Established by the State of Michigan in 1849, Eastern Michigan University opened its doors as the Michigan State Normal School in 1853. Michigan State Normal School was the first teachers' training school west of the Allegheny Mountains and initially taught students at a basic secondary level, instructing them in teaching methods and material to cover at a variety of levels.

In 1899, Michigan State Normal School changed its name to Michigan State Normal College. Professor Richard Gause Boone lobbied to establish Normal as four-year college, rather than a secondary school. Normal entered the twentieth century as Michigan's premier teacher training school and had become the first teacher training school in the United States to have a four-year degree program.

Between 1900 and 1950, at least 20 buildings were built on campus and by 1939, students, for the first time, were living in dorms on campus instead of in boarding houses off campus. During this period, the University added a number of programs to its expanding curriculum. In 1901, Normal was the first school in Michigan to offer an industrial arts program. The school was also the first in the nation to offer a program to train teachers of the disabled, starting in 1915. In 1940, it was the first teacher training school to offer a program in library services. During the years of World War II, the school trained soldiers for the military as well as civilian students.

In 1956, the school became known as Eastern Michigan College. Three years later, the school gained the status of a university by formally establishing the Graduate School (graduate classes had been offered since 1939) and changed its name again, for the final time, to Eastern Michigan University. The new names not only demonstrated that the school had become a university, but also broadened the emphasis of the school from teacher training to a wider range of baccalaureate programs. In 1959, the university established the College of Education and the College of Arts and Sciences as two separate entities.

From 1950 to the present, nearly 30 new buildings have been constructed and many more renovated to meet the needs of the institution. New dormitories and classroom buildings provide for the needs of new students.

Today, Eastern offers a range of programs of study in a number of areas, including Arts and Sciences, Business, Education, Health and Human Services, and Technology. In 2011, more than 23,000 students from around the world attend EMU.

Borrowed from A Brief History of EMU "http://www.emich.edu/walkingtour/hist.htm"