Student L by Kathy Ellis
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tudent Life at Jacksonville University is not a spectator sport. Many of JU’s roughly 1,000 residential students came to JU for its unique engaged learning opportunities. They love how a math major can star in a theater production or how the student body president can start on a Division I football team. Indeed, being a spectator might be about the only activity in which JU students find it hard to participate. With 17 Division I intercollegiate teams, more than 60 student clubs and organizations, 12 Greek organizations, five intramural leagues and numerous other activities, often the biggest challenge for the Student Life Office at this campus is how thin the student population is stretched between all the things to do. “The small community here at JU is unique,” said Justin Knowles, president of the Student Government Association and a starting tight end for the Dolphins football team. “I wouldn’t trade it for the world. But it’s not the same as with a school with a big football program. Everyone has some other activity. It’s hard to get enough people to attend the games.” That challenge and others are why JU’s new president, Dr. Kerry Romesburg, made focusing on campus life one of his top five strategic priorities. Early in his tenure at JU, Romesburg published a list of areas of strategic emphasis, including the goal of creating an attractive living/learning community where students are appreciated and can realize their full potential. JU will take one big step toward that goal this fall with the opening of the University’s new Davis Student Commons. The student life facility was made possible by a gift from the Davis family, and it found a home when one of the campus’s largest buildings was vacated as the Davis College of Business moved into a new building in January. Dean of Students Bryan Coker spent much of the fall working with a committee of student leaders, faculty and administrators on plans for the new riverfront student commons. Coker’s committee produced a vision for what the campus community wants and needs in the much-anticipated new
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JU MAGAZINE/SPRING 2005