Active Minds Chapter Formed at JMU
Last semester JMU adopted a campus chapter of Active Minds, bringing the student body a new and valuable resource for learning about mental health issues. Read More »
News & Announcements
IIHHS Receives Health Bites Grant Read More »
JMU Participates in Alcohol-Edu Project Read More »
ICCS Conference Held in October Read More »
History
The political seed for the College of Integrated Science and Technology began in 1988 with the Virginia General Assembly's creation of the Commission on the University of the 21st Century. Driven by a concern that the world's social and economic orders are changing at an unprecedented rate as well as a desire to strengthen Virginia's leadership position among the states, the Assembly called upon the Commission to recommend changes in higher education in Virginia. While it was recognized that higher education could not solve the many problems confronting our nation, it was believed that they could provide leadership in bringing about the educational reform required for people to begin working out solutions.
In November 1989, the Commission provided its report in an open letter to the Governor, the General Assembly, and the People of Virginia. The report, "The Case for Change," called for innovative approaches to education that would help meet part of the demand created by some 25,000 additional students in Virginia's system of higher education early in the next century. Among its several recommendations, it asked "that each state-supported institution be directed, and each independent institution be requested, to develop a detailed plan in response to this report and about its own view of the future by June 30, 1991..."
James Madison University had not waited for the official recommendations. Aware of the upcoming change, JMU established its own Commission for a Greater University which formulated several initiatives. The most significant of these initiatives was its proposal to establish a new college. In August 1989 President Ronald Carrier named the members of a blue-ribbon panel to review the University's proposal for a new College of Applied Science and Technology. This college, subsequently renamed the College of Integrated Science and Technology, embodied the spirit as well as the specifics of the reforms being cited as needed in higher education. In January 1990 the blue-ribbon panel presented its report. Among the several recommendations and suggestions, the panel urged the Commonwealth to commit to the creation of the college and recommended that JMU proceed with preparations for the new college. In January of 1992, the Commonwealth committed to the creation of the college, and a pilot program was begun. At that point, the college included two programs, computer science, which was an established degree program in the University, and the new innovative Integrated Science and Technology program.
Seeing the natural connection of professional programs with a base in science and technology, the common emphasis on a hands-on approach to learning, and the emerging needs in the health and human services sector of society, programs from the existing College of Health and Human Services joined the College in the fall of 1993. The new academic units of the College included Communication Sciences and Disorders, Health Sciences, Nursing and Social Work. The Geographic Information Sciences program was established within the College in 1995. Most recently (July, 2001), the Psychology Department, Department of Graduate Psychology, and the Department of Kinesiology have become academic units within the College.
