Jim Danko’s installation ceremony on Saturday at Clowes Memorial Hall was a historical event, full of the pomp and circumstance that the Butler University community expected.
After months of wondering how exactly Danko planned to imagine all the possibilities at this institution, I waited on pins and needles to see what—if anything—Danko would announce during his inaugural address.
By the end of the address, audience members’ curiosities were definitely satiated.
The only problem with the installation ceremony on Saturday? No one saw it.
There couldn’t have been more than 500 people sitting in attendance at Clowes.
More students should have taken an hour or two to witness the inauguration.
After seeing the installation advertised in the Butler Connection, on poster boards, in emails and on the covers of numerous issues of The Collegian, there really was no excuse not to know when and where the event was happening and that the entire Butler community was invited.
If you missed the installation, you missed Butler’s leaders, as well as a U.S. senator, express their views of Danko.
If you missed the ceremony, you missed the chance to see former president Bobby Fong adorably singing the Alma Mater.
But most importantly, if you missed the installation, you missed Danko’s announcement of a $5 million idea fund that he and his wife personally have invested in, designed to put great ideas from the Butler community on a funding fast track.
Student Government Association President Al Carroll said he has plenty of ideas for the $5 million fund but would be excited to hear from the rest of the student body about their ideas for where the money should go.
“As soon as he announced it, my mind started running a thousand miles a minute,” Carroll said.
Regardless of whether students attended the event, they should take their ideas to Carroll, or any administrator who will listen, especially because students who attended the event have a leg up on coming up with Butler’s next great idea.
The purpose of attending the inauguration ceremony wasn’t for students to hear about how great Butler is. It was a time for students to get excited about the school’s future possibilities.
The inauguration of a new president doesn’t happen every day. Since Fong’s inauguration was 10 years ago, unless a student is taking a 10th victory lap at Butler, they haven’t seen anything like it.
Parts of Danko’s inaugural address are available online at www.thebutlercollegian.com. If you happened to miss the event, go check them out, and then start developing ideas to send to Danko about how he should spend parts of that $5 million idea fund, or another student who made it over to Clowes Saturday morning will beat you to it.
