Embry–Riddle Aeronautical University
Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University (ERAU) is an independent, non-sectarian, non-profit, coeducational university with a history dating back to the early days of aviation. The university serves culturally diverse students motivated toward careers in aviation and aerospace. Residential campuses in Daytona Beach, Florida and Prescott, Arizona, provide education in a traditional setting, while an extended campus centers throughout the United States and abroad serves civilian and military working adults.
Following the September 11, 2001 attacks investigators believed that the school trained at least one of the aircraft hijackers involved. Shortly after ERAU was fully exonerated from any involvement in the flight training of the terrorists.
History
Embry-Riddle, founded 22 years after the flight of the Wright Brothers, was at first purely a flight school tasked with flight training and nothing more. Embry-Riddle gained university status in 1970, following a steady expansion of its flying programs.
Campuses
Daytona Beach, Florida
The actual campus is small, centered about the John Paul Riddle Student Center. To facilitate the flight program, the campus is connected to the Daytona Beach International Airport, resulting in an almost constant background noise of aircraft engines on campus. Engineering classes and facilities (such as rapid fabrication machine and wind tunnels) are concentrated in the Lehman Engineering and Technology Center and the Aviation building. Most degree-independent courses are held in the Lindbergh Center, a group of small hexagonal buildings with the designations A, B, C, E and W (for this reason it is much more commonly referred to as "alphabet soup" by faculty and students). The Jack R. Hunt Memorial Library is the only library on campus, notable for having the world's largest collection of NASA and NACA documents as well as very extensive aviation media. NASA personnel have frequently consulted the JRHML's more complete collection of NASA data, most importantly during the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster investigation.
A secondary campus is at Prescott Arizona.
Student Body
(using 2003 data) ERAU's enrollment is about 4,500, about 18% of which is female, resulting in a roughly 5 to 1 male to female ratio. Aviation interests characterize most of the student body, though particularly among the aerospace engineering and aeronautical science majors, the latter of which are traditionally in the flying (pilots) program. Many come from military families interested in military (usually air force) careers.
Distinguished Programs
ERAU's courses focus on aviation, with its aerospace engineering being ranked number one in the USNews college rankings of aerospace engineering degree schools without aerospace engineering PhD programs. Pilot training, aerospace engineering (enhanced by a close relationship with nearby NASA facilities), and more recently computer science are among its strongest programs. The United States Air Force currently contracts flight training by ERAU faculty. The school also has the most extensive ROTC programs in the nation, frequently winning national competitions. One of the few U.S. engineering physics programs exists at ERAU, and is generally regarded as the most rigorous major by fellow students.
Classes are typically small, with even the lowest level freshman courses having 20 to 30 students at most. No classes are held in auditoriums.
Athletics
Sports play a relatively small role on the ERAU campus. While a notable baseball team does exist, other sports are not as seriously regarded. Currently there is no ERAU football team, though there is a basketball team and a fullly self-financed ice hockey team. The school mascot is the ERAU eagle (most closely resembling the Bald Eagle).