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Eastern Illinois University is a public university in Charleston, Illinois, United States. Established in 1895, EIU awards bachelor's and master's degrees in programs organized in…
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Investigate this subjectEastern Illinois University (EIU, Eastern) is a public university in Charleston, Illinois, United States. Established in 1895, EIU awards bachelor's and master's degrees in programs organized into four colleges: Arts and Sciences, Business and Technology, Education, and Health & Human Services.
Eastern Illinois University is a public university in Charleston, Illinois, United States. Established in 1895, EIU awards bachelor's and master's degrees in programs organized into four colleges: Arts and Sciences, Business and Technology, Education, and Health & Human Services.
Eastern Illinois University (EIU, Eastern) is a public university in Charleston, Illinois, United States. Established in 1895, EIU awards bachelor's and master's degrees in programs organized into four colleges: Arts and Sciences, Business and Technology, Education, and Health & Human Services.
Eastern Illinois University was established by the Illinois State Legislature in 1895 as the Eastern Illinois Normal School to "train teachers for the schools of East Central Illinois." Throughout its history, the school adapted its name several times to reflect its development into a comprehensive university, becoming Eastern Illinois State Teachers College in 1921 and Eastern Illinois State College in 1947. In 1957, the Illinois General Assembly changed the name of the institution to Eastern Illinois University.
Upon establishment, an initial 40-acre parcel for the campus was acquired in Charleston, Illinois, the seat of Coles County. When classes began in 1899 there were 125 students and 18 faculty members; the first campus building was Old Main. Built of Indiana limestone and featuring Medieval features like turrets and battlements, Old Main's primary tower has an asymmetrical profile that is featured on the university's marketing and official symbols.
Eastern's Old Main belongs to a group of central buildings on five university campuses around the state called "Altgeld's castles," which were built in the 1890s at the direction of then-Governor John Peter Altgeld, who advocated for architecture with visual interest. Additional architectural points of interest on EIU's campus include the Gothic Revival Booth Library, Pemberton Hall, and Blair Hall; Blair was restored after a fire in 2004.
The Doudna Fine Arts Center (completed 2008) is a centerpiece of Eastern's campus. Designed by architect Antoine Predock, the 138,000-square-foot (12,800 m2) complex has facilities for the music, theatre, and visual arts departments, including numerous studios, workshops, and labs; three theater venues; a concert hall; and a recital hall. The building has interior and exterior copper facades and multiple-story color-glass interior walls. It also has several interior bridges to connect the various wings within the four-story concourse which itself serves as a multi-use space for the university and the region.
The EIU Alma Mater was composed by Friederich Koch during his tenure at Eastern. The lyrics were originally a poem titled "For Us Arose Thy Walls and Towers" by Isabel McKinney, a professor of English at Eastern from 1911 to 1945. Before Koch's melody was employed, the McKinney lyrics were set to the German folk tune Die Wacht am Rhein (The Watch on the Rhine) but were changed around the time of World War I due to anti-German sentiments.
Eastern Illinois University is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission. Its educator certification programs are accredited by the Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation. Eastern offers 51 undergraduate degree programs, 32 graduate degree programs, and 10 post-baccalaureate certificate programs.
Eastern is divided into four colleges:
College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
Lumpkin College of Business & Technology
College of Education
College of Health & Human Services
Other academic divisions include the Graduate School, Sandra & Jack Pine Honors College, and the School of Extended Learning. The Graduate School was founded in 1951 and has an enrollment of approximately 1,800 full and part-time students with more than 300 faculty holding graduate faculty status. The university also includes the Center for Academic Support and Achievement, the Office of Inclusion and Academic Engagement, the Office of Research and Sponsored Programs, and the Office of Study Abroad. The university's Booth Library hosts yearly exhibits, the Ballenger Teachers Center, and numerous digital collections. The main university art museum, the Tarble Arts Center, maintains a 1,000-piece permanent collection, including a 500-piece collection of late 20th-century Illinois folk arts and related archival information. A majority of the holdings are concentrated on art from the state of Illinois and the Midwest region.
In the 2025 U.S. News & World Report college rankings, Eastern Illinois University is ranked 14th in Top Public Schools.
Eastern Illinois University has roughly 8,500 students. As of 2024, tuition is approximately $10,150 for all domestic undergraduates, while it is $12,688 for international undergraduates. Additional fees amount to $3,506.68. The university estimates its average cost-of-attendance to be approximately $24,640 per academic year.
Eastern Illinois University offers over 170 student organizations, ranging from religious, multicultural, service, academic, Greek, honorary, governing, social, athletic and political organizations.
Pemberton Hall was opened in 1908 and was the first all-female residence hall in Illinois; it is a registered historical landmark. The hall was named after Senator Stanton C. Pemberton, who helped get funding for the building approved. Pemberton has four residential floors and is a female hall. It is home to the Roosevelt Leadership Institute Living Learning Community. Pemberton was renovated in 2008 in celebration of its 100-year anniversary and is purported to be haunted.
Lincoln Hall is a female residence hall neighboring Powell-Norton Hall, which is a male residence hall (formerly named Douglas Hall). Both were completed ca. 1952 and contain laundry facilities, a common dining room, a recreation room, as well as several kitchenettes to allow students to make their own food. Major reconstruction was undertaken in 2010 to upgrade the bathrooms. Both Lincoln and Douglas Hall (now Powell-Norton) were named after the debates that Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas held in Charleston, Illinois in 1858. Douglas Hall was renamed to Powell-Norton in April 2022 to commemorate Zella Powell and Ona Norton. Zella Powell was a student at Eastern Illino
Source: Eastern Illinois University (CC BY-SA)
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