November 18, 2021
Dear Colleagues:
Ball State University’s historic and innovative partnership with Muncie Community Schools began in July 2018. Since then, there has been substantial positive progress in our public schools. This progress—stabilized enrollment, increased pay for teachers and staff, maintaining a balanced budget—demonstrates that MCS is now on a positive trajectory of improvement and that we are building a bright future for the children of Muncie.
I am grateful to Dr. Anand Marri, dean of the Teachers College, for his leadership in helping to coordinate our University’s enhanced support for MCS. This Fall, Teachers College launched an initiative to pair each of our colleges with an MCS school. This program is called MCS-Ball State Connections. I am proud of the hard work and the dedication of everyone involved in this endeavor.
Our partnership with MCS is just one of many examples of Ball State’s contributions beyond our beautiful campus. We have a long history of supporting our community. The pandemic has made some community-engaged work more challenging, but many of our faculty and staff have harnessed this unprecedented moment to innovate and better serve our partners. Even during tough times, Ball State continues to create meaningful and lasting change for our neighbors and friends.
Below are a few more stories that I hope you will enjoy and then share. Let your friends and colleagues know how “We Fly” at Ball State.
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Sincerely,
Geoffrey S. Mearns
President
Ball State University
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'Our Call to Beneficence’ episode features Ball State Trustee Renae Conley
The latest episode of the monthly podcast “Our Call to Beneficence,” hosted by Ball State University President Geoffrey S. Mearns, is available. In this episode, President Mearns interviews accomplished Ball State graduate Renae Conley, who serves as the chair of the University’s Board of Trustees.Ms. Conley is the first woman to hold this Board position in Ball State’s history. Also, she was the first female CEO of a Fortune 500 company in Louisiana. During her interview, Ms. Conley shares how her experiences at Ball State prepared her to become a corporate executive, and what she finds most gratifying about her role as a Ball State trustee.
“Our Call to Beneficence” was launched in September. The podcast features President Mearns’ conversations with graduates and friends of Ball State who embody the spirit of Beneficence—as represented by the campus statue that is the icon of the University—through their professional success and personal service.
Be on the lookout later this month for the next episode of “Our Call to Beneficence.” In this episode, President Mearns interviews Ball State University graduate Tiara Thomas—winner of a Grammy and an Academy Award earlier this year. Ms. Thomas graduated from Ball State in 2012 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Telecommunications. Read more about Ms. Thomas, her career, and her college days, in this Ball State online magazine article.
All episodes of this podcast are available online, as well as on multiple platforms, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Google Podcasts. Subscriptions and reviews are also encouraged to help grow the audience for this podcast.
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Ball State’s Digital Corps helps Muncie Afghan Refugee Resettlement Committee
Ball State University’s Digital Corps is working with the Muncie Afghan Refugee Resettlement Committee (MARRC) to help welcome to Muncie any of the thousands of refugees from Afghanistan who were housed at Camp Atterbury—a military training base near Edinburgh, Indiana—earlier this Fall. Many of the refugees arrived in the United States with only the clothes on their backs. Some need help with their children and elderly relatives, while others were forced to leave family behind in Afghanistan.The Digital Corps was asked to create a website to build awareness and raise funds in support of MARRC’s initiative. Created in a one-day “hackathon”-style session, student members of the Digital Corps created the site layout and design, wrote content, and coded the final pages. Several students at Digital Corps were interviewed by Indianapolis TV station WRTV about their experiences working on this project..
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Ball State collaborates with community partner to offer English as a Second Language classes
The Ross Community Center is once again offering free English as a Second Language (ESL) classes to speakers of other languages in the Muncie community who are interested in learning English. These classes are a collaborative project between the Intensive English Institute at Ball State University and Ross Community Center. This collaboration began in Fall 2019. The program was paused during the COVID-19 pandemic.ESL classes for the Fall session started on Oct. 5, 2021, and will run through Dec. 17, 2021. A Spring 2022 session will also be offered. The classes are taught by faculty from the Intensive English Institute and are held at the Ross Community Center. For more information and for flyers translated into Arabic, Chinese, and Spanish, visit the Ross Community Center website and Ross Community Center Facebook page.
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Two winners of American Institute of Architects awards have Ball State ties
Two members of Ball State University’s campus community have recently received prestigious awards from the Indiana Chapter of the American Institute of Architects (AIA):
- Tony Costello, the Irving Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Architecture at Ball State’s R. Wayne Estopinal College of Architecture and Planning (CAP), received the first-ever AIA Indiana Architectural Humanitarian Award (for Non-Traditional Projects). This award is in recognition of Professor Costello’s work at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Orphanage Campus in Plaine de Nord, Haiti. He was the campus planner and architect for the first five buildings at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Orphanage Campus. The project spanned 10 years. Read more about Professor Costello and his work in Haiti.
- James Lowe, associate vice president for Facilities Planning and Management at Ball State, received AIA Indiana’s 2021 Walter S. Blackburn Award—an honor bestowed upon a non-architect annually. Mr. Lowe, a professional engineer, was recognized for the four decades he has dedicated to planning and landscape development on Ball State’s campus, the University’s nationally recognized, campus-wide energy program, plus the restoration and modernization of campus structures.
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Fall Commencement ceremonies set for Dec. 18 at Worthen Arena
The order of ceremonies, organized by colleges, will be as follows:
- 10 a.m. – Miller College of Business; College of Health; and College of Sciences and Humanities
- 1 p.m. – R. Wayne Estopinal College of Architecture and Planning; College of Communication, Information and Media; College of Fine Arts; and Teachers College
This will not be a ticketed event; graduates can bring as many guests as they would like. All graduates and attendees will be required to wear masks since Fall Commencement will be taking place indoors.
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Ball State’s 2021 United Way Campaign runs through Nov. 30
Ball State University’s 2021 Employee Campaign, to raise donations in support of United Way-funded programs, runs through Nov. 30. The University’s campaign, which began Sept. 22, provides all active employees and retirees the opportunity to easily contribute to the important work being done in our community.
Ball State donations help support United Way’s efforts of putting children, adults, and families on the path to lifelong success and stability by funding over 100 programs and organizations across our region. Through their major initiatives of the THRIVE Network, Campaign for Grade-Level Reading, Access to Healthcare, and various volunteer programs, Heart of Indiana United Way fights for the health, education, and financial stability of every person in every community.
Ball State University is proud to support this worthy cause and help make our community the best it can be. Learn more.
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Ball State holds ribbon-cutting for its Menard Training Facility
Ball State President Geoffrey S. Mearns led the Nov. 8 ribbon-cutting ceremony for the University’s Menard Training Facility at Ball State’s Entrepreneurial Leadership Institute. The Institute is located in the Oakwood Building, Room 119, at 2501 North Oakwood Avenue. Following the ribbon-cutting, the Institute held an open house.
The Institute and the Menard Facility—made possible with major gifts of grant funding from the Menard Family ($5 million) and the Charles Koch Foundation ($1.5 million)—will help prepare the next generation of entrepreneurs and innovators to drive the growth of Indiana’s economy. The Menard Facility includes the Launch Pad, a hub for innovation and creation that provides an environment for facilitating innovation sessions, sketching out ideas, building scrappy prototypes using a variety of materials, modeling using Lego® and prototyping using 3D printers.
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Ball State officially opens its brand new Multicultural Center
President Geoffrey S. Mearns and Ro-Anne Royer Engle, vice president for Student Affairs, led the Oct. 23 ribbon-cutting ceremony for the University’s Multicultural Center at 1120 N. McKinley Ave., east of Bracken Library.
The 9,500-square-foot Multicultural Center provides a welcoming space for students to find a sense of belonging and to engage. The center offers programs and services such as Unity Week, EXCEL and REACH mentoring programs, VOICES: race and ethnicity support group, and The Lavender Door, which provides free and discreet access to gender-affirming clothing.
Take a virtual tour of the Multicultural Center. Also, learn about the history of the Multicultural Center by exploring this digital exhibit developed by the archives staff at Ball State’s University Libraries.
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Watch a new episode of Cardinal Compass, Nov. 19
This month’s episode of Cardinal Compass looks at how philanthropy connects Ball State University to the Muncie community in more ways than one can probably imagine.
President Geoffrey S. Mearns will be joined by guests Jean Crosby, president of the Ball State Foundation, and Kelly Shrock, president of the Community Foundation of Muncie & Delaware County. They will share how donors support the University’s mission and how the University supports the community.
Catch Cardinal Compass on either Ball State PBS, Ball State PBS’ YouTube channel, or Indiana Public Radio on at 6:30 p.m. Friday, November 19. Cardinal Compass is produced by Ball State students in the College of Communication, Information, and Media.
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Watch some of Fall Homecoming 2021’s popular events online
With a theme of “Fly Your Way Back Home,” Ball State University celebrated its 95th year of Homecoming Oct. 18-23 with in-person activities and events—including the Talent Search, Air Jam, and Bed Race. For those who missed these popular Homecoming events this year, or who want to re-live those moments, watch them online:
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Author Ashley C. Ford makes final appearance as Ball State’s Fall 2021 Writer-in-Resident
The final event featured Ms. Ford ’18 at a lively book club style discussion, at the University’s Student Center Ballroom, about her memoir, Somebody’s Daughter. The powerful New York Times best-selling book explores Ms. Ford’s life coming of age in Fort Wayne, Indiana, with a single mother and an incarcerated father. The book was published in June by Flatiron Books under the imprint, An Oprah Book. Ms. Ford was joined at the Nov. 11 event by Ball State professor Jill Christman, who moderated the discussion.
Ball State welcomed Ms. Ford back to campus this Fall to share her work and to interact with students and faculty, as well as engage with the campus and local communities. She had three other appearances throughout the Fall.
Through the writer-in-residence program, Ms. Ford also shared her work and interacted with students and faculty through several non-public events.
Ms. Ford donated the honorarium from her work as the Fall 2021 Writer-in-Residence to provide free copies of her memoir to numerous community partners, including students, teachers, and staff at Burris Laboratory School; Muncie Community Schools; the Youth Opportunity Center; the YWCA; and Boys & Girls Club of Muncie.
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