East Carolina University
The Institution
To be a national model for student success, public service, and regional
transformation, East Carolina University:


Uses innovative learning strategies and delivery methods to maximize access;
Prepares students with the knowledge, skills and values to succeed in a global,
multicultural society;
 Develops tomorrow’s leaders to serve and inspire positive change;
 Discovers new knowledge and innovations to support a thriving future for
eastern North Carolina and beyond;
 Transforms health care, promotes wellness, and reduces health disparities; and
 Improves quality of life through cultural enrichment, academics, the arts, and
athletics.
We accomplish our mission through education, research, creative activities, and
service while being good stewards of the resources entrusted to us.
(ECU Mission Statement, 2014)
The university is the third largest in the University of North Carolina (UNC), which
consists of the state’s sixteen degree-granting public institutions and one residential high
school. ECU is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools
Commission on Colleges to award baccalaureate, master’s, and doctoral degrees and is
designated as an academic health center by the Association of American Health
Centers. Governed by its own Board of Trustees which is responsible to the UNC Board
of Governors, ECU offers 73 departmental certificates, 100 baccalaureate degree
programs, 77 master’s degree programs, 2 specialist degree programs, 6 professional
practice doctoral programs, and 15 research/scholarship doctoral programs in our
professional colleges, the Thomas Harriot College of Arts and Sciences, the School of
Dental Medicine, and the Brody School of Medicine. It confers more than 6,000 degrees
annually, and it has approximately 155,000 living alumni. ECU has a workforce of
more than 5,700, a faculty numbering more than 2,000, and operating expenses of
more than $780 million.
ECU is located in the coastal region of North Carolina in Greenville, a rapidly growing
city of more than 87,000 persons in Pitt County (population 172,554); it serves a
large rural area. Of the 26,000-­­plus students enrolled at the university, 26 percent
are minorities and 74 percent are white non-­­Hispanics. Twenty-­­one percent of all
students are enrolled in distance education courses only. With a mission of
teaching, research, and service, ECU is a dynamic institution connecting people and
ideas, finding solutions to problems, and seeking the challenges of the future.
Last Modified: 5/20/14