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Ball State President Jo Ann M. Gora
In a biography of Carl Linneaus, the father of the system for classifying nature, Linneaus is quoted as saying, "A professor can never better distinguish himself in his work than by encouraging a clever pupil, for the true discoverers are among them, as comets amongst the stars."
In my two years at Ball State, I have learned a great deal about this university's past—how it has grown and progressed, why its many supporters hold such strong convictions about the future of the institution and its people, and the many strengths of the university in which those convictions are rooted.As I reflect on how those strengths were developed, I see the innovative ideas you, our faculty and staff, have generated; the concerted efforts you have made to nurture those ideas to fruition; and the positive ways in which the realizations of your aspirations have contributed to this institution. By and large, your initiatives are united by a common goal—the desire to provide learning environments and experiences that encourage students to challenge themselves, become active learners, make a difference, and contribute to the dynamics of this ever-changing institution.
Clearly, you have put students first. By encouraging your students to be discoverers, you have molded comets amongst stars and enhanced this university's reputation for excellence.
As I begin my third year at Ball State, I continue to be greatly impressed by your innovative work. Your commitment to a high-quality university education for our students has manifested itself in a strong institution that has enjoyed a series of outstanding years and stands on the cusp of shining even more brightly in the realm of higher education—so long as our aim is guided by a bold course of action.
One could easily look only at the successes of the past year and conclude that Ball State is an institution of excellence, moving forward. The university's physical aspect is growing—and growing more beautiful. The second phase of the
We eagerly anticipate the opening of the Communication and Media Building next fall and what it will mean for our programs in the College of Communication, Information, and Media.
Work has begun on the renovation of the Woodworth Commons Dining Facility, which will serve students who move into Park Hall, next fall.
My congratulations again to Vice President for University Advancement Emeritus Don Park and the five generations of the Park family who have attended Ball State. In June, the Board of Trustees honored the Parks for their commitment to the university with the naming of our new residence hall.
An expansion and renovation of Scheumann Stadium will begin this fall. We successfully completed a fund-raising campaign for this project in just one year, and we were able to honor significant benefactors with the naming of the training facility, media center, and stadium.
Work began today on the installation of a pipe organ in the world-class Sursa Hall, a gift from Mary Jane and the late David Sursa. On Monday, artistStephen Knapp will begin installing one of his signature 3-D lightpaintings in Sursa Hall's foyer. Also the result of a gift, the Knapp artwork will be 23 by 40 feet and made of stainless steel and more than 100 pieces of colored glass. The lightpainting and organ will be significant and beautiful enhancements to the already impressive Music Instruction Building.
Congratulations to Dean Kvam for the support he has inspired from these friends of the University. In fact, all of our academic deans have worked tirelessly to raise additional resources for their colleges, and we owe them our gratitude for their efforts and successes.
Looking ahead, we have a pressing need to provide a better recreation facility for students. We have received permission from the state legislature to issue bonds for a major expansion of the Irving Gym facility, and we have hired an architect to design it. This project is not eligible for state funding, so we are raising private funds to reduce the reliance on student fees to service the debt. Our current timetable calls for the expanded facility to be ready by the end of the decade.
For the upcoming legislative session, we are submitting funding requests designed to enhance our ability to deliver a high-quality education. The top priority of our operational request is funding for faculty and staff salaries. Our top priority for capital funding is the Center Campus Academic Project, which calls for extensive and much-needed renovations to Teachers College, North Quad, and Applied Technology buildings.
While outstanding facilities are a great resource, the work that goes on inside them is of the utmost importance, and validations of the excellence of your endeavors have been provided by independent observers through significant national rankings and recognitions. The Princeton Review named Ball State a "Best in the Midwest" and then included us among the 150 "Best Values" in higher education nationwide.
A number one ranking is a rarity for any university and truly an honor to celebrate. Last fall, Intel rated Ball State the number one wireless campus in the nation—not just because of pervasive access to the wireless network, but also because of the innovative ways in which we are using it.
Also receiving significant national rankings or recognitions were the undergraduate and graduate entrepreneurship programs in the Miller College of Business; the secondary education master's program, educational leadership, counseling psychology, and school psychology doctoral programs in Teachers College; landscape architecture in the College of Architecture and Planning;and the teacher preparation program in the department of technology, an honor shared by the College of Applied Sciences and Technology and Teachers College.
And while it isn't a ranking or recognition by our peers, Ball State's Electronic Field Trips program caught the attention of First Lady Laura Bush. I was honored to take part with her in a field trip this past April. Following the program, she praised its exceptional educational quality and innovative delivery modality that enabled us to reach 37 million students and community members in 50 states and 7 countries.
The Electronic Field Trips program also won two gold medals from the 2006 World Media Festival, six Telly Awards, and a Best of the Web award from the Center for Digital Education.
Those awards are indicative of how peers in several disciplines judged the creative endeavors of faculty, staff, and students this year. For the second consecutive year, Ball State telecommunications majors have won a gold Student Academy Award. While co-director Travis Hatfield has graduated, his creative partner, Sam Day, will be a senior this fall and has set his sights on making another film worthy of entry into the competition.
Sharing in this victory are the outstanding students who worked on the crew and those from our Department of Theatre and Dance who acted in the films. Most films entered in the competition use professional actors, so winning a Student Academy Award two years in a row with a cast of students shows what a talented group of actors we have in the College of Fine Arts and how well faculty are preparing them for careers in the industry.
Also well prepared are students in the Miller College of Business, as demonstrated by the results of the recent CPA exam administered by the Indiana Certified Public Accountants Society. Three of the top six CPA exam performers in 2005 were Ball State graduates, including the number one performer—2002 graduate Timothy Shoulders. Congratulations also to our nursing students who so far this year have a 97 percent pass rate on the NCLEX, a national exam with a mean passing rate of 85 percent.
The fact that our students are also earning prestigious scholarships speaks not only to the quality of students we are able to attract but also to how you, our faculty and professional staff, motivate them to achieve excellence. Amanda Reese, a junior honors student majoring in biology and premedicine in our College of Sciences and Humanities, has received a Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship for the 2006-07 academic year.
Another Honors College student in sciences and humanities had quite a summer. Sara Sorrell completed medical research at Cambridge University in
Andrea Wiese, an Honors College senior who is studying history and social studies has received a Rotary International Scholarship, and just this week, we learned that Steve Nawara, an Honors College student who graduated in May, has been awarded a Jacob K. Javits Fellowship. That makes six national fellowships that the Honors College has recorded this year, with recent graduates Lori Herber and Levi King earning Bosch and Fulbright honors, respectively.
While our students are earning high praise for their work, faculty research and outreach initiatives are turning the heads of decision-makers. The Digital Policy Institute in the Center for Information and Communication Sciences produced research that helped prompt Indiana lawmakers to pass legislation to deregulate the cable television industry. Lawmakers in Michigan are also considering research from the center in their cable deregulation debate.
Our Building Better Communities initiative continues to produce impressive results across Indiana. Work in the Wayne Township schools of Indianapolis helped Rhodes Elementary School move from failing to Blue Ribbon status.
The College of Architecture and Planning's work on quality-of-life projects in Greenwood and Goshen has received considerable coverage from local media and has earned rave reviews from local officials.
This year for the first time, I presented a Building Better Communities report to an audience of lawmakers, business leaders, educators, and members of the media—something I plan to do every year.
This initiative is Ball State's way of creating a truly statewide presence. In much the same way that Purdue spreads its name and reputation through agricultural extensions and that IU extends its reach with regional campuses, so too does Ball State through its reputation of being a key resource for improving quality of life and enhancing economic development in communities all across the state. Because of our BBC work, we have supporters throughout Indiana who attest to the innovation, creativity, and quality of the work of our students and faculty.
In the years ahead, we must target new communities and offer new products and services to insure this initiative continues to provide immersive learning experiences for our students, research and professional opportunities for our faculty, and tangible benefits for our partnering communities and the state. We are truly helping build Indiana's economy one community at a time.
This is only a partial list of the positive outcomes that have resulted from your creative ideas and hard work. Because of results like these, this university is building a national and international reputation for excellence and innovation—a reputation that helped us acquire the most recent $20 million grant from the Lilly Endowment for "The Digital Exchange."
The Endowment's first grant awarded in 2001 was wisely invested and allowed Ball State to carve out a significant and important niche in the area of digital media content design, production, and research.
Because our plan provides avenues for sustainability and allows us to explore new ways of incorporating digital media into immersive learning, the Endowment agreed to fund the new $20 million grant. More on that in a moment. At the end of the day, the Endowment believes that the educational opportunities we can offer students are transformative and that the combined $40 million the Endowment has invested in these initiatives is having a similar effect on this institution.
As our peers and organizations such as the Lilly Endowment have begun to see Ball State in a different light, we too are examining the essence of Ball State and recognizing that we are a different university. As we stand on the verge of launching a new strategic plan and building on the momentum of our ideas about immersive learning and what it means to be Indiana's entrepreneurial university, we must communicate to all of our audiences the kind of institution we are today and the caliber of institution we are becoming.
This is another example of where we must act boldly and confidently to achieve our desired result. In the words of British statesman David Lloyd George, "Don't be afraid to take a big step if one is indicated. You can't cross a chasm in two small steps."
Over the past two years, the university has conducted extensive market research that has clearly shown a gap in the public's perception of the academic quality of Ball State and that of our primary competitors. While it isn't a chasm, the gap cannot be crossed in a couple of small steps. The time has come to leave behind the "Everything You Need" image that served us well for many years and to focus instead on communicating how we are different and how we will make the college experience different for those who choose us.
Under the direction of Tom Taylor, our vice president for enrollment, marketing, and communications, we have worked with consultants to develop an updated brand position for the university and to translate that position into a comprehensive marketing campaign.
This campaign will include a bold new look that will be integrated throughout our Web site, significant external communications, and advertising in various media. In fact, you may have already noticed the first elements of this look as demonstrated by the new banners on campus or the new Ball State billboards in town. There will be much more to follow, including three new television spots on the air by late September, featuring our own students and faculty.
The new brand position comes with a new tagline. I believe the tagline selected—after extensive internal and external testing—truly expresses what is special here—what you have built. It is: Ball State University. Education Redefined.
This tagline emphasizes our commitment to giving high-caliber students the opportunity to collaborate with expert, energized faculty who are outstanding in their fields; to make relevant, immersive learning experiences the hallmark of a Ball State education; and to provide students and faculty with leading-edge technology and state-of-the-art facilities.
Education Redefined tells prospective students, their families, and our supporters that Ball State is on the move and that we are defining excellence in our own terms. Education Redefined says we seek innovative, entrepreneurial, and creative approaches to ensure the institution moves forward and responds nimbly to the ever-changing educational needs of our students.
We tested this tagline along with five others, and both internal and external audiences agreed that Education Redefined was not only a brand the university could support, but also that it better reflected the character and direction of the university and the quality of the institution.
We believe an aggressive marketing campaign will help us draw better-prepared and highly motivated students to Ball State, enriching the learning environment. And when they arrive here, we must deliver on our brand promise. I have the utmost confidence that you are already doing that individually, and through our new strategic plan, we will take steps to ensure that we surpass expectations collectively.
Perhaps some of you are wondering what exactly is meant by "immersive learning." Some of the most obvious examples of immersive learning are the seminars at the Virginia B. Ball Center for Creative Inquiry, the NewsLink Indiana program, and the Business Fellows initiatives. During an administrative retreat last fall, I asked the academic deans to conduct an inventory of the experiences in their colleges that could be considered immersive learning and to assist in the formulation of a definition for these offerings.
In the end, immersive learning experiences were defined as those that include most of the following seven criteria:
- A group of students, preferably interdisciplinary, working collaboratively
- The group works under the guidance of a faculty mentor
- The students drive the learning process, determining the direction of the course or project
- Students and faculty work with community partners
- The experience produces a tangible outcome or product such as a business venture, DVD, or creative work that is a benefit to the community and to the students
- The experience provides students with an industry connection
- Students receive academic credit for the experience
What positions us well to offer these experiences is our comparative size advantage, our history of a commitment on the part of faculty to mentoring students, and, most particularly, the way that this university has nurtured creative, rigorous applied learning for many years.
To support the vision of immersive learning as a hallmark of the Ball State experience, we are asking the legislature for $9 million as part of the biennial operating request. Funding received as a result of this portion of the request will be directed toward quality improvement initiatives dedicated to expanding immersive learning for students and strengthening science research facilities. Compliments to Dean Maggiotto and his colleagues for the guidance they provided in ways to expand our extramural research activities.
In addition, we have begun to raise private funds specifically to provide immersive experiences. The Lilly Endowment's $20 million grant and $400,000 from the Edmund F. Ball and the Virginia B. Ball Foundation for the Virginia Ball Center are early successes in this regard. The grant for the Virginia Ball Center allows us to build on award-winning and creative projects that students and faculty at the center have produced over the past five years.
For example, this past academic year "The Other Side of Middletown" seminar earned the prestigious Margaret Mead Award from the Society for Applied Anthropology and the American Anthropological Association. A Web site created for the "Learning from a Legacy of Hate" seminar received a Best of the Web award from the Center for Digital Education.
The Digital Exchange Lilly grant is providing faculty and students outstanding opportunities this fall through the establishment of three immersive learning institutes tied to digital media. This aspect of the proposal was most appealing to the Endowment because the model for the institutes is innovative, putting faculty and students in collaborative environments with industry professionals.
The Institute for Digital Fabrication and Rapid Prototyping has already demonstrated its ability to bring together students, designers, and material suppliers in a seamless digital enterprise. Through the Virginia Ball Center, architecture professor Kevin Klinger and his students worked with suppliers to transform computer-generated designs into finished art installations that are now in place along the White River, from Muncie to Indianapolis.
The Institute forDigital Entertainment and Education provided financial backing for this year's Student Academy Award-winning film, Perspective, while the recent wireless sculpture created by art professor John Fillwalk and music technology professors Keith Kothman and Jessie Allison gave us a glimpse at what the future might hold for the Institute for Intermedia and Animation.
The grant provides the flexibility to fund additional institutes as well as other educational and research initiatives. We anticipate that some of these initiatives will inspire creativity that leads to further revenue-generating opportunities for faculty, staff, and students, and that these endeavors can provide sustainability for our efforts when the grant expires.
Education Redefined also means a willingness to strike out on an entrepreneurial path. Last year I mentioned two projects with commercial potential, and I'm happy to report that they are moving forward.
Educational studies professor Matt Stuveand Teachers College assessment systems programmer Mark Lora have formed Educational Informatics, or EI, to distribute rGrade, the powerful Web-based software they have developed to use rubrics to assess student learning in an interactive, ongoing format. Early users include education faculty members at Western Washington University and teachers from the Indianapolis Public Schools.
The new Office of Wireless Research and Mapping has been building partnerships with technology companies interested in testing their products in educational and community settings. In fact, demand from commercial wireless service providers for visual models of the penetration of new networks has been so high, the office took the initiative to form a Ball State spin-off company, Afterimage GIS, to perform this work. For these efforts, they have earned a CIO magazine 2006 CIO 100 Award recognizing their work as one of the 100 most innovative technology initiatives in the nation.
We are also taking a more entrepreneurial approach with our Indianapolis Center. The CAP Indy Center has provided the university with a presence in downtown Indianapolis for five years, and its award-winning work prompted us to look for ways to become even more engaged in our capital city.
We have now relocated to a new center on
The Indianapolis Center also will provide emerging leadership programs for high potential employees in the insurance industry, aligning our efforts with the Indiana Economic Development Commission's Insurance Initiative designed to boost the number of insurance-related jobs in Indiana. The insurance initiative has been a team effort, and we are grateful to associate professor of insurance Steve Avila; Delaina Boyd and Jerry Lung from the Center for Organizational Resources; and Carl Davis from university development for their work on it.
The center also will house a research facility for the Center for Media Design and the executive offices and bookstore for the American Institute of Architects' Indiana chapter.
On the ground floor of the center, there will be interactive kiosks where visitors can access general information about Ball State, as well as media-rich display areas designed with the assistance of the Center for Media Design that will tell the story of Ball State's partnerships in Indianapolis and beyond.
We will also look for additional ways to position the university as a key player in workforce development in Indianapolis, and we welcome your thoughts and ideas about this opportunity.
Whether they are offered in Indianapolis, other remote sites, or in our more traditional campus setting, all of our educational innovations and initiatives must be built upon our brand, and that means they must be aligned with our strategic plan.
An ancient papyruscontains these words from an anonymous scribe. "No one keeps his enthusiasm automatically. Enthusiasm must be nourished with new actions, new aspirations, new efforts, new vision." Those words ring true when considered in terms of our strategic plan. This plan must lead us forward over the next five years, providing new aspirations, supporting new efforts, and encouraging new vision.
I have charged our new Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs, Terry King, with bringing the development of our strategic plan to a close. With input from the colleges, Terry plans to conclude this process with appropriate care and a sense of urgency.
Part of the planning process must include the conclusion of the core curriculum revision. UCC 21 is an innovative curriculum, and I want to complement the Task Force for the recursive and integrative pedagogy that underlies the new proposed core curriculum. It requires students not just to gain information and knowledge, but to make sound judgments and act wisely and thoughtfully. The proposed core curriculum is in alignment with our strategic plan and our brand promise by including an immersive capstone experience for all students.
As we look at other long-range planning needs, academic facilities must also be considered. Our 10-year capital improvement plan includes proposals for two new academic buildings we would like the legislature to support in future sessions. Over the next two years, Provost King will work with the colleges to assess needs and priorities for space and to determine programmatic emphases and design needs for these buildings.
Terry is one of several new leaders at Ball State, and I am delighted to welcome him. Now, I'd like to introduce you to a couple of others, and I'd ask that they stand and be recognized. Ben Hancock, vice president for university advancement, and Larry Gabbert, director of charter schools. I'd also like to recognize Kay Bales. While she is certainly not an unfamiliar face, she has a new title—Vice President for Student Affairs.
At its July meeting, the Ball State Board of Trustees promoted Kay to vice president. This new title rewards Kay for outstanding work as dean of student affairs and better reflects her role as a full participating member of the cabinet. In addition, I believe retention issues demand attention from a vice president. I have asked Kay to lead our retention efforts, and I am confident that she will build a collaborative team from student and academic affairs to strengthen existing programs and institute new ways to engage students in curricular and co-curricular activities so important to their persistence.
Her team will benefit from the 36-page Retention Task Force Report released this summer. A committee of 32, ably chaired by Alan Hargrave and representing faculty and staff from every college, the provost's office, and student affairs, examined closely the freshman experience. Their 41 recommendations address a broad range of issues—course scheduling, advising, assessment, co-curricular and extra curricular experiences—where changes could result in enhanced retention. These recommendations will be discussed, evaluated, and, where appropriate, implemented this year.
As we think about ways to improve the quality of life for our students as a part of retention issues, we must also be conscious of our own quality of life and personal health. On a personal level, we want all of you to lead healthy, happy, productive, and long lives.
According to statistics from our health insurance administrator, Key Benefits, we could do more to take better care of ourselves. More than 37 percent of the Ball State employees or family members covered by our plan have been diagnosed with chronic medical conditions, compared to just less than 20 percent for the other group plans Key Benefits administers. Look even further. Health experts advise diabetics to follow seven steps annually to control their condition, but only five percent of the diabetics covered by Ball State's plan are following this advice. More than 22 percent of those covered by our plan have high cholesterol—a controllable condition, but one that can lead to serious problems.
If these statistics and our desire for you to be healthy are not motivation enough, consider the financial costs of poor health. Each of us covered by a university health care plan pays 25 percent of our total premium. For four consecutive years, those premiums rose 16 percent for our PPO plan and 24 percent for the traditional plan. This year, a combination of changes to those plans and a stabilization of rates resulted in seven and eight percent increases for our PPO and traditional plans, respectively, and the university is also offering two new health care options that may help some of us save money. But think about what curbing double-digit premium increases could mean. You could have more money to spend on the things you need or want, and the university could be better able to dedicate resources to salary increases and other needs.
To truly combat rising costs, and enhance the vitality of our university community, we must all commit to leading healthier lifestyles. Encouraging a commitment to healthier living is the mission of a wellness and health enhancement initiative we would like to formulate for Ball State employees, retirees, and their families.
A standing committee comprising our benefits professionals and faculty experts from physiology and health sciences, the Fisher Institute for Wellness and Gerontology, the Human Performance Lab, recreation programs, nursing, and family and consumer sciences have worked with an external consultant to outline a new initiative.
A larger advisory committee with representatives from all employee constituent groups is also being planned. But because what we hope to achieve is a cultural shift toward healthier living, this planning process cannot be relegated to two committees.
The standing committee will hold focus groups around campus to seek additional input on how we should proceed, and I would encourage you to become engaged in this process. The issue of incentives to increase participation in the initiative will be part of the focus group discussions.
We will be communicating more details about the wellness initiative proposal in the near future. I believe it is extremely important for us to commit to healthier living, and our best ambassadors for change are you. We all need to encourage each other to change our unhealthy habits and to take advantage of the campus resources available to reduce tobacco usage, increase exercise, improve eating habits, and get the most out of our health care plans.
You, our students, and this university's supporters and friends all provide a wealth of good ideas for improving Ball State. During the freshman convocation last fall, I offered any freshman student a free lunch, so long as they made an appointment to meet with me and brought along at least four of their friends. I will repeat this offer on Sunday. As a side note, I am pleased that Garfield creator Jim Davis will speak at the convocation.
Sharing ideas about the direction of Ball State is important. During the past academic year, I met with each college as a group, following on the heels of my first year during which I met with each department. I will continue to meet with the colleges as well as deans and department heads this year.
I particularly enjoyed the conversations held over breakfast at Bracken House, and I look to build upon the 13 breakfasts attended by 163 faculty members this past year. I trust this year's breakfasts will again allow me to learn more about your areas of expertise and your interests and concerns about the university.
No matter where my meetings with you take place, I always discover new reasons to be excited about Ball State's present and future, and these meetings confirm my belief that Ball State is blessed with a dynamic faculty, passionately engaged in scholarship and teaching.
It was Ralph Waldo Emerson who said, "Passion, though a bad regulator, is a powerful spring." Through cooperative, collaborative engagement, we can determine which ideas borne out of your passion offer the university a powerful spring forward in our efforts to provide the best possible education for our students. I am inspired by your passion, your creativity, your tireless initiative, and it is because of you that I am so proud to lead Ball State University.
Whether it's across Indiana or across the country, I can carry the Ball State banner with pride and share impressive stories of success because of you. This academic year arrives with great promise, and I am confident that you will not rest until that promise is realized. It is because of you that we can boldly and proudly assert that we are Ball State University. Education Redefined. Thank you, and have a great year.
