Eastern\u2019s leadership responded by working with a Baltimore-based consulting group, idfive, and faculty representatives from EWU\u2019s four colleges to engage the entire campus community in the quest for answers.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n After months of research and market analysis, strategic-planning and surveys of stakeholders, a plan that emphasizes Eastern\u2019s long history of hands-on, experiential learning took shape. And earlier this year, with the BOT\u2019s approval, that plan became official: Eastern, in both mission and messaging, would now publicly define itself as \u201cthe region\u2019s polytechnic\u201d \u2014 \u201cpolytechnic\u201d being broadly defined as an emphasis on applied learning \u2014 as it works to provide its students with experience-based pathways for success.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThere has been a lot of chatter, and even a few news stories already, about this next evolution for Eastern \u2014 our regional polytechnic brand,\u201d Shari McMahan, Eastern\u2019s president, said with a laugh during her annual convocation address in September. \u201cAs I continue to say, this is an exciting opportunity for us to differentiate ourselves and to capitalize on the work we are already doing\u2026 Our goal is to make applied learning a hallmark of every EWU degree.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cTo be clear,\u201d she continued, \u201cwe are still a regional comprehensive public university grounded in a liberal arts education.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Currently, some 75 percent of EWU students graduate with experience in their intended career fields. Eastern will now be working even harder to provide professional experiences to all<\/i> of its students. \u201cThere has been a lot of listening that\u2019s gone into this \u2014 a lot of back-and-forth and creativity,\u201d McMahan said. \u201cTo me, it really defines the authentic Eastern Washington University.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Just after the beginning of the 2023 academic year, Eastern\u2019s Board of Trustees met to discuss, among other pressing issues, how the university could better share its strengths with the wider world: \u201cHow might we more authentically communicate who we are,\u201d they asked, \u201cwhile differentiating ourselves in our region\u2019s competitive higher education landscape?\u201d Eastern\u2019s…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":484,"featured_media":3112,"menu_order":0,"template":"","class_list":["post-3110","stories","type-stories","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","stories_categories-students","stories_tags-fall-winter-2024","stories_tags-magazine-featured"],"acf":{"subheading":"Eastern adopts a new approach to communicating its mission.","featured_image_format":"cover","display_featured_image":false,"display_byline":false,"display_date_published":false,"featured_video":"","Links":false,"Resources":false,"page_override_title":"","page_hide_sidebar":false,"page_enable_page_nav":false},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test-www.ewu.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/stories\/3110","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test-www.ewu.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/stories"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test-www.ewu.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/stories"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test-www.ewu.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/484"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/test-www.ewu.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/stories\/3110\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3130,"href":"https:\/\/test-www.ewu.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/stories\/3110\/revisions\/3130"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test-www.ewu.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3112"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test-www.ewu.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3110"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/test-www.ewu.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2025\/01\/robotics_lab-300x200.jpg\")