Rosemary and Alexander
Bracken
 

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for Greening II

Announced during:
Greening of the Campus II:
The Next Step
September 18 - 20, 1997
Ball State University
Muncie, Indiana
 

Ball State University will use a $500,000 gift from the Rosemary Bracken estate to take the next step in promoting environmental education and awareness. The new Bracken Environmental Fund was announced by university officials during "Greening of the Campus II: The Next Step" in September 1997.

Warren Vander Hill, Ball State's provost and vice president for academic affairs, shared the news with the conference's more than 200 participants. "Simply stated, the Bracken Endowment will enable us to take an important leap forward into areas of teaching, research, and service that were merely dreams before," Vander Hill said.

Before her death last summer, Bracken endowed the new fund with $500,000 to enhance Ball State's academic environmental programs. The money will be used to bring visiting scholars to campus, provide faculty research grants, and help students work on environmental projects with faculty members.

"I also expect that this new money will enable our students to work in environmental internships at a variety of sites here and abroad," Vander Hill added.

Rosemary Bracken was the daughter of Frank C. Ball, one of the five brothers who founded Ball Corp. in Muncie and donated the land and buildings for Ball State in 1918.  Her husband, the late Alexander M. Bracken, was president of Ball State's Board of Trustees for 22 years and was a chairman of Ball Corp. Their son Frank Bracken currently serves on the Board of Trustees and was U.S. undersecretary of the interior under President Bush.

"The Bracken family has demonstrated a deep commitment to enhancing the environment," Vander Hill said.