Eastern Mennonite University is a small Mennonite liberal arts university on the northern edge of Harrisonburg, with around 2,000 students. It was founded in 1917 by the Mennonite Church and remains rooted in Mennonite values — service, peace, and community — while operating as a fully accredited liberal arts institution.
The campus is compact and attractive. The university's Centre for Justice and Peacebuilding, a graduate programme in conflict transformation, has an international reputation and brings students from conflict zones around the world. Visitors can attend public lectures and events. The Mennonite heritage in the Shenandoah Valley is deep — the community has been here since the 18th century — and EMU is the clearest institutional expression of it.