GREETINGS. Great accomplishments come not from having modest goals but from having high and challenging aspirations. James Madison University's enormous success in recent years has come, in large part, because of the university's tradition of seeking the absolute best in everything it undertakes -- never being satisfied with being average or just above average.

JMU has enjoyed a multitude of successes in recent years. National surveys have praised JMU for everything from the quality of its food to its students' commitment to volunteerism to the high degree of technology available on campus. As a whole, JMU has been cited over and over again not only as one of America's best universities of its type but also as one of the best values available for the higher education dollar. For 10 years in a row, JMU has been ranked the best master's level public university in the South by U.S. News & World Report -- the magazine that had the first, and still the most respected, of the college polls.

While these honors bring a great deal of pride to the JMU community, we aspire to higher goals. We want JMU to be much more than the best comprehensive public university in the South.

Our aim, by JMU's centennial year in 2008, is for the university to be the proto-type of a new kind of university -- one that currently does not exist in this country. It is our aim for JMU to emulate the best qualities that a student would find at the finest doctoral research universities in the country, along with the best qualities that one would find at the most prestigious small liberal
arts colleges.

We want to offer the breadth of programs, the world-class scholars, the state-of-the-art facilities, the benefits of scale and mass, the research and discovery opportunities, the independence and challenge, the programs of distinction, the diversity, the public exposure and the bright students one finds at the better research universities.

At the same time, we want to offer the student-centered climate, the liberal education, the personal commitment, the high level of service, the high level of support, the opportunities for character development and civic responsibility and exposure to superlative teaching.

A goal of this magnitude is not reached overnight. We have been heading toward this objective for several years, beginning with the establishment of 29 defining characteristics. The characteristics spell out things that we want to do better and also the many things the university does well, some of which JMU has excelled at for nearly a century.

While there is always room to enhance any effort, there are many positive signs that JMU is headed in the right direction.

The quality of our faculty grows each year. Our professors have earned dozens of prestigious awards, are involved in state-of-the-art research and have an extraordinarily high rate of success in the funding of grant and contract proposals. As well as demonstrating commitment to their academic disciplines, our professors exhibit an unwavering dedication to the art of teaching.

In addition to having a faculty that is committed to their intellectual well-being, our students find themselves on a campus that is
student-centered like few in the country.

Our physical plant, strained by rapid growth in the late 1990s, is quickly expanding. More than $100 million in new construction will be completed within the next few years. This will give the university, among other facilities, a center for the arts, a music recital hall, a chemistry-physics building, an athletics-
academic performance center, a new library and several major renovations.

A significant portion of funding for sev-eral of these construction projects will come from private donors. This is another area where great improvements have been made. Record levels of private donations -- as well as sponsored research -- were set last year.

Even though private funding has increased, the university must significantly further enhance outside support to retain and hire faculty members, fund scholarships, and improve programs and facilities.

Efforts toward improvement are being made throughout the university. One particular area that we are addressing is the diversity of our student body, faculty and staff. The presence of a multitude of cultures, races and ethnic groups is essential for true greatness in any university to achieve diversity of thought. Several university committees are now working hard to identify ways in which we can enhance diversity on our campus.

Our goal for the centennial year of 2008 is straightforward: We want to be even better than we are today. What we want to become -- blending the best of large research universities with the best of small liberal arts colleges -- doesn't exist anywhere in the country. With your help, and the help of everyone in the JMU family, we can embody that new type of university.

Linwood H. Rose

President