John Fallon and Mayor Dennis Tyler shed light on plans to bridge the gap between Ball State and the city of Muncie.
Fallon, the associate vice president for economic development and community engagement at Ball State, and Tyler sat down recently to brainstorm.
"We have kind of an obligation, kind of a responsibility for working with communities throughout the state of Indiana, and it just makes so much sense that we spend as much time and exert as much effort as we can in our own community," Fallon said.
Both Fallon and Tyler said the utilization of some of the immersive organizations Ball State has to offer will benefit both Muncie and Ball State moving forward.
The Building Better Communities Fellows program is an immersive learning initiative in which students work with a faculty mentor and work to solve community problems throughout a semester.
"I told the mayor that we had some support for several of these projects, and from my vantage point, we'd be happy to explore projects that may make an imminent fix to the city so that we could do some projects that are important to the mayor and to the city of Muncie," Fallon said.
Although specific plans for collaboration have not been hammered out, Fallon said economic development is one of the areas that might be explored.
"I made a commitment to try to find a way to wind something up that was related to economic development," he said. "[Tyler is] always interested also in projects that have the effect of enhancing the physical appearance and functionality of the city."
Tyler said he feels connecting the city to campus has been a staple point of his administration from the beginning.
"I've talked about it since the beginning of the administration that there has to be a better connection, I hope, going forward in partnerships and cooperation between Ball State and the city of Muncie and it branching our across our community," Tyler said. "Fallon had sent me an email that there were some immersive learning projects coming up that would be available that we may have an interest."
Tyler said he also wants to utilize the school's resources the city would not have otherwise.
"Ball State has great economic development resources that just aren't that readily available to us - their architectural landscaping departments, some of their economic development programs they have out there and everything, and these students that just have tremendous ideas and a desire to participate and be apart of things," he said.
In light of the announcement of McKinley Commons, a new residence hall and hotel, both Fallon and Tyler said the collaboration between the campus and the city is on the mend, and it could start with the revitalization of the Village.
"Every major development project has something that has the potential to be the tipping point, and that could be the tipping point for development in the Village," Fallon said. "I haven't heard anybody talk about a downside to this and I certainly don't see a downside to it."
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