<p>Disclaimer: I’m an EMU grad so I have a bias, albeit, not a super strong one.</p>
<p>Eastern, like CMU and WMU, has some very specialized areas of expertise. If I were going into education (especially Special Ed), Occupational Therapy, or Information Security, I would go to EMU above anywhere else in the state. It’s had one of the top ranked OT programs in the nation for decades now. It began as a teacher’s college and continues to be produce well prepared educators (as someone said up thread, at a reasonable cost in comparison). The tough nerd has started what they’re calling Michigan’s Cyber Range, a sandbox where IT security educators, researchers, professionals, etc. can set up virtual networks and do pen-testing and vulnerabilities and it’s based out of EMU. While other colleges will have access to the Cyber Range, the EMU students have first opportunity to use the Cyber Range. Their professors are top notch and the technical hands on experiences available to them are unparalleled anywhere but maybe Carnegie-Mellon right now. </p>
<p>I don’t see closing state schools as the best way to manage the declining population. I could see reducing competition among the schools so that each one has their specialities and can really excel in those areas. Yes, they will need to scale down some of their services, number of staff, etc. to reflect the fewer numbers of students. However, they’ve been really crunched for space over the last few years so perhaps they’ll fit within their limits again. The other thing is… Michigan needs to get people moving back again. That’s the real challenge.</p>
<p>I found one other thing in the article interesting as it talked about fewer high school graduates. The state implemented new graduation requirements which began with the class of 2011. Are these proving too difficult? Are graduation rates being affected?</p>