President Jim Danko announced Saturday that Butler University will create a $5 million innovation fund that will support inventive and well-planned ideas to better the Butler community.

When I first heard of this plan, skepticism came over me. But after thinking about it and reading more into it, it is clear that this university and community can fully benefit from a fund like this.

The $5 million Butler Innovation Fund includes contributions from local foundations and from the Danko family, ensuring that this fund is from and for the community.

Butler and the surrounding area are in need of some new and creative ideas. It seems that students should be the first ones to go after this opportunity.

It isn’t every day or at every university that your ideas can come to life without personal financial burden to do so.

This fund will foster the growing ideas of students and give us a chance to make a difference in the university and community before we go on with our lives.

It may sound cliché, because it is. But the ideas that we have as students can greatly benefit those around us.

The people out there in the world right now making those big bucks didn’t get there by sitting in their dorm rooms watching the same movie for the twentieth time.

They created Facebook and other innovative products.

Our university does not need more lecture classes; what it needs is real-world experiences that allow students to make an impact and see how that shapes their lives.

The Butler Innovative Fund will do wonders for our community, but only if the right ideas and the right people get the opportunity to use it.