News for Ball State Faculty and Staff
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Stories of Gratitude
August 19, 2020
As we welcome students back to our beautiful campus, I write to express my gratitude to everyone who played a role in the extensive planning and preparation for our University to resume our planned on-campus instruction and activities.
Our talented faculty and dedicated staff diligently and creatively reworked course schedules and instructional space to accommodate students and professors. The modifications include on-campus interactions with altered seating, hybrid personalized instruction with alternate activities and attendance rotations, and many more online courses.
Our staff have spent countless hours to make our living and learning spaces safe. They have installed physical barriers such as plexiglass and plastic sheeting, hand sanitizers, and signage to encourage the use of face masks and to aid physical distancing. They converted traditionally non-academic spaces into classrooms and cleaned and sanitized rooms in our residence halls for our students.
Professionals created signs, produced communications on what to expect this Fall, called students to advise them on Fall classes, and prepared students for living in the residence halls.
These are just a few of many examples of how our faculty and staff have remained committed to our vital mission. This upcoming semester will be different from a typical year. But thanks to your hard work and devotion, we will continue to provide our students with the high-quality educational experiences they value at Ball State.
Sincerely,
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Cardinals Care
Last week, we introduced the Cardinals Care Pledge, a commitment to care for ourselves, to care for other Cardinals, and to care for our campus and community.
Cardinals Care is consistent with the Beneficence Pledge and our enduring values. One of these values is social responsibility, which we define as our collective and individual obligation to behave and act in ways that are in the best interest of others in our communities and our society.
We are encouraging socially responsible behavior on campus and in the community. The pledge includes monitoring your health for signs of illness and staying home if you’re sick. Since July 1, we have required that all people on campus—including faculty, staff, students, and visitors—wear face masks inside buildings, including classrooms, with limited exceptions such as employees alone in their private workspaces or people eating and drinking. In outdoor settings, we require face masks if physically distancing is difficult.
To serve our neighbors, we are working closely with community partners, including local government officials and businesses, to promote safety measures such as physical distancing and the use of face masks. We recognize what we do on campus affects the community and what we do in the community impacts the welfare of our University.
During these unprecedented times, we must all do our part and demonstrate our dedication to the safety, health, and wellbeing of our community. Our capacity to fulfill our vital mission is dependent on your full compliance.
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To keep our campus community informed of our University’s response to the pandemic, Ball State created bsu.edu/coronavirus, where we continue to post and update plans to ensure a safe campus.
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Strategic Plan Update
Strategic imperative 2C of our University’s strategic plan, Destination 2040: Our Flight Path, states: “Our innovative and robust educational offerings and delivery methods—including baccalaureate and post-baccalaureate micro-credentials, short-term learning modules, professional licensure workshops, and enrichment opportunities—accelerate career fulfillment and enhance personal development and wellbeing.”
A working group composed of representatives from each academic college and other University leaders has been convened to develop, identify, and test a model for lifetime learning that includes alternative educational offerings, adult learning opportunities, and new delivery mechanisms. To achieve this goal, we must identify, develop, launch, and assess high-demand alternative offerings, as well as lay a foundation for a sound customer experience through the implementation of new technology platforms.
The working group is currently engaged in transdisciplinary brainstorming sessions to identify and build potential programs for a 2021 pilot launch of a suite of alternative educational offerings that spans multiple colleges and departments. This process will also include extensive market research, creation of a sustainable business model, and implementation of new technology platforms necessary to provide lifetime learners with a frictionless point of entry for learning about, registering for, and engaging in these new learning opportunities.
Our University is seeking philanthropic support to invest in this transformative initiative.
For more information about this pilot initiative, please contact Dr. Jennifer Palilonis at jageorge2@bsu.edu.
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For Your Benefit
Working Well
Do you find yourself in an ever-changing world, not knowing what new twist is headed your way? Just when you think you know what the plan is, something new enters, and we find ourselves adjusting to develop a new plan of action. It sounds simple, but when changes occur we may find ourselves feeling anxious and stressed. The following LifeWorks resources can help guide you (use your Ball State username and password to log in):
Professional Development
Ball State University has recently partnered with Academic Impressions, an organization specializing in professional development resources for higher education administrators.
This partnership provides all faculty, staff, and students at Ball State with membership access to a host of training resources designed specifically for professionals working in our industry. Topics range from skills-based training for professionals in all areas of higher ed to leadership training such as supervision; personal effectiveness; diversity, equity, and inclusion; and more.
Learn more at a town-hall style Webex meeting to introduce this valuable resource.
Register for a 20-minute overview and Q&A with our Academic Impressions account manager, Roshaon Tytar. You may register for an Academic Impressions account using your @bsu.edu email address to log in at academicimpressions.com.
Sessions will be held:
- Wednesday, September 2, 3:30 p.m.
- Thursday, September 17, 10 a.m.
Don’t hesitate to reach out to Roshaon Tytar at roshaon@academicimpressions.com or 720-988-1241 with any questions. Assistance on campus is available from Sue Godfrey, executive project coordinator to the associate vice president for human resources, at segodfrey@bsu.edu or 765-285-1149.
Employee Benefits
The Fall tuition remission deadline is quickly approaching. Ball State offers a generous tuition remission benefit for eligible employees, their spouses, and dependent children. A request for tuition remission must be completed every semester after you register for classes. The online request form is available via the Workflow system.
Please submit your request for Fall tuition remission by 5 p.m. on the first day of classes, Monday, August 24.
If you have questions, please contact Payroll and Employee Benefits by emailing PEBTuition@bsu.edu or calling 765-285-8461.
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2020 Fall Opening Convocation
With the start of the new academic year, all faculty and staff are invited to join President Mearns “virtually” for our Fall Opening Convocation at 9 a.m. August 21. Please join us at bsu.edu/live from your remote location.
During the program, President Mearns and Provost Susana Rivera-Mills will recognize this year’s recipients of our annual outstanding awards. President Mearns will then deliver his remarks celebrating the accomplishments and contributions of our faculty and staff from the previous academic year, while outlining what the University will accomplish in the year to come.
R. Wayne Estopinal College of Architecture and Planning
Drawings and Documents Archive
The Drawings and Documents Archive has recently digitized the Claire Bennett Associates (CBA) Landscape Architecture collection. The collection is open for the community to enjoy the working drawings and prints for a number of their landscape projects. Read the CAP blog for more.
Department of Architecture
James Kerestes, assistant professor of architecture, discusses the possibilities of robots—among other things—as possible mediums for design and as cyber-physical creatures that think digitally and act/perform physically with Post-Screen's Ebrahim Poustinchi. Read more on Archinect.
Construction Management
Construction management students had a big year with five teams competing in the Associated Schools of Construction (ASC) Regional Competition. This is the first time Ball State fielded five groups at this competition. Students won two second place victories and a third place. Read more on the CAP blog.
Interior Design
Professor Reza Ahmadi and Assistant Professor Dr. Sarah Angne Alfaro taught a successful Interior Design Summer Workshop with record breaking enrollment this year. This program is normally offered as a weeklong on-campus experience but was quickly switched to a monthlong online format. The program gives students a great opportunity to experience interior design firsthand. At completion, students have a portfolio of work, a required component of the application process in many accredited interior design programs. After participating in the workshop, many students return to Ball State to enroll in the interior design program.
Miller College of Business
Beeman Historic Costume Collection Goes Digital
The Beeman Historic Costume Collection began in the 1930s with a trunk of clothing contributed by Frank C. Ball, and it has grown to include over 4,000 items. Capturing the essence of Midwest life, evidenced through clothing from as early as 1830, there are also artifacts in the collection representing well-known designers such as Blass, Pucci, Chanel, Claiborne, and Fortuny. The collection contains men’s, women’s, and children’s clothing; undergarments; hats; shoes; furs; and other costume accessories as well as flat textiles such as wall hangings, table covers, shawls, and coverlets.
Serving to preserve the history of dress and the lifestyle in the Midwest and as a hands-on educational tool for students and faculty, the collection is being digitized so it can be made more widely available to the public. View a preview online.
The collection continues to be used by fashion students in their studies of fashion history, fashion trends, social and cultural aspects of clothing, visual merchandising, and promotions. Exhibitions are also displayed at least twice a year in the Applied Technology Building. Past exhibits include wedding dresses, 20th-century designers, and 100 years of children’s clothing. Artifacts from the collection are also displayed during special events and fashion shows.
College of Communication, Information, and Media
News
- CCIM received two Strategic Imperative Fund grants. The first will be used to develop the infrastructure for Cardinal Esports, including a varsity team, venue/classroom, and a new area of study. The second will support a University pilot for the development of transdisciplinary alternative credentials.
- The Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC) selected Dr. Miao Guo, associate professor of telecommunications, as one of 10 Institute Diverse Leadership Fellows for 2020-2021.
- The official selection for the Indy Shorts International Film Festival (July 21-26) featured eight films created by Cardinals.
- Three CICS graduate students turned a paper written for Dr. Steve Jones’ class into a published article. Titled “How Blockchain Solutions Can Improve the Education Sector,” the article was published by IEEE—the world’s largest technical professional organization for the advancement of technology.
Events
- This Fall, CCIM’s SuperParty will be held online for the first time—via a Canvas Community and a series of live virtual events on September 2—offering more ways than ever for students to connect with organizations that fit their interests. SuperParty is open to all. If you know interested Ball State students, encourage them to register their interest.
College of Fine Arts
David Owsley Museum of Art
DOMA will celebrate the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment in the exhibition 20/20: Twenty Women Artists of the Twentieth Century. Opening September 24, this exhibition features artwork from the museum’s collection, along with loans from the University Libraries’ Drawings and Documents Archive. By making 20 American women artists more visible, DOMA hopes to redress a distorted historical record and present a vision for a future in which women artists enjoy greater prestige.
Department of Theatre and Dance
The Department of Theatre and Dance continues to work on ensuring its Fall production season provides entertaining, thought-provoking, and educational works for our students and the Ball State and Muncie communities. For a complete listing of Fall 2020 performances, as well as ticket information and safety precautions when attending a show, visit bsu.edu/theatredance/season.
School of Art
Assistant Professor of Art Shantanu Suman had the opportunity to work with the United Way of Delaware, Henry and Randolph Counties and the Ball State Office of Community Engagement to create a logo for the Mask Up Muncie initiative. The initiative has now spread to nearby cities and towns, including Albany, Cowan, Daleville, Eaton, Farmland, Gaston, Selma, and Yorktown.
School of Music
The School of Music is excited to offer recently approved new programs in Fall 2020. The bachelor of music in jazz studies and bachelor of arts in music are both aligned with the standards of the National Association of Schools of Music (NASM) and will help the school attract a more diverse student population.
College of Health- The Healthy Lifestyle Center is again offering the Diabetes Prevention Program, which you can attend in-person in Health Professions Building 113 or virtually via Zoom. This program meets weekly, for multiple weeks. Group 1 meets from 5-6:30 p.m. Mondays, beginning September 14, and Group 2 meets from noon-1:30 p.m. Tuesdays, beginning September 15. You can register now or direct questions to HLC765@gmail.com.
- Congratulations to nutrition and health science alumna Jennie Browning on her continued professional success. She was recently featured in the Ball State Magazine.
- The Ball State Peace Center and the Department of Counseling Psychology, Social Psychology, and Counseling were featured in the Summer 2020 edition of The Peace Psychologist, published by Division 48 of the American Psychological Association. To read the article, visit peacepsychology.org/the-peace-psychologist, click on the Summer 2020 edition, and go to page 20.
College of Sciences and Humanities- Dr. Mark Pyron, the George and Frances Ball Endowed Chair in Environmental Sciences in the Department of Biology, examines conservation efforts for the Illinois and Ohio rivers. In his latest paper, "Conservation potential of North American large rivers: the Wabash River compared with the Ohio and Illinois rivers," he suggests potential steps for protecting and conserving the Wabash River that could be applied to other large river ecosystems. Read the news release.
- The COVID-19 pandemic has changed society’s perspective on everything from work schedules to education to social justice. Dr. Richard Petts, professor of sociology, focuses on the role of fathers within families and as well as the impact of parenthood on men’s lives. He and his fellow researchers surveyed 1,060 U.S. parents in mixed-gender marriages in late April to see how divisions of housework and child care may have changed since the beginning of the pandemic. Read the Associated Press article in The Journal Gazette.
Ball State University Foundation
The Women of the Ball Family Leadership Legacy Fund award committee is accepting nominations to provide professional development funds to women in administrative, support, and service staff positions throughout the University to further sharpen their skills, talents, and leadership abilities.
The fund, created by Ball State University, honors the outstanding women of the Ball family, who have been active visionaries and contributors to our community. It also recognizes the long history of women who have made an impact on Ball State students, faculty, and administrators and played an important and unique role in helping our University achieve its goals.
Anyone may submit a nomination letter on behalf of a female administrative, support, or service staff employee who has worked for the University for at least five years. The letter must state why the nominee is deserving of professional development funds and how the person demonstrates Ball State’s enduring values, symbolized by Beneficence.
Awardees will submit professional development goals and activities to be approved by the committee. Funds will be provided for these activities according to University guidelines and regulations. All awarded funds must be used within the fiscal year they are awarded.
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In her own life, Professor of Chemistry Dr. Patricia Lang has broken barriers. She is the first woman faculty member tenured in the chemistry department in the College of Sciences and Humanities.
Her experience as a first generation college student inspires her to lead Ball State’s chapter of the Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation (LSAMP), an initiative funded by the National Science Foundation to attract underrepresented minority students to STEM careers.
“Nationwide, one-third of underrepresented students drop out of their STEM major because they don’t feel like they belong. They are often first generation college students and feel isolated. Our program gives them peer support and faculty support to feel welcome and to feel that they do belong in the sciences, academically and socially.
“We have outstanding mentors and provide exceptional undergraduate research experiences. I have seen LSAMP students grow professionally and academically. They become much more confident.
“The University has been remarkably supportive of our efforts. As a result, we are leaders in the LSAMP program. In fact, the LSAMP director at the National Science Foundation has encouraged other universities to follow our example.”
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