OPINION THE BUTLER COLLEGIAN
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COLLEGIAN The Butler watchdog and voice for BU students
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SPRING 2012 EDITORIAL STAFF Hayleigh Colombo Editor in Chief Sara Pruzin Print Managing Editor Olivia Ingle Online Managing Editor Jill McCarter News Editor Kyler Naylor Asst. News Editor Jeremy Algate Opinion Editor Donald Perin Asst. Opinion Editor Caitlin O’Rourke A&E Editor Anne Carpenter Asst. A&E Editor Colin Likas Sports Editor Matt Rhinesmith Sports Multimedia Editor André Smith Asst. Sports Editor Christopher Goff Copy Chief Rachel Anderson Photography Editor Reid Bruner Asst. Photography Editor Taylor Cox Asst. Photography Editor
Tenured professors still need reviews OUR POINT THIS WEEK: Tenured professors need to be better evaluated so that they remain effective teachers. | VOTE: 27-0-5
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resident Jim Danko announced the newly promoted and tenured faculty at Butler University on March 22 through a campus wide e-mail. Tenure is virtually a permanent guarantee of employment that has a long history in universities around the world. Although it is exciting to welcome professors to a permanent spot at Butler, tenure presents some challenges. It allows professors who are no longer as passionate about teaching to remain at the university. It is frustrating that the university may dismiss students for failing academic standards but does not do the same to faculty members. The university needs a more navigable process for reviewing tenure. As class evaluation season draws near, students might wonder how much these surveys really matter—
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hen Butler University’s Student Government Association failed to release the vote totals from the recent SGA presidential election even after the SGA assembly voted in favor of releasing them, I felt that it was a large misstep for SGA. Now, those who think it is wrong to release the numbers should think again about their decision. The leading college media blog called College Media Matters picked up The Collegian’s series of stories on the issue and wrote its take on it in an article titled, “Should Voting Totals from SGA Elections Be Public?” Of the three comments on College Media Matters’ story, two declared that SGA elections should be decided by who can
Adviser: Loni McKown
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The Collegian accepts letters to the editor no later than noon on the Sunday before publication. Letters to the editor must be emailed to collegian@butler.edu and contain a phone number at which you can be reached. Letters can also be mailed to The Collegian office. The Collegian reserves the right to edit letters for spelling, style, clarity and length. Letters must be kept to a length of 450 words. Contact The Collegian for questions. Exceptions to these policies may be made at the editorial board’s discretion.
the more important to have options. Butler as a whole employs amazing, passionate individuals who give a huge amount of their lives to our education. That emphasis on teaching is a major deal-maker for prospective students. The majority of faculty takes teaching incredibly seriously and works hard to keep classes engaging and informative. Butler needs to do everything it can to prevent them from losing out to faculty who hold tenure. Reasons to review tenure should not include demanding standards for students or a reputation as a tough grader. Those aspects can make a good professor. But some sort of recourse is necessary when advisers and other faculty members recommend avoiding certain professors’ courses. When common knowledge
dictates that some professors have arbitrary standards, something needs to be done. Avoiding the problem does not solve it. Potentially tenured faculty members find themselves accountable to the Board of Trustees. Obviously, tenured positions are vital. Professors have jobs that shouldn’t be subject to the market or whims of administration. They should instead have the ability to focus on their purpose: educating the students. However, if tenured professors have no accountability to their students, administrators or peers, they may sometimes lose their willingness to adapt. Solutions include taking evaluations more seriously or having a defined and publicized process through which complaints can be brought.
DONALD PERIN
When the top expert in student government affairs gives SGA advice, they should listen to it. hold their bladder the longest, but the third one stood out. Butch Oxendine, founder and executive director of American Student Government Association, commented on the story, saying,
“Student Government election results should be posted at all times, at all colleges and universities, including private institutions. Transparency is wise!” Butler ’s own SGA would do well to listen to Oxendine’s words. The excuses of Butler ’s SGA stack up rather poorly against the advice of one of the top experts in student governments. Oxendine has been working with and writing about student governments around the nation since 1983. He founded American Student Government Association in 2003 in order to connect, guide and educate student government leaders nationwide on how to best serve their universities. SGA ought to release the election numbers. At the very
least, it needs to make certain that the numbers will be released after future elections. If SGA is willing to do things like go against its own constitution and allow a freshman to chair the SGA’s Election Oversight Committee, then it should have no qualms with releasing the election numbers. As an organization that controls more than $700,000 of students money, SGA must be an organization that everyone in the Butler community can trust and believe in. It is time for SGA to earn that, and a good way to do that would be by listening to the advice of an expert like Oxendine. Contact asst. opinion editor Donald Perin at dperin@butler.edu
New green roof is step in the right direction for Butler
Ali Hendricks Advertising Manager
The Collegian staff makes an effort to be as accurate as possible. Corrections may be submitted to The Collegian and will be printed at the next publication date.
especially in light of the tenure question. Students have a unique perspective of professors and see them at work constantly. Students should be pushed and challenged but not subjected to an ineffective professor. The overall impact of education is lost when faculty lose sight of their role in the classroom. Professors who may otherwise consider moving on might stay. And non-tenure track professors may have less motivation to go above and beyond their expectations. Others settle on one particular teaching style, not choosing to review the class surveys. And non-tenure-track faculty cannot become tenured even with amazing reviews. The university should not consider removing tenure since the frustrating cases are rare. But this infrequency makes it all
SGA should heed advice of national expert
Erin Hammeran Advertising Manager
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WEDNESDAY, MARCH 28, 2012
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lready hailed as one of the most attractive campuses in the Midwest, Butler University recently added a garden on campus—four stories above ground. But, this project’s purpose was not to beautify campus. Instead, the installation of a green roof on campus is another example of the Butler community trying to make the university more sustainable and environmentally friendly. Student volunteers, faculty and staff helped assemble a green roof last Thursday on top of the old pharmacy building. Guided by Pat Maloney of EcoRoofs, a green roof professional, and Rich Michal, project engineer on campus, 650 trays, each weighing 40 pounds, were lifted by a crane to the top of the Pharmacy Building. The project began in the fall when senior chemistry major Sarah Strobl wanted to do a green roof installation project for her honors thesis. Though Strobl was not able to do this, she joined the Council on Presidential Affairs and began working in the Green Operations Committee. After several months of working and talking with Butler staff, engineers and manufacturers, the old pharmacy building was targeted for the installation. I could not be more excited that this project came to fruition, since I am very passionate about preventing environmental degradation and investing in clean energy.
MATT KASPER
The garden on the Pharmacy Building’s roof is a project that should cover all of campus. Indiana is mainly powered by coal, which is a big air pollutant when burned, and the water ways in Indianapolis are also polluted due to an inefficient sewer system. Installing a green roof is a great project to better the environment. Strobl said that the biggest benefit of the garden is that it cuts down on heating and cooling costs, since the garden acts as insulation. Therefore, Butler would not need to increase its electricity usage when heating and cooling the building. Furthermore, when it rains, the water runoff that would have usually been drained into the river gets soaked up by the vegetation on the roof. Though it is small, the first green roof on campus will hopefully lead to more installations, ultimately helping Butler have less of a footprint on the environment. “I would like to see every
Onlookers observe the new green garden atop the Pharmacy Building. building on campus with a green roof,” Strobl said. The campus is filled with buildings that have flat roofs, and installing more green roofs on campus and covering larger areas will keep providing benefits for Butler. Senior chemistry and biology major Eric Shoemaker was a student volunteer with the installation. He said the roof project was a phenomenal project and that students need to get involved with these types of undertakings because it is our future we are protecting. “We are the future voice of this generation after we graduate,” Shoemaker said. Shoemaker went on to say that he also wants Butler to become more of a green university than it
Photo by Reid Bruner
currently is. The students, staff and faculty working to make this university sustainable must continue to receive help. It was great that SGA funded this project and similar projects should continue to be installed in the short term. Having a line-item every year in the SGA budget for sustainable projects is, in itself, not sustainable. Along with the green roof, I hope that President Jim Danko signing the American College & University President’s Climate Commitment on April 16 will truly put Butler on the sustainable path the community wants. Contact columnist Matt Kasper at mkasper@butler.edu