The Little University Down the Road

Last year I was fortunate enough to be elected to the Eastern Michigan University Alumni Association Board of Directors.   I'm required by law, well, a sheet that I signed, to state that my opinions are my own, and do not represent the Alumni board as a whole.  Of course, I won't be mentioning anything disparaging here. My involvement with the group has brought to light some little known facts about the university that often falls within the shadow of the University of Michigan, just s few miles down the road.

Eastern Michigan's roots are as a teaching college.  To this day it pumps out some of the best prepared elementary educators in the country.  Despite some terrible press over the last 10 years over a murder cover up, and an extremely controversial new President's house and one of the worst runs in NCAA football history, EMU has built itself an impressive alumni base that is spreading quite literally around the world. 

I took some data showing the location of the EMU alumni base and made a country map. I haven't included numbers because that's not really the point. I'm pleased to see that the near 150,000 living alumni seem to be making an impact all over the world.  So while it's Easy to think of EMU as U of M's little sibling, were making quite a splash internationally.

Two places jumped out as me as real surprises, Angola and Swaziland.  I never would have expected the amount of alumni in those areas.  Time to investigate!