Butler University officials used money from two funds to make up for a $2.28 million deficit in this year’s projected budget.

$1.145 million from last year’s surplus will be used in part to cover the deficit. The remaining $1.135 million will come from a contingency fund, a sort of cushion for the university budget.

Several contributing factors—including an error in calculating financial aid, a record-size freshman class, a change in the physician assistant program, the Atlantic 10 conference change and multiple capital expenditures—resulted in the deficit.

President Jim Danko and Bruce Arick, vice president of finance, explained the situation to some of the 36 faculty senators on Tuesday.

Danko explained that while the deficit is not something they were expecting, it is a “manageable challenge.”

The university’s total operating budget is more than $180 million, so the money used from the surplus makes up roughly 0.6 percent of that budget.

“A million dollars is a lot for anyone,” Arick said. “We just have to keep in mind that it’s not even one percent of the total budget.”

The university’s largest budget line items cost the university more than $2.5 million.

tuition revenue

The university lost more than $740,000 to unexpected costs with tuition, financial aid and final enrollment numbers.

A “confusion” between the university and its consultant, Hardwick Day, resulted in a loss of $455,000 because there was a discrepancy on what funds can be covered by financial aid.

Each year, the university has to estimate how many students it should budget for the coming year.

“We have to make assumptions based on history,” Arick said. “We’re never going to nail it.”

Sometimes the university will bring in more than expected and will end up with a tuition revenue. Other times the university overestimates the number of students who enroll.

Danko said that Butler offers more money than other universities to attract more students each year.

“We put more money on the street to make sure we get a quality freshman class,” Danko said.

The differences between

estimates and the actual enrollment contribute in part to the remaining deficit in the tuition revenue category.

EXTRA FRESHMEN BRING IN EXTRA COSTS

Though a record-size freshman class did bring the room revenue up to $375,000 and the capacity up to 98 percent, it also increased costs for the university.

The larger freshman class cost the university an additional $345,000 in operating expenses.

The costs include additional instructional support, student services, residence halls operations, information resources and extra housekeeping and supply costs.

PA PROGRAM ADDS COSTS

Over the summer, the physician assistant program proposed increasing its number of student openings from 50 to 60.

This increase required a new non-tenure faculty member, whose salary and benefits will cost the university an additional $105,000.

Arick said he estimates that the university will bring in an additional $300,000 next year from this venture alone.

ATLANTIC 10 SWITCH

The university expects to see an increase in ticket, concession and sponsorship sales because of the switch to the A-10. The estimated increases would not balance out the added costs of travel this year.

Arick estimated that the athletic operating expenses would increase to $800,000, leaving the university with a nearly $600,000 price tag for the conference switch.

The athletics department has decided to pick up the $300,000 membership for joining the A-10.

Butler will pay $400,000 over the next four years through 2016-17.

CAPITAL EXPENDITURES

Unexpected costs in capital improvements added up to a $795,000 price tag for the university.

The university paid $150,000 in improvements for the freshman class, including the purchase of extra residence hall furniture, classroom chairs and Atherton soft space.

When university officials decided to fix the entrance to Jordan Hall, they were hit with a $480,000 estimation. What started out as a cosmetic fix to the academic building is now a project that could fix the physical integrity of the structure.

“It’s an expensive fix,” Danko said. “But it’s going to be beautiful when it’s done.”

Other capital expenditures include parking garage consulting, the hot water system in Atherton, a recital hall ceiling, a chilled water leak and other projects.

MOVING FORWARD

While there are funds to cover this year’s deficit, Danko said everyone needs to take precautions with budgets.

There was discussion about whether the 2.5 percent raise pool would be released to faculty members this year as planned.

The salary raises that are due will still go on after considering the timing of the events.

“It’s manageable, but it’s going to make some things tough,” Danko said.

It is not yet clear how this could impact next year’s budget, but Danko said there is still plenty of time to see what will happen between now and then.

“I couldn’t possibly tell you what the implications are at the moment,” Danko said.

Despite being removed from other first-year students, freshmen in Residential College are showing no signs of disadvantage after nearly two semesters at Butler University.

On Aug. 31, The Collegian published an article checking in on first-year students in the freshman unit of ResCo to compare their social experience with freshmen living in other residence halls during the beginning of the fall semester.

Now after nearly a full year at Butler, both groups of students seem to be equally involved.

“I think they’re starting to get their wings,” said Emily Welch, a sophomore history and anthropology major and resident assistant for the freshman unit in ResCo. “They’ve made friends, they’re more comfortable, they know campus, they know how classes work. They’ve gotten into the Butler groove.”

Despite being isolated from freshmen in other residence halls, freshmen living in ResCo said they don’t feel less involved than their peers.

“I’m pretty evenly involved as other people,” said Olivia Wolfe, a freshman international studies and Spanish major, said. “I feel like I have the same amount of things as other people.”

Many of the freshmen said Greek recruitment was a great way for them to connect with other students.

“[My roommate] and I went to rush week, and that really helped us meet a lot of people,” freshman business major Steven Gianakas said.

After two semesters of getting to know each other, some freshmen said they enjoyed the “close-knit” atmosphere more, while others said they would have preferred to be around more people in the other residence halls.

“We do have a much closer family here and closer connections with people,” Wolfe said. “I like having the few closer relationships than knowing everyone in my hallway and not having as many close ones.”

Other students feel like this semester has been better than the first.

“Definitely first semester I would have rather been in Ross,”  said freshman Daniel Young, an actuarial science and finance major. “Second semester is neutral, because the pros even out the cons.”

More students said the experience can be as good as the students make it.

“I feel like you get close bonds wherever you live; it’s just how much time you spend with people,” Gianakas said.

For freshman pharmacy major Trevor Phenis, living in Ross made him more comfortable with dorm life.

“Initially I was nervous about moving into the dorms and having to meet new people,” he said in an email.

“[Living in Ross] has allowed me to see things from another point of view.”

Passing out door stops to prop doors open was one way Welch encouraged a community atmosphere, she said.

“[Having doorstops] is helping people overcome a real structural barrier to building intimacy,” assistant professor of psychology Alison O’Malley said. “It’s a way to quickly establish common ground, common affiliations, information you don’t get with a closed door.”

The interaction between individual factors and the environment affects how students thrive in a situation like the freshmen in ResCo are experiencing, O’Malley said.

The way ResCo is designed may pose no barrier to an extroverted student, but more introverted students must put forth extra energy, she said.

Welch said programming challenges have changed with the semester.

“First semester a lot of the programming was around ‘Let’s do big group stuff and get to know each other,’” she said. “Second semester it’s more trying to get it planned around their other activities.”

Welch said first semester she felt it was important to push her residents into going to events and connecting, but said she knows now they can find some of those avenues for themselves.

A freshman class size of 927 students might seem like a high number, but that figure didn’t quite hit Butler University’s mark this year. In fact, this year’s class was the smallest since 2005.

Despite a second consecutive trip to the Final Four, a 35 percent increase in campus visits by prospective students and 3,000 more applications than in 2010, the university failed to meet its expected enrollment for the freshman class.

Tom Weede, vice president of enrollment, said the enrollment yield, or the percentage of students admitted that end up enrolling, fell by more than 5 percentage points, from 21.2 percent in 2010 to 16 percent this year.

“It was just a really interesting year, because it seems difficult to understand how you could have 41 percent more applications and have a smaller class than you did the year before,” he said.

Weede said the university targeted a freshman class size between 960 to 1,000 freshmen—a decrease from the 1,050 from the previous year—because officials knew the university would be unable to comfortably serve students at that capacity.

In attempting to accommodate the university’s size capacity and anticipating the yield would fall slightly, Weede said the enrollment office made the decision to admit about 5,200 students before the wait list.

Weede said the university did not accept as many students in the lower reaches of what has been its traditional acceptance pool. If it had accepted the same number of students as last year, the class would have about 70 more students.
Because of this, the yield went down 5 percent instead of .5 percent.

Weede said though the university was able to make up for the 30-plusfreshmen deficit through transfer students, it is important to look for ways to ensure that Butler isn’t just another school on a list.

“We are trying to make sure that we get back to that sweet spot, which would be between 960 and 1,000,” Weede said. “We were just caught in a bind this year where we didn’t want to come in too high.”

Because student tuition and fees account for 87 percent of the university’s annual budget, not meeting the enrollment expectation also places some financial burden on the school, Weede said. Although the budget difference was recovered through transfer students, there could still be some ramifications.

When it became clear Butler wasn’t going to receive 960 new freshmen this year, the Board of Trustees considered trimming the budget, provost and vice president for academic affairs Jamie Comstock said at the Sept. 6 Faculty Senate meeting.
The Board of Trustees could decide to vote against a 1 percent salary equity raise for some qualified faculty and staff at its Oct. 1 meeting, but Comstock said regular raises will not be affected.

“We’re concerned about all aspects of the budget,” Weede said. “We are always cognizant  of having the right number of students.”

The board is expected to make a final decision about the equity raise at its Oct. 1 full meeting, Marcia Dowell, executive director of university relations, said.

“I predict that the board will not go forward with equity raises,” Comstock said at the meeting. “I’m grateful that the board went ahead with the 3 percent raises, but we need to expect that as they deliberate about it that they may fall a different way.”

The university expects to make an announcement soon regarding the status of the equity raise, assistant to the provost Monica Strigari told The Butler Collegian in an email. Strigari wrote that it would not be appropriate for
the provost to comment further until a decision is announced.

Jay Howard, dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, said LAS is working more closely with admissions and enrollment on a project that could help raise the enrollment yield. He said he wants to ensure that prospective students interested in the liberal arts programs gain a personal connection with Butler faculty.

“The way we increase our yield is by getting that face-to-face contact between the faculty and potential students,” he said. “We’re changing what we’re doing on campus to increase face time with the faculty, which we think will result in a higher yield.”

Howard said he believes that over the past couple of years, some of the faculty involvement has declined for a variety of reasons and is a contributor to a lowering yield.

“I think [we] recognize that the decrease in face time with faculty has lowered the yield in LAS, so we’re trying to create an organizational structure that gives potential students and the parents the opportunity to interact with the faculty much more directly,” Howard said.

Vivian Deno, assistant professor of history, said it would be helpful to communicate with students who were interested in Butler before they send in their college
applications.

“We don’t have access to students to sell our programs,” Deno said at Faculty Senate Sept 6. “If we are going to sell the liberal arts, we’d actually like to have an audience to do it with.”

Howard said one of the ideas is to have an hour-long “college fair” at the potential student open houses, giving the students an opportunity to meet with representatives from different majors and establish a personal relationship with the faculty before coming to school in the fall.

“Having the opportunity to talk with those departments and develop those relationships early on is very often part of what hooks a student into a program,” Howard said. “It’s that kind of one-on-one conversation that we think is going to make a difference.”

Parking on university campuses can be a real pain.

For the last several years I attended and worked at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, where once I looked nearly two hours for a spot.

Texas Christian University, my undergraduate alma mater, was more like Butler University, and it presented a fair share of problems too.

Butler is the smallest university I have attended, and its parking “concerns” were well addressed in last week’s Butler Collegian. With 1,412 more faculty, staff and student parking decals issued than there are parking spaces, a lot of Bulldogs want something done right away.

The way I see it, the solution is simple. Next year, do not issue parking decals to freshmen.

The university’s Master Plan foresees the construction of two parking garages, but both are slated for “long-term” development. The Master Plan does not say how long the “long-term” is, but I think we can rest assured that all the current freshmen will be gone before it happens.

The reason for the delay in building parking garages is fairly simple. The university just doesn’t believe that parking is a key to the future success of its students.

That’s a bitter pill to swallow when you’re stuck behind three cars waiting for a spot to open up.

Now I know there are good reasons for allowing freshmen their cars, and I will get to those.

But first, consider this: Last year 671 freshmen had cars with decals. That figure represents nearly half of the 1,400 surplus decals.

Freshmen and their advocates will argue that they need cars to be fully engaged in the Indianapolis community. And it is absolutely essential in today’s competitive job market for students to have access to community events, internships across town and whatever else they may fancy.

But, frankly, there are other, greener options for getting around town — options that also will alleviate Butler’s parking crunch.

Butler is situated in a beautiful, bike-friendly neighborhood. Broad Ripple is less than three miles away. The Indianapolis Museum of Art is less than two miles.

Unfortunately IndyGo, the Indianapolis bus system, doesn’t offer a direct line on Butler’s campus. But freshmen easily can ride a bike to one of the nearby IndyGo bus stops. The Illinois Street line is only a half-mile away. Meridian, Central, and College lines are less than one mile away.

And the 38th Street line is less than two miles away via the Central Canal Greenway.

And if that isn’t enough, the Student Government Association offers a free— yes, that’s right, free— shuttle service to Glendale, Broad Ripple, downtown or the airport. Did I mention that it’s free?

I know, shuttles aren’t stylish. They aren’t hip. You cannot blast your music with your windows rolled down inside a shuttle.

So you could rent one of Butler’s two new Zipcars.

I’ve been assured that they have both windows and radios.

Let’s face it. Freshmen without cars will still need to get around. There’s no doubt about that.

They say that necessity is the mother of invention, and if freshmen need to go somewhere, they will invent a way to get there.

Granted, Indianapolis has places to go that are not bike-friendly, but that’s one more reason for freshmen to make new friends—just make sure at least one has a car.

In the end, it’s only one year. And, really, let’s be honest, freshmen should be studying anyway.

Freshman students arrive at college eager to find a social footing. But an increasing number of freshmen living in Residential College may feel like they are left out of that experience.

The isolated location of their units from other freshman makes for  different experience than living in Ross Hall or Schwitzer Hall first- year ResCo residents said.

“First-year students want to get to meet as many people as possible, and that does not change between residence halls,” Cunningham said. “Students in ResCo just have to work a little harder.”

Because of the different circumstances, more pressure is put on the resident assistants to plan programs and events that get freshmen out and involved with other students.

ResCo Residence Life Coordinator Jeff Tyner said the situation “poses challenges for RAs,” adding that ResCo allows students to form more “close knit relationships.”

“It is important for RAs and their RLC to schedule programming,” said Karla Cunningham, director of residence life.

The number of freshmen in ResCo has fluctuated in recent years.

Last year, as Butler accepted its largest freshman class in university history, ResCo had between 80 and 90 first year students spread among the wings, making communication difficult to accomplish.

Freshman Steven Gianakas, a business major, said he feels socially limited living in Resco. Daniel Young, a freshman actuarial science and finance major said he agrees with Gianakas’ sentiment.

This year, with a smaller freshman class, the numbers have adjusted accordingly with about 40 first year students living in ResCo, all located in one unit.
This consolidation brings freshmen closer together.

“The freshman hall has their doors open a lot,” freshman arts administration major Mollie Ellis said. “I will see a door right across the hall open, know it is a freshman room and that is the first place I will go.”

In ResCo, the fire retardant doors automatically swing shut as a safety precaution, which contrasts the “open door” policy popular in Ross and Schwitzer.

In fact, it is common to pass through an entire upperclassman wing in ResCo without encountering a single open door.

But to prevent a disconnect between residents in the hall, students are able to keep doors open at all times at ResCo as per policy. Freshman ResCo residents said being allowed to keep doors open makes them feel closer to one another.

While not provided by residence life, students in ResCo are able to purchase door stops or use another object to keep their doors open, granted it does not cause damage to the door or the floor.

“It is a building code difference that indirectly affects the community,” Tyner said. “Most people like the privacy.”

Even with the closed doors, some freshmen find that living in Resco improves their social life tremendously.

“You make closer friends [here] instead of acquaintances,” first year pharmacy major Andrew Taschler said of living in ResCo compared to Ross or Schwitzer. “Size makes a difference.”

Freshman and Ross Hall resident Jacob Ready prefers seeing a larger pool of names and faces.

“Having an open door is a great way to meet people and strike up a conversation,” Ready said.

‘Writing on the doors is important since the doors are not always open,” said Emily Welch, RA for the freshman unit.

Welch passed out door stops to all of her residents and encouraged those who wanted more social activity to prop their doors open.

Of the 150 student organizations at Butler University, only Greek organizations were reminded to not host any events during Welcome Week, which has caused more shock and surprise than Welcome Week itself.

Greek presidents received an email from Becky Druetzler, director of Greek affairs and orientation programs, dictating that the houses were not to have any social events of a formal or informal nature so that freshmen could remain focused on the events of Welcome Week.

We at The Butler Collegian find this move by the administration to be brash and unnecessary.

Irene Stevens, dean of student life, said this policy has been in place for at least the last 15 years and applies to all organizations.

While the administration argues that the rule exists to keep freshmen focused on the campus, it seems contradictory to the close atmosphere that Butler is known for.

It is claimed that the email was sent specifically to Greek houses to “remind them” of the rules, even though it reads more like an accusation.

It is unacceptable that only Greek organizations were reminded. It makes it seem as though the only organizations corrupting freshmen during Welcome Week are Greek houses.

In addition, multiple student organizations—apart from Greek houses—use the first week of classes to recruit new members.

The fact that the Welcome Week rule has been in place for 15 years is superfluous because the university is blatantly preventing student organizations from meeting and organizing before the school year starts. The hindrance of any student organization—including Greeks—during Welcome Week is not only preposterous but also counterproductive. It’s time for the rule to change.

The administration encourages freshmen to become immersed in Butler’s culture but then pulls the opportunistic rug from beneath their feet by prohibiting student organizations from meeting.

Butler can’t have its cake and eat it too in this case. The administration can’t deny Greek houses and student organizations the right to meet but overwhelmingly endorse Welcome Week activities. They need to maintain consistency in their decision-making across the board.

How does Butler expect student groups to portray a welcoming and diverse image to freshmen if they were never allowed the opportunity to organize and prepare for Welcome Week?

The free time students have the week before classes is a rare commodity. Everyone’s schedule aligns more easily than when groups are forced to wait until classes start. Then schedules become hectic and groups have to exchange productive meetings for  hurried rendezvous.

Student groups need more than a few harried hours before Block Party to organize and assemble their organization. The administration should understand that student organizations will not lure freshmen away from Welcome Week. If anything, these organizations would help students acclimate to the university faster.

Student organizations also have to arrange to save an event space for any reason, whereas Greek houses can avoid this rule. During Welcome Week, Druetzler’s email explained that if any student organization were to request a space, its request would have been denied.

Butler needs to work on embracing all student organizations, even during Welcome Week. Although the university may view Welcome Week activities as the most crucial component of a freshman’s first week at college, socializing is just as important.

Student organizations need to feel free and available to meet, organize and recruit within Butler, and this year, their options were decidedly more limited.

Butler University welcomed freshmen last week by curtailing their ability to fraternize with other student groups on campus.

All Greek house presidents received an email from Becky Druetzler, director of greek affairs and orientation programs, explaining that there were to be no social gatherings of any nature during Welcome Week.

While this email claimed to be in the spirit of keeping freshmen students on campus, it concerns me that the safety of freshmen may have been jeopardized anyway.

Freshman Maddie Biscocho ended up finding her own entertainment after Welcome Week activities.

“I walked around and explored the campus and neighborhoods,” Biscocho said.

Although Biscocho didn’t involve herself in any dangerous activities, other students might have.

Who is to say that bored freshmen didn’t wander off Butler’s campus looking for something else to do in Indianapolis?

The issue here is bigger than students drinking on campus. It is an issue of safety. It’s crucial that freshmen feel safe to experiment on Butler’s campus, where they have resources and options for help if something were to go wrong.

Irene Stevens, dean of student life, said, “We want to help them in their transition by letting them get acclimated as a group.”
However, how can the freshman class become acclimated if they aren’t allowed to explore the full campus?

Butler frequently has described itself as a bubble. It seems within the first week Butler pushed new students away.

This is bothersome. I understand that Butler wants freshmen to stay engaged in Good Clean Fun activities, but not every student fits that mold. Parties will be thrown and students will attend.

Stevens said the Welcome Week rule has been in place for 15 years. Then why is it being seriously implemented now?

Why is the solution to keep freshmen more focused on the university to shut down 150 student organizations that help these freshmen become involved?

It is claimed that Greeks were targeted in this case because they do not have to apply for an event space. If one were needed, they would be able to use their respective houses.

However, if another non-Greek student organization were to request a room, their request would have been denied.

Welcome Week events, of course, were openly encouraged.

Although the university does provide freshmen with a wealth of activities to participate in during the day, they have their nights to themselves and when there are no other student-led activities, students end up making their own fun.

Fortunately, resident assistants in the various residence halls helped freshmen find things to do at night.

“We did stuff like laundry parties, also known as fountain-hopping,” Biscocho said.

Although it’s good that Butler is still attempting to give freshmen something to do outside of Welcome Week activities, it is important that they continue to include all student organizations along with new students so that freshmen are given a better opportunity to interact with new groups and friends.

While I understand the university’s approach and their desire to keep the freshmen involved in Welcome Week events, shutting down possible outlets of socialization is unacceptable.

After all, Butler constantly preaches that the size of our campus is advantageous. If we don’t allow freshmen to interact with the plethora of groups at their disposal, we are not only hindering their opportunities, we are hindering a chance to tighten the Butler community.

Living away from home for the first time can be confusing and difficult for college students. Luckily, they don’t have to face this situation alone.

Butler University resident assistants are available around the clock to all students living in residential halls.

The job requires behind-the-scenes work and begins with a rigorous application process.

Sophomore Ryan Tewell is an RA at ResCo and said he remembers the process well.

It begins with a written application, a group interview and finally an individual interview.

During the individual interview, perspective RAs give a presentation about themselves to a panel of current RAs and residential hall supervisors.

The process doesn’t end there, Tewell said. The job requires RAs to attend classes before they take the position.

“Basically, we learned some of the things that we would be dealing with, but we also learned about ourselves: our strengths and how that would help us in the job,” Tewell said.

The RAs come back a week before everyone else arrives on campus to complete training on how to deal with situations they might encounter while on the job.

“We learned about the policies and participated in diversity training,” Tewell said. “And then we were deemed ready for our residents.”

RAs are also required to put on a certain amount of events that promote the Butler Wellness Model.

The model includes seven different aspects of a student’s wellness, including social wellness, mind and body wellness, cultural awareness and community interaction.

The event programming is set up differently this year, but Tewell said it’s been easier than he had anticipated.

“I have received a lot of help from my faculty-in-resident Meredith Beilfuss,” Tewell said. “She has been absolutely great helping me and the rest of the RAs in my wing plan out events.

“The wellness model is almost taking care of itself through her help.”

The work of an RA doesn’t stop with event planning. They also have daily duties that include making hallway rounds to complete safety checks and keeping track of campus news and events.

“It’s really hard to balance everything,” Tewell, a pharmacy major, said. “You find out what you have to do and you that done before you get done what you want to do. I’m learning what I have to do and what times I have open to do those types of things.”

Despite the hardships of the job, Tewell seems to be a doing a fine job thus far as an RA, one of his residents, freshman Cole Smith, said

“He is a friend, but almost higher than a friend, because if we need anything, we can come to him,” Smith said. “He looks out for us and makes sure we have everything we need.”

Junior Trisha Wilcox is an RA at Schwitzer Hall and said she too feels being an RA can be difficult.

“Balance is the hardest thing about being an RA, because you have to balance between your personal life and the life of being a resident assistant,” Wilcox said. “They get so intertwined sometimes you cannot separate them.

Your whole life becomes your job, so finding a way to balance that out can be really rough.”

Wilcox is in her second year of being an RA and said she has finally found some effective techniques that allow her to manage the balance between her social life and her job.

“A key to balancing my life is keeping in touch with other staff members and making sure I have an outlet of people to talk to,” Wilcox said. “I make sure I have someone to keep me down to earth.”

The Butler University Freshman Caucus has tallied the votes and elected four officers for the class of 2014 last Monday.

The caucus is entirely distinct from the campus-wide Student Government Association.

The group of about 30 students works to inform the freshman class about issues on campus and listens specifically to their opinions.

This attention to freshmen is something newly-elected Vice Chair Kyle Graden said would be difficult at large-scale SGA meetings.

“SGA does a lot of stuff tailored to all of the students,” he said. “As a freshman, you can kind of get lost in the shuffle.”

Treasurer Rachel Wilkinson said it would be intimidating to think about walking into a student government of established upperclassmen as a freshman.

She decided to pursue a position in freshman caucus so that her voice could be heard over the crowd.

“I got involved because it was more directly related to the freshman class, as opposed to SGA which is the whole campus,” Wilkinson said. “It’s more focused and it’s a smaller group, so you have more of an impact.“

Caucus Chair Katie Palmer said freshmen need to be informed about the campus before their opinion can have an impact.

“If you don’t know what’s going on, you won’t be able to voice your opinions.”

The caucus is also designed to unify the freshman class.

Sally Click, adviser for the freshman caucus, said that this unity is unique to the Butler experience.

“You really have an intense experience with people for these four years,” Click said.  “You really get close to the people that you start with and that you end with, because our retention rate is so good.

“There is a sense of class unity and cohesiveness that I don’t think you get at other places.”

This year’s caucus officers are planning social events to help bring the class of 2014 together.

Click said it is too early to definitively say what the events will be, but the officers are looking into pairing with the Dawg Pound to coach freshmen on how to be a good Bulldog fan.

They are also planning a celebration for the end of the fall semester.

“It will be just something to say, ‘Hey, we did it. We survived our first semester,’” Graden said.

Wilkinson said that she hopes other freshmen will be able to connect at these events.

“This is an opportunity for them to find people to do an activity together and to find other freshmen who are all in the same boat,” she said.

The new officers are also putting a heavy emphasis on philanthropy.

“We thought philanthropy was something that all freshmen could get involved in, not just athletes or members of specific groups,” Palmer said.

The philanthropy event will be scheduled for sometime in the spring semester.

Three years ago, freshman government looked significantly different.

Freshman class officers were elected and represented the class in SGA meetings.  The officers then felt the need for a “sounding board,” and created the caucus as support system.

Last year, the Butler University Freshman Caucus replaced the freshman officer system.

Click said that this system is beneficial to students because there are 30 people representing the class, rather than four.

“It’s easier to generate interest in activities as opposed to four people on their own,” Click said.

Butler University Freshman Caucus is open to all interested freshmen.

“It’s definitely something easy to get involved in,” Palmer said. “You don’t have to be a president or vice president to make a difference.”

The next Freshman Caucus meeting will be held Oct. 18 in the basement of Jordan Hall.

This year’s large freshmen class has forced Butler Universityto re-evaluate how academic advising is handled.

With changes being made to the core curriculum and class requirements, proper advising for the new freshmen on campus is more imperative than ever before.

Jennifer Griggs, director of the Learning Resource Center, said there were some adjustments Butler had to make to the standard advising process as a result of this year’s large incoming class.

Griggs said Butler has had to utilize less common methods of advising, such as e-mail and telephone scheduling,  which in the past were reserved for students with extenuating circumstances that prevented them from attending a registration session on campus.

“With the incoming class we’ve used the same process of early registrations, and we had some very large ones,” Griggs said. “Over the course of the summer we did a lot of registrations long-distance, using phone and email.”

She said part of the issue this year is that students took longer to decide where they wanted to go to school, meaning Butler then had to provide those students with options to register for classes after all the initial registration dates had passed.

“I do worry that a student who registers that way may not feel so connected,” Griggs said.

Students in these long-distance scenarios have an even higher need for a personal connection with their adviser, she said.

Griggs said because these methods involve a less personal approach, Butler has attempted to make new students comfortable with their environment through Welcome Week activities and by remaining focused on adding the personal touches in the future that were initially lacking in advising.

Freshman Ian Ray said his first group advising experience was not what he expected, but in a good way.

“I expected it to be simply a boring lecture about classes or our major,” Ray said. “But the activities we did as a group turned out to be very fun and also effective at breaking the ice amongst the people in the group, which was very important in making the experience as a whole an enjoyable one.”

Ray said he also thought the move to use technology rather than face-to-face conversation was the most efficient way of keeping students and advisers connected throughout the school year.

“I think that would be the most critical singular change that the advising program could make,” he said. “While at times face-to-face conversations can serve a certain purpose, following the technological trend will be integral to keeping students connected with their advisers.”

Griggs said the success of these methods can only be evaluated after this class’ freshman-to-sophomore retention rate has been calculated.

“We have very good freshman-to-sophomore retention and I think that is partly due to the fact that our faculty members understand the importance of that first year,” Griggs said.

She said the concern this year is that more students translates to a higher number of students per adviser, which raises the question of whether faculty have the opportunity to give each student the necessary individual attention.

“It may mean that they’re advising more students and I think that distribution comes across depending on what the student’s majors are,” Griggs said.

Certain departments have seen increased student interest, but this year has brought an influx of exploratory majors as well.

Griggs said exploratory majors usually require more specialized advising, which has created additional demands on the process as a whole.

“We have a very structured and intentional exploratory studies program that now suddenly has a lot more students in it,” Griggs said.

She said although the process of scheduling and advising is rarely ideal the first year, all the necessary classes are available and it is just a matter of coordinating students’ time schedules.

“There’s always a difference between what you want in your ideal schedule and what we can deliver and still keep you on track,” Griggs said. “We did try to promote all the first year seminar classes so that if you came to them later you still had options available.

“We were very intentional this year, because of the big numbers, to make sure we had seats in the classes.”

She said the advising system that has always been in place at Butler is a good one despite a few minor adjustments that had to be made this year.

“We have a good process,” Griggs said.  “What we’re doing is just accommodating the class.

“We’re strained this year to provide the same level of support to a student population who we really want to spend a lot of time with so that we can advise them appropriately. We were able very well this year to deliver what was needed.”

Griggs said that although the current methods do work well, they can always be adjusted and improved to deal with unexpected circumstances, as experienced this year.

“With academic advising, there’s always potential to do better,” Griggs said.  “I think the institution is always looking for ways to better train advisers, to better communicate information. We’re always looking for ways to improve.”