May President's Update

Dear Alumni,

Whether it was this past weekend or years ago, we hope you hold fond memories of the day you graduated from JMU. It is with excitement and trepidation that students leave the place they’ve called home, but what they’ll soon come to learn is that their connection with the JMU family doesn’t end once they leave campus.  As so many of you can attest to, the relationships made at JMU last a lifetime, and long endure the bittersweet moment of commencement.

We’ve been busy on campus the past few months. In addition to graduating the Class of 2016, we welcomed alumni back to campus for a series of reunions, experienced tremendous generosity from donors, witnessed some truly impressive academic and athletic achievements, and worked to encourage conversations about diversity on campus.

Congratulations, Class of 2016!

Last weekend we graduated nearly 4,000 students – that’s more than all of the graduating classes from the 1960s combined! More than 20,000 friends and family members came to campus to support the graduates. The size of the Class of 2016 is a testament to our growth as a university, and I am so proud of each graduate’s accomplishments. You can view a recap of the weekend’s events here: bit.ly/Grad16Recap.

Bluestone Reunions

Right before we said goodbye to the Class of 2016, we welcomed back to campus members of the classes of 1966, 1961, 1956 and 1951 to celebrate their 50th, 55th, 60th and 65th reunions. They reconnected with JMU and each other, sharing memories and recalling some pretty comical moments, see the video here. Their continued connection to the university is inspirational and it was an honor to celebrate them.

Culture of Philanthropy

The first annual Giving Day went 5x above our expectations.

I personally want to thank everyone who participated in our first-ever JMU Giving Day. We achieved our initial goal of 568 donors by 10 a.m., and by the end of the day, 2,840 donors had given more than $338,000. The day was an overwhelming success.

The whirlwind of Madison Week ended mid-March with a stewardship luncheon, an event to celebrate donors whose financial gifts speak to their commitment to the JMU mission. Alumnus Jeff Tickle made a particularly generous gift to our interdisciplinary and design-based engineering program. 

Another major gift to note came from Mike and Kathy Thomas, both alums of JMU (Mike also currently serves as Rector of the JMU Board of Visitors). The Thomases have created a faculty support endowment in the College of Business, as well as the “Dukes Pay it Forward” scholarship. This scholarship is unique in that it aims to encourage past JMU scholarship recipients to contribute to this need-based fund, with future recipients encouraged to do the same. 

These multimillion dollar gifts are advancing the university’s national prominence and encouraging the culture of philanthropy that makes a difference in the lives of our students.  

National Presence and Academic Achievement

We are positioned to become the national model of the engaged university and our programs and individuals continue to accelerate our growth and achievements:  

• The Audiology and Speech Pathology program is highly ranked with Audiology ranked #17 of 72, and Speech-Language Pathology #39 out of 242 programs.
• Our Master’s of Public Administration improved from rank #104 to #86 in the 2016 rankings.
• The Occupational Therapy program moved up to #58 from #116 in U.S. News & World Report’s rankings.
• In Accounting, the class of 2015 master’s students continue to excel on the CPA exam. JMU had a much higher pass rate than many other top business programs.

Students of the School of Music performed on a grand stage in the National Presbyterian Church in Washington, D.C.

• The speech team earned first place in limited team sweepstakes and added six qualifications for the American Forensics Association-National Individual Events Tournament.
• The debate team was named the top public debate team by the Cross Examination Debate Association; they have won this award seven of the past 10 years.
• Four JMU faculty named as Fulbright Scholars: Dr. Maureen Shanahan, Art History, Dr. Louise Temple, Intergrated Sciences and Technology, Dr. Lincoln Gray, Communication Sciences and Disorders, Dr. Matt Lee, Psychology; and student Rachel Palkovitz ('16) was a Fulbright research scholarship winner.
• Business Professor Dr. Paul Copley was selected as the recipient of the Washington, D.C. Chapter of the Association of Government Accountants 2016 Education Award in recognition of his significant contributions to the education and training of government financial managers.

• English Professor Dr. Matt Rebhorn and Art Professor Dr. John Ott each received a summer stipend from the National Endowment for the Humanities.
• Student Renzo Olivari was selected for one of only 20 spots nationwide for the Ralph Bunche Summer Institute sponsored by the American Political Science Association. This is the fourth time in the past six years that a JMU student has been chosen for this program.
• The Grand Opening of the Washington Center will continue to present opportunities for our students and cement our close ties with the nation's capital.

Athletics and Impact

As we continue our season of transition, we have hired coaches who will prepare our students for sucess on the field and on the court, and also for life after college.  I am excited about Coach Mike Houston and the direction he is headed with our new football program. I also welcome Coach Louis Rowe  back to our James Madison family as men's head basketball coach. We have promoted Coach Sean O’Regan to be our new women’s basketball coach. 

Charles Haley ('87) was honored at the Virginia General Assembly this past February.

We have been competing at a high level with our women’s basketball team winning the CAA Championship for the third year in a row, as well as receiving multiple individual awards including the third consecutive CAA Player of the Year award in women’s basketball for Jazmon Gwathmey and Rookie of the Year award for Kayla Cooper-Williams. Another CAA Player of the Year of 2015-2016 is diver Olivia Lehman. Also, Camilla Czulada on the swim and dive team won the CAA Scholar Athlete award. The softball team also claimed four major CAA awards, including Jailyn Ford as CAA Player of the Year, Megan Good as CAA Pitcher of the Year, Erica Field as CAA Defensive Player of the Year and Mickey Dean as CAA Coach of the Year. Among our teams currently competing, softball is ranked as seventh in the nation and our women’s lacrosse team is competing in the first round of the NCAA! Good luck to all of our athletes in their competitions. 

 Conversations on Access, Inclusion and Diversity

The Valley Scholars wrapped up their academic year with a poster competition on a topic of their choosing. WHSV-TV interviewed some of the participants here.

In this age of technology and information, I believe that our diverse human capital is our greatest strength – but only if we embrace and develop it. Across campus we have been having conversations with faculty, staff and students on how we can strengthen and enhance access, inclusion and diversity efforts on campus for individuals of all backgrounds. We all have something to contribute and something to learn in this global experience.

"The real work of diversity happens when you start to become more diverse, then understanding how to create interactions with difference." -Sylvia Hurtado

Women in the workplace continue to take the world by storm and set an example of the engaged leaders we wish all of our students to be. We invited accomplished leaders to inspire and share tips at the third annual Women in Leadership Conference.

Diversity and education went hand and hand as faculty and staff attended the 10th annual diversity conference this past March. We welcomed diversity expert Dr. Sylvia Hurtado, professor in the Graduate School of Education and Information at UCLA, to campus as a keynote speaker.

Goodbye D-Hall

After over 50 years, Gibbons Hall (most of you know it as “D-Hall”) is being torn down to make way for a new state-of-the-art dining facility. Many generations of students have passed through that hall, enjoyed the food and made many memories. If you want to own a piece of D-Hall forever, you can get your own brick from D-Hall with a $100 donation to the university. Your donation will go toward scholarships so future students can create their own memories. Stay tuned for more information about owning a piece of JMU history!

Voting Precinct

For the first time ever, students were able to vote at the new JMU voting precinct in the Virginia Presidential Primary this past March. We were the third most attended precinct in Harrisonburg with more than 1,000 people casting their votes at the Convocation Center. A largely student-led effort, the creation of this new precinct on campus is yet another example of JMU students demonstrating civic engagement.

It has been another very successful academic year at JMU and we are thankful for the support of our dedicated alumni and friends as we continue to provide students the tools to engage in learning, the community and the world. With the help of the entire JMU family, we are well on our way to becoming the national model for the engaged university.

Have a great summer, and make plans now to visit campus again soon!

Sincerely,

President Jonathan Alger