Ball State will roll out a new marketing campaign, including TV spots featuring profiles of graduates beginning Saturday.
Tom Taylor, vice president for enrollment, marketing, and communications, said the new campaign tries to build off the current Ball State brand and tell the university’s story.
The university has produced five spots that will last 15 seconds and be broadcast in the major television markets in Indianapolis, Fort Wayne and South Bend. Each TV spot has a story focused on a different former student.
“We tried to do this by telling a story that is both authentic and appealing,” Taylor said. “So to do that we’re going to be using students, we want to have real people, so students telling their stories in their own voices.”
He said the new campaign should help the university enroll and maintain talented students, raise money and generate influence. The shorter TV spots will be complemented by longer versions online that range from two and a half to three minutes.
The Trustees also approved $39 million in bonds to finance construction of the Teachers College and the Applied Technology building. The bonds will also serve to fund the completion of phase two of the geothermal conversion project and allow the university to refinance existing Student Fee Bonds that could save taxpayers $1 million at the current interest rates, said Randy Howard, vice president of business affairs.
The renovation of Johnson A residence hall received funding after the Trustees approved housing and dining system revenue bonds to finance the project.
Kay Bales, vice president for student affairs, addressed concerns from Trustee Wayne Estopinal on complaints a near-Ball State neighborhood have lobbied concerning smokers gathering in locations just outside the university’s campus.
“We’re going to keep working at [improving the situation],” she said. “It’s not something that we’ve stopped. I certainly hope that those in the neighborhood feel that we are being responsive.”
The official name of Ball State’s new planetarium will be the Charles W. Brown Planetarium. The Trustees approved the name after a 1971 graduate who donated $2.2 million to fund the project.
