Ball State University's Bowen Center for Public Affairs will train community members and officials to be better public servants like Otis R. Bowen, former governor of Indiana.
The center, co-directed by Raymond Scheele and Sally Jo Vasicko, will include an Institute for Public Service, a Bureau for Policy Research and the Bowen Institute on Political Participation, Scheele said.
At the Bowen Institute, a two-day seminar for Indiana citizens, on March 23, President Jo Ann Gora announced the creation of the Bowen Center and Bowen's contribution of papers from his public service to Bracken Library, Scheele said.
"What President Gora introduced on [March 23] is the creation of the Bowen Center which will include a training division for both state and local levels," he said.
The Bureau for Policy Research plans to conduct research seeking the current needs of the public and working to address those needs, according to a press release from the university.
The Institute for Public Service will provide a series of training sessions to condition members of Indiana's state, local and county governments, the release said.
The Bowen Institute on Public Participation was started in 1981 and is named after Bowen in recognition of all that he has done for Indiana, according to the Ball State Web site.
"After Bowen left the governorship in 1981, John and Janice Fisher, CEOs of Ball Corporation, wanted to support financially something that would honor Bowen," Scheele said.
There are 20 students a year, as well as a number of community members, that are given the opportunity to go to the Bowen Institute on Political Participation held every year at The Westin Hotel in Indianapolis, he said.
While at the institute, students learn about skill development and government politics, as well as interact with groups from political parties, Scheele said.
"In the future we look to also hold an institute in Northern Indiana as well as possibly opening the institute up for high school students," he said.
The papers from Bowen's past roles throughout Indiana that were released to the Bracken Library are being held in the Archive's Special Collection, Scheele said.
John Straw, director at the Archives Special Collections Research Center, said the papers are important documents that have been signed by many influential people.
"The thing I found most interesting in the collection of papers was a cartoon that President Reagan had drawn of a man running against him for president," Straw said.
The Bowen papers collection is a permanent collection and we hope to eventually get part of them digitized and online, said Straw. There will also be an exhibit online of photographs from the collection until June 29.
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