History of Ball State University

The entire school, including classrooms, library and the president's residence were housed in what is now known as the Ball State Administration building.

A local farming family paid off the school's property taxes and used the campus as forage for grazing sheep and cattle.

In 1909 Delaware County residents petitioned the state to take over the land and reopen it as a state-funded normal school.

The proposal failed when lawmakers did not pass an appropriations bill to pay for the acquisition of the Indiana Normal College land and building.

In 1912, a group of local investors led by Michael Kelly reopened the school as the Indiana Normal Institute.

To pay for updated materials and refurbishing the once-abandoned Administration Building, the school operated under a mortgage from the Muncie Trust Company.

In a lesson learned from the failed 1909 attempt to get state control of the normal school, the Balls wanted to avoid another appropriations bill debate in the Indiana General Assembly.

In early 1918, during the Indiana General Assembly's "short session," state legislators accepted the gift of the school and the land by the Ball Brothers.

Its primary purpose was to serve as a college to educate teachers for the public schools in the surrounding communities including Muncie, Anderson, Richmond, Marion, Gas City and as far away as the boom towns of Indianapolis and Fort Wayne.

During the 1922 short session of the Indiana legislature, the state renamed the school as the Ball Teachers College.

During this act, the state also reorganized its relationship with Terre Haute, and established a separate local board of trustees for the Muncie campus.

His creation, the statue Beneficence, still stands today between the Administration Building and Lucina Hall where Talley Street dead ends into University Avenue.

It wasn't until the promotion of the school to official "University" status, that Ball State began to grow academically.

Despite current uncertainty in the economy, Ball State's academic future is considered by many to be bright as the University continues a course of upgrading programs and adding new ones where applicable.