James Madison University - Index

James Madison University - Madison - The Magazine of James Madison University - Spring 08 - Index

All About the students
Ron Carrier believed students should be the focus
of the school. as an economist, he understood on
a very basic level that a college offers a commodity
students should want to consume. To this end, Carrier
believed the traditional college experience, the one he had
known as a student at east Tennessee state University, could
be the model. and he believed athletics could be one catalyst
to transform the college known for teaching women into a fullblown
coeducational college.
With history as proof, president Carrier was right. Building
on a long tradition of women’s sports and a successful men’s soccer
team, he ramped up athletics programs, starting with track,
and then football. in the early to mid-1970s, while much of the
nation was focused on war and brewing
Washington scandals, Madison College
was beginning to appear on the radar.
The school’s upstart new president
started a football team. What was he
thinking? in what might be considered a
brazen attempt to recruit men, the football
program — the one collegiate sport
without a female counterpart — yelled
a welcome to male applicants that many
heard loud and clear. applications began
to rise. enrollment of men began to rise.
at the same time, the perception of
Madison College as a women’s teachers
college was fading into history. This was
a new school with a new president, a new
college with a new persona.
despite a winless first season in 1972,
Madison College’s bold, audacious football
program had people talking. There
was a lot of buzz about Madison.
Reflected in new athletics opportunities,
Madison College was changing all
over. Courses of pre-professional programs
were developed. a nursing program
began in 1980. Business programs,
once scattered over campus, were consolidated under one College
of Business that quickly gained a national reputation.
social restrictions were dropped in favor of the students’
ability to manage themselves. new panhellenic programs and
RoTC came to Madison — programs many other colleges
nationwide were dropping. The results were impressive.
in 1974, Madison College was the fastest growing four-year
residential college in Virginia and becoming one of the most
popular schools in Virginia, if not the most popular. By the
1980s, JMU eclipsed the University of Virginia and William and
Mary in freshmen applications, increasing 6.5 percent annually.
and by 1995, male enrollment would hit 45 percent, up from
30 percent in 1971.
To accommodate enrollment that nearly doubled during his
first six years, Carrier continued building, just as his predecessors
had done. The Back Campus, purchased and started by
president Miller, was opportunity waiting to happen.
34 Madison Magazine
Ronald E.
Carrier
Name:
Madison College;
James Madison
University (1977)
Tenure:
1971 –1998
Enrollment:
4,500 to 14,400
Campus size:
419 acres
godwin Hall opened in 1972 and became the focal point for
athletics. it was followed in 1975 by Madison (now Bridgeforth)
stadium, which sported the first astroTurf football field at a
Virginia school. it would be nicknamed “Ron’s Rug.”
More residence halls went up. eagle in 1970 and Chandler
in 1974 completed the men’s area of the campus overlooking
newman lake. These were followed by new residence halls on
the opposite side of the lake, housing the growing numbers of
fraternities and sororities.
in the center of campus, a new student building, the Warren
Campus Center (now Warren Hall), opened in 1971 and was followed
by grafton-stovall Theatre, anchoring student activities in
the heart of the campus and tying the traditional Bluestone area
to the newer Back Campus.
An avid fan of JMU sports, President Ron Carrier takes infield
practice with the Madison Baseball team. In 1983, the Dukes
played in the College World Series, the only time — then and now
— that a Virginia school has advanced to the series.
Academics for a new university
although growth and athletics were the most visible changes during
the early years of the Carrier administration, they were not the
most substantive. early in the Carrier years, academic divisions
were realigned into schools, foreshadowing the colleges on which
a university would grow. along with the student body, the academic
landscape of the school was also expanding.
president Carrier had a fundamental and personal understanding
of the opportunities higher education provided. as one of 11
children growing up in Bluff City, Tenn., he had long looked at
education as the means to lifelong opportunity.
as the president talked to students and faculty, he clearly
understood Madison College’s ability to provide opportunities on