The value of a Butler University degree seems to be getting lost in the shuffle as Butler continues to grow and change.
Recently, President Jim Danko has done a good job of bringing more donations to the university. He has also potentially set the school up for further monetary and athletic success with the Big East move.
However, not every decision Danko and other Butler officials make should be fueled solely by monetary gain.
Danko and the administration need to focus on ensuring Butler students gain a strong education and meaningful degree.
The main reason the majority of students go to college is for a degree that will lead to a career.
Being part of history or change can certainly be a plus, but it is not what students focus on while at school.
Butler officials need to recognize this.
College costs far too much money for the resulting degree to be meaningless.
Butler students would like their degrees to mean something more to potential employers because the Butler name is attached.
Unemployment is down in Indiana from where it sat during the height of the recession. However, the current 8.7 percent rate is still higher than the national rate of 7.6 percent.
Butler students do not want to become another statistic as soon as they leave campus.
Butler’s administration needs to refine its majors so  everyone with a degree has an equal chance to find a job after graduation.
Students across various majors have had trouble working with teachers and advisers to land internships and jobs while in school.
The fact that some students do not have much real-world experience on their resumes does not bode well when they are applying for jobs after graduation.
This should be a focus for Butler administrators when crafting the Butler degree.
With the recent changes, Danko has made comments  suggesting his focus is not on each of his students’ degrees.
In The Collegian’s April 17 article “Funding Butler’s Future,” it was reported that Danko was encouraging faculty members to think about how to keep Butler on the same paths as schools “we aspire to be.”
He posed the question, “What is Stanford doing and how can we get there?”
Danko needs to focus on what is going on at Butler now instead of what other schools are doing and whether Butler is doing those things or not.
He should not try to make Butler into some other university by forcing a major image overhaul. Application numbers suggest this is not necessary.
Danko needs to worry about making sure the Butler degree is meaningful before trying to drastically alter the school.
Devaluing the degree might alienate future alumni.
Butler alumni who do not feel they were given a strong degree or any help toward attaining a career while at Butler are unlikely to donate to the university later on.
That would hurt Butler in many ways and could actually contribute to decreasing the value of a Butler degree.
Major donations and athletic conference changes will help Butler in many ways, potentially benefitting the value of the school’s degrees down the line.
However, for current students, it feels as though quality education and getting help starting a career are being pushed to the wayside.
If Butler degrees are not resulting in students getting jobs, there is one less reason for potential students to consider Butler as a college choice.

While Butler University’s Community of Care is a fine idea, it does not keep students belongings from getting stolen.
There has been a spike in theft around campus, and much of the responsibility  to protect belongings lies with students themselves.
It’s not uncommon for two or three laptops to be lying around unattended in an academic building at any given time.
Students will leave them go print things, to talk to friends or make a phone call, leaving the valuables ready to be stolen.
Butler is not immune from crime, and students need to stop thinking that nothing bad will ever happen to them.
We do live in a bubble, but sometimes that bubble bursts, and people come in and steal things.
Do not be naïve about what can happen when you are not around. An unattended backpack or iPhone can be tempting to a thief.
It’s not always outsider-on-student crime.
Butler is pretty small, but there are still more than 4,000 students here who are perfectly capable of snatching up expensive items while others are away.
Last fall, a Ross Hall resident made his or her way through the building and stole cash and computers.
That should send a message to students to take steps to prevent this from happening to them.
Butler is generally safe, but the recent spree in theft should push students to make better choices.
And if you see anything that looks suspicious, tell someone about it. If you see people acting like they are taking things that don’t belong to them, do not let them get away with it tell BUPD or any authoritative figure in the area.
Theft on campus has generally gone unsolved, so it’s likely that once you get something stolen, you will not see it again.
Don’t be the next victim in the crime log.
Lock your doors.
Keep your backpack with you.
Always keep your phone ,laptop and other expensive electronics close. It only takes a second for something to disappear.

Student Government Association is investing part of its budget surplus in students, but it could go to better use.
SGA currently has over $200,000 in the budget cushion now. That is a good sum of money just sitting in the bank and SGA is putting it to use. SGA is investing $100,000 in a patio in between the Gallahue and Holcomb buildings.
The plans for the new updated area look great but the money should be going to fix bigger issues on campus. In particular going towards fixing the parking and housing situations on campus. The school could greatly benefit from an increase in the number of parking spots on campus.
Residential life has two problems. The biggest of which is that there is a shortage of rooms on campus. We also have two overcrowded residential buildings that have no central air conditioning.
The patio sounds nice but it is not a necessity and it would only be available to students during the mild weather times of year.
Why not invest money into long-term projects, like better residence halls or more parking areas?
If part of the funding for these projects comes from the rollover account then it would be much easier.
If the money came from the rollover budget, it would cut out some of the red tape of dealing with Butler administration.
Investing a large sum of the rollover budget into something that students can enjoy is good.
There are higher priorities that the money could go towards that could benefit more students and benefit them during all times of the year.
If the money is going to sit in an account for years down the road, put it to good use or lower the student activity fee.
SGA should weigh all of the options before commiting to spending thousands of dollars.

Due to limited on-campus housing, Butler University should not require third-year students to live on campus.
With the long list of underclassmen facing housing perils, the school could save itself a lot of trouble by allowing juniors to live off campus.
This would free up rooms in Apartment Village, where sophomores could be allowed to live.
Earlier this semester, Butler University sent out emails encouraging rising seniors to live in AV.
With the current logjam of students trying to find housing for next year, this is the wrong thing for Butler to do.
If anything, the school should be encouraging students to live off campus to free up necessary room.
If the school or a scholarship is not paying for a senior’s housing, then he or she should not live on campus. Allowing seniors to live on campus will prevent the fulfillment of housing requirements, which requires students to live on campus for three years.
The housing crisis on campus is so bad sophomores are being forced to live in Ross and Schwitzer Halls again.
A handful of rising sophomores might not mind living in freshman dorms, but many are ready to move on to better housing options.
The housing situation on campus has reached the point where underclassmen are already making housing plans for their senior years.
Social groups change, and no one can know for certain who they will want to live with two or three years down the road.
If a scenario came up where  students would choose to study abroad or choose to live in a residence hall for financial reasons, he or she would have problems getting out of the lease.
If the school did decide to allow juniors to live off campus, it would have to plan this carefully.
The influx of commuters would  outnumber the  limited parking on campus. Plans would need to be made to add more parking. Despite this problem, trying to find a ride to campus is not as big of a problem as finding somewhere to live.
Off-campus housing is not the only issue students are facing. Housing priority is based upon credit hours.
Athletes traditionally take fewer hours because of time constraints. Many athletes have scholarships, which cover their housing.
If these athletes who have a financial reason to stay on campus cannot live where they want, then they would be at a serious disadvantage.
To solve the housing  crisis now and provide room for expansion in the future, Butler should allow third-year students to live off campus.

When Butler officials announced that the university would be among the newest members of the Big East, a general sense of jubilation quickly spread across the social media world.
Administrators are hopeful that the move will give Butler a chance to reach a bigger national spotlight, some exposure to potential athletes and students and make our degree all the more valuable.
While all of these sound great, perhaps Butler made the move too quickly.
Decisions that will indeed impact the entire university should not be based in full off of the success of one athletic team.
A degree from Butler will be valuable if the academics are up to par, not if the basketball team makes a showing in the tournament.
The talk to move to the Big East only started a month before the announcement, according to Chief of Staff Ben Hunter, so one has to wonder if the decision was made too quickly.
Realigning the university with a group of institutions unlike our own puts us at risk of encountering an identity crisis.
We’re joining the likes of Villanova, Georgetown and Marquette—schools that boast enrollment twice as large as ours and graduate programs that could make you forget Butler even offers graduate degrees.
We are, as one Big East official said, the token non-Catholic school in the bunch.
Geographically, we are separated from a majority of our fellow Big East schools.
We hope that Butler administrators took the time to address these differences in identities when they decided to make the big move.
Students have been coming to Butler for a very specific atmosphere. The small-school appeal is what draws students in.
Big moves can mean even bigger changes for the university.
We just hope the decision was made with the entire university in mind, not just the basketball team.

Hinkle Fieldhouse appears void of activity to the outside observer after dark. But for Rotnei Clarke, nights in Hinkle hardly lack action.

On any given night, one can find the senior guard shooting and working on his game in a nearly deserted Hinkle Fieldhouse. Apart from an occasional security guard or maintenance worker, Clarke normally practices without an audience.

Every night possible, Clarke is at Hinkle shooting until he makes between 350 and 400 shots. Clarke said those shots range from 3-pointers and free throws to all types of possible in-game shots.

Vicki Devine, lead general services assistant at Hinkle, said Clarke almost always makes an appearance whenever she is working late.

This work ethic didn’t come overnight for Clarke.

“I’ve done these workouts ever since I can remember,” Clarke said. “Going back to third or fourth grade, I would work with my dad on ball handling and shooting drills.”

Clarke also said his faith keeps him motivated to go in each night and put in the work necessary to succeed.

“I know that God has blessed me with a gift that I don’t want to go to waste,” Clarke said. “It’s a blessing to be alive, and I’m really playing for him.”

Clarke said the neck injury he sustained against Dayton earlier this season broke his routine for a week or two, but it hasn’t really stopped him.

If anything, he said it reinforced his desire to get the most out of his abilities while he is able to do so.

Clarke has had a remarkable season for Butler, averaging more than 16 points per game and shooting nearly 43 percent on 3’s and 88 percent from the free-throw line.

Amid his collegiate success, Clarke said any thoughts of playing professionally could wait.

“I’m really just focused on this season right now,” Clarke said. “I’m trying to finish strong with the guys and coaching staff I’m with. I’ll worry about what comes next after the season is over with.”

With the calendar turned to March and the NCAA Tournament rapidly approaching, Clarke believes strongly in the team’s chances to make a run this postseason.

“I think we can make a deep run, (and) we’ve shown throughout the season we can play with anyone,” Clarke said. “It depends on how we play each night, but anything can happen.”

The lack of  communication between majors and colleges is stunting the growth of students and the reputation of Butler University.
The poor communication between the different academic departments is resulting in students not getting the necessary information they need to graduate.
Upperclassmen who are studying in multiple fields have to communicate with several advisers and counselors in order to make sure they are staying on track to achieve their academic goals.
Many students are not meeting all of their needs because they do not know  they are not on track.
When advisers do not effectively communicate with each other and to students what needs to be done, the students are the ones some suffer.
Advisers typically have  great resumes and may often be doing research in addition to teaching. But  they need to realize they have other responsibilities. Part of this includes communicating with students about what they need to do in order to graduate.
Teachers make a lot of money on research, and making a living for their family should be a priority.  But students should not be their last priority. Their jobs would not exist if there were no students.
Students are falling in the gap of the lack of communication, resulting in a lot of wasted time and money over the course of the years.
The only way to fix this problem is to invest more money into an academic field in order to achieve the degree desired.
The registrar’s office gets the bulk of the frustration and complaints taken out on it, but it places the blame right back on the students for not taking responsibility for their own education.
Students need to be accountable, but if they were fully capable of managing their own education, there would be no need for advisers.
By the time most of these students realize they are not on track, it is too late to do anything.
Advisers need to take responsibility and make sure that all of their students are achieving their academic goals.
Butler prides itself on being a liberal arts college and having students studying in multiple colleges before graduation. If this is the school’s platform, then it must be seen through.

The Health and Recreation Complex’s “Battle of the Bulldogs” had everything it advertised.

The event started out with an Aqua Obstacle Course that challenged its contestants with an obstacle course in the pool.

Next on the agenda was the popular Nerf Battle.

Many teams signed up to compete, and groups received Nerf guns and glow-in-the-dark sticks to represent what team they were on.

The lights were turned off, and tables and obstacles were set up on the battlefield for the contestants to hide behind.

“It’s a lot of fun,” freshman Bryan Richter said. “It’s good to kind of get that paintball atmosphere going and get some competition going. It’s just a good time with your friends.”

It was Richter’s first time participating in a late night event at the HRC.

The final event of the night was the Boot Camp. This was a class that worked out many of the contestants.

The HRC employed various students to work the event, including sophomore Danielle Thomas.

“It’s fun to see other aspects at the HRC other than just working out,” she said.

Thomas works at the HRC while helping out with late night events.

Workers said this event was planned quickly, and some workers were even getting the experience they want to help them in their career field.

“I want to plan events as a career,” said freshman Whitney VandenBos, who was working her first HRC late night event. “So any kind of experience I can get in that kind of field will help.”

She said the event went smoothly and she wants to work more events in the future.

The opening of the Howard L. Schrott Center for the Arts presents Butler University students a unique opportunity to be a part of university history.
Its construction led many students to worry about which students would actually use the multi-million dollar facility.
While students in the Jordan College of the Arts will take the stage for performances and shows, all students should take pride in the building.
There are opportunities for students across the university to use the center.
Students in the College of Communication should be involved in the recording and marketing aspects of the performances.
Business majors can work with the center to build business models and to see how new businesses take off.
Students in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences can go see lecture series, while students in the College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences could use it for large lectures.
The possibilities are endless and administrators like JCA dean Ronald Caltabiano are willing to include everyone in the process.
The center is set to open in March, so now is the time to start making these connections.
It is important that all students realize the significance of this building and its place on campus.
The Schrott Center provides Butler with a facility departments can use without fees, unlike Clowes. Programs must pay to use Clowes for performances since Clowes is not owned by the university.
Students and faculty should take this opportunity to get involved.
There could even be internship opportunities for students. The center does not have to be entirely student-run, but for the benefit of the university, students should at least have a hand in the production and center’s day-to-day activity.
The center’s construction is a great opportunity and comes with many benefits for Butler and its students.
The Schrott Center should be welcomed with open arms by all members of the Butler community.

Colin Likas is the managing editor of The Butler Collegian. He is a journalism major from Crown Point, Ind., who has been on staff for six semesters.

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