Butler CCOM Dean – CCOM Dean's Pawprints

CCOM Launches the 2025-2026 Academic Year

September 8, 2025 butlerccom

“This is a new year. A new beginning. And things will change.” – Taylor Swift

Last year our students served as ambassadors for Taylor Swift’s Era’s Tour stop in Indianapolis, which is why I feel like she and I are now good friends. So much so, her line from above struck a chord as the new academic year began here at Butler. Things will surely change, and many of those changes are exciting! “What are they?,” you might ask—well, let me tell you.

*Dean Joe Valenzano addressing the CCOM Class of 2029 on Academic Day.*

1,246. 96. 26.

No, that’s not an IP address. We have 1,246 new Butler first-year students this Fall—the third largest incoming class in school history. Of that group, we welcomed 96 to CCOM, and that number will surely grow over the coming weeks and months as students realize what they are missing out on. On top of that, our inaugural MS in Sports Management cohort consists of a robust 26 students. There is nothing like welcoming new students to campus at the start of the year.

*Katie Coby, CCOM’s first professional advisor and student success coordinator.*

New Faces in Fairbanks Center

In addition to the new students, we also welcome some amazing new faculty and staff to CCOM. In the Pulliam School of Journalism and Creative Media we welcome Professor Kiersten Houser and Professor Peter Matsoukas, both of whom will be teaching our budding filmmakers. In the Department of Communication and Leadership, Professor Todd Logan now oversees our undergraduate online degree completer program, known as BSOL (Bachelor of Science in Organizational Leadership for students who have earned an associate’s degree). Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences welcomes Dr. Jenna Voss who will be building out the MA in Deaf Education program. Finally, the College added a new staff position, a Professional Advisor and Student Success Coordinator, Katie Coby, who will help our first and second year students navigate the start of their college careers.

“Oh, the Places You’ll Go”

Pardon my channeling the late, great Dr. Theodore Geisel (Dr. Seuss), but we are off to so many places this year. In the fall, our Department of Communication and Leadership students will take part in our first industry immersive trek to Denver. In the spring, we will have similar trips to New York and Chicago. During Spring Break, Professor Bob Schultz (PBS) will run part deux of his Mediterranean Cruise class, and in the summer, Professor Cutler Armstrong will again accompany students on our Butler in LA program. This says nothing about our tremendous study abroad opportunities available in the spring.

*Chris Rose, professional broadcaster and content creator, who will serve as the inaugural Sports Media Residency professional within CCOM.*

And oh, the people we will see.

This year CCOM will hold our inaugural Sports Media Residency with sportscaster extraordinaire, Chris Rose. He will spend a few days on campus to guest lecture in classes, hold workshops, and mentor students. This program will benefit numerous students in the College with hands-on professional training from one of the elite industry talents in the game.

The beginning of the year is always filled with hope, excitement and joy—and this year is no different. At this point, I shouldn’t be amazed at how many first-year students immediately sought out faculty and staff to learn how they could get involved right away. With everything we have going on, there is no doubt in my mind they will find a way. In fact, I bet they already have.

There’s no magic quite like that found at the start of the academic year.

Dean Valenzano’s 2025 CCOM Top 10

May 14, 2025 butlerccom

The academic year can be intense for faculty, staff and students, and so it’s reasonable that there is a lot of pent up energy and emotion this time of year. Honestly, its what makes things like commencement, our annual Senior Dinner, and the start of summer so hopeful. But an event that has become something people look forward to in a way that surpasses even commencement is……my annual CCOM Top Ten List!

Without further ado, let’s get started on what is a difficult-to-determine tip of the excellence iceberg from this year in CCOM!

#10 – THE FIRST-EVER CCOM CARNIVAL: From the Elixir de Beans to a “Kiss(ing)” Booth, this year’s Day of Giving celebration in Fairbanks had something fun for everyone. It also continued CCOM’s recent record of leading the way in giving totals and giving by faculty and staff among all of Butler’s colleges.

#9 – MORE AND MORE STUDENT AWARDS: Our students continue to bring home the hardware. The Butler Collegian received Division II Newspaper of the Year for the second straight year from the Collegiate Press Association, as well as numerous other awards for stories and photos. Not to be outdone, our Speech and Debate Team also continued to win tournaments and once again placed at least one student at Nationals.

#8 – BLUE ROLL(ING): The student film production team, BlueRoll Media, took the campus by storm this year under the leadership of Dr. Eric Hahn, doing projects for the College of Liberal Arts, Indiana Sports Corps and more!

#7 – JUST TREKKING ALONG: In addition to another year of successful CCOM treks to Chicago and New York this spring, we also sent 17 students to the Music City, Nashville, TN, in the Fall under the watchful eye of Cutler Armstrong. This new trek served students from Strategic Communication and Music Industry Studies, among other majors.

#6 – A SWIFT EXPERIENCE: 70 students helped bring the North American leg of the historic Taylor Swift Eras Tour to a close here in Indianapolis back in November. This pop-up immersive industry experience saw our students helping thousands of visitors experience some Hoosier Hospitality through a class experience led by Professor Bob Schultz, whom the students affectionately call P.B.S. It was also great to see Butler with 70 students against……13 for a much larger institutional neighbor of ours. 😊

#5 – CCOM GOES CRUISIN’ WITH PBS: Professor Bob Schultz was back at it again in the Spring semester with CCOM’s very first Study Abroad Cruise. 23 students accompanied him on an MSC cruise of the Western Mediterranean, with stops in France, Italy, and Tunisia where students not only learned about hospitality in a variety of different settings, but organized tourism itineraries for each port they visited.

#4 – A NEW MASTER’S DEGREE: This Spring we announced the launch of a new graduate program, in collaboration with the Lacy School of Business and the Department of Athletics—an MS in Sports Management. This unique program builds on the strengths of Indianapolis (aka Sports Town, USA) and our faculty. It also is the first program at Butler where alumni receive a 20% discount on tuition—talk about a commitment to lifelong learning!

*Image from MA in Deaf Education page for Fontbonne University.*

#3 – MASTER’S DEGREE PART DEUX: CCOM also received initial approval to build another new Master’s degree, an MA in Deaf Education, modeled after the founding program at Fontbonne University which is closing this summer. More details are coming on this program as it is built, but it will be a graduate offering in our amazing SLHS Department when all is said and done. The best part? Fontbonne alumni, the deaf education community, and Butler friends and alumni all contributed to make this happen in just a seven week period.

#2 – FAIRBANK’S FANTASTIC FACULTY: Recently, I wrote about four faculty who received promotions this year, but that’s just a small sampling of the amazing work our faculty accomplished this academic year. In fact, to call out individual faculty, or list all the achievements, would not be possible without much more space than we have. It’s important to note, though, that in addition to their research, teaching, committee work, and curricular innovations, they also are responsible for being dedicated advisors to our roughly 500 students.

*Family and friends of Bill Ney joined students, faculty, and staff in April to share stories about Mr. Ney and celebrate this anonymous gift.*

#1 – AN HONOR LIKE NO OTHER: This year saw the largest gift in CCOM’s history, in honor of a faculty member—William “Bill” Ney—who had such a monumental impact on Butler and CCOM as the founder of what is now the Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences Department. This gift will establish the William Ney Endowed Professorship in SLHS, while also creating an endowed scholarship for students in that field. This is also the very first endowed professorship in CCOM’s 15 years at Butler. Bill Ney’s legacy will never be forgotten, and will always be cherished by faculty and students alike.

There is much more we could celebrate, like the 80 for 80 campaign, our redesign of Butler Bound into a Game Show, or student scholarship on display throughout both semesters, which made this list so hard to create. But don’t just take my word for it. Listen to four of our students—including two May graduates—share their thoughts about CCOM and their Bulldog experience (listen on Apple Podcasts or Spotify).

It’s yet another year where CCOM has shown why it is the best college of communication around! I am so proud and humbled to be a part of this community and cannot wait to see what 2025-2026 brings—in the meantime, let’s celebrate our seniors on their graduation. It’s well earned.

Butler Bound(less Opportunity)

March 6, 2025 butlerccom

*Proud parents utilizing a photo booth area in Fairbanks during the Butler Bound open house.*

Butler and CCOM just wrapped of another successful Day of Giving—thanks to many of you who are reading this. In Fairbanks Center we made an event within the event as engaged members of our college put in some extra effort, and wonderful creativity, to celebrate our students and inspire a generous mood. I’ll likely touch on the CCOM Carnival at Day of Giving in a coming post, but the future is now for younger students readying for their jump to higher ed.

High school seniors across the country are entering the peak of college decision season—likely somewhere between the most stressful and simultaneously exciting moments in their lives. They’ll work with their parents, guardians, guidance counselors, and others to choose where to spend the next four years immersed in the investment of their future and their evolution as friends, citizens, and leaders. Their burgeoning horizon offers positivity and life lessons during the formative years of college—evolving or learning about the passions and interests that will help define who they are.

*As the room was filling, shortly before the official Butler Bound program kicked-off.*

In February the College of Communication hosted nearly 70 high school seniors who have been accepted to Butler University this fall with intent to major in one of our excellent programs. This event, more commonly referred to as “Butler Bound,” provides high school students a chance to learn more about us, meet potential future classmates, and imagine themselves in Midtown Indy as Bulldogs. Our CCOM specific program typically includes an informative session on our majors, internship program, and study abroad opportunities. Authentic stories are shared through a variety of voices as a panel of current students and another with alumni from our majors define how “The Butler Way,” set them up for success, fulfillment, and happiness. These tried and true elements remain terrific, but we are always thinking about how to innovate and improve, so this year we made a few tweaks.

The information sessions and the panels planted their foundational roots in our narrative, but we also wanted to have some fun—it’s in the CCOM DNA. One of our very own interns, junior Blake Richmond ’26, spearheaded a unique twist on the recruitment event by designing an interactive game show to perk everyone up after lunch. Corey McPherrin ‘77, alumnus and former nightly news anchor in Chicago, played the role of host—and boy did he have a good time with that task!

*Scenes from the trivia segment (left*) and cup stacking challenge (right).

Visiting students were offered the opportunity to opt-in to being a contestant (remember, as noted above, this could already be a stressful time, and we recognize that) that put their names into a random drawing—think The Price is Right, and McPherrin indeed told each of the 10 to “come on down, you’re the next contestant on the inaugural CCOM-petition!”

Both teams were anchored by a faculty captain, Prof. Mary Gospel of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences orProf. Amanda Stevenson-Holmes. Their competitive spirit brought energy and fun as they welcomed their new teammates to the stage.

Segment one was a trivia competition (think Family Feud one-to-one, head-to-head) produced from information they learned throughout the day’s programming. Segment two offered a two-part physical challenge. Team Mary vs. Team Amanda, with five brave prospective students on each side, in the cup-stacking AND the Marshmallow Challenge, simultaneously.

*Team Amanda working feverishly on their Marshmallow Challenge structure.*

If you’re not familiar with the Marshmallow Challenge, participants work together in a timed-situation to see who can get one full-sized marshmallow to a higher structural point using only marshmallows and dry spaghetti. Suffice it to say, folks had a lot of fun, numerous laughs, and truly got a feel for what we are about in CCOM and at Butler. It was teamwork, creativity, focus, support from faculty, “infotainment,” and a memorable visit. The best part was this all happened thanks to the ingenuity of one of our own students!

Bringing the day to a close—or at least some parting words before faculty and current students shone during a low-pressure open house in our beloved Fairbanks Center—I shared with the prospective students my thoughts on how to navigate the difficult task of choosing a college. I told them whenever they visit a school they are considering to elevate their future, take 10 minutes at the end of the day, before they leave campus, find a quiet place away from their parents, and briefly shut their eyes. If they can see themselves at that school, thriving, smiling, and enjoying it, then that’s where they should go.

*From left: Ross Hollebon, marketing and recruitment manager for CCOM, Blake Richmond ’26, and Corey McPherrin ’77.*

On the front of Dugan Hall there is a banner that reads “We are changing what it means to be a university.” In CCOM, we are changing what it means to consider what university you want to attend, too.

Connectivity Via Strategic Communication

January 26, 2025 butlerccom

January 2025 is almost in the books and the College of Communication has sprinted out of the gates with a new semester of inspiration, education, and growth through classes and experiences for our students. But even before the first faculty member stood in front of a new collection of learners, CCOM was connecting with another important audience of partners.

On the Thursday evening before the first week of Spring ‘24/’25 classes, Prof. Bob Schultz, lecturer within Strategic Communication and CCOM’s internship director, gathered more than a dozen representatives from advertising, public relations, and strategic communication agencies from in and around Indianapolis for an evening of thought leadership and discussion.

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Happy Holidays (You’re Never “Home Alone” in CCOM)!

December 21, 2024 butlerccom

(From left): Cardiff University’s Anne Morgan, head of international partnerships and transnational education, and Sarah Lethbridge, Pro Dean of External Engagement; Butler University’s Craig Caldwell, Dean of the Lacy School of Business, Joe Valenzano, Dean of the College of Communication, and Jill McKinney, assistant vice president of academic affairs and director of global engagement.

So much of what students focus on in CCOM is experiential. Presenting a speech, working a camera for a live stream of an NCAA Butler athletic event, administering hearing tests, tutoring other students on writing and public speaking, and, of course, valuable internships in Indianapolis and beyond. Immersive is another great adjective for the experiences our students absorb—but it fits much better when it is discussing studying, or in my case, traveling abroad.

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