Butler 2020

BUTLER 2020: A Roadmap for Strategy and Action

Butler University Mission

Our mission is to provide the highest quality of liberal and professional education and to integrate the liberal arts with professional education, by creating and fostering a stimulating intellectual community built upon interactive dialogue and inquiry among students, faculty, and staff.

Butler 2020 Vision

Butler University will be an innovative leader in the creation and delivery of transformative, student-centered learning experiences that prepare graduates to make a meaningful impact in the world.

strategic platforms

Commit

Distinguish Butler among peer and aspirant universities by creating innovative academic programs while strengthening our commitment to community engagement, experiential learning, and international education.

Integrate

Exemplify excellence in the liberal arts, professional education, and their effective integration.

Engage

Attract, develop, and retain faculty who combine a high-quality, engaged teaching approach with scholarly inquiry and multidisciplinary collaboration.

Prepare

Enrich the Butler community by promoting diversity and preparing graduates to succeed in a multicultural workforce and global society.

Support

Inspire alumni, friends, and the community to support the University, leading to enhanced resources and endowment.

Evolve

Advance our educational mission through superior campus amenities, dynamic co-curricular offerings, and exceptional administrative support.

2020 progress

TThe Butler 2020 Vision and supporting strategic platforms have moved from planning to action since its inception in 2014. Nine specific, measurable objectives designed to give rise to our success were developed and assigned to senior executive champions, who, in turn, assembled working teams to refine these objectives and build corresponding action plans.

Most recently, our champions compiled and incorporated the University community’s feedback into a set of defined initiatives. These initiatives serve as a roadmap to our broader ambition to not only keep pace as a leader among regional universities but to emerge as a national university with best-in-class academics, a robust career pipeline, a thriving community, and state-of-the-art campus amenities to better serve students.

The Butler community has worked together to make significant progress on all initiatives. The result has been a number of key achievements, a sampling of which are listed below.

Education

Over the last six years, Butler has launched 18 new majors and 11 new minors, including a new Statistics major and Neuroscience minor.
Butler University’s Lacy School of Business introduced an online Master of Science in Risk and Insurance (MSRI) program—among the first of its kind in the nation—with the first cohort beginning in January 2019.
Butler launched non-degree certificate programs through Executive Education, including the innovative Kenzie Academy-Butler certificate.
Butler performed exceptionally well in the 2016 and 2018 Gallup-Purdue Index, with graduates ranking their collegiate experiences higher than state and national averages across most categories.

Growth

For the first time in its history, Butler University moved into a tie for the No. 1 Regional University in the Midwest, according to the 2019 U.S. News & World Report Best Colleges Rankings. Additionally, Butler was ranked the No. 1 Most Innovative School among Midwest Regional Universities for the fourth straight year, as well as the top school for its commitment to undergraduate teaching.
In 2018, Butler University was recognized by the The Princeton Review as one of the nation’s best institutions for undergraduate education and was one of five schools to be profiled in the education services company’s guidebook—The Best 384 Colleges.
Butler has been featured in national news outlets including the Wall Street Journal, three of which were included on the front page; New York Times front page of business section; Washington Post twice; Harvard Business Journal; NPR; Associated Press; NBC Nightly News; and USA Today.
Interest in Butler has been on the rise throughout the last decade. Since 2009, applications to the University have increased by 163 percent. For example, in 2015, Butler received 9,942 applications, compared to 16,431 in 2018.
In 2018, for the second time in three years, Butler University welcomed its largest class ever. The 1,336 first-year class highlights a nearly 10-year trend of application growth, represents a continued

Foundation

Over the summer of 2018, considerable work was done in the aftermath of Butler’s expansion to include the 35-acre Christian Theological Seminary (CTS) campus. What is now referred to as ‘South Campus’ is the new home of Butler’s College of Education (COE), providing the University with exceptional, state-of-the-art learning, teaching, and gathering space. The new space on South Campus will provide Butler with many exciting opportunities yet to come. Butler students now have two new residence halls to call home—Fairview and Irvington House. Both contemporary facilities continue to enhance Butler’s residential experience, and come equipped with spaces to study, exercise, and convene with fellow students.
A new 110,000-square foot business building featuring collaborative classrooms and workspaces is currently being constructed to accommodate the Lacy School’s growing enrollment and long-term vision to foster further interaction between Lacy School students and the business community.
In 2017 the University started a Compensation and Classification study in an effort to create a more competitive organization. The initiative stemmed from the University’s commitment to address the results of the 2016 Great Colleges to Work For Survey.
In 2017, Human Resources created a learning and growth program for Butler Supervisors who currently supervise full-time and regular part-time staff. The program is titled The Butler Enhanced Supervisor Training (BEST 1.0). In addition, HR has initiated Diversity and Inclusion training for staff and faculty.
Butler partnered with the Indianapolis Neighborhood Housing Partnership (INHP) to provide financial assistance to help faculty and staff purchase or improve a home near the Butler community. This effort not only encourages faculty and staff to live closer to campus, but also builds upon the University’s commitment to make Butler an ideal place to learn, live, and grow together. Since starting the program in 2017, 10 Butler employees received funding that allowed them to purchase 7 homes and renovate 3 others.

Butler 2020 Objectives

butler 2020 resources

Current Construction

Changes are taking shape as campus evolves for 2020 and beyond.

View Our Current Projects

State of the University

President James M. Danko speaks on the many accomplishment of 2018 in this year’s State of the University address.

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