By Vanessa Langdon
Staff Writer
Ryan Butler, 23, has been a fixture at Saint Rose since he first stepped foot on campus as a freshman in the fall of 2009. Since then, Butler has worn many hats as a student leader, resident assistant, and now an area coordinator.
Butler did not just happen across Saint Rose as a high school senior looking for the college with the perfect fit, but instead did his fair share of research.
“I applied at 13 different schools, got into all 13 and visited all 13,” said Butler, but Saint Rose “had a strong family sense and I couldn’t fall into the cracks. I’m one of six kids so the family sense was important.”
Butler has spent a lot of his time on campus trying to foster that family sense in his many leadership roles on campus. The leadership roles were a new venture for Butler, who was admittedly a shy kid in his hometown high school in Connecticut.
“In high school I was really quiet and I was more focused on sports outside of school,” said Butler.
Butler did not become an RA until his second year at Saint Rose, starting a four-year journey. Butler held his first RA position in Brubacher Hall where he also lived as a freshman. Butler was an RA there for two years before moving on to one year in Lourdes Hall and then one year in 210 Partridge Ave.
Butler never really envisioned himself as an RA even though as he said, “My mom was an RA and my older sister was.” He never talked about wanting to become an RA to his family his freshman year but he said, “I enjoyed being an RA and working with the residents; being an RA helped me learn a lot about myself.”
His journey toward area coordinator started in his second year as an RA in Brubacher – it was there that Butler then realized he liked working in higher education.
When he applied for his masters he was going between special education and higher education, but he decided to pursue special education. Butler continues his love of higher education through his work now as an area coordinator. According to Butler the hardest part about transitioning from student, to RA and finally to area coordinator “is setting those boundaries between having those previous relationships and knowing your role on campus is different now. It’s something I’ve thought about as I transitioned to each position.”
As an area coordinator Butler works a typical 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. day but the ‘typical’ is not always how it is.
“There’s times where you’re in your office later or earlier, especially during RA training,” said Butler.
In addition to the at times long days, being an area coordinator includes duty days: “When I’m on duty I can get a phone call anytime of the day or night,” said Butler.
Due to the many faceted nature of being area coordinators, they all go through a week of training where they discuss various topics they could encounter and computer programs that they will have to utilize to effectively complete their jobs. Butler described training as a chance to “build and maintain relations along with becoming more familiar with various offices and what services they provide.”
The daily area coordinator routine for Butler can be described in one word: busy. He begins his days checking in with his conduct coordinator and reviews situations that may have occurred the prior night, checks his emails, meets with his RAs, meets with students, has conduct hearings, and just tries to get to campus once a day.
Butler’s favorite part of his job is “meeting people and talking to students and learning who they are, so they feel they have a connection with at least one person.”
Butler said, “For me right now I’m very happy where I am and I enjoy the role I have and I have time to decide what my next journey in life has to bring.”
Butler’s main life plan is “to be happy in life; I’m very young still so I have a lot of time to figure out what I’m doing but I have the time to explore if I chose to do so.” For now though, it seems that Butler’s journey will continue on at The College of Saint Rose, right down in Brubacher Hall, where it all began.
