While many Ball State students were stressing about Finals Week, a group of students faced city officials before Winter Break in a quest to save historic homes in Muncie.
The class, ARCH 442 - Documentation and Registration of Historic Properties I, began work documenting historic homes last semester as part of a year-long class.
Before break began, the class presented their findings to Muncie city officials.
"We got [criticism] for it because we didn't do cost estimates," graduate student Kelli Kellerhals said. "People were expecting us to validate what we were doing."
Kellerhals said there was definitely an interest from the audience members, although they were expecting more information about funding.
"The biggest part of the project was to just document the condition of the buildings to make a case they can be saved," she said.
The students agree that the public is ill informed about the current situation of historic homes and their demolition.
"The people who don't know what they're talking about and their negative comments online make me angry," graduate student Emily Weiler said.
Many people see the buildings and immediately say they should be torn down, she said.
"It's important to know when we saw them for the first time, the first thought was, ‘Oh, tear it down. It's horrible,'" graduate student Anya Grahn said. "But after inspecting more, they should be saved."
Since the meeting in December, there has been some progress with stopping the demolition of historic homes.
Cynthia Brubaker, professor of the class, said there is a person interested in the home on Adams Street.
A home on Howard Street is also being looked at by an architecture professor who wants to test out a plumbing and electrical system.
"This would make the house more desirable to someone with new plumbing and electric," Brubaker said.
Whether progress in saving the homes is made or not, Brubaker is proud of her students.
"The students did a good job showing the reality of what is happening in this neighborhood, placing it in real world context and pointing out how difficult it can be to deal with these situations," Brubaker said.
The students have had a good experience so far and hope it continues this semester.
"I think it's been an education for me. You can have all these great intentions and all of it comes down to money, government and politics," Kellerhals said. "So many forces playing a part and it's hard to work through and understand it all."
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