For more than 20 years, Ball State University has consistently integrated sustainability into its five-year strategic planning cycles; each such plan calls out specific initiatives connected to the updates and re-framing of our vision, mission and values as we seek to provide social, economic, and environmental leadership in sustainability education, research and service.
As stated in the current strategic plan:
We engage students in educational, research, and creative endeavors that empower our graduates to have fulfilling careers and meaningful lives enriched by lifelong learning and service, while we enhance the economic, environmental, and social vitality of our community, our state, and our world.
Key excerpts from each strategic plan are listed below, with links to the respective achievements and/or documents:
2019-2024_Destination 2040: Our Flight Path
Goal 1 E
“... offer every student … a course that focuses on a societal issue or global challenge and that engages students with people across diverse disciplines, cultures, and thought.”
Immersive Learning Program
Immersive Learning Open Projects
Immersive Learning Past Projects
Goal 2 A
“… offer high-demand degrees and credentials in fields that align with our current and potential expertise.”
Graduate Certificate in Sustainability
Goal 3 D
“… implement a regional plan to improve population health and wellbeing.”
NEXT Muncie
Goal 4 B
“… connect … scholarship with the vibrancy of the city of Muncie and East Central Indiana in ways that can be replicated in communities around the world.“
Office of Community Engagement: Strategic Partnerships
Goal 5 A
“… embed cultural competencies across curricular and co-curricular experiences … and result in greater diversity in people and ideas throughout the campus.”
Diversity and Inclusion Plan
Goal 5 F
“… advance our legacy of environmental stewardship.”
Council on the Environment
Goal 5 H
“… support academic excellence and enable operational efficiency and effectiveness.”
with an Executive Dashboard that includes the benchmarking of carbon neutrality
Goal 5 N
“ … update … [the] campus master plan [to] align with our mission, goals, strategic imperatives, and enduring commitments to environmental stewardship and inclusive excellence.
Campus Master Plan
18 x ’18_The Centennial Commitment
Goal III-15
“…enhance recognition as a national model for sustainability; by:
Offering a Minor in Sustainability
Increasing faculty and student participation in the Indiana Green Campus Network
Minor in Sustainability
2012-2017_Education Redefined 2.0 Advancing Indiana
Goal 3, Objective 3
“continue to position the university as a steward of the environment by… building on the university’s expertise and success in sustainability.”
District-Scale Geothermal Heating and Cooling
2007-2012_Education Redefined
Goal 4F
“…by 2008,…create sustainability plans for each [administrative] unit [on campus].”
Unit level Sustainability Plans
2001-2006_Making the Grade
Goal II
“…promote a learning climate that values civility, diversity, multicultural awareness, appreciation of the arts, healthy and productive living, and… environmental Sustainability”
Council on The Environment