Ball State students say the university's reputation has taken a hit this year, but they retain their pride in the institution.
Eight in 10 participants in the Students Speak survey of 151 students say Ball State's image has been tarnished in recent months.
"No institution could go through what we've gone through and not have its reputation tarnished," Acting President Beverley Pitts said. "We're bigger and stronger than the immediate difficulties we've had. We'll survive this."
The feeling that Ball State's image has suffered can be attributed to a series of events that included the shooting deaths of Michael McKinney in November and Karl Harford in March, Pitts said.
Junior Nick Koesters worries that the deaths have overshadowed Ball State's academic successes.
"When people talk about Ball State anymore, they're not talking about the great educational programs they have," he said. "People are talking about the deaths of Harford and McKinney."
The events have made for "a very unique, challenging and somewhat difficult year for Ball State," said Dean of Students Randy Hyman.
Other universities have experienced widespread tragedies in recent decades, he said. Among them, a bonfire collapse that killed 12 Texas A&M students in 1999, student deaths traced to alcohol at Louisiana State University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the mid-1990s, and a series of grisly murders that occurred in off-campus neighborhoods at the University of Florida in 1991.
"I don't think in the long run those tragedies have hurt the reputations of those universities any more than what's happened here will ultimately hurt our reputation," Hyman said.
Koesters said Ball State's reputation has been a running joke between him and friends.
"I feel it's been tarnished greatly," he said. "When I go home on the weekends, my friends in Ohio ask, 'So, was someone stabbed this weekend?' and I have to answer 'yes' sometimes."
Hyman said the university has responded "effectively, appropriately and sensitively" to students and to people immediately affected by the tragedies.
Seventy nine percent of respondents to the Students Speak survey say they agree with the statement, "Friends who do not attend Ball State ask me what in the hell is going on here." Similarly, 64 percent say their families are concerned about their safety.
Questions from families of Ball State students, and from all over the state and region are expected with tragedy and subsequent media coverage, Pitts said.
"Any time you're on a campus and there's a murder, you're going to get that," she said.
Pitts said she did not want to be flippant about tragedy, but that it is not undermining the institution's strength.
"The university has a very strong obligation to address directly any misconceptions and reality," she said. "Tragedies occurred. Every student's life and experience at Ball State is going on anyway."
If students have negative feelings about Ball State's reputation, they still feel great pride in the institution. Seventy two percent of respondents say the university has fulfilled their academic expectations, while 63 percent say they are proud to be Ball State students.
"With classes and all, everything's met my expectations," Koesters said.
A majority of students do not second-guess their decision to attend Ball State. Fifty one percent of students surveyed say they would choose Ball State again today if given the choice.
"I get the right education here," freshman Kenny DePaola said. "Of course I do, or I wouldn't be here."
Pitts said all students and faculty are looking forward to a release from academic rigors as summer sets in.
"One of the greatest things of the university experience is renewal," Pitts said, "and I think probably it is good for us to have the summer to recover."
In other findings of note from the Student Speaks survey:
- 62 percent of students say they do not party less because of the university's "Police Yourself" educational campaign
- 63 percent say they are not more hesitant to drink now than they were at the start of the school year
- 80 percent say they feel safe on campus
- 80 percent say they would not stay in Muncie even if they found satisfying jobs
- 80 percent say they would not want to raise a family in Muncie
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