Scholarship season now open!

EOU students have access to many scholarship opportunities to help fund their ongoing education. Scholarships are offered for a variety of majors and interests, and are most often awarded based on a combination of academic ability and financial need.

All applications must be submitted by 11:59 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb 1, 2022 to be considered for next fall.

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FDA approval of COVID vaccine puts EOU 60-day requirement into effect

The FDA gave its full approval to the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine. This announcement moves EOU’s vaccination requirement into full effect. The requirement states that all students and employees who work, learn or engage on EOU’s main campus must show proof of being vaccinated or have an approved vaccination exemption request on file within 60 days of FDA approval. That timeline gives us until Friday, Oct. 22 to gather the necessary documentation. This requirement does not apply to campus visitors or fully remote students and employees. It does apply to all EOU Head Start locations.

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EOU freezes tuition for 2021-22 undergraduate students

Eastern Oregon University will not raise tuition for current undergraduate students in 2021-22. In a special meeting on March 5, EOU’s Board of Trustees voted unanimously in favor of freezing tuition for all returning undergraduate students, on-campus and online. Trustees will vote on graduate tuition rates when they reconvene in May for the board’s regular meeting.

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COVID-19 and Vaccine Information

Prepare for the world beyond college with our high-quality liberal arts and professional programs. Classes are available when and where you need them – at our main campus in La Grande, online almost anywhere in the world, or onsite at our centers across the state.

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Bienvenidos a EOU

Welcome Back!

We are opening our 93rd school year with a return to more normal on-campus activities. Now that is something to dance about. Check out how EOU is focusing on interdependence in our Convocation 2021 video!

About EOU

Be an Agripreneur

Cows grazing in a field in Eastern Oregon

The new Agriculture Entrepreneurship (AE) degree program is about developing and harnessing the Entrepreneurial Spirit! This spirit encompasses creativity, critical thinking, innovative problem-solving and the ability to change perceptions and enhance your future livelihood.

Agriculture needs innovative ideas and solutions to address the current and future issues of rural communities and livelihoods, food security, production and resource efficiencies, and changing climate patterns. The future of agriculture needs you!

Visit the Agriculture Entrepreneurship Site

In the news…

It’s easy to find and share news and events at EOU.

View EOU News Center

Award-winning student journals available now

Student editors and contributors earned top marks for the fourth edition of the EO Social Science Journal.

Gary Keller Presents his research at EOU

Colloquium opens season with introspective look at grading practices

Business Professor Gary Keller presents his latest research on Oct. 28.

Film festival screens features on campus

Short and feature length films will show in EOU’s revitalized theatres Oct. 22-23.

Homerun Homecoming: Hall of Fame baseballers return to EOU

Alumni of the 1980 baseball team, the winningest in school history, reunited at Homecoming.

Student profile: Asha Dore

Graduate student Asha Dore will complete her Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from EOU in June. Pick up the new issue of the university’s award-winning publication, basalt: a journal of fine and literary arts, to read her lyric essay “Figure Studies,” nominated for a Pushcart Prize. In her essay, Asha examines her daughter’s congenital condition, Arthrogryposis or “curved joints,” through the lenses of August Rodin’s sculpting of the human form and the clinical language of medical practitioners who have treated her. Asha has published nearly a dozen works of creative nonfiction, a book review and several pieces of poetry since joining the MFA program. She was also nominated for a Pushcart Prize in Creative Nonfiction for “Making It Big” and her latest story, “Wild Things,” appeared in The Rumpus in the fall.

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Where did you grow up and where do you live now? Asha: I’m originally from Pensacola, Fla. I live outside of Portland, Ore. now. What originally drew you to the genres of nonfiction and poetry? Which do you enjoy more? Asha: Before I was introduced to lyric nonfiction, I was told the poetry I wrote, often sequences of prose poems, was too long, and the fiction I wrote was too fragmented. Creative nonfiction was, at first, a site of permission to write in forms that felt authentic to me, using my life and my research as a resource. Now, I see it as an opportunity to build new truths out of the stories of our lives. I’m not sure how to distinguish that from poetry, or any other art, for that matter. What is a source of inspiration for you? Asha: I’m thrilled by our bodies and art, particularly regarding the differences between the ways that we categorize or label each other, and the way we, within or despite our labels, experience the world. You are also a visual artist. Are your paintings and illustrations connected to your writing? Asha: Absolutely, though I have spent more time studying and practicing writing than working academically with paint and pens. In “Ways of Seeing,” John Berger writes, “The relation between what we see and what we know is never settled.” I am interested in what Berger calls a “relation,” though I might define it as an opening. When we’re looking at art, do we tell ourselves stories about the images? When we’re looking at each other, do we do something similar? There are openings between my body and an image, and there are openings between my body and your body, and whether or not we are conscious of it, we will fill that opening with words. What attracted you to EOU’s Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing program? Asha: I sought an MFA initially because I want to teach, but my family’s schedule makes a full-time program difficult. EOU’s proximity to where I live, the beautiful drive between Portland and La Grande, and the opportunity to continue to study with Lidia Yuknavitch were the three aspects of the program at EOU that compelled me to apply. Have you found both your passion and career as a writer? Asha: It would be a real privilege to support my family via publications, editorial work and teaching, but I’m not there yet. Certainly there is passion, or a feeling of necessity, that brings me to the page. You’ve published many pieces since joining the MFA program. Do you have any other recent or forthcoming works you’d like to mention? Asha: I have turned toward completing a couple of manuscripts, so I haven’t submitted shorter works in months. I do have an essay about grief and skateboarding coming out in the next issue of Clackamas Literary Review. How have MFA faculty supported you throughout the process?

Asha: All of the faculty have supported and even sometimes championed my work, even though it doesn’t fit easily into one genre. I think that’s rare, but incredibly valuable, in an MFA program.

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> Learn more about EOU’s Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing program!

Asha Dore
MFA, Creative Writing
Portland, Ore.