Our Vision, Mission & Values

One of the reasons Eureka College faculty, students and alumni find success is because we are guided by a common purpose greater than our individual goals. All Eureka College members subscribe to and aim to learn, lead and serve in accordance with our vision, mission & values.

Vision

Eureka College will be a regional model for institutional sustainability.

Mission

Eureka College provides a student-centered experience that cultivates the essential skills to serve with passion, lead with purpose, pursue growth opportunities, and learn for life.

Core Values at Eureka College

Eureka College’s core values dictate our behavior, our actions, and who we are as an institution. While we can’t put everything we value into one simple list, our core values consist of:

• Building lifelong relationships & partnerships
• Demonstrating integrity, character & empathy
• Embracing equity, inclusion & sustainability
• Ensuring a culture of collaboration, continuous improvement & learning
• Cultivating a challenging & innovative learning environment
• Expanding students’ funnel of opportunity and growth

Goals at Eureka College

The educational experience at Eureka College is designed to help the student achieve the following goals: 

• Acquire breadth of disciplinary knowledge, methodology, and skills to best serve the profession. 
• Pursue intellectual, cultural, and aesthetic enrichment. 
• Participate in a community of learning, leading toward the development of greater social awareness and responsibility. 
• Recognize various influences, contexts, and experiences that shape personal and professional identities.
• Demonstrate professionalism through resourcefulness, self-sufficiency, curiosity, accountability, and initiative. 

 

Strategic Plan

The 2022-2025 strategic plan, Bold, New Horizons at Eureka College, outlines the college's strategic vision and provides the foundation upon which the College must first get back to some pre-COVID performance indicators, and then may enhance its competitive advantage and ensure success as we continue to navigate the rough seas ahead in higher education.

Our History

Eureka College was founded by abolitionists from Kentucky who were members of a religious movement known as the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and were committed to providing young people a broad, liberal education. These pioneers believed in an education infused with values as a basis for leadership. Chartered by the Illinois Legislature in 1855, Eureka was the first college in the state and among the first in the nation to admit men and women on an equal basis.

 

Eureka College was designated by the National Park Service as a Campus Historic District in the National Register of Historic Places in June 2010.

 

The campus architecture spans a number of popular styles from the past 150 years, including Italianate, Romanesque Revival, Colonial Revival and Collegiate Gothic Revival. The oldest remaining building on campus, Burrus Dickinson Hall, was constructed in 1858.

 

Rich With Tradition

Eureka is a college rich in tradition. When you meet fellow students at the annual homecoming tailgate or experience the fun of finding the rum cake our senior class hides every year, you’ll feel like a link in the long chain of Eureka history – and that’s because you are part of the history and tradition!

 

Eureka College traditions include:

The Ivy Ceremony

The Ivy Ceremony has, for many years, been a part of Eureka College Commencement Exercises. The tradition is traced back to 1925 and holds very special meaning to thousands of graduates who have matriculated from Eureka’s hallowed halls. Ivy is representative of the characteristics of Eureka’s community: strong, flexible, and tenacious. Faculty and staff endeavor to instill these qualities in our students.

 

Each year at Opening Convocation, new students are given a sprig of ivy. Each student then places the ivy sprig into a collective basket symbolizing formal membership in the Eureka College community and a joining together to form this community. The ivy then symbolically grows together to form a single continuous vine as one becomes a full member of the EC family. This common bond is represented at Commencement in the form of an ivy chain.

 

The circle ofIvyy represents the strong bond that binds our graduates and our community together. Although the cutting of the ivy results in separation, it also reminds us of ivy’s ability to take root elsewhere. We hope that our graduates will take with them these ivy springs and all they symbolize and spread the knowledge they have learned and the relationships and love they have experienced “‘neath the elms.”

Recruiting Elm

The Recruiting Elm was an actual elm tree that was located on the Eureka College campus and has become famous for its historic significance. It was under this particular elm tree in April 1861 that Eureka students and faculty gathered to volunteer to fight in the Civil War. A total of 29 Eureka students and faculty joined Company G of the 17th Infantry of Illinois that day. The recruits elected Asa Burgess as their captain.

 

The original Recruiting Elm itself has long fallen; however, as long as it stood, and as long as it remains in our memories, it represents those students’ and faculty’s selfless act and sacrifice for a larger cause. Their act resonates on the campus still. Eureka students and faculty of today are proud to walk “‘neath the elm” and its historic memory.