Historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) released the “Top 50 Employer Official Seal of Approval” list in the Spring/Summer 2009 edition of its magazine, HBCU Connect. Eastern was in sixth and was the only university to crack the top 10.

“It’s a reflection of our efforts to employ a more diverse faculty and staff,” Cynthia Nichols, director of the office of civil rights and diversity, said.

Those efforts range from sending personal letters to members of minority groups and women who are listed in the Directory of Graduates and Potential Degree Recipient, posting positions on Asian and Hispanic-specific job boards and the HBCU list-serve, which posts the position on six different job boards.

It is practices like these that put Eastern so high on the list. McGraw-Hill Companies was the top company.

“It’s a way of recruiting alumni from those campuses, many of whom are African-American,” Nichols said. “Particularly with this group we actively post on all of their job boards every faculty and staff position that we have open.”

The magazine’s stated purpose for the yearly list is that it was “important that people know which companies are putting in real effort to reach out to and recruit students and graduates from Historically black colleges and universities.”

“They were focusing on employers who had taken special efforts to recruit alumni of the HBCU,” Nichols said.

The African-American community is not the only one Eastern is trying to recruit. Full-page ads have appeared in conference programs and a publication dedicated to diversity in higher education.

“We had a full-page ad talking about Eastern in Diverse Issues in Higher Education,” Nichols said. “This group is only recognizing those things we’ve done with HBCU. We’re having a presence that is really highlighting Eastern.”

Sarah Ruholl can be reached at 581-7942 or seruholl2@eiu.edu.