Ball State University

The new Ball State President Blaine Brownell, who took office in the summer of 2000, will hold academic rank in the Department of Urban Planning.  The faculty of the Department of Urban Planning approved his appointment as a tenured professor of urban planning last July.

Four planning students took part in Archi DownUnder, a College-wide field trip to Australia and New Zealand in May-June 2000, involving 18 students led by Professor James Segedy.  They conducted several charrettes throughout New Zealand.  Two planning students joined World Tour 2000, a globe-circling 102 day, 38,000 mile College trip which included Europe, North Africa, Asia, and South America.  CapAsia II, a semester-long field study in South Asia, directed by Nihal Perera, is set for Spring 2001.

Professor Eric Damian Kelly received the University’s Excellence in Teaching award, entirely determined by students, which includes the opportunity to teach a “Dream Course” this spring.  Nihal Perera was promoted to Associate Professorship.  Highlighting the spring enrichment activities of the College of Architecture and Planning, Perera organized a successful symposium on Design, Planning and Diversity.

Dr. Paul Mitchell and Dr. Nihal Perera of the Department of Urban Planning visited New Delhi and Kathmandu last summer in order to explore how the planning department could expand its involvement in south Asia.  It was a follow up of a successful PolyArk field study in south Asia, the signing of Memoranda of Understanding with two Nepali universities, and a few architecture faculty and student visits to those universities.  They visited various schools, institutions, and professional offices in those two cities.  In Kathmandu, Dr. Perera and Dr. Sudarshan Raj Tiwari of Tribhuvan University organized a seminar, Housing Policy: Perspectives on Nepal.

Assistant Professor Mallika Bose received partial funding for a Faculty Summer Research Grant, and spent two months in India doing research for her project, Working Women in the City: An Excamination of Development Planning in Calcutta Since 1985.  After completing a GIS needs Assessment for Shelby County, Professor David Schoen received a grant of $200,000 to implement their countywide GIS.  The University has just been awarded a HUD COPC grant of $398,000 for a proposal directed by Professor Kelly, involving several planning faculty.