Professors do nothing less than transform lives as they build and shape the Madison Experience for today’s students.

Your gift supports JMU’s scholars and thinkers as they challenge students and welcome them into their lives. You can help as professors urge students to explore the expanse of human civilization. To ponder what it means to be human. To make the world a better place.

The financing of higher education has changed forever. State support has been decreasing for decades. Simply raising tuition isn’t an option either.

Please help JMU retain that special kind of Madison professor for today’s students.

Don’t let JMU professors get recruited away to another university with more money and different priorities. The world needs them here at Madison, where they can engage today’s students in finding solutions to the issues that imperil our society.

That’s how JMU will become a national model.

Please support today’s professors with your gift. Your gift to the Liberal Arts Legacy Fund will:

• Ensure that teaching remains the No. 1 priority of our faculty
• Enable faculty to advance the scholarship in their field, which in turn influences their teaching
• Send faculty mentors to present their scholarship at conferences
• Ensure that students receive one-on-one mentoring with expert and engaged professors
• Ensure that students receive consistent, high-quality hands-on research opportunities
• Enable faculty to continue to build innovative curricula and programs for students
• Enable faculty to create high-impact learning experiences for students
• Offer faculty research stipends for the summer
• Help retain our top professors from being recruited away by universities with more money
• Help prepare educated and enlightened citizens who lead productive and meaningful lives
• Help JMU become the national model of the engaged university

Remember: A gift to support the JMU faculty is a gift to support students in these important ways!

Read what alumni say about their liberal arts professors!

“Gabrielle Lanier’s class in American Material Culture literally changed the course of my life. I went on to get a master’s degree in history and have a job as an architectural historian that I absolutely love.”

—Jeanne Barnes, Political Science, Architectural Historian, EHT Traceries

“Dr. Bob Goebel gave me a deep appreciation of literature and the development of human thought. And I remain in awe of Dr. Goebel’s ability to make puns in three languages, sometimes simultaneously. Dr. Riley’s use of the Socratic method also prepared me well for law school.”

—Greg Froom (’97), Modern Foreign Languages/International Affairs

Web Content Editor, Consultwebs

“Carole Nash—She saved me from the poor academic course I was on. Her classes inspired me to work harder and helped me find purpose. I’m a fundraiser at the Smithsonian.”

—   Christina Mittendorf Berube (’01), Anthropology

Smithsonian Development Officer

“I always knew my career path would be business. A liberal arts degree helps give students a well-rounded view of the world.”

—   Shelly A. Good-Cook (’89), Anthropology

Director of Marketing, GermanFest - Shenandoah Germanic Heritage Museum

“Every history class I had with Dr. Riley made an impression on me. I cared about the subject because his devotion and love for history and the students was on display in every single class he taught.”

— Jason Gizzarelli (’95), History

Director, Office of Proceedings, Commodity Futures Trading Commission

“I’ve been a librarian for two years now at a public library and I love every minute of it. Thanks are also due to Joan Kindig's Reader’s Education classes in the Educational building, where I got my first taste of children's literature as an adult.”

—   Rosanna North (’08), English

Librarian, Loudoun County Libraries

“Dr. Carmenza Kline was an amazing Spanish literature professor. I use everything that I learned as a Spanish major at JMU every day in my job as a Spanish teacher, which I've been doing for over 18 years now.” 

—   Laura Fitzpatrick Overstreet (’91), Spanish

Spanish Teacher, Arlington Public Schools

“Dr. Hendrickson had a masterful method for motivating students to work hard at their craft. The skills I learned prepared me well for graduate school as well as my professional career and still pay major dividends to this day.”

— Joshua Mathews-Ailsworth (’07, ’08, ’10), Philosophy and Religion

Associate Director, Organizational Staff Development, Virginia Mennonite Retirement Communit