Feature: After 25 Years, They're Still Mad About Madison

AFTER 25 YEARS, THEY'RE STILL MAD ABOUT MADISON

As it celebrates its 25th anniversary, James Madison College has clearly established itself as one of 'the jewels in the crown' of MSU. Which is more attractive, a multiversity like Michigan State, or a smaller, more intimate college without MSU's tremendous resources?

In the 1960s, innovative educational leaders believed that students could actually have their cake and eat it too. 'Why not create residential colleges within the larger campus?' they reasoned. Under the leadership of then-president John Hannah, MSU pioneered three semi-autonomous residential colleges between 1965 and 1967 to see if a more human-sized model of undergraduate education could flourish in the multiversity. A quarter century later, one college has stood the test of time. MSU's James Madison College (JMC) has achieved great success and a national reputation.

University of Chicago scholar Allan Bloom, author of the widely-debated The Closing of the American Mind and former visiting professor at JMC, once noted that the brightest students he had ever taught 'were not from Harvard or Yale, but from James Madison College.' 'If I had attended Michigan State University as an undergraduate,' president John DiBiaggio told the 1992 JMC graduating class, 'I would have chosen to attend James Madison College.'

Provost David Scott echoes these sentiments. He has touted MSU for being 'among the national leaders in establishing residential colleges and recognizing the distinctive role that they can play within major universities' and concluded that JMC was a 'worthy' investment.

Indeed, the dividends have been spectacular. Madison has had a significant impact on the educational landscape, its faculty members have won many teaching awards, and, most importantly, its graduates have surged as distinguished young leaders in public life and the professions. The facts lend support: The number of applicants to the college continues to rise each year. Despite its success, the college has not stood still. This fall, while pausing to observe its 25th anniversary during a weekend of alumni celebrations (September 24-27), Madison will implement a brand new curriculum to meet the needs of the 1990s.

The history of James Madison College begins in the early 1960s with John Hannah and then-provost Howard Neville. From 1960 to 1966, MSU's student enrollment grew 75 percent, from 23,681 to 41,974. The growth was particularly sharp in the core colleges. Hannah and Neville, concerned about maintaining and upgrading undergraduate education, experimented with new means of instructing students in the disciplines. They also sponsored new residential subcolleges, or 'cluster colleges,' built around coherent programs of study.

In February 1967, MSU's Board of Trustees approved the founding of James Madison College to combine the advantages of a small liberal arts college with the rich offerings of a major university. Herbert Garfinkel, the first dean, sought to build a college in which students might escape 'the anonymity which threatens higher education in gargantuan universities.' He sought also to build around the strategy of teaching social science by drawing on the excitement of students about major public policy problems.

Two other colleges were formed--Justin Morrill and Lyman Briggs (now a school within the College of Natural Science). Madison was housed in Case Hall on south campus where Garfinkel had lectured on the '64 elections and enrolled the first class in fall 1967. A notice sent to prospective students invited them to come 'live and learn' in a residential environment and join in 'a community of mutually assisting scholars.' Academic community would be created around the study of war and peace; economic poverty and opportunity; racial, ethnic, and religious intolerance; urban problems and problems of justice and democracy. Community would also be created through small classes and an enriched academic climate. Faculty from MSU's disciplinary departments who planned the college decided early that James Madison would not be an honors program--no special qualifications were envisioned for admission. Students would also be guided by requirements to supplement their majors in Madison with additional, related coursework in MSU's departments and schools. Students would begin with a first-year sequence in the social sciences and public policy problems. They would thereafter major in enriched interdisciplinary fields of concentration. They would also complete field experiences in off-campus locations. There would be heavy emphasis on faculty-student interaction in the college. There would also be strong emphasis on writing throughout the program. 

New faculty, talented teacher-scholars recruited under Garfinkel, then under Robert Banks, Madison's second dean, built on these decisions. Peter Lyman, Jack Paynter, Doug Hoekstra, Michael Rubner and Dick Zinman, and later Ron Dorr, Richard Evans, Michael Schechter and Katherine See breathed life and spirit into the experiment. They revised the fields, developed courses, and elaborated a distinctive writing program. Above all, they lavished creative attention on students.

Already in the early and mid-1970s, students who graduated reported high identification with Madison. They felt the college treated students with importance as individuals and involved them in studies that expanded their critical abilities and that were relevant to society. Students who defended the college during 1981 when MSU considered closing the residential colleges continued to say much the same thing. Challenges during the mid- and late 1970s confronted challenges. Prospective students worried in the post-1960s era about whether Madison provided adequate vocational preparation or a secure disciplinary label understood by employers and graduate and professional schools. The college devoted more attention to recruiting students and to informing them about the program. It also discovered new, revived interest in field experience, which connected students to the world of work. Enrollment pushed upward to 890 students between 1975 and 1980. Field experience placements in state and national government and in Michigan congressional offices expanded. As in earlier days, Madison students included significant numbers of ambitious, talented individuals who had been specially attracted to the college. Working with committed faculty, many achieved admission to leading professional and graduate schools, and some (aided by the Honors College) began winning major awards -- Rhodes, Marshall and Truman scholarships, especially. Mary Norton, '77, was the first of three students to win a Rhodes Scholarship. Stuart Rosenthal, '79, and Richard Cordray, '80, were the first two of three to win Marshalls. Steve Kautz began a string to date of five Trumans. Madison students comprised 2 percent of MSU undergraduates but were nearly 20 percent of Phi Beta Kappa initiates between 1975 and 1980.

The challenges intensified during the late 1970s and early 1980s. The political economy of the state changed and MSU entered a less expansive period. Slow growth gave way in 1981 to budgetary retrenchment amidst a severe fiscal crisis. Confronted by difficult choices, president Cecil Mackey and provost Clarence Winder sought to close down the residential colleges and terminate the appointments of most faculty. A broad outcry of opinion on- and off-campus--by students, faculty, friends of Madison, field experience sponsors and alumni--as well as intervention by important state leaders-- prevented closure of the college. 'Let's not be so hasty about closing down those dandy residential colleges,' wrote Mike Hughes in the Lansing State Journal. 'Make changes, cut corners. But don't throw away