James Madison University dedicated Alger Hall on Friday in honor of Jonathan Alger, turning the building into a new home for civic engagement and public service at JMU. The dedication marked a campus tribute to a former president whose name now sits on the facility where that work will continue.
That matters now because the building is not just a memorial. It is meant to house the kind of work Alger said helped define his years at JMU, and the university is putting a lasting name on that mission at a time when it wants students, faculty and staff to keep carrying it forward.
Alger served as president of James Madison University for 12 years before leaving to become president of American University. He later became the inaugural America 250 Fellow for two national higher education organizations, extending his profile beyond Harrisonburg while keeping civic engagement at the center of his work. On Friday, he returned for the dedication and said the place holds a big piece of his heart, adding that he and his wife devoted 12 years to the university and loved the community that made that period so meaningful.
His own words fit the building’s purpose. Alger said he wanted to be there in person to celebrate not only what had already been done, but the work that will happen in the future with students, faculty and staff inside the facility and beyond it. Schmidt underscored why the honor carries weight at JMU, saying Alger’s commitment to civic engagement has become part of the university’s identity and pointing to the school’s name as a reminder of its responsibilities as citizens.
That is the part of the story that keeps this from being only a farewell tribute. Schmidt tied the dedication to the Constitution and to the duty to stay engaged and talk through hard issues, a signal that JMU sees Alger Hall as more than a plaque on a wall. The university is asking the next group that uses the building to keep doing the unfinished work of civic life, which is also the clearest answer to what happens next: the mission moves into Alger Hall, and the expectation moves with it.
