Butler to Welcome 1,040 First-Year Students

Butler University will welcome 1,040 first-year students on move-in day Saturday, August 22. Classes begin Wednesday, August 26. Butler’s class of 2019 continues the University’s track record of attracting high-quality, academically prepared students. Here’s a look at some numbers. -42 valedictorians and 16 salutatorians. -Average GPA, 3.78. -ACT middle 50 percent 25-30. -SAT middle 50…

Grant Helps Butler Create Student-Run Insurance Company

The Butler University College of Business will establish a student-run insurance company with the goal of having the company fully operational by the 2019–2020 academic year, thanks to a $250,000 gift from MJ Insurance and Michael M. Bill. The Butler business, known as a “captive insurance company,” will insure certain programs at Butler, perhaps including…

Elise Kushigian Honored for Her Service to Clowes Hall, Butler, Indiana

Elise Kushigian was honored on Friday for her more than 20 years of service as executive director of Clowes Memorial Hall, with Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard proclaiming August 7, 2015, “Elise J. Kushigian Day,” and Gov. Mike Pence naming her a Sagamore of the Wabash. Butler President James M. Danko also weighed in, praising Kushigian…

Four Butler Teams Earn BIG EAST Academic Excellence Awards

Four of Butler’s teams were recognized by the BIG EAST Conference with the 2014-15 Team Academic Excellence Award. Twenty-two teams received the award for having the highest collective grade-point averages in each conference sport on August 4. With four team recipients, Butler ranked second among BIG EAST universities. Butler participates in 18 of the 22…

Prosecutor Names Butler ‘Crime Fighter of the Year’

Butler University is the 2015 recipient of the Marion County Prosecutor’s Crime Fighter of the Year Award, presented on August 4 by Prosecutor Terry Curry to Butler University Chief of Staff and Executive Director of Public Safety Ben Hunter, Assistant Professor Brandie Oliver and Butler University Police Department Detective Bruce Allee. Speaking at the 32nd…

Butler Chorale Members Are Back For An Encore

He left Butler nearly 20 years ago, but, from 1986–1996, Michael Shasberger provided his students in the Butler Chorale with great memories—including five international tours and the staging of Handel’s “Messiah”—along with instruction that still guides them today. The memories are so strong, in fact, that over the July 24–26 weekend, about two dozen of…

Introducing the Hinkle Academy, a New Graduate Program

Graduate students looking to become leaders in wellness, sport, and allied fields now have a new option: the Hinkle Academy, a joint online venture of Butler University’s Department of Athletics, College of Education, and Health and Recreation Complex. The program begins in the fall, offering 12 credits of graduate coursework spread out over 11 months.…

Dean Howard’s New Book Has Them Talking (Or Soon Will)

Maybe you know how this is (or remember how it was): A professor asks the class a question and then waits … and waits … and waits for someone, anyone to speak up. But most of the time, what the professor hears is the hissing of fluorescent lights. For the last 30 years, Jay Howard,…

Student-Researchers Get Their Chance to Shine

This summer, after a year and a half trying to grow a protein called OVCA2 that’s thought to suppress ovarian cancer tumors, senior Jessica Bun had a breakthrough. On Wednesday, July 15, she got to share the news with students, faculty, staff, and visitors who came to see the results of research by participants in…

NCAA Selects President Danko for Committee to Shape Future of College Sports

Butler University President James M. Danko will be among a group of college presidents, athletics administrators, faculty, students and conference commissioners to convene in Indianapolis August 4-5 to build the foundation for the future of college sports, the NCAA announced. Participants were invited because of positions they hold in the Division I governance structure or…

Butler Recognized by Fiske, Colleges of Distinction

Butler University has been recognized by both the Fiske Guide to Colleges 2016 and the 2015-16 Colleges of Distinction website. Butler is listed in five categories in the updated Fiske Guide, “a selective, subjective, and systematic look at 300-plus colleges and universities in the U.S., Canada, and Great Britain.” Butler is included in: Small Colleges…

Butler Chorale to Sing With the Rolling Stones

The Butler Chorale has landed another spectacularly high-profile gig: July 4 with the Rolling Stones at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway as part of the band’s ZIP CODE tour. The 26-member choral group, which performed with Madonna as part of the 2012 Super Bowl halftime show, will be providing backup vocals during one song of the…

The Center for Urban Ecology Gets a New Director

An interest and expertise in plant ecology has taken Julia Angstmann from Indiana to Manitoba, Canada, to Cape Town, South Africa, and back to Indiana—where she is now the new director of Butler’s Center for Urban Ecology. “My career has definitely not been a straight line,” Angstmann said. “I have seized opportunities even if I…

2015 is the Year of the Quality Television Finale, Dean Edgerton Says

From Mad Men and Boardwalk Empire to David Letterman and Bob Schieffer, 2015 has already established itself as the year of quality TV finales—and the year that those finales became essential to the television business, the Dean of Butler University’s College of Communication, Gary Edgerton, says. “With few exceptions, like The Mary Tyler Moore Show…

Ushering in the Indianapolis Bicentennial, With Butler’s Help

Nine emerging leaders—including Butler University Sustainability Coordinator McKenzie Beverage and 2014 graduates Aaron Harrison and Samantha Helferich—will play a pivotal role in setting the stage for implementing the Bicentennial Plan, a visionary, community-unified component of the Plan 2020 initiative and the future of Indianapolis-Marion County. Last year, the CityCorps Fellowship program was designed to generate…