James Madison University has received a $2.5 million gift for the new wing of its Carrier Library.
Alexandria residents Stan and Rosemary Jones provided the donation, which the Harrisonburg public university announced in late November. A 1954 physics and math alumnus of what was then Madison College, Stan worked for McLean-based Mitre as an engineer for five decades, specializing in antennae design and development. He holds a master’s degree from the University of Delaware. Rosemary is a retired associate real estate broker.
“We certainly care about libraries, and we both use our library here in Alexandria,” Rosemary Jones said in a Madison magazine feature.
The couple previously committed $1.3 million to JMU in 2019 for scholarships for first-generation Honors College students in the university’s College of Science and Mathematics and the College of Integrated Science and Engineering. In March 2019, Jones received JMU’s College of Science and Mathematics Alumni Achievement Award at the JMU Alumni Association awards banquet.
Bob Kolvoord, who is JMU’s interim provost and vice president for academic affairs, as well as the former dean of its College of Integrated Science and Engineering, met the Joneses around the time of their previous donation.
“Stan is, at his heart, a systems analyst and engineer,” he said in a Madison magazine feature. “And what I’ve observed is that both of them really have an eye toward the future and wanting to help provide opportunity for students.”
JMU began renovating and expanding the Carrier Library in summer 2023 and expects to reopen it for the fall 2026 semester. The university is renovating 138,224 square feet and building 56,887 square feet; the new Stan and Rosemary Jones Wing will be more than 56,000 square feet.
A rendering of the Carrier Library’s Stan and Rosemary Jones Wing, looking southeast across Grace Street in Harrisonburg. Image courtesy James Madison University
“I think it’s a really beautiful building,” Stan Jones said in a Madison magazine feature. “That was the first thing that caught my eye.”
The expanded library will have a makerspace, media production and digitization studios and an experimental tech classroom. It will also have an anatomy room, consultation and group study rooms, a lactation space, new facilities for Special Collections and a lab for book and manuscript conservation, a café, a student kitchenette and other new rooms and features.
Founded in 1908 as the State Normal and Industrial School for Women at Harrisonburg, JMU is a public research university with an R2 classification from the Carnegie Commission on Higher Education. In the fall semester, the university had 21,112 undergraduate and 1,767 graduate students enrolled.
James Madison University in Harrisonburg has long wanted to be more involved with innovation and entrepreneurship in the Shenandoah Valley region. So, when a co-founder of the Staunton Innovation Hub coworking space announced plans in 2022 to renovate the historic Wetsel Seed building into the Harrisonburg Innovation Hub (HIH), JMU pre-leased 1,000 square feet of flex space there, says Keith Holland, the university’s associate vice provost for research and innovation.
“We love the principle of what they’re doing, creating community, supporting innovators,” he says. “We said, ‘We need to be part of that.’”
JMU was the first to sign up for space in the HIH, which is set to open Dec. 2. The three-story, 26,500-square-foot brick building includes 53 private offices, plus larger private spaces, conference rooms, coworking spaces, focus rooms for private calls, a wellness room and an outdoor workspace.
Part of “the magic” of these spaces is that they attract people from a diverse cross-section of industries, says Peter Denbigh, co-founder and co-owner of HIH. “And the other magic that it creates is the camaraderie and the conversation that happens and the collaboration.”
Tenants can sign up for multiyear or month-to-month memberships that include free coffee, happy hours and lunch-and-learn sessions in partnership with organizations like the Shenandoah Community Capital Fund.
Denbigh, who co-founded the Staunton hub in 2018, says Harrisonburg was chosen because it’s “just a wonderful, thriving town of energy and entrepreneurship and innovation and business. It just made a lot of sense to be here.”
JMU will use its space for the Gilliam Center for Entrepreneurship, the Shenandoah Valley Small Business Development Center and the Shenandoah Valley Partnership. The university is also working with its College of Visual and Performing Arts to demonstrate “how to inject creativity into the business and innovation process,” Holland says.
HIH is managed by Innovation Management, a separate entity from the Staunton hub’s management, but members will have some privileges at both locations. A group of investors purchased the Wetsel Seed building for $2.88 million, spending more than $2 million on renovations.
Next up is a location in Waynesboro, slated to open by the end of this year, Denbigh says. “We’re renting a really cool space in the Virginia Metalcrafters building, and we’re excited to bring some of this magic to Waynesboro.”
Turns out, Charlie King isn’t a gone fishin’ sort of retiree.
Back in 2021, King retired after serving as James Madison University’s chief financial officer and senior vice president of administration and finance for 25 years.
King and his wife, Sherry, knew they wanted to stay in the area after retirement. Their son Garrett works for the JMU Foundation and their daughter-in-law Lindsay works at the university’s College of Business, so the elder Kings decided to build a house about 20 minutes from campus.
For two years after retiring, King worked part-time for JMU in government relations, which meant traveling to Richmond to talk up JMU and higher education to lawmakers.
“I was really out of work with not anything to do for a year,” he says. “And quite frankly, I wasn’t enjoying retirement. I had worked my whole life, and I went from going 100 miles an hour to about 10 miles an hour, and I didn’t adjust real well to that.”
In March, Jonathan Alger, who’d served as JMU’s president for a dozen years, announced he would step down over the summer to lead American University in Washington, D.C.
Sherry King asked her husband if he had any interest in the job.
“I’ve been retired for three years,” King, 72, recalls saying. “I just don’t think that’s a possibility.”
But it didn’t take long for King to hear from a waterfall of alumni, former board members and Virginia lawmakers, all of whom encouraged him to lead the college through the transition.
King put his name into the hat.
“There was immediate coalescing around Charlie from all the various sectors,” says Kay Coles James, who sits on JMU’s board of visitors.
King, who started as interim president on July 1, says he’s found his primary role is to “keep the trains on schedule — and there’s a lot of trains on a college campus, particularly one the size of this university,” he adds.
On a typical morning, King might have a phone call with the state secretary of education’s office or sit in on a Zoom call with other public college and university presidents. During a break, he might walk over to the dining halls to see how long students were waiting in line.
The amount of time he spends meeting with other people, even as interim president, caught King by surprise. “I thought I was going to be able to come in here and put my head down and go to work,” he says.
In his last stint working at JMU, King oversaw the construction of numerous buildings — so many that the board of visitors elected in 2021 to rename the Integrated Science and Technology building King Hall. As interim president, King continues to keep a close eye on capital projects, including the renovation and expansion of Carrier Library, which opened in 1939. That reopening is tentatively slated for 2026.
King also puts out fires. Typically, JMU has about 4,800 freshmen students. This year, the university had more than 5,000. “We got a large freshman class, and we had some housing issues we need to resolve,” King says.
He also spends time addressing workforce issues. Like universities across the country, JMU is struggling to fill openings in its nursing department. Jobs that are lower paid — but still essential to the university’s operations — are also a challenge to fill, he notes.
Then, there are loftier matters that require a university president’s attention, like considering the impact artificial intelligence will have on JMU now and in the future.
“There’s always things for me to interject myself into or to help, hopefully, move forward,” he says. Convincing the board members to let him keep the job permanently isn’t one of King’s concerns, however.
“I’m finding out every day this is a young person’s job, not an old man’s job,” King says.
King definitely has energy to champion JMU’s successes, however.
The university had more than 37,000 applications from potential first-year students hoping to snag one of 5,000 slots in the 2024-25 school year.About 29% of this year’s freshman class is from out of state, according to King. “That’s up for us,” he says. “We’ve been down around 25% or less for a couple years.”
The school is especially popular in the Northeast and the mid-Atlantic, according to the interim president.
“We’re identified by a lot of people as a school that you can come and have a really good experience,” King brags, “And you’re going to graduate on time, and you’re going to get a job and do well.”
Cultivating innovation
The JMU Laboratory School for Innovation & Career Exploration also provides King with a reason to cheer.
A priority of Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s administration, state-designated lab schools, which partner with colleges and universities, are designed to spur innovative education programs from preschool through 12th grade. As of September, the state Board of Education has approved 15 lab schools. In 2022, the General Assembly appropriated $100 million to the Virginia College Partnership Laboratory fund to launch and support the schools.
JMU’s lab school launched in August when educators welcomed 100 ninth graders from East Rockingham and Broadway high schools. A partnership between JMU, Blue Ridge Community College and Rockingham County Public Schools, the lab school offers an interdisciplinary and project-based approach to learning, according to Donica Hadley, its executive director.
It’s had a gradual rollout. Next year, ninth graders at two of the county’s other high schools will be invited to join the lab school. “We will be up and running in all four schools, ninth through 12th grade, hopefully, in the next five years,” Hadley says.
As juniors, students at the Lab School for Innovation & Career Exploration can elect to return to their home schools or attend JMU or BRCC, she explains. “Students have the potential to walk out … with their high school diploma and also college credits on the dime of this initiative.”
Champions of JMU’s lab school tend to stress the importance of giving back to the community surrounding the university. When pressed, they will acknowledge how the lab school benefits the Dukes.
“We are known for producing schoolteachers,” King says. “The school was founded as a teacher’s college, and we produce the second largest number of schoolteachers in the commonwealth now as far as public universities.”
Undergraduate and graduate students in JMU’s College of Education can take advantage of the lab school to see what they’re learning applied in the real world, according to King.
For his work as a graduate assistant, Kevin Wheedleton, a JMU grad who is currently working toward his master’s degree in teacher leadership at his alma mater, assists students and educators at the lab school.
JMU graduate assistant Kevin Wheedleton, who earned his bachelor’s degree in elementary education, says working with Rockingham County students at the lab school provides “an opportunity for me to get to see school education at all levels.” Photo by Norm Shafer
“I am kind of the connection point between …Rockingham County and JMU,” says Wheedleton, who earned his bachelor’s degree in elementary education in May. “Since it’s a brand-new program this year, there’s a lot of moving parts and a lot of uncertainty and questions.”
Wheedleton says he’s “ecstatic” about having the opportunity to work at the lab school in its first semester.
“Not just because it’s a great thing to have on my résumé, but it’s an opportunity for me to get to see school education at all levels,” he says. “It’s been very insightful to be able to work with Donica Hadley [and] the whole lab school staff on the introduction of this great curriculum and schooling opportunity.”
Being able to take teaching candidates on tours of the lab school will likely make recruiting education professors easier too, adds Kristina Doubet, a professor in JMU’s education department.
Doubet predicts that as education students have the opportunity to work in the lab school, JMU will develop a reputation for training teachers who are open to innovation. “This is a feather in JMU’s cap.”
‘One of the greatest jobs’
Only six presidents have led JMU since its 1908 founding.
It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to understand why university presidents tend to hang around, according to board of visitors member Kay Coles James. A former secretary of the commonwealth, she was appointed to the board by Youngkin and chairs the presidential search committee that will choose King’s successor.
“When people come, they enjoy the culture, the people, the work itself, the university, and so we tend to have longevity,” she says.
Other Youngkin-appointed board members who are serving on the search committee are Republican former state Del. Richard “Dickie” Bell; retired Marine Lt. Col. Jeff Bolander; Teresa Edwards, a regional president for Sentara Health; Food City President and CEO Steve Smith; and Nicole P. Wood, a lobbyist for the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America.
James, who was appointed by then- President George W. Bush to be director of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management in 2001, is also a former president of Washington, D.C., conservative think tank The Heritage Foundation and is an adviser to Youngkin’s Spirit of Virginia PAC. She doesn’t hesitate when asked whether she views her role as carrying out the Republican governor’s vision for the commonwealth’s universities.
“The governor does have an agenda,” she says, “and his agenda is to have one of the best quality higher ed systems in the country.”
Critics have said, though, that Youngkin is trying to exercise too much control over curriculum, whether in K-12 schools or colleges. Earlier this year, at Youngkin’s request, his education secretary’s office requested syllabi from George Mason University and Virginia Commonwealth University for courses about race, diversity, equity and inclusion. Ultimately, the two universities canceled the classes. The governor also issued an executive order in 2022 as one of his first acts in office, forbidding the teaching of “inherently divisive concepts, including critical race theory,” in Virginia K-12 public schools. As of July, the governor’s appointees make up the majority of state universities’ board members.
In addition to members pulled from the board of visitors, JMU’s presidential search committee also includes Mike Busing, dean of JMU’s College of Business; Warren Coleman, president and CEO of the JMU Foundation; Maribeth Herod, a former rector; Roger Soenksen, a professor in JMU’s School of Media Arts and Design; and Sydney Stafford, a JMU junior hailing from Bristow.
As of late August, the committee was in the exploratory phase of the search.
“We have done listening tours all across the state, listening to alumni talk about … where we are as a university right now and what are the skill sets that we need,” says James.
At the listening sessions, James has found, speakers often address similar hopes and concerns.
In 2022, the Carnegie Commission awarded JMU with a R-2 distinction, which recognizes doctoral universities with “high” research activity. Speakers at the meetings have wanted the university to continue to embrace research, James says, but to be careful not to sacrifice the university’s tradition of giving undergrads individualized attention.
At a time when higher education enrollment generally is on the decline, stakeholders have stressed it’s important for JMU’s next leader to have bold ideas about how to present the university “to not just Virginians, but to the country, as the school of choice,” she notes.
Additionally, multiple speakers have noted the next president will need to be skilled at fundraising — a necessity for presidents at nearly every university. “You cannot count on the General Assembly to produce your entire budget,” James says.
For the presidential search, JMU is working with Russell Reynolds Associates. The New York global leadership advisory firm will compile feedback from the JMU community to create a profile of what the university wants in its next president.
After that, the search committee, working with the university’s marketing and branding office, will produce a document, James explains, “that’s sort of our pitch piece, that tells why this is one of the greatest jobs in America, that tells about the opportunities that the next president of JMU will have, that will talk about the skill sets that we think we need right now and what the profile of the next president will look like.”
The search committee then will recommend a small pool of candidates, who will be interviewed by members of the board of visitors, who will offer the job to one fortunate candidate.
“It’s a great opportunity,” James says, “and a great place to work.”
JMU at a glance
Founded
A public research university in Harrisonburg, James Madison University was founded in 1908 as the State Normal and Industrial School for Women. It was renamed Madison College in 1938 in honor of President James Madison and became James Madison University in 1977. JMU’s 728-acre campus is known for its distinctive bluestone buildings, as well as Newman Lake and the university’s 125-acre Edith J. Carrier Arboretum, which has numerous gardens and wooded areas with oak and hickory trees over 100 years old. Harrisonburg, which has a population of 53,000-plus residents, is located in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley, about 120 miles from Washington, D.C., and Richmond.
Enrollment*
Undergraduate: 21,006
Graduate: 1,752
Student profile*
Male | female: 42% | 58%
International students: 1%
Students of color: 23%
Academic Programs*
JMU offers more than 70 undergraduate programs and 30 master’s degrees, an educational specialist degree and nine doctoral degrees. Fields range from accounting and computer science to international business, psychology and nursing.
Faculty*
Full-time: 1,046
Part-time: 359
Tuition, fees, housing and dining**
$27,158 is approximate annual in-state undergraduate residential cost, including tuition, mandatory fees, housing and meal plan.
Boxer Gifts, a British manufacturer of specialty, often wacky gifts, including the “poo timer” and “old age emergency pants,” will invest $1.4 million to establish its first U.S. light manufacturing, distribution and wholesale operation in Harrisonburg, Gov. Glenn Youngkin announced Tuesday.
The project is expected to create 15 jobs.
“After selling fun gifts in the United States for over 40 years, we’re thrilled to announce that our first U.S.-based warehouse is set to open in Harrisonburg,” Thomas O’Brien, president of the family-owned company, said in a statement. “After years of distributing our products in Virginia through [third-party logistics companies] and getting to know the wonderful people and the state, we knew this was the perfect place for us. ”
Boxer Gifts plans to retrofit a new facility it purchased in Harrisonburg “to increase capacity and efficiency in accessing its customers in the U.S. market,” according to the statement.
The specialty gift shop purchased a 10,000-square-foot warehouse and .74 acres at 955 Sawtooth Oak Circle on March 15 for $640,000, according to Thomas O’Brien.
Boxer Gifts’ new U.S. operation will allow faster shipping times for U.S. customers, the ability to increase the range of shipments and increased capacity for direct-to-consumer customers, according to a LinkedIn post by the company.
Jamie O’Brien launched Boxer Gifts in 1982 when Thomas O’Brien was 2 years old. The company boasts about being first to introduce novelty condoms to the market. In 2012, it added a gift book division, which now sells titles like “What is Your Dog Really Thinking?” and “Stoner’s Optical Illusions.” Thomas O’Brien became president of the company in 2018, according to LinkedIn.
The Virginia Economic Development Partnership worked with the City of Harrisonburg to secure the project and will support the company through the Virginia Jobs Investment Program, which provides consultative services and funding to companies to support employee recruitment and training activities.
Shenandoah Community Capital Fund is hosting a national entrepreneurship organization’s summit in Harrisonburg, marking the first time the bi-annual event has convened in a rural area like the Shenandoah Valley, says Anika Horn, who directs SCCF’s entrepreneurial ecosystem-building efforts. The Startup Champions Network (SCN) Spring Summit runs April 30 through May 2.
Staunton-based SCCF applied to host the conference in October 2023 and got the nod in December.
Horn expects roughly 100 entrepreneurs and supporters, lenders and ecosystem builders from all over the United States. Previously, the conference, which was held in cities like Phoenix and Washington, D.C., has drawn about 80 to 120 attendees. “We are on par right now with our big counterparts,” she says.
The location choice demonstrates how well the Shenandoah Valley’s entrepreneurial culture has developed, says Peirce Macgill, Harrisonburg’s deputy director of economic development: “They’re saying, ‘Let’s go there and learn what they’re doing.’”
Macgill wants to show off efforts such as B-Cubed, a minority-oriented, business growth program funded through grants and private donations, and Launch Harrisonburg, a 10-week class helping entrepreneurs test an idea’s viability before jumping into business.
Conference participants often form lasting relationships, says Chris Cain, chief lending officer at Peoples Advantage Federal Credit Union in Petersburg. Cain, who has forged several professional ties through the SCN summit, met Horn at the 2007 conference in Fargo, North Dakota. She’s still in touch with panel members from across the nation whom she met at past SCN conferences, including a tech investor and other entrepreneurial advocates. “Some of my closest professional relationships have been made through SCN,” she says.
Along with participating in panel discussions, interactive workshops and taking deep dives into problems like access to capital, attendees will go on an “innovation” tour, Horn says, visiting entrepreneurs in Harrisonburg, Waynesboro and Staunton. They’ll call on Virginia Metalcrafters and Commonwealth Crush, a wine incubator for independent growers lacking on-site winemaking equipment. They’ll also check out the Manufactory Collective in Harrisonburg, a new incubator focused on manufacturing startups.
Horn wants conference visitors to experience the valley like a local, she says: “We are hosting dinners with locals, inviting community members to dine with conference attendees in Staunton’s community spaces … [with catering] by local restaurants. We really believe in breaking bread with our participants and building relationships through these types of ‘collisions’ [of ideas and collaboration] we’re creating.”
American University announced Monday that James Madison University President Jonathan Alger will be its next president, starting July 1. Alger joined the Harrisonburg public university in 2012.
Alger will be the 16th president of AU, a private university in Washington, D.C., replacing President Sylvia Burwell. During his tenure, JMU received R2 research classification from the Carnegie Commission on Higher Education, and the university joined the FBS level in NCAA Division I football. Alger launched the Valley Scholars program, which provides scholarships for first-generation students from the Shenandoah Valley. Also, JMU’s endowment more than doubled under Alger.
“Encouraging students to dream big is the heart of higher education, and the opportunity to join American University is a dream come true for me and my family. AU’s stellar academic profile and global impact reflect the unique and inspiring characteristics of the faculty, staff, students and alumni,” Alger said in a statement released by AU. “Returning to the Washington, D.C., region where our family has deep ties and collaborating with the AU community to create the next chapter of this great institution is an unparalleled opportunity.”
Alger previously was senior vice president and general counsel at Rutgers University and assistant general counsel at the University of Michigan. He chairs the Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges and is vice chair of the American Association of Colleges and Universities. A graduate of Swarthmore College and Harvard Law School, Alger worked in the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights.
“President Alger elevated the university to a place far beyond where JMU has ever been. Under his leadership, we have turned the page into the next chapter of the history of JMU,” JMU Rector Maribeth Herod said in a statement. “JMU is no longer the hidden gem in the mountains because Jon has led us to national prominence and is leaving the university after accomplishing so much together. While Jon and Mary Ann will be missed immensely, the offerings at American University are a wonderful culmination of everything he is so passionate about.”
According to JMU, the Board of Visitors’ executive committee will recommend an acting president to the full board for a formal vote in coming weeks, and then the board will begin the search process for JMU’s next president.
Northwest Harrisonburg used to be a place to buy a tire. Beyond the 116-year-old City Produce Exchange building, which was converted into lofts in 2006, and the Local Chop & Grill House, which opened in the same building in 2009, there wasn’t much else to draw people to that corner of the city.
That’s changing, though. The resurgence of downtown Harrisonburg has spread from its core, bringing attention to what’s informally known as the “Bird District,” due in part to a partnership between local entrepreneur Kirsten Moore and real estate developer Bismarck, and several businesses with bird-themed names.
In 2017, Bismarck’s president, John Sallah, purchased a former tire store and garage along with an adjacent lot and a 21,000-square-foot warehouse along North Liberty and West Gay streets for a little more than $1 million. He approached Moore, who operated The Hub, a coworking space, with the idea of expanding her operation into the former tire store.
“I walked into the building and knew it could be so much more than a coworking space,” recalls Moore. In August 2020, she opened the Magpie Diner and the Bakery at Magpie in the space, and also moved her coworking hub, rebranded as The Perch, there too. The building is also home to Chestnut Ridge Coffee Roasters. Across the street, Sage Bird Ciderworks opened in 2020 in the garage Sallah renovated.
In October 2023, after a $2.5 renovation, Moore opened the Liberty Street Mercantile, a collection of shops and an event space, in the warehouse, the former home of the Harrisonburg Grocery, which closed in the 1970s. In December, the city’s first wine bar, Rootstock, opened in the mercantile.
More than $150 million was invested in the city’s downtown between 2004 and the end of 2022, says Andrea Dono, executive director of Harrisonburg Downtown Renaissance, or HDR. (A breakdown for Harrisonburg’s northwest corner was not available.)
HDR and the city are funding a public art installation in the northwest end of town to welcome people into the district. A bike lane along Liberty Street, funded by a $14.3 million federal grant, is also planned to open by 2029.
While the Bird District may not be an official spot on maps yet, Dono says, it’s an extension of local entrepreneurship happening across downtown Harrisonburg. “It’s authentic to us, [and] that’s what tourists like, too. It’s really the best of all worlds.”
James Madison University is where Angela Reddix says she found “my tribe, the godmothers of my children” — and also her future husband, Carl, whom she met on her first day on campus.
“All those relationships came from JMU,” says Reddix, founder, president and CEO of Norfolk-based ARDX, a health care management and IT consulting firm. “I believe I owe my success to James Madison University — my confidence, my ability to navigate this world. There’s not enough that I could give to show my appreciation to James Madison University.”
Last year, Angela Reddix made a down payment on her debt of appreciation to JMU when she and her husband contributed $1.1 million to establish the new Reddix Center for First Generation Students and a scholarship endowment, also in support of first-generation students.
Carl Reddix, who studied management and graduated in 1988, was a first-generation college student, while Angela, who graduated in 1990 with a business administration in marketing degree, was a second-generation student. Nevertheless, Angela Reddix says, “I understand from being the child of a first-generation college student how important it is, particularly when you are at a predominantly white university … that there is a support system there for you, and that you have the resources so that you don’t feel that you have to navigate that space all on your own.”
Located in the five-story Student Success Center and officially opened in November 2022, the Reddix Center offers first-generation students space for individual or group study sessions, a lounge where they can relax and meet friends, and even a place to prepare and store food. The center’s staff provides students with information about the university and helps them connect with campus resources and opportunities such as social events and career workshops. The Reddixes also plan to be personally involved in the center’s programming.
“We’ve already been able to see a good bit of community building among first-generation students and that’s something that’s been pretty cool to see,” says Jordan Cherry, a graduate student in sports and recreation leadership who mentors first-gen students through JMU’s Centennial Scholars Program.
A first-generation student himself, Cherry says it’s important for such students to have a regular gathering place and a base where they know they’ll be able to find help and make friends with others in their situation.
“A lot of the time, first-generation students … feel like they’re going through this game of college alone, and that couldn’t be further from the truth because there are a whole lot of other first-generations feeling exactly what they’re feeling,” he says. “We want to reinforce that there is a community of first-generation students who are going through the same struggles and alleviate some of those stresses and help them realize there’s a lot of resources that JMU has for them.”
Building community
The Reddix Center is designed to foster a feeling of community by providing first-generation students with a place where they can meet, get help from faculty and staff, and access special programs designed with their needs in mind. These include a one-credit-hour class called University Studies 102 that allows students to explore a major, minor or career.
“It gives them an opportunity in a structured environment, in a class setting, to have conversations with their peers and with a faculty member about the choices that they’re making as far as their career and major path,” says the center’s executive director, Shaun Mooney.
Another program will cover financial literacy, from how to create and manage a budget to how to evaluate job offers to what their retirement goals should look like. It will be taught by JMU’s Financial Aid and Scholarships Office staff as well as some alums, he says. There will also be programs devoted to helping students achieve academic success in areas where they may be struggling.
“That’s probably a first for us,” Mooney notes. “Certainly, the university has offered programs like this in the past, but we’re partnering and collaborating with offices across campus in some of our student support units to build programming specific to our first-generation students. Many of these programs are often offered or facilitated by people who are first-generation students themselves who want to come back and give back and be able to help students across that pathway.”
Mooney is working with the school’s admissions team to get the word out about the Reddix Center to prospective students and their parents.
“I’m a first-generation student and I would have loved to have a center like this accessible to me in college,” says Melinda Wood, the university’s director of admissions and associate vice president for access and enrollment. “I think it really shifts the narrative … and makes folks think about JMU differently because they know that there’s a support structure and there will be students who look like them that are a part of the center.”
However, the center is just one of several efforts by JMU to attract and retain first-generation students, who accounted for 12.2% of fall 2022 enrollment, or 2,707 students out of a total enrollment of 22,224.
JMU’s first-generation student enrollment has increased around 9% over the past decade. That’s helped James Madison’s enrollment grow at a time when many other higher education institutions are seeing declines due to demographics, rising tuition costs, anxieties about student debt and growing doubts about the value of higher education.
Foreground, L to R: Yasmine Rodriguez, a Reddix Center graduate assistant, talks with Valley Scholars students Destiny Campbell and Tessa Souder. Photo courtesy James Madison University
Total fall 2022 enrollment at JMU was nearly double its fall enrollment of 11,343 a decade earlier. Meanwhile, total enrollment at all Virginia colleges and universities fell from 539,319 in fall 2012 to 519,531 in fall 2022, a nearly 3.7% drop, according to the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia (SCHEV).
“As universities, we want students from a wide variety of backgrounds and perspectives to attend our institutions, and first-generation students and their experiences offer another lens or life experience that a group of students can bring to our campus,” says Mooney, “and I think it’s important to have their voice on campus as well.”
The university also began allowing prospective students to apply using the Common Application two years ago.
“Joining the Common Application really has opened the doors to so many more students being aware of JMU and having the opportunity to apply to the institution with just one central application platform,” says Wood. “We’re seeing greater numbers of students apply to JMU, and then having this amazing story to tell in the future [about the Reddix Center] is going to help us with those recruitment initiatives.”
‘Journey to achieve’
JMU began reaching out to first-generation students in 2004 with the Centennial Scholars Program (CSP), which provides financial assistance and an academic support network for underrepresented students. Started by former JMU President Linwood Rose, CSP was aimed at increasing diversity at the university. CSP offers full scholarships to Virginia college students who meet financial need requirements. Recipients also receive academic support, peer mentoring, interaction with faculty mentors, cultural enrichment activities and career-oriented workshops.
“We would describe those students as academically talented, highly motivated, but also Pell-eligible students,” says Mooney. “Almost all are also first-generation students.”
CSP requires students to maintain a 3.0 GPA, perform community service and participate in campus activities. Each cohort has about 50 students and more than 730 of them had graduated as of June 2022. The graduation rate for the last three cohorts was 87%, and at least 35% of those students have gone on to medical school, law school and other graduate programs, according to JMU’s website.
Special classes offered through the Reddix Center helps first-generation college students with career and financial planning, says the center’s executive director, Shaun Mooney. Photo courtesy James Madison University
In 2014, JMU launched the Valley Scholars program, a college-readiness program for economically challenged students from the surrounding area. It’s focused solely on first-generation, financially eligible middle and high school students showing academic promise in JMU’s partner school districts. (These include school systems in the cities of Harrisonburg, Staunton, and Waynesboro and the counties of Augusta, Page, Rockingham, and Shenandoah.)
Valley Scholars students are selected in the spring of seventh grade and begin participating in the program’s educational and cultural enrichment opportunities in eighth grade. They also attend a weeklong summer camp between ninth and 10th grades. The goal is to equip them with the skills they’ll need to be successful academically and to increase awareness and access to colleges and universities. Those who graduate from high school having completed the program receive scholarship support to attend JMU.
Overall, the graduation rate for students in the Valley Scholars program is more than double that of Pell-eligible, first-generation students nationally, Mooney says. It’s around 75% to 80%, compared with a national graduation rate of around 30%.
“For many students, certainly the financial support is incredibly important, but building community is also critical,” Mooney says. “Students recognize that they’re not alone in their journey to achieve their degree. They have the opportunity to connect to other students. They have the opportunity to connect to other staff members and to faculty members, and develop those networking connections that are necessary to say, ‘Hey, you know, I get it. I understand the challenges that you have, the obstacles that you’re facing, and we’re here to help you.’”
James Madison University — At a glance
Founded
A public research university in Harrisonburg, James Madison University was founded in 1908 as the State Normal and Industrial School for Women. It was renamed Madison College in 1938 in honor of President James Madison and became James Madison University in 1977. Located in the heart of the Shenandoah Valley and divided by Interstate 81, JMU’s 728-acre campus is known for its distinctive bluestone buildings, as well as Newman Lake near Greek Row and the university’s 125-acre Edith J. Carrier Arboretum, which has numerous gardens and wooded areas with 100-plus-year-old oak and hickory trees.
Enrollment*
Undergraduate: 20,346
Graduate: 1,878
Student profile*
Male | female ratio: 41% | 59%
International students: 1%
Minority students: 22%
Academic programs*
JMU has 76 undergraduate and 53 master’s degree programs, two education specialist degrees and eight doctoral programs. Fields range from accounting and computer science to international business, psychology and nursing.
Faculty*
Full-time: 1,070
Part-time: 393
Tuition, fees, housing and dining**
$25,840 approximate annual in-state undergraduate residential cost, including tuition, mandatory fees, housing and meal plan for incoming freshmen.
In February, Heatwole announced a $17.8 million expansion to Farmer Focus’ organic poultry processing facility, backed by a $3.6 million U.S. Department of Agriculture grant. The expansion will nearly double the number of chickens processed weekly to 630,000 when it starts operating — probably in early 2024, Heatwole said this spring. Farmer Focus, already one of the 10 largest employers in Harrisonburg, plans to hire another 300 workers as it gears up.
Heatwole, a sixth-generation chicken farmer, started his 100% organic and humane-certified chicken company in 2014. Heatwole originally named it Shenandoah Valley Organic but rebranded it as Farmer Focus in 2020, highlighting the company’s business model, which allows farmers to own their own flocks, make key decisions and receive fair compensation. Currently, there’s a long waiting list to be a Farmer Focus grower.
Heatwole has a high profile in the ag industry. Within the past year, he was featured in John Deere’s The Furrow magazine as an “agent of change” and in industry newsletter Meat + Poultry, among others.
Alger, who joined JMU in 2012, has led the public university to new heights. In the past two years, the university received R2 research classification from the Carnegie Commission on Higher Education, joined the Sun Belt Conference and the FBS level in NCAA Division I football, and saw the graduation of the first cohort from the Valley Scholars Program, which provides scholarships for first-generation students from the Shenandoah Valley. Alger also led JMU’s $251 million fundraising campaign that concluded last year.
Alger, who has a bachelor’s degree from Swarthmore College and a law degree from Harvard, previously served as senior vice president and general counsel at Rutgers University, and before that, as assistant general counsel at the University of Michigan. He is chair-elect of the Council of Presidents for the Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges and serves on the national board of directors for the American Association of Colleges and Universities.
IF I HAD A TIME MACHINE, I’D MEET:James Madison — I’d love to hear his thoughts on the progress and state of our democracy.
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