CMU Today
Central Michigan University serves nearly 15,500 students on its Mount Pleasant campus and through flexible online programs anywhere in the world.
In each of the university’s approximately 300 undergraduate, master’s, specialist, and doctoral programs, CMU students get their hands on real-world learning to help them achieve their educational goals. Whether in the arts, media, business, education, human services, health professions, liberal arts, medicine, social sciences, science, and engineering, CMU Chippewas graduate with the experience they need to launch their careers.
With accomplished professors, there are countless opportunities for students to engage in applied research in world-class facilities. CMU is committed to providing students with a superior learning environment and global perspective to compete in an increasingly complex world.
CMU’s impact and influence extend far beyond its main campus into the state, nation, and world.
- CMU is one of four institutions nationally, and 14 globally, certified as a Celonis Academic Center of Excellence.
- The Honors Program administers the prestigious Centralis Scholarship Program and oversees approximately 200 faculty-mentored honors undergraduate capstone projects annually.
- Thousands of students work through the Mary Ellen Brandell Volunteer Center to help others locally, nationally and around the world.
- CMU’s Alternative Breaks program ranks first in Michigan and is consistently ranked in the top 5 nationally for the number of Alternative Break trips according to Break Away.
- Leadership Safari, a five-day leadership experience for new students, has 2,000 students participate each year, led by nearly 300 student staff volunteers.
- CMU received a gold level ranking from the Michigan Veterans Affairs Agency.
- CMU is one of only two Adobe Creative Campuses in Michigan, which allows students to expand their digital literacy skills and enables them to design and create images, websites, videos, podcasts and more.
- CMU was named the US EPA’s 2020 WasteWise College Partner of the Year and the 2021 US EPA WasteWise national narrative Sustainability Public Education Award winners. CMU holds a STARS rating from the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE) through 2024.
Cutting-edge Student Research
CMU is among just 6% of universities classified by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching as a Carnegie R2 research institution. R2 indicates a high level of research activity in a smaller university setting.
Students conduct cutting-edge research in Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s diseases, help create biofuels and longer-lasting batteries, develop improved methods of water purification and more. In addition, with the university’s second $10 million Environmental Protection Agency grant in six years, CMU researchers lead the way in efforts to protect and restore coastal wetlands vital to the overall health of the Great Lakes through CMU’s Institute for Great Lakes Research. CMU also was the first public university in the Midwest with a MakerBot Innovation Center, a large-scale 3D printing installation. CMU’s Biosciences Building is home to an electron microscope facility used for research in a variety of areas throughout the university.
Culture, Community, Resources
CMU’s main campus is in Mount Pleasant, a community that blends small-town living and big-city amenities. It’s part of Michigan’s culturally varied and vibrant Great Lakes Bay Region that also includes Saginaw; Bay City; Midland; and the state’s largest Native American community, centered on the Saginaw Chippewa Isabella Reservation in Mount Pleasant.
Other major Michigan destinations and attractions — Lansing, Grand Rapids, Detroit, Traverse City, wineries, beaches, golf, and ski resorts, and many more — are within easy reach of the city’s central location in Michigan’s Lower Peninsula.
Mount Pleasant is the seat of Isabella County and home to more than 25,000 of the growing county’s nearly 70,000 people. The community offers natural beauty, family attractions and small-town life complemented by university culture. Friends and family are always welcome to explore CMU’s park-like campus and attend plays, concerts, speeches, athletic events, library exhibits, summer camps and much more. Features include:
Culture and Entertainment. University Theatre, University Events, the School of Music, and the student-run Program Board offer year-round world-class plays, entertainment, and other exciting activities. With more than 94,000 square feet of space, the John G. Kulhavi Events Center serves the cultural and entertainment needs of the campus and community, hosting a wide variety of events, from commencements to concerts to speaking engagements to business expos.
Athletics. CMU has won almost 100 Mid-American Conference championships in 15 different sports, and the football program has participated in a postseason bowl game in 10 of the past 15 years. CMU won the league’s top award, the Cartwright Award for overall excellence, in 2009 and 2015, and the department also earned three consecutive MAC Institutional Sportsmanship awards from 2015-17. CMU’s student-athletes have averaged a GPA of 3.0 or higher for 45 straight semesters.
Charles V. Park Library. Central Michigan University’s Park Library houses more than 275 computers for student use and provides access to more than 800,000 print books, 900,000 electronic books, 250 databases, access to the full-text content of 150,000 journals, and more than 125,000 multimedia items. Electronic collections are accessible around the clock, from both on and off campus. The library’s 1 North Study Room is open 24 hours a day, seven nights a week for extended hours study. The Clarke Historical Library, located along the main corridor of the library, regularly displays items from its extensive holdings of materials about local and Michigan history, Native American history, books for children and young adults, the life and writings of Ernest Hemingway, as well as CMU history.