Month: February 2012

Elizabeth Bacharach

Opinons Editor

Never once in my life have I considered myself a minority. As I grew up in a predominantly Jewish community I felt one of many, attending multiple bar and bat mitzvahs and High Holy Day services with friends, and found Shabbas dinners to be social events rather than traditional celebrations. But upon arriving on campus, my feelings of majority were quickly flipped upside down to minority.

I come from a strong Jewish family propelled by a profound cultural honor and tie. My grandparents, Nazi Germany escapees, pride themselves on their religion and support their grandchildren in anything we pursue. As the first grandchild to not attend a dominantly Jewish school, I was questioned about the acceptance and understanding of Judiasm at what is known as a conservative university with a large percentage of Christian students. Within my first weeks on campus, I sent my grandparents a picture of the library and immediately received a response saying, “Is that the chapel?!” As an adamant lover of our school, even from the start, I rebuked my elders’ question with a solid “NO!” How could they be so ignorant to think I would choose a school that neglects diversity and acceptance?

The reality, though, is that I do attend a school that has quite some difficulty with such acceptance. As I spend more and more time on campus, I begin to notice more of the diversity discrepancies we have here on campus. One day at lunch I was asked—for the first time in my life—what it was like to be a Jew. The question was far from rude, yet far from politically correct. I appreciated my peer’s inquiry, but at the same time I did not appreciate the fact that my differences were highlighted. This situation was not the first, nor will it be the last, of such that I will experience here at school.

The problem we face is not the issue of acceptance but rather the issue of understanding. Despite our reputation as a prestigious liberal arts university, we fall deeply from such title in consideration of diversity. I received an astonishing email from Nina Banks this past week that informed recipients that the average number of black students who are U.S. citizens and have attended the University in the last five years is only 28 per entering class (forming just three percent of the student body). Now, I cannot stand here and preach about the lack of diversity on the African-American front, but I can tell you as a religious minority, I do recognize the lack of variety we have on campus.

This issue would not be such a problem if lines were not formed between a variety of students, as in the case of my lunch situation. Bright barriers were created just due to my religion, one of a minority. I truly believe that our university needs to amp up its game and be more welcoming and accepting of varied applicants because the truth is, the “Bucknell Bubble” we have formed is not the real world, situational and based on population. I do admit, however, that I have faith that our university is trying to diversify … but maybe a little push and shove like such an article can only improve our barren diversity situations.

Being a minority on campus has not, and will not, change my love for our school or my Jewish pride. But it will make me less open about my religious stance due to fear of questioning and possible lack of acceptance.

Vince Fasanello

Contributing Writer

With all of the discussion on “campus climate” and changes in the Greek system that have been going on over the past few months, I thought I would take the opportunity to give a guy’s perspective on the social scene in Greek life. Because the fraternities have on-campus houses and the sororities do not, this creates a social dynamic which places a lot of unsought pressure on the guys. Because we have the houses, we’re the only ones who have the parties. We pay for the parties, we put in a lot of preparation effort and, looking at this from a legal perspective and our standing with the University, we are ultimately responsible for the well-being of the people who attend. The girls roll in, drink our beer and then leave. We’re left with a demolished house bearing all of the costs. Look at our social dues–-while we pay roughly $150 a semester, the typical sorority pays about $10-15, solely for a date party here and there and formals. To my knowledge, $150 is relatively cheap compared to some of the other fraternities on campus. Another negative side effect is that I could see how the University would naturally associate fraternities, more so than sororities, as solely “partying” organizations.

I think a more ideal social scene would be one in which sororities could host some of the parties. I realize that “officially” this would be impossible because they do not have houses on campus. Downtown parties aren’t technically registered with the University  (as “registers” are) and hosted by the fraternity; rather, the residents of the house technically host them. Sororities could therefore easily host parties downtown (obviously not to the same extent as a register, but nevertheless a successful mixer at the least). Unfortunately, we all have set an irreversible precedent of women relying on men to host the parties. We are constantly in a position of having to prepare for parties and “please” sorority women so that they will want to come and attend more of our events in the future. This is a lot of pressure.

With the current situation, and with ongoing talks about “changing the campus climate for the better” and empowering women so that they don’t feel objectified by men, I feel it’s necessary to rethink the current social scene because it exacerbates these problems. With women only relying on fraternities to host social events, they are, in essence, being subjected to “follow the leader.” Instead, we should find a solution that enables both fraternities and sororities to equally share the burden. Dividing the costs and pressure will make for a better social scene for everyone and could solve some of the ongoing problems concerning Greek life.