Ball State President Geoff Mearns Gives Update on BSU’s Pandemic Preparations
Ball State University President Geoffrey Mearns stopped by the IPR studios during Morning Edition for another Friday update on the university and its functioning during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Mearns told IPR News the university will aid IU Health-Ball Memorial Hospital should the facility become overwhelmed with COVID-19 cases. Mearns said Ball State and Ball Memorial have agreed to work together in four areas.
Also, the president reviews why the school’s residence halls are to close March 29th. He also looks ahead to Spring commencement, and comments on the outlook for summer classes.
These points and more are in this full-length interview, aired twice this (Friday) morning on IPR. Mearns also tells a story from Ball State’s first year of existence in 1918 when a local doctor and a Ball State nutritionist, during the Spanish Flu Pandemic, collaborated and developed a program of sanitation and nutrition to preserve the health of Student Army Training Corps (SATC) enrollees. All of the Ball State SATC students survived the pandemic thanks to that town-gown collaboration. Tragically that positive outcome was seen in few if any other SATC programs on American college campuses, that year.
