A respected scholar and academic leader with strong ties to the Midwest has been named Ball State's Dean of Sciences and Humanities.

Michael A. Maggiotto, dean of the School of Letters and Sciences at the State University of New York Brockport, will start at Ball State in July.

Maggiotto is a professor of political science whose credentials include writing two books, dozens of articles, book chapters, book reviews, and other scholarly works, and holding leadership positions at SUNY Brockport and Bowling Green State University.

SUNY Brockport's School of Letters and Sciences has 17 departments and five programs. That is similar to Ball State's College of Sciences and Humanities, which has 20 departments and the Social Science Research Center.

Maggiotto succeeds Ronald Johnstone, who retired as dean in June 2002, and Donald Van Meter, who has served as interim dean since then.

Faced with rising costs for maintenance and employee health care, along with inflationary bumps in the price of supplies and food, Ball State's board of trustees has approved an increase in room and board rates for the 2003-04 academic year.

The basic room and board rate will be $5,880 per year, up $33 per month from last year. The university will continue to offer a premium plan, which allows students to lock in the same rate for two years. Because they are already enrolled in this plan, a third of the students currently living in the halls will have no increase for next year.

All of the university's residence halls are more than 30 years old, and the university is engaged in continuous maintenance to keep them in good condition. Work to repair elevators, replace old plumbing, and patch cracks on the exterior of several buildings has been necessary and costly.

Each year, Ball State conducts a detailed analysis of the cost to operate and maintain the residence halls. The university assesses which costs can be eliminated or reduced, which costs are rising, and what the staffing needs are.

The board also approved the purchase of land to construct a new tower for WIPB-TV south of Muncie. The tower is necessary to comply with Federal Communications Commission (FCC) mandates for all television stations to begin broadcasting a digital signal. WIPB's current tower, located on 29th Street in Muncie, cannot support a new digital antenna and transmission line.

The station, which operates under a license granted to Ball State, will pay for the property, but state funding appropriated to Indiana Public Broadcasting Services, Inc. will cover the tower construction costs.

The property was selected because it is not in the flight path of regional airports, is the appropriate distance from WIPB's existing tower, has no wetlands or hills, and has access to three-phase power.

Pending final approval of the plan from the FCC and Federal Aviation Administration, construction should begin in the summer.

Four Ball State professors have been selected to lead student groups in projects that will study issues facing area residents.

Participants in the program sponsored by the Virginia B. Ball Center for Creative Inquiry include Anthony Costello, architecture; Chin-Sook Pak, modern languages and classics; Laura O'Hara, communication studies; and Melinda Schoenfeldt, elementary education.

Faculty receive a summer stipend to prepare the seminar and recruit students. Each seminar is assigned a budget of $25,000 to create a product to engage the community in extensive dialogue.

The semester-long seminars will explore the connections among the arts, humanities, sciences, and technology; create a product to illustrate collaborative research and interdisciplinary study; and present the product to the community in a public forum.

Through Costello's project, "The American Dream: Myth or Reality?" students will investigate the evolution of the typical American home during the 20th Century.

Students will study the physical, social, economic, political, aesthetic, and technological forces that shaped the houses, the neighborhoods they created, and the ability of middle-class Americans to own them. The seminar will produce a documentary film, an exhibit, and a monograph on the process.

Pak's project is "Creating a Community-Centered Classroom: Learning in Spanish." Her students will explore the legal, financial, social, work, and health-care problems that confront members of the Hispanic community in East Central Indiana.

The seminar, conducted in Spanish, will work with various community organizations to identify typical problems that can be presented in short dramatic plays, which will be written in Spanish, performed by community members in the style of Mexican soap operas, and produced on DVD.

O'Hara's project is "Making Your Way Back: Community, Compassion, Creativity." The seminar will focus on recovery from cancer and recovery from the loss of home and property. Students will produce documentaries for broadcast on public television that reveal how recovery affects an individual's world view and self-esteem.

In "Readers Theater: A Cross Cultural Connection," Schoenfeldt and her students will collaborate with Alice Hindsgavl and her students from Denmark's Silkeborg Seminarium to investigate contemporary issues related to literacy, meeting the needs of underserved populations and strengthening the school-home connection.

Students will produce videos featuring elementary school children from the United States and Denmark who are participating in stage productions of literary works.

A program created by a congressional mandate and endorsed by the Indiana Consortium of Education Deans has Indiana's first transition-to-teaching graduates. The program allows non-teachers with bachelor's degrees to gain their teaching certificate in approximately 18 months.

In a partnership with Ball State, Indianapolis Public Schools enrolled 18 of its permanent substitute teachers, full-time teachers who travel from school to school, in the program. Nine completed the rigorous course and are in the process of applying for teaching licenses.

Designed to help offset an impending teacher shortage, the program provides an alternative path for instructors to return to college to become licensed professionals.

To ease the career transition, Ball State received a $122,000 grant from the Indiana Professional Standards Board that helps defer the students' cost of tuition and books.

A nutritional program developed by a Ball State researcher is being credited with bolstering one of the nation's top college athletic programs.

David Pearson, director of Ball State's Strength Research Laboratory, recently was honored by the University of Colorado for instituting "Eating to Win," a nutritional plan designed to improve the athletic performances of its athletes.

The program allows trainers and coaches to develop eating plans for athletes to raise performance levels.

Pearson took "Eating to Win" to the University of Colorado before the 2001-02 year in his role as a strength and conditioning consultant. It marked the first time he had applied the program in a team setting as opposed to individuals, as was done at Ball State.

During back-to-back winning seasons, several football players broke various individual and team records. Improved performances also enhanced the professional prospects of several players.

As a result of the improved athletic levels at Colorado, the university presented Pearson with the Honor of Excellence award during a January ceremony in Boulder, CO.

Pearson's program is based on years of trials conducted with Ball State athletes. It places an athlete's nutritional needs on the same level as his or her conditioning and training.

The program also stresses a high intake of carbohydrates and protein while limiting alcohol and caffeinated drinks.

Unlike many nutritional programs, "Eating to Win" calls for only minor changes to a person's diet, instead of completely overhauling it.

Ball State may be the next school to use Pearson's "Eating to Win" program across the athletic spectrum. He is currently working with various athletic administrators to have the program integrated on a daily basis.

The Strength Research Laboratory will also bolster research in resistance training.

The new facility is designed to assist athletes and coaches, who will benefit from performance-based research. The general public also will benefit from the lab's health-related research as the research facility supports undergraduate and graduate academic programs within the School of Physical Education.

The Strength Research Laboratory is a natural outgrowth of the university's existing research facilities within the Human Performance Laboratory. The lab is adjacent to the Biomechanics Laboratory on the Human Performance Lab's second floor wing of the Health and Physical Activity Building.

Pearson, Ball State's first strength and conditioning coach, was selected to lead the new research facility due to his research background in resistance training.