People who came to the announcement of the new president last week were not necessarily among the first at Ball State to meet Jo Ann Gora.
That distinction better fits the members of the women's basketball team. They happened to be having a reception at the Alumni Center at the same time that Gora, then a candidate for Ball State's presidency, decided to visit Muncie for her own inspection of the campus.
At the time, though, Gora was just another face in the crowd. She spoke to people there, she watched clips of the games, and she gave away no secrets.
"We acted like lost parents checking out a campus for an aspiring college student," Gora said. "And we didn't eat any of the food because we had not been invited."
It was one of the last times Gora will be able to step foot on campus without turning some heads. She has gone from an anonymous face at Ball State to the figurehead of the university.
Gora, the chancellor of the University of Massachusetts at Boston, was appointed and introduced by the Board of Trustees as the next president of Ball State University last week, ending a five-month search to replace former president Blaine Brownell.
The day after her appointment, Gora sat down for her first interview in her new role. The first female president of any public institution in Indiana, Gora talked about her goals, the challenges she might face and her ultimate vision for Ball State.
THE GOAL
Gora wants to tell the Ball State story to the entire country.
"I think Ball State does have a good story to tell," Gora said. "It's just we have to learn how to effectively tell that story."
Gora believes that Ball State, considering what it offers its students, doesn't get the recognition that it deserves. She wants to go to high-profile publications such as The Chronicle of Higher Education, U.S. News and World Report to spread the word about Ball State's programs.
"Some of it, frankly, is sheer marketing," Gora said.
Another part of it is athletics. During the interview and her press conference, Gora remarked about how athletics can elevate the visibility of a university.
"Not too many people knew about Boston College before Doug Flutie," Gora said.
And at the press conference, Gora said the potential to create highly-visible athletic programs does exist here at Ball State.
CHALLENGES AHEAD
Gora will take office August 9 as the university begins to look forward to a new school year. Shadows of last year will still linger, though. Before Gora's selection, faculty predicted that the new president would begin her work with an extra burden because of conflict between them and the Board of Trustees. Upperclassmen will be waiting to see whether the new year is better than the last - when they lost two classmates to highly-publicized deaths - or worse. The federal lawsuit resulting from one of those deaths will just be beginning.
But Gora is no stranger to turmoil. She was presiding over UMB when the campus lost $29 million in state funds. Those cuts meant she had to make some cuts of her own in the university's budget. She made enemies along the way. In fact, her first performance review as chancellor of UMB was about to be completed before she took the job at Ball State, and there is speculation that it wouldn't have been favorable.
However, she had many supporters. Multiple faculty members signed a letter praising her for that same review. Gora said she was not worried about it.
"I had absolutely no sign from the trustees or from the president of the system that my performance review would have been anything but positive," Gora said.
However, she said she is leaving UMB because of the absence of William Bulger, former president of the University of Massachusetts. With him, she had created a vision for UMB. When he stepped down, Gora said that vision became difficult to achieve.
"Boston is a very complex political environment," Gora said.
However, that environment should serve her well as she begins to tackle the issues demanding her attention at Ball State.
The rift between the faculty and the Board might be tackled early on.
"One of the first things I want to do when I come on campus is to meet with all of the academic departments individually," Gora said.
Tragedies like the ones suffered by the families of Harford and Michael McKinney, the student shot by a University Police officer in November, will not make Gora chart any new territory. Similar events occurred at Old Dominion University when she first arrived, and other universities in Boston have been dealing with tragedies of their own.
"Big universities are like little cities," Gora said. "When you have this many people and this much activity going on and this much complexity, bad things happen to good people."
Gora told the audience at Tuesday's press conference that she wants to meet with the Harford and McKinney families now that she has taken the job.
A NEW START
Gora will bring her new husband Roy Budd, who works in workforce and economic development, with her to Muncie when she moves into Bracken House. The two were married on New Year's Eve 2003. Their children, Jesse Gora, who lives in Salt Lake City, and Tiffany Budd, who lives in Raleigh, N.C., will soon be visiting, she hopes.
"I told them that they had to come visit us," Gora said.
And when Gora returns, she likely won't blend in as well as she did when she first came in. She is no longer another face in the crowd. She is the face that represents the crowd. And once she begins, she will begin the work that she thinks will make Ball State itself more than just another face in the crowd.
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