Anderson-Madison County Chamber of Commerce Annual Dinner

Keynote Remarks for President Jo Ann Gora
Thursday, Sept. 10, 2009, 6:30 p.m.; Anderson Country Club, Anderson, Ind.

Good evening to all of you. It's a great pleasure to be with you today for your organization's annual dinner.

I want to congratulate the businesses and individuals who were honored a few moments ago, especially Michael Montgomery for his Character in Business Award. Mike is a 1978 Ball State graduate in architecture, and his wife and three of his children also have graduated from Ball State University. I met Mike at an alumni function here in Anderson two years ago, and it's always an added bonus for me on occasions like this to meet successful alumni who give back to their community.

But Mike and his family certainly are not the only people with Ball State connections here in Madison County. I know many of you here tonight are well aware of what's going on at our campus in Muncie, and I will allow some time at the end of my remarks for questions from you.

Before we get to your questions, however, let me highlight some of our recent accomplishments at Ball State—and let me do so by addressing an important issue. As I travel around the state speaking to groups like this one, I am often asked about leadership and how we at colleges and universities should develop future leaders for that particular community and for the state of Indiana. My response always centers on encouraging innovation and collaboration. I believe these two characteristics are absolutely essential in the 21st century, and I'm proud to say that they are two hallmarks of a Ball State education.

In fact, innovation and collaboration form the very foundation of Ball State University. It was founded as a unique public-private partnership when the five Ball brothers purchased a teacher-training school during an economic downturn. Our partnership with the Ball family has continued for more than 90 years and has led to a university that offers close to 300 degree programs to more than 20,000 students—quite a return on that original investment.

Innovation and collaboration continue to be strong traditions on our campus, thanks to our faculty and students. All of you know that thinking outside the box continues to pay dividends throughout your working life. As a sociologist, I am well aware of the studies that show that today's college students will change careers—not just jobs, but careers—six or seven times in their lifetimes. Some of those careers will be in professions that we cannot even imagine today, and an innovative outlook is absolutely necessary.

Collaboration is also critical. The best and brightest people—and outstanding organizations like this Chamber of Commerce and the businesses that earned awards a few minutes ago—increasingly recognize that collaboration is the way to consistently compete at the highest level. When we collaborate with others, we draw on their strengths, talents, and abilities, just as they draw on ours. Through that process, we deepen our understanding of diverse ethnic backgrounds, life experiences, and points of view.

This emphasis on innovation and collaboration is why we have made immersive learning the cornerstone of Ball State's strategic plan. Immersive learning pairs an interdisciplinary group of Ball State students with a faculty mentor to work on a project with a community partner. These students develop real-world solutions to real-world problems. This is truly a win-win situation, which is the reason that our strategic plan calls for us to offer immersive learning opportunities to every undergraduate student by 2012. We're making great progress. In the last academic year, more than 2,700 of our students from 35 academic departments and all seven of our colleges completed 160 immersive learning projects. In just two years, we have increased by more than 1,000 the number of undergraduates participating in immersive learning.

Over and over again, students tell me that these projects give them valuable experience that teaches them much about themselves and prepares them for the world of collaboration and constant change that they will enter after graduation. And as I visit with leaders of communities, businesses, and other organizations around the state, they praise our student teams and the guidance and support they provide for their organization's future.

Let me give you just three examples involving partners here in Madison County. Two of them also involve Building Better Communities, which is our office on campus that provides the doorway to connect Ball State faculty and students with community partners throughout the state. Last year, we completed BBC projects in more than 60 Indiana counties.

One immersive learning project involving this county attracted statewide attention this spring. Perhaps you saw coverage of the Indiana Senate resolution to name sugar cream pie as the official "Hoosier pie." Now I know that some media coverage described that resolution as, shall we say, light and fluffy. But here's the underlying reality—in this calendar year, the Indiana Restaurant Association is projecting that customers will spend more than $8 billion in Indiana restaurants. Food tourism is a big industry, and studies show that it holds its own in difficult economic times because people who may have planned an expensive vacation to a distant destination stay closer to home but still want something memorable and unique. So the "Hoosier pie" resolution was one viable way for our state to promote culinary tourism and tap into this huge revenue stream.

And that resolution was just one small outcome from an immersive learning group that worked on several culinary trails over the past two years. The 24 students, representing five colleges and 12 majors, worked with the Indiana Foodways Alliance, based in Fishers, to identify culinary assets around the state, starting with nine counties along I-69, from Indianapolis north to the Michigan state line. Of course, Madison County is included in that range, and the students identified seven establishments for inclusion on the trail: Bonge's Tavern, Cabbage Rose Eatery, Gene's Root Beer Drive-In, Good's Candy Shop, the Lemon Drop Restaurant, New Day Meadery, and Real Hacienda.

Profiles and price ranges for these establishments are included on the Web site the group created, www.indianafoodways.com. Also housed there are Google maps of the I-69 trail and several other culinary trails across the state, Hoosier recipes, a calendar of events, and profiles of farmers' markets and organic farms. Students also created several 90- to 180-second video packages, featuring photo stories, slide shows, and a virtual media resource room, which features oral histories about regional foods.

The student team worked to create a regional culinary brand and develop signature events highlighting Hoosier cuisine. They even identified "the five Ps of Indiana food." Besides pie, those are popcorn, peppermints, pork tenderloins, and persimmons. With the students' help, Indiana Foodways is also hosting a series of food workshops featuring regional cuisine. The first was held in Muncie last November and attracted more than 1,000 people who spent more than $24,000 on food items prepared by businesses all around the state.

Another immersive learning project was completed under our Health Fellows program. Students from all across campus and in a variety of majors work on consulting teams to perform health, wellness and safety audits for participating companies, including in the last academic year, Anderson Tool and Engineering. This student team started with a health assessment, screening and survey for the employees, then helped to develop a company wellness committee. The team produced an action plan for the company with several environmental and behavioral programs as steps to improve workers’ health, organizational productivity, and quality of life in the community.

The third example of immersive learning I want to mention is the State of Assault project, completed last fall at the Virginia B. Ball Center for Creative Inquiry. A group of 13 students from nine majors put together a documentary DVD addressing the problems in meeting the needs of sexual assault victims, including interviews and activities to address trends and issues in sexual assault case management.

Working with the Madison County Sexual Assault Treatment Center, the Indianapolis-Marion County Forensic Services Agency, and other regional supporting agencies, the students split up into teams for research, interviewing, and coordination. They hosted a community forum attended by more than 200 people and they produced a documentary that premiered on WIPB in Muncie, centering on assault victims' evolving needs and discussing the DNA backlog that exists in most crime labs, while offering possible solutions for both problems.

That documentary is so impressive, in fact, that it has been nominated for three regional Emmy Awards in the community and public affairs category. In just two days, several members of the team will be at the Great Lakes Region dinner of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences in Cleveland to find out whether they have been selected for the awards; all other finalists are professional news outlets.

Ball State's latest effort to promote innovation and collaboration is our $17.7 million Emerging Media Initiative, which we announced back in December. Over the next five years, we will fund more research in emerging media, assist faculty and students in launching new businesses, and help Indiana companies improve their emerging media capabilities. Our students and faculty have already earned widespread recognition in this field, and that reputation is growing every day.

Within the last four years alone, Ball State has helped 64 companies—37 in Indiana—to be more effective or efficient through emerging media, and we have developed a total of 125 public-private partnerships through our efforts. We are committed to sharing that emerging media expertise with an even wider array of partners and to preparing our students with the latest tools to make meaningful contributions to the 21st century workforce.

Here is one local example. Altairnano, which has a manufacturing facility here in Anderson, was a startup having difficulty describing a new nanotechnology it had developed to extend battery life. In need of a way to visualize and showcase its technology to different audiences, including potential investors and customers, the company turned to Ball State's Institute for Digital Intermedia Arts. The institute produced a three-dimensional animation that illustrates how Altairnano's process works, and that piece has been used to communicate the company's message to important audiences.

I want to note one other area of innovation and collaboration that many of you will identify with closely. Anderson is gaining a statewide and even national reputation for its efforts to diversify its industrial sector, including the attraction of green and high-tech businesses. I know many in this audience have been integral in the efforts to switch from an economy based on traditional manufacturing, especially the automobile industry, to one here in Madison County that includes high-tech and green businesses. This is a process that we are quite familiar with at Ball State.

As you know, Elkhart County has been the subject of national attention because it, too, has been trying to diversify its business sector after decades of economic dependence on the recreational vehicle industry. Among my travels in support of immersive learning this summer, I spent a day in Elkhart County as one of our student teams led discussions about how to create a greener Nappanee. The students there worked with a number of local stakeholders in Elkhart County—the Nappanee mayor and his team; students, teachers, and administrators from the local schools; the Chamber of Commerce; representatives of the two industrial parks in town; and many others. In the process, the students encouraged collaboration and stimulated innovation that will continue long after they complete their project later this month.

In addition to the summit, the students are producing a DVD that summarizes the green planning process and the next steps in the Greener Nappanee initiative, as well as the introduction of an economic redevelopment plan for green business at the town’s two industrial parks, including the reuse of abandoned factory space and the establishment of an education and demonstration laboratory for green initiatives and products. Other project deliverables include a curriculum about sustainability for middle-school teachers and programming of an upcoming Green Week in the local schools; a Green Certificate program, in which the Chamber of Commerce will honor area businesses for their green efforts; and a guide to slow foods that can be used by area restaurants, the schools, and other organizations.

Our students and faculty are comfortable in leading sustainability discussions because Ball State has a long history in this field. I was joined by Senator Richard Lugar for the groundbreaking of our geothermal energy project in May. This project, which aligns so well with our faculty expertise, has attracted national coverage for Ball State and even was cited by Senator Lugar in a Congressional hearing. When the project is completed, we will have demonstrated our dedication to our fiscal and environmental responsibilities. We will save more than $2 million annually, and we will reduce our carbon footprint by nearly half.

So how do we at Ball State know that all this emphasis on innovation and collaboration really makes a difference? We continue to receive positive feedback from our community partners in immersive learning and the Emerging Media Initiative; many of them have become repeat customers. The number of students and faculty participating—as well as the number of community partners—increases with each year.

Here is more positive reinforcement. To fully implement our vision of collaboration and innovation, we kicked off our national capital campaign, Ball State Bold, one year ago last week. The campaign will raise $200 million by 2011, and its components mirror our strategic plan objectives, centered on immersive learning. Despite the difficult economic conditions since we announced the campaign, we already are more than 88 percent of the way toward our goal, thanks to the support of Ball State alumni, parents, trustees, and friends.

I firmly believe that an important test for any university is how it is meeting the needs of the general public, and our efforts in immersive learning and emerging media provide proof that we at Ball State are meeting that test. The innovation and collaboration displayed by our students and faculty as they provide exemplary service to the citizens of Indiana is why I am proud to be Ball State's president and to represent the university at events like this.

My congratulations to the award winners this evening and to all of you in this Chamber of Commerce for your collaborative and innovative efforts here in Madison County. And now, we have a few minutes remaining, so I'd be happy to take any questions you may have about Ball State.