With tragedy comes a sense of pride.
The same events that reflected negative images of Ball State on television news shows statewide earlier this year have created a positive feeling for many Ball State students. The Students Speak survey of 151 Ball State students shows respondents are proud to be Ball State students, defend the university to critics and are satisfied with their academic programs. The pride, experts say, traces back to three factors: a shared identity caused by tragedy, personal achievements and a need for a return on the time and energy they have invested in their education.
Chadwick Menning, assistant professor of sociology, said in recent months students have experienced a sense of shared identity as they dealt with the shooting deaths of Michael McKinney and Karl Harford and with the "Police Yourself" campaign. Students feel a need to defend that identity to others, he said.
"Often when some kind of tragedy is experienced by a minority, as long as you share an identity with that minority, people will take that attack or tragedy as experienced by everyone," Menning said.
Students surveyed not only said they were proud of the university, but 51 percent agree they would defend Ball State to its critics.
"It says to me that students who identify with the campus are willing to stand up for themselves and to stand up for others they see as a part of their community," Menning said.
Even if they don't always agree with the university's actions, students find pride in their own accomplishments at Ball State. In the Students Speak poll, 72 percent of students agree that Ball State fulfills their academic expectations. Students are split, however, on whether they would attend Ball State if they were making the decision today.
Sophomore Amber Jordan, for example, is riding the fence on Ball State pride. Jordan, an acquaintance of McKinney, said she has problems with pride because her college experience changed in November.
"I'm proud to be a Ball State student, because I'm proud of my accomplishments," Jordan said. "But, I don't exactly enjoy what's going on on-campus. I think it's pretty messed up right now, and I don't think people are really helping matters with the 'Police Yourself' campaign."
Menning said the different sources of pride are understandable.
"There are a lot of aspects to college life, and academic experience is a large part of that," he said. "I think most students' experience in the classroom probably doesn't hinge too much on whether they are proud to be a Cardinal. It may to some extent depend more on solidarity."
Melinda Messineo, assistant professor of sociology, said that over time pride in academic achievement can affect how people feel about an institution.
"I feel the majority of students associate pride with their academic experience," she said.
If students are split on whether they would pick Ball State if given a second chance, they also are split on whether they would consider leaving it. Of those who answered the poll, 52 percent say they have not thought about leaving Ball State and 43 percent say they have.
"The student response reflects that they have invested time and energy in this institution, and while they may disagree with aspects of the institution, in order to validate their investment, they support it," Messineo said. "It makes more sense to embrace the institution to validate the time and energy students have invested."
Students don't want to invest anything into an institution where they find conflicts with their values, she said. If students feel so critically about an institution, eventually it would make more sense to move on, she said.
"In light of current events, people can separate the positive aspects of the institution from the negative," Messineo said. "They recognize the peripheral nature of the events in the large picture of the institution as a whole.
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