Post Author: dollinca
With the growing expansion of Madison College throughout the 1970s, what was once a healthy, patriarchal relationship between the community and the tiny school for women turned into a fight for power between the conservative southern town and the new coed James Madison University. As enrollments doubled over the course of the decade, greater numbers of students moved away from the confines of campus life into more independent roles off campus, becoming somewhat integrated members of the Harrisonburg community. As these students moved off campus into historic neighborhoods such as along Mason Street, Main Street and High Street, the community members that had lived there for generations became agitated and made attempts to resist the University’s encroachment.
At the dawn of the decade, Harrisonburg was but a center for rural Rockingham County’s legislative practice and agribusiness. The population of the town was calculated to be 14,605 according to the census of 1970.(Hist Census)President Ronald Carrier took control of Madison College in 1971 with great expectations for the future. All around the nation and particularly in the south, civil rights were being pushed to the forefront of political debate leading to such legislative measures as Affirmative Action and Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972. Madison College was historically an all women’s college for teachers. President Carrier however had ambitions to create a regional university by decade’s end. He knew that in order to do this he would need to greatly increase enrollment, thus accepting large quantities of men. As the college grew to university status, it was no longer the adopted daughter of the town. Furthermore, Harrisonburg was becoming less of a town. By 1980 the population of Harrisonburg grew to 24,641.
While the student body grew within the confines of the campus during the first few years of President Carrier’s administration, it was inevitable that students would eventually spill over into the community. A sort of melting pot of different lifestyles festered for years during the mid-70s. As illustrated by the above cartoon from a 1978 issue of The Breeze, the community felt as though the university was taking over, that the school was trampling on their way of life. Not only were more students living off campus, but an influx of urban businesses infused the town with the hopes of earning a profit off of the students. Skirmishes ensued between the two parties, finally leading to a culmination of the decade’s strife in a polarized political battle within the city council. In many ways, the 1970s set the foundation for the ongoing strained town-gown relations that exist to this day.
Works Cited
Historic Census Records Online, accessed May 1, 2012. http://www.census.gov/popest/data/counties/totals/1980s/tables/e8089co.txt