MUNCIE, Ind. -- 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 today (Sept. 18) at Ball State's second-annual Greening of the Campus international environmental conference in the L.A. Pittenger Student Center.

Warren Vander Hill, Ball State's provost and vice president for academic affairs, shared the news with the conference's more than 200 participants in Cardinal Hall.

"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 this 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.

Some of the Bracken funds might support a new environmental "clustered minor" initiative Vander Hill unveiled at the conference. The program could eventually let students in each of Ball State's seven academic colleges complement their major area of study with an environmental minor.

"The clustered minor will offer new opportunities for the university to build experiences in environmental studies crossing disciplinary lines," Vander Hill said. "The courses for two of these minors are already in place."

The interdisciplinary program was proposed by Ball State's Center for Energy Research/Education/Service (CERES), which will provide technical and administrative support for it. The concept will use existing interdepartmental minors in energy and environmental policy, he said.

An environmental minor will combine discipline-specific courses with common core courses in ethics, ecology and economics. A project-oriented "capstone" course will bring together students from diverse disciplines to share their expertise and solve problems.

Ball State's College of Business and Department of Landscape Architecture have already proposed interdepartmental minors in sustainable issues.

The program invites, rather than mandates, academic departments to participate, said Robert Koester, director of CERES and co-chair of Ball State's Green Committee.

"Greening of the Campus II: The Next Step" continues through Sept. 20. Participants from around the United States and four other countries are exploring effective ways to make colleges and universities environmentally sensitive models for society.