James Madison University - Bluestone Schoolmaam Yearbook (Harrisonburg, VA)

Page 14 text:

We ' re content, even proud of our style of living — but not obsessed v ith it like some other areo schools. Many colleges and universities are compulsed v ith image. They become caught up in a race for sophistication, out-of-control social lives or superior academics. We even things out with a graceful balance of all three. We also might think of ourselves as a diverse and daring group of college kids, but let ' s be realistic. We ' re not as conservative as our friends up the road at Eastern Mennonite College, but comparisons to UCLA seem more unlikely. The JMU community remains generally homogeneous. Most pattern the typical JMU student as a vv ' hite female from northern Virginia. While that does represent three majorities, it does not justify as a stereotype. Last year, there were 350 blacks enrolled, 39 orientals, 34 hispanics and seven Native Americans adding diversity to the campus. By sex, about 55 percent of the student population was female, about 45 percent male. Seventy-nine percent of our students come from in-state, the greatest numbers from northern Virginia and Rockingham County. Of the 21 percent who arrive from out of state, most ore from Maryland, New Jersey and New York respectively. «!(

Page 16 text:

Once at JMU, however, we ore residents of Harrisonbur g Most of us spend our weekends here. Much of the town oppreciates thot, catering to our needs and whims. But some- times, we are scorned by Harrisonburg residents The words, college student do, otter oil, hold certoin neg- otive connototions. It is theorized that college students are incapable of keep- ing o balanced checking account, hove tt e couth of tribal aborigines, and in our cose, ore a menace to this otherwise peaceful city of close to 25,000 But those some college students dump thousands of dollars of sales into the community, work unselfishly toward commu- nity enhancement with Logon ' s Run, Big Brothers and Sisters and many other service projects, and enjoy the area ' s beauty and history every bit as much as pernionent residents. Eventually though, we must leove our university, but not be- fore each of us has, in some way, scrotched o mark into JMU ' s history. More importantly, however, is the indelible etching of grov th thot JMU ollows us. We arrive as lone freshmen, we grow to be one as a student body, then ogam we ore set out on our own. But this time, thanks to Jomes Madison University, we ore ready H vvM wvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvw■ M AWV A v hA vvy vv■ A AArAV ■ A M vs vvvvvvs AAA 1%