Employees invited to VPA open forum: Andreo speaks of Butler’s success, desire to be a part of the family

Lantern Staff

Eddie Andreo, an associate vice president for Distance Learning at Cowley College, was the second of three candidates invited by the college to meet with employees at an open forum today. President Kim Krull first welcomed Andreo to the open forum held on the El Dorado campus. 

In 2016, Eddie Andreo was invited to be a part of the Kansas Community College Leadership Institute Program, which was led by former Butler President Jackie Vietti. Andreo, who works at Cowley College, has been the associate vice president for five years. Courtesy of Butler Community College

“I feel comfortable enough calling you Eddie,” Krull said. “Certainly, it doesn’t take away from his accomplishments or all that he’s done. He leads the instructional design processes and administers the online campus component at Cowley. He facilitates technology-rich instruction and learning through collaborative curricular innovation, faculty training and technical support. He has a lot of experience in instructional design practices on several learning management systems and platforms that we are all familiar with.” 

Andreo is an adjunct professor at Butler; in fact, he spoke of a mentor, and former college employee, Meg McGranaghan, who offered him a position. 

“If anyone knows Meg, she is an advocate for Butler,” Andreo said. During a conversation with McGranghan, he added, ‘Well, I just finished my master’s, and I would love to start teaching  some day, but Baker (University) has a moratorium that they require you not to teach for an entire year, and that’s ok because it will allow me to prepare.’ … she stopped me, and she said, ‘Do you know what I do?’ I said ‘No, I know you work for Butler,’ and she goes, ‘Well, I’m the director of online learning. Would you like to start teaching for me?’ almost immediately. So this was May and by the summer, I had completed INTON [a program instructors had to go through to teach online]. I had finished all of the required training, and I was off to building an entire online course on my own through curriculum design and instruction, and then I started teaching that fall.” 

Andreo has taught for the college for 15 years. In addition to his teaching, he spoke of his instructional design experience. The Wichita native has managed two learning management system (LMS) migrations. 

“(The migration) takes time, it takes structure (and) it takes coordination with a lot of individual entities from professional development to faculty unions to the IT infrastructure,” he said. “There is a lot of moving components, so those have been very successful.” 

Andreo also spoke of the college’s values. 
 
“I want you to know that I believe in Butler’s timeless institutional values of quality, integrity, caring and service,” he added. “It really aligns with a lot of my philosophy and my leadership attributes. I hope through these discussions you will see that. I really hope to be a part of that moving forward….and how Butler transforms the next generation.”  

Employees who attended in person and on Zoom were able to ask questions of the candidate. An employee attending via Zoom inquired about Andreo’s experience working with the (Board of) Trustees who are critical of the college. 

“I’m very comfortable working with people no matter no matter their feeling…if they are challenging the expectations or if they have questions from their stakeholders or their constituents or taxpayers,” he said. “It doesn’t bother me to have those conversations. What’s going to be helpful for any board is to fully understand and give the information from the people that live and die or live day-to-day the data and the experience anything that is necessary to help them to fully understand what it takes to run a college. Becoming a board member and supporting a college is just as important as any position at a college. We work together to support it and support the success of it, but I’ve had that experience and I understand that dynamic….” 

Andreo also spoke to the great things the college is doing after being asked by Mark Jarvis, director of Faculty Development, how the candidate would collaborate with faculty. 

“You are doing a lot of great things,” Andreo answered. “I’ve seen it. I’ve watched it. For me, it’s just being there to support you and those opportunities. I think every one, every faculty member, who is in the room knows the importance of professional development. We are all life-long learners. We wouldn’t be in this industry if we didn’t want to excel and continue to excel. When we excel, our students excel.” 

Among one of his closing remarks was that he wanted to be a part of this community. Andreo has heard of the impact the college has on students. 

“Do know that such a passion for education and for the Butler family,” Andreo said. “I have been a part of that. I understand it. I know why so many of my colleagues and friends are still here, and they advocate for our learners and their success.” 

Tom Nevill, the third and final candidate, will be invited to the campus tomorrow during an open forum. More information about the VPA search can be found here: Vice President of Academics Search | Butler Community College (butlercc.edu) Employees can visit VPA Open Forums: Schedule to sign up to attend one of the sessions.