The Bucknellian

Christina Oddo

The annual Bison Bruiser, an urban obstacle race, took place on April 14 at 10 a.m. It was hosted by the Outdoor Education and Leadership and sponsored by BuckWild, the Bucknell Outing Club and CLIMBucknell. The event took place across campus as well as downtown.

The Bison Bruiser is a relay adventure race where participants jump, bike, paddle and run throughout campus and town to find clues that eventually lead the groups to a celebration. Food and beverages were served in the Smith parking lot throughout race day.

“I was on the committee that helped organize the event along with at least 10 other Outing Club members,” Rebekah Hupp ’13 said. “It was a lot of work to prepare for, but the event was definitely a success. We had a good turnout for the event, especially on a busy Bucknell weekend. Every group that came to my station seemed enthusiastic and happy to be participating.”

Registration began March 25, and people were able to sign up in groups of four or five. The event was also free and t-shirts were available for purchase.

“It was great to see Bucknell students getting outside and running around campus,” Hupp said. “I had multiple people text me saying that they saw people running around and that it looked like fun. Thanks to everyone that participated! A special thanks should go to Liz Semeraro ’16, Monica Herzog ’13 and Tony Stafford (Director of Outdoor Education) for the hours that they put into organizing the event. Also, for all of our volunteers on race day. They made the day work!”

Jackson McCarron

Contributing Writer

Parents of a University student are facing misdemeanor charges for supplying and consuming alcohol with underage students in February.
The story was first published on the front page of the Sunday edition of The Daily Item, a local paper serving Lewisburg and the surrounding area.
According to a police affidavit, Michael R. Ruff and his wife, Victoria B. Ruff, purchased and consumed hard alcohol with their daughter and her friends on Feb. 2 at a party thrown in their daughter’s dorm room.
The situation was brought to the attention of a University employee, who wished to remain anonymous, when a Residential Advisor (RA) sent an email expressing concern about the safety of the students living on her hall.
In the email, which was reported in a criminal complaint filed by police at the Union County Magistrate’s office, the RA stated that according to the residents she spoke with, the Ruffs had purchased between seven and nine handles of alcohol.
The RA expressed her surprise at seeing Michael Ruff on the hall that night when students were drinking. She stated in the email that one of her residents witnessed him pressuring underage students to drink. According to the email, Ruff commented on one female student’s belly-shirt, saying that it made her look “more like a slut.”
The email sent to the University employee ended with the RA’s assertion that the Ruffs exhibited a shocking lack of concern for the underage residents’ safety, and she feared a similar situation might occur if the Ruff’s were to return for House Party Weekend.
Several photos uploaded to Victoria Ruff’s Facebook page, cited as evidence in court documents, place the Ruffs in a downhill residential hall and in the presence of opened handles of alcohol with minors present.
Victoria Ruff commented on one such photo of herself, her daughter and 14 other girls, which has since been removed, saying, “ … It was fun reliving my college dorm days with my girls.”
Another photo, included as evidence in court documents, depicting Victoria Ruff and six of her daughter’s friends, was captioned, “Reliving my college days with my daughter and her friends at Bucknell! Lucky to be included in the ‘pre-gaming.’ Maybe next time I’ll make it to the frat party.”
One of the underage female students present at the party was later admitted to the hospital, according to the police affidavit. The student told police in an interview conducted on Feb. 5 that Michael Ruff was pouring shots for other women in his daughter’s room and poured at least one of her shots that evening. The student recalled that she took eight or nine shots total that night.
Between Feb. 5 and 6, police conducted a series of interviews with four female students involved in the incident, including the Ruff’s daughter. All of the women placed the Ruffs in their daughter’s room on the night of Feb. 2.
All of the women recall the Ruffs being present in their daughter’s room sometime between 9 p.m. and 10 p.m. on the night of Feb. 2, and all of the women were aware that the liquor and wine in the dorm room had been supplied by Michael and Victoria Ruff.
Richard C. Roxin, the lawyer for Lisa’s Liquor Barn near the Ruff’s New York home, sent Detective Jeff Ettinger a receipt from the store that showed seven purchases of alcoholic beverages. The MasterCard used to purchase the beverages was the same one Michael Ruff used to pay for his and his wife’s room at the Country Inn and Suites, the police reported.

Information security

Brianna Marshall

Contributing Writer

The average University student spends countless hours every day on a computer, whether in class, the library or around campus. Everyone can relate to attempting to do homework, only to abandon productivity for shameless Facebooking. But how often do University students consider who insures the ability to safely access the Internet and its many sources of procrastination? Technology extends beyond required password changes and Tech Desk visits to the important issue of information security.

Information security involves preventing unauthorized individuals from accessing private information and harming technological networks. In the case of the University, this would mean defending the Bucknell Network from people unassociated with the University, as well as from potential threats such as viruses. Although relatively unpublicized among the student body, the University takes these possible threats seriously and upholds strong information security standards.

“Information security is a critical part of every Bucknellian’s electronic life,” Eric Smith, the University’s chief information security officer (CISO), said. “Think for a moment about how many systems, either on the Bucknell Network or out on the Internet, hold data or provide services which are critical to your ability to complete your academic work, keep in touch with friends or check your bank account. What would happen if you were to lose access to these resources? How would you be affected if key information, such as a private Facebook chat or your social security number, were to become public? The results could be disastrous. The CISO role was established in order to develop systems, policies and procedures to insure that your digital Bucknell identity remains safe and secure.”

Smith is not only in charge of information security at the University but has recently accepted a joint appointment position with Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster, Pa. and Susquehanna University in Selinsgrove, Pa. This position allows for collaboration among the three institutions and provides an opportunity for greater knowledge and understanding about the importance of information security. The exchange of effective practices and strategies for maintaining safe technology has the potential to positively impact many individuals, including the University community.

The next time you Skype with your best friends during their semester abroad or pull an all-nighter writing that never ending research paper, consider the importance of information security and those who work to maintain the University’s technological protection.

Jonathan Bloom

Kerong Kelly

Writer

Throughout the week of April 8, Jonathan Bloom, journalist and author of “American Wasteland: How America Throws Away Nearly Half its Food (and What We Can Do About It),” organized and hosted several events on campus regarding food waste awareness and prevention.

Bloom’s most recent visit to the University was the third out of his four, week-long visits that are geared towards creating a campus-wide discussion about food waste. He is the O.V.W. Hawkins Expert-in-Residence, part of a lectureship series that was first established by the University’s Board of Trustees and funded by Hawkins, a former trustee. The lecturer’s focus is in the fields of public policy, politics and government.

Bloom’s visits are part of the University’s year long initiative on reducing food waste, eating locally and serving the needy, titled, “Feeding Our Hearts, Expanding Our Vision.” This initiative was the University’s response to the White House’s Interfaith and Community Service Campus Challenge, directed at colleges and universities to bring people together who are both religiously affiliated and who are not, in an effort to work on projects that will benefit the common good. After extensive research, Bloom estimated that nationally 25 percent of the food that is brought into the home is eventually wasted.

Bloom first started visiting college campuses about three years ago. He wanted to spread the word about the impact of food waste to the upcoming generation in order to promote awareness and possibly influence public policy.

“This generation has a disadvantage of growing up not knowing how to cook for the most part,” Bloom said. “The idea of wasting food is not seen as a problem or an issue. I’m trying to raise awareness on how much we do waste and to get people to see it as a problem, ethically and environmentally, and then to try to hopefully impact their behavior.”

Prior to writing his most recent book, Bloom contributed to publications such as the New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Boston Globe and Newsweek, to name a few.

Bloom, both in his book and in his lectures, emphasized the importance of eating locally. Bloom refers to the idea that locally grown food cuts down on the cost of transportation as well as the amount of food that is wasted throughout the distribution journey. Food purchased from farmers markets, though it may not have what Bloom calls the “supermarket model,” a reference to the perfect façade of supermarket food, is not thrown out simply because it is misshapen or discolored.

“Eating locally teaches you that taste is more important than appearance,” Bloom said.

In addition to lecturing in several classes from different areas of study, including The Ethics of Consumption, taught by Professor of Religion Maria Antonaccio, and Urban Economics, taught by Professor of Religion Carol White, Bloom organized a Zero Waste Dinner on April 10. The ultimate goal of this meal was to produce minimal to no waste. The dinner included student participation throughout all the stages–the shopping, the preparation and the cleaning. In addition to striving for no waste, Bloom also wanted to raise awareness about the importance of locally grown food. To do so, a group of students purchased food from the local Lewisburg Farmers’ Market.

A few students cancelled at the last minute, resulting in the donation of extra food to the local soup kitchen, Community Harvest, a hot meal program that offers food to the people of Milton and surrounding communities. A total of 12 students attended and aided in the preparation of the dinner.

In addition to the Zero Waste Dinner, Bloom facilitated the second food waste weigh-in of the 2012-2013 school year. Both weigh-ins were held between 11:30 am and 1:30 pm in the Bostwick Marketplace. According to Bloom there was a 33 percent reduction in food waste between the first weigh-in in October and the second weigh-in in April. In October 2012, 1,017 people ate lunch, creating 93 pounds of food waste or approximately 1.5 ounces per student. In April 2013, 917 people ate lunch, creating 55 pounds of food waste or 1 ounce per student.

“The food waste weighing served as a constant reminder of the careless amounts of food we throw away. It truly encouraged me to think about the staggering amounts of people who would do anything to have the food that we just waste,” Brandon Holden ’16 said.

Over the past few years, the University’s dining services have worked on initiatives to reduce the amount of food waste. In 2009, the tray-less initiative was launched in hopes of minimizing waste. Recently, students and members of dining services have worked together to put signage in Bostwick Marketplace in order to provide additional information about the University’s progress on food waste. According to John Cummins, general manager of resident dining for Parkhurst Dining Services, 37 percent of the food in Bostwick Marketplace comes from local sources.

“I think that the staff and myself have always been very focused on waste as it correlates to supplying different types of food to people and being conscious of what the volumes are,” Cummins said. “We really enjoyed working with Jonathan. I feel like he became a friend of ours during this time. I think he’s had an effect on the institution and on what we serve.”