The call is out for faculty proposals to be funded by the new Virginia B. Ball Center for Creative Inquiry.

Four faculty members will be selected to teach an interdisciplinary seminar to 15 students during the 2000-01 school year. Four fellows are to be selected each of the next five years.

The center provides a $12,500 summer stipend to prepare the seminar, recruit students, contact consultants and work with community leaders, said center director and English Professor Joe Trimmer.

"The center also will provide a semester’s leave, two in the fall and two in the spring, during which the fellows’ sole responsibility will be to teach the seminar," said Trimmer.

Existing independent study, seminar, and regular courses will be used in the program.

Trimmer said the program is intended to assist faculty and students to:

• explore the connections among the arts, humanities, sciences and technology;
• create a product to illustrate their collaborative research and interdisciplinary study;
• and present their product to the community in a public forum.

The product may be an exhibit, film, video or play etc. The fellowship includes $25,000 for expenses such as travel, consultants and supplies. The center, to be located at the Kitselman Conference Center, also will provide office space for fellows during their residency.

All full-time Ball State faculty are eligible to submit proposals, however, each applicant must have departmental support and the support of a community sponsor who will help promote the project. Departments also will be given replacement funds for the fellows.

Trimmer said proposals for next fall must be submitted by Feb. 21 with the selection to be made in March.

"The Virginia B. Ball Fellows will be selected by an interdisciplinary committee of faculty and community leaders involved in education and civic projects," said Trimmer.

A forum to explain guidelines and criteria for submitting proposals is scheduled Tuesday, Nov. 23 at 4 p.m. in the Student Center Forum Room.

The Center for Creative Inquiry was created with a $2 million gift to the "Above and Beyond Campaign to Advance Ball State University." It is part of a $30 million effort to develop creative new programs to enhance innovative studies on the campus.