10. Nate Davis forgoes senior season to enter NFL Draft
After setting nearly every passing record at Ball State and leading them to an undefeated regular season in 2008 and two straight bowl games, quarterback Nate Davis took a page out of former coach Brady Hoke's book. Davis announced January 14 he would skip his senior season and enter the NFL Draft. He was named the Mid-American Conference Offensive Player of the Year after passing for 3,591 yards and 26 touchdowns. He was chosen by the San Francisco 49ers in the fifth round with the 171st overall pick. Davis left Ball State with 9,233 passing yards and 74 touchdowns.
9. Indiana DOE debates changes to teaching licenses
State Superintendant of Public Instruction Tony Bennett and the Department of Education propose changes to Indiana educator licensing rules to attract professionals to careers in teaching during the summer. The news sent shockwaves through the Ball State Teachers College as faculty and students protested the proposal, including attending hearings in Indianapolis throughout the Fall Semester.
8. Three Ball State coaches get fired in one semester
Self-reported NCAA violations led to the termination of 21-year women's tennis coach Kathy Bull on Oct. 20. Among the violations reported was Bull asking players to misreport the amount of practice time they had. Athletics Director Tom Collins decided not to renew the contracts of field hockey coach Annette Payne and soccer coach Michael Lovett. Payne failed to win a MAC championship in seven years and won a combined six games in the previous two seasons. Lovett was fired after the soccer team failed to make the MAC Tournament for the first time in nearly a decade. In his two seasons as coach, Lovett was 13-23-2.
7. SGA election scandal
Student Government Association Election Code violations led to the resignation of the winning slate Cardinal Impact's treasurial candidate Cody Willis and campaign manager Kyle Ellis, a former employee of the Daily News. While collecting the mandatory signatures for a slate to qualify to run for election, Willis failed to collect all the necessary data. The slate failed to fully examine signatures before submitting election packet. The Election Board denied the submission and Ellis advised the slate to keep the problem internal. Willis wanted to admit the mistake. By the end, Willis and Ellis resigned from the slate and Cardinal Impact won despite the problems.
6. LaFollette bomb threat
An unknown person called in a bomb threat to LaFollette Complex from an emergency blue-light phone early April 18. Officers from University Police and Muncie Police sealed off the area and searched for a bomb while students were kept in their rooms and Relay for Life was moved from LaFollette Field to Worthen Arena. No bomb was found and Director of Public Safety Gene Burton said he believed it was just a bad prank.
5. Budget problems
The Indiana General Assembly debated whether to cut higher education funding to save money because the economy was struggling. Republicans wanted to cut funding while Democrats wanted to increase it. In the end, funding stayed static. Friday, Gov. Mitch Daniels announced the state will cut $150 million in funding for state colleges and universities because of a continuing decline in tax revenues. The Commission for Higher Education will work with universities to decide how the cuts will be made.
4. Women's basketball beats Tennessee in the NCAA Tournament
Led by senior guards Porchia Green and Kylie Jarret, the 12th-seeded Cardinals defeated the 5th-seeded Lady Volunteers of the University of Tennessee in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. Green was the player of the game with 23 points, eight rebounds, three assists and two steals in 34 minutes of the Cardinals' first trip to the tournament. First-year coach Kelly Packard also led Ball State to a MAC championship on top of the huge victory over one of the most prestigious programs in women's basketball history.
3. Swine flu
Ball State officials confirmed Sept. 9 that two students on campus had swine flu. Since then, an unknown number of people on campus became infected with the virus. Kent Bullis, director of the Amelia T. Wood Health Center, said 30 to 50 percent of people on campus could get swine flu if nobody received vaccinations. The worst pandemic in more than 70 years has infected people in more than 207 countries and territories, according to World Health Organization. As of its Nov. 29 update, 8,768 people have died.
2. The geothermal energy project
Ball State's Board of Trustees voted to begin a $66 million geothermal energy project expected to save the university about $2 million a year on heating costs. The system also is expected to reduce Ball State's greenhouse gas emissions by about 80,000 tons each year. Construction for the project began in May and is expected to take about five years. The General Assembly gave Ball State about $41 million in 2005 to replace its current heating and cooling system which runs on nearly 70-year-old boilers. The normal life span for boiler systems is about 40 years. Upon completion, it will be the largest geothermal energy system in the nation.
1. Campus crime
We've seen several violent crimes on or around campus this year — muggings, assaults, drive-bys. Two people were mugged at the Scheumann Stadium overflow parking lot in October. In early November Ball State student Kyle Evans was attacked near the Village. Three days later, two men fired several shots from their car toward the Chug after being denied entrance to the bar. Only one person, a Ball State student, was injured by flying glass or metal shards. Another girl was robbed near the intersection of McKinley and Neely avenues Monday. A man stole her purse and threatened her and two witnesses before fleeing the scene. The two incidents on campus equal the total number of violent crimes on campus in the entire past two years.
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