The History of Butler Community College in Andover Part 1: The Early Years

Time has a way of making history lose its character. Fact is, we'll glance over a timeline and never notice the decisions, the angst, the effort and the risks that took place to add just one small point on that line of time.

But hidden in the obscure details of years gone by is where history truly comes alive. For that is where you identify with the shock that came with the four inches of water flooding Butler's first building in Andover days before it opened. And that's where you now smile at the once genuine but unwarranted fear that adding day classes in Andover would all but make the El Dorado campus a fleeting memory.

And it is in those details where you begin to understand how a beleaguering junior college of the 1920s El Dorado became a burgeoning beacon of education for thousands – with an incredible footprint in the western Butler County city of Andover.

Butler Community College opened to 115 students in 1927 as the El Dorado Junior College, founded and operated by the El Dorado school board. With its hyper-local focus on El Dorado High School graduates, enrollment remained small through the Great Depression and World War II. In fact, it wasn't until the 1960s, when a group of citizens initiated a campaign to change the name to Butler County Community Junior College that the college began to emerge as a true countywide institution.

Humble beginnings

As residents flocked to the new campus from across the county, Butler began outreach programs in area towns in an effort to bring the college to the students. It was the growth of this outreach that led Butler to Andover High School in 1982.

"When Butler came up with the concept of 'bringing the college to the students,' it was an exciting time because it allowed us to better serve adult students who were not able to attend during the traditional daytime hours," said Jim Edwards, Butler's executive director of innovation, who at that time was Butler's director of academic outreach. "This concept truly made us a leader and role model for other Kansas colleges."

A mere 14 students enrolled in Andover's outreach program in the fall of 1982, but it was the foresight of college leaders that the anticipated population growth of western Butler County and its proximity to Wichita would support a more permanent presence in Andover.

This vision for the future was backed by demographic data, but according to Linda Billingsley, Butler's former dean of Andover, even more telling than the data was the response from students.

"The students we had were so excited about being able to attend classes in Andover," Billingsley recalls. "And not only Wichita students, but many from Butler County as well."

Realizing the potential, Butler moved to a strip mall on Andover Road while it searched for a more suitable facility. In June 1986, several letters were written from Andover businesses supporting a Butler Community College extension facility located in Andover. With that community support, construction began on a somewhat experimental (for its time) steel-framed building at the site of an old gas station on the northeast corner of 21st and Andover Road.

Construction was complete and in the fall of 1987, after an initial flooding scare, a 10,000-square-foot space with 10 classrooms was leased to Butler. The initial 14 Andover students had now grown to an enrollment of 536, as a new era for Butler began at its Western Attendance Center.

This milestone on the proverbial timeline was quickly overshadowed by rapid enrollment growth that brought with it increased pressure to meet the demand of students. In a creative partnership with the Andover School District, Butler rented five classrooms in the fall of 1990 from Andover High School, which filled immediately, and then rented five more in the spring of 1991, only to see them fill with the demand ever increasing.

According to Ted Albright, current Butler Trustee and former Butler director of building and grounds, "Enrollment was growing so rapidly in Andover…we were always out of space."

"We were converting everything, from break rooms and libraries, to class rooms," he said.

Billingsley remembers that "problem" all too well.

"We were growing approximately 50 percent each semester," she said. "We were modifying our enrollment processes every semester just so we could handle the growth. It was fun to watch but very difficult to make happen."

Powerful partnerships

The increasingly significant partnership with the Andover School District was solidified with the offer to join forces and work together on this enrollment opportunity. At the time, Andover High School was planning an expansion, and Butler was offered to be a part of its development.

In the meantime, a temporary enrollment solution came for the 1992-93 school year in the form of portable classrooms. These "trailers" of four to five classrooms were set in the gravel parking lot at the college's 21st Street location.

Gravel parking didn't meet zoning regulations. However, the city of Andover, a steadfast supporter of Butler's presence from the beginning, extended a variance that allowed this gravel lot until the temporary buildings could be removed upon completion of the high school addition.

The unpaved lot did offer interesting moments, Billingsley recalls. For instance, one untimely January thaw caused many cars in the lot to sink in the gravel. Fortunately for students, an advisor with a Jeep was willing to offer a tow.

In the fall of 1993, with now more than 2,600 students, Butler opened its second Andover site, leasing a 30,000-square-foot remodeled portion at the north end of Andover High School, the former tech education area.

"While all the credit for Butler's enduring presence in Andover is due to the visionary leadership of past presidents and trustees, I recall two milestone discussions during my tenure," said Jackie Vietti, Butler Community College president since 1995. "The first involved the Andover school board and superintendent, as they wrestled with options to address their dramatic increase in high school enrollment. They were unequivocal in that it was not an option to eliminate the college's presence at the north end of Andover High School because of the tremendous opportunity it afforded their students to get a head start on their college education.

"Stay tuned for the other milestone conversation!"

The following fall, enrollment in Andover soared past 3,000 and eclipsed the student population in El Dorado. By the late '90s, Andover was once again overcrowding with eager learners seeking an affordable alternative to their education.

Butler's growth in Andover had now presented it with a more challenging question. Was it time to become a stand-alone campus? With the purchase of 34 acres immediately north of the high school, that answer seemed inevitable. Until a captivating offer came from someplace unexpected.