UNIVERSITY OF LYNCHBURG
The story of the University of Lynchburg’ s modernisation This has been a long time in the making; both Charley and Sandra have spent years modernising life on campus.
Charley has been with the university for 13 years and is considered something of a maverick. He previously spent 18 years teaching science and maths in K-12 education and his unconventional teaching style translated perfectly to a role in higher education.“ I was organised chaos in the classroom,” he explains.
Sandra joined the university eight years ago. After graduating from the institution as a non-traditional student, she was quickly offered an administrative position by the provost and has risen to be a star in newer, more senior roles as the years have passed. Sandra has been instrumental in digitising campus processes.“ I automated about 90 % of our processes,” she says. As a result, most of a student’ s responsibilities can now be fulfilled online.
The partnership between Charley and Sandra is a dynamic one and they are constantly strategising ways in which they can make university life better for faculty, staff and students alike.“ We’ re really good at bouncing off of each other,” Charley says. Their complementary skills have accelerated the university’ s technological transformation.
The institution, which is home to fewer than 3,000 students, faces many of the same challenges as other American universities, with enrolment cliffs and budget constraints threatening growth and development.
“ We haven’ t had a major shift in the way we teach since the 1800s. We’ re now finally seeing some disruption in that, and AI is the key disruptor”
Charley Butcher, Chief Educational Technology & AI Officer, University of Lynchburg
But Lynchburg’ s embrace of technology is becoming a differentiator.“ We really do have to set ourselves apart,” Sandra explains.
That does not mean that the university is discarding all the academic rigour and traditional educational values that have characterised its past, though. Instead, it is looking to enhance its offering by bringing AI to the classroom.“ It’ s not really changing our core vision, it’ s just changing the tools,” Charley says.
The pandemic accelerated this transformation dramatically. In his own words, Charley went from being a radical outsider to being one of the most popular people on campus.“ I was helping them change how they taught because we had to move online,” he recalls. Since then, use of Lynchburg’ s online learning management system has jumped from 12 % to 99 %.
286 December 2025