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Tag: James Madison University

Valley of the entrepreneurs

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

 

Return on investment

Christina Fleming embarked upon a career in marketing with the goal of getting an executive MBA degree, but other commitments kept getting in the way.

She got married, had two children and moved up the corporate ladder for 26 years, rising to chief marketing officer at Blackboard Inc., a global education technology company that was based in Reston. In April, she launched her own company, Monarch Performance Marketing.

“It was just something that I kept putting off, but I always knew I wanted to do it,” Fleming says. “So, towards the end of last year, I made the decision to go ahead and pursue my MBA. I really felt it would be important and helpful to me as a business leader.”

She looked at executive MBA programs that were within driving distance of her Laurel, Maryland, home, taught in-person and could be completed in under two years. She chose the one at William & Mary’s Raymond A. Mason School of Business and enrolled in fall 2021 as one of 13 students in her cohort. Now about halfway through the program, Fleming commutes every other weekend to Williamsburg for classes.

“I was learning every day in the moment and accumulating all sorts of skills [at work], but what the MBA has done is given me an opportunity to really step back and look at how all these aspects of business and the economy are connected,” she says. “It just provides this solid foundation in which I believe I can become a better leader.”

Executive education programs are designed for business professionals like Fleming who have managerial or executive- level experience and want to improve their knowledge and skills so they can advance in their careers. The classes help them stay on top of the latest industry trends, expand their networks and get real-world experience working on projects.

Seven Virginia public universities offer some form of executive education. Programs range from traditional MBA degree programs at W&M, George Mason University, James Madison University, the University of Virginia and Virginia Commonwealth University to shorter certificate programs offered at George Mason University and Virginia Tech. GMU offers customized programs for businesses and organizations, as do U.Va., Virginia Tech and Old Dominion University.

One of the prevailing trends is shorter and more convenient MBA programs, in response to student demand.

William & Mary has offered executive MBA degrees for more than 40 years. Three years ago, the school sought feedback from W&M’s prospective students and alumni — as well as from alumni of other executive education programs across the country and employers, says Ken White, associate dean of W&M’s MBA and executive programs.

What they heard was that students thought MBA programs took too long and that they wanted a certificate option that took less than two years. Respondents also wanted leadership coaching and the possibility of international business experience, White says.

Student feedback helped reshape W&M’s program, which is now 18 months long with eight-hour, in-person classes every other Friday and Saturday.

Global and national perspectives — provided most often by taking students to other countries and introducing them to corporate leaders — are increasingly important, too.

W&M students spend a short residency in Washington, D.C., and go abroad twice to study and meet with business leaders. This year, they’ll go to Greece and South Africa.

“That was another piece that we got in our research,” White says. “People were saying, ‘You know, we need to know a little bit more about the federal government and how it affects business.’ So, we have the two global immersions, and then we have a D.C. residency where the class goes up there for not quite a week.”

William & Mary isn’t alone in offering global travel opportunities to executive MBA students.

George Mason’s MBA Global Residency is a weeklong international study tour. Past residences have included Chile, China, Central Europe and Western Europe.

VCU’s program includes a roughly 10-day trip abroad, usually to partner universities in Central and South America or Europe. Naomi Boyd, VCU’s business school dean, says faculty look at who’s in a cohort, pick a location and build an agenda that can include projects and case studies.

As part of JMU’s MBA program, students can take an optional 7- to 10-day trip abroad to countries such as China, Portugal, Argentina, Chile, Germany and Vietnam, making visits to companies like Hyundai Motor Co., Maersk or Rémy Martin.

Speeding up

Many of Virginia’s executive MBA programs offer an international travel component. In March, JMU students went to Portugal. Photo courtesy James Madison University

At the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business, MBA students have two nonresidential executive MBA tracks: the executive and global executive programs. Both take 21 months and are hybrid, with in-person sessions held at Darden’s D.C. Metro space in Rosslyn. The other classes are offered remotely, including live online courses and self-paced activities.

Executive students participate in one international residency with the option of adding others, while global MBA students participate in four residencies outside the United States. These typically include a mix of company visits, talks with industry leaders, meetings with executives and cultural excursions. U.Va. also offers a full-time residential MBA program and a part-time MBA option with more scheduling flexibility.

Students in both U.Va. executive MBA programs also participate in two weeklong leadership residencies in Charlottesville on the Darden grounds.

VCU used to offer a two-year MBA program, but it has now shortened the time to get the degree to 17 months, with classes held on alternating weekends, Boyd says.

James Madison University’s College of Business offers an MBA with an executive leadership concentration over 28 months, a longer period than other universities, but it’s geared toward student accessibility. Most of the classes are held online, with in-person residencies that meet on a Saturday once every other month in Tysons. (JMU’s largest alumni populations are concentrated in the Richmond and D.C. areas.)

“It gives us somewhat of a regional tie for people interested in the program in the D.C. metro area, and then maybe some folks who have connections to the institution who live outside of there can still participate in our program,” says Michael Prior, the MBA program’s director of marketing.

Universities also have started offering even shorter options — typically for executives in pursuit of a certificate instead of a master’s degree.

The University of Richmond, a private university, offers a 14-week “mini-MBA” program, for example.

Executive MBA students at the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business attend in-person sessions at Darden’s DC Metro space in Rosslyn. Photo courtesy Darden School of Business

U.Va. offers The Executive Program, a six-month, hybrid advanced management certificate program that costs about $43,950 — less than a third the cost of the Darden executive MBA tracks, which cost $172,000 to $183,800. Virtual sessions involve a business challenge project, and faculty consultation and one-to-one coaching are included.

George Mason’s School of Business offers a traditional MBA program with accelerated or part-time options, and the school also targets specific specialties, including data and analytics. GMU’s hybrid executive education courses run five weeks each, and students earn a badge of certification. Executive specialties include diversity, equity and inclusion; marketing; risk; and sustainability.

GMU also offers a two-day real estate analytics program, and its faculty can customize offerings for organizations on topics such as government contracting, data analytics and real estate.

Virginia Tech’s Pamplin College of Business in the past has hosted cybersecurity risk series for executives and board members, with special focuses on entrepreneurship and integrated security in event management. Tech currently offers an executive data analytics certificate program.

Old Dominion University doesn’t offer an MBA specifically for executives, but its School of Continuing Education provides customized training for employers who don’t want to put employees “through a full-blown degree,” says Renee Felts, its assistant vice president for academic initiatives and continuing education.

Faculty can create a crash course on anything from soft skills to advances in cybersecurity. Classes can be taught in person, online or via a hybrid of the two. Fees depend on what’s created, and employers may pick up the tab.

“We feel like it’s a well-kept secret,” Felts says.

Executive education doesn’t come cheap, although the payoff can be career advancement and a bigger paycheck. Prices for these programs currently range from $995 for George Mason’s two-day real estate analytics course to $183,000 for U.Va.’s Global Executive MBA. Financial help is often available through the universities or an employer.

Caitlyn Read was associate director for communications at James Madison when she decided to apply for an executive MBA several years ago. She looked at several but says it made financial sense to enroll in JMU’s program since the university, as her employer, would pay for it.

“Our cohort was small, around 20 people. When it’s that small, you rely on each other for a lot. Some of my classmates are still mentors for career growth, some on how to navigate my career,” she says. “We still stay very close.”

Read graduated from JMU’s executive MBA program in 2018 and in 2020 became the university’s spokesperson and director of communications. She’s now its manager for state government relations.

Getting facetime

One important aspect of MBA programs that has remained the same is networking, even in the post-pandemic era.

A report released in May by UNICON, a global consortium of business-school-based executive education organizations, found that the pandemic opened people’s eyes to what could be accomplished in online MBA classes, but there’s still a strong preference for at least some in-person classes.

W&M’s executive MBA program, like those at other Virginia public universities, attracts students with anywhere from eight to 20 years of work experience who have C-suite ambitions. Others have started their own businesses or are preparing to do so, White says.

At the start of their education, students are paired with a certified leadership coach, whom they meet with regularly throughout the program, and they have access to executive partners — about 100 semiretired or retired executives who serve as additional advisers and mentors.

“The Executive Partners program is just a tremendous wealth of support and insight that we have at our fingertips anytime we want it,” Fleming says. “I can reach out to an executive within the marketing arena and learn from his or her experiences [and] have conversations. For example, we had one class where a group of executive partners came in and they did breakout discussions with us on a particular case. We spent time with them in small groups getting their perspective, and it was really exciting.”

VCU students are required to attend in person the first weekend of each month, then have the option of attending in person or online. During their summer semesters, they have the option to add a concentration in either corporate finance or health care management.

“One of the big benefits of the program is the networking,” Boyd says. “We feel it is really important to be integrated into their cohort.”

Although Fleming left Blackboard to start her own business before entering William & Mary’s MBA program, White notes that most of the university’s executive MBA students receive promotions or other career opportunities after earning their degrees.

“It’s very rare,” White says, “for someone to complete the program and have the same position at the end that they did in the beginning.”  

JMU fundraising campaign brings in $251M

James Madison University’s second comprehensive fundraising campaign, Unleashed, raised more than $251 million, the Harrisonburg university announced Friday.

The eight-year fundraising campaign, which exceeded its $200 million goal in March 2021, ended June 30. It began with an advanced gift phase in July 2014 before JMU announced it publicly in October 2018.

Unleashed attracted 63,976 donors, about 37.4% of whom were alumni. The second largest segment of donors were parents, at 34.3%. Corporations donated 2% of the total. More than half of donors made their first gift to JMU through the campaign.

JMU is designating $97.3 million of the funds raised for general purposes, $45.4 million to athletics and $108.45 million to academic programs.

“Our hope is that people are going to find a sense of purpose in their giving, are going to see [the] chance to create an impact on something that matters to them, and our donors have basically told us they want to make a difference,” said Nick Langridge, JMU’s vice president of university advancement.

During the campaign, the university received its largest-ever cash gift, $5 million, from alum Paul Holland, a 1982 graduate, and his wife, Linda Yates. Madison Hall, which houses the Office of Admissions and the Center for Global Engagement, was renamed Holland Yates Hall to honor the couple. Holland and Yates made the gift “to support scholarships, study abroad, entrepreneurship and other initiatives that align with their personal passions and will involve many areas across campus,” according to JMU. They specifically wanted to rename Madison Hall, the university said, because the admissions office “represents the gateway to JMU and the Center for Global Engagement is a passport to the world.”

JMU set “opening doors for students” as a campaign priority. The university scaled its honors program into an honors college.

Donations for the Dukes Pay It Forward scholarship program received almost $6.2 million from a collective 2,180 donors.

The Valley Scholars program supports cohorts of students beginning in middle school and guarantees them admission and free tuition and fees to JMU, provided they earn the required grades in the required courses. Members of the first cohort will graduate in May 2023. Valley Scholars tuition and programming received $5 million from 1,435 donors.

Northrop Grumman Corp. Chair, President and CEO Kathy Warden and her husband, Eric, are JMU alumni. They started the Warden Challenge, pledging to match gifts for Pell Grant-eligible student scholarships up to $1.25 million. More than 950 donors gave a total of $3.2 million to support 125 Pell-eligible students.

The university completed several capital projects with funds collected from the campaign. JMU’s College of Business received more than $20 million. The school opened Hartman Hall in 2021 and renovated Zane Showker Hall to support team-based learning.

“Before, our facilities did not afford the students a chance to meet and study in groups and teams. They were sitting on the floor of the foyer in circles with their teammates trying to get work done,” Langridge said. “Now, our classrooms have team-based spaces and functionality,” including rooms that students can reserve.

Additionally, the university received more than $13 million for the 8,500-seat Atlantic Union Bank Center basketball arena, which it opened in 2020.

Unleashed campaign funds also supported entrepreneurship resources. JMU created a minor in entrepreneurship, and students of any major can use the Gilliam Center for Entrepreneurship.

Alumni couple Lara Parker Major and Eric D. Major, who met at JMU in the ’90s, donated $1.2 million to the College of Business’ Innovation, Collaboration, Creativity and Entrepreneurship (ICCE) Lab, now the Major ICCE Lab.

The Majors founded medical device company K2M, which Stryker bought and took private in 2018. K2M employed a lot of JMU graduates, Lara Major said.

“One of the things that we felt strongly about was giving back to JMU as a way of showing our gratitude for having an opportunity to work with such outstanding graduates over the years,” she said.

Although neither served on the campaign steering committee, the Majors served on their respective colleges’ boards.

“I think that’s one of the things that was an unexpected pleasure for us, reconnecting with JMU later in life,” Lara Major said.

Langridge credits the school’s growing and maturing alumni base for the campaign’s success.

“The number of students who graduated last May in a single year is greater than the combined number of graduates for the whole decade of the 1960s,” he explained. “We’ve grown significantly as an institution to now [having] nearly 20,000 undergraduates and 22,000 total students.”

Lara Major believes that some of the campaign’s success is due to JMU’s increased recognition: “We’re well on our way to national prominence, and I think the campaign is a reflection of that.”

That prominence includes JMU’s 2022 Carnegie Classification as an R2 Doctoral University, its No. 72 ranking on the U.S. News & World Report’s 2022-2023 Top Public Schools list and its participation in the Sun Belt Conference.

JMU hires first DEI VP

James Madison University has named Malika Carter its inaugural vice president of diversity, equity and inclusion and chief diversity officer, the university announced Monday.

Carter will start Aug. 25.

“This appointment is a great honor,” Carter said in a statement. “JMU is well positioned to become, in the field of inclusion, a lead institution that has already demonstrated drive, talent and commitment for modeling inclusive practice and its consistent application.”

Carter comes to JMU from the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry, where she was the first chief diversity officer. Prior to that, she served as the inaugural chief diversity officer for the city of Worcester, Massachusetts.

“We were deeply impressed by Dr. Carter’s wisdom, breadth of experience and can-do spirit throughout the interview process,” JMU President Jonathan Alger said in a statement. “I am excited to welcome Dr. Carter as a member of our senior leadership team and to further our deep institutional commitment to DEI efforts to make JMU an even more welcoming and inclusive community.”

Carter holds an associate degree from Cuyahoga Community College, a bachelor’s degree in middle childhood education from Cleveland State University, a master’s degree in higher education and student affairs administration from the University of Vermont and a doctorate in education with a concentration in institutional analysis from North Dakota State University.

JMU student and alumni entrepreneurs get boost from program

The James Madison University Bluestone Seed Fund announced Monday that it would provide three startup companies with $5,000 each in its inaugural investment cycle.

Malique Middleton photo courtesy James Madison University.

The Gilliam Center for Entrepreneurship manages the donor-backed fund. The three chosen startups are Gewd Botanicals, Handicans and Tow Ninja.

Malique Middleton, a 2021 graduate, founded Gewd Botanicals, a shop that offers cruelty-free, eco-friendly products like Oily Wash oil-based cleanser, All-Over-Ya-Body Butter moisturizer and Scrubba-Scrub exfoliator.

Handicans produces ergonomic trashcans designed for accessibility. The cans have wheelchair-friendly doors and allow horizontal trash removal. Chris Dorr, a 2021 alumnus, created the patent-pending design. Cans will come in varying models, including 60-gallon cans.

Chris Dorr photo courtesy James Madison University.

Tow Ninja uses an integrated web and mobile app to simplify communication and bookkeeping between tow companies — particularly “mom and pop shops” — and clients. The companies can track and view tows, statuses and revenue, and vehicle owners can locate, manage and retrieve towed vehicles. Current JMU student Jack Oppenheim founded Tow Ninja.

Jack Oppenheim photo courtesy James Madison University.

In addition to equity investments, the fund provides hands-on venture investing experience for JMU students through the Student Venture Associates program. Cohorts of students recruit and screen applicants, conduct due diligence, observe investor pitches and manage the portfolio companies.

“Our Student Venture Associates and student founders all got a very real-world venture investing experience,” Suzanne Bergmeister, executive director of the Gilliam Center for Entrepreneurship, said in a statement. “The startups that receive the funding will now be mentored and monitored as they continue to grow. We are thrilled to have three portfolio companies this cycle and are looking forward to adding even more to our portfolio in the spring.”

The first investment cycle was open to current undergraduate or graduate students and 2021 alumni. The spring 2022 investment cycle will open to any JMU alumni who graduated within the past five years.

JMU SVP of administration and finance announces retirement

Charlie King, James Madison University’s senior vice president of administration and finance for the past 25 years, has announced he will retire in December, the university said Monday.

“On behalf of the entire university community, I congratulate Charlie on his retirement and share deep appreciation for the foundation he has laid, his support and his never-ending commitment to JMU,” JMU President Jonathan Alger said in a statement. “He has served a critical role in working with legislators across the commonwealth and has spearheaded numerous capital projects that have enhanced this institution greatly.”

King has managed the financial resources of JMU and been involved with capital projects on campus, including building out the school’s East Campus and growing JMU’s athletic programs. In 2019, the university’s endowment grew to $111 million, a 42% increase over the past five years, and JMU’s $200 million fundraising campaign launched in 2018 reached its goal more than a year early.

“This is certainly a bittersweet moment as I have enjoyed my time at the university and have watched JMU become a first-class institution of higher education,” King said in a statement. “I am very proud of the work administration and finance employees have done to help develop JMU into the place it currently is.”

Towana Moore, associate vice president for business services, will serve as interim vice president of administration and finance. King will work on a temporary, part-time basis with JMU’s government relations staff through the next General Assembly session.

Prior to joining JMU in 1996, King was vice president for business affairs at Radford University. From 1975 to 1991, King served as assistant dean of students, director of housing, director of housing and food services, director of business services and assistant vice chancellor at the University of North Carolina Wilmington. He holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Appalachian State University.

 

JMU entrepreneurship center hires new director

James Madison University announced Thursday that Suzanne Bergmeister has been named the next executive director of its Gilliam Center for Entrepreneurship. She comes from the University of Louisville’s Forcht Center for Entrepreneurship in Kentucky, where she has been the full-time entrepreneur in residence for the past 15 years and assistant director for four.

Bergmeister, who served 25 years in the U.S. Air Force and founded a venture capital and small business consulting firm, Sunflower Business Ventures Inc., holds degrees in finance, electrical engineering and business from Cornell University, Rutgers University and California State University-Fresno. At Louisville, she taught graduate and undergraduate classes and mentored MBA teams that won more than $1 million in competition prizes. Bergmeister also won Louisville’s graduate teaching award twice and the Enterprise Corp. Entrepreneurial Leadership Award.

“We are thrilled that Suzanne was tapped to lead the Gilliam Center for Entrepreneurship at JMU,” said College of Business Dean Mike Busing. “Her prior experience with University of Louisville’s Forcht Center, especially with securing grant funding and mentoring students, veterans and lower income entrepreneurs, will serve JMU and support economic growth in the region. Her deep understanding of both the entrepreneur and venture capitalist is critical as the center evolves and achieves national recognition for excellence.”

The Gilliam Center’s previous executive director was Bobby Smith, who was hired last May and left in February.

Virginia public colleges can mandate COVID vaccines, Va. AG says

RICHMOND, Va. — Virginia colleges are beginning to announce mandatory fall COVID-19 vaccine policies following the state attorney general’s opinion that higher education institutes can require the vaccine.

Virginia public colleges and universities can mandate the COVID-19 vaccine for faculty and students returning to campus this fall, Attorney General Mark Herring stated in late April.

“Virginia’s college and university students deserve the chance to go to classes in-person and take advantage of all that their schools have to offer, but over the past year we have seen numerous COVID outbreaks on school campuses, so we must make sure that they are doing so with the health and safety of their peers and communities in mind,” Herring stated.

School leaders questioned the legality of mandating the COVID-19 vaccine because the vaccine is currently authorized for emergency use. That means people must be given the choice to take it and be informed of the consequences if they don’t, Lisa Lee, professor of public health at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, told Capital News Service before Herring issued his statement.

Currently, Virginia colleges request documentation that a student was vaccinated against diphtheria, tetanus, poliomyelitis, measles and mumps.

At least three Virginia-based private universities will require the vaccine for students and employees returning to campus in the fall. Hampton, Mary Baldwin, and Virginia Wesleyan universities updated their policies mandating the vaccine. Hampton made its decision weeks before the attorney general issued the opinion.

Michael Porter, a spokesperson for Richmond-based Virginia Commonwealth University, stated in an email that VCU still does not require the COVID-19 vaccine for returning students. The university is “reviewing the Attorney General’s guidance” as it plans for the upcoming semester.

The University of Virginia in Charlottesville recently released a statement acknowledging Herring’s opinion but has not yet updated its policy.

Virginia Tech is still deliberating whether to require the COVID-19 vaccine, university spokesperson Mark Owczarski stated in an email. Once a decision is made, the university will communicate it to students and staff.

The College of William & Mary in Williamsburg recently told students and staff to expect an update on mandatory vaccination in mid-May. The college encouraged students, faculty and staff to be vaccinated if possible.

George Mason University in Fairfax is considering whether to require the vaccine, the university said in a mid-April statement posted before Herring’s announcement. Mason encouraged students to get the vaccine and ask their health care provider if they had questions.

Bri Bittenbender, a criminal justice major at VCU, said Virginia schools need to enforce the COVID-19 vaccine if things are ever going to return to normal.

“I think it could provide a level of safety for students going back to in-person classes,” she said. “But if the schools don’t enforce it, then we’re stuck where we are now.”

Bittenbender is not alone, as many college students across Virginia feel the same way. Isabella Chalfant, a William & Mary student majoring in environmental law and art history, said that aversion to the vaccine from a political standpoint is “imbecilic.”

“The most important thing about the vaccine is being able to protect the people you love,” she said. “When I finally got the email to make my appointment, I cried because it meant that I didn’t have to be scared to live my life anymore.”

Chalfant said she prioritized the vaccine to protect her mother who is considered high risk.

“I can also protect my family, because my mom has underlying conditions,” she said. “It is extremely important for me and for my family to protect her.”

While there are many college students across Virginia who support requiring the vaccine, there are others who are uncertain. Kaitlyn Whitehead, a health sciences major at James Madison University in Harrisonburg, said giving colleges leeway to make the vaccine mandatory is “not a positive thing.”

“I believe that, just like anything else, that there should be a choice,” she said.

Whitehead said that since the flu vaccine isn’t mandated at Virginia colleges, then the COVID-19 vaccine shouldn’t be either. She said the flu and COVID-19 both kill many people, but only the latter vaccine is being mandated.

It’s also too early to tell if the vaccine is effective, Whitehead said. Initial trials have found all COVID-19 vaccines are effective to varying degrees, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Emily Porter, a student majoring in media studies and Chinese at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, said there is support for the vaccine among U.Va. students, but some students oppose it.

“The student population is largely liberal, though I would say there are contrarians and conservatives who might have an issue,” she said. “As a proportion of the student population, the latter is much less. I would also guess that the majority of the faculty and staff would also be in support of it.”

Emily Porter supports the vaccine and believes it to be a “wonderful feat of science.”

“There will definitely have to be some developments, especially with the new strains and everything like that,” she said. “But overall, I think it’s incredible, and I had no problem getting it.”

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.

Changing course

For the first time, James Madison University’s College of Business offered spring 2020 students in its MBA program an elective course focused specifically on diversity.

By the end of the semester, JMU had hired the course’s instructor, visiting professor Demetria Henderson, as the business school’s director of diversity, equity and inclusion.

The appointment was a sign of how the national conversation on race that followed the police killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor prompted Virginia business schools to examine the role they should play in forging future business leaders able to foster inclusive workplaces.

Many schools are updating case studies to make sure they reflect diverse protagonists and examining the campus experience they offer to students and faculty from diverse backgrounds. Others are employing new technologies and increasing community interaction in order to build practical skills they believe students need in today’s workforce.

‘We can’t wait any longer’

At JMU, College of Business Dean Michael Busing saw a need to turn what had been a scattershot approach to matters of diversity, equity and inclusion into a more intentional effort.

“We have known that we need this for a long time, but it really does take a moment like this to get people to say, ‘We can’t wait any longer,’” Busing says.

Henderson, who was already teaching at the school as a visiting professor, seemed a perfect fit for the task.

She worked for more than 15 years in consulting and banking before earning her doctorate in management from the University of Texas at Arlington. Her research on how social class affects hiring was inspired by the experiences she had as a Black woman working in corporate America.

With her MBA students this spring, Henderson focused on creating an environment where students felt safe discussing the many aspects of diversity. Instead of hearing lectures, students discussed a variety of readings that caused them to question previous assumptions, and in some cases to change how they were interacting in their full-time jobs.

“It is about sharing information and experiences,” says Henderson, who is planning an undergraduate elective business course on diversity for the spring 2021 semester.

Both Henderson and Busing say JMU needs to focus on hiring a more diverse business faculty — a goal shared by many other business schools, and one that won’t come easily as JMU faces a hiring freeze due to the financial challenges brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Henderson stresses that just as the school must broaden its recruiting efforts to bring in more diverse faculty, it also needs to create an environment where faculty from different backgrounds feel welcome once they arrive.

Busing agrees. “You can’t just say, ‘We will hire for diversity.’ You have to create a culture where everybody feels included,” he says.

This means supporting minority faculty with mentoring, looking at quality of life for various groups in the surrounding Harrisonburg community and being sensitive to the fact that loading an individual with committee appointments because they are a member of an underrepresented group can leave them with less time to pursue their own professional goals, Henderson says.

At Virginia Tech’s Pamplin College of Business, Director of Diversity and Inclusion Janice Branch Hall has made recruitment and retention of a more diverse faculty a priority since she was hired in February 2019.

“A big part of that is understanding their needs and unique challenges, making sure we are providing research support [and]making sure promotion and tenure expectations are clear,” she says. “We want to make sure they are positioned well for success.”

Changing the classroom conversation

Hall and senior leaders at Virginia Tech have developed a web-based training site to equip faculty with the skills to lead classroom discussions that don’t shy away from potentially sensitive matters related to diversity and inclusion.

“If we are in the business of developing future business leaders, we have to have these conversations in the classroom,” Hall says.

At the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business, Martin Davidson, senior associate dean and global chief diversity officer, agrees.

“What is happening for students in the classroom is so powerfully affected by how skillful our faculty are in facilitating conversations about diversity,” Davidson says. “That skillset for our faculty is one critical element we are focusing on.”

Darden does this through regular seminars and teaching development forums — many of which have gone virtual in the COVID-19 era — that discuss what it means to lead an “inclusive classroom.” Examples are equitably calling on students to give responses and being aware of the unconscious biases that may affect teaching and other interactions with students.

This is also a goal at William & Mary’s Raymond A. Mason School of Business. The school recently began using a virtual reality platform that simulates role-playing scenarios with avatars, giving students a chance to practice broaching potentially polarizing topics with virtual managers and colleagues, and offering them a venue to assess and improve their skills.

“Students need to not only know in an abstract way what diversity and inclusion mean, but we also want to help students change behaviors to interact with each other in a different way and recognize biases as they are happening,” says Inga Carboni, an associate business professor at William & Mary.

Carboni uses the technology in a diversity course that is required for all undergraduate business students at the school. She has used it with online MBA students and will be training senior administrators at the school with it this fall.

Constant vigilance is key

Darden first established its chief diversity officer position in 2007, before many other top business schools. But Davidson says work on diversity, equity and inclusion isn’t something that can be checked off a list as a single accomplishment. Efforts to recruit more diverse students and faculty can take years to bear fruit and fostering a culture where diverse individuals feel welcome requires ongoing effort.

“It’s like working out — if you stop doing it, then you stop getting the benefits,” he says. “Our objective is to change our DNA, to change the way we operate so it becomes natural to pay attention to and practice inclusion.”

Jeff Tanner, dean of the Strome College of Business at Old Dominion University, was attracted to ODU specifically because of its commitment to diversity and inclusivity.

ODU’s student body has a higher proportion of Black and Hispanic students than the state average for four-year public institutions, according to 2019-20 data from the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia.

One in four students at the school are first-generation college students, and one in four have military affiliation, giving the school a wide diversity of age and life experiences.

“Inclusivity is such a pillar of who we are, it is such a basic part of our organizational DNA, that it attracts you or it repels you,” Tanner says. “Therefore, we attract people who seek this kind of place.”

But that doesn’t mean there isn’t work to be done. When a student in a January 2020 focus group remarked that speakers at school events didn’t reflect the student body, Tanner was surprised. He was proud of the school’s recent signature speaker series, which featured four speakers, three of whom were Black.

But when a committee looked more deeply at speakers across the business school, they found that most people who were invited to speak to classes and student organizations were white.

“I realized that while I might see one thing, students are seeing another, because they are exposed to a different set of experiences, and we really needed to do the deeper dive,” Tanner says.

He is adamant that inclusivity needs to be pursued with a bigger purpose, and at ODU he has tried to steer that purpose toward fostering better conditions for minorities to thrive in the Hampton Roads business community.

Strome’s chapter of the National Association of Black Accountants, for example, works with Future Business Leaders of America clubs in local high schools to recruit a more diverse group of future students.

The school’s Transitional Entrepreneurship Lab is devoted to promoting economic well-being among disadvantaged communities, and in fall 2020 it put on a small business academy for vendors that meet Virginia state government’s Small, Women-owned and Minority (SWaM) business certification standard.

“One of the things I have really tried to do as dean is give this idea of inclusivity a purpose beyond, ‘It’s a nice, good thing to do,’” Tanner says.

At Virginia Tech, Hall sees a similar dynamic in the impact that faculty research can have on the business world. She points to research Tech professors are conducting on the importance of diversity on corporate boards, Black entrepreneurship, social justice branding and other topics that are driving new conversations within business schools and out in the business world.

“We are focused on ways that our faculty can conduct research that really impacts the human condition, and how we engage in society, and what that means in a global economy,” she says.

 

Rooms to grow

Weaving through the sea of students walking to class and working on the floor in groups, the business faculty at James Madison University’s Zane Showker Hall had a running joke: Getting to their offices each day was akin to an Indiana Jones adventure.

It wasn’t that Showker Hall wasn’t a nice place; it was just that with the rapid expansion of JMU’s College of Business in recent years, a building that was intended for 2,400 students was straining to accommodate 5,000.

Langridge
Langridge

“We were bursting at the seams, basically,” says Elias J. Semaan, professor of finance and business law. “The hallways were always crowded.”

But with the help of a $3.7 million donation — the largest cash gift in the school’s history — change has come to JMU’s College of Business. In fall 2020, the university opened the doors of Hartman Hall, its new 115,000-square-foot academic building, to students and faculty. The $66.5 million facility is the first step toward what will eventually become the College of Business Learning Complex, comprised of Hartman Hall and Showker Hall, which is undergoing a $19.9 million renovation of its own.

JMU plans to reopen Showker in May, with a grand reopening celebration planned for the fall. Altogether, the price tag for the complex will total $99.2 million, including funding for equipment and the $66.5 million for Hartman Hall.

For students, faculty, officials and alums of the Harrisonburg university, the new business school complex is symbolic of the recognition JMU has received from Bloomberg Businessweek for having one of the best public business schools in the country.

JMU unleashed

From his time as a JMU student in the 1960s through his time running a large company of truck dealerships, James Hartman says the lessons he learned at the university proved invaluable in life and business.

After transferring to the school as a junior in 1968, Hartman attended class by day and drove a truck for his father’s company at night. Upon graduating in 1970 with a bachelor’s in business administration, Hartman helped grow his family’s company, Harrisonburg-based Truck Enterprises Inc., from a single truck to eight full-service commercial truck dealerships. Hartman sold the company to Transport Equipment Co. of Salt Lake City on Sept. 1, 2020.

JMU’s Gaglioti Capital Markets Lab in Hartman Hall offers Bloomberg terminals with real-time financial data. Photo by JMU Creative Media
JMU’s Gaglioti Capital Markets Lab in Hartman Hall offers Bloomberg terminals with real-time financial data. Photo by JMU Creative Media

Hartman has stayed connected with JMU over the years, serving on its board of visitors and then as rector from 2010 to 2012. Through his connections at the university, Hartman knew of the need for a new business school building. The building’s name recognizes Hartman; his wife, Carolyn; their son, Scott; and their daughter, Jennifer Risser, a 2000 graduate who now works in the university’s Center for International Stabilization and Recovery.

The road to a new business complex started in the 2000s under then-JMU President Linwood H. Rose. After Jonathan R. Alger became president in 2012, the university put together a six-year strategic plan. It included overarching principles and goals, as well as key initiatives the university hoped to achieve, including increasing graduation rates, lowering student-faculty ratios, and expanding and renovating buildings such as Showker Hall.

With fundraising needed to achieve those initiatives — including a new business school complex — JMU launched its “Unleashed” capital campaign in October 2018. The campaign had an initial goal of raising $150 million but upped the ante to $200 million after fundraising began exceeding expectations.

“The appetite was there to go for it. It was a little daring. It was the single largest capital project in JMU’s history,” Nick Langridge, vice president for university advancement, says of the fundraising campaign.

For the business complex, JMU needed to secure $16.5 million in private funding. Including the Hartmans’ $3.7 million gift, the university raised a total of more than $19 million in private commitments from more than 2,500 donors. The General Assembly allocated an additional $75.9 million toward the project.

Michael Busing, dean of the JMU College of Business, says that Hartman Hall offers better technology and more flexible learning spaces. Photo by Norm Shafer
Michael Busing, dean of the JMU College of Business, says that Hartman Hall offers better technology and more flexible learning spaces. Photo by Norm Shafer

Michael Busing, dean of the College of Business, says that the classrooms at Hartman Hall are “state-of-the-art,” including desktop cameras, 4K projection screens and confidence monitors. For guest speakers both virtual and in-person, the rooms offer array and wireless microphones.

Compared with traditional Harvard-style lecture rooms, Busing says, these classrooms also are more flexible. “What that allows is for students to quickly get into small group conversations … to discuss a topic,” he explains, adding that the classrooms of Showker will be similar after the renovation. “They can convert that classroom from lecture-style to small breakout in about 10 seconds, then [return] to a lecture.”

One fan of Hartman Hall is Maryhelen Storey. Currently in her first year of grad school for accounting, Storey also earned her undergraduate degree in accounting at JMU. She says Hartman compares favorably to the old Showker Hall.

“There’s a much bigger lobby when you walk in that allows for many more seating areas, and then there’s a whole area of study rooms,” Storey says, adding that with greater ease of access, students get more face time with professors. “You see them walking around more, and you also have a new café here that has a full-service eatery, so you’re able to get food here instead of having to leave.”

Gems and crystal Ball

If there’s a gem in the crown of Hartman Hall, it’s the Gaglioti Capital Markets Lab.

Semaan
Semaan

Bounded by glass and a stock ticker displaying share prices, the lab features Bloomberg terminals that feed up-to-the-minute financial data, giving students access to real-world tools to support their learning.

Originally established at Showker Hall in 2011, the lab has been expanded through a comprehensive makeover in its move to Hartman Hall. Even though the previous lab featured financial industry software applications such as SAS, Analytic Solver and Crystal Ball Software, it was crowded. 

The lab “was very nice, but at the same time, very limited, so the class could only fit 20 students at the most,” says Semaan, who teaches all of his courses in the lab.

With its new digs, the lab has doubled its seating capacity, and includes an attached board room that can also function as a multiuse area. The lab features 40 computer stations, eight 55-inch flat-panel displays and a 96-inch smart board.

Even with occupancy limitations put in place during the pandemic to help enforce social distancing, Semaan says, the lab is very popular with students.

“You could tell that the students were very excited about it,” Semaan says. “It’s such a pleasant space.”

Enrico Gaglioti, a 1994 graduate, says he donated the lab to give students a better understanding of the tools used in the financial services industry. A former partner at Goldman Sachs & Co., Gaglioti co-founded and served as CEO of New York City-based Chiron Investment Management before it was acquired by Philadelphia-based FS Investments, where he now serves as co-president.

Alger
Alger

When Gaglioti entered the financial world, he says, many large, New York City-headquartered financial institutions recruited more substantially from top-tier Ivies with big business schools.

“As financial services has grown over the last two decades, these big institutions started broadening out their reach,” says Gaglioti.

Since he entered the workforce, Gaglioti says, JMU has made “a bit of a name for itself” in financial services, with alums reflecting the school’s culture of being collaborative, hard-working, curious and intellectually capable.

“Those are all qualities that are really important in financial services,” he says.

Hard work and humility

Talk to Alger, JMU’s president, and you’ll hear that the workforce of today and tomorrow needs to be made up of people with the breadth of experience and originality that’s fostered by the school.

“The answers are not in the back of the textbook for the problems employers are trying to solve” today, says Alger. “You’ve got to have students that have a creative and innovative mindset.”

As such, Alger says, JMU graduates are well-suited for the workforce because of their collaborative spirit and the fact that they don’t usually have everything handed to them. It’s a work ethos, he says, that’s reflected by the Hartmans.

“JMU grads are known for rolling up their sleeves, for not being entitled, and the Hartmans are known very much for that attitude,” Alger says.

Philanthropists Carolyn and James Hartman donated $3.7 million toward Hartman Hall’s construction. Photo by JMU Creative Media
Philanthropists Carolyn and James Hartman donated $3.7 million toward Hartman Hall’s construction. Photo by JMU Creative Media

With the new Hartman Hall and a renovated Showker Hall in the works, Langridge says the business school’s physical infrastructure is beginning to meet the caliber of its programming.

“We’ve got the facility to match the model, and I think that’s one of the wonderful things about the new learning complex.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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 (fall 2020) 

Undergraduate students: 19,727

Graduate students: 1,867

Student profile 

Male/female ratio: 42% / 58%

International students: 1.4%

Minority students: 22.3%

Academic programs

JMU has nearly 140 undergraduate and graduate degree programs, ranging from accounting and computer science to international business, psychology and nursing.

Faculty*

Full-time instructional faculty: 1,070

Part-time instructional faculty: 447

Tuition, fees, housing
and dining

$23,918 approximate annual in-state undergraduate residential cost, including tuition, mandatory fees, housing and meal plan for incoming freshmen.

 *Fall 2019