President's Journal — Aug. 29 Virginia Beach Home of Dick and Shirley Roberts ('56)
The Robertses hosted a beautiful Madison family gathering Tonight has been a real treat. We are here in the beautiful home of
Dick and Shirley Roberts, who is a 1956 graduate of Madison, in the
Tidewater area of Virginia. This setting provided a wonderful family
feeling for the President's Council members who came from the whole
region to share their thoughts and ideas about why Madison matters to
them.
'Keep our undergraduate focus' came through loud and clear One
of the messages that came through loud and clear again tonight is that
we should not forget about our focus on the undergraduate because that
focus is one of our core strengths as an institution. One of the
comments that really hit home for me was the observation that at Madison
we want our students to succeed - that JMU is not an environment where
people feel like they're competing against one another. Our students are
not told, "look to your right, look to your left, one of you is going
to be gone after a semester."
It's exciting to hear that success is for all students Instead
we heard alumni and parents say tonight that Madison is a place where
we say to everyone, "We want everybody to succeed." That emphasis on
success is better for the university, it's better for all of us as a
community. JMU is an environment in which we want everybody to have
those opportunities to succeed and in which we support one another.
That's really exciting to hear, and it's one of those things that truly
distinguishes us from a lot of other universities.
Parents stay connected after their students graduate It
was interesting to hear again tonight that we have parents who stay
connected long after their students have graduated from Madison. That
really says something—that they have seen the difference JMU can make in
the lives of their children. Plus they understand that Madison is a
family—a large and inclusive family—and you join the family not just
when your son or daughter is a student, but for the rest of your lives.
We've been hearing from people who understand that and exemplify that.
This phenomenon—having parents who are so enthusiastic and involved—also
sets us apart as an institution.
Alumni recognize achieving dreams takes their support It
was nice to hear from the alumni perspective that they understand that
Madison is now at a point where alumni need to step up to the plate in
terms of support. Even though we are a public university, we heard
tonight that they understand funding is not going to be just state
support and and tuition. We're talking about our hopes and dreams and
aspirations for the future and how we're going to achieve all of those
goals. It's got to be a collective team effort.
When you join the family, you share with the next generation Alumni
noted tonight that they need to be very much a part of supporting the
university with their time, their money and their talent. It was great
to hear from people that they recognize that and that they see it as a
sense of responsibility. Part of what the JMU community as a whole needs
to do is cultivate that sense of responsibility—to embrace the message
that when you join the family, you become part of the community, and you
also have a responsibility to share with the generations that will come
after you.
Extending JMU's personal touch beyond campus is important Alumni
also reminded us about the value of the personal touch. People said
they want to get to know one another - the leadership of the university,
the professors and other people who work at the university. They want
to connect with one another as they did tonight, which is one of the fun
things to see—people who either already knew each other or met each
other for the first time connecting at an event like this. That personal
touch is something JMU is known for. It's obviously part of the
experience, as we hear from students, that made such a difference in
their lives. We need to carry that personal touch beyond campus and take
it around the country where we have alumni and supporters. That's what
we're all about.
I'm looking forward to Northern Virginia and San Francisco I'm
really looking forward to our next listening tour events. We have a big
alumni base in Northern Virginia, where we'll have a reception and
where we also have a big game against West Virginia at FedEx Field at
about the same time. And then we go out to California, where we have a
critical mass of people in the San Francisco-Bay Area. That will be just
one of our stops outside of Virginia. There will be more to come in
other locations across the country.
