Butler University’s Council on Presidential Affairs has made progress this year that it hopes to carry into next semester, members said.

“I think CPA has done a lot,” said sophomore Katie Palmer, CPA’s academic affairs coordinator. “We’ve set the groundwork for next year.”

Palmer said one of the biggest areas of improvement has been in green operations—a new committee this year.
CPA Chair Mike Tirman said he agrees.

“We started the committee this year, and I think they have done extremely good work,” he said.

Green operations has a lengthy list of accomplishments. It played a leading role in the green summit, the green roof, the Brita hydration stations and President Jim Danko’s signing of the American College & University Presidents’ Climate Commitment.

Freshman Becky Pokrandt, a current member and incoming coordinator of green operations, put her focus on water quality and implemented the Brita hydration stations.

“They will hopefully encourage people to use fewer plastic water bottles, because they will have an option for clean water,” she said. “If there’s a positive response from students, we can hopefully get more and make our campus bottle-less.”

Aside from green operations, Flip the Script, an event where administrators cook for and serve students, was also a success for CPA, Palmer said.

While there has been progress, Tirman said he wants CPA to “keep the momentum” and seek more improvements.

Pokrandt said she hopes next year’s green operations committee will install more hydration stations, increase awareness of Earth Week and host another green summit.

More communication between administrators and students earlier in the semester is another goal for CPA, Palmer said.

Tirman said CPA will try to better incorporate the student ideals statement into campus life. He also said that CPA has begun a conversation with faculty and the provost’s office about joint- or combined-degree programs.

“It’s in its infant stage, but at least there’s a dialogue happening,” he said.

Tirman will hand the position of CPA chair to junior Scott Nemeth next semester.

“I think he’s going to bring a lot of leadership and positivity to CPA,” Tirman said.

Nemeth, who has been a part of CPA since his freshman year, said he wants next semester’s CPA to think big.

“We want to do big things next year,” he said. “Each committee is going to be brainstorming this summer about a project it can take on that will have big impact on the university.”

Palmer said CPA will also see many new faces next semester.

“There is a large number of people just starting CPA, so new people are really going to be influential,” she said.

Nemeth said he hopes to continue the success of this year while pushing forward.

“I’m really looking forward to seeing what we can do as board,” he said. “I’m looking forward to seeing what the administration lets us do and what the student body wants us to do and combining those two things into making really important changes to campus.”

All buildings now have full electricity after a power outage at Butler University Saturday left students in the dark and employees working overtime.

Butler staff shut off power across campus after lightning struck near or on the power plant located behind Schwitzer Hall said Ben Hunter, Chief of Staff and Executive Director of Public Safety.

Hunter said that electricity problems have occurred before but they “haven’t been as catastrophic as this.”

A 2009 storm caused a campus-wide power outage for 24 hours, said Gerald Carlson, director of maintenance services.

He said that Saturday’s storm and power outage could cost—at a guess—between $25,000 and $30,000.

These costs would take into account the generators, the new wiring and overtime compensation.

Carlson said an underground wire shorted and was burnt through, which caused the smoke. The decision was then made to shut off the switchgear that controls campus power.

“We could not risk losing that switchgear,” Carlson said. “We had to shut it down.”

The main switchgear controls electricity for buildings across campus and is comprised of nine switches that distribute power. Carlson said that the $600,000 switchgear was installed last summer and that it would have taken three months to replace it if it had been destroyed.

The burnt cable belongs to switch five, which controls power for Lilly Hall, Irwin Library, Residential College and the east and middle parts of Jordan Hall.

A generator was brought in to power Residential College while employees from Butler and Barth Electric made repairs, Carlson said.

He said Atherton’s wiring goes through the same switch, so power was shut down, while a second generator provided power to keep food services running.

“Our goal was to make sure power was back on so we didn’t disrupt classes two weeks before finals,” Carlson said.

Though power was up in time for classes, Saturday proved a difficult time for some Butler students.

Brandon Douthitt, a freshman music major, was practicing saxophone in Lilly Hall when the lights went out.

“I looked outside, and it was pitch black,” he said.

ResCo’s power returned just before midnight Saturday, but Douthitt said he was concerned the power in his residence hall could have been out until Monday. Jordan, Lilly and Irwin regained power at around 7 p.m. Sunday.

Alyssa Setnar, a freshman motorsports engineering and physics major, was getting ready for the Kappa Alpha Theta formal when the power went out.

“I was about to dry my hair when the power went out,” Setnar said. “I realized that I had dinner in an hour and my hair was wet.”

After walking to the Kappa Alpha Theta house to dry her hair, Setnar said she was left out in the rain because Schwitzer’s ID scanners were shut off due to the power outage.

“It’s unfortunate that it happened on the same night as formal, but it’s not their fault that it happened,” she said.

In addition, the power went out during the Saturday matinee of “Les Misérables” at Clowes Memorial Hall.

“I feel sorry for all the patrons that bought tickets,” Carlson said, “but they can work with Clowes to see about refunds.”

Students received alerts and updates about the power outage via DawgAlert and Twitter.

Douthitt said the situation was “handled well.”

Carlson credits staff, some of whom worked until 3 a.m. Sunday, for getting the power up as quickly as possible.

“We’ve got great employees who came up with a game plan to get it operational so that it didn’t affect classes and students,” Carlson said. “Two of them had about two hours of sleep between Saturday and Sunday.”

Butler University has increased both its number of applications received and the number of admittances extended for the class of 2016.

Tom Weede, vice president for enrollment management, said that Butler has admitted about 6,300 students for next semester.

“That was right around our goal for what we were hoping to admit,” he said.

Weede said that that number could rise even higher because of late applicants, late sports recruits or specialty performers in the Jordan College of Fine Arts.

Weede said that the ideal size of the class of 2016 is about 1,000 students, just a bit above the size of the current freshman class.

Dropping from 6,000 admitted students to 1,000 enrolled students may seem difficult, but Dean of Admission Scott Ham said the office of admission made a concerted effort to admit a high number like this.

“Nationally trending, students are applying to more institutions,” Ham said. “Because students are applying to more schools, we have to make more offers of admission.”

This is a 9 percent increase in the number of offers from last year.

Ham said that ease of applying to college is one reason for this.

“The Common Application makes it so easy to apply to 10 or 15 schools simply by clicking a link,” he said.

In addition, the office saw an increase in the total number of applications it received. More than 9,500 students applied to Butler. This is a 3 percent increase from last year, building on the 41 percent increase in 2010.

Success of the Butler men’s basketball team is still a major reason for the increase.

“I think the basketball tournaments the last couple years have introduced the university to people who didn’t know about it before,” Weede said. “But the nice thing is people don’t enroll at a college because it has a good basketball team. They enroll because it has the right size, fit, location, majors.”

Lade Akande, an admission counselor, said that basketball success is only the first step.

“They (high school students) got on the web and realized that Butler is a small, liberal arts school, the class sizes are small, there are not teaching assistants,” Akande said. “They found out all these great things, and that’s what drew them to Butler even more.”

Akande, who works with high school students from not only the Midwest but also the Southeast and Puerto Rico, said that the championship appearances have also increased the number of out-of-state applications.

Ham said that a final factor in the growth of applications is word-of-mouth, starting with students.

“They go home and talk about what a great experience they had,” Ham said. “The best promotion that Butler University can have is a satisfied student.”

BY THE NUMBERS

9,658 students have applied this year—a 3 percent increase from 2011.

About 6,300 have been admitted so far—an increase of 9 percent.

The goal size for the class of 2016 is about 1,000 students.