Rya Butterfield, assistant professor of speech in the Department of Mass Communication at Nicholls State University, has been appointed as the new president of the Association for Chinese Communication studies for this upcoming year.

The Association for Chinese Communication Studies was founded in 1991, and is affiliated with the National Communication Association. The mission of the non-profit professional organization is to “promote teaching excellence and research prosperity, enhance academic exchange, facilitate career development of young scholars and graduate students and build a sense of community among global scholars in the field of Chinese Communication Studies.”

Butterfield has been a member of the association since 2009, after receiving the award for top paper at one of the group’s national conventions. She served as vice president for the association from 2014-2015. She was nominated by fellow members of the organization to replace the former president Hairong Feng, who will be stepping down after completing her one-year term.

“I’m very happy to be doing it. I actually wasn’t expecting it because I didn’t think I had been in the organization long enough,” Butterfield said.

As president, Butterfield is geared towards “increasing the namesake of the organization.” In particular, she plans to get more members listed on the press as consultants for their expertise in their given area when something happens in Chinese relations. She is also overseeing the shaping of the association, whether it will be more of a special interest group versus a more topical group with more members.

At Nicholls, Butterfield teaches fundamentals of public speaking, intercultural communication and East Asian political theory. She also introduced Nicholls’ first Chinese politics course (Contemporary Chinese Politics), which she taught last fall and will be teaching again next fall. Ultimately, her hope is to bring more Chinese culture to the Nicholls campus.

“I’m trying to work with Xavier University of New Orleans. They have a Confucius Institute there, which are centers for language and culture learning and have offered to extend some of the language instruction services to Nicholls,” Butterfield said, “We could get some of the cultural programming to tour here, such as performance groups and possible language instructors for Chinese language classes at Nicholls.”

Through the Confucius Institute, the exchanged faculty would not need to be hired. They would actually come to campus for free because it is a part of cultural outreach.

The program would also set Nicholls students apart from others, as there is a large need in the fishing industry for students skilled in the Chinese language.

“Many of our exports from Louisiana actually go to China through other distributers that deal with Chinese business people and companies. There is so much go between that it’s a growing market in Louisiana to hire students that have Chinese language skills,” Butterfield said.

These ideas could also lead to funding study abroad programs in China to increase language skills in exchange for internship opportunities, which could promote cultural integration and the Nicholls name.

Butterfield also emphasized that as an educator, her new position is a form of professional service.

“In my Nicholls employment, part of my duty in a tenure track position is professional service. So even though I am a part of this organization, my work is important in contributing to the academic institution at large,” Butterfield said.