College Profile: Shenandoah University


and some acreage, but the school didn’t have dormitories. “So, community members opened


their doors and invited students to come live with them for the first couple of years,” she says. Now the university, which is affili-


ated with the United Methodist Church, has 10 residence halls and satellite loca- tions near Winchester and in Northern Virginia. The sites include Scholar Plaza in Leesburg, which offers graduate pro- grams in business, education and health care.


In January, the university opened


“This is the time you want to step out of your comfort zone and try different things,” says James Turner, president of the Student Government Association.


Moved in 1960 Shenandoah’s fortunes were not


always so bright, though. Its original campus was in Dayton, about an hour south of Winchester. With only 159 students, the school was about to close


when business leaders decided in 1960 that Winchester needed a college. “They plucked us out of Dayton and


invited us here, and we have thrived since then,” Fitzsimmons says. Winchester provided the first classroom buildings


the James R. Wilkins Jr. Athletics & Events Center, a 77,000-square-foot indoor facility that serves SU’s 21 teams and can seat 5,000 people for events. Since 2013, SU also has been stew-


ard of the 195-acre Cool Spring River Campus, which serves as an outdoor classroom for history and environmental- studies programs. Formerly a golf course acquired by


the Civil War Trust, the property was the site of the 1864 Battle of Cool Spring. The university is returning the land to its


76 NOVEMBER 2018


Photo by Norm Shafer


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