Virginia Ball dedicated her life to connecting the community and Ball State University. She died in 2003, but her legacy lives on in the community and at Ball State.
In 1999, Ball donated $2 million to fund a building on campus that was named after her - , the Virginia B. Ball Center for Creative Inquiry - and carries on her tradition of bringing education and the community together.
The university is investigating an X-rated film that was shot on Ball State property where the center is under a contract signed by the university. The filmmaker, a Muncie native, released the film in question, "Vampire Diaries," on Friday.
A well-regarded center is now linked to an X-rated movie.
The film is a "horror porn" movie that focuses on a college student who "finds herself enwrapped in a world of sexual exploration in the offbeat and safe world of College." Ball was interested in tying the offbeat and safe world - otherwise known as the university - to the community through education.
The idea of college being a safe place for sexual exploration has no place in Ball and her center's goals for the university.
Though no one is sure whether the university or the film production company is to blame for the film being shot on campus, one thing is certain. Virginia B. Ball - who stood for community, students and education - and her legacy have been pulled into this controversy.
The Center for Creative Inquiry continues Ball's work, through four interdisciplinary seminars that create a major product for the community, such as a book, exhibit or even a film.
The films the seminars create are not in the pornographic genre, and it's safe to say Ball would have scoffed at a film with such content being shot on campus imagined before her death likely didn't involve past community members desecrating the university and the building that carries her name.
Beyond the obvious contradictions, this issue also brings to light other problems and questions. Whether or not the university meant for it to happen, somehow a movie with questionable content was shot on campus.
Until the university investigates the situation more in depth, blame can't be placed on anyone's shoulders. Regardless of blame, the questionable content that was shot on campus has brought Virginia B. Ball and her legacy into a controversy that never should have occurred in the first place.
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