RICHMOND, Va. — Students, lawmakers and free-speech activists question if updated university policies that regulate student demonstrations violate First Amendment rights.
After campus protests that led to some clashes with police, institutions such as Virginia Commonwealth University, James Madison University, University of Virginia and Virginia Tech adopted similar policies.
The new rules ban encampments, require masked individuals to show identification if asked, limit where students can hold events and implement stricter rules on chalking, a popular form of peaceful protest.
College students across Virginia have protested in response to the Israel-Hamas war, through marches and gatherings in solidarity with Palestine. The movement peaked before the end of spring semester, when Virginia students erected encampments on campuses that led to police response and 125 arrests, according to the Virginia Mercury.
Demonstrations erupted around the world after the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attack on Israel that killed approximately 1,200 people, according to the Associated Press. About 250 hostages were seized in the attack.
A war ensued in the region that has led to the death of at least 41,000 Palestinians, as of October.
State Attorney General Jason Miyares denounced student demonstrations last November, and stated Jewish students felt unsafe and threatened by certain chants and slogans that called for a free Palestine. Miyares concluded some of the speech is antisemitic and might not be protected by the First Amendment, because it could incite “imminent lawless action.”
Miyares recommended Virginia colleges implement policy changes to foster safer campuses and avoid disruptions of the educational environment, according to communications director Shaun Kenney.
State Secretary of Education Aimee Guidera in August urged governing board members of Virginia universities to update their codes of conduct, according to an email statement.
“Considering the challenges faced on college and university campuses last academic year and reports that the fall will be even more chaotic, we have asked each institution take proactive steps to update policies,” Guidera stated.
The Students for Justice in Palestine has chapters across Virginia that organize campus demonstrations.
State leaders, in multiple statements and most recently at a legislative hearing, highlight the SJP as a source of antisemitism and disruption on campuses.
Last academic year, an anti-abortion campus event at VCU also ended in disruption, when abortion-rights protesters interrupted a meeting because they did not want people “spewing hate on our campus,” according to the Commonwealth Times.
Student protestors at Virginia Commonwealth encampments on April 30. Photo by Summer DeCiucis, Capital News Service
The new policies will impact how and where student organizations meet moving forward.
Sereen Haddad is a Palestinian student and organizer for the SJP chapter at VCU since October 2023. Haddad has regularly helped host peaceful protests in support of Palestine.
Haddad is concerned the policies intended to protect free speech, actually infringe on free speech rights. The new policies limit outlets for peaceful protests, she said. Students can only display posters the size of a letter-size piece of paper and assemble in designated areas.
“It’s very clear that quite frankly all these policies that are being put in place are no way promoting safety, instead they do promote fear and they promote silence,” Haddad said.
The 25-year-old Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression is a nonpartisan and nonprofit organization that defends free speech.
FIRE rates and tracks the policies that regulate student expression at almost 500 colleges and universities. It works to ensure students are able to lawfully protest, and reaches out to universities whose policies violate the First Amendment.
Laura Beltz, director of policy reform at FIRE, has seen the impact of increased policies regarding student demonstrations.
“We’ve seen a lot of policy changes happening this academic year,” Beltz said. “An unprecedented number of new restrictions on the way students can get out and express themselves on campus.”
No Virginia universities are in direct violation of the First Amendment, yet these institutions have taken a heavy hand through new restrictive policies, according to Beltz.
“I’m concerned that students will see these new regulations when they come back to campus and the message they will receive is that it’s either too onerous to get out and express themselves or that there’s really no reasonable opportunity to do so,” Beltz said.
FIRE ranked UVA. No. 1 in advertised commitments to free expression, on a list last updated in November 2023. The annual list is set to be updated this fall, and will take into consideration the actions of universities over the past academic year.
The Senate Education and Health Committee met Sept. 17 to hear directly from those who were involved in student-led actions, as well as eyewitnesses, and to learn about the new policies.
Numerous speakers from Virginia colleges offered testimony at the two-hour long hearing, including teachers and students arrested in the spring. Jewish students and people affiliated with universities offered perspectives that the demonstrations were important to address injustice. Representatives also said certain SJP chants are offensive.
Committee chair Sen. Ghazala Hashmi, D-Chesterfield, a former college professor, encouraged universities to think about uniform policies to approach student activism and faculty rights when it comes to protest.
Sen. Schuyler VanValkenburg, D-Henrico, teaches high school government classes. He questioned if the Senate should be doing anything legislatively concerning college policies.
Colleges have two conflicting responsibilities: to uphold free speech and to uphold anti-discrimination, according to VanValkenburg. Colleges need to make sure all kids have a voice and are safe, he said.
“At the end of the day this comes down to clear boundaries, clear rules, clarity and objective standards that are followed, no matter what,” VanValkenburg said. “I might like some of those rules, I might not like some of those rules, but they’re the rules.”
Capital News Service is a program of Virginia Commonwealth University’s Robertson School of Media and Culture. Students in the program provide state government coverage for a variety of media outlets in Virginia.
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.
Patrick Ryan has been named managing partner of Big Four accounting firm KPMG’s Washington, D.C.-area office, the company announced Thursday.
In the role, Ryan will oversee more than 3,000 employees and also will be the firm’s U.S. federal business leader and sector leader. He succeeds Tim Gillis, who is retiring Sept. 30 after 26 years at KPMG.
He will split his time between the KPMG Tyson’s Corner and Washington, D.C., offices, a spokesperson for the company said.
“Patrick is an experienced leader with a deep commitment to serving our clients, developing our people and making the difference for the Washington, D.C., community,” said Lisa Daniels, KPMG’s vice chair for growth and strategy, in a statement.
With a bachelor’s degree in accounting from James Madison University, Ryan began his career with KPMG in 1998 as a senior associate. He went on to work at InPhonic, a Washington, D.C.-based online cell phone service provider that filed for bankruptcy in 2007, and at Dulles-based Integral Financial Group, where he was vice president of accounting and valuation services, according to his LinkedIn profile. Ryan returned to KPMG as a partner in 2011.
Gillis, who began his career with KPMG in 1998, became managing partner of the Washington, D.C., office in 2019.
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.
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.
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.
In 2009, Donald Hart found himself in an enviable position.
Leading up to his graduation from Ocean Lakes High School in Virginia Beach, Hart had been accepted to a slew of the state’s public, four-year universities: Virginia Tech, the University of Virginia, Old Dominion University, George Mason University and James Madison University.
Attracted by the convenience of studying close to home, as well as the opportunity to play trumpet in the university’s new marching band, he wound up choosing ODU. But there was another reason ODU stood out from the competition: sticker price.
For the 2009-2010 academic year, ODU’s annual tuition and fees came to $7,318, a price tag that would increase to $8,450 by the time Hart graduated in 2013 with a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice and about $15,000 in school debt. ODU charged less than most other Virginia public universities Hart considered, and the tuition and fees didn’t even factor in room and board, or the cost of moving to a different city. He wanted to get the best value for his money.
A decade after graduation, Old Dominion University alumni Donald Hart trains financial advisers in Virginia Beach for New York Life Insurance Co., a job that pays him $140,000 to $160,000 per year. Photo by Mark Rhodes
“That was a little bit of a factor, too,” Hart recalls. “I’m like, ‘Well, do I want to have extra debt, or do I just want to get a degree and [start a career]?”
After graduation, Hart landed a job with New York Life Insurance Co., which provided matching contributions that helped him pay off his student loan debt about two years ago. After a stint working in New York City, he’s back in Virginia Beach, training financial advisers for the insurance company, earning about $140,000 to $160,000 annually, including bonuses.
“If I look back, finishing college, I would never have guessed I [would be] where I am today at all,” Hart says. “The critical thinking skills and the building relationships and doing different things while in college, I think that all … [helped] mold me to be successful in really any business I would have chosen.”
Since Hart graduated a decade ago, the cost of going to college in Virginia has continued to escalate, now averaging $14,538 per year across the state’s 15 public four-year colleges and universities, according to data from the State Council on Higher Education for Virginia. That’s up from $10,387 in the 2013-2014 academic year — a nearly 40% increase over the past decade.
With the cost of earning a degree soaring to new heights — the national average to attend a four-year public university in 2022-2023 was $10,950 annually for tuition and fees, according to the College Board — fewer people are heading off to college, and debate has ensued over the value of postsecondary education. (Enrollment numbers could be further chilled, academics say, by the U.S. Supreme Court’s June ruling overturning a Biden administration plan to wipe out more than $400 billion
in student debt.)
Furthermore, amid a tight labor market, policymakers and employers are placing less emphasis on four-year degrees and more on certificate programs and other nondegree career pathways.
Perhaps the most prominent example can be found in a new state government hiring policy. Effective July 1, in an effort to attract more state workers, Gov. Glenn Youngkin eliminated degree requirements and/or preferences for about 90% of state job listings. (Maryland implemented a similar change in 2022.)
Nevertheless, even amid record tuition rates, a college or university degree remains the likely best avenue for increasing one’s lifetime earning power, experts say, providing a return on investment unrivaled by stocks or bonds.
“Investing in a college education for many people will be the second biggest investment they ever make, probably after buying a house,” says Martin Van Der Werf, director of editorial and education policy at Georgetown University’s Center on Education and the Workforce (CEW). “It’s more expensive than buying a car, which is probably the other major purchase many people face in their lives. So, to actually understand what you’re going to get from that investment … is a pretty important piece of data.”
What it’s worth
Graduating from a public four-year university can add from $765,000 to more than $1 million to an individual’s lifetime earnings in the U.S., according to a 2021 report prepared for SCHEV by Virginia Commonwealth University’s L. Douglas Wilder School of Government and Public Affairs focusing on postcollege outcomes among public college and university graduates from 2007 to 2018.
Not surprisingly, a 2022 report on return on investment from bachelor’s degrees, Georgetown’s CEW came to a similar conclusion — adding that public colleges, with lower tuitions and lesser student debt, provide better returns on average than private colleges.
Forty years after enrolling — or about the length of a career — average graduates of four-year public colleges can expect a net economic gain of $1.03 million in adjusted earnings, compared with $984,000 for the average private nonprofit college graduate, according to the Georgetown report, which ranked 4,500 U.S. colleges, including community colleges, public two- and four-year institutions, private nonprofit colleges and for-profit colleges, by their return on investment.
Ten years after enrollment, though, the story is a bit different. Community colleges and institutions that offer associate degrees and certificate programs provide better short-term returns because graduates can get to work quickly, often with less debt and fewer years of study than their four-year counterparts, CEW found. Over the decades, however, four-year graduates have much greater earnings power. (A 2019 CEW study found that associate degree and certificate holders brought in a median $141,000 in 10-year adjusted net earnings, compared with $107,000 for all college graduates.)
“College typically pays off, but the return on investment varies by credential, program of study and institution,” CEW Director Anthony P. Carnevale says in a statement. “It’s important to inform people about the risk of taking out loans but not graduating, which could leave them without the increased earnings that would help them repay those loans.”
Here in Virginia, it may come as no surprise that some of the state’s most prestigious public and private universities rank higher than their in-state peers when it comes to return on investment. Examining how much money a degree could bring a graduate over a 40-year career, private liberal arts school Washington and Lee University leads the way at $1.82 million, followed by U.Va. with $1.64 million and Virginia Tech at $1.55 million, according to Georgetown’s 2022 report.
After just 10 years, however, Newport News-based Riverside College of Health Careers, a private, not-for-profit school offering associate degrees and certificates in health care, ranks No. 1 for return on investment, bringing $263,000 in adjusted net earnings, followed by Northern Virginia Community College at $225,000, according to CEW’s data. Washington and Lee ranks No. 3 for 10-year net earnings, at $216,000.
It takes less time and less money to earn an associate degree or certificate, Van Der Werf, one of the study’s authors, says. While some students enroll in community college with plans to transfer to a four-year institution, others are seeking a quick career boost, such as a promotion or other job opportunities, after earning an associate degree or credential.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the median weekly earnings of bachelor’s degree graduates in 2022 was $1,432, compared with $1,005 for associate degree holders and $853 for workers with just a high school diploma.
“Basically … having a college degree leads to greater earnings,” Van Der Werf says.
A college education provides graduates a vehicle for social mobility, says David Burge, George Mason University’s vice president for enrollment management. Photo by Will Schermerhorn
‘Shopper’s mentality’
Earnings are only one data point that experts consider when examining a college degree’s potential ROI; the broader picture can be much more nuanced, based on a variety of factors. For instance, pay may vary depending on where someone lives. And universities with higher graduation rates generally produce graduates with higher earnings. Majors matter, too — a professional with a bachelor’s degree in engineering may make a higher salary than a worker with an arts and humanities degree.
According to the VCU report, 56.3% of 15,348 survey respondents who earned a certificate, associate or bachelor’s degree from a Virginia higher education institution said their education was worth the cost. That’s a satisfaction rate that varies when broken down by degree type, race, gender, discipline, geography and graduation year; for example, 64% of those who majored in STEM disciplines agreed their education was worth the cost, compared with 47.6% of liberal arts graduates.
During the past five years at Virginia Tech, parents and prospective students have been asking more and more frequently about return on investment — including more affluent families, says Juan Espinoza, director of admissions and associate vice president for enrollment and degree management. “If you’re looking at affordability,” he says, “you’re also looking at ROI. You can’t disconnect the two.”
Families have more of a “shoppers’ mentality” these days, given the national conversation about whether college is worth it, says Espinoza, a 2004 Tech graduate who was a first-generation college student. In particular, parents want to know about student success, including graduation rates, which were 85% at Virginia Tech last year, according to SCHEV. “I think it’s a legitimate question,” he says, “and one that colleges need to be able to explain to students and their families.”
University officials frequently point to student success when talking about ROI, and that’s a value that may transcend a padded bank account. A college education, they contend, can lead to healthier life outcomes, greater civic participation and upward social mobility.
Getting ahead
At George Mason University, many students “are starting behind the start line,” says Saskia Campbell, GMU’s executive director of university career services, citing the university’s history of educating a diverse student body, including those from disadvantaged backgrounds.
Forty years after enrollment, a GMU bachelor’s degree recipient is likely to see a net economic gain of $1.4 million, ranking GMU No. 6 among Virginia’s public and private nonprofit colleges and universities for that data point, according to Georgetown’s study. And while GMU had a 91.4% admittance rate for the 2021-2022 school year, it also had a 70% graduation rate.
Virginia Commonwealth University focuses on providing students with real-world skills-building and networking opportunities in addition to academics, says Maggie Tolan, senior assistance vice president for student services. Photo by Caroline Martin
“To me, that is the very definition of social mobility,” says David Burge, vice president for enrollment management.“You give people a chance to be successful, you support them while they’re on their journey and as they exit and are always there for them as they come back, and you will build that reputation by delivering something of value.”
Among the signs of a GMU degree’s value, Campbell points out, is that 89% of GMU graduates are working in a role related to their career goals within six months. GMU’s location in Fairfax County and proximity to major companies is another example. More than 600 employers, including Fortune 500 companies like Reston-based General Dynamics Corp. and McLean-based Capital One Financial Corp., recruit on campus, and there’s a waitlist of others wanting to participate in career fairs. “And that’s just my office,” she says.
Maggie Tolan, VCU’s senior assistant vice president for student services, wrapped up new student orientation in June. Her presentation to incoming freshmen — a third of whom are first-generation college students — included a diagram of a bobsled.
“If I just give you the textbook on how to bobsled, you’re not going to be a good Olympic bobsledder, right?” Tolan asks. “You’re going to need to practice. A lot of what we talk about at VCU is there’s your degree, but it’s really what you’re doing in the four years to build the résumé, to build the network.”
VCU’s tools for student success include “major maps,” year-by-year charts that help students set goals in categories ranging from degree planning to developing career skills and preparing for life after college. VCU also requires students to participate in real-world experiences like internships.
It has a high acceptance rate (92% for the 2021-2022 academic year), but a lower graduation rate (67%) than some of its similarly sized peers. However, bachelor’s degree holders from VCU — where the colleges of Art and Humanities and Sciences are the largest — can expect their degrees to net them $1.03 million in earnings power over a 40-year career, according to Georgetown’s study.
“For our [graduates] … we are earning … 77% more than a high school graduate that never went to college,” says Tolan. “I think that’s a pretty good darn investment.”
Buyer beware
Those who tout higher education’s return on investment also acknowledge that student loan debt remains a huge concern.
About 1 million Virginians owed $41 billion in federal student loan debt in 2020, according to the VCU Wilder report. While a college degree holder may make more money over the course of a career than people who didn’t earn a degree, Tod Massa, SCHEV’s director of policy analytics and data warehousing, offers a “buyer beware” caveat.
“College is not for everyone. And, unless you can afford it, I don’t think you should see the college experience as an experience to purchase,” Massa says. While college is a “high value opportunity,” it’s not a guarantee a student will land a particular job, he says. Prospective students and families should also consider what they value about education.
Nationally, undergraduate enrollment remains about 6% to 7% below pre-pandemic levels. About 1.16 million fewer undergrad students were enrolled in spring 2023 than in spring 2020, according to a May report from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center. Undergraduate admissions at Virginia’s 15 four-year public universities performed better, declining just 2% between fall 2020 and fall 2022, according to an analysis of SCHEV data.
Enrollment in the state’s 23 public community colleges has also declined, from a 2011 peak of 197,226 to 146,553 in fall 2022 (up slightly from 144,215 in fall 2021). There tends to be a direct relationship between low unemployment and community college enrollment dips, Massa explains.
Virginia Community College System Chancellor David Doré, (see related Q&A) calls student debt one of the “most significant problems in the country right now,” adding that the system needs to do a better job of marketing itself to become more nimble, faster and better designed around students’ needs.
With more than 51,000 full- and part-time students, Northern Virginia Community College, is by far the state’s largest two-year public college. NOVA has a labor market team that studies regional job posting data as well as long-term government forecasts to keep up with the region’s needs, says Steve Partridge, NOVA’s vice president of strategy, research and workforce innovation. The team frequently consults area employers about their needs in order to better structure learning and programs. Still, Partridge says, the school can’t keep up with the regional demand for IT workers.
Many of NOVA’s students work while attending school — 38,595 are part-time students, according to 2021-2022 SCHEV data. Students who are already in the working world are likely to be more focused on the income they’d like to make, adding to their determination to reach their goals.
“I think the working adult has a much better view of that ROI, because they’re often self-funding,” Partridge says. “When they borrow, they know what they’re borrowing, because they’re probably also paying the rent. … They’re very, very interested in what the job market is going to look like when they graduate and where the opportunities will be when they graduate.”
James Madison University alumni Angela and Carl Reddix have made a $1.1 million commitment to their alma mater to support first-generation college students, JMU announced Friday.
Founder, president and CEO of Norfolk-based ARDX, a health care management and IT consulting firm, Angela Reddix studied marketing at JMU and graduated in 1990. Her husband, Carl, studied management and graduated in 1988. Their gift establishes the Reddix Center for First Generation Students and the Reddix Centennial Scholarship Endowment.
“This gift is an incredible investment in JMU and will benefit countless students for years to come,” JMU President Jonathan R. Alger said in a statement. “We are honored that JMU is the recipient of this form of generosity from inspiring and innovative alumni. We have been very intentional to cultivate a supportive and inclusive community for first-generation students throughout their educational journey at JMU, and this gift is perfectly aligned with that initiative.”
Reddix Photo by Mark Rhodes
Angela Reddix also founded the nonprofit Envision Lead Grow, which helps girls, especially girls of color, overcome long odds to become successful entrepreneurs. She founded ARDX in 2006 and the company has won more than $200 million in government contracts and last year announced a $2.4 million facility expansion in Norfolk. Reddix is a member of Old Dominion University’s Strome Entrepreneurial Center Hall of Fame.
“We are delighted to leave a powerful mark on a university that has left such a powerful mark on our lives,” the couple said in a statement. “May this center be a representation that, regardless of where you start, we can all reach impossible dreams.”
In an interview with Virginia Business, Angela Reddix talked what it means to them to be able to make the gift. She said her mother was a first-generation college student and her husband was, as well.
“The foundation of who we are and what we were able to do, personally and professionally, came from here,” she said. It’s a full circle moment for her, she added.
“I feel that it’s absolutely my responsibility to to give and be an example,” she said.
At JMU, the applicant pool of first-generation students has grown 29% since last year, according to a news release. First-generation students make up about 38% of JMU’s class of 2021. About 67% of first-generation students were already working full time at graduation and another 23% continued their education.
Makena Massarella, a 20-year-old junior at James Madison University in Harrisonburg, is well on her way to becoming part of the solution to one of the most vexing problems facing Virginia and the nation: the shortage of teachers.
She wants to be an elementary school teacher, the most in-demand position out of 10 critical shortages of teaching positions in Virginia’s schools, according to a June report from the state Department of Education. Special education teachers come in second as most needed, followed by middle school teachers.
The state’s 132 school divisions employed 100,967 full-time teachers as of October 2020, according to the DOE. And state education leaders and the Virginia Education Association estimate there are more than 1,000 teacher vacancies in Virginia, a fluctuating number that’s expected to grow.
The reasons for the teacher shortage vary. Many longtime teachers have reached retirement age, and others have left public education for more lucrative fields, an effect of low unemployment and a strong hiring market.
Political and pandemic pressures also have taken a toll on teacher morale. School boards and classrooms in Virginia have been roiling over disputes, including wearing masks, removing controversial books and guidance issued by the DOE this year requiring parental permission for teachers to use a different name or pronouns for K-12 students in Virginia. Backed by Gov. Glenn Youngkin, the policy has sparked strong emotions, as opponents say it unfairly targets transgender students, especially those whose parents are not supportive. Proponents, including Youngkin, say that the policy allows parents to have more say over their children’s education and life at school. Youngkin also set up an email tip line encouraging parents and students to report school employees engaging in “inherently divisive practices.” The tip line, which received national media coverage and was the subject of much criticism, was shut down in September.
Lisa Jaffe-Wilfong is a kindergarten aide in Frederick County who is pursuing teacher certification through JMU’s Grow Your Own program. Photo by Norm Shafer
James Fedderman, president of the Virginia Education Association teachers’ union, which has more than 40,000 members, warns that politics has soured the profession for many teachers who were already working a difficult and demanding job. “It’s just a totally divisive environment where our elected officials are trying to pit parents and teachers against each other,” he says.
To address teaching shortages, some states have lowered qualifications for teachers, and others are recruiting teachers from other countries. Here in Virginia, for example, Fairfax County is considering forging a partnership with the Barbados Ministry of Education.
JMU is partnering with the Virginia Community College System on a new pilot program, Grow Your Own, that covers tuition, fees, books, and room and board for college students fresh out of high school in exchange for teaching two years at the low-income school districts they hail from.
It’s part of a larger effort to encourage more people to become teachers and return to their home communities. The pilot program also has pathways for current college students, like Massarella, as well as teachers’ aides and paraprofessionals.
“I always wanted to be a teacher — or thought I did,” Massarella says. To test her interest in becoming a teacher, she joined a teaching club at her high school in Elkton, a rural Rockingham County community of fewer than 3,000 residents. Yearlong visits to a local elementary school classroom solidified Massarella’s decision to become a teacher.
“I loved it,” she says.
Planting seeds
This year, the General Assembly allocated $4.2 million to JMU’s Grow Your Own pilot program, which will place teachers in Frederick, Loudoun, Rockingham and Warren counties, as well as Harrisonburg, Petersburg and Portsmouth.
“Grow your own” is a generic term used in education circles around the country to describe similar initiatives.
Fedderman calls the program a “phenomenal resource” for identifying people who are interested in teaching and “to authentically and organically grow [an] educator who works best for the students.”
Students in the Grow Your Own program must pursue one of the three teacher licensure areas in highest demand in school systems: special education, early childhood education and elementary education. If students fail to meet their two-year teaching obligation, they must repay the money they received through the program as a loan.
It’s not just current college students who are part of Grow Your Own. Also taking part are some people who already work in schools — just not as full-time teachers.
Lisa Jaffe-Wilfong taught preschool and later became a kindergarten aide in Frederick County. Last spring, she learned about Grow Your Own and was thrilled to learn that it included a pathway for paraprofessionals like herself to become teachers. “I thought, ‘This is a sign. I’m going to do it,” she says.
Her cohort of Grow Your Own students includes a 72-year-old who decided to re-enter the work world, a former horse trainer and others from different walks of life.
“We all decided to give it a go,” Jaffe-Wilfong says.
While continuing to work full time as a kindergarten aide at Middletown Elementary School, Jaffe-Wilfong also takes online classes from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. once a week.
The program pays her tuition, and she hopes to receive money for her textbooks as she moves through the program, but she’s not quite sure if that will happen. (Program benefits for paraprofessionals vary from the benefits for high school students who are recruited to become teachers, and they can also vary for Grow Your Own students who were already enrolled at JMU, such as Massarella.)
“Sometimes I’ll be saying, ‘I’m 53, what am I doing?’ But then, why not? Why not?” Jaffe-Wilfong asks emphatically.
L to R: Robert Jordan, a special education teacher at Lacey Spring Elementary School; Larry Shifflett, assistant superintendent of innovation and learning for Rockingham County; and Maria Taylor, special education teacher at John C. Myers Elementary School. Jordan and Taylor were certified to teach through a program in Rockingham. Photo by Norm Shafer
‘Immediate impact’
JMU officials are hopeful that if the Grow Your Own program proves successful, the legislature might renew — and perhaps increase — its funding, as well as provide funding for other nontraditional initiatives to recruit teachers. JMU officials are still working out possibilities for other initiatives and what an expansion of Grow Your Own might look like.
“JMU plans on working with other universities, talking about expanding [Grow Your Own],” says Mark L’Esperance, dean of JMU’s College of Education. “I believe it is something that has the potential to be replicated in situations across the state.”
Additional funding likely would permit JMU to expand its current program for recent high school graduates and paraprofessionals.
Currently, about 75 paraprofessionals and 12 full-time JMU students are enrolled in the program. Joy Myers, executive director of the program, says 25 spots for university students were approved, but there was only six weeks between the time JMU received funding from the state in June and when classes started in August.
“Now we’ll be able to roll over some of the money for next year,” Myers says.
“We appreciate Gov. Youngkin and the money he approved for the Grow Your Own program. It’s apolitical. It was a bipartisan budget that approved this,” L’Esperance says, describing the program as a three-legged stool, one leg of which is focused largely on JMU freshmen who want to enter the teaching profession.
“We want students in low-wealth school divisions to say, ‘You know what? Teaching is a noble profession [and] I want to become a teacher and I want to go back and serve my community.’”
Grow Your Own’s second leg is focused on paraprofessionals already working in school systems — people who have an associate degree or perhaps no college credits. Under the program, this cohort might attend a community college partnering with JMU or work online independently under JMU’s guidance and take courses that can lead to a teaching license.
JMU officials already have been working with several community colleges who are under the umbrella of the Grow Your Own effort.
But it’s Grow Your Own’s federally funded third leg that most excites L’Esperance.
“We’re working with several school divisions right now on it,” he says. “If you have a bachelor’s degree and are a paraprofessional, instead of coming to the university and getting college credit, we’re coming out to you. We’re working with the school divisions so that over a two- or three-year period, you can be certified as a teacher. That’s a game changer for this state.”
U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine helped secure $620,000 to pay for 167 program slots for paraprofessionals with bachelor’s degrees.
“This will have an immediate impact on the teacher shortage,” says L’Esperance, adding that the program will put teachers in classrooms within the first year, giving them three years to get fully licensed.
Accelerated teacher training
L’Esperance brought the idea for Grow Your Own from his previous experience in North Carolina, and a team at JMU refined how it might work in Virginia.
The concept, Myers explains, was to devise a program that would serve school divisions that had “a lot of diversity and low wealth” and often have a harder time attracting teachers than wealthier divisions.
Additionally, she says, “we wanted to be sure the money got into the hands of people who really need the opportunity, who couldn’t go to college and pursue their dream without that money.”
Larry Shifflett, Rockingham County’s assistant superintendent for innovation and learning, says his school system, like JMU, realized early on that teaching aides and other paraprofessionals could be part of the pipeline for new teachers if they received training and support.
“Our first attempt at this was in the summer of 2019,” Shifflett says, noting that Rockingham’s paraprofessional program preceded JMU’s efforts.
Working with JMU and the state Department of Education, along with county funding of about $150,000 over three years, the Rockingham school system created a cohort of 10 paraprofessional teaching candidates. “And we ended up hiring seven of those folks in 2021,” Shifflett says.
Now, working with JMU and Blue Ridge Community College, Rockingham has 23 paraprofessionals enrolled in the Grow Your Own program.
Grow Your Own builds on the success of other JMU programs such as its Accelerated Teacher Training Program, which targets career changers who want to become high school teachers and earn a master’s degree along the way.
Katie Dredger, an associate professor who oversees JMU’s Accelerated Teacher Training Program, says the pandemic caused many people to consider changing careers, including some who were inspired to pursue teaching. A hand surgeon, an administrative assistant at a financial firm and a lab worker are among the career changers who have enrolled in JMU’s program, Dredger says.
The three-semester graduate licensure program, which was launched in 2020, has produced 18 new teachers since 2021, and an additional 13 are in the pipeline to graduate in 2023.
By earning a master’s degree, newly minted teachers earn a pay boost when they begin teaching. Also, “they are more likely to stay in teaching if they have a greater range of experience in coursework” that comes with a master’s degree, Dredger says.
Although the students in the Accelerated Teacher Training Program pay tuition, some can get help from scholarships and other assistance, Dredger says.
For JMU’s part, just as it has since 1908, L’Esperance says, the university remains laser-focused on providing the commonwealth with trained teachers — a mission that’s more critical than ever.
Innovative programs like Grow Your Own and the Accelerated Teacher Training Program are part of the answer to the teacher shortage, L’Esperance says, but they aren’t the only fixes. “My colleagues across the state are all trying to come up with solutions.”
JMU at a glance
Founded
Established in 1908, James Madison University was originally known 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.
Campus
Located in Harrisonburg in the heart of the Shenandoah Valley, JMU’s 728-acre campus is divided by Interstate 81. It’s known for its distinctive bluestone buildings on the campus’ west side, 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 students: 20,346
Graduate students: 1,878
Student profile
Male | female ratio: 41% | 59%
International students: 1%
Minority students: 22%
Academic programs
JMU has nearly 140 undergraduate and graduate degree programs, ranging from accounting and computer science to international business, psychology and nursing, and eight doctoral programs.
Faculty*
Full-time instructional
faculty: 1,070
Part-time instructional
faculty: 393
Tuition, fees, housing and dining
$24,816 approximate annual in-state undergraduate residential cost, including tuition, mandatory fees, housing and meal plan for incoming freshmen.
The Shenandoah Valley has long been recognized as fertile ground for agricultural endeavors, but it’s now being seeded to grow an entirely different kind of crop — entrepreneurs.
During the past few years, local and regional governmental bodies, nonprofits, and private and educational organizations in the valley have been coordinating efforts to create an entrepreneurial ecosystem. They aim to provide regional startups with all the training, advice, contacts and access to funding needed to turn kernels of good ideas into successful, home-grown businesses.
As director of technology innovation and economic development at James Madison University, Mary Lou Bourne is intimately involved in this informal system, which she calls “a coalition of the willing.” Bourne also is executive director of James Madison Innovations Inc., a nonprofit corporation for intellectual property management and licensing for inventions developed by JMU researchers.
The university does not lead the regional entrepreneurship effort, she stresses, but plays an “additive” role. However, “additive” hardly does justice to the list of organizations based at JMU that are dedicated to helping fledgling businesses in the valley. Among them are the Shenandoah Small Business Development Center, one of 27 such centers in the commonwealth that provide free professional consulting and training for new and small businesses, and Virginia Is for Entrepreneurs, which helps startups find financing.
JMU also has the Gilliam Center for Entrepreneurship, which helps student entrepreneurs develop business concepts into reality. Also on campus is the JMU-affiliated Shenandoah Valley Technology Council, which offers networking opportunities for entrepreneurs, as well as GO Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley regional office.
Outside JMU’s campus, Harrisonburg’s economic development department holds 10-week boot camps several times a year to teach entrepreneurs essential skills such as marketing and bookkeeping. The Harrisonburg-Rockingham Chamber of Commerce and Harrisonburg Downtown Renaissance, which promotes businesses in the central city, both offer training classes as well. The agencies collaborate to avoid duplication of services and to eliminate gaps in assistance programs.
“People start a business because it is their passion,” says Harrisonburg Chamber President and CEO Chris Quinn. “This [training] is the back-end stuff.”
This mother-and-daughters team — (L to R) Stephanie Auville Duncan, Chris Auville and Jessica Hall — started Harmony Harvest Farm in Weyers Cave. Photo by Norm Shafer
Elsewhere in the valley, there are plenty of other options for entrepreneurs seeking support. In Staunton, Shenandoah Community Capital Fund hosts a Business Bootcamp three times a year, says Anika Horn, SCCF’s director of marketing and ecosystem building. The eight-week virtual class helps budding entrepreneurs develop business skills and evaluate the viability of their ideas.
Additionally, each year SCCF hosts two or three Techstars Startup Weekends, offering an immersive 54-hour, three-day course that teaches people to become entrepreneurs. This year, SCCF also launched an annual two-day entrepreneurship summit with workshops, panel discussions and networking opportunities. The next summit will be held in October 2023, Horn says.
Nearby Waynesboro offers extensive help for startups, too, mostly online, and the city’s Grow Waynesboro program recently received a $45,000 Community Business Launch grant from the state to expand its efforts. It plans to use some of the funding to hold a business pitch competition next year, with winners receiving grants, marketing support, customized training, mentorships and technical assistance.
Cultivating businesses
Peter Denbigh is an example of someone developing the entrepreneurial ecosystem the valley is trying to nurture. He found success marketing a party game online, and he and his former wife, Alison Denbigh, co-founded a coworking space, Staunton Innovation Hub, in early 2017. The hub offers coworking and meeting spaces and private offices, as well as business programming and other opportunities for networking and sharing experiences that can be so important for budding entrepreneurs, Peter Denbigh says. For example, Shenandoah Community Capital Fund is headquartered in the hub and offers an accelerator program, Startup Shenandoah Valley (S2V).
About 110 companies have office space or are headquartered in the 30,000-square-foot Staunton Innovation Hub. Denbigh is looking to expand the entrepreneurial network he’s building by opening a similar size Harrisonburg Innovation Hub in late 2023.
“Local resources are your tribe,” Denbigh says. “Emotionally, technically and financially, they help you understand that you don’t know what you don’t know.”
Andrea Estep’s Harrisonburg women’s clothing and accessories shop, Charlee Rose Boutique, is another valley entrepreneurship success story. Estep started the business in her garage and now has a downtown storefront. “The community in Harrisonburg is like none other that I’ve experienced,” she says. “The support helped me survive through the pandemic.”
During the pandemic, Kirsten Moore also bucked the odds to start a coworking space in Harrisonburg, the Perch at Magpie. It has about 100 tenants housed in a 7,000-square-foot space atop her other new business, the Magpie Diner restaurant and bakery. “You have all of the right cheerleaders to walk you through the process” of building a business in the area, Moore says. “You can just walk into city hall and get your questions answered.”
Moore was fortunate to find private investors for her ambitious plans, which include a wine bar and retail and event space in a nearby building, but for many startups, securing capital financing is the biggest obstacle to starting and expanding their businesses.
Business loans from banks are sometimes hard to get, unless an entrepreneur has a big nest egg, and the valley’s lack of population density — the very demographic that makes the region appealing to so many would-be entrepreneurs — unfortunately correlates with a lack of available venture capital.
“You don’t have an extensive network like in NoVa,” Denbigh says. “You don’t have people here who go from zero to $100 million in six months.”
Crunching numbers
Only two local agencies (other than banks) offer substantial funding to valley startups.
One is Shenandoah Valley Angel Investors, a network of private funders capable of lending $50,000 to $300,000 to launch new businesses. Since its founding in 2015, facilitated by JMU’s Bourne, the fund, which is independent of the university, has invested $8.1 million in 23 companies.
The other major source of capital in the valley is Shenandoah Community Capital Fund in Staunton. Since it gave out its first loans in 2009, Horn says, the fund has invested $1.6 million to fund 108 businesses and support more than 450 others. That funding has come in the form of loans of $5,000 to $50,000.
Localities — including Waynesboro, Buena Vista and Augusta County — also make loans to small businesses, averaging about $15,000 each. Brian Shull, executive director of Harrisonburg Economic Development, says his agency can offer loans up to $25,000 to help entrepreneurs who are “not quite bankable yet.” So far, his agency has distributed 22 loans, adding up to $450,000.
Some other options have arisen recently to aid minority business owners, who typically have a harder time than white entrepreneurs in securing capital. In the first half of 2021, funding to U.S. Black startup entrepreneurs hit a record $1.8 billion but accounted for only 1.2% of the $147 billion in venture capital invested in all U.S. startups during the same period, according to a report by Crunchbase.
In Harrisonburg and Rockingham, the chamber of commerce’s B-Cubed program provides minority entrepreneurs with advice on crafting business plans and networking, as well as grants. So far, the organization has awarded 17 grants to minority entrepreneurs in amounts ranging from $1,700 to $5,000 since 2020.
In Lexington, the all-volunteer Walker Program was started in 2020 to assist businesses owned by people of color in Buena Vista, Rockbridge County and Lexington.
In addition to its own program teaching the nuts and bolts of doing business and offering advice on issues such as trademarks and patents, Walker has made 15 business grants between $5,000 and $25,000 each, program coordinator Gabrielle J. Cash says. Thanks to Walker funding, three Black-owned businesses now are operating in downtown Lexington, where until recently, there were none.
Photographer Tasha Coleman received a Walker grant of $10,000 to help her secure a studio space in Buena Vista for her business, Tasha Lamar Photography & Films. She is grateful for that assistance, but she still has not been able to get up and running, because she needs more funding for equipment.
“Finding other loans to help furnish the studio has been very difficult,” Coleman says.
“Raising capital in the valley can be hard,” Denbigh says.Organizations there “provide 101- and 201-level resources for entrepreneurs, but we need to get into 301 and 401 upscaling. That will be the tipping point when the money starts coming in.”
That extra push
To help more young businesses reach that tipping point, Shenandoah Community Capital Fund offers its S2V accelerator program, which more than 40 entrepreneurs have attended since it was established in 2020. Stephanie Auville Duncan of Harmony Harvest Farm in Weyers Cave is one of them.
Duncan, her sister, Jessica Hall, and their mother, Chris Auville, have been in the cut-flower business since 2013. The women started out by supplying flowers for weddings and other local events, and a few years later expanded into wholesale shipping to florists. Whole Foods stores up and down the East Coast started stocking their flowers, so business was great. Then, COVID-19 arrived, decreasing the need for flower arrangements, so florists and Whole Foods stopped buying from Harmony Harvest.
But with the help of the accelerator program, plus advice from Virginia Department of Tourism, Augusta County and Shenandoah Valley Partnership, Harmony Harvest was able to make a pandemic pivot and come up with a new business plan focused on shipping directly to customers. In 2020, its online sales increased by 1,600%.
The accelerator program, Duncan says, was “paramount to understanding the best way to grow” the family’s business, which has expanded to include agritourism.
This summer, Harmony Harvest began a pick-your-own-flowers operation and opened a retail store on the farm, a picturesque 20-acre property in Augusta County. Hall’s related business, Floral Genius, operates online and from the farm, too. Its pin- and cup-style flower holders called “flower frogs” got a welcome boost when Martha Stewart used them in a how-to video about flower arranging.
The bottom line, however, is that until more entrepreneurs like Duncan, Auville and Hall find ways to take their enterprises to the next level, finding financing is going to remain a sticking point for small business development in the valley.
The entrepreneurial ecosystem will be there, though, doing it’s dogged best to help them.
Shenandoah Valley at a glance
Shenandoah National Park Photo courtesy Shenandoah National Park
Settled in the 1700s, the approximately 140-mile-long Shenandoah Valley lies between the Blue Ridge and the Allegheny mountains. Agriculture remains a key industry for the region, which was known as the breadbasket of the Confederacy during the Civil War. Other notable industries include manufacturing, especially of food and beverages, and logistics. Bridgewater College, James Madison University, Mary Baldwin University, Virginia Military Institute, and Washington and Lee University call the region home.
Population: 373,472
Top employers
James Madison University: 3,887
Sentara Healthcare: 2,600
Augusta Health: 2,300
Cargill Inc.: 2,000*
Pilgrim’s Pride Corp.: 2,000*
Major attractions
The Shenandoah Valley is home to outdoor attractions such as Shenandoah National Park and the George Washington and Jefferson national forests. The region is also known for wineries and breweries, with the Shenandoah Beerwerks Trail and the Shenandoah Spirits Trail. Historical and cultural attractions include Civil War sites like the Virginia Museum of the Civil War and Melrose Caverns, as well as the Museum of the Shenandoah Valley and the American Shakespeare Center’s Blackfriars Playhouse.
Top convention hotels
The Omni Homestead Resort 483 rooms, 72,000 square feet of event space
Hotel 24 South (Staunton)
124 rooms, 8,500 square feet of event space
Best Western Plus Waynesboro
Inn & Suites Conference Center
75 rooms, 5,500 square feet of event space
DoubleTree by Hilton Front Royal
Blue Ridge Shadows
124 rooms, 3,933 square feet of event space
Boutique/luxury hotels
The Blackburn Inn &
Conference Center 49 rooms, 8,400 square feet of event space
The Mimslyn Inn
45 rooms, almost 5,000 square feet of event space
The Gin Hotel 39 rooms
Hotel Laurance 12 rooms
Notable restaurants
Local Chop & Grill House
American,localchops.com
The Butcher Station
American,thebutcherstation.com
The Joshua Wilton House
American,joshuawilton.com
The Shack
New American,theshackva.com
Zynodoa
Southern,zynodoa.com
*Based on Shenandoah Valley Partnership estimates
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