The outdoor space between Gallahue Hall and the Holcomb Building will be a new study area for students by the beginning of next school year.

Student Government Association approved the project last Wednesday. The executive board has been working on it since last semester.

The new area will have tables with umbrellas and bar-height tables for studying, as well as lounge chairs and couches for recreational use, said Scott Nemeth, vice president of administration. Power outlets and Wi-Fi routers will also be installed to make studying in the area more convenient.

“It’s going to be left behind for students to use for years to come, and I don’t think there’s anything better than that,” Nemeth said.

During coffee chats and surveys, students expressed a desire to be outside more. With the Starbucks patio having a limited amount of space, the board decided on this patio project to add more outdoor soft space, Nemeth said.

The project as a whole will cost $100,000 to complete, said Derek Friederich, SGA vice president of finance.

After looking at what it could get for a variety of different price points, the board decided on the recently-passed budget, mainly because of the quality of the Wi-Fi and power sources.

The money will come from the rollover account, which stores leftover money from the SGA budget.

“Year after year, this amount accrues to an unnecessary large amount,” Friederich said. “There’s no reason to have several-hundred-thousand dollars just sitting in the account.”

In the past, money from this account has been used by other executive boards for other projects, including the Brita water filters and the bike share program.

“We aren’t doing this because SGA executives wanted to see this happen,” SGA President Mike Keller said. “It’s something students have been asking for.”

The project was relatively easy as the space was already available and easy to work with, Keller said. Students can expect to see progress on the area by commencement in May.

Future executive boards will probably look to add lighting to the area, Keller said. After students use the space for a few years, it will be easier to see what other things are in demand.

People have also talked about adding some sort of coffee kiosk or cart in the future so students working in the area wouldn’t have to walk all the way to Starbucks, Keller said.

The patio will hopefully offset the demand for more outdoor study space on the Starbucks patio, he said, which has proven difficult to work with due to space issues and negotiations with Aramark.

According to Butler students, being busy is a status symbol.

Students are taking on multiple leadership positions and extracurricular activities.

Junior Katie Palmer is involved with conferences and special events, has an internship with Butler athletics, has a virtual internship with the state department, is the president of the class of 2014, serves as academic affairs committee coordinator for Council on Presidential Affairs and is in a sorority.

“I’m always either doing something or getting ready for something or, you know, planning out what is going to happen next,” Palmer said.

Palmer said she thinks being busy as a status symbol is something everyone is okay with. Those on campus know Butler students are busy.

“I definitely think as you get more and more involved, people kind of make judgments about you based on how many activities you’re involved in or what you do on campus,” Palmer said.

Sarah Diaz, health education and outreach programs coordinator, started thinking about the idea of busyness as a status symbol when she read the Washington Post article “Exhaustion is not a status symbol.”

In this article, Brené Brown, a University of Houston professor, said, “The expectations of what we can get done and how well we can do it, are beyond human scale.”

Diaz said she sees many students overwhelmed by academic stress and campus involvement. Pressure to be doing more, along with the culture of immediacy, are causes of stress.

Diaz said student involvement is necessary, but students must also be able to pause and to reflect on their college experiences.

Student Government Association President Mike Keller said he has a demanding job in that role. He has also been serving on his fraternity executive board for two years.

“Freshman year, you can just get away with being labeled as a freshman, ” Keller said.

Keller said as students get older, though, class rank is not enough. Students form identities through the activities in which they are involved.

“You hear people bragging about how busy they are,” Keller said.

“Without pausing and unplugging and just being still from time to time,” Diaz said, “some students may feel like they are not able to recharge their batteries.”

Maya Angelou once said, “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”

The Butler community never did quite forget Angelou’s legendary presence back in 1988. After being the inaugural speaker for Butler University’s Celebration of Diversity Distinguished Lecture Series, Angelou is coming back to campus to celebrate the series’ 25th anniversary.

Angelou is known as one the most prolific writers and renaissance women in the world. Angelou is a renowned poet, memoirist, novelist, educator, dramatist, producer, actress, historian, filmmaker and civil rights activist.

Valerie Davidson, director and creator of Butler’s diversity programs, said she is more than thrilled for Angelou’s return to campus.

“I think it’s only fitting as we celebrate the 25th anniversary of the series that we bring back the distinctive voice that started it all,” Davidson said.

Last time Angelou was at Butler, she graced the audience with a reading of her works. While there is no general theme to Angelou’s lecture this time, Davidson said she knows the experience will be worthwhile.

“When you have someone with the achievements and the image and the lifetime accomplishments of Maya Angelou, whatever she wants to talk about, I think that people will gain something from that,” Davidson said.

The Butler community seems to agree. Davidson said all the tickets were sold out in a matter of a few days.

“Butler students should take advantage of this opportunity,” Davidson said. “They have the rare chance to learn from and gain new perspectives from such an influential speaker.”

Butler’s student government, partnering with the diversity center, is looking forward to welcoming Angelou to campus. Mike Keller, Student Government Association president, said he plans to search for a personalized message from her lecture.

“She’s such a notable figure across the country and has shown just an extreme amount of depth to her thoughts and with what she has been able to do,” Keller said. “And I think everybody who gets a chance to listen to people such as her really comes away with a lot and learns a lot about themselves and their own personal mission.”

Along with SGA, the Black Student Union is also co-sponsoring the event. With the Black Student Union theme being “Become a better version of yourself,” Brittany Moore, union president, said she hopes Angelou’s lecture can touch on the subject.

“I want her to enlighten everyone and tell them they can be the best they can be,” Moore said. “I’m hoping for everyone to be inspired to have a great semester and great life after hearing her speak.”

Angelou will speak in Clowes Memorial Hall on Tuesday, March 26 at 7:30 p.m. While not every student will remember every word Angelou says that day, students will likely remember how her words and works made them feel.

Student Government Association’s Election Oversight Committee proposed a resolution to permanently allow only members in at least their sophomore years onto the committee, going against last year’s temporary suspension of the rule to allow freshmen.

This decision comes after a review in SGA, and the assembly will vote today on whether to make the rule a permanent change.

“Last year the EOC got into some trouble when they didn’t really look at the constitution very closely when forming the committee,” SGA President Mike Keller said.

“They added freshmen when the constitution specifically said that they can’t be.”

Sophomore James Schubert, who served as chairman on last year’s EOC as a freshman, said he thinks this was the wrong decision to make.

“I think they are going to struggle to get participation now,” Schubert said. “Freshmen tend to be the least busy, and they have the best opportunity to get involved.”

Keller said the process would benefit from members of the EOC having a year of experience before being on the committee because collegiate elections are different from high school.

“I think it’s definitely a good permanent change,” Keller said. “It is for the best for the committee to have older students taking on a serious role.”

Schubert was planning on being a part of the committee this year but said his plans have changed.

“I will be withdrawing my name because of that decision,” Schubert said.

PuLSE Office Director Caroline Huck-Watson assists the EOC in the decision process and said she believes that this resolution is good for the school year.

“Based on what our participation looks like I can say that this year, having older students is fine,” Huck-Watson said. “But I can see another one-year suspension just in case we need to add more students.”

She also said she doesn’t believe this resolution to be a result of poor performance from previous years.

“I can see why SGA thought this resolution would be a good thing by having experienced students,” Huck-Watson said, “but I personally could see EOC being a good way for freshmen to get involved.”

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.”

Butler University President Jim Danko hosted a dialogue with students where they discussed “A Shared Strategic Vision” for the university’s future.

Danko told the gathering of faculty and  students about his plan, which includes raising the endowment to $750 million by 2025  and making additions to campus as outlined in the master plan.

He said there are many areas of campus that are terrific, but some classrooms and residence halls “just look pathetic.”

“The problem is that we don’t have the economic resources because our endowment is so low and our revenue is just on the brink of being okay to allow us to invest back into the university,” Danko said.

The hour-long presentation included a session where Danko addressed students’ questions regarding the vision.

Students raised questions about the quality of campus dining, maintaining the ethics being taught and maintaining small class sizes and undergraduate focus.

Danko told students the university is working with Aramark, the food service company, to provide higher quality and healthier options.

He also said small classes will continue to be a focus because they are part of the Butler experience of having a good student-professor relationship.

Student Government Association President Mike Keller said that his own vision was for students to be more involved, and Danko is doing the same thing by sharing his vision.

“I really commend President Danko for doing this,” Keller said. “He is taking the time to listen to what the students have to say and respond to our feedback.”

“I thought this discussion went fine,” Danko said. “I was very pleased to see the turnout. I think we had some very good questions that hopefully were answered.”

Butler University student organizations are for the students by the students, and the process to receive funding is no different.

Any recognized student organization does not necessarily receive funding from the university, Caroline Huck-Watson, PuLSE Office director, said. It is the student organization’s responsibility to look for sources for funding.

One way student organizations can get funding is by applying for Student Government Association grants.

The SGA Finance Board and Grants Committee started looking at grant applications last week, said Derek Friederich, SGA vice president of finance. Four grants have been approved so far.

Student organizations can apply for four types of grants: general-purpose grants, event grants, R.E.A.C.H. grants and club sports grants.

“A lot of organizations really do rely on those (grants),” SGA President Mike Keller said. “The money they have at the start of the year is really not enough to do some of the things that they want to.”

Applying for grants is a multi-step process, Friederich said.

First, a student organization interested in a grant will fill out the online application and budget form on SGA’s website.

That application will be submitted to the Grants Committee and a member will add that application to a pile of applications to be considered.

The Grants Committee and Finance Board hear four grant request presentations per week, Friederich said. The organization will give a brief presentation about why they want the grant. The committee will then ask the organization questions to find out if the money will be put to good use.

“It is the students’ money,” Friederich said. “We check to make sure efforts are being made toward bettering the campus in some way.”

The 11 individuals on Grants Committee are the only people who vote on the grant applications. If a grant is awarded to an organization, the money will be in that organization’s account at the PuLSE Office the next day.

The PuLSE Office oversees the accounts of all registered student organizations. The financial transactions of an organization happen there, with the exception of club sports, which are handled through the health and recreation department.

Huck-Watson said, along with SGA grants, student organizations could get funding from their own fundraising efforts or also from grants outside the university.

A representative from a student organization can come in for a cash advance, which is money taken out ahead of time for an activity or supplies a group needs if it have the money in its account.

The representative from the organization must fill out a form with information about who they are and the amount of money they want. That form is then taken to Student Accounts, as the actual money is not kept in the PuLSE Office, Huck-Watson said.

After the money is spent, the representative must go back to the PuLSE Office with the receipts from transactions and any change  left over.

The PuLSE Office can also be used to pay organization’s invoices or reimburse students in an organization who have used their own money for something, Huck-Watson said.

On the 15th of every month, the university puts out cumulative financial reports so students can see how much they’ve been spending throughout the year, Huck-Watson said. But students are expected to keep a real-time budget to keep track of their spending.

Huck-Watson said the PuLSE office holds meetings at the beginning of each year required for all student organizations to inform them of the different policies and financial responsibilities they have as a student organization.

The PuLSE Office will work with organizations if funding issues arise, Huck-Watson said. It is handled on a case-by-case basis to figure out how the issues happened and how it can be fixed.

SGA also requires student organizations to be accountable for their grants, Friederich said.

Organizations who receive event grants must submit an accountability report to the Grants Committee showing the receipts so the committee can match it up with the budget to make sure the money was used how the organization said it was going to be used, Friederich said.

General purpose grants are subject to random audits throughout the year, Friederich said.

The entire SGA budget comes from the activity fee students are required to pay, Keller said.

Student government receives about $180 of the $288 student activity fee. The rest of the money goes to each individual class, athletics and into a pool to be divvied up between the different organizations, Keller said.

Keller said he thinks the activity fee is set at the correct amount.

“Our only mission is to be an advocate and provide programming for the students,” Keller said. “It’s a really solid investment, especially if you’re someone who takes advantage of all that SGA offers.”

Huck-Watson said she thinks the fee is doing its job.

“From my perspective, I don’t think the fee needs to be raised,” she said. “At this point, the fee is meeting the needs of the students.”

The total SGA budget is $748,409 for this year, Friederich said. There is $55,500 in the grants budget.

The grants are awarded first come, first served, so organizations should apply early, Friederich said.

On Sep. 19, Student Government Association assembly voted and passed the SGA budget proposal.

This familiar procedure took place in a matter of minutes with little debate or concern raised about where approximately $750,000 would be going.

This all-too-common scenario illustrates an issue that assembly must face—SGA representatives need to take their jobs more seriously.

Student representatives are not in assembly just to warm a chair and keep their organization intact.

They are there to represent students and voice their concerns about campus issues.

By ignoring the power behind their positions, SGA representatives disenfranchise the student body.

“If everybody (in assembly) is quiet about issues, then the students aren’t being represented since their representatives aren’t speaking with them about these issues,” SGA President Mike Keller said.

The apathy displayed by SGA representatives not only silences students’ voices but also misuses students’ money.

Students pay $288 per semester to SGA through activity fees.

So when representatives don’t even spend five minutes discussing the details and provisions of the SGA budget, they more or less have thrown aside $288 of each student’s money.

This flippant attitude is appalling coming from a student organization that is supposed to act as the students’ megaphone to the administration.

Keller notes how the current assembly does not recognize the influence it holds.

“The student representatives don’t realize how much power they have,” Keller said. “If they wanted to, they could have completely defunded the Program Board.”

The SGA executive board has attempted to stir discussion over assembly votes.

From providing background information to representatives before each meeting for each vote to breaking up larger votes—like the budget—into chunks, the executive board has done all it can without forcing itself into the debate.

Executive board members and SGA advisers cannot instigate discussion in assembly meetings.

“I really do appreciate when there is discussion, but if assembly doesn’t feel a need to discuss, then that’s up to them,” SGA Adviser Caroline Huck-Watson said.

This is sensible since forcing assembly conversation would be akin to the United States executive branch breaking into a Senate vote and dictating how to go through the process.

Ultimately, the student representatives alone are responsible for their attentiveness during assembly.

Honestly, no clear solutions exist except for student representatives to accept the role they took on.

Considering significant issues—the Council on Presidential Affairs’ list of proposals and the capital improvement list—are going to be addressed down the line, the student body better hope its representatives shape up soon.

If not, then students can count on a continued lack of progress.

A prospective student organization was denied endorsement by the Student Government Association last Wednesday, and is up for appeal today.

The National Society for Leadership and Success was presented before SGA executives and was denied endorsement.

SGA Assembly will now listen to the NSLS’s presentation, and will vote to pass it or not.

If the NSLS is approved in the SGA assembly, Irene Stevens, dean of student life, and PuLSE Office Director Caroline Huck-Watson will then review it.

Brian Hannon, the president of the NSLS if it is approved, understands SGA’s initial hesitation but says the organization will help Butler students.

“I think the group was initially rejected by the SGA board because they were worried the fees required to start the organization are too much and too corporate-based,” Hannon said in an email “It is their responsibility to protect the student body from getting scammed, so I understand their viewpoint.”

“The networking possibilities, nationally-recognized speakers and community service events all would be a huge benefit to this campus,” Hannon said.

SGA President Mike Keller said that when the NSLS presented, there were specific parts of the group’s constitution that caused concern.

The financial aspect of the constitution stated that an $85 admission fee to the group was required for each new student.

Of that $85, only $5 went back to Butler University, and $80 went to the national headquarters of the group.

Keller also said that a 3.0 GPA was required to be eligible for the group, which he said did not seem high enough to be considered an honors group, especially here at Butler.

“We really didn’t feel comfortable saying this was a good organization for the students because it would take away money from other groups that are more beneficial,” Keller said.

Marielle Slagel, SGA vice president of operations, said the whole presentation made the SGA executives question if this group could really benefit Butler.

“We are looking out for students and the campus community and are skeptical of the membership fee as well as the benefits that students would receive from the National Society of Leadership and Success,” Slagel said.

Even though Stevens has not seen the group this year, she said that the same group attempted to start a chapter here at Butler in the past.

Two years ago the NSLS made a presentation to Huck-Watson, and she raised her initial concerns to Stevens.

Huck-Watson researched the group online and told Stevens that it is a “for-profit” group, in which the NSLS had to raise thousands of dollars a year just to support its own programs.

The online website for the NSLS boasts 221,000 members yet its membership benefits said there is $100,000 available in scholarships. So if each member were to receive benefits. each individual would only receive $0.45.

“There are better ways to go for a leadership group than to pay a lot of money to a for-profit organization, in my opinion,” Stevens said.

The NSLS will present to SGA Assembly this afternoon.

Plans to lock academic campus buildings at an earlier time are currently on the table to prevent unaffiliated trespassers from putting student safety at risk.

Assistant Chief of Police Bill Weber, wants to start locking up campus buildings at 9 p.m. instead of 10 p.m., as well as opening them at 7 a.m. instead of 6 a.m.

Weber said he would like to see this applied to Jordan Hall, Gallahue Hall, Holcomb Building, the Pharmacy and Health Sciences Building and Lilly Hall, given that the deans of those buildings permit him to do so.

All of these buildings, with the exception of Gallahue and Fairbanks building, have key card access, meaning students can scan their IDs to get into the building anytime they want.

An earlier locking time would only mean that students would have to scan their cards to enter those buildings after 9 p.m.

“It’s not unusual that we have found people who are not Butler-affiliated in the buildings,” Weber said. “I want to secure the campus and hold it in tighter when it gets to be nighttime to keep people who have no business on campus from wandering into a building just to look around.”

Incidences have occurred where random trespassers have been caught wandering the halls of various buildings, which, Weber said, could put student safety at risk.

One incident occurred roughly three weeks ago, when a minor was caught and arrested for wandering around the third floor of Atherton Union.  The minor was not affiliated with the university, Weber said.

Whether the minor had malicious intentions is unknown, but Weber said that locking the doors at an earlier time is a precautionary notion that could prevent outsiders from compromising student safety.

“Unfortunately, bad things could happen to young people,” Weber said.  “I would love to see students more aware of their surroundings and suspicious behavior.”

Before Weber makes any decisions or takes action, he said he wants feedback from both students and the deans of each college, hoping to see many people in agreement with his proposal.

He approached the Student Government Association to receive  feedback.

“I don’t want to catch anybody off guard,” Weber said.  “The most important aspect of this is student safety, and I think about student safety all of the time.”

SGA President Mike Keller said that the SGA Assembly feedback was taken through a poll with nonbinding results and was generally positive.

“Weber was able to cite a few specific examples of where there have been instances of theft and also just people being in the buildings who shouldn’t be,” Keller said.  “I think it was a really convincing argument, and if we can cut down on those things just by closing up the buildings a little earlier, I think it’s a good move to do.”

Keller said that student response was probably positive because of the key card access at all academic buildings except for Fairbanks, which stays unlocked until 11 p.m.

“It’s not as much as an inconvenience for students as it used to be,” Keller said.

Keller said that the only concern of the assembly was keeping individual rooms inside the buildings unlocked so that students could still use them for studying purposes.

Weber said only the exterior of the buildings will be affected by this closing time as opposed to individual rooms.

Other students expressed concerns with regard to the number of doors that actually offer key card access.

Sophomore Alex Felt frequently studies at Jordan Hall late at night and said that sometimes the placement of key card access doors is inconvenient when it’s late.

“It would be more beneficial to have more doors with the key card access,” Felt said. “Butler is really strong and stands out as a university with its academics, and access to study areas is really important for students.”

Weber said that changes to safety take time as a step-by-step process.

“All in all, I’m very happy with the safety of campus,” Weber said.  “But anything that a student can do to protect themselves is a good thing.”

Keller agrees, also adding that he is impressed with the police department’s steps in keeping student’s protected.

“I think BUPD is doing a good job to make sure that campus is kept to the people who should be here,” Keller said.