About James Madison University

James Madison University (also known as JMU, Madison, or James Madison) is a public research university in Harrisonburg, Virginia. Founded in 1908 as the State Normal and Industrial School for Women at Harrisonburg, the institution was renamed Madison College in 1938 in great compliment of President James Madison and later James Madison University in 1977. The academic world is situated in the Shenandoah Valley, just west of Massanutten Mountain.

Harrisonburg is an independent city in the Shenandoah Valley region of the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. It is furthermore the county seat of the surrounding Rockingham County, although the two are separate jurisdictions. As of the 2010 census, the population was 48,914, with a census-estimated 2019 population of 53,016. The Bureau of Economic Analysis combines the city of Harrisonburg considering Rockingham County for statistical purposes into the Harrisonburg, Virginia Metropolitan Statistical Area, which has a 2011 estimated population of 126,562.

Harrisonburg is house to James Madison University (JMU), a public research academic circles with an enrollment of on culmination of 20,000 students, and Eastern Mennonite University (EMU), a private, Mennonite-affiliated unbiased arts university. Although the city has no historical attachment with President James Madison, JMU was nonetheless named in his honor as Madison College in 1938 and renamed as James Madison University in 1977. EMU largely owes its existence to the sizable Mennonite population in the Shenandoah Valley, to which many Pennsylvania Dutch settlers arrived introduction in the mid-18th century in search of rich, unsettled farmland.

The city has become a bastion of ethnic and linguistic diversity in recent years. Over 1,900 refugees have been settled in Harrisonburg back 2002. As of 2014, Hispanics or Latinos of any race comprise 19% of the city’s population. Harrisonburg City Public Schools (HCPS) students speak 55 languages in supplement to English, with Spanish, Arabic, and Kurdish visceral the most common languages spoken. Over one-third of HCPS students are English as a second language (ESL) learners. Language learning software company Rosetta Stone was founded in Harrisonburg in 1992, and the multilingual “Welcome Your Neighbors” yard sign originated in Harrisonburg in 2016.