Ball State University at Muncie Free Press - Delaware County Indiana | News and Information

By Rick Yencer

MUNCIE, IN - Shanee' Jackson had family and friends gracing her with flowers and congratulations as the Ohio Buckeye played her last home women basketball game Sunday as Ball State easily beat Western Michigan, 60-46.

 Mitchell Elementary School kindergarten student Jimmie Marion had a big smile as he got his picture with his favorite lady Cardinal as Jackson and other team maters signed posters and prepared for a final road game and on to the Mid-American Conference tournament in Cleveland, Ohio next week.

 Jim Romack, Marion's grandfather, said Jimmie had been going to women's basketball games for much of his short lifetime and always liked Jackson for her fast start and rebounding. 

By Rick Yencer

MUNCIE, IN - Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson was hoarse from his talk show duties at President's Barack Obama's inauguration on Monday but he still talked of the Jim Crow days in South Carolina to the dysfunction of Washington D.C. during his visit Tuesday at Ball State University.

By Rick Yencer

MUNCIE, IN - Ball State mens basketball coach Billy Taylor talked about the up and down early season this week before the fighting Cardinals begin Mid-American Conference play on Wednesday.

 "It's an exciting time of year," said Taylor, who saw a 6-6 non-conference season on top of a 15-15 draw last season.

By RicK Yencer

MUNCIE, IN - Look for more apartments along fraternity row at Ball State University as off campus housing remains a multi-million dollar market.

 The latest development of a modest 16 apartments will be built in the 800 block of West Riverside Avenue across from Cardinal Pointe and 400 Apartments and just east of BSU's fraternity housing.

By Rick Yencer

MUNCIE, IN - IUPUI came off a string of losses to outrun and outscore Ball State University 77-68 Sunday in Worthern Arena that was mostly empty a couple days before Christmas.

By Rick Yencer

MUNCIE, IN - Mayor Dennis Tyler described almost a symbiotic relationship between the community and university, talking to Ball State finance students at the Miller College of Business this week.

 "Muncie needs Ball State and Ball State needs Muncie," said the mayor, a retired firefighter who did not go to college.

 More than 100 students showed up for the "Muncie, I love you" gathering sponsored by the Finance Society. Advisor Dan Boylan admitted it was just a catchy name that actually was written in French to get attention and bring students to meet with community leaders, corporate citizens and others.

 Tyler, wearing a knit vest with a City of Muncie logo, used an iPad to do his talking about the community, university, investment, jobs and how students could get involved.

By Rick Yencer

MUNCIE, IN - Oprah Winfrey's extraordinary life and her multi-million dollar charity work held the crowd of Ball State University students speechless as television icon David Letterman played biographer.

 "Everyone knows what mark they make," said Winfrey, a fellow television icon. "I am still making my mark."

 That was the response from Letterman who asked the classic Gene Siskel question, "What do you know for sure?"

 The Dave and Oprah show Monday at Emens Auditorium certainly was not comedy, but searched for the meaning of life, as Winfrey did on her wildly popular talk show that evolved into a cable network that is directed to a younger audience judging from recent interviews with pop stars Justin Bieber and Katy Perry.

Staff Report

MUNCIE, IN - The Ball State men’s basketball team is preparing to host rival Indiana State for a 7 p.m. tipoff Tuesday at Worthen Arena.

The Cardinals (2-0) are coming off a 66-61 victory over Wofford, while Indiana State (2-1) is coming off a 70-57 win over Truman State.

Tuesday’s game will be televised by Ball State Sports Link and will air on Comcast Indiana 81 in addition to Comcast stations in Michigan. The Sports Link broadcast will also be streamed live for free on ballstatesports.com.

By Rick Yencer

MUNCIE, IN  - Afghan relief activist Bibi Bahrami talked about mass poverty and illiteracy in her home country while retired journalism leader Marilyn Weaver told stories about flying into war torn Afghanistan in a helicopter gunship to find women to educate.

 It was all part of efforts by the World Bank, Ball State University and other money interests to bring young Afghans to the United States, get them educated and try to create a sustainable community in the near Asian country that has been the victim of war for over 1,000 years.

 Bahrami, Weaver, and Julie Lebo, a professor at Kansas State University, were all part of a discussion during Afghan Week at the university. Hundreds of Afghan and Islamic families live in Muncie and Delaware County and there are scored of relief efforts designed to education and improve life in that country that is also rocked by corruption from American corporations doing business there besides the government run by President Hamid Karzai.

 Bahrami's story has told many times before as she directs relief efforts to Afghanistan and has been responsible for building a school, health clinic and training centers with local contributions. She also hopes to serve her Yorktown community by running for Yorktown School Board.

 At age 12, Bahrami was a refugee fleeing the Russian occupation of the country in 1979. She came to the United States and was educated at BSU and then decided to help her family and friends find the same opportunity in the country.

By Rick Yencer

MUNCIE, IN - Author and adventurer Kelsey Timmerman found the meaning of life by searching for where his clothes were made.

 "I learned more from people in mud huts and grass shacks than I ever learned in the classroom," said he animinated and energizing Ball State University graduate.

 And what he learned was to give back to people and encourage othersto do the same, whether volunteering for Big Brothers Big Sisters, helping with poverty simulations by Teamwork for Quality Living or just working with Student Voluntary Services on campus.

 Timmerman is Muncie's claim to adventure fame traveling the jungles of Hondurus, the factory shops of China or Bangladesh or sweat shops of Cambodia. In each of those adventures, Timmerman writes in his book, "Where Am I Wearing,'' that workers and youth make only a few dollars a month making 93 percent of the country's clothes And some look for the America dream, coming to the United States for better pay, benefits and a quality of life.

 More than 1,000 BSU students who participate in the nationally aclaimed Freshman Connections event held Timmerman on Tuesday talking about he and his brother Kyle, catching a poisonous snake in a Hondorian river, how some teenage workers in Cambodia sleep on floors and become prostitutes just support their families, and how some central American workers risk capture on the Mexican-American border just to come to the United States.