Setting the pace for university research: from its beginnings as a small teachers college, East Carolina has grown to become a nationally known research center.

• Position: East Carolina University

From its creation in 1907 as a small teachers college to its role today as a national university, East Carolina University has defined itself by its culture of progress. Rooted in service, ECU is at the forefront of conducting innovative research and educating the professionals of the future.

East Carolina's founding president, Robert H. Wright, saw an opportunity for the school to be a progressive force in the eastern part of the state. From his earliest days as its leader, Wright encouraged East Carolina to be a pacesetter. "We want to become leaders in our lines of work," he told the school's original faculty. "To do this means work, but it means growth; it means success; and more than both of these, it means being a real factor for progress in our civilization."

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Wright and the original faculty came up with East Carolina's motto, "To Serve," and the university continues to spread that legacy worldwide. Today, research and applied-technology initiatives underscore East Carolina's commitment to improving quality of life. In July 2002, ECU received top-10 rankings in three categories from The Chronicle of Higher Education in a nationwide study measuring the practical use of university research. East Carolina is the only North Carolina university that received a top-10 ranking in any of the seven categories.

Week in, week out, East Carolina makes news for its innovative efforts. On a recent Monday, for instance, an Associated Press story highlighted the work of ECU's Southern Coastal Agromedicine Center, which administers a National Institutes of Health project researching the West Nile virus. That Thursday, East Carolina was featured in a USA Today article about a growing nationwide trend of using campus-based research to generate funds for universities. And on Friday, Dr. W. Randolph Chitwood Jr. became the seventh East Carolina faculty member to accept the O. Max Gardner Award from the University of North Carolina system's Board of Governors. The award is considered the UNC system's most prestigious faculty recognition.

"A new spirit has developed at East Carolina University," says Chitwood, a surgeon who has fostered ECU's international status as a pioneer in cardiac and robotic surgery. "Ideas abound, and innovation is in the air. At East Carolina, we have evolved into an institution that is not only pre-eminent in training teachers and all types of students, but as a university and medical center focused on new...