BSU president unveils 'risky' strategic plan

MUNCIE – After warming up the crowd with alma mater and fight songs performed by The Statesmen, a male-voice student choir, Ball State University President Paul Ferguson stepped onto the stage of Emens Auditorium and out of the shadow of predecessor Jo Ann Gora on Friday afternoon.

He presented a new, less "generic" vision statement; a "refreshed" strategic plan that "will embrace risk" and "expect failure;" $50,000 out of his own pocket to start a scholarship fund to reward students driven by entrepreneurial beneficence; and plans to increase revenue through enrollment growth.

Ferguson closed his one-hour State of the University talk with another surprise when he raised the back stage curtain and invited hundreds of faculty, staff and students to join him for refreshments and live jazz music.

"He's open to input," professor Bruce Frankel commented after the speech. "He's not a top-down manager."

Ball State's on-campus enrollment, including undergraduate and graduate students, has been declining as the university continues its emphasis on quality rather than quantity. Last fall, that enrollment was 17,005, the lowest since 2008 when it dipped below 17,000 to 16,901.

Ferguson, who has retained an enrollment management consultant, will push for a 20-percent increase in graduate student enrollment and a 35-percent increase in fully online student enrollment. With declining state support, enrollment growth is one way to increase revenue. Ferguson also will back plans to increase research funding.

After 7 months of consulting with faculty, trustees, students and others, the new president concluded that Ball State's current vision is "too generic for us. Ball State wants to lead the pack ... "

The university aspires in the new vision "to be a model of the most student-oriented and community-engaged of the 21st Century public research universities transforming entrepreneurial learners into impactful leaders committed to improving quality of life."

"That's what we're doing now,' Ferguson said. "Ball State is so far ahead in this model ... We will embrace risk ... and we will fail. But failing is OK as long as you learn from it."

The new vision remains a proposal about which Ferguson told the crowd at Emens he would love to receive email feedback.

The old vision was: "We seek to become recognized for providing bright and curious students a holistic learning experience that occurs both in and out of the classroom; for being relentlessly focused on learning outcomes; for embracing and solving today's greatest educational challenges; and for bringing fresh and pragmatic thinking to the problems facing communities, businesses, and governments in Indiana and beyond."

Quoting organizational researcher John Seely Brown, Ferguson said 21st century schools need to be whitewater rafts with the agility to "traverse whatever direction or waves the environment dictates," not plodding, 20th century steamships moving at a consistent speed in the same direction.

That's an interesting analogy considering the fact that when Ferguson was hired in May, Rick Hall, chairman of the university's board of trustees, called him the "experienced captain" needed to steer Ball State into "a cloudy future." Ferguson was president of the University of Maine when BSU hired him.

Hall also had said Ferguson's administration would be "evolutionary," not "revolutionary," because Ball State is already "in great shape."

Ferguson recalled Hall's comments on Friday, noting that evolutionary means "we will be different in three to five years."

The "refreshed" and "refocused" strategic plan is being called "The Centennial Commitment, Embracing the Ball State Legacy of Beneficence and Entrepreneurship," aka "18 by 18." Ball State will celebrate its 100th anniversary in 2018, and the new plan condenses more than 100 strategies down to 18.

The plan's leadership team is co-chaired by Ferguson, senior adviser Julie Hopwood and Mike Goldsby, distinguished professor of management/entrepreneuership. The team, which has 21 members, not 18, includes mostly Ball State faculty and staff but also a student and a community member — BSU graduate Micah Maxwell, director of the Muncie Boys and Girls Club.

Strategies include re-allocation of $3 million to be awarded to faculty to make their departments more entrepreneurial; increased funding for faculty travel; scholarships to be awarded annually to the 18 most entrepreneurial seniors whose final year of tuition will be free; presidential round table discussions with students, faculty and staff; completing phase one of Greek Village; increasing the number of international and out-of-state students, who pay more tuition than in-state students; and increasing research funding by 125 percent.

While the "state of the university" remains "healthy, strong and robust," Ferguson intends to steer the raft "to the next level."

Contact Seth Slabaugh at (765) 213-5834.