Spring 2020 has come to an end! As we are wrapping up this very unusual semester and our first full month of remote working, we thought we’d interrupt your day with some good news. We hope you don’t mind.

Faculty

  • CICS’ Dr. Dennis Trinkle and Dr. Steve Jones are participating in the Governor’s Broadband Roundtable to address the many broadband issues related to the COVID-19 threat. In the current situation, access to broadband is critical in many areas. The task force meets weekly to provide solutions especially in areas where access is a challenge, and to make sure that all Hoosiers have access necessary for work, school, and health.
  • As a response to the COVID-19 stay-at-home orders that shuttered schools across the country, Laura Widmer, executive director at the National Scholastic Press Association/Associated Collegiate Press organized a National Town Hall for student journalists still working to cover the pandemic from their homes. Lisa Renze-Rhodes  (Journalism) was one of three panelists who participated in the first Pacemaker Master Class presentations. Nearly 400 high school and college students from around the country took part. Read key takeouts from the session here.
  • Dr. Jenn Palilonis (Journalism) won an Immersive Learning Faculty Award for the David Letterman Learning Experience. Skip to 5:50 of this video to hear about the project.
  • Telecommunication faculty Mike Gerhard‘s Music and Memory virtual visits initiative was featured on WISH-TV and RTV6.
  • Communication Studies Dr. Peggy Fisher‘s Immersive Learning with St. Mary’s Church was featured in the Ball State online Magazine.

Students

  • The Ball State Debate Team participated in an online tournament on April 10. 45 students from 7 schools took part in the event. There were no sweepstakes awards that ranks schools, but we had all of our Rapid Fire debaters place in the top 10 of their divisions, our 3 debaters occupied each of the top three spots.
  • PR graduate student Becca Schriner and undergraduate student Melisa Kraman won 3rd place in Arthur W. Page Society’s case study competition. Their case study was on the Southwest Airlines Flight 1380 crisis and this research was a part of Dr. YoungAh Lee’s graduate PR case studies class.
  • Ball State AAF NSAC team placed 3rd at Districts. This year 13 teams participated including Purdue, Purdue NW, Michigan State, Illinois, Indiana, Grand Valley State University and Marion. The competition is a year-long project that Ball State AAF participates in every year, and the committee of the students is quite amazing — especially when we had to finish the plans books and give a pitch remotely. This year’s client was Adobe Experience Cloud for Advertising and it was a business to business campaign.
  • Communication Studies graduate student Mylie Brennan was named as a Fulbright Fellow. The 3-year grant will fund her PhD program at Queen’s University Belfast in Northern Ireland. Read her story here.

Alumni

  • TCOM production alumnus Jeremy Fliss was part of the team who brought the “Unity Animation” to life. The beating heart animation is projected every night on the buildings surrounding Monument Circle in Indianapolis as a sign of hope and overcoming COVID-19. Jeremy’s team developed the playback system, projection, sound, and lighting.

CCIM Units & Organizations

  • One Ball State Day was held on April 7 and it was one for the books! We received a great amount of support via record-breaking donations and heartwarming CCIM stories shared on social media. The day was also filled with friendly but fierce competitions that resulted in CCIM units placing at the top of several leaderboards. See the highlights of the day here.
  • In collaboration with the Office of Undergraduate Admissions, our college started offering Virtual Visits to admitted and prospective students. 3 sessions are scheduled every week; COMM on Weds at 11:30 am/ TCOM on Thurs at 11 am/ JOUR on Thurs at 2 pm. Interested students can register here.
  • In lieu of its traditional screening at Pruis Hall, The Frog Baby Film Festival was presented online using YouTube Live on April 3. The program included the screening of twenty films written, directed and produced by students, and the award ceremony. Awards were bestowed in 13 categories including “Best of Festival” that went to Cold Creek. If you missed the livestream, you can watch the amazing work created by our students here.
  • Every year, Sports Video Group (SVG) holds a series of “executive level” panels on sports production.  With the event going virtual this year, Sports Link was asked if they could handle producing/editing the series of 60-minute plus episodes. The staff agreed this was a way to give back to both the industry and the SVG for their on-going support. Most of the work was done by graduate assistant Adrian Jarding.
  • The McKinley Avenue Agency free ads program launched to help Muncie-based restaurants affected by the COVID-19 threat was highlighted on Inside Indiana Business Live.

New launches

  • We are happy to present What Happens After CCIM?—a new interview series featuring our amazing alumni. Interviewees reflect on their time at Ball State, the Professors who made a lasting impact on them, and walk us through their professional journey. A new spotlight will be released every Wednesday. See the content series here.
  • Transatlantic Storytelling is an immersive learning, global storytelling project between students at Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana and Cardiff Metropolitan University in Cardiff, Wales. Sports Link launched www.transatlanticstorytelling.com, an “official” home for content where you will find quality blog posts, photo galleries and video promos. More content will be added each week.
  • Cardinal Compass: Campus and Community Conversations made its debut on Indiana Public Radio and WIPB-TV. In this program, President Mearns and his guests take the audience behind the scenes of the evolving relationship between Ball State University and Muncie. The show is produced, hosted and edited by CCIM students as part of an immersive-learning project led by Terry Heifetz. Watch the first episode here.
  • St. Mary Catholic Church: The series of videos created by CCIM students as part of an immersive learning led by Peggy Fisher can be found at this link.

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