Ball State students continue their efforts to revitalize Swayzee 

Students at Ball State University’s Urban Planning program are working with the Swayzee Economic Growth Corporation to revitalize the town.  

“For some reason (Swayzee) found out about me, and called me and asked me if we could prepare a comprehensive plan for them,” said Dr. Michael Burayidi, a Ball State professor and faculty advisor on the project. “In the last seven years, my classes have prepared over 15 comprehensive plans across Indiana, and so they may have heard from other communities about what we do in the department.” 

The project is a part of Ball State’s urban planning program. Students usually complete a comprehensive plan for an Indiana community during their last year at the university. 

Burayidi said the first step in the comprehensive plan is data collection.  

“We did a lot of, like, deep, in-depth research about different assets in the community and their public services,” said Kayla Ferguson, an urban planning student at Ball State.  

Burayidi and the students gave a presentation at the Economic Growth Development Corporation meeting on Sept. 11 and asked Swayzee residents what they liked about the community and what needs to be improved. 

The students also emailed a census to members of the community, which received 121 responses. 

“The data that we’ve collected from the census does somewhat contradict what we have heard from the people in town, which is interesting,” said Remy Locke, a Ball State senior. “The people in town are saying that it’s all the young people leaving, but if you look at the rate of decline in population since like 1970, it’s remained consistent since then.” 

Locke said that Swayzee’s population of roughly 1,000 has been decreasing steadily by about eight to 10 people a year. 

Swayzee also suffers from a lack of local businesses. 

Ferguson said that residents have told her they drive half an hour away just to get groceries. 

“They don’t really have a localized economy, which is an issue because they’ve lost their tax base because of the population decline,” said Locke. “They didn’t have a very strong, like big tax base to begin with, but population decline and the aging infrastructure within the town is not a good combination.” 

The project is still in its early stages, but Burayidi said that the Swayzee community seems very engaged so far. 

“Whenever we ask for information, they are quick to respond to it,” said Burayidi. “And so, we’ve been delighted working with them.” 

The students will present their research on Oct. 16 at 6 p.m. The location is to be determined.