Senior gift installed in Elaine Langone Center

By Mike McPhee

Managing Editor

The class gift from this year’s outgoing seniors won’t be formally unveiled until a traditional champagne toast in April, but it is already attracting attention from students who pass through the new student lounge in the Elaine Langone Center (ELC) .

The Senior Class Congress brainstormed gift ideas and found inspiration in their three favorite gifts from past classes: the Christy Mathewson Gates, the bison statue outside the Kenneth Langone Athletics and Recreation Center (KLARC), and the basketball mural on the wall just inside the entrance of Sojka Pavilion. These ideas are incorporated into the mosaic they designed and purchased as their gift.

“The concept for the design was focused around our class motto, ‘Live with Integrity. Empower through Knowledge. Lead with Courage.’ We felt the Christy Mathewson Gates and the bison signified this. We feel like we entered the gates of knowledge during our freshman year orientation, Christy Mathewson was a man with great integrity that all Bucknellians should aspire to, and no animal leads with greater courage than a bison,” senior class president Matt Hotard ’11 said.

Many students can be seen peering over the caution tape surrounding the new mosaic, which is located in the floor on the ground floor of the ELC.

“I really like what the University did with the space, giving the students an area to gather, and I am especially glad that my class has added its own mark on it to show some Bucknell pride,” Adam Selby ’11 said.

Other students have mixed feelings about the choice of gift.

“I think that it’s really interesting and it expresses some very encouraging themes in its design. However, I would be more inclined to choose something that gives back to the campus in a more physical way. While this particular gift adds beauty to the new student center, their choice could have better reflected a material need for the college,” Sean Fortney ’12 said.

Hotard would like to thank Gretchen Heuges, the director of the Craft Center, senior class adviser Dean Kari Conrad and the members of the Senior Class Congress for their help with the planning and implementation of the mosaic.