the inaugural staff of The Breeze

By ELLE HART The Breeze

The movement for JMU to establish its own newspaper began in fall 1921, according to a JMU historical timeline. A year later, the first issue of The Breeze was published on Dec. 2, 1922. At the time, the university was called the State Normal School for Women.

Before JMU established The Breeze, The Virginia Teacher, first published in 1920, served as a place for students and faculty to receive news about the school and alumni. According to the timeline, The Virginia Teacher was primarily a scholarly journal and was published monthly. The journal was edited by faculty but included articles written by students.

The first instance of JMU establishing a newspaper was the “Go-Get-’Er,” which was established by a small group of students and overseen by English professor Conrad Logan. This informal paper was issued monthly.

According to the inaugural issue of The Breeze, more serious discussions about developing a school paper began in the spring of 1922, with a committee devoted to creating The Breeze, which eventually published the first issue.

The founding staff of The Breeze included Roselyn Brownley as editor-in-chief, Florence Shelton as business manager, Anne Gilliam and Bertha McCollum as assistant editors and Emily Hogge as assistant business manager.

Roselyn Brownley

During her time at JMU, Roselyn Brownley served as chair of the committee that created The Breeze. According to an announcement from The Virginia Teacher, Brownley was elected editor-in-chief by the student body, where she served from December 1922 until June 1923.

Brownley graduated from the State Normal School for Women cum laude in 1923. Following graduation, she worked in the Norfolk Public Schools system. According to a History of Norfolk Public Schools document, Brownley served as the first principal of the Lakewood School — now called the Academy for Discovery at Lakewood — in Norfolk, Virginia, when it first opened in 1952. Brownley died in 2000 at the age of 96.

Florence Shelton

Florence Shelton was elected business manager when Brownley was elected editorin-chief, where she served from December

1922 to June 1923. In 1924, the university went through a name change, now called the State Teachers College, where Shelton graduated in 1924. Following graduation, she lived in New Jersey and Maryland. According to various newsletters from The Virginia Teacher, Shelton still kept in touch with friends in Harrisonburg. She died in 1990 at the age of 88.

Anne Gilliam

While Brownley and Shelton were elected to their positions, the assistant editors and assistant business manager weren’t. Anne Gilliam was one of two assistant editors for the first edition of The Breeze, where she served from December 1922 until June 1923.

According to an article from The Virginia Teacher in November 1922, Brownley chose Gilliam specifically. She graduated cum laude from the State Normal School for Women in 1923, and by 1934, worked as a teacher in Baltimore, Maryland. Gilliam died in 1989 at the age of 84.

Bertha McCollum

Bertha McCollum was the second assistant editor chosen by Brownley for the inaugural issue of The Breeze, where she served from December 1922 to June 1923. For the first two editions of The Breeze during the fall of 1923, McCollum is named on the masthead as a “typist.”

At the commencement of her senior year in 1926, McCollum received the Snyder Prize, which was named for a local journalist. The prize was given to her for having written the best article of The Breeze that year, although it isn’t clear what that article was. According to a July 1925 edition of The Virginia Teacher, McCollum served as the editor of a summer edition of The Breeze. After graduation, McCollum taught in Delaware and New Jersey. She died in 1991 at the age of 88.

Emily

Hogge

Emily Hogge was the assistant business manager for The Breeze from its first issue in December 1922 until June 1923. From October 1923 to May 1924, she was on The Breeze’s masthead as business manager. Hogge was also awarded the Snyder Prize for the editorial piece “Back Home to Mother,” according to a July 1924 edition of The Virginia Teacher. Hogge graduated from the State Teachers College with a twoyear degree in 1924 and was teaching in Arlington County, Virginia, by the end of the same year. She died in 1968.

CONTACT Elle Hart at hart2ej@dukes. jmu.edu. For more coverage of JMU and Harrisonburg news, follow the news desk on Twitter @BreezeNewsJMU.

1964

D-Hall, originally called Gibbons Dining Hall, was constructed as a large, circular two-story building in 1964. It was the first time students had to show campus identification cards to enter a building, according to the History of Dining Services at JMU. In the fall of 2018, it opened as the three-story D-Hall we know today.

1977 Mills Godwin, the then-Virginia governor, signed a bill that changed the college’s name to James Madison University. It took effect in July, according to the centennial timeline.

2004

JMU’s football team won its first NCAA Division I-AA championship after a win over the University of Montana with a score of 31-21.

2005

JMU announced it was going to purchase the old site of Rockingham Memorial Hospital. Nearly a decade later, the university turned the old hospital into what we know today as the Student Success Center (SSC) and the University Health Center (UHC).

2008 Rose Library, formerly called East Campus Library, opened its doors in 2008. Four years later, the library was renamed to honor JMU’s fifth president, Linwood Rose.

2019

1971

The school was divided into academic regions that later became the College of Arts and Letters; the College of Business; the College of Education; the College of Integrated Science and Technology; the College of Science and Mathematics; and the College of Graduate and Professional Programs, according to the centennial timeline.

1982-83

1972

Madison College played its first official football game on Godwin Hall field. The team lost 6-0 to Shepherd College. The Marching Royal Dukes, JMU’s official marching band, was formed this year, as well.

1989

1975

The first construction for Bridgeforth Stadium was completed in 1975. The stadium was enlarged in 1981 and renovated in 2011.

1999

Duke Dog, as he’s known today, made his first appearance in the 1982-83 basketball season. According to the JMU Duke Dog Centennial website, there was an earlier version of the mascot that first appeared in the 197273 season but failed to generate any support.

According to the centennial timeline, 110 acres of land east of Main Campus was purchased under the presidency of Ronald Carrier, becoming the East Campus we know today.

According to the JMU Festival site, the construction for The Festival Conference and Student Center was built in two phases starting in 1999. It was originally named the College Center and was a part of the College of Integrated Science and Technology. It became Festival after the completion of phase two.

2007

The Marching Royal Dukes were invited to play on the annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City. They were one of 10 bands in the country chosen to perform, according to The Breeze.

2009

E-Hall opened to the public on Aug. 17, 2009, according to The Breeze. It was met with positive reviews due to its “airy”, open atmosphere compared to D-Hall and the wide-range of cuisine available. One student called it “the epitome of awesome.”

2020

2012

Jonathan Alger became the university’s sixth president on July 1, 2012, where he still serves today.

Paul Jennings Hall, the newest dorm on campus, was built in 2019. The hall has 500 beds and houses both firstyears and upper-classmen, according to the Skyline Residence Halls site. The hall was named in honor of James Madison’s enslaved assistant.

JMU, like a majority of schools around the world, closed its doors in March 2020 and moved to online schooling after COVID-19 cases began to skyrocket across the U.S. Also, Atlantic Union Bank Center (AUBC) opened in 2020 as the new home to men’s and women’s basketball as well as other events for the university and Dukes Dining came to campus, taking over Phillips Hall.

2021

2016

The Breeze reported the reopening of JMU’s University Recreation Center. The expansion cost around $57 million and brought new exercise space and equipment to campus.

Hartman Hall, a part of the College of Business (CoB), and a renovation of Showker Hall had its grand opening in 2021. Costing $99,235,000, The Breeze called the new additions bringing a “slice of the Big Apple to Harrisonburg.”

2022

JMU announced it would be leaving the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) and the Colonial Athletic Association Conference to join the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) and the Sun Belt Conference on July 1, 2022. Also in 2022, JMU was awarded as a new Carnegie Classification of R2 Doctoral University with high research activity through the Carnegie Commission, according to a press release.