Washington Monthly - September/October 2022 - 18

Having a ball: President Geoffrey Mearns (front right) marches in the Ball State University graduation procession.
WHEN GOWN
EMBRACES TOWN
It's time to judge colleges by their contribution to the
economic and civic life of their communities. Ball State
University in Muncie, Indiana, passes the test brilliantly.
By James Fallows
1) " Let's do it. "
An hour before dawn on May 7, Geoffrey Mearns stepped
out of his house in Muncie, Indiana, and started to run
with his dog, Cadi.
That made it a normal morning for Mearns. Decades
ago, in high school in Cleveland, he had been a distancerunning
star, and at Yale he set records in track and crosscountry.
His marathon times qualified him for the 1984
U.S. Olympic trials, which he missed because of a foot injury.
Now in his early 60s, Mearns has the look of a man who
could still outrun everyone around him and has never fallen
out of shape.
The stakes on that morning's run were unusually high.
For the past five years, Mearns had been the president of
18 September/October 2022
Ball State University in Muncie, a large-enrollment public
research institution. Why the name? A little more than
100 years ago, the five Ball brothers of Muncie, who became
rich and famous through the iconic glass jars with a Ball signature
and Ball home canning equipment, bought the land
and buildings of a bankrupt private college and gave it to the
state as a public university. Ball State's student body now
numbers more than 20,000.
Before the sun came up that Saturday morning, Mearns
had to make a choice with short-term consequences for the
university and at least symbolic connections to larger choices,
and gambles, the institution had made during his tenure.
The immediate choice involved the weather, which was
terrible. For the past few days, heavy rain had moved over
the Midwest-and refused to budge. On Friday, Mearns
Courtesy of Anthony Romano/Ball State University

Washington Monthly - September/October 2022

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Contents
Washington Monthly - September/October 2022 - Cover1
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