Butler CCOM STR – CCOM Dean's Pawprints

CCOM’s Circle City Sports Intersection

September 15, 2025 butlerccom

Indianapolis is known in some circles as “Sportstown, USA.” Butler and CCOM have taken to the spirit of this nickname and here are just a few recent examples on how they are intertwined.

*Welcome to Sports Town! visiting the Indiana Fever in August.*

New Student Experience

For the last several years, during orientation and before classes start for the Fall term, Dr. Lee Farquhar and Prof. Nick White have provided a carefully curated experience for students who want to learn about the rich sports ethos of Indianapolis. Dubbed, “Welcome to Sports Town!” students visit the NCAA offices, LIDS offices, kiss the bricks at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, get VIP tours of Lucas Oil Stadium and Gainbridge Fieldhouse, and more. What a way to start your Butler career!

*From left: Kelly Hallinan, Ethan Polak, Lexi Schell, and Grace Harahan.*

CCOM and the NFL

Five students representing every department in CCOM recently worked in or in association with the NFL and its teams (if we missed anyone, PLEASE let us know!):

Kelly Hallinan ’21 (Sports Media) covered the Green Bay Packers opening wins over the Detroit Lions in week 1 and the Washington Commanders in week 2 at Lambeau Field for NBC 26 in Green Bay as sports anchor/reporter.
Ethan Polak ’24 (Sports Media; Strategic Communication) worked his first regular season game, vs. the San Francisco 49ers, at Lumen Field as a communications intern with the Seattle Seahawks as part of a full-time internship for the 2025-26 season.
Grace Harahan ’25 (Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences) started her rookie season as 2025 Ben-Gal cheerleader when the Cincinnati Bengals stunned the Jacksonville Jaguars with a game-winning touchdown with only :18 seconds remaining at Paycor Stadium for their home opener on Sunday.
Lexi Schell ‘ 23 (Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences) started her third season as an Indianapolis Colts cheerleader, doing her part to activate the fans in Lucas Oil Stadium during the 33-8 season-opening win over the Miami Dolphins and a walk-off 29-28 win in week 2 versus the Denver Broncos.
Michael Terzakis ’24 (Sports Media) is now getting paid to watch NFL games. In his seasonal role with the League Office in New York, Michael is a Game Statistics Support Assistant in Information Technology. He uses the NFL GSIS and NFL Vision software to ensure statistical accuracy per NFL league rules, coordinating with in-stadium crews to deliver reliable data to partners and media.

ESPN+

Thanks to the new Big East media deal, our Butler Sports Live student crews are able to showcase their talents on ESPN+. Under the tutelage of Prof. Nick White, also GM of BSL, students are scheduled to produce more than a dozen Butler athletics events for the media outlet. These include men’s and women’s soccer and women’s basketball and is a great experience and resume boosting opportunity for these talented Sports Media students.

*Indianapolis, Sports, and Entertainment. Another stop on the Welcome to Sports Town! experience.*

MS in Sports Management

This Fall, CCOM launched its latest graduate program, a MS in Sports Management. The program has charged out of the starting gate, with 26 students in the inaugural cohort, and an estimated 40+ students expected to join the program this academic year. It’s a terrific experience in terms of courses and the opportunities it provides to connect with professionals in the industry from Indy and beyond.

Butler Institute for Sports and Entertainment

Butler’s latest cross-college enterprise, the Butler Institute for Sports and Entertainment (BISE), launched this summer. It already has provided 20 students the experience working at the LIV Golf tournament in nearby Hamilton County, where more than 60,000 people attended, setting a new attendance record for the league’s U.S. events. Read more about BISE’s impact in this AXIOS article.

More recently, just last week more than 20 current students, faculty, and staff teamed up to volunteer at the first ever TEDSports Indianapolis event. With almost 100 students already indicating interest in working with BISE on future events, this Institute is a model for campus-community connection with local sports teams and entertainment venues, Indiana Sports Corp, Downtown Indy, Inc., Visit Indy, and more.

*From left: Owen Priscott, Linda Rheinstein, TEDSports speaker and Founder & CEO of the Space Games Federation, Kaitlyn Buckley, and Max Haley.*

So, what does sports buy Butler and CCOM……the answer is it “BISE” us and our students special opportunities and one-of-a-kind experiences from production of live games to large scale events to the thrill of victory. Go Dawgs!

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.

Ascending CCOM Faculty

April 24, 2025 butlerccom

*Dr. Abbey Levenshus at the 2025 “Welcome Back” CCOM faculty and staff meeting.*

The journey to associate professor and professor for higher education faculty can be an arduous one. In most cases it starts with earning a bachelor’s degree, then a master’s degree, and followed by the demanding commitment to a PhD. Then the national search for an assistant professor position to get a foot in the door and begin life as a tenure-track college or university educator. The work is just beginning—and we appreciate the sacrifice and dedication so many of our colleagues have made to pursue these dreams.

The work brings the satisfaction of contributing to something bigger than oneself, especially when helping guide students to find their passion or light bulb moment(s) as they work to understand who they are and what they want to contribute with their future.

The future for tenure-track faculty members typically boils down to two potential promotions. After six years as an assistant professor, if you have met expectations in teaching, scholarly production and service, you apply for promotion to associate professor. This stage also is accompanied by tenure. The remaining promotion typically available is that to professor, or as it is sometimes referred to, “full professor.” There is no timeline for this application, and some people choose not to even apply for it. But when an individual achieves this rank, it is an enormous moment in their career, and this spring, CCOM has four faculty members celebrating promotions.

ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR

*Dr. Xiaowen Xu presenting* research on campus in 2024.

Dr. Xiaowen Xu of the newly renamed Department of Communication and Leadership was awarded tenure and promotion to Associate Professor, effective with the next academic year.

An excellent instructor in our Strategic Communication major, Dr. Xu calls her approach to teaching “user-friendly” and thrives on providing students both real world examples and opportunities for hands-on learning. She is also a prolific researcher, winning a Scholarship Star this year for her impactful work in strategic communication.

PROFESSOR (“FULL PROFESSOR”)

*Dr. Lee Farquhar watching his students present to FOX Sports University.*

Dr. Lee Farquhar, the Director of the Pulliam School of Journalism and Creative Media, and expert in the burgeoning field of esports and digital culture, is a tremendous classroom instructor and mentor for our students. He also has served important roles and initiated several cutting edge efforts in the college, including a current team of faculty working on the impact of AI on teaching.

Dr. Abbey Levenshus, a one-time chair in Strategic Communication and faculty member who exhibits tremendous care for her students, also earned promotion to professor. Her work on social media management and risk management communication represent important contributions to where communication is today, and her service includes dedication to managing curriculum issues across the university while chairing the Undergraduate Curriculum Committee.

*Dr. Tonya Bergeson after presenting an SLHS student award at the 2024 Senior Dinner.*

Dr. Tonya Bergeson, the current chair of the Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences Department, and Fairbanks Chair, earned promotion to professor. In addition to being known as a phenomenal mentor to students, she also is passionate about research initiatives with her students, including travel to conferences to present their work. Her research focuses on early auditory and linguistic development of infants with and without hearing loss, music perception and production, and audiovisual speech perception and language skills.

These four faculty members illustrate what is so amazing about our instructors at Butler and in CCOM: they are exemplary teachers, producing high-quality scholarship, while also contributing to the culture of the college and university.

We are lucky to have them, and cannot wait to see what they do next. Join me in congratulating Dr. Xu, Dr. Farquhar, Dr. Levenshus, and Dr. Bergeson on achieving these career milestones!

The S.S. PBS

April 5, 2025 butlerccom

Creativity and nimbleness are hallmarks at Butler and especially within the College of Communication. Utilizing his skills at activating ideas, Professor Bob Schultz, known affectionately as PBS by many of his students, is a leader in many of the recent unique experiential opportunities of note (including NBA All-Star Weekend and Taylor Swift Street Teams with Visit Indy). But Spring Break 2025, and his STR 426 course: Tourism and Hospitality Communication and Cultural Immersion, elevated Bob to “Captain” for 12 days during a Mediterranean Cruise with 23 students.

One of these students was Madison Masek ’25 who will be graduating with a degree in strategic communication in May. Similar to when I’m hosting a tour with perspective students and their parents/guardians, there are times I’m thrilled to let the authenticity of a current student’s voice and experience sweep the audience off their feet—and here I’m doing that with part of Madison’s LinkedIn post about our excursion (please read her entire post too).

*“Dress up” night on the cruise for dinner.*

“I want to take a moment to reflect on the incredible opportunity I had studying abroad with the Butler University College of Communication!” wrote Madison. “Over ten days, 22 Butler students and I traveled the Mediterranean coasts of Barcelona, Marseille, Genoa, Naples (Pompeii), Palermo, and Tunisia. We explored the tourism and hospitality industries while immersing ourselves in six different cultures.

One of the most eye-opening aspects of the course was analyzing modes of transportation in tourism. From international flights to public transit and a cruise ship, we explored how each method shapes the traveler experience and plays a role in destination marketing. Beyond transportation, we examined tourism industries through the lens of public relations, advertising, destination promotion, sustainability, and consumer relations.”

Class in the streets of Palermo.

There was analyzing and navigating—be it weather, transportation, remembering what floor on the MSC Fantasia cruise ship everyone was meeting on for our evening pre-dinner class discussion, or if WhatsApp or texting was the most efficient way to communicate with the group at any given moment.

The students learned. Bob, his wife Diane, and I learned. All from each other, constantly. The entire group bonded as we overcame obstacles, lifted one another, and port-by-port, celebrated a once in a lifetime journey together. This was something of a going away present for the seniors, while at the same time providing the highest of bars for the first-year students. But it’s safe to say everyone had fun.

Bulldogs at the playground in Barcelona – per my request.

I have the pleasure of working with Butler students in some capacity almost every single day, and consider myself fortunate for that. But this trip was so much more. As an extended family unit over multiple days I saw even more examples of why these young adults are the leaders, dreamers, doers, and critical thinkers of today and the future.

I owe a “thank you” to Captain PBS, CCOM Dean Joe Valenzano, the Study Abroad office at Butler for allowing me to be part of this trip. More importantly, I owe a HUGE debt of gratitude to each of the amazing 23 students who let me be a small part of their experience and who shared their enthusiasm for life, travel, and meaningful friendship.

Ross Hollebon – Marketing & Recruitment Manager, CCOM

Casa Batlló by Gaudi in Barcelona—just because. 😉

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.*

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