Ball State president educates Carmel Rotarians university’s successes

By DUBBIE BUCKLER
Carmel Rotary Club Board

Ball State University President Geoffrey S. Mearns, J.D., provided the Carmel Rotary Club an overview of BSU’s new strategic plan, Destination 2040: Our Flight Path, that sets priorities across five key areas: undergraduate excellence, graduate education and lifetime learning, community engagement and impact, scholarship and societal impact, and inclusiveness and institutional excellence.

Mearns informed Rotarians about BSU’s many successes, its prestigious Carnegie Foundation classification, and its special oversight and leadership relationship with Muncie Community Schools.

He cited that BSU’s freshmen enrollment of 3,700 has a median high school grade-point average of 3.57; 91 percent are Indiana residents; 90 percent eligible for some type of financial aid, with 46 percent eligible for a Pell grant; and 29 percent are first-generation college students in their families. BSU has more than 270 undergraduate and graduate academic programs, and boasts a 94 percent career placement for BSU grads.

Under President Mearns’ leadership, BSU has increased alumni engagement and fundraising, and sustained and expanded its enrollment, despite the adverse impact of the pandemic.

Conversely, Mearns cited a growing reality adversely affecting the country: the alarming increase in the number of males age 18 to 30 who are not enrolling in college nor seeking employment. Reports about young adult males, including a recent one from the Sagamore Institute, cite declining male student GPAs, teen boys’ fixation on social media, decreased participation in sports and extracurricular activities, dramatic declining college enrollment and labor participation rates, isolation, and increased male suicides.

“The great challenge is to reverse these disturbing trends with positive programs and mentoring for young men,” said Mearns. He commended Rotary for its many youth outreach programs.

President Mearns was proud to share that BSU has been named an “Opportunity College and University” by the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education, recognizing the University as a national model for advancing student success and long-term economic outcomes. Developed by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and the American Council on Education, the classification evaluates institutions based on their ability to serve students from the communities they represent and on how alumni earnings compare to peers in their regional job markets.

In 2025, just 479 institutions – approximately 16 percent of U.S. colleges and universities – earned this classification. Ball State is the only public institution in Indiana to receive this recognition, and one of just three Mid-American Conference institutions to be honored. The two criteria are a) the institution must enroll students who represent demographics of region institution serves (“access”), and b) 2) Eight years after graduation, institution’s graduates must earn at least 50 percent more than non-college graduates in region (“earnings”). Also, BSU met the additional classifications as a Doctoral Institution with High Research Activity (R2), one of only 27 in country; and a Community-Engaged Institution – one of only 11 in country meeting all three major classifications.

In 2025, for the first time in BSU’s athletic program history, the Ball State Cardinals received the prestigious Mid-American Conference (MAC) Dr. Carol A. Cartwright Award for its program excellence in academics, athletics, and citizenship during the 2024-25 school year. The Cartwright Award for overall excellence of a member institution’s athletics department is presented annually to only one university in the Mid-American Conference. A former competitive college athlete, President Mearns has been actively involved in NCAA governance many years and is chair of the Mid-American Council of Presidents.

Rotarians were particularly impressed to learn of President Mearns and BSU’s unique innovative partnership with Muncie Community Schools (MCS). In 2018, enacting new state legislation allowing the state to take control over failing public school districts, then Governor Eric Holcomb requested President Mearns and BSU accept a unique role to take over, lead, and turn around the then-failing Muncie Community Schools (MCS).

The results have been remarkable. Under BSU’s collaborative leadership and historic partnership with MCS, Muncie Schools have increased student attendance; annually achieved a balanced operating budget; increased teacher compensation by nearly 40 percent and more than doubled teacher and staff retention; invested heavily in MCS facilities; stabilized student enrollment; and dramatically improved student outcomes in Kindergarten readiness, third-grade reading, and high school graduation. Mearns credited BSU’s relationship with the community for MCS’s remarkable success.

Mearns also described BSU’s ambitious plan to revitalize “The Village,” the commercial district located immediately adjacent to Ball State’s campus. With much community support and investment, plans include a new Performing Arts Center, Cantino Hotel, Center for Innovation and Collaboration, and enhancing the Village South student residential area.

Mearns became BSU President in May 2017, having served five years as president of Northern Kentucky University. Before becoming president of NKU, he served as dean of the law school and then as provost at Cleveland State University. Before his academia career, Mearns served several years as Assistant U.S. Attorney where he participated in the prosecution of several high-ranking members of the Gambino organized crime family. He concluded his career with the U.S. Department of Justice as one of the principal trial lawyers in the prosecution of Terry Nichols, Timothy McVeigh’s conspirator in the Oklahoma City bombing.

About Rotary Club of Carmel
The Rotary Club of Carmel, founded in 1972, regularly contributes to local community projects including the Merciful H.E.L.P. Center, Crooked Creek Food Pantry, Meals on Wheels, Carmel Summer Lunch Program, Trinity Free Clinic, and many others.

Carmel Rotary’s youth outreach includes Leadership Connection, a leadership skills development and scholarship program for Carmel area high school students; Interact, a Rotary-sponsored service club for youth ages 12 to 18; and the Youth Exchange Program, hosting foreign exchange students and sponsoring Carmel High School students studying abroad.

Carmel Rotary proudly presents Carmel’s annual 4th of July parade and celebration, CarmelFest. Carmel Rotary is also involved in global service projects focused on Peace and Conflict Prevention/Resolution; Disease Prevention and Treatment; Water and Sanitation, Maternal and Child Health; Basic Education and Literacy, and Economic and Community Development. The longstanding primary goal of Rotary International is the eradication of polio on earth.

For more information visit CarmelRotary.com.