• College of Architecture and Planning students ask for their inclusion in campus master plan.
• Ball State architect says they didn’t want to exclude students of other colleges.
• Master Plan consultants will host one session in the future for CAP students to voice their opinions.
When the master planning consultants return to campus, they will host an open forum in the College of Architecture and Planning, but some architecture students wanted the university to get them involved sooner.
Sophomore architecture student Jared Monce said he wished the university used the master plan as an immersive learning project for architecture students.
“This is the perfect opportunity to get us involved and help teach us what these real life experiences are, what these real life processes are,” he said. “I think they should do a better job of getting all of us involved.”
Monce recognizes this plan is important for the future of Ball State and thinks that by not including architecture students, the university is missing out.
“It’s extremely disappointing,” he said. “Everything the campus master plan is, is based on the physical appearance and functionality of campus. That’s what we’re studying.”
University architect Gregory Graham said the university discussed including CAP students in the process more, but did not think this would be fair. He did not want to exclude students from other colleges, and the goal was to open up feedback for all students equally.
“The problem is if you do it specifically for one college of students, what about all the rest of the students in all the colleges?” Graham said. “You should try and open it up for everybody and that’s what we’ve tried to do so far.”
The initiative of one undergraduate CAP student, however, landed her a spot on the Campus Master Plan Advisory Committee.
Junior urban planning major Ellen Forthofer was introduced to the committee through her studio professor and was then given the opportunity to get further involved. She attends weekly meetings and helps manage masterplan.bsu.edu.
She said this process offers real-world application of what she learns in her urban planning classes.
Forthofer said the master plan site, through MindMixer, has done a good job involving students as well as views from faculty, staff and community members.
“The topics and ideas on MindMixer are narrowing down our collective vision for Ball State’s future campus,” she said.
The master plan consultants, architecture firm SmithGroupJJR, will be back on campus Feb. 24. The group will host three open forums for anyone to attend and give feedback, as well as one session targeting CAP students.
Michael Johnson, principal urban designer for SmithGroupJJR, said it will be a highly productive period for students to “roll up their sleeves” and help the consultants with ideas.
“It’s a concern that there isn’t preferential treatment given to certain groups,” he said. “But we do know there is a lot of expertise there. We would love for all levels of architecture, urban planning and landscape architecture from undergrad to graduate to engage.”
Johnson said when working on master plans, his firm allows the institutions to determine the level of engagement with specific groups. At Louisiana State, he said architecture students worked with the firm when they created a master plan, and it worked out well.
He said the firm is looking forward to interacting with all students when they come back to campus and exchange ideas.
“We’re at a critical point at the plan,” Johnson said. “We haven’t begun to formulate concrete ideas, so I think we have enough to react to and we’re at a good stage where we want to get input.”
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