According to Butler University’s website the “Butler 2020 Vision” was started in 2014 in efforts to revamp and develop nine separate objectives that were believed to be imperative to Butler’s future success. The nine objectives were centered on growth, education and foundation. Noticeable changes that have been made and are being made are things such as: the construction and opening of Fairview House, the new multi-purpose parking garage, and the several new restaurants that have been added on campus (e.g. Pita Pit and Scotty’s). While all of these updates seem to be a good thing there are some downsides to this 20/20 Vision plan.
The Good
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Fairview house, pictured below, is a beautiful building, and the pod living style (i.e. 6-8 people in one area) makes it a unique living arrangement in comparison to all the other on-campus housing.
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Blue Indy cars and the addition of IndyGo busses to the campus makes life a lot easier for students without cars on campus.
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Restaurants such as Pita Pit and Scotty’s Brewhouse allow students to go out with their friends at a sit down restaurant without travelling far. Furthermore, Scotty’s gives students that are 21 and over a place on-campus to drink without worrying about having a designated driver, or finding an alternative way home.
The Bad
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Many students came to Butler for the small school vibe. In the past couple years, especially recently, I have heard several students complain about the last incoming class being so large because now the school population is bigger than they had originally hoped for.
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Another issue with the larger student population is there not being enough room in classes. I personally had to go to my advisor and get specific approval in order to register in a class, and since I’m a junior, I registered relatively early. Therefore, I can’t imagine how hard it was for some of the first year students to get into thier classes.
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All of the cool new updates required additional funding which caused our tuition to increase last year.
The Ugly
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The Starbucks and Atherton lines. They are ugly. I mean, there’s not much else I can say. If the line has to curve in order to fit in the room there are too many people in that line.
Butler’s 20/20 vision has a lot of positives and good intentions; however, in practice, several negatives are starting to become more apparent to the student population. That being said, are the changes more positive than negative? I think so, but ultimately that is up for you to decide.