Alongside the rest of the Village Revitalization Project, construction on the Center for Innovation building has begun. To celebrate the foundations of the building being laid, many community, faculty and staff members came together for a beam signing ceremony.  

All were welcome to attend the ceremony and listen to remarks from President Mearns, Provost Dr. Anand R. Marri, and George and Frances Ball Distinguished Professor of Multimedia Journalism Dr. Palilonis. After these remarks, each attendee had the chance to sign the beam and leave their mark on the new building.  

“I had a vision of our University providing a location like this one to facilitate greater interactions between our faculty, staff, and students and the people and companies in our community that want to engage with them,” said President Mearns in a quote via press release. “When the Center opens, we will empower more people—our faculty and staff, students, graduates, neighbors and friends—to see themselves as innovators, in their own way.” 

The Center for Innovation will serve as a collaborative environment for many groups on and off campus to work on innovative projects. One of these groups is Information Technology’s Digital Corps.  

The Digital Corps will be taking over a majority of one of the three floors. These updated spaces will encourage students and staff to collaborate and give them the chance to work with a new part of campus.  

“The Digital Corps is thrilled to be tapped as a key partner in the new Center for Innovation and and Collaboration,” said Associate Vice President for Information Technology Strategy and Creative Innovation Brandon Smith. “Moving into this new space is exciting, but the opportunities opened up for the Ball State campus and for East Central Indiana through new, innovative partnerships are even more powerful. We can’t wait to get started!” 

Each Digital Corps staff member attended the beam signing ceremony and of course turned ink into signature onto the beam.