Further, we are not well known or effectively marketed outside of our region. We have made very effective use of partnerships to enhance the quality of the programs available through partners as well as the quality of the programs that we offer. In a more competitive, decentralized, and entrepreneurial environment for public higher education in Oregon, partnerships may become more difficult to initiate and to sustain. We are a student-centered campus. Our entering freshmen, in comparison to other OUS institutions, are academically well prepared to succeed at Eastern.
Student leadership is high quality.
Compared to other institutions, our students from rural backgrounds are unusually self-reliance and civil. Our students do not have experiences with diverse racial or ethnic groups nor do they, in their ethnic and racial composition, add the diversity to campus necessary for an educational environment that adequately prepares students for an increasingly pluralist society. We have high quality faculty with appropriate terminal degrees, make no use of graduate teaching assistants, and sparingly rely upon adjunct faculty. Faculty are committed to undergraduate teaching and to participation in the many events that enrich campus life. Faculty meet high standards for the ongoing commitment to their discipline that is necessary precisely because our primary emphasis is upon teaching and learning.