Earlier this month, Jeff Mitchell began his tenure as Ball State’s new director of athletics. Already he has identified his vision for the next era of Ball State Athletics—a vision inspired by his previous experience leading athletics departments at universities across the country.
In this episode, Jeff talks about playing baseball in his youth and how his passion for the sport led to becoming a student-athlete at Millsaps College. And he reveals how his commitment to Millsaps’ athletics department—and to being qualified for future professional opportunities—allowed his career to flourish.
He also shares how his administrative experiences at Santa Clara University and Southern Mississippi University have given him the confidence and the conviction to accelerate the success of Ball State Athletics.
And when asked about his second career as a college sports announcer, Jeff gives listeners a sample of how he would get the job done.
If you enjoy this episode, please leave a review to support the show.
Earlier this month, Jeff Mitchell began his tenure as Ball State’s new director of athletics. Already he has identified his vision for the next era of Ball State Athletics—a vision inspired by his previous experience leading athletics departments at universities across the country.
In this episode, Jeff talks about playing baseball in his youth and how his passion for the sport led to becoming a student-athlete at Millsaps College. And he reveals how his commitment to Millsaps’ athletics department—and to being qualified for future professional opportunities—allowed his career to flourish.
He also shares how his administrative experiences at Santa Clara University and Southern Mississippi University have given him the confidence and the conviction to accelerate the success of Ball State Athletics.
And when asked about his second career as a college sports announcer, Jeff gives listeners a sample of how he would get the job done.
If you enjoy this episode, please leave a review to support the show.
[GEOFF MEARNS]
Hello, I'm Geoff Mearns, and I have the good fortune to serve as the president of Ball State University. On today's episode of my podcast, I will introduce you to Jeff Mitchell, our university's new athletic director. Jeff started as our new A.D. on March 20th. And so, as we record this episode, he's just finishing up his first week here at Ball State.
I'm going to ask Jeff about his initial impressions of our university, but I want to begin by sharing a little more about his accomplished background. Jeff joined Ball State after serving as deputy director of athletics at the University of Southern Mississippi since 2018. At Southern Miss, Jeff managed the daily operations of the Golden Eagles Athletic department, and he provided leadership for special projects, including the department's strategic plan.
Prior to his tenure at Southern Miss, Jeff spent 12 years at Santa Clara University, where he served as the senior associate athletic director for external operations. Jeff served in various leadership roles in committees at both at Santa Clara and at Southern Miss, where he also taught business classes. Jeff earned his bachelor's degree and an MBA from Millsaps College in Jackson, Mississippi, where he was a member of the baseball team.
Soon after finishing his MBA, Jeff earned his law degree at the University of Mississippi. Jeff is also the coauthor of a textbook. It's entitled Sport Ethics and Leadership, and it was published in 2017. And our university is quite fortunate to have Jeff Mitchell leading Ball State Athletics. And today it is my pleasure to welcome him to the podcast.
[GEOFF MEARNS]
Welcome, Jeff, and thank you for making some time to visit with me today.
[JEFF MITCHELL]
Thank you, President Mearns. It’s an honor to be here.
So as I mentioned, a moment ago, you officially started your new role here at Ball State just this past Monday. Tell us a little bit about how that first week has rolled out.
[JEFF MITCHELL]
Well, it's been a fun week. I've enjoyed meeting all of our coaches, many of our student athletes. I've attended some practices. I attended by first sporting event on campus on Sunday in subfreezing temperatures when I took in the double header at baseball.
[GEOFF MEARNS]
Welcome to Muncie.
[JEFF MITCHELL]
That's right. And of course, as I shared with you earlier, I drove into campus on Saturday evening in what I would term as a blizzard.
[GEOFF MEARNS]
Right. And it was about a half an inch of snow and 34 degrees. But well, you'll find you'll get used to the snow and the weather we call this spring here in Muncie. So in a minute, we're going to talk a little bit more about your interest in Ball State and your impressions of the program. But I want to begin where I do with all of my guests and want to talk a little bit about and ask you about your childhood.
Tell us about where you grew up and what your interests were as a young boy growing up in Mississippi.
[JEFF MITCHELL]
Yeah, so I grew up in the southwest corner of Mississippi in a small town called Magnolia. Magnolia is located 100 miles north of New Orleans. It is as idyllic as a town, as the name suggests. 2000 people. You could walk everywhere. One stoplight. I made a living on my bike, running around town and a railroad track runs through downtown.
And so it was always a a joy to go and go down to the tracks and see the different type of trains come through. So it was just a small town feel and I loved playing sports and that was what I gravitated to on a regular basis, either in the back yard or at the ball field.
[GEOFF MEARNS]
And what sports were you playing as a child growing up? Middle school kid, high school kid?
[JEFF MITCHELL]
Primarily baseball, but I played basketball and soccer as well. I was a manager for our football team in high school, and that really was where I got the bug to be in athletics administration. But it was hard for me to get off the baseball field at any given moment.
[GEOFF MEARNS]
Yeah, I suspect in Mississippi you can be on that baseball field 12 months out of the year. So tell us about your family, your parents and your extended family.
[JEFF MITCHELL]
Yeah. So my mom is a retired educator, a longtime teacher and administrator at the high school level. My father is your classic small town attorney who not only has his own practice, but was a long time municipal judge and a long time school board attorney and is a special master in the chancery court system of Mississippi. So he presides over a lot of alcohol and drug commitment hearings. And he's a very busy man. And I do not know what Magnolia will do when he retires.
[GEOFF MEARNS]
Well, and in small towns like that, oftentimes the local attorney is a counselor, not just as a lawyer, but really sometimes a personal counselor as well.
[JEFF MITCHELL]
That's right. And my sister is a pediatrician now in Louisville, Kentucky. But she and I enjoyed a close relationship growing up and I’m very proud of her.
[GEOFF MEARNS]
And you're a little closer to her.
[JEFF MITCHELL]
That's right.
[JEFF MITCHELL]
And they're Cardinals down there, too.
[JEFF MITCHELL]
They are.
[GEOFF MEARNS]
So as you said, your passion for sports and your passion, particularly for baseball, enabled you to play baseball when you were a student at Millsaps College. What was your experience like as a college student and a college athlete? Millsaps is Division III?
[JEFF MITCHELL]
Division III. As wonderful an experience as I believe a student athlete can ever dream for. I was an average player on a very good team, coached by a brilliant gentleman who has been at the helm of Millsaps College Baseball for 35 years now. Jim Paige is the head coach and he instilled not only in me but in all of our teammates this attitude of success that everything we do should be met with success.
And I think that has, for me, has instilled in me this desire to pursue excellence in everything that I do. And I think our teammates, or my teammates, feel the same way. And so he's got countless young men, over the course of 35 years, that he has mentored and influenced. And so the actual playing experience was fun. We worked hard, we enjoyed our success. We didn't wallow too much on our failures and just had a great time and a great bond. And so, he's the classic example of what the college experience should be like. And I loved Millsaps. It was a great environment for me, not only as an athlete, but as a student as well.
And I was very involved on campus. During those four years as an undergrad, I began to truly understand the value of a college and a university and understand that it's bigger than athletics, but that athletics plays an important role in it. But also, there's so much value of the experience that a young man or woman can have in those fundamental years.
[GEOFF MEARNS]
So while you were playing, you had mentioned a moment ago that when you served a stint as the manager of the football team in high school, that gave you a little taste of what maybe being an administrator in sports is like. Did you know when you were a baseball player at Millsaps that that was the career you wanted to pursue?
[JEFF MITCHELL]
Well, not exactly. However, there was this itch, and I didn't— I'm not sure that it completely manifested in until I was in graduate school. But the first day I was on campus, an email popped in to my inbox. Now, mind you, this was in the fall of 1997, and this was the first email address I had ever had. And I receive it. And it's an invitation for students to work in the athletics department. I didn't trust where my response would go. So, I got out of my dorm room and sprinted across campus to the athletics department and responded in person by saying, “I'm your guy.” And so that, all of a sudden, I'm assigned all this work. And as long it didn't conflict with baseball practice, I was in good shape. But that really, I think, began to trigger this desire to be around an organization that was vibrant and then in MBA school is when I think I really got the bug.
[GEOFF MEARNS]
Yeah. So I'm going to do a little diversion for just a moment. As part of college sports, you're also an accomplished public address announcer. And maybe listeners can hear it in your voice. So can you share with me a little bit about your experience as an announcer for college sports, I guess, including the Division III NCAA basketball tournament?
[JEFF MITCHELL]
Well, one of the blessings of running over to the athletics department that day at Millsaps to say “I'm your guy” is there was a need for someone to announce a women's volleyball match later that day. And I did not let on, in the moment, that I had no idea how to announce a NCAA volleyball match. But I had very confidently said that “I'm your guy.”
So, I did some research and called a women's volleyball game at Millsaps later that evening, and that turned into invitations to call basketball and football games at the college. And for 20 years, I've been able to announce all kinds of college sports across numerous conferences, including the SCC and the PAC 12 and the West Coast Conference. And I really enjoy calling college basketball games. So if our public address announcer gets sick here at Ball State, “I’m your guy.”
[GEOFF MEARNS]
Okay, so we're going to do a little audition. So, let's assume our opponent hits a three-point shot. His name is Mike Jones. How do you announce on the PA system that an opponent just hit a three-point shot?
[JEFF MITCHELL]
Well, that's not as fun.
[GEOFF MEARNS]
I know. We're going to build to that.
[JEFF MITCHELL]
Okay. I gotcha. So, it would be Mike Jones for three.
[GEOFF MEARNS]
Okay. So now dialing it up, one of our star players, let's say Jaylin Sellers—
[JEFF MITCHELL]
Okay.
[GEOFF MEARNS]
Jaylin hits a three-point shot in Worthen Arena. How do you announce that?
[JEFF MITCHELL]
All right, here we go. Jaylin Sellers for three.
[GEOFF MEARNS]
Very good. Okay, now I've got a tough one, toughest one. Thelma Dis Agustsdottir is now the all time leader for three point shots for women's basketball. That's a tough name. How do you do that after Thelma hits a three-point shot?
[JEFF MITCHELL]
That's a great one.
[GEOFF MEARNS]
Give it a try.
[JEFF MITCHELL]
Let's go. We'll go with Thelma for three.
[GEOFF MEARNS]
That's good. It's about …she's a wonderful player.
[JEFF MITCHELL]
She is.
[GEOFF MEARNS]
And we're very proud of her extraordinary career here. Great season in women's college sport. Okay, back to our main topic. So as you know, this is one Geoff to, another with a law degree.
What made you want to pursue law school? Was it your father, or? And then maybe tell us a little bit how your legal training and some of that background has served you well in your career in college sports?
[JEFF MITCHELL]
Yeah, I think the original impetus was following in the footsteps of my dad. I appreciated the way he carried himself and his career. And as I was growing up and watching him and I could tell that he never had a normal day, there was always something new that he was experiencing and dealing with. But the president of Millsaps College at the time that I was an undergraduate student there stopped me a few days before graduation and said that I was going to get a job offer later that day to be the sports information director at Millsaps and had the opportunity to go to MBA school.
And so I pivoted to accept that job offer, to accept opportunity to go to MBA school. But I never did forget this desire to go to law school. And I think during my time in MBA school, I began to really fall in love with the concept of athletics administration. And I read an article in the Sports Business News that suggested of the future administrators, future leaders in higher education and in athletics would be ones with a business background or a law background or both.
And I resolved in that moment to do both and to be qualified. And that was a message that I grew up with from my parents, is just be qualified. You may not necessarily obtain something or get something, but you can always be qualified. It's within your control. And so, I went to law school to be qualified for the potential opportunity one day of a college president naming me as a director of athletics.
[GEOFF MEARNS]
Yeah, we've got—I have the good fortune to be that college president. So, we've talked about you were born and raised in the South. And then you and your family made a shift and moved to California and got a job at Santa Clara University. What prompted that move from Mississippi to California?
[JEFF MITCHELL]
Well, I chased a girl. And fortunately caught her and married her. My wife, April, was already in California working at Hewlett-Packard Labs as we were dating in law school. And when I finished law school in mid-December of 2005, I drove my vehicle to California. April and I flew back to Mississippi. We got married on New Year's Eve and went on our honeymoon and then flew back to San Francisco and began what I thought was going to be a two-year stint in California. Because April, who again had been there for three years, wanted five years in the Silicon Valley. And I was committed to giving that to her, and those two years turned into 13. But that's why I went to California, and it was a special time for us as a couple to grow in our own way, not only as young adults, but also as professionals in spaces that we deeply cared about. And I volunteered at Santa Clara for six months.
[GEOFF MEARNS]
That's how you got your first job, right?
[JEFF MITCHELL]
Yes, before I had the opportunity to work as a full-time employee. And I'd been on the external side of athletics, in media relations primarily. And the only opportunity for me was at Santa Clara was to be the director of compliance. And that's where the law background paid off immediately. And the athletic director at Santa Clara at the time, Dan Coonan, who's now the commissioner of the ECAC, was an attorney, or is an attorney. And so he saw a lot of himself in me, and he had volunteered in his career as well to get his start and thought I could do the job. So I'm grateful to him.
[GEOFF MEARNS]
Yeah. So your career trajectory at Santa Clara is pretty impressive. You started as a volunteer and then you ended up leading the athletics department when you're on the payroll to record financial growth, tripling the size of the department's external staff, developing a corporate sponsorship program, and securing an apparel agreement with Nike. So in that time, as you were on that trajectory, was there someone, a colleague, a mentor, who fostered your growth and helped help facilitate that progress?
[JEFF MITCHELL]
Well, I referenced Dan. And he was instrumental in providing the opportunity for me to be curious about what it meant to be a successful administrator at the Division I level. And then I had the good fortune to serve as the interim athletics director at Santa Clara when Dan left the university, and this was in advance of the current athletics director at Santa Clara, Renee Baumgartner, and Renee and I hit it off immediately, and she began the process of mentoring and refining my ability to be a successful leader. And so I'm grateful for her, too.
And that's really when all this growth that you referenced began to coalesce and we had a clear vision about what we wanted to accomplish there. And she tasked me with doing those things that you've mentioned. And so, I did them. [chuckles] A, because I knew that she had asked me to do it, but B, I had a clear understanding of who we were at the university and what we wanted to accomplish during my time there.
So, I'm grateful for Dan, and I'm grateful for Renee. And then the president of Santa Clara University at the time was a gentleman by the name of Father Michael Engh, a Jesuit priest who served admirably for ten years as the president of the university and oversaw tremendous growth for the campus in terms of buildings, in terms of curriculum development and in terms of athletics growth as well. And he was just a very steady, confident, bold leader that I admire greatly and appreciate the influence that he had on my development as well. Yeah.
[GEOFF MEARNS]
So in 2018, you leave Santa Clara, and you and your family returned to your native Mississippi and you became the deputy director at Southern Miss. What are some of your proudest accomplishments at that institution?
[JEFF MITCHELL]
Yeah, I think similar to what we experienced at Santa Clara was just the sophistication of the brand and the sophistication of how we operated. And I think one of my superpowers is organizational development. And so, when I got to Southern Miss, there was a little bit of instability in terms of leadership. They'd gone through different athletic directors … as a matter of fact, within 90 days of my arrival at Southern Miss, I served as the interim director of athletics for the remainder of that ’18-‘19 academic year.
And I began to allow my natural curiosity to just take over, and ask a lot of questions about why we do things, how we do things, and to position people in roles where they could really benefit the organization. So, I think from an organization standpoint, Southern Miss is as healthy now as they've ever been. We've had two of the most successful years that the athletic department has enjoyed over the last 15 years in the previous four years. And winning championships—seven conference championships in that four-and-a-half-year span that I was there, seven postseason appearances. There was some pretty intense revenue generation changes that that we embarked on to invigorate our fan base, to create value for our fans. And I guess the biggest success and I don't take all the credit for this, this was a team effort, but baseball, as we've mentioned, is a big deal in the South, particularly in Mississippi. But you've got rabid fan bases at Ole Miss, at Mississippi State, and at Southern Miss, particularly around baseball.
And the stadium at Southern Miss seats about 5000 people. And we completely sold the place out for this season. That's the first time that's ever been done. And typically, you don't sell out your stadium. But the interest was so significant that we reconfigured some seating and sold it out. And so that's a proud moment.
We hosted our conference championship in baseball, an NCAA regional in baseball and an NCAA super regional in baseball this past summer. And that was only the fourth time that that had ever happened at the Division I level. And I had the privilege of managing those tournaments. So I spent from about 6 a.m. to well after midnight, 21 out of 23 days, running those tournaments. So it's a good thing that baseball is in my blood a little bit.
[GEOFF MEARNS]
Right. You’ve got to enjoy watching baseball. So, in addition to your responsibilities within athletics, you've also been an adjunct professor. Tell us why that experience, actually going in the classroom as an instructor, why is that important to you?
[JEFF MITCHELL]
Well, I think education is important to me generally. And I had a great … great teacher. My English teacher in the 11th grade was a woman by the name of Alice Mitchell, who happens to be my mom. And she was a great teacher, not only to me, but to countless young men and women who came through her program. And she just had a different way of teaching to make you really enjoy what you were learning. And it stuck with you. And of course, she'll really enjoy this segment of the podcast today. But I think I learned a lot from her, in terms of capturing students’ attention and being able to deliver substantive content that is practical as opposed to rooted in a textbook.
And so, teaching sport management and leadership and governance and policy, I tried to really bring my daily work to the classroom. To give the students a window into what it's really like, because you read these textbooks, and I realize I'm the coauthor of one, and we tried to be more substantive than textbook-y. But those textbooks just really scratch the surface of what it's really like to be a practitioner. And it was my goal to make them feel in the classroom what it's like to be an athletics director one day.
[GEOFF MEARNS]
Yeah. So speaking of learning, when you learned about the opportunity to be the AD here at Ball State, what attracted you to this opportunity? And it wasn't the snow in March, I assume.
[JEFF MITCHELL]
It wasn't the snow in March [chuckles], although that was fun. It was beautiful. I think I shared with you during the interview process that when I think of the Mid-American Conference, the first institution that has always popped in my head has been Ball State. I'm not sure why, but it speaks to the brand and the strength of the brand. And so, when the job became open, I immediately started to look at it, because it caught my attention. And as we went through the process, I became more and more enamored with the place. And it was really less about the athletics, and more about the institution holistically. Because I just value the interdisciplinary nature of athletics within higher education. And it seemed to me that Ball State gets it, and gets it right. And so, the more I was able to connect the dots that that was the case, the more interested I became. And you look at the track record of success and things aren't perfect, which is an opportunity, but things are good, and that's also enticing for people in these positions. So, I began to do a lot of homework about the place and about its people and began to realize that my values align with the values of the institution. And I'm grateful that the experiences leading up to this moment have been ripe for, I guess, a sharp vision that’s coming together now for us to move forward as a university and certainly as an athletics department.
[GEOFF MEARNS]
So on the afternoon that I introduced you to the University community, I told the folks the story about how when I called—when you called me to accept the offer that I extended, you and your wife April did it in a pretty special way, in a way that I won't forget. You and April made that call together, in a way that clearly demonstrated to me that you are a family, and a special family. Tell us a little bit more about how that call came about, and maybe more importantly, tell us about April and your two children.
[JEFF MITCHELL]
Yeah. So as much as we are a family, we're very much a team, too. April and I have had, you know, a relationship that dates back to college. We were college sweethearts, and it was important for her to be involved in that acceptance. Because we were coming at this together as a unit, as a family. And, you know, she's passionate about athletics. She's a former student athlete herself, played soccer at Millsaps, and we're raising two beautiful and amazing children who are also ultra-competitive. And they were excited about this opportunity too for dad.
But April is the individual that keeps me grounded, but is also my biggest supporter and my biggest encourager. And so, when this moment was happening for me, it was important for her to be right beside me as I accepted it, because she's been my chief cheerleader for a long time.
[GEOFF MEARNS]
Yeah, sounds like a great partner, and I've had the good fortune to be with her on a couple of occasions. So, I want to mention another thing about the program where I introduced you to the Ball state community. In the audience that day, as you recognized, were a couple of your friends and some of your associates, some of whom had traveled a pretty good distance to be with us here that day in Muncie.
And some of them were athletics administrators that you met and participated in the NCAA Pathway Program with. Tell us a little bit more about that program, how it prepares administrators like you to be Division I athletic director and the people who joined you that day?
[JEFF MITCHELL]
Yeah, so the NCAA is, it uh, it gets ridiculed for a lot. But one thing they do supremely well is their leadership programs. And the NCAA Pathway Program has gone through a couple of different names and been around for a little over 20 years. But its design is to, I call it a finishing school for individuals who are becoming qualified to serve as directors of athletics or conference commissioners.
And it's a program that is highly competitive, very difficult to get in. I finally cracked the code, as I like to say, on my fourth attempt to be accepted to the program. So, I'm grateful for DeeDee Merritt, who heads that leadership program at the NCAA. And they do an amazing job of assembling a cohort of individuals that can challenge you, can sharpen you. And we're putting ourselves in a situation where we can be vulnerable, where we can be open to learning new styles, but really just being exposed to some critical aspects of the job that we learn as a practitioner, but we're not really forced to practice it in a safe space. Where we can fail and it be okay in our name, not be in the news, you know, for a negative reason the next day. And so, we put ourselves through these exercises over the course of a year and have these rich conversations about higher education and about intercollegiate athletics. And certainly, during this time frame, there's a lot of uncertainty, although there's still a lot of opportunity for us to be successful. But it pulls all those aspects of what we do on a daily basis together, and it just becomes an enriching and rewarding experience. So the relationships that we develop in those cohorts can be life changing in the sense that you now have a unique set of individuals that are supremely qualified in their own right to be a commissioner or a director of athletics, but then become close friends and confidantes on whom you can rely when things are difficult.
And so, my cohort consists of 11 other amazing individuals, and three of them showed up for the introduction at the press conference, which I was not expecting. I didn't even see them when I first walked in the room, and the fact that they were there means the world to me. I heard from every single one of them, including the other eight that could not attend and, you know, that's special. And we try to be encouraging of each other. And many of those individuals are going to have an opportunity to serve as an athletic director or a commissioner one day. Some of them have already had that opportunity. And we're committed to pursue excellence for each other.
[GEOFF MEARNS]
Yeah, I'm presently, for the second time around, serving as a mentor for somebody who is in that program. And it's clear that the program is very valuable, notwithstanding my participation [Jeff chuckles], it's a valuable program.
So, a couple more questions. One is, I know it's new, your first week. But what do you think, and you mentioned a moment ago, you know, thinking about sharpening a vision for the future success for Ball State Cardinals, what are some of, just a few of, he most important priorities in order to have—to continue to make progress for greater success for ball state athletics?
[JEFF MITCHELL]
Yeah, a few things. I think rallying the fan base is one of them. You know, we're certainly focused on our spring sports, and we're celebrating the end of our winter sports seasons, and there's been some success there. But we're also focused on next fall already, and football season. My vision anyway is to have a robust fan experience for six Saturdays this fall. We have the opportunity to host six home games on a Saturday and I want our atmosphere, having never experienced it at Ball State, I envision this live and grand experience at Schumann Stadium. And I've got some ideas swirling in my head, I've shared it with some of our staff, and want to rally the fan base to join us and experience Cardinal Athletics in a new way. And then that will trickle on into the winter sports and spring sports for next year as well.
But just to bring some new enthusiasm and energy to the programs, and how we treat our fans as they come in the respective facilities and what that game presentation looks like. Today, the game on the field or on the court is not enough anymore. And I think those of us who recognize that can implement some other ancillary activities to complement the games, and we can have a great time, and it'll be community based and family friendly, and we'll get our students to contribute to that energy and enthusiasm in those venues.
And so, rallying the fan base is one. We've got some facility needs that we're addressing. We're looking at it, and I won't be specific in this podcast, but there's some things that we're looking at doing to address primarily the student athlete development piece. And then, the other thing is just a reference to organizational development. It’s getting our internal staff situated in a way that we can be most productive to serve our student athletes and our coaches, and for us to be in the roles that we need to be in, and to complement each other, and to work as a team.
And my experience suggests that if you get that right, and you get that right in a short amount of time, you can accelerate your success. And so, I'm really targeting August 1 as this official kickoff date, which coincides with the NCAA’s calendar of the new academic and athletic year for ’23-‘24 to just be ready to go. And that's internal talking points, I’m not trumpeting it everywhere just now, but in quiet conversations we're having, as you know, we're gearing up. So, we're going to go maybe from second or third year to fifth gear pretty quick.
[GEOFF MEARNS]
Yeah. And you mentioned six home games on the football schedule. I believe we don't have any midweek night home games on the schedule. So if you want to, anybody listening, if you want to get your season tickets for Ball State football, you can.
[JEFF MITCHELL]
You can get them right now.
[GEOFF MEARNS]
You can do it right now, and they're all weekends. So the last question: So, I've mentioned, in other places and at that program, that during the screening process I was particularly impressed with your character, not just your experience and your educational background, but your character. And among the reasons that I selected you to lead our Cardinals was because it was clear to me that you embrace our university's enduring values.
And of course, you know, at Ball State we have a statue called Beneficence, and we saw it on the walk over just this morning. And Beneficence is a tangible and clear visual reminder to all of us about are enduring values. And beneficence means the act of doing good, of serving others. So, Jeff, as we close our conversation, what does beneficence mean to you.
[JEFF MITCHELL]
Let me lead with this. After the blizzard ended on Saturday night [chuckles], and the weather cleared up on Sunday morning, it was the first thing I did when I got up, was I walked across the street on the campus and went immediately to Beneficence, just to pay homage to the university in that way. I had seen it from a distance when I'd come to campus the first couple of times, but I'd never really gone and read the plaque and just really kind of absorbed it.
So I did that, in anticipation of this question. Um, you know, I'll say this: I think it's an invitation, an opportunity to pursue excellence for others. I believe as an administrator, as a faculty member, as a coach, that if we can impact one life in our career journey, that's a win. Just one life. Now the reality is, we're going to impact many more. But if it's just one that has the potential to then have generational impact, meaning that it carries on and on and on, and just by elementary math, is going to exponentially increase the impact that it has, then we've done our job. And so that invitation, that opportunity to pursue excellence for others, to me encapsulates what beneficence is all about—and doing good.
[GEOFF MEARNS]
Well, thank you, Jeff. And on behalf of the entire extended Ball State community, we are, we feel fortunate that you and April and your family have decided to pursue your own personal and professional aspirations right here with us at Ball State. Thank you.
[JEFF MITCHELL]
Thank you. Go Cards.
[GEOFF MEARNS]
Go Cards.