University Recognitions

For the fourth time in five years, Eastern was ranked in the top 30 public universities in the North Region in U.S. News and World Report's 2015 edition of Best Colleges. Eastern was the highest-ranked university among the four Connecticut state universities. 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 fifth year in a row, Eastern was named by the Chronicle of Higher Education as a "Great College to Work For" in July 2013. Only 97 colleges out of 5,800 institutions of higher education in the United States were awarded the honor for best practices and policies. Eastern won honors in three categories: "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 fifth year in a row that Eastern has received the designation.

Eastern continued to be an active participant in the state of Connecticut's workforce development initiatives, serving for the second year in a row as the summer research site for students in the Board of Regents' statewide Health and Life Sciences initiative to advance STEM careers that is being funded by the U.S. Department of Labor. Eastern is the only Connecticut State University involved in the program.

In April, Eastern's Institute for Sustainable Energy received the 2014 Energy Star Partner of the Year Award in Washington, D.C., from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Energy. This national award recognizes the institute's work with Connecticut towns, state agencies, school buildings and college campuses to strategically and comprehensively manage energy use. Since the Energy Star program began, American families and businesses have saved $297 billion on utility bills and prevented more than 2.1 billion metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions with help from Energy Star.