A tale as old as time … Butler forsaking the needs of its students to keep donors and alumni happy. Photo by Lauren Jindrich.

JOHN DUNN | OPINION COLUMNIST | jcdunn@butler.edu 

It’s been a little over two weeks since the announcement was made that Ross Hall will be turned into a hotel. Amusingly, the messaging from the university rapidly shifted from claiming the building was an unusable space not worth renovating to an ideal candidate for a boutique luxury hotel with space for a coffee shop and fine dining. Students have been left confused as to whether Butler is referring to the same building or if there is a second Ross Hall secretly hidden somewhere on campus.

The announcement also raises other, more serious questions as well. The most frequently asked is “Where will the hotel and restaurant customers park?” If recent trends continue, the natural next step is for the Irvington parking lot to become the new hotel parking lot, and a new “J” lot will be built in Northern Montana for Butler’s actual students. 

Don’t worry though, Dawg Ride will stop in Montana between 7 p.m. and 2 a.m. 

However, I am truly a finance major at heart, so the idea —  from a monetary standpoint — has started to grow on me; similar to how black mold currently grows on the walls of Ross. Economically, the plans for a new hotel do make sense. Butler has received significant financial support in the form of a $22 million grant from the Lilly Endowment and several investment partners, including the Hilton Hotel brand. It is unlikely there is any other scenario in which Butler could achieve its apparent goal of having a hotel on campus with such robust financial support.

Nonetheless, the hotel plan remains frustrating from a student’s perspective. The Ross Hall plot, for example, is located in the perfect spot to most negatively impact student life. 

Ross Hall is situated right next to Greek Row — and on the rowdier end at that. The vast majority of the residential houses behind the hall are occupied by senior Butler students, and the Knoll is located two streets behind Ross. All of these locations are hot spots for parties, hangouts, Greek life events and a multitude of other rambunctious activities. The southern border of campus is one of the most fun spots on campus, where decades of students have made fond memories. 

What is one element that would make all these fundamental college experiences even more fun? Having the students’ parents right next door! 

It is foreseeable that the conversion of Ross Hall will precipitate a crackdown on student activities near the hotel. Loud parties nearby will prompt noise complaints, the resolution of which will almost assuredly favor hotel visitors. 

Additionally, Butler may fear the university’s image will be painted by intoxicated students —  all over the age of 21, of course —  roaming about campus and generally making unwise decisions that college students are often prone to make. 

Junior entrepreneurship and innovation major Aidan Bunce raised further concerns about how the Ross Hall hotel will impact the day-to-day lives of Butler’s students. 

“I’ve had some friends tell me about how they are a little bit concerned about having a hotel so close to campus,” Bunce said. “One of my closer friends really expressed their disapproval towards having … alumni or potential strangers so close, with a [private] room on campus.”

Bunce noted that BUPD is, fortunately, located near the future hotel and will be able to help prevent safety concerns. However, it is impossible for BUPD to be everywhere at once, and dramatically increasing the number of strangers on campus inherently poses more safety risks for students.

Equally frustrating to the tangible impacts on the student experience is the opportunity cost associated with Ross Hall’s conversion. 

As a student with a car, it feels that on-campus parking is constantly at 110%  capacity. The issue is compounded on days when either Clowes Memorial Hall or Hinkle Fieldhouse have an event — and heaven forbid both venues have an event on the same day. 

By repurposing the Ross Hall plot to be a parking garage, the University would make strides toward fixing one of the biggest issues currently impacting Butler’s student population. The university, to its credit, has announced that there are early plans to build a second parking structure near Ross Hall. However, those plans are seemingly significantly less developed than those for the hotel. Additionally, Butler has been working on plans to fix the parking situation for some time, so I will believe it when I see it.

Isaac Betcher, a sophomore statistics data science double major, had a few gripes on the current parking situation, especially being the owner of a larger vehicle with an I-lot pass. 

“Obviously during the winter it’s a longer walk, it’s cold, it’s incredibly inconvenient,” Betcher said. “Which is a big issue with both my affiliations with Greek life and the [Butler Bands]. I am carrying stuff around a lot and I always have to go back to I Lot … or I risk getting a ticket or two.” 

Senior accounting and finance double major, Amber Allyn added a few more similar concerns.

“With a new hotel being brought in, there definitely needs to be some changes in the way traffic runs through campus,” Allyn said. “We already have a problem with people rolling through stop signs … [and] there are so many Greek life members who cross Hampton every day.”

Butler has stated that changes will also be made to improve infrastructure around Ross Hall to improve safety. However, similar to the parking garage, plans seem much less concrete. After all, it is difficult and expensive to substantially change infrastructure in a densely populated urban space.

Parking and traffic concerns have plagued the Butler campus for years. The potholes behind Ross Hall would make World War I shell craters self-conscious, and the university’s seeming outright refusal to address the issue has been grimly comedic. Unfortunately, the student population is the butt of the joke. It seems dubious that Butler will be able to come through on their end of the bargain in the time frame proposed. However, if it does, it is fitting that the catalyst for such improvements was provided by a multinational conglomerate and rich alumni rather than the current student base.

There are always other, often less immediately obvious, uses for the space as well. For example, Butler has phenomenal facilities for physical and mental health, but spaces and facilities for spiritual health are markedly less impressive. Thus, the Ross Hall space could have been used for a space fully intended to support students’ spiritual needs can provide a needed safe environment for students and help to augment the quality work already being done by Butler’s current Compass Center staff.

Alternatively, with the recent announcement of a new nursing program, the Ross Hall plot could be used to build a new specialty academic building. The building could be used for the nursing program, or the new building could become the new home of the pharmacy school, one of Butler’s most prestigious programs, while the nursing program moves into the old pharmacy building. 

Both of these suggestions are just potential options, and the Ross Hall plot could realistically be used to alleviate multiple student needs. The underlying point is that Butler chose to cater to none of those needs by building a hotel. 

Ultimately the jury is still out. Perhaps the hotel will provide a significant increase in revenue, with which Butler could improve the parking situation and further improve the campus experience in other ways. 

All of my criticisms of the plan could prove to be very short-sighted in the long run, and when I come back to campus for Homecoming in 10 years, I may very well park in the new parking garage funded by the Ross Hall hotel revenues. However, in the short term, the new plans surrounding Ross Hall feel like a blatant cash grab, accented by a hint of pandering to donors, without much consideration for how current, paying students will be affected.