Butler Year in Review: The People of 2018
In March of 2018, we launched Butler Stories, a place to share news, tell tales, and engage more deeply with our community. Over the course of the year we have shared more than 100 stories about the Butler community and its impact.
People are what make Butler so extraordinary. Every day, we are reminded of just how compassionate, tenacious, and curious Bulldogs can be. From a patient’s bedside to the sideline at Hinkle, some of our most notable stories of 2018 were about some of the most exceptionable members of our Butler Family.
Here are just 5 of the top profiles of the year:
Butler Roots Run Deep
Having spent much of his youth on the sidelines of Hinkle, Campbell Donovan’s path to playing for the men’s basketball team was a dream come true for both him and his family.
Perseverance and Patients
Cancer kept Trent Tipple from officially receiving his Butler degree until May 2018, nearly 27 years after he enrolled, but that didn’t stop him from pursuing his dream to become a Neonatal physician.
Let Passion Lead You
In the spring of 1985, just days before graduating, Dave Calabro skipped his math final to announce for the first time at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The decision paid off for the man who eventually became the official voice of the Indianapolis 500.
Shelvin Mack’s Homecoming
Shelvin Mack decided to leave school early to pursue his NBA dream. 7 years into his successful professional basketball career, he’s pursuing a old dream – a Butler degree.
Lee-gacy
Award-winning reporter and current editor for Butler’s Collegian Dana Lee ’19 has written for ESPN and hobnobbed with celebrities, but it’s impossible to tell her story without bringing up her two younger siblings, Jessica and Michael, who also happen to attend Butler.
Butler Year in Review: The People of 2018
From a patient’s bedside to the sideline at Hinkle, here are some of our most notable stories of 2018.
Getting To The Root of It: How Butler’s One-Acre Farm Has Evolved In a Decade
PUBLISHED ON Nov 25 2019
This story is part of a mini-series exploring The Farm at Butler, its methods, and its mission. Part one of six.
On the west side of Butler University’s campus, nestled between a leafy stretch of the Central Canal Towpath to the southeast and Butler’s athletic fields to the northwest, a one-acre farm sits in stillness. If you walk along the narrow plant beds, the sun on your neck and the songs of house finches fluttering in your ears, you’ll probably forget you’re still in the heart of Indiana’s capital city.
Today, The Farm at Butler (previously called the CUE Farm) is an ongoing sustainable agriculture project that serves a wide range of roles on campus and in the Indianapolis area. The Farm teaches people about growing produce in a way that’s healthy for both humans and the Earth. It promotes research and place-based learning for faculty, staff, students, and members of the community, and it connects food to a variety of careers through recruiting student interns to help keep things running.
But back in 2010, it started as just a place to grow food. A student-run group called Earth Charter Butler broke ground on the space with help from the young Center for Urban Ecology & Sustainability (CUES), an academic center at Butler that celebrated its 10-year anniversary last year. But the effort was mostly student-driven.
Julie Elmore, a 2010 graduate from Butler’s Biology program who helped launch The Farm, first learned about an ethical framework called the Earth Charter in an honors class. The global sustainability movement, which formed in the late 1990s with a mission of uniting Earth’s cultures to work toward protecting the planet and bringing peace to the world, inspired Elmore and a few of her classmates to grow more connected with nature.
“One of the things that kept popping up regarding how you can relate the planet to people was food and where our food comes from,” she says. “We wanted to see more local food, and how much more local can our food get as students than being produced on campus?”
When the students graduated, the CUES took over. The Farm became one part of the Center’s mission to educate and empower Butler and Indianapolis in following best practices of urban ecology.
After funding from the Nina Mason Pulliam Charitable Trust helped the CUES hire Tim Dorsey as full-time Farm Manager in 2011, Dorsey worked to expand the project from one-third of an acre to its current one-acre plot. The Farm now grows more than 70 different kinds of plants—closer to 200 if you include the different species of each crop. In just one acre, the space fits onions, garlic, bell peppers, cabbage, hot peppers, tomatoes, peach trees, apple trees, berries, and way more.
“The mission of The Farm, at first,” says CUES Director Julia Angstmann, “was to be a model for other agriculture projects in the city—to show what can be done on an acre, and to show how to do it in an ecologically sound way.”
And while The Farm still stays involved across Indianapolis, recent years have seen a return to its roots of focusing on Butler.
“We still have that original motive of being an educator in the city,” Angstmann says. “But we have renewed our commitment to the Butler community.”
READ MORE:
Part 1: Getting To The Root of It: How Butler’s One-Acre Farm Has Evolved In a Decade
Part 2: Farming Full-Time: How Tim Dorsey Discovered the World Through Agriculture
Part 3: A Crash Course on Nature-Focused, Hands-In-The-Dirt Growing
Part 4: Sustainability on the Syllabus
Part 5: A Model for Urban Farming in Indianapolis
Part 6: So, Where Does All The Food Go?
Explore the full Farm at Butler mini-series here
Media Contact:
Katie Grieze
News Content Manager
260-307-3403 (cell)
Innovations in Teaching and Learning
One of the distinguishing features of a Butler education has always been the meaningful and enduring relationships between our faculty and students. Gifts to this pillar during Butler Beyond will accelerate our commitment to investing in faculty excellence by adding endowed positions, supporting faculty scholarship and research, renovating and expanding state-of-the-art teaching facilities, and more. Learn more, make a gift, and read other stories like this one at beyond.butler.edu.
Getting To The Root of It: How Butler’s One-Acre Farm Has Evolved In a Decade
Since 2010, The Farm at Butler has been a place for people to connect with the world and one another.
Since 2010, The Farm at Butler has been a place for people to connect with the world and one another.
Schwitzer is Gone. Long Live Schwitzer.
PUBLISHED ON Aug 01 2017
Schwitzer Residence Hall came to life in 1956 and for 60 years was called "home" to many Butler alumni and current students. Demolition of Schwitzer Hall was completed March 1, 2017, and construction of the new residence hall is currently underway. Although Schwitzer Hall has been removed physically, its ashes will be spread throughout campus and it will continue to serve a relevant purpose throughout the Butler University grounds.
In the early stages of construction, bed frames, mattresses, chairs, and desks were removed from Schwitzer and donated to Goodwill. Existing doors, hardware, and equipment were also removed. These will aid in repairs for other Residence Halls throughout campus. The original stone entryway arches and sections of the building facade were removed and preserved. These parts will be incorporated elsewhere on campus. Thus, beloved Schwitzer Hall will continue to live beyond its useful life.
As Schwitzer's walls and floors were taken down, its remains began to fill the site of 750 West Hampton Drive.
As part of the LEED building process, all existing brick, concrete, and stone will be recycled onsite and used as backfill for the new residence hall. The bones of Schwitzer will continue to serve a purpose as the foundation for the new facility.
Shiel Sexton Company is General Contractor for the new $30 million residence hall, which is being developed by American Campus Communities. This is the second phase in the new frontier of modern student housing, a continuance 
of Fairview House. The new student housing will contain 660 beds in apartment-style units, a fitness center, study lounges, game rooms, a large community meeting space, and much more.
In the end, this traditional residence hall gives way to a modern facility, but the ashes of Schwitzer Hall will lay the foundation for a new place that will soon be called "home" to many at Butler University.
Butler University to Host Seven Commencement Ceremonies to Accommodate More Guests
PUBLISHED ON Apr 29 2021
INDIANAPOLIS, Ind.—Butler University will host seven separate commencement ceremonies May 8-9 to safely accommodate more guests, and allow for proper social distancing between graduates and guests. All ceremonies will be held in Hinkle Fieldhouse on the Butler campus.
Typically, Butler hosts one commencement ceremony for all of its graduates. This year, the university will host separate ceremonies for each of its six colleges, plus an additional ceremony for the Class of 2020. Butler was unable to host a commencement ceremony in 2020 due to the pandemic.
Each graduate will be allowed to invite two guests to attend the ceremony. Guests will be seated in pods, with at least six feet between them and other guests. Graduates will be seated throughout the arena, and will also have at least six feet between them and other graduates, faculty members, and dignitaries who will be in attendance.
“Given what we have experienced over the past year, I have gained an even deeper appreciation for the importance of social gatherings and the value of celebrating life’s milestones together,” Butler President James M. Danko said. “While I prefer Hinkle Fieldhouse at full capacity, I’m grateful that we are able to safely accommodate guests for this very special occasion.”
There are 1,235 students graduating from Butler in the Class of 2021; 978 students are earning undergraduate degrees and 257 students are earning graduate degrees. Of the 1,348 students who graduated in the Class of 2020, 328 are expected to return to campus to participate in their commencement ceremony.
The ceremonies’ dates, times, and speakers are:
Saturday, May 8
Class of 2021
- 8:30 AM—Jordan College of the Arts: Faculty address by Dr. Becky Marsh, Assistant Professor of Choral Music Education; student reflection speaker is Daniel Scofield, Dance-Arts Administration major, Business Administration minor
- 12:30 PM—College of Communication: Faculty address by Dr. Abbey Levenshus, Associate Professor of Strategic Communication; student reflection speaker is Jack Shirley, Strategic Communication major, Digital Media Production minor
- 4:30 PM—Lacy School of Business: Student reflections by undergraduate Taylor Fisher, double major in Finance and Economics, and graduate student Anna Rader, Master of Science in Risk and Insurance
Class of 2020
- 8:30 PM—All Graduates: Faculty address by Dr. Jane Gervasio, Professor of Pharmacy Practice, College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences
Sunday, May 9
Class of 2021
- 10:00 AM—College of Education: Faculty address by Dr. Debra Lecklider, Professor and Director of the Experiential Program for Preparing School Principals (EPPSP) graduate program
- 2:00 PM—College of Liberal Arts and Sciences: Faculty address by Dr. Terri Jett, Professor of Political Science and Peace and Conflict Studies Department, Faculty Director of the Hub for Black Affairs and Community Engagement and Senior Advisor to the President, Affiliate Faculty—Race, Gender, and Sexuality Studies; student reflection speaker is Gwen Valles, double major in International Studies and Spanish, with a minor in Chinese
- 6:00 PM—College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences: Student reflection speakers are Will Grabowski, Doctor of Pharmacy, Class of 2021 President; Megan Becker, Master of Physician Assistant Studies, Class of 2021 President; Eshaan Lothe, Bachelor of Science in Health Sciences, Class of 2021 President
Media Contact:
Mark Apple
mapple1@butler.edu
317-519-8592
About Butler University
Butler University is a nationally recognized comprehensive university encompassing six colleges: Arts, Business, Communication, Education, Liberal Arts & Sciences, and Pharmacy & Health Sciences. Approximately 4,600 undergraduate and 800 graduate students are enrolled at Butler, representing 45 states and 30 countries. More than 75 percent of Butler students will participate in some form of internship, and Butler students have had significant success after graduation, as demonstrated by the University’s 98 percent placement rate within six months of graduation. The University was recently listed as the No. 1 regional university in the Midwest, according to the U.S. News & World Report Best Colleges Rankings, in addition to being included in The Princeton Review’s annual “best colleges” guidebook.
Butler University to Host Seven Commencement Ceremonies to Accommodate More Guests
All ceremonies will be held in Hinkle Fieldhouse on the Butler campus
All ceremonies will be held in Hinkle Fieldhouse on the Butler campus