Email a Friend
Print
Larger
Smaller
President Jim Ittenbach called the meeting to order at 3:05 p.m. and expressed appreciation to Budreau for hosting the meeting.
Minutes
Minutes from the April 17, 2003 meeting were approved by voice vote.
Alumni Council Report
Taylor reported on behalf of Smith, who had a business conflict. The Ball State Alumni Council met on June 14, 2003.
Wayne Estopinal reported that BSUAA reserves are strong enough to assist the Association in the coming year, in light of the university's current budget situation. The Alumni Association anticipates a $29,000 shortfall after making budget cuts, and the reserve will fund this if necessary.
Hollis Hughes reported on the May Board of Trustees meeting, saying it had its "usual factor of increases, with tuition, room and board, going up for the 2003-04 academic year. Student and user fees for such services as health center and technology are also being increased. State experts have made it clear that there will continue to be the expectation of students putting forth more personal dollars for their own education in Indiana. Hughes also referred to the athletic turmoil. "Financially, the university is struggling to make ends meet, but we will work through the issues."
Mark Ervin reported that one of the more significant items on the Foundation's agenda in May was the approval of a new long-range plan, defining a course for the Foundation to move forward in the coming years. One consideration is for the board to expand in number, keeping age, diversity, and experience in mind. Because of unprecedented volatility in the stock market, the Foundation is taking an in-depth look at its operational and funding structure. There are two main income sources for the Foundation: unrestricted gifts and investment earnings. Consideration is being given for implementation of an administrative fee structure for accounts held within the Foundation. (Many University foundations do charge these fees, but Ball State has not).
Ervin indicated there is a pooled endowment fund in the works to enable gifts from many individuals to be pooled. The total will enable more scholarship dollars to efficiently get to students.
Hughes inquired as to whether there had been any discussion with University Advancement regarding departmental fund-raising activities. Shipley responded. There is some activity among departments and colleges to solicit funding from their direct constituents but, to this point, it remains within the centralized university system. Ball State maintains the stance that keeping a centralized data system is very important and efficient.
Distinguished Alumni - Kevin Ervin reported that the committee had met ahead of the Council meeting and had reached a decision. It recommended Rex Bolinger '73EdS90PhD92, assistant superintendent of MSD of Steuben County; and Richard McKee '53, BSU emeritus executive assistant to the president and professor of educational psychology, as Distinguished Alumni for 2003.
This year's recommendations to receive Benny Awards include: Amy Ahlersmeyer '80, retired Journalism Alumni representative to the Council; Emily Kress '69MAE72, retired NREM Alumni representative to the Council; Joy Robbins '69MA72, department chair of Family and Consumer Sciences at New Castle Chrysler High School. Also, Craig Stephens '86, retired at-large Council representative; Marilyn Weaver '65MA70EdS81, chair of the Department of Journalism at Ball State; Robert Woods '65EdD90, past president of the Alumni Association; and Sport Graphics, the printing firm in Indianapolis that prints and mails the Ball State Alumnus and produces the Association's annual report.
Eight individuals were recommended as G.O.L.D. Award recipients. They are David Dancer '93, director of Visa Marketing Consulting; Lisa Emshwiller '94, principal at Michigan City Junior High School; Shannon Hawkins '94, a resident in obstetrics and gynecology at Baylor College of Medicine; Lana Krstich '97, senior associate for Burson-Marsteller Public Affairs Practice, and Jason LaMar '96, director of Web services at Ohio Wesleyan University. Also, Beth Newbauer '02, co-founder, producer, and partner for Mike the Pike Film Production Company; Christopher Palladino '95, director of Fall Creek Development for Mansur Real Estate Services, Inc.; and Nikki Woodson '97, principal of Forest Glen Elementary School. All three kinds of awards will be presented at the Homecoming Awards Dinner, Friday, October 17.
Coach of the Year Awards are being awarded to Jay Agnew '96, Yorktown, Girl's Swimming and Boy's Swimming; Charlie Hall '80, Kokomo, Girl's Basketball; Lance Wildoner '94, Harrison (West Lafayette), Wrestling; Andra Davis '92, Hagerstown, Gymnastics; and Basil Mawbey '64MA67, Cass, Boy's Basketball.
The Linson Scholarship committee has selected Laurel Peffer for this year's award. She is an undergraduate communications assistant for the Alumni Association. A journalism major, Peffer is a student in the Honors College.
Fred Cox reported that 50 recipients have been selected for Legacy scholarships of $1,600 each. Cox commented that 37 of the 50 recipients have a 3.8 or higher GPA and 35 of the students have 1200 or higher SAT scores. He said that 72 of the 167 applicants were in the top 20 percent of their respective classes.
Tom Farris reported that the Alumni Association is participating in the 25th Garfield birthday celebration by purchasing and decorating one of 25 large sculptures of the cat. After the events, organizations may opt to offer their sculptures over E-bay. Auctioning of the Garfields will be planned so that not all are made available at the same time. One consideration was to conduct the E-bay auction in sync with the premiere of Garfield's movie, but the date is not certain at this time. Tom and Linda Farris were responsible for the artistic completion of the Alumni Association's Garfield, with the theme and tag line: "I graduated, big, fat, hairy deal!" The BSUAA Garfield remains on display at the Alumni Center.
Dean's Report
Montagno, Replogle and Estep are working on a speaker series for next academic year. The theme for will be "Change".
Montagno said that 43 faculty have replied to a survey saying they would be willing to provide consulting services to the business community. The College is considering forming a "Management Services Center" that would broker these services.
A new accounting professor, Beverly Rowe (from Colorado State) will join the faculty this fall.
Letter-writing Campaign
Replogle reported that 962 letters were written by 50 alumni volunteers in the effort to increase COB enrollment. Of the 962 prospects, 920 were admitted, and of those, 449 had committed to attend BSU. With the first contact, the prospects received the new viewbook, and the letters then followed. At their request, Replogle will send next year's lists to alumni electronically. Board members suggested that two letters be sent to each prospect, with a phase one from one individual, and a phase two letter from another alumnus. She mentioned that response to the letters has been very positive, and information sent from the COB is a good complement to that which is sent from Admissions. A brief discussion ensued regarding athletic compliance regulations and the average student profile. It was concluded that a "Welcome to the COB" letter from alumni is acceptable to send to athletes, because it is a" broad brush" letter that is mailed to many students. The average student profile for business students shows that SAT scores remain in the mid-range, with approximately a 1090 average, and have been increasing slightly.
Alumni Awards
The new recognition process will begin in the fall of 2004, and the selection committee will be meeting to review nominees. Heeter reported that the awards event still needs to be planned, and that the board needs to consider how large an event it should be, whether it will be subsidized by COB funds, who will be invited—past recipients, faculty, business leaders, alumni, students, etc. It was agree that the "recent graduate" award criteria will include alumni who are 1-15 years out of college and a name for the award will be determined.
Dialogue Week
The week of October 27-31, preceding Family Weekend, is being designated Dialogue Week. The board will solicit alumni speakers for the 232 class sections held that week. Each alumnus will be asked to commit half a day to speak to two class sections (116 speakers in total) and all speakers will be hosted for lunch the day they make their presentations. (Note: There are approximately 81 MWF sections and 117 TTH sections. The remaining sections are night sections.) The following board members agreed to take responsibility for planning and hosting different aspects of the event:
A. Alumni Recruiting- (Ittenbach) - Working with the Alumni Association, alumni volunteers will be elicited to speak through an electronically administered survey. Taylor will request the e-mail list of alumni within driving distance of campus. (Survey to be mailed in summer)
B. Luncheon- (Heeter & Budreau) - Heeter volunteered Mutual Federal to underwrite the cost of the luncheons. Budreau and Heeter will host the luncheons.
C. Program- (Schulz, Prickel and Duncan) - Working with College of Business staff, program outline/speaker goals will be established. (To be completed before August 18.)
D. Logistics/Scheduling- (Estep and Replogle) - Scheduling and luncheon logistics will be handled by Estep and Replogle.
E. Marketing/Event Communication- (Estep, Ittenbach, Richardson & Taylor) - Ittenbach will initially communicate with alumni about the event, Richardson will communicate program information to faculty, Estep will include information on the College website, and Taylor will publish event information in Alumnus magazine.
Next Meeting
The board will meet September 24, 2003, 3:30 p.m. at the Alumni Center Board Room.
