the butler
COLLEGIAN Vol. 126 issue 1
Established 1886
Indianapolis
ButLer university | Wednesday, August 24, 2011 | www.thebutlercollegian.com
Sports: Women’s soccer picks up an upset win on the road against Big-12 foe Kansas. Page 5 A&E: We give you our picks to the best restaurants Indy has to offer. Page 8
Opinion: The Collegian offers the new university president some advice. Page 10
WELCOME WEEK
In new hands
Freshmen highest quality BU has seen yet
President Danko adds experience, hopes to bring change to campus
Butler University’s class of 2015 brought with them high GPAs, ACT and SAT scores By aaron kelpin
by sara pruzin
akelpin@butler.edu | staff writer
utler Universty President Jim Danko wants to understand the university as it is before he envisions its future. In his “State of the University” address Friday, he said, “It’s no longer OK to do what you’ve been doing all along and hope students come along...it’s more competitive.” Closing out his time as dean of the school of business at Villanova University in Pennsylvania, Danko has visited Butler every month since April, meeting with the vice presidents, deans, trustees, students, alumni, professors and community partners to discuss what that next step might entail. “My plan during these first months is to do a lot of listening,” he said. “You don’t want to jump to any uninformed conclusions or uninformed decisions.” Present The first thing that struck Danko about the school was its sense of community. He said everyone takes Butler and its future personally, and he wants to draw on that environment of pride and ownership. “It gives you the energy and support that you need to accomplish things,” he said. “It’s not that everyone thinks it’s perfect, but the passion for the place is what really jumps out at me.” He said he sees his tasks varying day to day, but his main role is being the face of the university and representing it well to a variety of people. “A president, for better or worse, personifies the institution,” he said. Transitioning from being dean of a college to president of a university also presents Danko with a broader set of issues and responsibilities. He said he will have to expand his scope of leadership to work with a larger and more diverse institution—an opportunity he said he embraces. “I really enjoy the challenge of knowing I’m in a position where I could hopefully positively impact a larger organization, a larger group of people,” he said. “Because I do view leadership as a stewardship responsibility. “You’re not doing it for your own ego.” Past Kevin Clark, who served as senior associate dean of the school of business under Danko at Villanova, described Danko as a competitive person and a “results-oriented” leader who was active in both the business school and the greater university. Clark said Danko likes to gather as much information as possible before implementing change—a method Clark said Danko will carry over to Butler. “I would expect him to be talking to people and doing intel for the first 100 days or so,” Clark said. “But he won’t wait long after that to __________________________________see president page 3
This year’s incoming class may not be as large as last year’s record-breaking group of first-year students, but they statistically are of the highest academic quality Butler University has ever seen in a single class. The class of 2015 boasts the highest collective GPA of any freshman class, finishing high school with an average GPA of 3.76. They also set a standard with high ACT and SAT scores—28 and 1751, respectively. The academically competitive class may be attributed to the increase in applicants, up 41 percent from last year, said Tom Weede, vice president of enrollment management. Ultimately, 931 students are in the incoming class. “It’s a great group of students coming in,” Weede said. “It complements the students that have already been here.” For the first time, a majority of the incoming students are from outside Indiana. Approximately 54 percent of the students are from out-of-state, which Weede attributed to the tremendous national publicity Butler received from its first Final Four appearance in 2010. The amount of free advertising Butler received from each of its Final Four appearances is valued at around $500 million, according to a study commissioned by the university this spring. Easing the transition With another school year beginning, Butler’s annual Welcome Week events are in full swing to help ease first-year students’ transition to their new lives at Butler. Ben Hunter, Butler University chief of police and director of public safety, said that the increased amount of foot and automobile traffic on campus is the main concern of officers this week. “This isn’t the weekend to be writing tickets,” Hunter said. BUPD’s primary focus will be making sure traffic flows as smoothly as possible and that parking is readily available. Last year, BUPD changed the loop around Jordan Hall into a one-way road to help facilitate traffic flow during Welcome Week, and it has since become a permanent one-way street
spruzin@butler.edu | print managing editor
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big dogS on campus: New Butler University President Jim Danko and wife Bethanie mingled and talked with university faculty at the faculty and staff picnic last Friday afternoon. (Photo by Maria Porter)
inside:
Meet Bethanie Danko | Butler’s first lady strives for diplomacy. | Pg. 3
Different president, different ideas said. “Having a carbon copy wouldn’t challenge and stretch and push the university in The time has come for the fast-talking ways that we haven’t done recently.” One difference can be spotted simply by Cleveland native known for his success in comparing educational history—whereas marketing Villanova’s School of Business to Fong holds a doctorate step into the role predegree, Danko received viously occupied by a “Danko is a big-vision, a Master of Business soft-spoken doctorate of English literature entrepreneur-thinker that Administration from from California. the University of Michchallenges all to have a Let the speculation igan. bigger vision and chalbegin. “Some faculty will Within these first lenges us to become even have some degree of few months, Butler suspicions [of a presiUniversity President better.” dent without a Ph.D.], Jim Danko will be unJay Howard but I believe that Presider scrutiny to see how DEAN, COLLEGE OF LIBERAL ARTS AND SCIENCES dent Danko has the he compares and—perability to win over their haps more significantapproval,” Howard ly—contrasts with former President Bobby said. “He realizes it’s his job to inspire and challenge the staff. I think President Danko Fong. “President Danko’s blend of skills are dif- is capable of doing it.” Jamie Comstock, provost and vice president ferent than Dr. Fong’s,” Jay Howard, dean ________________________________see past page 3 of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, by grace wallace
gwallace@butler.edu | asst. news editor
_____________see welcome week page 4
Provost intends to fulfill five-year contract By grace wallace gwallace@butler.edu | asst. news editor
Jamie Comstock said she plans to serve out the remainder of her five-year contract as Butler University’s provost and vice president for Academic Affairs, despite a Comstock change in the presidency. “I do intend to, in the very least,
live out my contract,” said Comstock, who is in her fourth year. Because she was hired under former university President Bobby Fong, many wondered about Comstock’s fate after Fong’s departure—including her. “I didn’t know [Jim Danko], so I was curious about whether or not we would seem to click together,” Comstock said. “But my early sense of this is that we click together just fine. I’m very encouraged and optimistic.” Speculation about Comstock’s future at Butler arose when her home went up for sale this spring. Comstock has since sold her home, and said she and her
husband, Larry Williamson, an instructor of political science, plan to move to a home with less outdoor maintenance in the Indianapolis area. She said she had already planned to move before Fong accepted the presidency at Ursinus College last fall. “We didn’t want to send some sort of shock wave through the institution where people would get nervous,” Comstock said. And as for her future at Butler, Comstock said she would like to remain provost after her contract expires, assuming Danko and she continue to have a complementary working relationship.
“My hope would be that President Danko and I work well together, and I remain as provost until it seems appropriate for me to join my colleagues in the College of Communication,” said Comstock, a tenured faculty member. “All of us have pledged that we will support [Danko] to the best of our ability. We know that the institution will be successful to the extent that the president is successful.” Comstock said the relationship between the president and provost is one of the most important on campus. “I would hope that there’s not going to be an issue—sometimes
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it’s not a big thing that would cause a person’s contract to be not renewed,” she said. “Sometimes it’s just that the institution needs to go in a different direction and the person’s skill set is not the skill set needed for that. “I don’t know what the future direction of the institution is. I would hope that my skill set would match it, but if it doesn’t, then I know it would be my professional responsibility to let someone else with a different skill set come in and take the reins. That’s just what you do.” Comstock described the working dynamic with the new president so far as “comfortable.”