PUBLISHED ON Mar 07 2018
Jonathan Purvis, a respected leader in higher education advancement with 19 years of experience, has been named Butler University’s Vice President for Advancement. He begins his duties at Butler on April 16, 2018.
Purvis comes to Butler from Indiana University where he has served as Vice President for Development and Regional Campuses. Prior to that, he served as Executive Director of Development and Alumni Relations for the Indiana University School of Education and Senior Director for Capital Projects at Washington University in St. Louis. He has also held varied positions at the IU Foundation ranging from Executive Director of Special Gifts and Annual Giving to Assistant to the President.
“Jonathan possesses an exceptional depth of experience within higher education advancement,” said Butler University President James Danko. “His proven success in development, and demonstrated leadership in higher education, make him the right person to help us to achieve our ambitious fundraising goals.”
Purvis holds the Certified Fund Raising Executive credential (CFRE) and has taught a variety of fundraising courses at Indiana University. He is a frequent presenter with the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) and is a contributing author to the third edition of the acclaimed Achieving Excellence in Fundraising. He holds a bachelor’s degree in English and master’s degree in Public Affairs, both from Indiana University Bloomington.
Having grown up in Noblesville, Indiana, in a family of Butler alumni, Purvis is excited to return to Central Indiana to be part of the Butler community. He is joined by his wife Brittany, daughter Sophie, and son Joshua.
Media contact:
Rachel Stern
rstern@butler.edu
317-940-9257
PUBLISHED ON Apr 26 2016
Butler University’s College of Business has been renamed the Andre B. Lacy School of Business, in recognition of a $25 million commitment from the Chairman of the Board of Indianapolis-based LDI, Ltd (Lacy Diversified Industries) and his wife, Julia, Butler President James M. Danko announced today. In addition, Lacy will serve as senior adviser to the School of Business.
The gift is Butler’s largest ever from an individual or family.
“The Butler community is deeply grateful to Andre and Julia Lacy for this transformational investment,” said Danko. “This partnership brings together recognized champions of business and education, and will further extend Butler’s national reputation as an innovative, world-class institution.”
“Butler has long been an excellent school and an anchor to the Indianapolis and Central Indiana community,” Lacy said. “But in the last five years, under President Danko’s leadership, I have seen Butler grow into a national player, especially when it comes to the University’s focus on innovation, experiential learning, and outcomes.”
In 2015, Butler was recognized by U.S. News and World Report as the Midwest’s most innovative school, and among the best in the nation for internships, study abroad, and undergraduate research. Just last week, Bloomberg BusinessWeek ranked Butler’s School of Business No. 1 in the nation for internships, and the School’s 2015 graduating class achieved a 99 percent placement rate.
“We hope this investment further establishes the Lacy School of Business—and Butler University overall—as the premier destination for students, faculty, employers, and community partners in Central Indiana and across the country,” Lacy said.
Lacy To Serve As Senior Adviser
Lacy has worked with Butler for more than a decade, serving on the Butler Business Consulting Group Advisory Panel and endowing a student scholarship within the School of Business. As part of this new partnership, Lacy will serve as a direct resource to the Lacy School of Business and Butler University community.
Stephen Standifird, Dean of the Lacy School of Business, said that Lacy will be an extraordinary asset to the School as senior adviser. “To do what we do well, we must have a strong group of people in the business community who are willing to advise us on what’s really happening—the dynamics of the marketplace, how we can increase connections with industry, and continue to be relevant,” Standifird said. “I can’t think of anybody better suited for that role than Andre Lacy. He is passionate about closely held business and developing the next generation of business leaders. We share these passions, which makes for a great partnership."
Lacy said he sees his new role at Butler as an opportunity to pass down what he’s learned and what he knows.
“The adviser role,” he said, “provides that opportunity to share, mentor, and help students see that prospering an entity is bigger than any one individual—and it gives back exponentially to the communities where they live. That’s a desire we see in this generation—to be part of something bigger than themselves, and to be on the ground floor of establishing something that has meaning and value.”
A Differentiated Experience
Two areas of particular focus for Lacy and Standifird will be helping the School build upon its signature experiential approach to teaching and learning, and expanding its focus on closely held businesses. In the School of Business, students create a business plan their first year, launch a company as sophomores, and complete at least two internships before graduation—a series of experiential requirements unmatched in the business school landscape.
Lacy sees these strengths as key to Butler’s differentiation. “Butler’s business program presents two main points of value proposition for the student that differentiate it from Kelley, Krannert, Harvard, and the like,” he said. “The first is focusing on closely held businesses—meaning small businesses and family-owned businesses—which drive the nation’s economy and make up 90 percent of Indiana’s business sector. The second is giving students the real-world experience of working directly with local businesses, seeing first-hand the challenges they face, and learning the art and science of developing and selling solutions that have real value in the business market.”
An Everlasting Alignment
Butler President Danko said Lacy’s approach, which stresses leadership, character, and integrity, strongly aligns with The Butler Way.
"Andre Lacy has demonstrated through his business success, community leadership, and principled life a strong conviction to improving society and the well-being of others,” he said. “The financial commitment from Andre and Julia is extraordinary, but of equal or even greater value will be the everlasting alignment of the Lacy name and Butler University."
Media contact:
Marc Allan
317-940-9822
mallan@butler.edu
PUBLISHED ON Mar 26 2018
Professor of Religion Paul Valliere marvels at the similarities between the Butler University he joined in 1982 and the Butler University from which he's retiring in May.
"It's perfectly obvious that all kinds of things are happening at Butler now that weren’t happening in 1982," he said. "But there are real continuities in the Butler of yore and the Butler of today. Most of those continuities are very positive—face-to-face community, dedication to students, ability to attract really fine students. We get really fine students. So did we in 1982. Most of the changes at Butler have built on the positives that were already there."
And over 36 years at Butler, Valliere, 74, has had a hand in several of those positive changes. He collaborated on creating the Change and Tradition core curriculum (which has evolved into Global and Historical Studies), built up the Honors Program, co-wrote the application for a Lilly Endowment Inc. grant that created the Center for Faith and Vocation, and wrote the application that helped Butler get a Phi Beta Kappa chapter.
Then there's teaching. Valliere approached his courses with the memory of something his former colleague John Beversluis told him: "I want every class to be an event."
"My favorite moments at Butler are walking out of a class that I know in my heart went really, really well," Valliere said. "For me, nothing compares to the sense of elation when I know at the end of a class that it really went well—I accomplished what I intended to in there, but much more, because the students grabbed hold of it and ran with it and it ended up being a great class."
Betsy Shirley '10, now Associate Editor at Sojourners magazine, remembers Valliere referring to students as his "young colleagues. And he really meant it. It wasn't a gimmick."
"He took more notes in class than any professor I had," she said. "He took notes on what students were saying—interesting points they made or something he wanted to follow up with them. Sometimes after class, he would say, 'I really appreciated that point you made. You might want to check out this extra essay, or this article that might help you develop your point.' He saw what students were saying as important and wanted to learn with them and from them."
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Valliere grew up in Longmeadow, Massachusetts. After earning his bachelor's degree from Williams College, he got a job as a community organizer in East Harlem. In 1971, he began his teaching career at Columbia University, from which he earned his master's and doctorate, and started his career-long scholarship in religion and theology in modern Russia.
He taught religion at Columbia for 11 years. But by this point, he and his wife, Marjorie, had three young children, and he wanted a tenured professorship.
Butler offered him that. He moved to Indianapolis to be Dean of Butler's University College, which advised all first-year students and sophomores and oversaw the core curriculum and the honors program, and an Associate Professor of Religion.
He said Marjorie had to get a driver's license when they settled in Indiana—she didn't need one in New York—but the adjustment to the Midwest was otherwise easy.
"You're still the same person with the same unfinished articles in the same drawer," he said. "People have a tendency to get too hung up on externals—what environment do I live in, that kind of thing. Those things are superficial compared to the continuities: same family, same profession, same responsibilities, same challenges."
One of those challenges was integrating his interest in and knowledge of Russian theology into the curriculum. He did that through a course he team-taught with History Professor Bruce Bigelow called Peoples and Faiths of the Soviet Union (later Peoples and Faiths of Russia and its Neighbors).
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Valliere described himself as "the product of a 100 percent pure liberal arts tradition." In fact, he said, "There was concern among some of the people at Butler who hired me that I might be too liberal-artsy for the good of the institution."
He said Butler "broadened me" by exposing him to students in professional areas.
"In my years of working with students in the arts, pharmacy, education, and the other professional colleges, I've become a broader, better-informed academic," he said. "I feel very good about that part of my Butler experience, where I had to stretch. I hope I stretched Butler and my students. That's what we're supposed to do. Stretch. But I got stretched also. And to the good."
Judith Cebula, the Founding Director of the Center for Faith and Vocation, said one of Valliere's strengths is that he "believes in the possible."
"He hired me to help launch the Center for Faith and Vocation and I saw first-hand how he believed Butler could become a better university when he created the Center, when he created the Seminar on Religion and Global Affairs, when created new courses, such as Faith Doubt and Reason in collaboration with Philosophy Professor Stuart Glennan, for example," she said.
"I saw it most clearly when he shared with me that he always strived to see the fullest potential in each student who walked into his classroom. Each student entered a new semester with an A in Paul’s grade book. That is how much he believes in the possible."
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Valliere said he's enjoyed watching the city of Indianapolis grow, and Butler grow with it. That's one of the reasons he put off retirement.
"Why leave when the institution is doing so well and the city has gotten so interesting?" he said.
But now that the time is right for retirement, Paul and Marjorie plan to stay in Indianapolis and keep their Butler Basketball season tickets. He plans to continue his Russia scholarship, and will be working with the Emory University School of Law to co-edit a volume on the history of Christianity and law in Russia. It's part of a big study program being coordinated by the Center for the Study of Law and Religion at Emory.
"I'm retiring from teaching," he said, "but there's no rule that says you have to retire from scholarship—and I don't have any plans to cut back on that front."
As for teaching, yes, he will miss the interactions with students and the dynamics of the classroom.
"But I taught for 47 years, which is a lot longer than a lot of people have a chance to do," he said. "I turn 75 this year, so I've had a long run, and I'm grateful."
The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences will hold a retirement reception for Paul Valliere and Philosophy Professor Harry van der Linden on Tuesday, April 3, from 4:30-6:30 PM in the Robertson Hall Johnson Room. All are welcome. No RSVP necessary.
Media contact:
Marc Allan
mallan@butler.edu
317-940-9822
He Wanted Every Class to Be An Event
After 36 years at Butler, Religion Professor Paul Valliere retires.
After 36 years at Butler, Religion Professor Paul Valliere retires.
PUBLISHED ON Sep 21 2015
Daniel Meyers, the new Director of Butler’s Center for Faith and Vocation, faced some tough moments while studying biochemistry at Willamette University.
“Chemistry was always a challenge for me and required tremendous energy; there came a point where I was ready to give up my biochemistry major,” he said. “But I had good advice from my own chaplain at the university, who I talked with about this. He said: ‘Small seasons are small. This moment of frustration and challenge was not your whole time in the sciences and probably won’t continue to be.’ And that was true.”
The influence of that chaplain was so significant that Meyers continued his biochemistry major and took on a second major, Religious Studies. In both fields, he found himself asking big questions about how the world works. Or, as he puts it, “two different approaches to similar questions.”
Religion eventually won out in his career plan. And now at Butler, he plans to help coordinate, support, and strengthen religious life on campus while helping people identify their own passions and how those interests connect to their work at the University and beyond.
“What I’m hopefully going to get to do,” he said, “is be involved in both of those distinct but very much wedded-together projects.”
Meyers came to Butler on June 1 from Columbia University, where, for the past two years, he was the inaugural Earl Hall Religious Life Fellow in the Office of the University Chaplain. The Portland, Oregon, native, and his wife, Janna, initially moved to New York after graduation from Willamette. While she studied at Union Theological Seminary, he taught high school chemistry and environmental science in Newark, New Jersey, through Teach for America.
“What I really learned from that whole experience is that teaching is very, very difficult, and you have to be able to connect with the community,” he said. “You have to be present in many ways beyond the classroom.”
In Newark, Meyers also realized that he wanted to focus on chaplaincy rather than leading a parish because he preferred one-on-one, small group dynamics to leading a large community. After three years of teaching, he and Janna moved to Connecticut. He attended Yale Divinity School, earning a Master of Divinity and becoming ordained in the United Church of Christ.
That led to his fellowship at Columbia, where one of his achievements was creating Exhale, a space for student reflection, awareness, and discernment. As that position wound down, he wanted to find a higher education, multi-faith chaplaincy.
Meyers sees his first year at Butler as “largely a listening year.” He’ll hear from students, faculty, staff, and community advisers about where the Center for Faith and Vocation should go as it heads into its second decade. He also will advise “those open to questions and open to seeking.”
“So whether you find yourself in a religious set of commitments or communities, or you’re outside of any particular label but you have questions about meaning and purpose and divinity, those are the kinds of folks I’m excited to be engaging with at Butler,” he said.
He’ll also have a big year personally—Janna is expecting their first child in October.
“New house, new city, new job, new child,” Meyers said. “It’s just all kinds of new. I’m excited about all of it.”
Media contact:
Marc Allan
mallan@butler.edu
317-940-9822