Peter Rose Joins JMU Football

For those that follow JMU football closely, you may have heard about Peter Rose. He was a standout football star from Amherst County High School who was given an offer by VT which was later withdrawn when he was arrested on May 16, 2008, and convicted of two felony counts of selling drugs within 1,000 feet of a school and two misdemeanor charges of selling marijuana. A judge "set aside" the two felony convictions, which allowed JMU football coach Mickey Matthews to start recruiting Rose. After a year at prep school it was finally time for Peter Rose to get his chance to get into real college football.

Now, some readers may be asking why we would bother with him if a school like VT wouldn't take him. Look at it this way, if you're VT, you're already walking a pretty thin line as far as their athletes' extracurriculars go. JMU on the other hand has a great track record at keeping all but a bad egg here or there out of trouble. In addition, we have the X-factor that will help make sure Peter keeps his nose clean. That would be Peter's older brother Jonathon, who is a tailback turned strong safety at JMU. I think with his older brother here he will be much more likely to keep out of trouble. I also have full faith in Coach Matthews to take care of business if he doesn't keep in line. So on Wednesday, he finally got admitted to JMU and cleared to start practicing with the team. We'll have to wait and see what position he will be playing (somewhere in the secondary) and if he'll be making an immediate impact, but with a rather thin depth chart at safety and linebacker, it definitely couldn't hurt having him on the team. Good luck to Peter on and off the field.

DNR: JMU Football Blog

Forbes Ranks JMU #37 Public School In Nation

A rankings list released last week by Forbes.com listed James Madison University as the #37 public school in the nation and #234 overall. Now, let's look at how Forbes decided on this list, as it's a bit different than most other college rankings. Seven factors determine a school's rank:

• Student Evaluations from RateMyProfessors.com (25%)

• Four-year Debt Load for Typical Student Borrowers (20%)

• Four-Year Graduation Rates (16.66%)

• Listings of Alumni in the 2008 edition of Who's Who in America (12.5%)

• Salaries of Alumni from PayScale.com (12.5%)

• Students Receiving Nationally Competitive Awards (8.33%)

• Faculty Receiving Awards for Scholarship and Creative Pursuits (5%)

As you can see by the fact that faculty rating site RateMyProfessors.com is given the most weight, this is not a traditional rankings list, but tries to take in an array of factors. This is opposed to most lists that will focus only on academics. The full methodology behind the rankings can be found here.

Agree or disagree with how it's setup, it's time to look at the rest of the list. We've seen where JMU ranks, so let's check out some other rankings from the area and CAA. Top 100 Public schools have their rankings from that list in parentheses.

#34	Washington & Lee
#48	William & Mary (4)
#54	Hampden-Sydney
#64	Virginia (6)
#68	UNC (7)
#69	Sweet Briar
#79	VMI (10)
#95	Hollins
#102	Emory & Henry
#121	Mary Washington (13)
#146	Richmond
#34	Randolph
#217	Delaware (31)
#234	JMU (37)
#256	VT (44)
#257	Randolph-Macon
#263	Villanova
#289	Roanoke
#338	George Mason (75)
#368	Towson (89)
#387	Maryland (99)
#410	ODU
#465	CNU
#529	VCU
#564	Liberty

Complete list of overall rankings

Return of the Quad

After a few years of the Quad being at least partially blocked for construction, it is finally opening back up. The fence that had been blocking off nearly half of the Quad has recently been taken down and most of the construction done on the Quad side of the tunnel has been completed. Walking around the newly reopened Quad was like seeing a friend you haven't seen since sophomore year and they're dressed a little nicer and are in a little better shape than you remember them. The new paths are really looking nice and, as you can see in the photos, the walls are bluestone. No matter which angle you look at the new construction from, it looks great. Once the PAC (which is also coming along nicely...hopefully a photo tour of which will be coming soon) is done it will really complete the Quad. So now, the photos:


















Additional photos

And what post about the Quad would be complete without...
Madison Project's I'm On The Quad

Women's Basketball 2009 OOC Schedule

For those disappointed with the Men's Basketball out-of-conference schedule for this year, check out Women's Basketball's lineup. We have lots of great returning players and some incoming freshmen that look very promising. I think Coach Kenny Brooks is starting to put together the type of schedule he really wants with some of the more well-known schools in the region. So without further ado, let's check out the schedule. Last year's final RPI's are in parentheses.

Nov. 6 (Fri) - @UVA (17)

Nov. 18 (Wed) - Georgetown (75)

Nov. 22 (Sun) - VT (166)

Nov. 24 (Tues) - @Austin Peay (170)

Nov. 29 (Sun) - @Western Carolina (95)

Nov. 1 (Tues) - @Liberty (72)

Nov. 6 (Sun) - Siena (205)

Nov. 18 (Fri) - @Duke (5)

Nov. 21 (Mon) - Longwood (323)

Nov. 29-30 (Tues-Wed) - JMU Tournament with Lafayette (329), UNC Asheville (297), Western Michigan (248)

That puts our average RPI at 167. If you take out the opponents in the JMU tournament, the average RPI is 125. The low quality of opponents in the tournament is to be expected for a first year tournament. It's just great to see Coach Brooks pull together the tournament that he's been working for a couple years. The experience will pay off during the CAA tournament at the Convo this year and hopefully the team will be able to build some excitement so there will be a better student turnout this year (though it was really hurt last year thanks to the tourney being over Spring Break).

It'll really be exciting to see how we do against top-level opponents this year. With three opponents from the ACC (though Virginia Tech's Women's team can't really be considered a top-level opponent) and one from the Big East, we'll have some decent OOC competition before going into post-season tournaments.

We've also secured some great deals for future games with ACC opponents. In addition to the games this year, UVA comes to Harrisonburg next year, as does Duke. The year after next, JMU will travel to UVA again to complete the series.

DNR article

Trailer Truck Crashes Into Rockingham Hall

File this under the "Wait....what?!" category. On Friday (8/1) afternoon, John Wodecki, 79, of Centereach, N.Y., went to switch lanes on his way south on I-81. He apparently didn't see the 2009 International tractor-trailer driven by James Melton, 52, of Wytheville. The push veered Melton over the median, through the northbound lane, up a hill, through a fence, up another hill, and into the side of Rockingham Hall. I enjoyed this comment on the DNR's website: "Ever driven a semi up a hill at 60mph? #%&@ gets confusing." While it does seem crazy that it went so far and still couldn't stop, one has to take into consideration the weight that the semi could have been pulling, the fact that he was trying to slow down on grass, and the possibility that the initial hit from Wodecki's car could have messed up the internals of the engine or the drivetrain making it harder to slow down or steer.


Luckily, there was only one other car involved in the accident - David Walker, 54, of Houston - and there were no life-threatening injuries. Melton was transferred to UVA, while Wodecki was treated at RMH and released. In addition, it's a great thing that this happened in the summer while students were not living in the residence hall or things could have been much worse. The truck and both cars were totaled, and it looked like 2 rooms in Rockingham Hall had significant damage, but things could have easily been more damaging. A construction company has already been contacted to have the repairs done by the time the new students move in.




DNR article
HFD photos

New Chipotle in the Burg

After all the rumors about a Chipotle coming to JMU, and possibly going into the new East Campus Dining Hall, the new Mexican eatery has opened on Reservoir. Where would the best place be to put such a restaurant? How about 250 yards from Qdoba. That's right, the newest place to open up in the Forbes shopping center is a competing Mexican restaurant inbetween Qdoba and the Reservoir St. entrance to JMU. With a soft opening the past few days, Chipotle has already drummed up a lot of interest, including waits of over half an hour to get food in the evenings. Today is the "Grande Opening," so we'll see how long the strong support lasts. For right now though, it looks like another option has opened in the burg that people have been asking for. Map

Coming Soon
This blogger can't wait to get a taste of the new Beyond, thai-fusion restaurant, opening on Water St. in the old Spanky's building sometime in August. Also coming is a new Italian resturant in the Luigi's space that's been sitting vacant since this past winter. Oh, and while I'm talking about restaurants downtown...while I was on my writing hiatus, Jack Brown's Beer and Burger Joint opened up (and has since added a small outdoor patio area). With a small (but amazing) food menu, a very extensive beer selection, and an outstanding staff, this bar has quickly gotten quite a following. Downtown Harrisonburg is slowly becoming a hotspot for food and nightlife.

JMU Students Very Happy and Eat Well

I hope this doesn't come as a surprise to anyone, but James Madison University students ranked in the 2009 Princeton Review of the best colleges as having some of the happiest students and having some of the top food in the nation.

JMU, after being ranked #5 last year (and I believe #6 the year before), kept rising in the rankings and is ranked as having the #4 food in the nation. My bet is that we move higher next year after the new East Campus Dining Hall opens.

Also, a new rank for us (even though we've always known it) is our selection onto the list of having the happiest students. We came in at #18 on this list that also includes schools like Harvard, Yale, and ranking us just ahead of Duke.

We were also again selected for the 2009 Best Value Colleges – Public and Best Southeastern Colleges lists.

JMU profile