Author: Courtney Flagg

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Editorial Opinion

Editorial: Occupy Lewisburg localizes important issues

For University seniors, the Occupy Wall Street movement could not be taking place at a more critical time. With the bleak job market and current state of the U.S. economy, leaving the University in May as graduates seems daunting.

Despite the importance of the Occupy Wall Street movement, the presence of midterm exams and mid-semester projects has led our attention as students away from current news and more toward the books. A majority of students on campus had little knowledge of the Occupy Wall Street protests prior to going home for Fall Break. Therefore, when we got back on campus last week, a lot of us had questions we wanted answered.

The Occupy Wall Street movement, originating in the financial district of New York City, started as a place for unhappy Americans to voice their frustrations over the lack of progress regarding social and economic inequality, corporate greed and the power of corporations, among other things. Since their start in mid September, the protests have grown exponentially, sprouting roots all over the country.

The University and the Lewisburg community are no exception. The campus and town populations have done a superb job of localizing an issue that is becoming more and more prominent. It is not longer something people can ignore and the fact that students are becoming involved is a real testament to the University, and also what we as students are learning and who we are becoming. We are no longer ignoring the bad state of our economy and job market.

We are popping the “Bucknell Bubble.” We need to take these issues into our own hands in order to make a change. Now, more than ever, our voices need to be heard. How can we be the future of our country without voicing our concerns? The University is taking a step in the right direction.

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Editorial Opinion

Letter to the Editor: STD vaccines only necessary due to immorality

To the Editor:

Your front-page article on the vaccine for four of the 40 strains of the Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) didn’t include the historical perspective. As a baby boomer, I was born in 1951. The HPV virus was not epidemic then as it is now. Actually, two vaccines are being recommended now that were not offered then; the Gardasil vaccine for HPV and the vaccine for the Hepatitis B virus.

The sexual revolution of the 1960s and 1970s led to the spread of more than 50 sexually transmitted diseases. Hepatitis B became widespread and needed a vaccine primarily because of the practices of the homosexual community. HPV is now a problem because of heterosexual activity.

As Dr. Robert Cantrell of the University of Virginia Medical School has stated, “the Bible is the Owner’s Manual for human life.” When we follow God’s guidelines of sexual relations only in the lifelong commitment of a man and a woman in marriage we not only avoid almost all sexually transmitted diseases, we also avoid the emotional and spiritual toll that ignoring God’s guidance brings.

If we continue in the direction we are going with increasingly immoral practices being accepted and promoted, who knows how many vaccines we will have to develop to protect us from the consequences of rebellion against God? Jesus offers to forgive our sins and to give a new direction and purpose in life to those who have already listened to the corrupt values of our day but want to change. Supposedly intelligent people look for a variety of means of ‘protection’ from the consequences of their actions rather than the obvious answer–do what’s right in the first place.

Sincerely yours,
Rev. Glen Bayly
Mifflinburg Alliance Church
80 Church Road
Mifflinburg, PA 17844

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Letters to the Editor Opinion

Letter to the Editor: Soccer article depicted team too negatively

To the Editor:

I am a senior on the men’s soccer team.  I just finished reading your article in The Bucknellian this week (Oct. 7) regarding our recent games against American and UMBC, and wanted to take the time to thank you for what is an unmistakably poor account written by someone who ostensibly has no competent background or understanding of the game of soccer at all.  Let me expand on this in several ways.In light of what is written below, if I have misread the tone of your article, or have made accusations that are inaccurate or inappropriate … I apologize.  I am merely expressing my disappointment in your account, while keeping in mind my own expectations for a journalist writing about his own school’s soccer team.The men’s soccer team has won two consecutive Patriot League Championships, broken several records in the past two years, and continues to demonstrate a capability of playing with the top teams in the country (See 2011 games against #10 Notre Dame, #6 Indiana, and #25 Monmouth, if you find this hard to believe).  We recently shutout a UMBC  team that advanced to the second round of NCAAs last year, and has one of the top attacking duos in the country (their roster is online …#9 and #10, if you are curious) … your coverage of the UMBC game went no further than mentioning that we have been “unable to break [our] winless streak”.Our recent losses in the Patriot League have come against two very good teams … both of which happened to be losses in my sophomore year when the team went 17-6 (a program record), won the Patriot League Regular Season Championship, and the tournament, and advanced to the second round of the NCAA Championships … I may be wrong, but I believe that this is further than any other athletic team at the University in recent years.My problem with your article is grounded primarily on the fact that it appears as though it is written by a journalist from another school.  You apparently saw no problem in using phrases such as “the struggles continue” and “men’s soccer was unable to break its winless streak” (it’s a two-game losing streak for God’s sake … with a tie against one of the top offenses in the country).  What bothered me even more is the tone you use in actually complimenting the American team in last Saturday’s game.  I quote: “American answered with a goal by Seth Goldman after a beautiful pass from Cristobal Soto.”

As I write this, I’m still confused as to whether you are a writer for The Bucknellian or the American University school newspaper.

In an article about your own school’s soccer team, you managed to include the names of four American players … and four Bucknell players … a ratio which I hardly deem appropriate or fitting for a journalist covering his own school’s athletic endeavors.

In the future, I want to ask you to please consider the implications of writing an article in which you (perhaps indirectly) castigate your own school’s soccer team after two heartbreaking losses.  I want you to try to understand that, when students and faculty read The Bucknellian, an article like yours isn’t very conducive to bringing fans to games or encouraging support for the athletes.

Thank you for your time, and the attention/commitment you have put towards framing our season in a negative light.
Please feel free to come to our next home game against Penn State (10/26).  Hopefully, we’ll be able to turn this “winless streak” around by then. 

All the best,
Ryan Sappington ’12
Categories
Letters to the Editor Opinion

Letter to the Editor: Stop the Hate rallies do make a difference

To the editor:

I must speak out about those things that are important to me, even when I know that my thoughts will likely be misunderstood or challenged. I don’t mind, especially when the result is dialogue. I have been flooded with many emotions since participating in the Stop the Hate Unity Rally on Monday night. Having never attended the rally before, I was excited to take part in something that called for “people of good will to act nonviolently as agents of healing in their communities, to speak up for the victims of hatred and intimidation, and to raise a united voice against hate-inspired violence.”

I saw it as an opportunity to connect with like-minded folks. My seven-year-old daughter, Olivia, was particularly excited about the rally. As Dana, Olivia and I were preparing to go, Olivia asked if this was a march like Martin Luther King, Jr. led. I told her that it was, in that it was a group of people advocating for love and equal treatment for all. Olivia is aware that our family is often treated differently because it includes two moms and a variety of ethnicities. Olivia has always been concerned whether other kids will be where we are going. More recently, she has also begun to ask if the event is “gay-friendly.” Sometimes events like the rally leave me feeling conflicted. They often seem to be more about talk than action. I believe that is why many view them as not doing much to actually change the campus or community environment, a view that was expressed in last week’s editorial. But thanks to Olivia, I know that things do fundamentally change as a result of them. For one, they can change how a child views the world and those around her, and let us not underestimate the value of that.

When attending an event, Olivia has clearly communicated to Dana and me that it’s important for her to have other people that she can identify with there (kids) and that it is a safe environment for our family (“gay-friendly”). Initially, I didn’t think much about how frequently she asked about those two things. Then, I began to closely observe her behavior and our behavior as a family at various events. Olivia cares that events we attend are “gay-friendly” because that’s when we get to act like a real family and the people around us acknowledge us as one. She’s more likely to refer to Dana as “mom” when we are in an overtly “gay-friendly” environment. We are all more likely to hold hands, hug and show affection in general. Our family is different and Olivia is acutely aware that those differences make some people uncomfortable. Every event, no matter how small, that highlights diversity of any kind opens up our world as a family. Maybe the Stop the Hate Unity Rally won’t change the world. But I believe it and events like it change my family’s world. I believe that the 13 annual Stop the Hate Rallies that have taken place in Lewisburg have made this community a safer place for my family than it would have been without them.

I often think that it is difficult for folks to see the value of activities that don’t seem to have an immediate or direct impact on their lives. I can’t “stop the hate” in the world. And I’m really not interested in trying to; I’d prefer to focus on spreading the love. However, I don’t have a problem with using a “Stop the Hate” rally to do that. How many of you have really looked into the stated purpose of the rally that I quoted at the beginning of this letter? “Stop the Hate” can be more than just a rallying call. Most things are far more purposeful than the title alone might suggest. For critics to focus on an event’s ability to “stop hate” is myopic. When asked what she thought was the most important message of the night she stated, “It’s good to be different, not bad.” Olivia gets it.

The Stop the Hate Rally does nothing to promote hatred. Yes, it acknowledges that hatred and violence exist. But it focuses on our ability as individuals and as a collective to find ways to speak out against hate-inspired violence. Some people do not like me (or even hate me) just because I am black or because I am queer; I don’t let that hate infect me. I focus on love. Hate stops with me.

Lakeisha Meyer
Asst. Professor of Education

Categories
Editorial Opinion

Editorial: Taking a stand on controversial issues

There are multiple times a week when we at The Bucknellian feel extremely frustrated. Yes, the faulty printer in the newsroom and the constant flooding in the basement of Roberts are terribly annoying. But nothing is more exasperating than a lack of response on the part of University organizations, certain administrative bodies and particularly students, when we are looking for different opinions and standpoints regarding issues on campus.

We can have a great story, one that is both timely and relevant to campus life, but without willing interviewees to help give body and life to the article, a good article topic is absolutely nothing. Without the viewpoints of the campus community–students, professors, the administration, Public Safety–it is impossible to report on an issue on campus in a fair and truthful manner. This response problem is two-fold. A lack of response, after we have reached out to particular parties for their thoughts on certain issues, radiates disrespect and indifference. If we have taken the time to reach out to you, at least send us a response. Any response. These negative habits will only come back to haunt guilty parties in the future. Common courtesies such as these can make or break a job interview, for example.

Secondly, this lack of response leaves a gaping hole in our publication. We strive to report in an unbiased way but how can we do so if no one is willing to share his or her views? The ‘small world’ environment that our campus exudes makes it extremely difficult to get a variety of quotations and stances for articles, particularly for more ‘sensitive’ topics. Years working on this publication have shown us that students feel uncomfortable talking about some topics, or even pressured to give doctored quotations or viewpoints for fear of backlash by both the administration and their fellow students. Why should students think twice about speaking their minds? Why would they face alienation by doing so?

There have been a number of times this semester when we have had opportunities to report on important, controversial and fascinating issues. Where we able to? No, because without participation from the campus community, we cannot write lasting stories. Lack of response has crippled The Bucknellian, forcing us to report on more trivial matters than we would like. Where are the determined, forceful and ambitious students that the University admitted? We specifically remember a question on the University’s application for admission that addressed ‘making a change in the world.’ How can we students make a difference if we don’t make our voices heard? Speak up. It’s as simple as making a statement in a newspaper article.

 

Categories
Arts & Life

Remembering Steve Jobs

By Michelle Joline

Arts & Life Editor

He revolutionized the world of technology, with the iPhone and Macintosh staples in today’s culture, and he inspired the creative world; the death of Steve Jobs at the age of 56 comes as sad news to people across the world. The face behind Macintosh and Apple battled pancreatic cancer and underwent a liver transplant all in the past decade, which lead to his recent resignation from Apple in August.

Jobs is famously quoted in saying that he wanted to make, “a dent in the universe,” and so it seems that is exactly what he did. The majority of students can be seen sporting a Macintosh computer on campus. The Apple products have created a link around our somewhat turbulent world, with the inventions of face time and video chat making communication attainable to all walks of life.

Often times Jobs is only recognized for his achievements in the Apple enterprise, but he was also a revolutionary in his other firm, Pixar. Some of the most beautiful contemporary images are products of Pixar’s creations, such as “Up” and “Finding Nemo.” The technology behind these animated films are the means to these extremely creative ends. Perhaps without the help of Jobs, the face of animation and the creativity behind it would not be what it is today: extraordinary.

Jobs was an enormous supporter of the arts, continuously working to make the tools necessary for the processes of creation attainable to everyone willing to experiment. With products like GarageBand, the face of the music industry has changed forever as more aspiring artists are recording their own music in the comfort of their living rooms, avoiding the expensive costs of studios. We can snap a shot of our latest inspiration on our iPhones, which produce digital quality photos. Jobs made creativity a normal piece of our lives in society, enhancing the art world through technology.

As the Apple silhouettes light up around the library during midterms and finals this year, we should take a moment to remember the man behind the emblem who revolutionized our generation.

 

Categories
News

Men facing charges for robbery

By Courtney Flagg

Editor-in-Chief

According to The Daily Item, two Lewisburg men face charges after police said they stole more than $1,700 in items while working on 634 St. Catherine Street this past summer.

According to documents on file in District Judge Leo Armbruster’s office, the two men in question, Darius Durham, 19, and Tracy Phillip Warner, 20, were employed by landlord Scott Steiler to work on 634 St. Catherine St. in early June.

When police confronted Durham and Warner, Durham denied any unlawful activity, while Warner said both he and Durham entered several off-campus homes through unlocked doors while working for Steiler. According to court documents, Durham and Warner entered 611, 616, 622 and 634 St. Catherine St.

Except for a Buddha figurine and a Sheffield pocketknife, the property stolen, totaling $1,781, was recovered.

Victim of the burglaries William Napoli ’12 will be subpoenaed for the case by the court system as a witness.

“The Lewisburg Police Department was extremely helpful in the case as they promptly recovered my property,” he said.

Preliminary hearings for Durham and Warner were scheduled to start on Thursday at 10:30 a.m. in Armbruster’s office.

Categories
Editorial Opinion

Editorial: Haters Gonna Hate

Discrimination, in every sense of the word, is prevalent on college campuses throughout the United States. Drawing attention to this discrimination is important, but we can’t help but wonder if these rallies that bring attention to hate have any lasting impact.

These rallies emit positive images about change and acceptance, but the feelings can sometimes be fleeting. There are multiple philanthropy events taking place in the coming weeks, each of which raises money for its respective cause. This past week, Colleges Against Cancer raised over $6,000 for cancer research. Over fall break, Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity will run from Lewisburg to Washington, D.C. to raise money for the Alzheimer’s Association. Would it be productive to raise money for LGBT and civil rights organizations? We are aware that the organizations present have fund-raising opportunities and we know that they are more successful in raising awareness and aid than a rally does.

What exactly does it mean to “stop the hate”? How exactly can we stop people from hating?

Rallying for something like this is a great concept, and we don’t mean to sound pessimistic, especially in light of the recent Campus Climate Report. Theoretically, it is a great idea for a great cause; however, in practicality, it is incredibly difficult to change the fundamental views of the hateful and spiteful. It is impossible to control an entire population. Raising awareness about hate is not going to change someone’s mind, especially if he feels strongly enough about a certain issue as to ‘hate’ it. But frankly put, a rally will not stop ‘haters from hating.’

 

Categories
Editorial Opinion

Editorial: Employer Expo

Although it’s hard to believe, University seniors are already sending out résumés and cover letters to employers all over the country in hopes of landing a job before graduation in May. Unfortunately for most of the graduating class, the outlook isn’t too promising. This week’s Employer Expo only seemed to emphasize the fact that finding a job with a liberal arts major is extremely difficult and the job market is overwhelmingly competitive. Seniors on The Bucknellian staff participated in the Employer Expo, but we left discouraged and frustrated by the apparent lack of jobs available. Our liberal arts majors didn’t seem to provide us with any competitive edge in the job market.

At first we were frustrated with the lack of diversity in the employer pool at Tuesday’s expo and our first reaction was to find someone to blame. Why was there a significantly greater amount of engineering and accounting headhunters than any other career path? Yes, we want to blame the University for seemingly favoring a certain type of student over another, but we simply cannot do that because it’s not fair. The Career Development Center (CDC) is not at fault in this situation. Students have to find out when, how and why certain employers hire. While employers are actively seeking college graduates (or soon-to-be graduates) with engineering and accounting majors, the same cannot be said for the rest of us.

We can’t blame the CDC. They really do seem to be doing everything they can to provide us with opportunities to find jobs. There are various expos that take place in cities like New York, Boston and Washington, D.C. that having the CDC makes available to students. In addition, later on in the year, the CDC provides job and internship fairs that are geared more towards the liberal arts majors. However, these fairs are typically recruiting interns and not full-time employees.

It’s frustrating to see our peers land jobs before us liberal arts majors, but we choose our own paths and now we have to stick with them. Some of the career paths we have chosen take a little more effort to get our foot in the door and soon-to-be graduates need to realize that and prepare.

 

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Letters to the Editor Opinion

Letter to the Editor: Students should be concerned about campus climate

To the Editor:

I write in response to your editorial of Sept. 16 regarding the Campus Climate Task Force (CCTF) Report. I am glad to see that you’ve taken these matters seriously enough to examine them critically in The Bucknellian. You raise a number of important questions, only some of which I can answer. You also make some claims that are unfounded. Critical thinking requires an adequate knowledge of the material being criticized, and so I hope that the following will fill some of those gaps.

Some of the statistics on sexual assault at the University cited in the Report are based on research that I have conducted with teams of student co-investigators for over 10 years. This research has been done in an attempt to understand better the nature of sexual assault among college students (it was not done for the University, although it was financially supported by the University). Our selection procedures have resulted in fairly large samples of students based on response rates that are considered quite good for survey research on this topic (30 to 40 percent). These procedures have also produced samples that are reasonably representative of the groups that we were interested in, depending on which aspects of sexual assault we were examining in a given study. Thus, for example, we have not collected data from first-year students in some studies because we were interested primarily in examining differences between members of Greek organizations and Independent students. Similarly, when focusing on sexual assault victimization, we have not sought data from male students, not because men are never victimized, but rather because women are victimized at substantially higher rates (and the rates of male victimization here are too small to analyze meaningfully).

You expressed concerns about survey response bias when you recommended encouraging truthful responses and wondered about respondents’ motivations to complete surveys. These are legitimate concerns for which there are only imperfect solutions. The best we can do regarding truthful responding is to measure tendencies to respond in a socially desirable manner, and then test for an association between that tendency and reports of victimization or lack thereof (we have not yet found such an association in any of our studies). Motivation to participate in surveys of personal, and potentially painful, matters such as sexual assault probably works both ways. It is possible, as you suggest, that some respondents might be more motivated to complete such surveys for a variety of reasons, but it is also possible that assault victims would be less likely to do so because they do not wish to be reminded of painful experiences.

You also seem to believe that “Greek life” is sufficiently safe for men and women at the University. Your points supporting this claim, while sensible, are not supported by the data. I agree that Greek life is safe for men, but not for women. Our data demonstrate that members of sororities are at significantly greater risk for being sexually assaulted than unaffiliated women (this is true in other studies conducted on other campuses as well).

The rates of sexual assault at the University as reflected by our research are high, in comparison to nationally representative data, and the CCTF and President Bravman are correct in arguing that something needs to be done about this problem. The choices about what we should do will be complex and difficult, and I hope that all members of the campus community will be engaged in helping with this task. In this effort, I would hope that students, Greek or otherwise, would be at least as concerned about their fellow students who have been affected by sexual assault as they are about their Greek organizations.

Sincerely,

Bill Flack
Associate Professor of Psychology