Interviewed there in the last decade, was offered a job and STUPIDLY turned them down for the second-ring-of-hell. Why? Because my advisor and all my "informal advisors" screamed: "take the bigger State U with the doctoral program!!!!! Whatever 'issues' you think you saw are minor! You can ignore them and just do your work! don't be a fool!"
Great people, nice students and I was sorry within days of signing a contract with The Other School.
I'd concur with the general congeniality of faculty at Ball State. The campus has actually experienced a lot of new construction in the last 7 years or so, thus it is more aesthetically pleasing than it was in the past.