Latest

Posted on

Contribute to the MCS Strategic Plan

Muncie residents have been invited by Muncie Community Schools (MCS) Superintendent Steven Baule to contribute to the development of MCS’s strategic plan.

Starting in February, Muncie residents may participate in up to five focus groups to hear preliminary plans and provide feedback. You do not have to have a child in the Muncie Community School system to participate.

The focus groups will be held at the Anthony Administration Building, Boardroom #4, 6:30 p.m. on the following dates:

Student Services, Support & Safety
Curriculum & Instruction
Finance & Facilities
Human Resources & Professional Development
Communications & Family Engagement		 Wednesday, February 17, 2016
Monday, February 29, 2016
Monday, March 7, 2016
Monday, March 14, 2016
Thursday, March 10, 2016

“We welcome and strongly encourage you to be a member of one of our focus groups; your role as a focus group member is critical to this process,” said Dr. Baule. “Thank you in advance for your willingness to serve our students and school corporation in this capacity.”

Posted on

Beech Grove Cemetery Book & Phone App – Fall 2015

Beech Grove Cemetery holds many wonderful stories about the people who came from Muncie and made contributions as state, national and international citizens.  Muncie’s Beech Grove Cemetery Board asked Ball State students to create a book to document these stories and to transfer that content into a walking tour that would allow visitors to access that information via smartphones.   Students gained experience in historical research, technical, and public writing.  The students were responsible for conducting research, identifying themes, designing interpretation, and selecting stories for the book and app.

Learn more from the project video:

Posted on

City-wide Preservation Plan for Muncie – Fall 2015

Muncie – like many Midwest industrial communities – is recovering from the recent recession and the resulting blight. According to research completed by Ball State’s historic preservation graduate students, the cities that are making the best recoveries are those with strategies that combine historic preservation and city planning to enact redevelopment efforts based on strategic demolitions, rehabilitations, targeted code enforcement and land banking. They have two major strategies in common: data collection and good preservation plans. Through this immersive learning project, Ball State students led by Faculty Mentor Susan Lankford, participated in ScoutMuncie, a data collection and historic resources survey initiated by Muncie’s Historic Preservation and Rehabilitation Commission. The students used this data, information gathered through a series of community meetings, and their own research to prepare a preservation plan that will guide the Commission’s efforts to preserve our history and use our historic resources to increase quality of life, strengthen our sense of place, and ensure our Sustainability.

Check out their video to learn more:

Posted on

The Many Faces of Muncie – Fall 2015

People make Muncie tick.  This city was built and continues to run because of complex, interesting, fascinating people.  This project celebrates the lives of everyday Muncie residents and their contributions to the economy, history, diversity and culture of this community, focusing on telling the stories of their lives and their professions.  By spending time with these people, the Ball State students and their Telecommunications Faculty Mentor, Suzy Smith, were able to shed light on what it takes to create a diverse, steadfast and strong-willed community.

Posted on

Muncie Meth Task Force Survey – Fall 2015

The Muncie Meth Task Force is a diverse group of individuals representing housing providers, the health and wellness fields, the city of Muncie, local foundations, and the neighborhoods that are working to find solutions to the issues related to Meth in the community. There are a variety of focus groups and interviews being conducted by consultants at Indiana Resource and Prevention Center out of Indiana University. This work is funded by a NeighborWorks grant to PathStone through which the City of Muncie (Community Development) is a partner.  The purpose of the grant is to complete an assessment of the Meth issue in our community and to establish an action plan to deal with Meth issues relevant to housing.  

In this project Melinda Messineo led a group of Ball State students in conjunction with the Muncie Meth Task Force, to gather information about the use of methamphetamines in Muncie and Delaware county, and the reasons behind the possible increase in usage rates. The data will be used to inform intervention programs that the Task Force will be creating over the next year. To gather the data, students communicated with local law enforcement as well as current and former users from the area.

If you would like more information about the Muncie Meth Taskforce, please contact Annette Phillips.