Blaine A. Brownell

Blaine A. Brownell
President of Ball State University
In office 2000–2004
Preceded by	John E. Worthen
Succeeded by	Jo Ann M. Gora
Personal details
Born	1943
Spouse(s)	Mardi Brownell

Blaine A. Brownell was the 12th President of Ball State University as well as holding positions at other universities across the United States. Brownell is also the former CEO of u21pedagogia.^[1]

Background

Blaine Brownell earned his B.A. degree from Washington and Lee University in Lexington and his M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in United States history from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.^[2]

Brownell held faculty and administrative positions at University of Memphis, University of North Texas in Denton, University of Alabama at Birmingham, and Purdue University. Brownell served director of the University of Memphis' Center for International Programs, as well as provost and vice president for academic affairs and a professor of history at the University of North Texas.

Brownell also has experience teaching overseas. He taught as a Fulbright Professor in American History and Urban Studies at Hiroshima University from 1977–1978, a visiting professor at Sichuan University in China in 1978, and an academic specialist for the U.S. Information Agency in Brazil. In 2000, Brownell succeeded John E. Worthen as president of Ball State. He also accepted a tenured appointment as Professor of History and Urban Planning.

Ball State University

Shafer Tower, BSU

Effect on Ball State University

• Enrollment rose to its highest level in 12 years
• Helped to gain the single largest grant in BSU history in 2001 from the Lily Endowment, Inc. of $20 Million.
  • Helped establish Ball State as a leader in the innovative use of digital media.
• Largest single gift in Ball State History by the of $17.2 Million, thus naming the Miller College of Business^[3][4]
• Campus Additions During Presidency
  • Art and Journalism Building (2001)
  • Fisher Training Complex (2001)
  • West Quad building renovation (2001)
  • Shafer Tower (2002)
  • Fine Arts building renovation

Later career

Informed in June 2003 that the Board of Trustees had decided not to renew his four-year contract as president, which expired a year later, Brownell resigned on January 1, 2004 to become the first President and CEO of U21Pedagogica, the academic quality assurance arm of Universitas 21, a sixteen-member global consortium of major research universities in England, Australia, Canada, and the US, including the University of Virginia, where U21Pedagogica was headquartered. He retained his position as a tenured full professor of History and Urban Planning at Ball State, and was granted a two-year leave of absence. He resigned from U21Pedagogica in 2005, after a significant realignment of the organization. In 2006 he relinquished his tenured appointment at Ball State and began a series of appointments at the University of South Florida St. Petersburg—interim Dean of Business Administration,^[5] interim Provost, and Senior Advisor for Planning and International Programs. After retiring in July 2007, he served for several years as a consultant to the Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research in the United Arab Emirates, and specifically at Zayed University (Dubai and Abu Dhabi) and United Arab Emirates University (Al Ain). He also held positions as Chairman of the Board of the International Student Exchange Programs in Washington, D.C. and as Chair of the Charlottesville Committee on Foreign Relations. Since 2010 he has been working, under contract, on the recent history (1930-2000) of Washington and Lee University, his alma mater.

See also

• List of Ball State University Presidents

References