Unleashed

CoB Learning Complex ‘open for business’

Hartman Hall, newly renovated Showker Hall serve as cornerstones of college’s impressive new facility

The photographs from a decade ago are vivid evidence of how the rapid growth of James Madison University’s College of Business was straining the capacity of the classrooms and offices in Showker Hall.

Named for Zane Showker—entrepreneur, philanthropist, and founder and owner of Harrisonburg Fruit and Produce (now Sysco Food Services of Virginia)—the building was designed in 1991 to accommodate 2,400 JMU business students. Twenty years later, the student census in the College of Business was more than double that, and something had to be done.

By the summer of 2020, the answer had arrived in the form of Hartman Hall, a new $66.5 million, 115,000-square-foot building that interconnects with Showker Hall. At that same time, Showker itself began to undergo a $19.9 million expansion and modernization.

With the Nov. 5, 2021, grand re-opening, the two buildings now formally take their place as the cornerstones of the JMU College of Business Learning Complex.

“We’ve had a high-quality College of Business for some time— including top-notch faculty and students—and now we have the facilities to match,” said JMU President Jonathan R. Alger in his remarks at the ceremony. “We are open for business, and we are open to the world,” Alger declared. Many thanks go to the nearly 2,500 individuals and companies who made gifts of financial support. Among them are the “CoB 2020 Visionaries,” each of whom had contributed at least $2,020 by the time Hartman Hall was ready to be occupied. At last count, total private giving for the Learning Complex project totaled some $19.7 million.

The completed complex boasts more than 200,000 square feet of new or renovated space. Classrooms are modernized and include desktop cameras, 4K projection screens and confidence monitors.

The eye of an arriving visitor is immediately drawn to the Gaglioti Capital Markets Laboratory. Originally installed in Showker in 2011, it has received a

comprehensive makeover in the process of being moved to Hartman. Seating capacity has more than doubled, and the lab now includes an attached boardroom that can also function as a multi-use area. It features 40 computer stations, eight 55-inch flat-panel displays and a 96-inch smart board. Other highlights of the complex include the Major Innovation, Collaboration, Creativity and Entrepreneurship Lab; a professional sales suite; a spacious first-floor atrium; a fourth-floor oculus with 360-degree views of the surrounding campus; and state-of-the-art collaborative learning spaces and study rooms throughout. The complex “is a launching pad, sending students into internships, careers and a community of alumni,” said Mya Baptiste, a student speaker at the grand re-opening. Baptiste, a Centennial Scholar, member of the College of Business “We are open for business, Student Advisory Council, JMU Honors scholar and president of JMU Women in Business and the Madison Venture Group, will graduate in May with a bachelor’s degree in finance. Then she is on to New York City to and we are open begin work as an analyst in Citi Financial’s Global Capital Markets group. to the world.” Citing the spiral staircase at the east end of Hartman’s atrium as her personal favorite among the building’s many attention-grabbing archi— PRESIDENT ALGER (Above): The Madison Singers, under the direction of Jo-Anne van der Vat-Chromy, provide a musical interlude during the ceremony from Hartman Hall’s second-floor mezzanine. (Left): CoB Dean Mike Busing welcomes attendees at the special event.

Carolyn (‘00P) and Jim (‘70, ‘00P) Hartman made a $3.7 million gift to name the complex’s new building.

tectural features, Baptiste said she has already experienced myriad “notable moments” in the complex’s special spaces—moments that will “continue to resonate throughout my life.”

Following her to the podium was Jim Hartman (’70, ’00P), whose family’s $3.7 million donation to name the new building stands as the largest single cash gift in JMU’s history. It was secured by close teamwork between University Advancement and Charlie King, senior vice president for adminstration and finance.

Hartman, who received his BBA from JMU in 1970, said he regards his years at the university as having been critical to the success of his family’s truck-dealership business because they “gave me a foundation.”

He said the 50 years since his graduation— years in which he has witnessed the College of Business “grow in substance, stature and esteem”—have brought both change and an unwavering embrace of what matters most: professors who care about and push their students.

However, the definitive proof of the value of the JMU enterprise, Hartman said, resides with the university’s alumni.

“Today we have graduates making their mark in business and corporations around the world,” he said, noting that many of them are occupants of impressive C-suites.

“We also have successful entrepreneurs, and small- and family-business owners … all of whom are making our economy and society grow,” he added.

For the Hartmans and their children, Scott and Jennifer (’00), “it feels like a give-back situation,” Jim said, “for all my JMU education did for me and our business.”

— By David Doremus

Paying it forward

Alumna scholarship recipient gives back to JMU to help even more Dukes

Ari Garcia (’19) is fulfilling the vision of the Dukes Pay It Forward scholarship initiative by financially contributing to a scholarship for a future Duke.

“I’ve experienced the impact that a scholarship can make,” Garcia said. “[Giving back] is an opportunity for me to not only show my gratitude … [but] to help others.”

Garcia, who immigrated to the United States with her family when she was in the eighth grade, made education her priority when she settled in Roanoke, Virginia. But it wasn’t until her senior year that she decided she wanted to pursue college.

She remembers hearing from people who went to JMU and how excited they were to share about their alma mater.

“No matter how much time it had been, they were so excited to tell me about JMU,” Garcia said.

She has that same feeling now and even visits campus whenever she’s driving on Interstate 81 to go back to Roanoke from her current home in Northern Virginia. “JMU has always had a really special place in my heart,” Garcia said. But her journey to stay a Duke wasn’t always easy.

Garcia’s decision to pursue college meant she’d be paying her own way. So she found a few grants and an on-campus job to help make ends meet her freshman year. But as those grants ended, she was left, once again, at the drawing board.

“After that first year, you start realizing, ‘I have three more years, and it’s expensive,’” Garcia said. “So that summer before my sophomore year, I didn’t know if I was going to be able to go back [to JMU].”

Garcia decided to apply for additional scholarship opportunities, hoping for the chance to finish her degree and received a Dukes Pay It Forward scholarship, made possible by Mike (’76, ’77M, ’07P, ’10P, ’15P) and Kathy (’78, ’07P, ’10P, ’15P) Thomas, during the first semester of her sophomore year.

“Getting the news that I was going to be able to get additional support through a scholarship, and that it was renewable for the duration of my college years … it was a big sigh of relief,” Garcia said. “It really gave me reassurance that I could continue my education and continue on the path ... to achieve my goal of graduating.”

“[As] a first generation student, that was huge for me to have the assurance that this was possible for me and that I could continue,” she said. What Garcia didn’t know at the time was how much the Thomases, whom she met when receiving her scholarship, would end up meaning to her, too.

A scholarship helped Garcia achieve her dream of earning a college degree—and land a promising job at Booz Allen Hamilton.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 11 >>>

Professor’s animal monitoring innovation earns patent with donor assist

Biology professor Katrina Gobetz received a U.S. patent for her Animal Monitoring Data Station, a novel idea developed at JMU and supported by donors from Madison Trust. Gobetz’ invention allows scientists to observe the tiniest of animals without injuring or stressing them in a trap.

During a JMU study-abroad trip to Ireland, Gobetz spent much of her time close to the ground, where she saw how inadequate the standard metal trapping boxes were for fragile pygmy shrews—barely the size of a peanut.

“I had been excited. I had never seen one before,” she recalled, but her first subjects struggled to survive when trapped. “We lost two. One was too tiny to handle, and one catapulted over my shoulder and escaped. I felt terrible.” But what seemed like failure became an epiphany: She wanted to capture the data, not the shrew. “I knew I had to figure out how to do something differently.”

When she returned to campus, Gobetz collaborated with biology professor Bryan Cage to build a new kind of trap, one the animal was free to leave. Using 3D-printed plastic, she equipped it with scales, cameras, a Raspberry Pi computer and a USB drive. The animal could enter, eat sunflower hearts or other bait, and then simply run back out. Every whisker would be captured on high-resolution video.

Her idea is working, with applications beyond academia. Gobetz and Cage presented the device to Madison Trust, a group of JMU donors who provide seed money for innovative faculty ideas. “I really felt uplifted by the energy and support of the investors we met,” she said. They suggested the data station could be of interest to backyard wildlife enthusiasts as well as scientists, and fully funded the concept.

“They believed in our project and its potential. They were really part of the reason this could take off,” Gobetz said. The Madison Trust investment supported her work of perfecting prototypes, earning a U.S. patent in 2020, and envisioning a future route to mass production. Gobetz’ innovation will allow researchers, school children and citizen scientists around the world to catch a glimpse of the delicate ecosystem underfoot by simply uploading videos to their iPads. Already, the incoming data excites biology graduate student Shannon Gillen. From bait stations placed in the Edith J. Carrier Arbore-

tum, Gillen is able to identify individual creatures by physical traits, record their dramatic winter weight changes and research how supplemental food—and possible pilfering by birds—affects them. “Prior to Dr. Gobetz inventing this device, the main way to study these animals was through trapping them. This requires constant checking of the trap, and it becomes dangerous, particularly in very IGNITE MORE cold or very hot conditions,” Gillen explained. “Even an hour or two INNOVATIONS in a trap can kill them if they didn’t have enough food prior to enterLIKE THIS ONE ing it.” Now, she can collect data-rich videos not just of shrews but Attend the next Madison Trust in person or online anything that ventures inside. “We have also gotten mouse species in this unit and once a bird,” she said.

March 11, 2022: Gobetz agrees. “So much of the early data has been unexpected https://j.mu/ and edifying,” she said. “And I could not have done this without madisontrust. JMU. The resources available to us here, anytime, those have been so incredible to me.” Now she’s ready and watching, sharing her budding knowledge of what even the tiniest creatures can teach us.

The North American least shrew (Cryptotis parvus) in an Animal Monitoring Data Station placed in the Edith J. Carrier Arboretum. For context, the bait container the female shrew eats from is only about 2 centimeters from the floor.

— Jamie Marsh

Paying it forward

>>> FROM PAGE 9

“They invited [the other recipients and me] out to dinner in Harrisonburg, and they were very interested in truly getting to know us, what our interests [were] … what we were studying, and getting to know about our families and our journeys,” Garcia remembered.

She said the Thomases also shared their journeys as Dukes and their vision for their scholarship initiative, which they started in 2016 as a way to support current students, who they hope will pay it forward by supporting future Dukes.

Garcia double majored in international affairs and economics, and also completed a research assistantship in the College of Business, where she worked alongside a JMU professor and several other professors from Japan to study if and how customer preferences are passed down from parents to children.

“I think it was one of my favorite parts about the major,” Garcia said. “It was incredible … having that opportunity … [and] to get to have that hands-on experience.”

Garcia said it was her time at JMU that really allowed her to develop the skills and form the connections that have led to a promising career.

“My education and my experience at JMU really gave me a good foundation to be able to explore different things and open myself up to different career paths,” she said.

Garcia is now a consultant at Booz Allen Hamilton, where she works with the Department of Labor—a position that combines her interests in policy and data science.

“Since graduating in May 2019, my career has just really evolved, really grown, which is kind of amazing to reflect back [on] and see how much I’ve learned and how much I’ve changed, too,” Garcia said.

Garcia says she’s thankful to JMU and the Thomases for helping her get to this position. “Without the opportunity to be at JMU, I don’t know if my experience would have been the same—not only ... my education, but the people that I met here, the people who supported me to be here, and the people who helped me to transition out of JMU,” Garcia said, referring to the Thomases, who she says have continued to help her with their advice and guidance. “I think all of those things really came together and ultimately really formed my experience.” She said she’s excited for the opportunity to pay it forward and help fulfill the Thomases’ vision. “Being able to give back to JMU has really allowed me to see myself as part of the

“Being able to give back to JMU has really allowed me to see myself as part of the Dukes Pay It Forward scholarship vision ... [and] that really means a lot to me.”

— ARI GARCIA (’19) Dukes Pay It Forward scholarship vision … [and] that really means a lot to me,” Garcia said. “I know firsthand how much the scholarship meant to me, so it’s really exciting for me that now I’m able to be in a position where I’m potentially helping another student in that journey for themselves, and hopefully, that they also will be able to see themselves as part of that vision.” “I think education, ultimately, has been the key for me in my life,” Garcia said. “So I’m happy to play a part in helping [another] student succeed … who may have the same aspirations, the same dreams, the same passion to continue.” — Sarah Featherstone (‘13, ‘19M) To hear more about Ari Garcia’s journey in her own words, go to https://j.mu/garcia.

Apology about Fall 2021 issue

In adapting an online feature story about musician Willis Landon (’20) for the Fall 2021 issue, the Madison staff made the decision to replace some uses of Landon’s preferred pronouns (they/them/theirs) and reword other references to Landon, as an attempt to avoid possible confusion.

However, we got it wrong. The bottom line is that we over-edited and made changes to the copy that did not need to be made. We recognize that the changes to the published article in Madison, “Nurturing inclusive communities through hip-hop,” could be viewed as transphobic and/or discriminatory. It was never the magazine’s intention to misgender them nor to make LGBTQ members of the JMU Family feel invisible or unwelcome.

In retrospect, the published article should have retained their personal pronouns as they appeared in the original story on JMU’s Independent Scholars website. It also should not have introduced an error by using “his” as a pronoun. (See correction on Page 6). Madison regrets these errors.

In November 2021, the online PDF version of the Fall 2021 issue was updated to reflect Landon’s personal pronouns. Additionally, an Editor’s Note was added at the end of the piece to explain the changes and apologize for the oversights.

Madison has a unique opportunity to help educate our readers on gender identity and expression. You might be wondering, “What changes has the magazine made as a result of this scenario?” As of this writing, there are a couple: 1) Moving forward, we are asking story subjects if they’d like to share their preferred pronouns with us. That way, we don’t assume what they are— and don’t run the risk of getting them wrong; 2) We are including staff from JMU’s Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity and Expression office for consulting, as needed, about best practices for identifying people in future stories.

Madison is fully committed to justice, equality, diversity and inclusion in our storytelling about JMU. The entire staff is completely open to learning about editorial usage of preferred pronouns and hopes to be part of progress and solutions.