The cars around campus seem to disperse and disappear every weekend, but it's not quite clear where they go.
Drivers might be going home, to have a home-cooked meal and a night in a familiar bed, or to a nearby campus to party with old high school friends. Or they might just be moving to a closer parking spot to shorten the walk from the front door to the car door.
As this year wraps up, a year with violent student deaths, a major lawsuit, an FBI investigation and a crackdown by the Muncie Police, some people have worried aloud if Ball State will become what's known as a suitcase campus, where students pack up and go somewhere else because they don't want to stay.
However, the Students Speak poll shows that only 15 percent of students say they leave Muncie once a week. The plurality of students, 38 percent, say they rarely leave. Those numbers suggest the critics are wrong, and that Ball State has a chance to build a safer, closer-knit community, and benefit financially from students' good memories of college.
Dean of Students Randy Hyman was not surprised by the results of the Students Speak poll. He said Ball State is less of a suitcase campus than it has ever been.
"It's a term that gets tossed around that is very rarely substantiated," Hyman said. "It's really based on kind of anecdotal observation."
Ed Shipley, executive director of Alumni Programs, said Ball State was more of a suitcase campus when he was a student in the late 60s. When he was at Ball State, he said, even the dining halls shut down on the weekends.
"We closed things up as a university," Shipley said. "We didn't serve dinner on Friday nights."
Shipley said a suitcase campus is bad for a university that wants to maintain good alumni relations. Typically, alumni who donate to the university are the ones who remember having good times at Ball State. Often, those good times involve activities outside of the classroom.
Kay Bales, associate vice president for Student Affairs, said Ball State wants to attract students who want a full collegiate experience because administrators want to offer their students that kind of atmosphere.
"I think that for students to fully evolve and acquire many of the life skills we have students graduate with," Bales said, "part of that is taking advantage of, and being involved in, many of the out-of-class activities."
Bales did not say there is anything particularly wrong with being a suitcase campus, but students have to find a place that fits their needs. Even students who do not want to spend the weekends on campus, such as non-traditional students, can find a good fit at Ball State, Bales said.
"Many of them are working full-time jobs and already are immersed in their career," Bales said. "We can fit the needs of those students as well."
When Bales speaks to most prospective students, she said, they often ask about activities that are available for their free time. Through those inquiries, she has come to expect that students want to be a part of campus.
Hyman said keeping students on campus during the weekends has as much to do with the way students view the town as it does with views toward the university.
"A lot of our students become involved or engaged with the university early on," Hyman said. "Those connections allow them to make connections. "
Those connections can help the students gain social capital, Chadwick Menning, assistant professor of sociology said. Social capital is created when people get to know each other and become more familiar and friendlier with each other.
"People not only know each other but feel comfortable giving each other stuff," Menning said.
An increase in social capital can lead to benefits such as lower crime rates.
"There are tons of positive effects of having lots of people in your network," he said said.
People are already pretty good at creating friendship networks, Menning said, but he suggested the university could spend more time advertising organizations that students could become involved in on the weekends.
"I'm not sure that all students know that those opportunities exist," Menning said. "There are lots and lots of groups that people could belong to."
Once more people become involved, according to Menning and Shipley, Ball State could become a stronger institution because of the good will of the community and the financial donations of alumni.
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