Fact Card

Current as of May 2012

Provided by the Office of Sponsored Programs for your use in submitting funding requests.

James Madison University is a comprehensive co-educational institution of higher learning in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. Founded in 1908 as a state school for women, JMU has grown to a current student body of 19,722 on a campus of 712 acres. The university comprises the College of Arts and Letters, College of Business, College of Education, College of Integrated Science and Technology, College of Science and Mathematics, College of Visual and Performing Arts, School of Engineering, The Graduate School, and Outreach and Engagement. JMU offers 69 undergraduate degree programs, as well as 31 Master's, 2 Educational Specialist, and 7 Doctoral programs.

JMU is dedicated to the belief that an enduring and meaningful educational experience must be future-oriented, grounded in knowledge of one's cultural heritage learned from study in the liberal arts and sciences. The goal of the university is to become the finest undergraduate institution in the country, and it has been cited in numerous national publications, including U.S. News and World Report, Kiplinger's Personal Finance, Bloomberg Businessweek, Fiske Guide to Colleges, and Princeton Review's annual Best Value Colleges guide as one of the best choices among undergraduate public universities.

Drawing 27 percent of its students from other states, JMU serves a diverse student body. In FY 2012, of the 24,486 students, including transfers, whom applied, 4,029 freshmen and 733 transfers were enrolled. The average SAT score was 1147 for Fall 2011. JMU has a 19% minority enrollment, and the student body has about a 40:60 male/female ratio.

The university provides and supports computing and electronic communication services for all of its students, faculty, and staff through the Information Technology department and the Libraries & Educational Technologies department. A high-speed data network provides internal communication and access to the Internet. This network reaches all locations on campus, including residence halls and is being supplemented by the deployment of wireless products in many locations. Both Windows and Macintosh computers are supported along with web browsers, e-mail, anti-virus software and the Microsoft Office suite of products. The Center for Instructional Technology is a key resource for faculty and staff to develop multimedia instructional technologies. To become acquainted with the variety and depth of information technology resources available, visit online at: http://www.jmu.edu/computing or http://www.lib.jmu.edu/.

In November 2011, Mr. Jonathan R. Alger, was selected to serve as the sixth president beginning FY 2013. Prior to his appointment, Mr. Alger served as Senior Vice President and General Counsel at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey and is a nationally recognized scholar and speaker on higher education policy and law. He is dedicated to upholding and building upon the legacy set forth by his predecessors of enhancing the quality of JMU's educational experience and making lasting contributions to the advancement of JMU.

JMU Libraries, including Carrier Library, East Campus Library, and the Music Library, house a total collection of more than 590,397 print volumes, 400,668 microform units, 12,300 current periodical titles, 44,707 audio-visual titles, and over 538,851 government documents in various formats. JMU is a member of VIVA, the Virtual Library of Virginia. JMU's current full-time instructional faculty totals 906, with 78 percent holding terminal degrees. The University's programs are accredited by 31 local and national associations.

It may be appropriate for you to also include similar information on your department or academic area. For instance, if pertinent and applicable, you might present such facts as:

• Accreditation
• General range of the curriculum offered
• Total enrollment in the major(s) offered by your department
• Number of faculty, number of full- and part-time faculty, percentage of doctoral faculty
• Number of graduate students and graduate assistants
• Special programs, facilities and equipment, goals or characteristics of the department compared to those at peer schools
• Special entrance requirements of the department
• In the sciences, some funding agencies look with special favor upon departments that have a good representation of females or minorities, so if either or both of these numbers for your department are high, you may want to cite these statistics.

 

Click here for a PDF version of the fact card. For more university facts, please see http://www.jmu.edu/about/fact-and-figures.shtml.

 

 

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