James Madison University - Index

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

changes from
coeducation
“Build it and They Will Come…”
might well be the motto for
Shorts Hall.
When Shorts — the first residence
hall on campus for men
— opened in 1968, two years
after Madison College became
coeducational, male enrollment,
which had stagnated
at about 10 percent for two
decades, jumped to 18 percent.
The following year it rose to
21 percent and by 1970, when
Ron Carrier arrived, one quarter
of the students were men.
By the mid-1980s, men would
make up almost half of the
student population.
Men had always been a part
of the school, even when it
was the Normal, Harrisonburg
Teacher’s College and Madison
College. Their presence
was felt gradually throughout
the century.
Coeducation, however,
changed everything. Not only
did it mean that men could
attend Madison College as
full-time regular students, but
no longer were they limited
to pursue only education
degrees. They could study in
any field from art to zoology.
The result was expansion
of academic opportunities for
both men and women.
But coeducation meant far
more than just men on campus
and new opportunities.
It generated a new attitude.
Madison College was a new
college and students knew it.
Professors knew it. The new
president knew it.
When Carrier came to
Madison in 1971, he recognized
the need to prepare students
for the workplace. The era of
pursuing college for purely
intellectual or social reasons
— a preoccupation that had
lingered throughout higher
education for centuries — was
gone. Even though the attitude
was never prevalent at Madison
— a college serious about
training teachers — its singular
mission had been equally limiting.
College, once the bastion
of the elite, had become available
to all students.
Ironically, the college’s first
president, Julian Burruss, had
envisioned the need for such
a change.
“To meet these demands of
the new education it is obvious
that the work of the Normal
School can no longer be
confined to theory and books,
but must see its material in
real things, in nature, in the
practical activities of industry
and commerce, in the business,
civic and social interest
of life,” Burruss wrote.
Carrier agreed. The philosophy
gave the newly deemed
coeducational college and
soon-to-be deemed university
carte blanche to prepare
students for a diversity of
careers, as well as for life.
New emphasis on preprofessional
programs and
internships provided new
opportunities for students
and also set them up to enter
the workplace or graduate
school with work-ready skills
and experience. Pre-law, prephysical
therapy, pre-theology
all drew from the solid base of
scholarship already on campus
and added to it a real world
component quickly becoming
a requisite for the job market.
Carrier also expanded
graduate programs, which
grew dramatically during the
1970s and 1980s, adding master’s
programs in exceptional
education, fine arts and public
administration, all leading to
new career tracks. The first
doctoral program, in psychology,
would come at the end of
his tenure.
Over the first Carrier
decade, the school — where
two-thirds of the students
were pursuing degrees in
education in the early 1970s —
had developed a broad-based
curriculum with two-thirds of
the students studying subjects
other than education.
Changes throughout campus
were deep and broad. All,
however, were grounded in a
fundamental pursuit of quality
that had long been valued
by the faculty. Changes were
driven, according to Thomas
C. Stanton, vice president
of academic affairs in 1976,
‘... the Normal School can no longer be confined
to theory and books, but must see its material in
real things, in nature, in the practical activities
of industry and commerce, in the business, civic
and social interest of life.” — President Julian Burruss
38 Madison Magazine
When Ron Carrier became president of Madison in 1971, one
quarter of the student body was male. By the mid-1980s, men
made up almost half of the student population.
by “the quality of academic
programs,” combined with the
“educational dynamics of a
diverse faculty.”
Carrier also believed in students.
With his firm confidence
in their potential, new programs
in the performing arts
showcased student talents.
The long-running JMU Dinner
Theatre became a popular
summer endeavor for the community.
Believing that students
could think for themselves,
Carrier also turned over the
half-million dollar student
activities budget to students
and let them run with it.
Carrier foresaw the coming
technology revolution,
one that would revolutionize
communication, administration
and student life. By the early
1980s, students were required
to take courses in computer
literacy. Later it would be
new curricula underneath the
umbrella of a new college, the
College of Integrated Science
and Technology, which would
reflect both technological and
curricular evolutions. M