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Buildings Eyed for JMU Expansion
University aims to fill pending vacancies at hospital, high school
BY CALVIN R. TRICE
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER
Sunday, April 3, 2005
HARRISONBURG -- Starting this year, two of Harrisonburg's biggest public institutions will be vacating two prominent buildings in the city with nearly 1 million square feet of space combined.
James Madison University wants to move into the Rockingham Memorial Hospital and Harrisonburg High School buildings as soon as the current occupants move out, and the university has offered nearly $60 million to do so.
JMU's enrollment has grown 45 percent in the past 12 years, and the school can barely fit on its campus anymore. To cope, JMU has built on almost every open campus space available, scattered offices around the city and, most recently, snapped up as much indoor and outdoor property near school grounds as possible.
A university already forced to hold classes in a hallway, a ballroom and a movie theater faces renovation work this fall that will close 70 classrooms.
"We have to replace those classrooms, but we still have the students here to teach," said Charles King Jr., senior vice president for administration and finance at JMU.
"What we're doing is trying to take advantage of the real estate that's on the market."
In December, JMU agreed to pay $50.6 million to buy Rockingham Memorial Hospital and its 16 acres across the street from the north end of campus. The hospital, which plans to move 2 miles to the east just outside the city in five years, offers about 600,000 square feet of space.
The school plans to move the student Health Center to the buildings. No other plans have been made for the rest of the space, King said.
This month, the university reached a agreement with the city to lease Harrisonburg High School for $7.5 million over five years if the School Board releases the property. City high school students will attend a new school in a different location.
JMU plans to use the building for classrooms and office space and to use the fields on the high school's 25 acres for outdoor sports.
The university has almost no fields to play on. Taylor Hall was built on fields, Bell Hall was constructed on the archery range, and the bookstore sits where tennis courts used to be.
As a result, nearly half the intramural softball teams that students form are wait-listed, said Douglas Brown, the JMU provost.
"Out of the 80 teams, only between 45 and 50 actually get to play," Brown said.
Although JMU will be deciding what to do with the hospital space during the next five years, students made fast plans for the parking deck next to it.
The day in December after the school announced the deal for the purchase, students lined up at the deck to park their cars. The hospital is still fully operational at the site. Rockingham Memorial asked JMU for help getting that reality out to students.
"We had to put notices up on the student part of the Web site saying, 'Don't park at the hospital deck,'" school spokesman Andy Perrine said.
"At least we know they're paying attention," he joked.
Accommodating growth from 11,000 to 16,000 students in 12 years has required a host of campus moves and conversions. The looms for a weaving class are set up in a hallway on the second floor of the Duke Fine Arts building.
The School of Media Arts and Design recently moved from a converted elementary school into modular buildings that were supposed to be temporary. After a decade, they have assumed a sort of permanence. Likewise for the computer lab nearby, where students access high technology in rusting trailers.
The PC Ballroom in the University Center serves as a venue for American- and world-history courses.
At night, Grafton-Stovall Theatre is now offering second runs of Lemony Snicket's "A Series of Unfortunate Events" and "Spanglish." Admission is $2.50.
During the day, the school uses the cinema space to teach sociology and anthropology.
The JMU College of Business, which includes more than 20 percent of university undergraduates, had to deal with demand by requiring sophomores to apply for admission. Meanwhile, the college has converted a copy center into a classroom and moved a few offices about a mile south of campus next to a coin laundry.
"We've managed, with enrollment controls, to at least have a satisfactory situation," said Charles Pringle, the business college's associate dean for academic programs.
But with universitywide enrollment growth expected to inch up in the coming years, business education at JMU has little margin for error until more space becomes available, said Robert Reid, the college dean.
"As JMU continues to grow, that will put additional pressure on us until the hospital can open," Reid said. "So, between now and 2010, there'll be some space problems here."
Contact Calvin R. Trice at (540) 574-9977 or ctrice@timesdispatch.com