President Jim Danko expressed a need for legal counsel at Butler University at the Faculty Senate meeting Tuesday.

The president said in the past six years  the university has spent about $2.5 million on legal fees for various reasons.

His presentation showed that from June 2008 to June 2012, the spending increased by 28 percent.

In the next two years, the numbers showed an 83-percent increase from around $680,000 to an estimated $1.2 million.

Danko said he wanted to hear feedback from faculty even though the senate is not needed to make this decision.

“I really do believe at this point that there is an advantage going in this direction,” Danko said. “The cost savings will offset a good portion, if not all the extra expense, by having our own legal counsel.”

Danko said he will also begin meeting with the Board of Trustees for additional reaction.

Other items of agenda were a report from the Student Affairs and Enrollment on alcohol abuse and crime and reports on the core curriculum, University Curriculum Committee and the Retirement Phase Committee.

Margaret Brabant, chair of faculty senate, gave a report on senate-level chair meetings from October.

This is the last faculty senate meeting for the first semester. Senate meetings will resume in January.

If Butler University builds a parking structure as discussed, it will not solve the parking problem as it currently exists.

The Collegian’s analysis of information provided by Ben Hunter, executive director of public safety, shows that as many as 850 current permit holders would have no place to park if Butler proceeds with plans to build the garage and beautify campus.

At last week’s Student Government Association meeting, President Jim Danko said he hopes to move some cars out of the area near Sunset Avenue and 46th Street and into the hypothetical parking garage or other undetermined spaces, to make way for a plan to beautify campus entryways.

The proposed parking garage at Butler University will likely add a significant amount of housing—in addition to parking spaces—if it is approved by the Board of Trustees.

Vice President for Student Affairs Levester Johnson presented preliminary sketches of possible new rooms at a Student Government Association meeting last week.

“We wanted to get (students’) feedback on that design and offer any feedback on that, the location and amenities,” Johnson said.

One sketch displayed a four-person room containing two bedrooms, a bathroom, a living room area and a kitchenette.

Johnson called the sketch a blend between a Residential College room and an Apartment Village room.

This type of housing would target sophomores, as the university is going to be lacking living space for second-year students on campus next year “to the extent of about 280 to 300 beds,” Johnson said.

Scott Nemeth, SGA vice president of administration, said students present at the SGA meeting responded positively to the plan Johnson presented.

“I would say that students were, overall, enthusiastic about it,” Nemeth said. “I thought LJ provided a lot of insight to a project in its infancy, which is cool to do.”

SGA President Mike Keller said students brought up a few concerns, namely regarding cost and the furnishing of living rooms.

Keller said a narrow majority expressed their desire that the living rooms not be furnished, primarily because of the cost to live on campus now.

“The housing across campus is just really expensive,” Keller said. “Some people feel like they have to commute or live off campus to escape it.”

Another reason for this request was the idea that, as sophomores, students are getting to a point where they might like to have their own furniture instead of taking care of university property, Keller said.

Other questions posed by students involved being able to open windows in the rooms and the potential views rooms would have.

The proposed project has undergone a healthy amount of change since it was first revealed last spring.

While the original plan was to construct a parking garage that would house as many as 1,000 vehicles, that same building could now host multiple facets of university life.

“I think that (the project) has just developed into this multi-purpose facility that kind of meets the needs of parking, housing and retail space, which are all things students have been asking administration to do for a while,” Nemeth said.

Keller said the proposed complex’s

construction would likely be completed by fall 2014 if approved.

However, the Board of Trustees still has to approve the plan, and Ben Hunter, chief of staff, said it is not up for action at this moment.

One way or another, Butler’s master plan calls for the university to add more housing sometime in the near future, Johnson said.

Additionally, Butler officials would like to do extensive renovations in Ross Hall and Schwitzer Hall around the same time.

Johnson said Butler administrators would continue to gauge student opinion as new information surrounding the project becomes available.

Keller, Nemeth and other members of the SGA board have consistently been invited to participate in meetings with Butler officials and building architects.

“Once things get a little bit closer to where we’re determining what we want to be (in) the retail on the bottom or what the rooms have in them, (Butler officials) have made their intentions known that they’re going to be looking to us as students to be able to fill them in on what students want,” Keller said.

Part of Nemeth’s SGA job is to encourage Butler administrators to attend assembly meetings.

Nemeth arranged for Johnson to attend last week’s meeting for the Council on Presidential Affairs topic of the week and said he believes Johnson will be at future meetings too.

“As we get closer to the project, they’ll probably hold more public forums,” Nemeth said. “I think they’re extremely important because not only do they inform students of what’s going on, but it really allows them to provide insight.

“That’s crucial because I think the administration can sometimes not understand exactly what our wants and needs are.”

Johnson agreed that public forums are crucial at Butler, noting that the original design for Apartment Village was altered in some ways thanks to feedback from students.

“It’s imperative that we go ahead and have these types of gatherings and go even beyond the formal lines we have through SGA and students sitting in on various committees of the Board of Trustees,” Johnson said.

Keller said that although many of Butler’s current students will not get the opportunity to live in the planned housing, they should look forward to the potential project.

“I hope that students see this as an opportunity,” Keller said. “They should really be excited about this project because it’s going to be really correcting a lot of the issues students have with the campus.”

The tuition students pay to attend Butler University goes toward many different entities, but one of the largest chunks goes right back to students.

Butler’s largest expenditure each year is financial aid for students, Bruce Arick, vice president of finance and administration, said. Butler is the largest source of financial aid for its students. The awards are based on merit, talent and need.

This year, the financial aid given to students tallied $52 million, which is about $5 million more than last year, Arick said.

“Students are always the foremost part of the entire tuition planning process,” Tom Weede, vice president for enrollment management, said. “We take care of the promises we made to students and give them the education they came here for in the most cost-effective way.”

The financial aid amount each year does not only depend on incoming freshmen. The university has to take into account the retention rate of upperclassmen and try to anticipate how much financial aid everyone will need, Weede said.

“It is a tough, deliberative, intentional process,” Weede said.

That planning process applies to more areas of the university. Administrators must also figure out how much money is needed for the rest of Butler’s budget.

Along with financial aid, tuition covers faculty and staff wages, health and retirement benefits, potential raises and capital costs like maintaining buildings and utilities, Arick said.

However, tuition does not cover 100 percent of the costs at Butler. If it were based on cost, tuition would be a lot higher, Arick said.

Tuition and room and board only covers 87 percent of university costs. The rest of the costs come from gifts and endowments from outside donors, Arick said.

Last year was President Jim Danko’s first year discussing and planning for tuition as president, though he had been involved with tuition discussions when he was at Dartmouth College and Villanova University.

“It’s not a foreign discussion to me,” Danko said. “Every university is a little different in terms of what their financial model is and what percentage of the overall budget is covered by tuition.”

Danko said his goal last year was to keep the increase rate below 3 percent.

“I’m really sensitive about what’s going on in the market,” he said. “I’m very concerned. As a father of two college students, I’m certainly not naive to what’s going on out there.”

But when administrators plugged in that number to the working budget, they found the school would be losing $3 million.

After more planning, conversations with the Board of Trustees and discussions with departments to cut costs, the tuition increase for the current year was settled at 3.75 percent—the lowest in Butler history, Danko said.

The tuition rate and budget decisions are made by the executive council, which is comprised of the president, the vice presidents, the deans and, this year, the chair and vice chair of Faculty Senate.

The conversation also involves the chairman of the Board of Trustees and the financial committee within that board.

Arick said the planning starts by comparing Butler’s tuition to schools like Xavier University and University of Dayton.

The tuition is set based on how the council thinks other schools will go with tuition and where Butler wants to be compared with those schools, Arick said.

Once the tuition, which is considered revenue for the university, is forecast, the council will look at the other costs of the university, like departmental and building costs, Arick said.

The final budget recommendation will then be presented to the Board of Trustees for approval.

Danko said his job is to grow the university’s endowment so Butler does not have to rely so heavily on tuition.

“We just tread water,” he said. “We’ve got a laundry list a mile wide of things that people are asking for, and the discretionary resources are pretty nil.”

Danko said he wants to see the dependency on tuition go from 87 percent to below 80 percent.

“I don’t want it to all be on the backs of students,” Danko said.

Danko spent the second half of his first year on the road going to 15 different cities to build relationships with people.

Eventually, Danko said, Butler has to be able to ask for gifts and encourage alumni to give back.

Twenty-three percent of living alumni give back to the university. Danko said he would like to see that grow to 30 percent.

Planning for 2013-14 enrollment, tuition, room and board and financial aid is already beginning, Arick said.

The budget recommendations for next year will be presented to the Board of Trustees at the spring meeting toward the end of February.

New residence hall, science building also possibilities for campus construction.

Butler University’s current and future construction plans may provide campus with a facelift.

The most notable recent change to Butler is the construction of the Howard L. Schrott Center, a new 450-seat theater adjacent to Clowes Memorial Hall.

Howard Schrott, Board of Trustees member and namesake of the center, said building it is important to him because the plans have been in the works since he was a student.

“Suddenly the drawings are becoming 3-D, and it’s been really exciting,” Schrott said. “I hope it’s been exciting for students too.”

Craig Hardee, Butler’s general construction maintenance manager, said the building is currently scheduled to open in January 2013 and will serve more than just fine arts students.

“It will be a nice venue for the visiting writer series, or lecture series, or when a college needs to get their folks all together,” Hardee said.

Hardee said the Schrott Center was not the only project Butler has been looking at taking on.

The 2010 Master plan outlined that the sciences and residence life were the top two priorities, Hardee said.

“Those two are still high priorities, and they need to be addressed,” he said.

Vice President for Finance Bruce Arick said Butler has recently shifted its priorities.

“We’re going to have to do something with parking before we do the other two (the sciences and residence life),” Arick said.

Gerald Carlson, director of maintenance services at Butler, said the change in priorities was the result of external pressure.

“It’s been brought to the forefront because the city of Indianapolis and the [Butler-Tarkington] neighborhood have asked us to add the additional parking before we build any new buildings,” Carlson said.

Carlson said President Jim Danko’s cabinet and Butler’s Board of Trustees will be meeting in May to discuss the potential parking structure, additional space for the sciences and the new residence hall.

College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Dean Jay Howard said he believes a plan to remodel Hinkle Fieldhouse will be completed before additional space for the sciences is created.

“We’re currently in the midst of at least the silent phase of a campaign for Hinkle, and so the science building is sort of in line behind Hinkle,” Howard said. “The way these fundraising campaigns work is you have a silent phase where you raise money without publicly announcing it.”

The disappearance of the Ruth Lilly Science Library with the creation of a science building is a possibility that has been made public by The Collegian in the past.

Incoming Butler Dean of Libraries Julie Miller said she understood that no final decisions had been made and she would evaluate the situation once she arrives on campus.

“The library belongs to everyone, so everybody gets emotional at the thought of major changes,” Miller said. “I appreciate when people feel attached to the library and the library staff.”

Some Butler students may be living in a new residence hall in addition to studying in a new library in the future.

Arick said the proposed residence hall would be located north of Schwitzer Hall, and Carlson said the new hall would mirror Schwitzer and create a courtyard.

Hardee said he thought the new hall would include approximately 400 beds, of which 200 to 300 would be taken out of Ross Hall and Schwitzer so necessary renovations could be made.

“I think what it will do is relieve some of the pressure off the existing Ross and Schwitzer and open up some of the study space in those residence halls,” Carlson said.

Arick said he believes the new residence hall and science building could be built within five years.

“For those of us waiting in line, sooner is better,” Howard said.

Butler Blue II and Trip are not the only related top dogs that work in the same office—several of Butler’s top administrators have spouses or domestic partners on the university payroll.

Butler’s practice of hiring its employees’ partners—including those of the university’s president, former provost, two associate provosts and a dean—is consistent with trends in higher education, Marcia Dowell, director of university relations, said.

At Butler, following the trend—36 percent of U.S. academics are couples­—meant the hiring of a university relations associate, a political science instructor, visiting professor, an associate director of pre-professional studies and a multimedia coordinator.

Dowell said these positions needed to be filled at Butler in order to serve students.

The Board of Trustees approved hiring First Lady Bethanie Danko as the university relations associate, which she said is a big role with a modest salary.

“It is indeed a demanding professional position with a schedule nearly as busy as that of the leading spouse,” Bethanie Danko said.

Her schedule includes fundraising, advancement, communication and event planning, along with appearance requests, including recently helping with Blue II’s birthday party.

Former First Lady Suzanne Fong was not on the university payroll.

Bethanie Danko also worked with Jim Danko at Villanova University before their 2010 marriage.

At the Villanova School of Business, Jim Danko was the dean, and Bethanie Danko was the assistant dean for marketing and strategy.

In order to preserve continuity in a trailing spouse’s career, it also is good practice to hire loved ones as long as all university employees follow human resources policies, Elaine Johnson, director of compensation and organizational development, said.

“It’s within the best interest of the institution to help a trailing spouse find employment,” Johnson said. “I certainly can’t say it’s a bad idea.”

Is the payroll bloated with unnecessary positions in order to satisfy the desire to support partners?

“Whether they are created for anyone specifically, there’s no way anyone can say,” Johnson said.

The university is required to publicly advertise its full-time position openings, Johnson said, which it does on Career Builder.

But if positions are contract or adjunct positions, Butler does not ordinarily post job openings, Dowell said.

The university denied The Collegian’s requests for the once-public position advertisements.

The policies that Butler has in place that relate to inter-institution couples include a conflicts of interest policy and consensual relationships policy.

The conflicts of interest policy states that conflicts could arise when an employee evaluates or has direct or indirect control over the work or performance of his or her romantic partner.

Johnson said the human resources office currently is in the process of reviewing its policies in order to make sure they are updated and being followed.

Despite the high number of spouses and domestic partners who are on the payroll, Johnson said she is not aware of any complaints from the rest of the university about this practice.

The human resources management office is open to hearing from all individuals about complaints, she said.

“We’re not here to police the university,” Johnson said. “We have to depend on other individuals to make us aware when there might be things happening in the university that are against policy.”

Bethanie Danko said she hasn’t noticed any conflicts of interest while working with her husband at Butler.

“It’s been a non-issue,” she said. “Although we often discuss issues with each other and voice our opinions on the pros and cons, I wouldn’t characterize this kind of dialogue as presenting any divergent or conflicting interests.”

For a short-staffed faculty like Butler University’s, the hiring of a person with a doctorate degree is a good idea.

Unless it’s to be an aide to President Jim Danko.

The level of qualification for the hiring is ironic because the university is dropping its internship coordinator in the College of Communication.

This seems to come at a time when CCOM is becoming more popular on campus.

Yet, the university is losing qualified teachers and struggling to foot the bill for some programs, like the core.

On a broader scale the school could hire more well-qualified professors instead of hiring more administrative personnel.

I have interned as a secretary for a boys and girls club.

The work wasn’t easy but compared to the office of the president; it had less responsibilities.

With that said, I feel confident that someone with a bachelor’s or even a master’s degree could handle the responsibilities of executive assistant to the Board of Trustees.

From my experiences, organizational skills are the most important for any administrative assistant.

Certainly anyone with a lot or a little education can be extremely organized.

The most important thing college teaches a student is the ability to prioritize, yet our school hasn’t learned this.

I am sure the person Butler hired is well-rounded and everything they looked for in a candidate, but my issue is that we should put someone with that background in a classroom to educate students.

We should not put them behind a desk, where their skills will be under-utilized. Butler’s administration has this continual problem of wrongly prioritizing important resources.

If Butler wants to employ more people with doctorates, they should do so.

Employ those doctors as teachers.

Administrative assistants and advisors play vital roles.

But without educators, the university ceases to exist.

Students again will shell out more for their Butler University college experience next year.

The Board of Trustees voted to increase tuition 3.75 percent, room fees by 3.4 percent and board by 6.1 percent next year.

While it is lower than last year’s tuition increase of 4.6 percent, it is more than 2010’s 3.5 percent increase.

Tuition was $31,110 in 2011 and will total $32,280 in 2012.

Butler University President Jim Danko said it was his hope going into the Board of Trustees meeting to have the lowest percentage tuition increase in history and keep the hike less than 3 percent.

With the realities of the university budget, though, he said a that raise of 3 percent would have the university operating in the red.

“While this does not provide Butler with any additional discretionary resources to address a whole range of strategic opportunities—and in fact we have had to tighten our belts—I believe we’ve worked hard to keep our tuition increase quite reasonable,” Danko said in an email to The Collegian, “especially when you consider the fact that we continue to provide serious financial aid bringing the net tuition paid well below the posted price.”

Danko said that there are currently not other ways to cover those costs.

“A driving factor in our deliberations was the reality that until Butler University dramatically increases its endowment, we will remain highly tuition-dependent,” Danko said in an email to the Butler community.

Alex Bristol, a sophomore business major, said the raise may have been necessary, but it may be a burden to students.

“I understand it’s a hard time economically, and I’m sure how even Butler would be suffering in its own way, but it puts a lot more strain on students,” he said.

Addressing the 6.1 percent increase in board fees, Vice President for Student Affairs Levester Johnson said that students are actually going to be seeing more of those funds come back to them because of
an increase in flex dollars in the new meal plan and the addition of guest passes.

“The numbers actually come out a lot better,” Johnson said.

Danko said in the email to the Butler community that to mitigate these raises, the 2012–2013 budget will include nearly $50 million in student scholarships and grants,
which he said is $11 million more than when the economic downturn began four years ago.