Children’s book illustrator Michele Wood will give a presentation at Butler University this week to help celebrate Founder’s Day.

Founder’s Day marks the birthday of Ovid Butler, an Indianapolis native who was heavily involved with the university’s creation.

On Thursday, Wood will be speaking about her latest work—a collaboration with Cynthia Grady—titled “I Lay My Stitches Down: Poems of American Slavery.”

Written in poetry, the book is about the experiences of African American slaves. The stories are brought to life through Wood’s elaborate quilt artwork.

“The poetry is a lot like a quilt,” Wood said. “There is depth, meaning and intricate parts.”

If Wood’s name sounds familiar, it may be because she has been on campus before.

A resident of the Butler-Tarkington neighborhood, Wood gave a presentation on her illustrations in the book “I See the Rhythm of Gospel” at Irwin Library last semester.

Wood’s artwork has impressed many viewers. Her illustrations for a similar book, “I See the Rhythm,” earned her the Coretta Scott King Award from the American Library Association.

“The illustrations are very rich and expressive, and that is what is so striking about them,” said Julie Miller, Butler’s dean of libraries. “They seem so textured that you cannot believe it’s a flat page.”

The creation of Wood’s books is very unique as well.

Many are written in an unconventional, backward format. Instead of writers sending her manuscripts to inspire her art, she sends the authors her artwork to inspire their text.

While Wood’s presentation is open to all students and the Indianapolis community, Miller said students majoring in creative writing, art or education will find the program especially interesting.

“To be involved in a dialogue with someone successful is inspiring and educational,” said sophomore Tommy O’Rourke, a creative writing major.

Both students and faculty see the opportunity to hear Wood speak as beneficial.

“It’s great for students to have access to someone who is actually making her living as an artist,” Miller said.

Wood said she desires for her work to connect past and present generations.

“I want to educate children about how much African Americans have contributed to society and to the United States,” Wood said.

Across campus, Butler faculty members are excited for the event’s inclusion in the Founder’s Day celebration.

“It gives us greater understanding of the diversity of American history,” Miller said. “That’s what makes it a great program to have on Founder’s Day.”

Wood’s presentation will be held Thursday at 6 p.m. in Irwin Library.

A new face will be seen around the stacks of Irwin Library come June 1.

Julie Miller, newly appointed dean of libraries, will replace current dean Lewis Miller.  Julie Miller said she was attracted to Butler University because of the academic excellence here.

While this is good, the main focus I want to see from the library is the continual improvement of the resources they provide students.

The library is the most under appreciated building on campus.

Yes, the library is packed around midterms and finals but not that many people actually use the library for more than a place to do homework.

The library’s effort to provide the campus with information is commonly overlooked.

From the online databases they set up to the digitizing of older documents, there are so many things that the library does to give away information.

Yet, when students look for information the first place they go to is Wikipedia.

Students should use the libraries, and in return the library should be more interactive with students and faculty so that when people need to do searches they feel more confident in the library’s resources.

I want to see the library continue to digitize older documents. The historical documents that are housed in the library are some of the richest spots for information on campus; yet, not many students know about it.

Digitizing and posting these things online so students can easily access them is a big help to everyone.

Miller can successfully involve more and more students in the library’s resources and all it has to offer.

Going directly to the students and faculty to see what they want and need is a good way to begin  involving more people and learning how to give them better access to information.

Miller has published several articles on and has been studying ways to re-spawn libraries, so I have full faith that she can do it.

Butler hit a home run with Miller. Her abilities and expectations are exactly what Butler needs to take our academics to the next level by directly involving the library.

Her emphasis to get more participation from the student body will improve the overall academics of the school, and I believe that Butler students will be more versed and educated by the time they graduate if they take advantage of the library.

If there’s one thing that Butler University students, faculty and staff can count on, it’s that during the course of their tenure at this institution, they will experience the thrill and the tease of an administrative search process.

Butler goes through administrators almost as quickly as Parking Enforcement Officer Aaron Chalmers makes his daily parking ticket shake-ups.

In the past three years, we’ve searched for and hired a new president and four new deans.

The most recent hire is Julie Miller, who interim provost Kate Morris announced last week is to serve as the new dean of libraries.

I’ve either personally attended or overseen The Collegian’s covering of each of these searches, and the experience is always identical.

The community’s involvement in the process is always a letdown, and the mini-dramas that ensue are always identically riveting.

The titillating process has started again.

A search committee to find Butler’s next Jamie Comstock has assembled, and in 2013 when it’s over, the Butler community will welcome the new provost to his or her new office in Jordan Hall.

It doesn’t matter if the search committee votes to keep the provost  search open or closed.

The candidate who is hired at the end of this will always be someone’s favorite and someone’s adversary.

If you’re new to Butler and are interested in saving yourself more than a few hours of griping during the next year, here are a few lock-ins about the process.

First, don’t expect to be officially kept abreast of what goes on during upcoming search committee meetings, even if the process is open.

But have no fear. While you’re not going to receive much official communication, you’ll hear about what the committee members think.

It will be around the water cooler, over a Starbucks mocha, or—in my case—at the end of an interview when committee members just can’t help but divulge the details of their latest meeting.

Next—if the search is open—there will be open forums.

I live for these and usually attend them for fun, even if I have no reason to show up.

All of the public forums will have a few rowdy audience members, and all of these people will be the same people who have showed up to forums for the past five administrative search processes.

The tenured folks will ask the questions.

Everyone else will be silent and gripe about it on the way back to their offices.

The debates about each candidate’s qualifications will be the same as they were last year.

There will be lovely questions about important topics: pay equity, the core requirements, the balance between theory and internships, the importance of adapting to new technology.

There will be a lively debate if one of the candidates is lacking a doctoral degree.

Last, the announcement will always be at some random moment, right as students, faculty and staff leave for a school break.

The faculty will hear first in an email from the president.

Someone will break the news to The Collegian.

It will not be the president.

Then it will be over, and the new hire will fit right into Butler’s administration until someone decides to do something that costs too much money or is unpopular with Butler’s usual politicians.

Or some other administrator will step down from her post or have his contract expire, and we’ll be at it again.

Sure, the debates and drama are a thrill, but trust me—this process is formulaic, and if you decide to tune out from next year’s search, you won’t be missing much.