Old Dominion Athletic Conference. The university also operates a satellite campus in Lancaster, Pennsylvania , which primarily caters to working adults. Eastern Mennonite University was launched in as the Eastern Mennonite School by a group of Mennonite church members. They recognized that their church-centered communities needed to offer schooling beyond the basic level for young-adult Mennonites. Brunk Sr. Eastern Mennonite's first registrar, John Early Suter, believed that the university should offer secular academics in addition to Bible classes, and he was one of the first two such teachers.
Early Suter's son, Daniel Suter, who taught in the Biology department from to In β49, EMU admitted two local African American students, becoming one of the first historically white colleges in the U. South to integrate prior to the Civil Rights Act of EMU served only members of the Mennonite church in the early and mid s, but since then has educated thousands other than its original constituency of "Anabaptists," a broad term for Mennonites and kindred subscribers to the theology of Anabaptism.
In , the college changed its name for a second time, becoming Eastern Mennonite University. In the last 20 years in particular, EMU has attracted people from all over the world and various faiths who are interested in the way it combines peace, social justice, simplicity and community.
The university made national news in when it, along with Goshen College also associated with the Mennonite Church USA , added sexual orientation to their nondiscrimination policy.
The decision put the school somewhat at odds with its affiliated denomination, the Mennonite Church USA, and out of step with the interests of the CCCU, of which it was a founding member. EMU attempts to graduate people oriented toward the wider world and toward helping others.
