Ashton Hittle
Lantern Staff
The new school year at Butler brings a new department of Fine Arts and Communication Dean Richard Nichols.
Nichols is a well-rounded man that heads the Fine Arts and Communications Department. He is a husband and father to four children, and he has always been involved with music and teaching throughout his life. Nichols participated in playing the French Horn for the Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra in Cape Town, South Africa; The Florida Orchestra, the Sarasota Orchestra and the Jacksonville Symphony. Nichols is still a performer, but he has taken over as overseer of the teachers for the Fine Arts and Communications.
Before he arrived at Butler, he was a chair of music at Sterling College. He wanted a new challenge for himself, so he decided to apply for this position at Butler. Nichols was intrigued by the job opportunity that Butler offered. It was important that the school was closer to Sterling because that is where he still lives with his family. One of his children is finishing their schooling at Sterling High School. The commute he drives to be at Butler is about an hour and a half.
Nichols enjoys that Butler really emphasizes community, and he likes that Butler stays connected with the local community. Concerts and sporting events really show the connection the college and town has. Nichols found that the arts are really impressive here at Butler.
“The new art gallery is a great space, and they have a lot of great exhibits throughout the year, Nichols said. “The music performances the band and choir are very impressive as well.”
Mass communications is another area that Nichols oversees and is impressed with the work put into the projects and teaching.
In this new position, Nichols is in charge of all of the full-time faculty in the Fine Arts and Communication Department, close to 20 full time faculty and about 30 adjunct faculty. There are a lot of parts to the system in the department that he has to make sure run smoothly. A lot of coordination goes into the position of being dean.
“I have been very impressed with the longevity of the faculty here and the longevity of the administrators”, Nichols said. “There is just a lot of good comradery between the deans and the faculty, even between the faculty and the students. Just a positive atmosphere, you just do not see that on all college campuses.”
