eastern has received the designation.

The University was also one of only seven colleges and universities in the nation selected to participate in the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Campus Resilience Pilot Program (CR Pilot). The project is designed to help develop and pilot an emergency preparedness and resilience planning program, facilitated by community engagement, local stakeholders, campus leadership and students. The CR Pilot brought together school officials, students and members of the local community to discuss new, innovative approaches to campus resilience and emergency planning, and build upon Eastern's existing efforts in this area.