10 minute read
Response to COVID-19
On March 18, Butler officially closed all locations to the public due to the outbreak of COVID-19 in the United States.
IT MOBILIZATION
In order to teach and learn online, technology must be in place first and that means computers. Bill Young, vice president of digital transformation, has a staff of IT professionals who worked diligently for two weeks during spring week to outfit laptops for instructors to take home for teaching classes. His staff worked around the clock—literally.
“They stayed one night until 4:00 a.m. configuring laptops,” said Young. “We repurposed laptops from across the institution, taking them from physical classrooms and computer labs so that we could have them accessible for faculty. We had more than 760 laptops ready for implementation and some of those were made available to staff as well since all employees worked remotely for the time being. Essentially, we mobilized the entire institution in a week and a half.”
ONLINE LEARNING
College leadership made the difficult decision to move all instruction online for the safety of its students, faculty, and staff out of concern for public health.
“Butler has offered a robust online delivery system for more than 20 years and now we are leaning heavily on those resources during this time of greater need,” said Dr. Kimberly Krull, Butler president. “Though we are working remotely, we are encouraging teamwork and collaboration as we seek solutions to various learning needs.”
Butler’s Educational Technology department is feeling part of the weight. Though the department’s title has changed more than once since 1998 when Butler offered its first online class, the mission has remained the same - to support faculty behind the scenes as they prep courses for online delivery. Often their services are also utilized by students who need technical assistance.
Likewise, the Faculty Development department has a history of helping faculty innovate and integrate new technologies into their teaching process. They work to grow faculty professionally and strive to create stronger teaching and learning environments in the classroom. Faculty Development regularly provides workshops and weekend training for faculty. This grows into faculty training faculty.
Fortunately, online pedagogy has been a recent focus of faculty development and the timing couldn’t have been better. Peer-to-peer instruction is paying off. In this time of heavy lifting for online delivery, nearly 100 Butler faculty came to the front lines willing and equipped to help others who have not taught online at all, or perhaps have had limited exposure.
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STUDENT RESOURCES DURING COVID-19
Butler’s efforts to assist students during the pandemic.
Facebook @ButlerCCStudentSupport
Instagram Butlerccstudentsupport
Team teaching among instructors for some classes is also a part of the plan, which will put two instructors into certain classes with students.
“We typically have just over 640 sections that are either totally online or have an online component of some sort,” said Lori Winningham, academic vice president. “Fortunately, all Butler faculty are required to use our academic platform, CANVAS, whether or not their classes are online. This common knowledge has really aided our efforts as instructors and staff pull together to get everything online for next week.”
The college had 2,230 sections totally online by March 30, including 29 sections for Adult Basic Education.
“The support our instructors are showing each other is amazing and energizing,” said Heather Rinkenbaugh, dean of online, high school, and community learning. “In addition, the work they are doing to help students adjust is just as inspiring. We are really trying to ensure our level of support for our students doesn’t change in the transition.”
Twitter @ButlerCCStuSupt
CANVAS Online Learning Keep Learning @ Butler NetTutor Online Learning
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On April 15 the Concert Choir had a virtual session with composer, publisher, and writer Greg Gilpin. Ninety students, alumni, and area teachers joined to ask questions and connect.
Composer Greg Gilpin (top row, middle picture) meets with the Concert Choir.
BUTLER DONATES PPE
Butler participated in the call for personal protective equipment donations by the healthcare industry. Personal protective equipment has been in short supply for health care workers across the country since the public health crisis began.
While Butler’s nursing program certainly had such supplies like masks, gowns, and gloves, Butler’s contribution was a campus-wide effort. The automotive program, student health care clinic, as well as the biology, fire science, EMT, and allied health programs all donated supplies to three area hospitals to help keep health care workers safe during the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to Beth Eagleton, associate dean of nursing and allied health, Butler collected supplies for area healthcare facilities at the suggestion of professional nursing associations.
In total, Butler contributed about $5,320 in equipment to Susan B. Allen Memorial Hospital in El Dorado, the Kansas Medical Center in Andover, and Ascension Via Christi in Wichita.
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In addition, Butler loaned a ventilator to the Kansas Division of Emergency Management after the State Emergency Operations Center requested ventilators to be redistributed throughout the state into areas of high need.
VIRTUAL COMMENCEMENT
A virtual celebration acknowledged Butler graduates on May 29. The event included messages from President Kim Krull, presentation and acceptance of the class of 2020, and award presentations. More than 1,000 students were part of the graduating class. The college’s registrar office worked diligently to send certificates and diplomas to the graduates.
The video is available to watch on Butler’s YouTube channel.
ORDER OF THE PURPLE
Established 1937
Students must complete 30 hours at Butler and hold a 3.75 or higher grade point average.
At commencement, students wear a commemorative medallion.
ORDER OF THE GOLD
Established 1985
Students must complete 30 hours at Butler and hold a 4.0 grade point average.
At commencement, students receive a special plaque.
PHI THETA KAPPA
Established 1918 (National)
ALPHA PHI ALPHA CHAPTER
Established 1992 (Butler)
Provides opportunity for the development of leadership and service, for an intellectual climate to exchange ideas and ideals, for lively fellowship for scholarships, and for stimulation of interest in continuing academic excellence.
At commencement, students wear a yellow stole.
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GRIZZLY GREATS: Lou & Jim Clennan
When Lou and Jim Clennan moved to El Dorado more than 55 years ago, Butler Community College became “their college of choice.”
Their choice to support their local higher education institution has resulted in Lou Clennan helping to raise thousands of dollars in scholarship money, serving for more than 15 years on the Foundation board, and stepping in as an interim coach for two sports, among other activities.
Neither of the Clennans, who have been married for 62 years, attended Butler. The pair met as college students attending two different universities in Salina in the 1950s. Lou attended Marymount College and earned a teaching degree. Jim attended Kansas Wesleyan University.
When they moved to El Dorado in 1962 after Jim’s two-year stint in the Army, which included serving in the Korean War, “We decided Butler would be our college of choice,” Lou said. The couple moved to El Dorado for Jim to begin a career in the insurance industry.
Once settled in El Dorado, the Clennans started showing their support for the college, going to sporting events and getting involved in the drive to keep the college’s home campus in El Dorado in 1963. At the time the college was proposing a new building as it transitioned to a community college, and there were discussions on where to build it, Lou said.
But their support goes much deeper than cheering for the Grizzlies from the sidelines and enjoying concerts and plays. With Lou’s background in teaching, academics and providing opportunities for area students to further their education have been important.
“I would recommend Butler to anyone,” Lou said. “It’s evolved into a premium community college, particularly with the transfers (of credits to four-year universities) now being much more compatible. It’s a great base to build on. You can go for two years and move into a career or go on to a university.”
Butler is now Kansas’ second-largest community college, with branches in several other communities.
Lou had an early hand in helping ensure high school students in Butler County could make Butler their college of choice too.
During her 1990–1991 term serving as the Foundation board’s president, she and then-development director Melinda McAfee created the “Scholarships—Making it Happen” campaign. The goal of the campaign was to establish scholarship funds for each high school in Butler County. While the campaign timeline was interrupted by the April 26, 1991, tornado and hailstorm, the four-month effort resulted in nearly $103,000 being raised, surpassing the campaign’s $100,000 goal.
While current scholarship campaigns have higher goals, Lou said this campaign’s achievements were impressive because of its grassroots efforts—Butler’s first fundraising drive to use that model. Each local community—including those that had been impacted by the storm—created fundraising teams that invested their time and energy to provide scholarship opportunities for their hometown kids. Lou recalled that there were nearly 150 campaign volunteers.
After the campaign, Lou became the inaugural recipient of the President’s Award for Outstanding Volunteer Fundraiser, which is given to a volunteer most helpful in assisting the Foundation in meeting its monetary goals. Lou served on the Foundation board from 1988 through 2005.
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Ted Dankert, Lou and Jim Clennan at a 2015 Foundation event.
Butler athletics has also been important to the pair, which isn’t surprising given that Lou’s teaching career was in physical education.
After moving to El Dorado and before starting their family that eventually included five children, Lou served as a PE teacher at Circle High School in Towanda. Later she would teach half-days at Remington High School in Whitewater. When Jim became the full-time owner of Insurance Center Inc. in 1981, she joined the agency. She retired from the company in 2003 and Jim retired a decade later.
For two different sports and in two different seasons, Lou even stepped in as an interim coach for Butler athletics. In the 1976–1977 season, she was the interim women’s track and field coach. During Lou, second row first on the left, saw the
Grizzlies track and field team through an that season, the 440- exceptional year. yard relay team and a shot-putter ended up qualifying for nationals. In 1980, she did a stint as the women’s tennis coach to see if there was enough interest to field a team in the 1981 season. She also served on a search committee for the athletic director in the past. Lou said she and her husband have developed friendships with many of Butler’s coaches. Lou knew Lisa Lechtenberg before she took over head women’s volleyball coaching duties in 2018. An active community volunteer and former president of the El Dorado Chamber of Commerce, Lou served as a class mentor for Lechtenberg’s fifth-grade class in the 2000s as part of a community mentoring program.
In 2015, Jim Clennan honored Lou’s commitment to academics and sports when he established a track and field scholarship in Lou’s name. Five student-athletes benefited from the scholarship fund.
While the Clennans have stayed busy in recent years, doing a lot traveling and going to the various sports and other extracurricular activities of their 17 grandchildren, that does not mean Butler activities have to compete for their time, Lou assured.
“That doesn’t deter us from going to Butler activities.”
The couple also attends Butler Life Enrichment programs, which are offered monthly during the academic year and feature speakers who present on a broad range of topics.
