Steve Ballard served from 2004-2016 as the sixth chancellor of the university, and the tenth chief administrative officer of the school. During Ballard’s tenure, student enrollment grew beyond 27,000, test scores for freshmen rose to new heights, and the campus achieved new levels of diversification. As his keynote, Ballard cast ECU as “the leadership university.” To that end, he founded the Chancellor’s Leadership Academy to cultivate leadership skills among faculty and staff. He also supported initiatives empowering students with leadership opportunities.
Ballard revived ECU athletics by appointing a new athletic director, Terry Holland. They soon hired a succession of new coaches for the football, baseball, and basketball teams. Working with the Pirate Club, they launched a drive to transform the athletic campus into a showcase Olympic sports complex, featuring a new baseball stadium, a softball stadium, an expanded Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium, plus upgraded facilities for soccer and track.
In 2011, Ballard oversaw the opening of ECU’s School of Dental Medicine, an initiative dating from the Eakin and Muse administrations. As the second state-supported dental school in North Carolina, it took as its mission the provision of dental care for underserved areas in the state. The school, along with the newly constructed East Carolina Heart Institute, enhanced ECU’s reputation as the premier medical center in the East, and as one of the major centers statewide.
In 2010, Ballard’s administrative team expanded the academic mission of the ECU Honors Program. The new Honors College, housed in the historic Mamie Jenkins Building, soon emerged as the most prestigious undergraduate educational program on campus. The founding dean, former-Chancellor Richard Eakin, contributed his leadership skills to the success of the new college. Ballard also supported campus-wide expansion of distance education, making ECU a state leader in that field.
Ballard’s leadership team secured funding for two major building projects on the main campus, the Gateway Dormitory atop College Hill, replacing Belk Dorm, and a new student center on Tenth Street, to replace Mendenhall Student Union. Also funded were a student center serving the Health Sciences campus, and a new student services center to house the Registrar’s Office, Admissions, and Counseling Services. These projects showcased the university’s commitment to providing a positive, well-rounded student experience on campus.
Ballard’s tenure ended with a series of controversial events that garnered statewide media attention. In 2014-2015, Ballard supported an initiative to remove former Governor Charles B. Aycock’s name from a campus residence hall. After extended deliberations, the ECU Board of Trustees voted to “transition” Aycock’s name to a new site, Heritage Hall, dedicated to the university’s history. ECU thus became the first state-supported university to remove Aycock’s name from a campus structure.
In 2015, Ballard received a substantial raise in pay, even as faculty and staff salaries remained stagnant. In 2016, more controversy followed the brutal beating of an African American man on campus, leading to the dismissal of an ECU police officer and Ballard walking out of a heated public forum on the incident. These events revealed the extent to which ECU continued to struggle with race relations even during an administration otherwise characterized by its commitment to diversification and inclusion.
Sources
- “Chancellor’s Leadership Academy.” East Carolina University. Web. Last Accessed March 31, 2017. http://www.ecu.edu/cs-admin/chancellor/ChancellorLeadership/index.cfm.
- “Dorm Controversy, Chancellor Search Top 2015 Headlines.” The Daily Reflector. January 4, 2016.
- “ECU Chancellor Steve Ballard Walked Out of a Forum on Race.” WNTC 9 On Your Side. March 29, 2016. Web. Accessed March 31, 2017. http://wnct.com/2016/03/29/ecu-chancellor-walks-out-as-tempers-flare-at-a-meeting-discussing-race/
- “ECU Denies FOIA Request for Assault Video.” The East Carolinian. Vol. 91, No. 6. April 26, 2016.
- “ECU to Remove Former Gov. Charles B. Aycock’s Name from Dorm.” The News and Observer. February 20, 2015.
- The East: The Magazine of East Carolina University. Greenville: East Carolina University and the East Carolina Alumni Association, vol. 1-15 (2002-2017).
- “Steve Ballard Gets 19% Pay Hike at ECU.” WITN.com. Nov. 2, 2015. Web. Accessed March 31, 2017. http://www.witn.com/home/headlines/Steve-Ballard-gets-19-pay-hike-at-ECU-339438522.html.
Citation Information
Title: Steve Ballard
Author: John A. Tucker, PhD
Date of Publication: 4/3/2017