Category: Opinion

By Amanda Ayers

Opinions Editor

After reading Gabriella’s remarks regarding the healing of our nation now a decade after the events of Sept. 11, 2001, I cannot help but respectfully disagree with some of the points she raises.

First, Gabriella talks of the Bush administration’s focus on revenge and how this motivated and justified U.S. intervention in the Middle East. The act of revenge can be defined as “avenging (oneself) by retaliating in kind or degree; Inflicting injury in return for.” U.S. involvement in the Middle East was not simply for the purpose of “getting back at” Muslim extremists. President Bush’s intent was not to give the Middle East a dose of its own medicine just because we could or to first and foremost heal the American people. Rather, the aim was to ensure the future domestic security of our nation from extremists (never implying all Muslims) that espouse  beliefs that are fundamentally in opposition to the United States and the American way of life. I agree with Gabriella’s observation that revenge is cyclical; however, in this case, I do not think that the United States was acting out of revenge. Intervention in the Middle East had a purpose far greater than getting “rid of a bad guy … and his terrorist group.”

When Gabriella spoke of the night when the “hoards of the most patriotic Americans took to the streets in celebration of Osama’s death,” I could not help but smile and vividly recall partaking in those events myself. The merriment for me, however, came not from a sense of finally “getting what we wanted,” but rather from knowing that we as a nation had taken a step forward in combating everything anti-American that Osama bin Ladin stood for. This was exactly the kind of forward movement that, as Gabriella observed, is necessary for a nation to heal from a collective trauma like the Sept. 11 attacks. Yes, we only killed one man, but he was symbolic of something larger than just himself.

While it would be ignorant of me to suggest that the nation is completely healed from the atrocities that occurred a decade ago, as evidenced by the polemic surrounding the building of the Mosque near Ground Zero, I think that this healing is absolutely possible in the future. What our nation needs is more time. To use Gabriella’s reference to the Christian Crusades, the majority of the population is probably not upset about those simply because they occurred centuries ago. It has nothing to do with the fact that they were carried out by Christians. While I don’t think that it’s necessarily “moral” to associate all Muslims with the extremists that carried out the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, I can sympathize with those who are sensitive to the building of a mosque in such close proximity to Ground Zero.  I don’t think that these people are plagued by “Islamophobia”–they can perfectly well distinguish between an average Islam-practicing American citizen and a fanatic terrorist. The Sept. 11 attacks occurred 10 years ago, which is a relatively small amount of time. The problem is that the terrorists were so overtly and radically Islam that people still, having only had 10 years, automatically associate the beliefs of loyal Islam-practicing American citizens with those of  the far-out terrorists. It’s not that they are being immoral, but rather need more time before they can subconsciously discern between the two. In bringing up this point, I am neither praising nor admonishing their way of thinking; rather, I am saying that it is for this reason that I can understand why they are uncomfortable with the idea of the Mosque.  I do think there will come a day when this will no longer be a reality, made possible by events that move us forward like Osama bin Ladin’s death did. We still need more time, but we’ll get there.

By Gabriella Fleming-Shemer

Contributing Writer

By Jen Lassen

Contributing Writer

Mongo Bongo, an ice cream station with the works and pizza every day … oh my! I came to campus only a few weeks ago and being dazzled by the array of dining options in Bostwick Marketplace. I tried to keep my mouth from watering as I walked past the fried food station, the racks of pizza, the display of decadent desserts and the ever-so-popular stir fry area. My favorite treats all in one place? I thought nothing could be better. But then two words popped right into my head: “freshman 15.” More than any other combination of words out there, these were the ones I feared most. I knew I did not want this to happen to me. With the huge variety of dining choices available at the University, some may wonder if it is possible to stay healthy on campus.  The University makes this absolutely feasible. Maintaining a healthy lifestyle at college simply depends on personal determination to do so.

I wondered how I’d keep those pounds off with so many tasty food options in Bostwick Marketplace, coupled with my unlimited food plan. I quickly realized that avoiding the less healthy dining options on campus did not pose as big of a problem as I thought it would. I have befriended the egg bar, where egg white omelets have become my staple. The dining hall does a great job of making fresh fruits and vegetables available for students. Many of the entrées are also very healthy; dishes like grilled chicken, tofu and salads are actually just as common in the dining hall as some of the unhealthier foods.

Yet aside from unhealthy food, something else commonly seems to pose a problem to bypassing the “freshman 15”: alcohol weight. Many students come to college excited to go out each weekend and drink, but they never seem to remember the effects alcohol can have on their weight. Luckily, the University sponsors many fun non-alcoholic social activities for students. Dances, performers and game nights are hosted in Uptown and the Seventh Street Café, giving students an alternative to “drinking on the pounds.”

Along with the availability of healthy food and non-alcoholic activities, the access students have to a gym on campus is a great way to stay healthy. Fun workout classes are offered at the gym at convenient times throughout the day. There is everything from kickboxing to power yoga, and I have found these classes to be a great way to stay in shape and socialize.

It is one thing to treat yourself to a huge brownie sundae every once in a while, but it’s another to eat one after every meal. Choosing healthy food, not drinking excessively and going to the gym regularly will keep excess weight off and will make you feel great both inside and out. The University does a good job of making all of these things possible for its students. And let’s be honest: walking around this campus will certainly keep your calves in shape as well.

By Tom Zhu

Contributing Writer

I had the most amazing summer of my life working at Bank of America Merrill Lynch for the past three months. I not only gained financial service knowledge from the training program and daily work with financial advisors, but also made a lot of new friends, learned culture and discipline and, most importantly, realized how much my knowledge from one year of study at the University could be applied to Wall Street.

Our first task as interns during the Merrill Lynch training session was to learn professional etiquette. Every day was like an interview day: always presenting a neat, well-groomed and professional appearance at work, staying positive and having strong character and being conscious of one’s body language. I worked at the World Financial Center, the flagship office, which has the highest net-worth clients coming to visit every day. For this reason everyone, including interns, was required to make a positive impression on clients. According to my manager, Merrill Lynch has “the classiest culture on the Street.” Thanks to the Career Development Center (CDC) at the University, I was able to learn a lot about professional etiquette before the start of my internship. The CDC was a great resource for me to prepare for writing cover letters and resumes, and especially to develop my interview skills.

Besides learning professional manners, I discovered how my coursework at the University could help me in my daily work. For example, I was assigned a specific demographic segment (“baby boomers”) to thoroughly research during the summer with my team. I led a team of eight people to create a 15-minute presentation that was presented to over 150 financial advisors and interns, as well as the Office Management Team. This specific project provided practical experience related to a theoretical concept from my statistics class at the University. Professor Donner’s class taught me how to analyze data to study real life cases. I worked with my team to plan the project, including interviews, case studies and further research through secondary resources from Bank of America Research Library, newspapers and Bloomberg Terminal. Eventually, we used data, graphs and even sample cases to present our research on baby boomers’ values, concerns and characteristics related to industry, age and gender. The office manager praised our team after the presentation, saying that our statistical analysis particularly impressed him.

The most challenging part was learning to digest new knowledge every day. Because Merrill Lynch is a one-stop shop, I had the opportunity to access various investment products. Since we usually built our clients’ proposal by their own preferences, I researched mutual funds, private equity funds, hedge funds, stocks, bonds, exchange-traded funds, municipal bonds and other tools as potential investment opportunities. The first step was to learn those investment tools. The most challenging part of my work was to apply them in order to enhance clients’ portfolios through risk reduction, asset allocation and investment diversification. Fortunately, my supervisor took time out of her busy schedule to teach me how to use them. I learned that the key to learning is to ask. I wouldn’t just ask any questions, but rather would ask questions after searching for answers first myself.

While academic training aided me in the internship, the experience I had at Merrill Lynch this summer is also directing my future academic choices. Because of reading and analyzing data from clients’ balance sheets, income statements and statements of cash flow, I have realized the importance of accounting. I am going to take the advanced accounting course in my sophomore year.

My 10 weeks at Merrill Lynch initiated a new level for my college study as well as my career path. It was a summer without beach trips and vacations, but was the most productive summer of my life, and the University prepared me for it.

(Tom Zhu is currently the Liaison of Bucknell Finance Network (BFN). Please feel free to reach out to him if you have any questions about BFN or his internship at Merrill Lynch.)

By Gabriella Fleming-Shemer

Contributing Writer

This past week I went through two rounds of rush before confirming the idea that sorority life isn’t for me. I don’t want to insult any members or potential new members of sororities on campus because rushing gave me the opportunity to hear about all the positive results of joining, such as giving more to the community and supporting other girls’ school activities. Nevertheless, what was revealed to me during the process was more than my lack of enthusiasm toward crafting. It was that Greek life is a university’s religion. During those long hours spent sweating in the staircases, I thought about the plethora of similarities between these two institutions. Joseph Campbell said that humans need beliefs and stories, such as that of Christ or Hercules, in order to tie together humanity and give us examples of how to live. I believe that Greek life is a set of stories to live by that is both a social and psychological fulfillment.

Consider the rituals, such as the initiation ceremony and Big/Little gifts. Consider the beliefs of each sorority or fraternity that set them apart from the others. Consider the specific guidelines, morals and practices. Consider the conformity necessary to truly belong to the group. This kind of institution provides people with their need to belong to something greater. Both solidify our existence and our place in the world by belonging to a higher power. By becoming part of a symbol and partaking in those rituals, your individualism is put on hold for the sake of group identity.

With that established, I have to say that as well as most religions, I find this institution problematic. While I support the community service initiatives and social connections, I think the system as a whole is founded on false pretenses. All students rushing receive the Panhellenic Recruitment book with the subtitle “empowering women from college onward.” As I stood in the staircase shoulder-to-shoulder with hundreds of heavily eye-lined girls, all compulsively flattening their hair and searching for any type of reflective surface in which to examine their reddening faces, I wondered where the empowerment part came in. Personally I felt like a pretty crappy feminist. Here I was on a Saturday afternoon sporting short shorts and red lipstick, repeating the same answers to each girl’s identical questions, (I row, I’m from Texas, I’m utterly undecided about my major, I’ve traveled a lot), all in the hopes of fitting into a certain group’s standards. Where are our own standards? While we are supposed to “be ourselves,” we are also supposed to be immediately engaging, physically attractive, confident, etc.

In a place such as college where people grow to accept and appreciate diversity, Greek life encourages conformity and the juvenile desire to always fit in. But perhaps this is important, even crucial, because isn’t college just a microcosm of the real world, and shouldn’t we throw on our pearls and get used to the female competition that dominates our patriarchal society? Maybe the problem actually lies in people like me, the sassy and cynical who are perturbed by the NorthFace trend and have a deep rooted fear of mass ideology.

By Amanda Ayers

Opinions Editor

On a whim this past spring, I submitted an application to live on the “Athena” residence hall. Created by the lovely Liz Yale ’12, this living space was set aside exclusively for young women wanting to discover and engage the rest of the University about the role of women on campus. While we have only formally met as a hall on one occasion thus far, the benefits of living on a themed upperclassman hall are already evident. I think that it would behoove the university to continue supporting the creation of themed housing for upperclassmen as it could impact residential life for many students in a very positive way.

I know many upperclassmen that have attested to the fact that they unfortunately never took the time to get to know who they are living with. As upperclassmen, we are in a very different position living in a dorm than first-year students. While first-years are looking to keep their doors open and get acquainted with people on their halls, upperclassmen have already established relationships on campus. They have found their groups of friends already and often see no reason to branch out and make an effort to converse with their neighbors. A themed hall could be an excellent remedy to this trap. Organizing upperclassmen dormitories in this manner encourages students with common values and interests to live in close proximity to one another. This is an excellent incentive for them to make the extra effort to get to know who they are living with.

A second reason why themed halls are excellent is because the entire campus is a beneficiary, not just the people living there. I am looking forward to the programs that “Athena” is brainstorming that aim to engage the entire student body. Better events and activities will happen on campus if students with similar passions are given more resources to connect. This is exactly what the university is encouraging by supporting themed housing for upperclassmen.

By Ashley Miller

Contributing Writer

The “green” movement has been big on campus during the last few years. This year, the University has a new plan to make the campus even more eco-friendly.

Upperclassmen will remember that last year, Bostwick Marketplace provided trays for student use every day except “Trayless Tuesdays,” when trays were only available upon request. This was meant to conserve water and contribute to the University’s green initiative. But even if students did not use trays during their meal, they still had to use one to put their dirty dishes on the belt back to the kitchen to be cleaned. As a result, a lot of water was wasted to clean trays that were scarcely used.

This year, Bostwick Marketplace has gone completely trayless. It is estimated that this will save five tons of post-consumer waste in addition to gallons of water and soap. The new trayless belt will make meals much easier to clean up. Upperclassmen surely remember the huge lines that would accumulate at the dish drop-off area. I remember how much of a hassle it used to be to bring cups and plates back to the station and get them on a tray. There were more than a few dropped dishes. I believe that the cafeteria going trayless is both environmentally savvy and easier for students. Of course, for those who do prefer trays, some will still be available upon request.

Another green initiative is the Flex Your Power competition. This is the second year that the competition will take place. Each residence hall will be asked to cut back on as much power as they can, which can be achieved by simply turning off lights during the day, unplugging a phone charger, or keeping the air conditioner on the lowest setting. All of these are easy to do and help the environment. Whichever hall cuts back on the most power during the competition will win a prize for its common room. Last year, Kress Hall won a flat-screen TV. This year, the competition will take place from Sept. 15 to Oct. 21. Where is the harm in trying to see how much power you can save? You might just win a TV.

Some other small things have been put in place to help this movement. On the back of my dorm door, there’s a flyer that reminds me what to switch off or turn down the lights or air conditioning before I leave to conserve energy. In some bathrooms, there are fliers that remind students of how much water can be saved by cutting back shower time by just a few minutes. The University’s showers use two gallons a minute, so if you cut back by even two minutes you can save four gallons of water. Not so hard, right?

If everyone pitches in, not only during the Flex Your Power competition but throughout the year, we can save even more energy this year than last year. It’s worth making a few sacrifices to help the planet.

By Jen Lassen

Contributing Writer

My arrival to the University on Aug. 19 can be described by many words but summed up in one: excitement. This word describes exactly how I felt on the first, second, third, fourth and fifth days of the wonderful New Student Orientation Program experienced by all first-year students.

Many of my classmates that I connected with during Orientation were as enthusiastic about the program as I was, if not more. How could you not be in love with the ever-vibrant spirit of the OAs and OLs, the complete insanity and messiness of Color Games, the variety of activities from Line Dancing to Midnight Breakfast, and the powerful wave of school spirit displayed at ‘Ray for the Orange and Blue? All activities created such pride, unity and, of course,  excitement to be a part of the University community.

Orientation allowed our class to get to know each other in the silliest, but best, ways possible. During Playfair, our entire class bonded — literally — by all holding hands and running through the football stadium as one great big “Bucknell bundle.” At Color Games we participated in relay races and competitions against one another, exposing us to people from halls other than just our own. These activities made us all step outside our comfort zones at different times and in different ways, yet in the end allowed us to be ourselves and meet people we might click with.

Some first-years may argue that such activities were awkward because they were participating with complete and total strangers. We had to do various things, like re-enact Flavor Flav, with random people who had no idea who we were. Arguably, some of the things we were asked to do probably did not make for the best first impressions.

Thinking about all of this can certainly make anyone feel uncomfortable, but Orientation to me really became what I made of it. I decided that goofing off was acceptable and many of the people around me decided to follow suit. When people started opening up, the true connections were made and, for the most part, I felt that a large majority decided to let go and be goofy at least once during Orientation. The spirit of the program eventually rubbed off on all of us.

I will never forget my Orientation experience and feel that I got acquainted to college in the best way possible. Orientation may be just a memory to us now, but we all should value the ridiculously fun five days we shared together and the excitement we felt for the Orange and the Blue that will hopefully never fade.