Butler University Founder’s Celebration: A Historical Exhibit

In the fall of 1875 the University moved to a new campus located in a recently incorporated town east of Indianapolis. Irvington had been founded in 1870 as an early Indianapolis suburb, and the town was easily accessible to the city’s downtown via railroads. In the early 1870s the University was hurting financially and needed more space for rising student enrollments. The Board formed a committee to begin reviewing offers for moving its campus, which would allow the University to sell its first property to cover debts. Irvington submitted a successful proposal that included land and $150,000.

This second campus of twenty-five acres was bounded by Emerson Avenue, Butler Avenue, and two railroad lines. Over the course of nearly fifty years, the campus grew to include an academic and an administration building, a women’s residence house, an observatory, power plant, gymnasium, the athletic complex Irwin Field, and a library. Many students lived in Irvington boarding houses or commuted via the railroads.

In 1877—two years after moving—the institution was renamed Butler University in honor of its major financial supporter and primary founder Ovid Butler. Ovid had retired from his position of Board President in 1871 due to ill health but remained active in business affairs. He was not in favor of renaming the University.

Beginning in 1896 the University participated in a chartered partnership of academic institutions known as the University of Indianapolis—unassociated with the current University of Indianapolis, which was founded in 1902 as Indiana Central University. Changing its name to Butler College, the institution remained independent while serving as the liberal arts and sciences college. Other participating schools included the Indianapolis professional schools of dentistry, law, and medicine. Students could take classes and earn degrees from multiple schools within the group. Butler participated in this agreement until 1906, the year the partnership ended. The name of the institution reverted to Butler University in 1923.

In 1927 Butler University President Robert J. Aley instituted a quota for Black students: only ten students per year would be admitted, and they had to have three letters of recommendation from substantial citizens. Some Black students got around the quota by enrolling in the School of Religion—now the Christian Theological Seminary—which had no quota.

The reasons for creating the Butler quota are obscure. While other universities in the United States were instituting similar racebased quotas at this time, their influence on Butler’s own decision-making process is unknown. Butler University Board of Directors’ meeting minutes and other surviving University documents do not explain the motives—either institutionally or individually—for the creation of the quota. The only documented discussions of the quota include: July 13, 1927, when the quota was instituted; September 15, 1948, when the Executive Committee initially voted to rescind the quota; and October 13, 1948, when the quota was officially abolished.

The quota system stayed in place until after World War II, when President M. O. Ross lifted it in 1948. The number of Black students did not increase significantly until the 1960s and the coming of the civil rights era.

Content Warning: Please be advised that the language related to race used in these excerpts from the Butler University Board of Directors (Board of Trustees) meeting minutes—specifically from the 1927 entry—is racist and offensive and may cause distress. We are providing record of these excerpts for historical documentation and transparency on the issue of the quota at Butler University. If the viewer wishes to skip the entries, please scroll directly to the bottom of the page and use the Next button to proceed to the next section of the exhibit.