MUNCIE, Ind. - Ball State University President Blaine A. Brownell has accepted an invitation to join an advisory group that helps U.S. colleges and universities strengthen relations with the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and global development efforts.

The group is the Advisory Council to the Association Liaison Office for University Cooperation in Development (ALO).

"This membership gives Ball State more immediate involvement in the relationships between the federal government and its international development efforts and the U.S. higher education community," Brownell said.

Established in 1992, ALO oversees and administers a cooperative agreement between the USAID and the nation’s six major higher education associations.

Under the cooperative agreement, the Advisory Council helps mobilize the resources of the American higher education community to support a stronger role for colleges and universities in addressing global issues such as poverty, hunger, disease, illiteracy, environmental degradation, natural disasters, conflict, and issues of population, democracy and governance. The council also works to increase attention to these issues on U.S. campuses.

Additional information about the ALO can be found at www.aascu.org/alo.

(NOTE TO EDITORS: For more information, contact Brownell by e-mail at president@bsu.edu or by phone at (765) 285-5555.)