We Fly

By: Eddie Metzger— Muncie, IN—When I was young, I remember crawling around newsroom floors, crumpling wads of paper and tossing them over the cubicle walls of hard-working journalists. I didn’t know then what they were doing or why they were doing it. All I knew was these were good people and they cared about me. They took the time to learn who I was and what made me laugh. Of course, my mom was the editor, so maybe they felt inclined to laugh on behalf of keeping their jobs…but I like to think otherwise. As I grew older, my interest…

By: Lisa Renze-Rhodes— Muncie, IN—Investigative journalist and Ball State alumna Sandra Chapman will share her experiences about a multi-year investigation into childhood cancer occurrences in Johnson County, Indiana, as part of 2019 Sunshine Week activities at the university. The results of Chapman’s work include a decision by the United States Senate to direct $1 million in funding for further investigation into the cancer’s reach in the community, along with continued calls by lawmakers and others for the Environmental Protection Agency to formally investigate the situation in the community. Chapman, a Peabody award winning investigative reporter at WTHR in Indianapolis, joined…

By: Marc Ransford— Muncie, IN— The Department of Economics will host the 2nd Annual T. Norman Van Cott Lecture in Political Economy and Liberty on Thursday, February 21, 2019 at 5:00 p.m. in the Arts & Journalism building, Room 175 on the campus of Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana.  Joseph Butz, Chief Operating Office, Kaiser Permanente, will discuss Free Markets and Health Care. Joseph T. Butz serves as the Chief Operating Officer and Vice President of Delivery System Operations for Kaiser Permanente. In this role, Joe oversees the operations of a $4.3B regional integrated delivery system for a $70B system. Joseph…

By: Nick Werner— Muncie, IN—First Sydney Noland screamed. Then she cried. “I’m sure my downstairs neighbor thought I was out of my mind,” she wrote on her blog. Noland’17, was not out of her mind, but she was overwhelmed with emotion after receiving a text message from a colleague who worked for the Seattle Seahawks. “Guess what? Russell Wilson chose you to design his cleats.” The star quarterback for the Seattle Seahawks drafted Noland,to create a design on his shoes for the NFL’s “My Cause My Cleats Campaign.” The campaign is an effort by players to promote charities and non-profits…

By: Ball State Marketing & Communications— Muncie, Indiana – The potential for subzero weather in the next few days should be taken seriously, says Jill Coleman, a meteorologist at Ball State University. She notes the National Weather Service (NWS) has issued wind chill watch/extreme cold advisory from Tuesday evening through Thursday morning for most of Indiana. The combination of a southward moving continental Arctic air mass combined with moderate-strong sustained wind speeds (about 20 mph) can create dangerously low wind chill values. “To keep the next couple days in perspective, the average temperature in Muncie in January is 27 degrees with…

By: Marc Ransford— Muncie, IN—Three Ball State University online programs finished in the top 25 in national rankings released recently by U.S. News & World Report. Since U.S. News started ranking online programs six years ago, Ball State has always had degrees in the top 25. Those recognized in the 2019 “Best Online Programs” are: 13th – Master of Business Administration (MBA) 13th – Graduate nursing 25th – Bachelor’s degrees Each program improved from its 2018 ranking. The MBA climbed three spots, and the graduate nursing and bachelor’s offerings jumped 10 spots, respectively. The report also recognized the university as…

By: Sheryl Swingley— Muncie, IN—Veteran journalist Gene Policinski, who is president and chief operating officer of the Freedom Forum Institute in Washington, D.C., will speak at 8 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 23, in Cardinal Hall of the Student Center at Ball State University. The title of Policinski’s presentation is “The Real Threats to a Free Press: Bodies, Bytes and Benign Neglect.” Policinski’s presentation is part of Ball State University’s Department of Journalism’s 50th anniversary celebration and the university’s 100th anniversary. Ball State recognized Policinski’s accomplishments in 1996 with its Distinguished Alumni Award. He also is a 1991 inductee of the Ball…