A day in the life of Ball State President Gora

[EDITOR'S NOTE: Ball State Daily News reporter Chris Paliga shadowed Ball State President Jo Ann Gora on Friday. What follows is his observations throughout the day he spent with Gora.]

8 a.m. - FACULTY RECEPTION The Friday before classes begin is the first day of the academic year for faculty. The day was full of meetings and receptions, beginning with a meeting for all faculty in John R. Emens Auditorium. President Jo Ann Gora arrived at her first event just after 8 a.m.

She starts her day at a faculty reception before the all-faculty meeting where she is to give a speech on the state of the university.

She immediately began to move from person to person. The Ball State University president known most for her efforts to market the university does not stop just because she is talking to people who already work here.

She thanks an emeriti professor for his donation to the university.

She said absorbing lots of information is part of her job. She greets people by name and cites the dates and specific numbers and reports with confidence throughout the day. Although she called a faculty member by the wrong name on at least one occasion, she later corrected her mistake without the faculty member pointing it out.

She met with each academic department her first year at Ball State, something she was told no other recent president had done. She said she has tried to come up with similar sets of meetings each year and reads everything that faculty members send her. Gora considers her leadership style collaborative.

An athletics coach called her "Coach Gora" at a previous job as provost and vice president of academic affairs at Old Dominion University in Virginia, a monicker she feels is appropriate. She tries to build a strong team of "smart, dedicated and hardworking people," while also recognizing individual contributions. She says this allows her to get a wide range of ideas before making decisions.

9 a.m. - FACULTY MEETING This is Gora's sixth state of the university speech. She gave her first shortly after becoming president five years ago. This could be the one given at the most tumultuous time.

Gora will receive more than $200,000 for choosing not to take a six-month sabbatical after her first five years at Ball State. This sabbatical was promised in her original contract, but later revised in a contract extension signed in 2007.

This money for not taking a sabbatical was fresh in the minds of many faculty members who are not getting salary increases this year. Some boycotted the meeting.

Gora focused on solidifying progress the university has already made, rather than presenting new initiatives as she had done in the past.

She said the university needs to keep looking forward, even as times are challenging.

Gora acknowledged the tough economic times and thanked the faculty members for their contributions to the "Ball State Bold: Investing in the Future" capital campaign.

She did not mention the compensation in her speech. Gora grew more tense when asked about the timing of the compensation afterward. She said the money is not a bonus or new compensation, but has been a part of her contract for years. She said she did not know when she would actually receive the money.

10:30 a.m. - IN THE OFFICE After the speech, Gora walked back to the Administration Building from Emens.

Large windows keep Gora's office brightly lit. It is nicely decorated but not ornate. Her walls are decorated with photos of her with Sen. Richard Lugar and former first lady Laura Bush. A picture of her in front of a stunt plane is on the window near her desk. She said a donor made riding in the stunt plane without vomiting a condition for his donation.

A couch sits in front of a coffee table stacked high with brochures and other information she uses to talk about the university.

Gora sat down at her desk, which is covered with neatly organized papers.

She makes calls and proofreads letters to donors with a highlighter. After about 20 minutes, Gora began a meeting with Vice President for Student Affairs Kay Bales. She tries to meet with each of the vice presidents every two weeks. Gora launches into questions before she finishes sitting down at the table in her office.

She began by asking about a student applying for reinstatement to the university. She was familiar with specific details about the student's situation. She discussed the university retention rate, which Bales said will be about the same as last year. Bales said her office will evaluate bridge programs for freshmen, which are designed to improve retention rates. Gora makes suggestions about the research methods for focus groups.

Noon - WIBLE LUNCH Gora spends a bit more time reading e-mail before she walks to her next meeting, a scholarship lunch in the Atrium. Along the way she ran into Happy Friday Guy. She greeted him enthusiastically and told him she thought he was gone. He said he is like 007; there is a new one every few years. Gora takes a minute to chat with him and accept a piece of candy.

The lunch celebrates a gift to the university establishing the Evelyn Reynolds Wible Nursing Scholarship, which is for a senior nursing student. The donation to create the scholarship was made by emeriti professor of telecommunications Darrell Wible in memory of his wife, a nurse.

Gora was handed a name tag when she arrived, but didn't put it on. She socialized for a few minutes before sitting down at the table with Wible and scholarship recipient.

She took Wible's name tag off as she was talking to him. "Everyone here knows who you are," she said. Wible was David Letterman's mentor at Ball State. Letterman asked Wible to arrange his first major donation to the university, which Wible said gave him more freedom than most faculty members. This caused some conflicts in the university and some tried to take Wible's freedom away. He said Letterman warned the university if they interfered with Wible's autonomy, Letterman would never give any more money to Ball State.