The VIP breakfast was Gora's first official visit to Indianapolis as Ball State's president and took place at the Ball State Backyard, the university's exhibit area in the Marsh Agriculture Building. During her visit, she also spoke with students who designed the backyard.

Gora, who took office Aug. 9, came to Ball State from the University of Massachusetts at Boston where she served as chancellor since 2001.

Prior to her position as chancellor, she served as provost and vice president for academic affairs at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Va.

The Ball State Backyard was developed by the landscape architecture department of the College of Architecture and Planning. The garden exhibit is designed to reflect a blend of sports, automobiles and agriculture. It features a large deck, pylons of tires, fences trimmed with hubcaps, orchards of corn, basketball goal trellises and a pond made of crushed and tumbled glass.

(Note to editors: For more information, contact Glenn Augustine at (765) 285-1560, (765) 748-4822 or ggaugustine@bsu.edu. For more information on Gora, log on to www.bsu.edu/news/article/0,,22325--,00.html. For a downloadable photograph, log on to www.bsu.edu/photoservices, click on "People" and follow the directions.)