The demolition of Emporia State’s Butcher Education Center was proposed in the campus’ 2014 Master Plan. It wasn’t until Aug. 2022 that the University Facilities requested permission to raze the building in the fall of 2023. However, we are well into the fall semester with no apparent progress being made. 

“We don’t have a full timeline yet,” said Gwen Larson, Director of Media Relations and Internal Communications. 

Larson explained that the demolition project is out for bid until Oct. 12, and only after a vendor is chosen will the timeline be created. 

“It’s going to be very similar to what people would have seen last year when we took down Central Morse Hall,” she said. 

The current plan for the space is to keep it as “green space,” so nothing is going to replace the Butcher Education Center for the foreseeable future. 

The building previously housed the university’s Dean of Liberal Arts and Sciences, the Sociology and Crime and Delinquency Studies program, and the Center for Early Childhood Education (CECE). Only two of these were set to be relocated. ESU President Ken Hush officially announced the permanent closure of the CECE in May of 2022. Now that the fall 2023 semester has begun, CECE has officially closed. 

CECE provided childcare for the community, faculty/staff, and students alike, and its closure makes ESU the only state university in Kansas that doesn’t have a childcare center. In the midst of rising childcare costs and a declining number of facilities, many efforts were made in the past year to change this decision.

According to Larson, “there are no official partnerships or agreements with ESU for childcare.” She did, however, mention that ESU worked with other childcare organizations in the community to donate CECE’s equipment for use in those facilities. 

“You could look at that as a way that we helped the local childcare community,” Larson said.