Clowes Memorial Hall, the premier arts venue on campus. Photo by Andrew Buckley.
SILAS OWENS | OPINION COLUMNIST szowens@butler.edu
When students think about Butler culture they probably imagine Blue IV, basketball games and parties on the knoll. It makes sense that the Butler Cultural Requirement, which involves such things as lectures and classical music, isn’t particularly popular.
I imagine it could be easy to look at the requirement and think it seems incredibly stuffy. Mozart? That’s the culture of old fancy people, not college students. What a snoozefest.
Fortunately, the vast majority of the events are actually both casual and engaging, with much more variety than you might expect. I have found myself sitting in Schrott or Eidson-Duckwall with goosebumps many times.
It’s hard to keep up with all the diverse events that are offered, especially when they are outside of a student’s particular department. I’d be shocked if more than 5% of students read the Butler Daily Digest email, and not everything ends up on posters or social media. There is, however, a Butler BCR calendar — linked here — which I only know about because I Googled it.
Grant Vecera, an adjunct professor in the Honors program, described different events at Butler that he has found to be impactful.
“David Sedaris was here a couple [of] times,” Vecera said. “I remember looking up at some point, tears streaming on my face because I’m laughing so hard, and I look around at everybody else and we’re doubled over and laughing … That was a powerful event here at Butler University that I feel real privileged to have experienced.”
The BCR program really isn’t a demanding one. The purpose is simply to encourage students to explore some of the opportunities available to them.
Sam Jones, a senior music performance and German double major, has been to more than 50 art events and believes the BCR requirement is reasonable.
“I think it’s silly sometimes when I hear a lot of people complain about the … eight required events because the music school has a 64 credit requirement,” Jones said. “There should be a higher expectation put on to us. However, I also think, from my experience of being able to do eight within a semester, I find some of the complaints and petitions against the eight required BCRs to be a little exaggerated.”
Many students do work or have other commitments that can make it more difficult to attend these events. They are offered on varying weekends and weekdays with some earlier in the day and others later in the evening every week, so the requirement should be doable.
Jones has found a lot of value in attending different events, musical and otherwise, especially ones from less familiar cultures or perspectives.
“What I found to be most valuable is a lot of the events, like music groups, are traveling from around the world,” Jones said. “For example, one of them was Tibet throat singing, and I just thought that was eye-opening … Last year there was a political commentator at Shelton and I’ve never gone to something like that and thought that [had] a lot of interesting insight into perspectives I hadn’t considered.”
Being curious and open-minded is vital in today’s world, which is filled with ideological echo chambers. Learning the diverse experiences and knowledge of as many different people as you can helps to create a truer, more empathetic understanding of the world and humanity that you just can’t get any other way.
A more practical way to think about the importance of diverse education is simply the fact that so many people work outside of their major area after they graduate college. If you want to work in business or any other job that at all depends on others, knowing more about people and the world will do nothing but help.
Elijah Smith, a junior history-anthropology and English double major, thinks non-arts BCR events are a great way for students to learn things outside their major classes.
“There was one yesterday that I couldn’t attend, but it was [Kate Clancy] who came and talked about her menstrual research and things that you may not normally learn about in class,” Smith said. “I wish there was more cross-discipline interactions. I think it would be really beneficial if I learned more about some of the events that the business building is putting on, and vice versa … I think one of the most important things about being human is understanding where others are coming from, and so when you are learning what they’re learning, you get a better understanding of their lived experience.”
For some students, the requirement could be turning truly exciting opportunities into a set of boxes to check. I encourage those students — with the exception of some seniors who should probably do what is necessary to graduate — to forget about the requirement and instead simply keep up with what events the university is offering and attend any that seem interesting.
What I personally like to do at the beginning of a semester is sit down with the BCR calendar and the Butler Arts and Events Center website and put everything that seems interesting on my calendar. Then I decide whether or not to go on the day of, depending on what else I have to do.
Here are a few of the many events offered in the next 2-3 weeks on campus: a virtuosic saxophone duet, local jazz professionals, a best-selling author, a film screening, a professional chamber orchestra, a modern dance program by Butler Ballet. For any student who needs BCR credits but truly fears the risk of falling asleep in Eidson-Duckwall — the chairs there are unreasonably comfortable — there is always Out of the Dawg House, which is a consistent hit every semester.
Vecera believes that the merits to a well-rounded education of attending guest speakers and artists go without saying and that there is more to the issue.
“I can talk about [new experiences] in terms of education and this practical thing, but I feel like that’s all fairly obvious,” Vecera said. “There’s all this stuff you just aren’t going to know about, unless you go … There’s all this beauty in the world, and there’s probably nothing more important than that.”
This is a mindset that extends way beyond the realm of a simple graduation requirement. Finding those moments of awe, whether they come from the arts, nature, education or interaction with other people is a way to enrich your life.