I had to learn Eiffel at college because my prof was its inventor (Disclaimer: I really have a problem with this way of 'teaching'). And as such it was bolted into our brains, that in software engineering, it just so happens that everything that Eiffel 'solves', is precisely what is 'amiss' in other languages. I was mainly pissed that besides Prolog, I had to learn yet another obscure language.
In hindsight, I do think I might have been a bit judgmental back then, Eiffel has some very nice constructs and language limitations that allow you to build safety critical software (as you put it).
A similar thing happened to me. Our professor forced us to program a lot in a language of his own invention called Morpho (http://morpho.cs.hi.is/). Although it does have some cool features I don't think anyone has ever written anything properly useful in that language and I'm fairly certain that I will never ever write another line of Morpho in my life. I'd say you were lucky since Eiffel is actually used to some extent out there in the real world.
There should be some sort of ban or restriction for teachers teaching their own textbooks or obscure languages.
In hindsight, I do think I might have been a bit judgmental back then, Eiffel has some very nice constructs and language limitations that allow you to build safety critical software (as you put it).