A bold commitment to transformational education, pioneering research, and belonging — for every student, every community, and every generation of Dukes.
President Jim's Message
This is not a typical strategic plan.
Most university plans are built around incremental progress, steady steps toward a near-term future that looks much like the present. This plan, however, sets its sights on 2040, so we can imagine our future and build it together. We do so because we are living through seismic shifts in higher education. We face a landscape that demands of us new eyes, nimbleness and the courage to embrace change.
One shift is already well underway. Artificial intelligence is reshaping how scholarship is conducted, how students learn, and what employers expect of our graduates. We are being asked to prepare students for futures we cannot fully see, using tools that are rapidly evolving. That challenge reaches into the nature of what a university does: how we teach, how we define learning, and what a JMU degree certifies. This plan commits to navigating that challenge deliberately and with integrity.
The environment of college athletics continues to evolve rapidly. In a short period of time, the rules governing college athletics have been rewritten, shifting and even redefining what it means to compete and win at the highest levels, and what it costs. James Madison University has invested meaningfully in athletics, and that investment has paid dividends across different stakeholder groups: in enrollment, in national visibility, in the pride that comes from watching JMU succeed on a bigger stage. But the environment we are competing in today demands more, and so we must carefully — as an institution — determine our path forward, navigating and deploying our future investments through the lens of our academic and research priorities and peer set.
A third shift is broader but no less consequential. Across the country, public confidence in higher education is eroding. JMU has earned a strong reputation, but reputation is not a shield, especially in the face of questions about cost, outcomes, and what a college degree is worth. Families are making hard calculations about return on investment. Legislatures are asking hard questions about accountability. This plan squarely addresses these issues to focus on delivering what we promise: graduates who are prepared, experiences that are meaningful, and a community that holds itself to account. That, in a nutshell is our vision: The Madison Promise.
The Madison Promise is bold because the moment demands boldness. And it is honest about what boldness requires: real resources. We cannot pursue transformative goals on a maintenance budget. My leadership team and I have pledged to make this our priority.
The Madison Promise is bold because you helped create it. Hundreds of members of the JMU community contributed to what you are reading. It was also guided by core values that define this institution: a commitment to the public good; a conviction that the student experience is at the center of everything we do; and a responsibility to be excellent stewards of the public resources entrusted to us.
The Madison Promise is bold because it relies on a team approach to progress. Every division will build its own response to this plan, and areas will identify objectives that support their own work toward achieving our guidepost goals. Whether you are teaching in a classroom, advising a student, managing a budget, coordinating an event, or working on a housekeeping team, this plan is yours. We are all educators at JMU.
JMU has long been defined by a culture that, above all, emphasizes excellence. We do things well, and we take pride in that. We are scrappy, often taking on challenges bigger than our resources might suggest we should. This plan leans into that. What it also asks is that we become a community willing to take risks in service to that excellence. We may not be wildly successful in every domain we pursue—but we are going to try anyway. And if we don’t fail somewhere along the way, we probably didn’t push ourselves far enough.
At James Madison University we learn from each other and with each other, and that is what makes this place so special. That spirit of care, of showing up for one another, of opening doors is the foundation on which everything we are building rests. The Madison Promise asks us to open a bigger door: one that leads to a bolder, more audacious, more future-ready JMU.
Let’s walk through it together.
President Jim
