The campus is close enough to home for many students to commute, but both nearby and far-distant students choose to live in EMU's dormitories and apartment complexes. Major highways crisscross the southeastern Michigan area, bus service is available within and from outside Ypsilanti, and Detroit Metropolitan Airport is 30 minutes away. I-275 provides quick and convenient access from Detroit's northwestern suburbs. More than half the population of the state of Michigan lives within 50 miles of EMU's campus. Prospective students desiring to visit the campus are greeted by EMU's University Ambassadors Society, which provides tours and arranges visits with faculty in fields of interest to high school or transfer students.
Orientation is provided for all incoming students.
Once on campus, the University catalog becomes the student's bible of information as personal programs are planned with the help of University counselors and faculty advisers. University Profile Eastern Michigan University is a multipurpose university whose roots date back to 1849, when the State Legislature designated it as Michigan's first institution to educate teachers to serve the public schools. At that time, the Detroit school system was only 10 years old and the transition from one-room schoolhouses had just begun. For its first 100 years, Michigan State Normal School, as EMU was conceived, certified thousands of teachers and developed the broad-based academic curricula that prepared it for its evolution to university status in 1959. The University expanded again in 1964 with a College of Business, in 1975 with a College of Health and Human Services, and in 1980 with a College of Technology.