JANUARY, 2010 13712 – Are American Students Lazy? Inside Higher Ed, Gather faculty members together and it's not hard to get them talking about the ways students disappoint. They text in class, expect extensions for no good reason, and act surprised when they don't earn A's. But when it comes to work ethic and manners, are there some students who – on average – don't disappoint? Kara Miller thinks so ‐‐ and her comparison of American students (who continually disappoint) and foreign students (who don't) has set off quite a discussion in Boston. Miller, an adjunct who teaches rhetoric and history at Babson College, published her views in The Boston Globe just before Christmas, and the debate has continued through the holiday period. “My ‘C,’ ‘D,’ and ‘F’ students this semester are almost exclusively American, while my students from India, China, and Latin America have, despite language barriers, generally written solid papers, excelled on exams, and become valuable class participants,” Miller wrote. She noted that many of her foreign students have difficulty with English, but make up for that with hard work. Her American students, meanwhile, appear challenged by work. “Too many 18‐year‐old Americans, meanwhile, text one another under their desks (certain they are sly enough to go unnoticed), check e‐mail, decline to take notes, and appear tired and disengaged,” she wrote. Given that many American students arrive at college without basic skills, she wrote, “we've got a knowledge gap, spurred by a work‐ethic gap.” The response was immediate and intense. Hundreds of people posted comments. Many of the Boston area's professors appear to think Miller has a point. “I know this author will be criticized for this article, but based on my decades of college teaching experience she is exactly right,” wrote one. "What she leaves out is that we are dealing with a generation of students that have been left behind by No Child Left Behind, supervised by ‘Helicopter Parents.’ Students now feel entitled to high grades despite little work and want their hands held on every assignment, while they are unable to think for themselves.” Some who had experience teaching international students noted that students who cross oceans to study in the United States are highly motivated, and so are not necessarily a fair comparison for the average American. Several comments suggested that while Miller was correct in noticing differences between American and non‐
American students, she might not be giving enough credit to the creativity of Americans. A graduate student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology wrote that when he teaches undergrad sections, he's also annoyed by the texting. But following rules rigidly has a down side, the comment said: “My lab has a large number of foreign ‘postdocs’, who've been brought up in an environment where they've learned to be obedient and diligent. They end up lacking in leadership and creativity, and this shows up in their ability to be effective scientists. The American/Western ‘postdocs’ tend to be more independent and creative in their approaches to problems, something that I attribute to the American emphasis on creativity rather than knowledge. Maybe we need a mix of cultures to truly produce the most effective students.” 1 The Globe published a piece by a Babson student who is American, taking issue with Miller. The student, Lauren Garey, noted that Babson is known for its business programs, but Miller teaches liberal arts classes, creating a possible mismatch between Miller's sample and the average student. Further, Garey said that Miller was overlooking the hard work of many American students. Dennis Hanno, Babson's undergraduate dean, blogged is objections to Miller's essay. Hanno defended Miller's right to have her views on Babson students, but said that “having worked in higher education for over 20 years, it would be easy for me to produce anecdote after anecdote – and real data derived from the performance of students at Babson and elsewhere – that would illustrate the folly of ascribing the term ‘lazy’ to any one category of students.” In an interview, Miller said that she has been an adjunct for 18 months and has classes scheduled for next semester. She said that readers shouldn't assume she is writing about Babson alone. Miller earned her doctorate in English at Tufts University, teaching there while a graduate student, and she said her experiences there with American and international students were similar. And she also had similar feelings when working in grad school as an SAT coach. “I think a lot of people read my article in a polarizing way, but I have a very strong feeling that there are many Americans who are hard‐working, creative and doing very well,” she said. While many have viewed the piece as a commentary on Babson, Miller said she views the piece more as a critique of what happens to students before they arrive at college. She said that it's in high school and earlier that students should be learning study habits and the idea of showing respect for those who teach them. She also said that those who argue that the American educational system is far more successful than others at encouraging creativity are missing her point. “I love creativity and I embrace creativity, but it has to be coupled with discipline, and the idea that people would text during class, well that's troubling,” she said. “American needs a little more discipline.” 13713 – What Is Your 'Net' Worth? Bauer Ethics Seminars, depending on whom you talk with, personal internet use on the job, can either be the best thing ever to happen to employee morale and productivity or an implement of the devil designed to rob businesses of their last remaining control over employee time use. Unlike the solid data available on the costs of fraud and abuse, safety lapses, etc., estimates on the costs to businesses of personal internet use are wildly contradictory and range everywhere from calling the net a boon to the bottom line to a financial downside with as much of tens of thousands of dollars lost per employee per year. Obviously these studies are looking at internet use and internet benefits/liabilities in significantly different ways. Consequently, if you're in the position of trying to develop or refine an internet use policy based primarily on studies of others' financial data, you're likely out of luck. Among the data you may be able to effectively use, however, are: • The costs of protecting a business of your type and size from the inadvertent introduction of viruses and other malware. • The costs of monitoring or limiting employee access to websites and social media sites you feel represent an inappropriate use of company machines. • The costs of enforcing whatever your policy ends up saying. (This probably needs to be broadly defined to include not just oversight costs but also the costs associated with disciplinary actions for policy breaches and any projected employee retention issues related to policy enforcement.) Of course there are plenty of compelling reasons both for and against employees' personal use of the internet on the job. However, you may well have more luck credibly promoting the intangible ones than most of the tangible ones. Why? The supposedly hard data on costs and benefits are simply too soft, too unique to the circumstances of the data pool, or too easily misinterpreted, to really be of much use in making a compelling case based on those numbers alone. 2 13714 – Tweets, Sexting, “Unfriended” in U.S. banned word list Reuters, If you recently tweeted about how you were chillaxin for the holiday, take note: Fifteen particularly over‐ or misused words and phrases have been declared "shovel‐ready" to be "unfriended" by a U.S. university's annual list of terms that deserve to be banned. After thousands of nominations of words and phrases commonly used in marketing, media, technology and elsewhere, wordsmiths at Lake Superior State University issued their 35th annual list of words that they believe should be banned. Tops on the Michigan University's list of useless phrases was, “shovel‐ready.” The term refers to infrastructure projects that are ready to break ground and was popularly used to describe road, bridge and other construction projects fueled by stimulus funds from the Obama administration. And speaking of stimulus, that word – which was applied to government spending aimed at boosting the economy – made the over‐used category as well, along with an odd assortment of Obama‐related constructions such as Obamacare and Obamanomics. “We say Obamanough already,” the LSSU committee said. Also ripe for exile is “sexting,” shorthand for sexy text messaging, a habit that has caused trouble this year for public figures from politicians to star athletes. Similarly, list makers showed distaste for tweeting, retweeting and tweetaholics, lingo made popular by users of the popular Twitter networking website. And don't even get them started on the use of friend as a verb, as in: “He made me mad so I unfriended him on Facebook,” an Internet social site. Male acquaintances need to find another word than “bromance” for their friendships, and the combination of “chillin” and “relaxin” into “chillaxin” was an easy pick for banishment. Also making the list was “teachable moment.” “This phrase is used to describe everything from potty‐training to politics. It's time to vote it out!” said one list contributor. “Toxic assets,” referring to financial instruments that have plunged in value, sickened list makers so much the phrase was added to the list, along with the tiresome and poorly defined "too big to fail" which has often been invoked to describe wobbly U.S. banks. Similarly, “in these economic times” was deemed overdue for banishment. Also making the list – “transparent/transparency,” typically used, contributors said, when the situation is anything but transparent. One list contributor wanted to know if there was an “app,” short‐hand for “application” popularized by the mobile iPhone's growing array of software tools, for making that annoying word go away. Rounding out the list – is the word, “czar” as in car czar, drug czar, housing czar or banished word czar. “Purging our language of 'toxic assets' is a 'stimulus' effort that's 'too big to fail,’” said a university spokesman. 13715 – Ten Unusual College Scholarships for 2010 Much like Alice (of Wonderland fame), the cost of higher education continues to grow and grow and grow. Luckily there is financial help available, and not just for the best students – you just have to know where to look. 1. Meat­Eating Orators – If the idea of public speaking makes you break out in a flop sweat, skip this paragraph. However, if you’ve got a flair for presentation and you’re not a vegetarian, you might want to look into the National Beef Ambassador Program – ”a national, competitive youth public speaking program for the beef industry.” Each year five winners each get a $1,000 cash prize, a $750 scholarship, and the opportunity to travel across the U.S. 3 2. Outspoken Vegetarians – If you are a vegetarian, however, there’s cash out there for you, too. The Vegetarian Resource Group offers two $5,000 scholarships annually to graduating high school seniors who not only abstain from eating meat, fish and fowl, but also who actively promote vegetarianism in their school or community. Of course, it’s not as easy as simply filling out an application—you’ll also have to write a compelling essay detailing the whys and wherefores of your anti‐steak stance. 3. Ayn Rand Enthusiasts – Is your copy of Atlas Shrugged thoroughly dog‐eared? Do your friends run screaming when you attempt to debate objectivism versus existentialism? If you’re a high school junior or senior and a budding philosopher, you could win up to $10,000 from the Ayn Rand Institute in their annual Fountainhead essay contest. You can even submit your entry via an online form, in case you wait until the last minute to meet the April 26, 2010 deadline. 4. Caddies – Have you ever worked as a caddy? More specifically, have you caddied for two years and would you be willing to continue to work as one during your summer break once you’re in college? Over 200 students annually who meet the qualifications receive tuition and housing grants from the Evans Scholars Foundation. 5. Tall People – Are you 5’10” or taller but not athletically inclined enough to win a basketball scholarship? It may be worth your while to check out the Tall Clubs International website to see if you qualify for one of their $1,000 scholarships. They do have some fairly stringent requirements, one of which involves being recommended by a TCI member, so now is the time to cultivate some tall friendships. 6. Short People – On the other end of the height scale, college‐bound students who have been diagnosed with some form of dwarfism may be eligible for a $1,000 award from the Billy Barty Foundation. 7. Future Welders of America – According to this recent article in the Wall Street Journal, even though manufacturing jobs are decreasing in the United States, some specifically skilled trades people like welders are in high demand and short supply. If carrying a torch interests you, check out the financial aid program offered by the American Welding Society, which includes tuition, books and supplies. 8. Schizophrenics – Certainly most high school seniors are concerned about their future, but how much more worrying are your possibilities if you suffer from schizophrenia or bipolar disorder? There is assistance for post‐secondary education available for mental health patients, as long as you’re under proper medical care and adhering to your doctor’s advice. The Lilly Reintegration Scholarship Program offers financial help for tuition, books and lab fees for qualified applicants. 9. Budding Writers Considering Ursinus College – Are you an aspiring writer planning to attend Ursinus College? Have you never heard of Ursinus College but would be willing to enroll if offered a four‐year, $30,000 scholarship? The administrators of the Creative Writing Award (formerly the J.D. Salinger Scholarship Award) realize that the best writers are not always the best scholars, and that SAT scores aren’t the be‐all, end‐all. The winner of this prestigious, renewable scholarship also gets the bonus of lodging in Salinger’s third floor room in Curtis Hall. 10. The Michael Scotts of Tomorrow – Most of us don’t realize the many roles paper products play in our daily lives. From newspapers to packing cartons to pizza boxes to facial tissue to envelopes, pulp is much more than paperback fiction. The Technical Association of the Pulp and Paper Industry offers the annual William L. Cullison Scholarship worth up to $4,000 to students planning to attend an accredited school to major in some form of paper curriculum. 4 13716 – Does Service Learning Really Help? New York Times, Betty Medina Lichtenstein used to dread the beginning of the school year, when students from colleges and universities around Holyoke, Mass., would descend on her tiny community organization, Enlace de Familias. “Suddenly, droves of students were walking through my door, interrupting my day and asking, ‘What can I do here?’” she says. “A whole other crowd would send résumé after résumé after résumé expecting me to call them back. Still other ones would come in and say, ‘How about some research on X?’ in August and then show up in late October saying their thesis really needed to be about Y. “It was total havoc.” This year, Ms. Medina Lichtenstein feels better about service learning. For their information technology capstone course at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, two students created a Web site and database management system that allow Ms. Medina Lichtenstein to complete in one day an annual report that used to take a week. Another two students embarked on an assessment of Enlace’s information technology system with the aim of making it better. Working with the students required just a few hours of Ms. Medina Lichtenstein’s time. For the students, says Carol Soules, their professor, “it was a great practical experience, but a whole other aspect of it is that it helped them to see what the digital divide means in real life.” Ms. Medina Lichtenstein’s experiences illustrate the good and the bad of service learning, loosely defined as community service that supplements and enhances what students learn in a classroom. Volunteers, as any nonprofit leader will tell you (off the record, for fear of looking a gift horse . . .), can be as much a curse as a blessing, especially to an organization that lacks the administrative structure and money to train and supervise students. Some organizations pay a coordinator to direct volunteers, but most consider that a luxury they cannot afford. “It’s not unusual for the task of supervising students to fall to someone who already has plenty of responsibilities,” says Elizabeth A. Tryon, the community learning coordinator at the Morgridge Center for Public Service at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. “If service learning is not well coordinated by the academic institution, it can place a lot of burden on the community partner.” “The best service learning really involves a process something like old‐fashioned matchmaking,” says Andrea Dolan‐Potter, whose former job as assistant director of the East Madison Community Center in Wisconsin exposed her to service learning. This town/gown divide is explored in “The Unheard Voices: Community Organizations and Service Learning,” published last summer by Temple University Press and mostly written by students at the University of Wisconsin who, as part of a research seminar, interviewed staff members of 64 nonprofit organizations. Some community leaders spoke of student volunteers having too little time to get much meaningful experience or to justify a significant investment of time to train them. Others told of students arriving on their doorsteps with little guidance or preparation from their professors and expecting to change the world in 20 hours over a single semester. Some felt that their clients were guinea pigs for students doing research, without any return for them. No one knows how many students participate in service learning nationwide, but 1.2 million students and 22,000 community organizations are involved in programs with grants from the Corporation for National and Community Service, a government agency that is perhaps the largest financer of programs. Elson B. Nash, the acting director of the agency’s Learn and Serve America program, says its grants are aimed at encouraging a better experience for academic institutions and their nonprofit partners. “The relationships are key because everyone — the students, faculty and community organization — needs to be involved in developing the expectations for the service learning experience,” Mr. Nash says. “They need to talk about what it’s going to address, how the students are going to be involved, how it connects to the classroom experience, how it meets the nonprofit’s needs and, most importantly, how it is going to be evaluated.” 5 13717 – Scooped! Student News Blogs Challenge College Papers for Big Publication on Campuses Chronicle of Higher Education, Davis Shaver may be the future of alternative student media. From his room in Springfield—a dorm floor painted with characters from The Simpsons—the Penn State sophomore battles a storied college newspaper that employs 200 student journalists. His weapon: An unruly news blog called Onward State. And on this particular Friday in mid‐December, the preppy University Park entrepreneur savors another coup. The morning edition of the paper, The Daily Collegian, reports on a forthcoming “rave” party in the student center—a story that developed from a blog item Onward State ran four days earlier. Mr. Shaver and Chase Tralka, a fellow blogger, are still laughing about the uproar. “They just kind of steal our stuff,” Mr. Tralka says with a shrug. Onward State is part of a national wave of student‐run Web outfits determined to reinvent college journalism. Mr. Shaver calls his 14‐month‐old operation, which involves about 20 people at Pennsylvania State University, a “blogging fraternity.” The brotherhood, like similar digital societies on other campuses, is booming. Its more established peers, a group that includes NYU Local and North by Northwestern, are challenging student newspapers in Web hits, says Daniel R. Reimold, a visiting assistant professor of journalism at Nanyang Technological University, in Singapore, who studied nearly a dozen online student news outlets for a 2008 College Media Review article. Readers devour these sites. College officials fret over them. And competitors carp about their edgy methods, which sometimes include a publish‐it‐now‐correct‐it‐later approach to campus rumors. But for all their popularity, one big question hangs over online ventures like Onward State: With little money or structure, can today's Internet sensations survive their founders' graduations? Many don't. Mr. Reimold estimates that only half of the sites he examined for the College Media Review article still exist. Even a semester abroad can silence a site, as fans of Skidmore Unofficial learned last month when the blog's editor bailed for Copenhagen. Cody Brown, a 21‐year‐old film major who founded NYU Local about two years ago, follows the new‐media creed that “transparency is the new objectivity.” His take on hearsay: It's “way more responsible to publish those rumors,” as long as you label them as such. Then you can check reader comments to “see what kicks up. Publishing it can lead to remarkable journalism in terms of getting a response faster than you could by just calling somebody," he says, "or spending hours trying to call the right person.” This is not a universally applauded procedure. Rossilynne Skena, editor in chief of the Collegian, reads Onward State daily and says the competition makes her paper better. But she holds her staff to traditional standards like avoiding anonymous sources, preventing reporters from covering groups to which they belong, and vetting information before printing it. “Bloggers can post anything,” she says, and they easily retract errors. “For us, getting something wrong is very egregious.” Lisa M. Powers, a spokeswoman for Penn State, calls Onward State “one of the better blogs I've seen.” She criticizes it, however, for not enough fact checking and too much repeating rumors “that may or may not be true. I'm hoping that readers take some of the things they say with a grain of salt,” she says. “It makes us uneasy when the facts are not there and people begin reading it as if it is the truth and nothing but the truth.” What Mr. Shaver calls the “fresh voice” of Onward State, Cole W. Camplese, Penn State's director of education technology services, describes as “a brand new style of publication on a university campus.” Underground media has always existed. But not until recently, he says, have there been underground papers published on a global distribution platform and amplified by the personal social networks of editors like Mr. Shaver, who can share posts with more than 1,300 Facebook “friends.” “They're taking new media, and they're pushing it to the limits of legitimacy,” says Mr. Camplese. 6 13718 – N.J. Appeals Court Shields Farleigh Dickinson in Student's Death Inside Higher Education, Farleigh Dickinson University deserves immunity in a resident adviser's fatal, drunken fall under the state's Charitable Immunity Act, a state appeals court ruled Tuesday in overturning a jury's $260,000 award against the university. Keith Orzech died in 2005 when the then‐21‐year‐old, who was between semesters but living in a dorm as a resident adviser at the New Jersey independent college, fell out a fourth‐floor window after drinking heavily during a party he helped sponsor. During a 2008 civil trial, a state judge had concluded that Farleigh Dickinson did not warrant protection under a state law that shields nonprofit entities from negligence findings; because the university had failed to enforce its alcohol policy and Orzech had egregiously violated that policy, “FDU was not engaged in the charitable objectives it was organized to advance and Orzech was not truly a beneficiary of those objectives.” But a university clearly provides “educational works” to a student who is living in its residence hall, the appeals panel found, and Farleigh Dickinson's behavior in Orzech's death, if negligent, was not willfully or wantonly so. 13719 – Muslim Women Embrace Sorority The Atlanta Journal­Constitution, The women who belong to Atlanta’s Gamma Gamma Chi sorority volunteer and participate in fund‐raising activities across the metro area. They hang out and go to restaurants, movies, museums and cultural exhibits in town. But the sisters won’t participate in some stereotypical components of Greek life — no drinking, partying or hooking up with men. That’s because Gamma Gamma Chi Sorority Inc. is the country’s first Islamic‐based sorority. The sorority allows Muslim women to participate in a widespread college tradition without abandoning their faith and values. Many Muslim women do belong to sororities on college campuses across Georgia and the country, but leaders with Gamma Gamma Chi said it provides another option. “As Muslims, certain things that go on in sororities and fraternities are not allowed,” said Wakilat Kasumu, president of the Atlanta chapter and a Spellman graduate. “We still do volunteer work and socialize with one another. Yes, we are Muslim, but we still have fun.” The sorority started in 2005 and has five chapters in the areas surrounding Chicago, Philadelphia and Washington, and the national headquarters in Alexandria, Va. Each chapter is regional rather than school‐
based and pulls from multiple colleges. Atlanta’s members have attended Spellman, Clark Atlanta University, Georgia Perimeter College and other institutions. College students have long found different ways to have a piece of Greek life. Fraternities and sororities have been formed around different groups, including students who are Hispanic, African‐American or Jewish. Like most others, Gamma Gamma Chi is open to all women, including non‐Muslims. The sorority originated with a mother‐daughter team after the daughter struggled to find a sorority where the practices didn’t go against her faith. They merged a sorority’s traditional values of volunteering, leadership and friendship with a way to promote and improve the image of Islam and Muslim women. They also wanted Muslim women to have the opportunity to build the lifelong bonds that develop among sorority sisters. Chapters observe Islam’s holy days and other practices. The emphasis on volunteering and leadership makes Muslim women visible in the community, said Rasheeda Salaam, vice president of the Atlanta chapter and a board member for the national association.“We want people to know who we are and that we are an active part of the Atlanta community,” Salaam said. Photos from chapters show women wearing jeans and sweat shirts bearing the sorority’s Greek letters. Some women wear their hair loose; others wrap scarves around their heads. The group’s motto explains that members will honor Allah through “sisterhood, scholarship, leadership and community service.” 7 COLONIZATIONS, CHARTERINGS, CLOSINGS Colonizations Alpha Epsilon Pi – Wesleyan University, University of Rhode Island, California State University‐Long Beach Delta Gamma – College of Charleston Sigma Alpha Epsilon – Kennesaw State University Charterings Alpha Epsilon Pi – San Jose State University, Northern Illinois University, Virginia Commonwealth University Kappa Alpha Order – University of Louisiana at Monroe PEOPLE, PLACES, EVENTS, NEWS Alpha Epsilon Pi – Michael Roitman has been hired as the Director of Israel Engagement Delta Tau Delta – Chris Martz, who served as director of communications, editor of the Rainbow and administrative manager for Delta Tau Delta since 2006, left the Delt staff this month. He is now Director of Circle K International at Kiwanis International in Indianapolis. Pi Kappa Phi – Bradley Charlesworth has been selected to fill a new role on Pi Kappa Phi's communication team as coordinator of new media and public relations. Charlesworth has previously served as a leadership consultant and coordinator or expansion. Pi Kappa Phi is in the middle of hosting its 2010 Mid Year Leadership Conferences. With three regional locations (Charlotte, N.C.; Baltimore, Md.; and St. Louis, Mo.), Pi Kappa Phi will educate more than 1,200 student leaders. Sigma Phi Epsilon – The past year has been an interesting and challenging time for our Fraternity. During this time of transition, we have been honored that Doug Scheibe has served not only as Executive Director of the Sigma Phi Epsilon Foundation but also as Interim Executive Director of the Sigma Phi Epsilon Fraternity. While working with Doug, the National Board of Directors and the Foundation Trustees have reviewed various options in deciding how best to move forward in structuring our organization and in serving our Brothers in these challenging economic times. After an extensive review and considerable discussion, we have concluded that we are best served by dedicated Executive Directors serving each separate organization. By reaffirming the validity of this structure, we are pleased that Doug will be able to return full time to his position as Executive Director of the Foundation and we are also pleased to announce that we have named Brian Warren as Executive Director of The Fraternity. Brian has previously served SigEp as a Regional Director, Director of Learning Communities, Director of Operations, and Managing Director. His development and success as a proven leader have been impressive and are indicative of SigEps success in building balanced leaders for the world's communities. With Brian as our new Executive Director and Doug able to concentrate 100% on raising funds to support our scholarship and leadership programs, we are confident that we are poised for continued success and growth in the future. Zeta Beta Tau – welcomes Seth W. Stern as a new Expansion and Leadership Consultant. JOB BANK The Job Bank can be accessed from the website, www.fea‐inc.org, on the left sidebar, if you wish to publicize job openings with your organization. For those that post, please indicate when the listing will expire. 8 Wilford A. Butler, Jr., CAE – FEA President (1976­1977) ~A Remembrance~ I am writing to express my condolences on the sad news of Bill Butler's passing. Bill Butler was a great interfraternal colleague during my six years of work on the staff of the North‐American Interfraternity Conference and later my fraternity, Phi Kappa Psi. As a well‐regarded expert in the field of association management in Indiana, across the United States and, in fact, globally, Bill deserves a lot of credit for the NIC's progression from a federation to a true association that it is today. And, in my opinion, Bill Butler, along with his interfraternity colleagues TJ Schmitz of TKE and Durward Owen of Pi Kappa Phi really advanced the concept that international and national fraternities were associations in the business of fraternity. This led to a greater level of professional services and practices across the fraternity world. On a personal level, Bill was a great mentor to me and many other young fraternity professionals who were in, what he liked to call, our “salad days.” I have many fond memories of being Bill's dinner guest at the Columbia Club in Indianapolis. He loved steak tartar, for which I never developed an appreciation despite his encouragement! Bill had the knack of delivering very direct feedback very graciously. He was an interesting man with a wide range of interests and knowledge, and a loyal fraternity man of Delta Upsilon. Please accept my condolences on the loss of this great fraternity member. ~ Bob Marchesani, NIC Chairman My introduction to Bill was in early 1961, I think. I was a “field secretary” for Phi Tau (most of us hadn't yet come up with all the fancy handles we now use to justify using Foundation money) and we were attempting to put a colony on the campus of Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo. Ordinarily, one met with the Dean in these situations for permission to proceed. Not so at WMU. There was an IFC officer you had to convince first: Bill Butler. He was a senior, and well before I met with the Dean of Men, J. Towner Smith, I had to have Bill's OK. Which I got . . . over period of several days, and we became good friends. On subsequent visits to the campus, Bill and I continued our friendship. On one occasion, I pointedly asked him if he'd ever considered working for his Fraternity's Headquarters staff. “No,” was his reply . . . “and I don't intend to...” or words to that effect. Later that year, I joined another fraternity, the US Army, and over the next 3 years, spent precious little time recalling that conversation with Bill. The late Jack Anson talked me into coming back to Phi Tau when I got out of the service in the fall of 1964. The very first day back, I was arranging the top of my new desk and there was a copy of the DU Quarterly staring me in the face. I flipped open its pages and staring back at me was Wilford A. Butler, having penned a column for the magazine as executive director. My first phone call was to Bill and we laughed about our conversation three years earlier! We remained friends and colleagues the rest of his life. He will be missed. ~ Bill Jenkins, Phi Kappa Tau, Former Everything Bill Butler provided me with a larger view of our fraternity profession, that of Association Management. As a mentor, he always had not one but three good ideas for resolving an issue or concern. Bill cared! When he offered strong written advice to me (which happened often during my years leading the NIC), he referred to his long letters as “chapters!” Looking back that makes sense to me because his knowledge of the interfraternity and association worlds was so vast; Bill could have written many books. Bill was a colorful character and I am thankful I knew him! ~ Jonathan Brant, Beta Theta Pi 9 He encouraged me to get my CAE – one of the best professional growth decisions – he was dedicated to the association profession. ~ Cindy Menges, CAE, Delta Zeta I had the pleasure of meeting and interacting with Wilford many years ago when I first started working for AEΠ attending the FEA Summer Meeting. Wilford was always full of energy and love to talk “Fraternity.” I always enjoyed reading his News and Notes reports. He had a tremendous amount of knowledge about the “association” business as well and kept us all aware of both the threats and plaudits that affected Greek Life. He was very passionate about the subjects he cared about and you always felt his passion through his reporting. I have a very specific memory of him at FEA in 1985 at the Doral in Miami. On one of the evening's we had a reception by the pool and he arrived wearing a full length (literally head to toe) NY Yankees “snuggie”. That night he was all about the Yankees. That picture will forever be emblazoned in my memory. So long to a great Interfraternity Brother! ~ Andy Borans, Alpha Epsilon Pi My most vivid recollection of Bill Butler is from a by‐gone era of more than 30 years ago. As a young executive, I was very impressed by Bill's command of management skills and his dedication to professionalism. He took great interest in the younger members of our craft. He was the first to introduce me to the American Society of Association Executives and he encouraged me to pursue my Certified Association Executive (CAE) credential. I eventually earned my CAE and he heartily congratulated me at an ASAE convention. I got the feeling, however, that he thought I was more than a little tardy in my accomplishment. Now, the CAE credential is universally recognized as important among FEA professionals. That is just one way in which Bill Butler made a lasting contribution to our movement and our craft. ~ Bill Bernier, CAE, Sigma Tau Gamma There are many ways to measure the impact and effect of one's life on earth. We often speak or write of the influence a person exerted upon us and others...the kind word at the right moment, the leadership by example, the expression of thanks that gives one a lift. Bill Butler was all of those things. He was well known for his cryptic handwritten notes – a lost art in these days and times – through which he bolstered many a spirit or thanked many a person. Very few things that happened in the FEA escaped Wilford, as many called him, and he would employ a wry humor in commenting upon the latest situation or circumstance. Perhaps most significantly Bill Butler was the kind of person about whom everyone had a story or an anecdote. He possessed a quick wit – many a story ended with, “And Butler said...” Bill was the unofficial co‐chairman (along with Jim Greer, former Executive Director of Zeta Beta Tau) of the Slivinske Dinner – the annual interfraternal black tie event held each August to honor and remember the life and service of Dale A. Slivinske of Theta Chi Fraternity. Bill and Jim quietly led the event each year beginning in 1990. Jim often described the dinner as an oasis – a place to stop and pause for a moment before beginning the fall semester. Bill served as toastmaster and set the tone for the event. And, like an excellent actor, Bill Butler has left us with good memories and humor but with several acts to go. We are the better for having known him and the lesser for his departure. ~ Dave Westol, Theta Chi Bill Butler was a very interesting colleague. You always knew if Bill was in the room. He was commenting or rearranging something. When I was the 1985 FEA Program Chairman and held a late reception to ‘dress as you are’, Bill showed up in his pajamas. I showed up in my overalls. On another occasion, I remember seeing him in Chicago to discuss an issue and handing him some papers. In minutes he had reviewed them – and I learned as a speed reader he read three papers every morning and had the capacity to read so much more. That didn’t mean that he didn’t have care for the facts. He did care….he cared about all who he met. Bill lived a rich life. ~ Phil Josephson, Alpha Gamma Rho 10 Bill Butler and I became fraternity CEOs a few days apart in 1962. He was a quick learner, an ardent and dedicated fraternity man who believed in “the craft” and the help it can be for those young men who chose it. We are the better for having known him. ~ Bill Schwartz, Sigma Alpha Mu Wilford A. Butler, CAE was the consummate Fraternity Executive. When I showed up on the scene in 1974, Bill was already on the rise in FEA and actively mentoring those of us who were entering the craft. His calm demeanor and articulate presentation skills were well known and admired in the FEA, but his commitment to Association management was perhaps the capstone of his effect on Fraternity and Association Executives whose lives he touched. Together with Bill Schwartz, TJ Schmitz and George Spasyk, the quartet led the Indianapolis Guild with professionalism and skill. Bill’s activity beyond the fraternity world was significant and valued, serving on various ISAE and ASAE Boards and committees as well as receiving lifetime achievement awards from many organizations. Within FEA, Bill served as President and as the second Editor of News & Notes. Each editor brings his own personality to the role and Bill’s was to offer association tips and tricks, restaurant and book reviews and other information that would improve the professional aspects of the members of FEA. The past few years, I would see Bill shopping for groceries or at the post office. He was always jovial and welcoming, always inquiring about FEA and the fraternity world in general. Bill was an imposing figure in the world of Association management and he got his start in FEA. Following in his footsteps, as the fourth editor of News & Notes, I am humbled by the work product of his life and was privileged to have known him and called him my friend. ~ Sid Dunn, Alpha Epsilon Pi 11