Convo celebration honors JMU legacy
Posted on March 17, 2008
As the weeklong celebration of JMU’s 100th birthday came to an end, an estimated 4,000 members of the JMU community joined for the Centennial Convocation on Friday.
Representatives from graduating classes dating back to 1932 led the procession before listening to a dozen speakers including Gov. Tim Kaine (D-Va.), JMU President Linwood Rose, former president Ronald E. Carrier and Student Body President Lee Brooks.
Members of the EARTH Club unfurled two banners and passed out flyers to remind Gov. Timothy M. Kaine of a previously promised energy plan and to protest a coal-fired power plant in southwest Virginia, but were quickly hushed by Centennial officials.
Kaine delivered the Centennial Address using Madison as a metaphor for the growth Virginia has made in education over the past 100 years.
“In 1908 Virginia education was nothing to be proud of,” Kaine said. “We’re no longer a state with higher education attendance below the national average.”
The 50-year-old governor emphasized the state’s ability to “break down barriers” regarding race, gender and religion and that the formation of the State Normal and Industrial School for Women at Harrisonburg was an early step.
Kaine also spoke highly of the College of Integrated Science and Technology, citing it as one of the main reasons SRI chose JMU and Harrisonburg to partner with in 2006.
“The greatest age of Virginia is the generation in this room,” Kaine said in closing.
While the governor gave a more serious speech, Carrier charmed the crowd after being presented with a digital scrapbook encapsulating his presidency from 1971-1998.
“Of the 100,000 that have graduated here I have shaken hands with 65,000 of them,” Carrier said. “And I’ve had a beer with several of ’em. We had a great time. And they learned something too. And some graduated in four years.”
Harrisonburg Mayor Rodney Eagle followed Carrier with some more light humor as he recounted meeting JMU students in Myrtle Beach, S.C., during this year’s Spring Break.
Kaine and 2008 graduation speaker Thomas Dingledine, the great-grandson of a university founding father, were later presented with honorary degrees from Rose.
“I think it’s important as a public institution to have the governor here,” Rose said. “This governor knows a lot about higher education and he has spent time with each of the presidents. He knows about JMU. He knows about JMU and he knows about the strengths.”
