Month: October 2010

By Christina Oddo

Writer

Sexual assault is the current priority of the recently formed campus climate task force, President John Bravman said at a University open forum on Tuesday in the Elaine Langone Center Forum. The forum was sponsored by the President’s Office, the Committee on Complementary Activities and the Women’s Resource Center.

Bravman reacted to the “shocking events” that occurred over the “first few weeks of term.”

“It is a matter of addressing a very real problem,” Bravman said. According to Bravman, asking the task force to take on the subject of sexual assault is, in fact, asking them to take on a very difficult topic.

George Shields, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences and co-chair of the task force said the goal of the task force is to “assess data to document the climate.” The task force is in its “beginning stages,” he said.

Tracy Shaynak, director of the Women’s Resource Center, said that the Transition to College course required for first-year students has incorporated a sexual assault unit into its curriculum for the past five years. The course promotes the awareness of resources and encourages ideas regarding consent, dialogue and prevention, according to Shaynak.

The idea of a continuing dialogue is ideal according to Shaynak and the majority of the Forum participants and attendants. Walks and marches held around campus throughout the year are part of the attempt to continue this open dialogue. Shaynak said that the participation and enhancement of a continuing conversation as well as preventative efforts are critical in order “to make Bucknell as safe as possible for everyone.”

Shaynak also said that the campus community must create opportunities for students to communicate with other students, reiterating the idea that a “continuing dialogue” is essential.

Participants in the forum said that University students and faculty members will soon be able to access the Public Safety crime log through myBucknell. In accordance with the Clery Act,  or the Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act, crimes like murder, non-negligent manslaughter, aggravated assault, robbery, forcible sex offenses, forcible rape, forcible sodomy or sexual assault with an object and burglary must be logged, disclosed and made public by the University.

Participants said that many sexual assaults do not appear in the crime logs located in The Bucknellian in order to protect the rights of the victims. If the assailant is unknown, the entire campus community is notified via e-mail. If the event or situation is not an ongoing risk to the community there is no need for notification.

The task force acknowledged that sexual assault was only one piece of a big puzzle involving the general campus climate.

According to Shaynak, we have come a long way, especially in the University’s relationship with the hospital and with the district attorneys.

Students interested in learning more about the task force and its goals can attend an Empowered Peer Education Interest meeting on Tuesday, Nov. 16 at 5 p.m. in Langone Center 217.

By Olivia Seecof

Writer

Faculty, staff, current students and alumni enjoyed an afternoon of academic socializing at the Homecoming Academic Village last Saturday.

This large event started four years ago in order to bring an academic element to Homecoming festivities.

“[The event] is gaining in familiarity among the Bucknell community. Having it outside is great because the environment looks more inviting and exciting,” said Jenna Tesauro, program director of academic interests.

Several tents representing different University majors and departments filled both the Academic and the Engineering Quads. There was a tent for faculty, staff, students and alumni to register for the annual tailgate luncheon and to receive food and beverage tickets. The “Little Bison Zone” provided a recreational space for children of alumni.

“It was cool to see so many people exploring and socializing in all of the tents.  It made me realize that even after we graduate from Bucknell, we still have a strong community here to support us,” Jennie Means ’14 said.

Most of the University’s academic departments were represented at the Academic Village, and were permitted to do whatever they chose with their tent. In years past, members of the College of Engineering put on miniature science and engineering experiments for some academic-related entertainment.

Between 500 and 800 people pass through the fair each year, according to Tesauro. Many explore the different departments and reunite with old acquaintances.

“The Academic Village provides a really good opportunity to catch up both with people from your major and with past professors,” Jessica Robinson ’06 said.

“I love [this event] because I get to see and talk to all of my students,” said Alison Patterson, pre-health professions advisor.

The event sought to inform alumni about current academics at the University while providing an environment in which the entire campus community can interact.

By Allie Mongan

Writer

The University’s College Sustainability Report Card grade has increased from a C- in 2008 to a B in 2011, according to greenreportcard.org.

For the past four years the College Sustainability Report Card has been given to colleges and universities that try to make their campus more environmentally sustainable and energy efficient.

“A low grade is meant to draw the administration’s attention to the fact that they could be doing more,” said Rebecca Caine, senior research fellow for the Sustainable Endowment Institute.

The College Sustainability Report Card is a free service and schools are involved voluntarily. There are seven foundations and numerous individual donors that provide the financial resources to create the Report Cards.

The grades are based on a 4.0 grading scale and there are 52 indicators in nine categories that are assessed yearly. The University’s received four A’s for Climate Change and Energy, Food and Recycling, Student Involvement, and Investment Priorities; two B’s for Administration and Transportation; two C’s for Endowment Priorities and Shareholder Agreement; and one D for Green Building.

Currently 322 schools participate in the College Sustainability Report Card, representing all 50 of the United States and eight of the Canadian provinces. Of these schools, seven have earned an A average and 53 have earned A- averages.

“We took school size, geographic setting, student body size, amount of building space and endowment size into account to weight certain questions,” Caine said.

Each school is assessed according to four web-based surveys, completed by campus administrators and students, and pertains to campus operations, dining services, endowment investment practices and student activities.

As the vice president of the Environmental Club, Ali Blumenstock ’11 completed a University student survey in July. The Environmental Club runs Taylor House, an environmentally themed residence on campus, works on sustainability projects and has a waste reduction initiative.

“Having Bucknell more conscious of their sustainability and being more aware of energy saving methods is important and is just another way our school is keeping up with the other leading environmentally sustainable schools,” Brenna O’Neill ’12 said.

According to greenreportcard.org, the University’s highest grades were due to successfully reducing greenhouse gas emissions 40 percent since 1998. The University aims to reduce them another 10 percent by 2015. The University also now spends 37 percent of the dining budget on local products and offer reusable take-out containers and mugs on dining places around campus. The reduced use of food trays and the installation of water-saving laundry machines and low-flow faucets and showerheads in some buildings has also reduced water usage.

The University shuttle system, new car-sharing program and Bison bikes have helped cut down traffic on campus, improving the transportation grade. The University also has a plan to increase the D grade in Green Building over the years to come by mandating all new major construction projects meet LEED building specifications.

LEED is a green building certification system that aims to make buildings more energy efficient and enhance energy performance. If the University is able to continue to improve sustainability and energy efficiency, it may find that this cuts cost without cutting campus services, as many other schools have discovered.

Full reports for all 322 schools are available on greenreportcard.org. When compared to five other schools in the Patriot League, the University trails only American University, which received a B+ in the 2011 Report Card. Lafayette, Colgate and Holy Cross all also received B’s.

By Megan Herrera

Assistant News Editor

Any problem can be solved through the use of drawing and pictures, a world-renowned author said on Tuesday.

Students, staff and the Lewisburg community filled the seats of the Leanne Freas Trout Auditorium to hear Dan Roam speak about his bestselling book, “The Back of the Napkin: Solving Problems and Selling Ideas with Pictures.”

Roam’s book was released in December 2009 and has won various awards, including Business Week and Fast Company’s best innovation book of the year, along with Amazon’s fifth best-selling business book. Roam’s book is now sold over the world in 25  languages. Leaders at eBay, Microsoft Office, Wal-Mart, Boeing, the U.S. Navy, the US Senate and more have already incorporated his ideas into their work.

The bestseller focuses on the idea of using simple pictures to solve the complex problems people face in their everyday lives. Roam said that in a person’s life, nothing is perfect. “Whatever our problems might be, I believe they can be solved by pictures,” he said.

The pictures he discussed are simple, consisting of a square, an arrow, a circle and various stick figures. According to Roam, everyone can and should use this method of solving problems through effortless drawings .

While many people have heard that humans only use 10 percent of their brain, Roam said that three fourths of a human’s sensory neurons in the brain are focused on vision. Even so, we use words to explain our solutions and solve them, instead of pictures.

“Whoever best describes the problem is the one most likely to solve it,” Roam said.

Who says a sketch on a napkin doesn’t have power? To Roam, a sketch has an enormous amount of power. Looking back at our presidents, he showed examples of George Washington preparing a map of his Mount Vernon estate, John F. Kennedy outlining a solution during the Cuban missile crisis and Ronald Reagan drawing random doodles during a cabinet meeting. Now, President Barack Obama, a great public speaker draws as well, and yet, he has never drawn out his vision. Roam asks, “Why not?”

The problem Roam sees within government is not the fact that people disagree with it, but rather, they don’t understand it. For example, the 1,447-page health care reform plan is full of words that make absolutely no sense to the human mind. Roam and a colleague decided to draw the plan in pictures.

These drawings became “The World’s Best Presentation of 2009,” and all of its content contained the simple drawings he advocates such as stick figures and arrows. After posting this online, the Huffington Post posted the same presentation on their website, FOX gave him seven minutes during prime time to digest on the power point and finally, the White House’s Office of Communications called on him to discuss his method. Two weeks ago, the White House published the White House White Board online that breaks down complicated problems into understandable terms.

Roam showed the audience exactly what he feels is the best way to solve any problem. He handed out napkins to every person and walked them through the process.

Before the speech, drawings by University students were shown as the crowd piled in. Roam explained that the students were challenged to draw a problem and create a solution using only simple drawings. Ryan Burg ’11 won an iPad for his depiction of his problem: a mouse in his room.

Carla Firetto, lecturer in educational psychology,  gave her students the option of attending this lecture. She said the chapter they are covering deals with the idea of solving problems visually so she saw this speaker would be the perfect opportunity for her students to see how successful one could be.

“He did a great job, I loved his examples and the student’s drawings that were presented at the beginning of the speech,” Firetto said.