Author: Emily Guillen

With this week’s Stop the Hate Unity Rally and the upcoming Coming Out Day photo and list, the issue of tolerance on our campus is coming to the forefront. With so many students and faculty members signing the Coming Out Day support list in honor of the national day, it seems that our campus is as liberal as Oberlin. But in reality, there’s still a lot of acceptance lacking.

Based on sexual orientation, or even perceived sexual orientation, students are often cast aside or not included in group projects or campus organizations and activities. This exclusion isn’t necessarily an open and obvious thing, but rather a lack of inclusion. Students don’t go out of their way to keep from interacting with LGBT students, but they also don’t go out of their way to ensure those students attend an organization’s social event.

This problem also arises from the LGBT group itself. The group often seems so close-knit that it’s impossible for an outsider or a heterosexual to finagle his way in. The common room at Fran’s House is as exclusive as any fraternity house or sorority suite on campus. With this attitude coming toward straight students, it’s hard for the majority of campus to find a way to fit in with this smaller group, making them hesitant to improve relationships.

Even within the LGBT community, the problem of acceptance still exists. Not all LGBT students feel comfortable within the organization and often don’t participate in the group’s activities or interact with its members. This feeling of exclusion within a group that people feel they should be close with is just unacceptable on a campus that’s moving toward the acceptance of diversity.

Regardless of the issues, the University, its groups and its students are continuing attempts to raise awareness, include more students and interact with the full campus body. It’s commendable that one professor came out to his students during class on National Coming Out Day last year. The English department’s use of the pronoun “zie” is a much more all-inclusive reference term starting to be recognized nationally. The addition of gender neutral housing to this year’s selections gave many students the chance to live with whomever they choose, regardless of biological sex. Even the inclusion of the issue of sex vs. gender is becoming more widespread in courses around campus; psychology, anthropology and sociology classes are all taking the plunge and providing students with a forum to discuss and gain a better understanding of sex and gender issues. With these types of changes happening across campus, there’s a good chance that in a short time, acceptance and typical interactions between the straight and the LGBT communities will become the norm.

Two years ago, when the University decided to strengthen its alcohol and drug violation policy, it helped to mitigate the illegal activities on campus. Students started taking state laws more seriously and finding themselves facing real consequences for their illegal actions. However, the onset of the University’s new policy on hookah is not accomplishing the same goal.

While hookah is still legal in the state of Pennsylvania, the University now includes hookah in its list of prohibited items and behavior. Other items on the list include drugs illegal in Pennsylvania as well as associated paraphernalia. The decision to begin including hookah as a prohibited substance has sparked controversy on campus, as many students partake in the activity and feel their rights are being violated.

The New York Times published an article on May 30 of last year entitled “Putting a Crimp in the Hookah.” The article discussed the move toward deeming the substance illegal, as well as hookah bars in certain states and bans put on them by colleges across the country.  One reason cited is the health concern from smoking. Many believe that the water filtering process in hookah smoking eliminates all of the harmful chemicals, but that is false. The activity is still a health risk, leading to the bans from states and universities.

If the University is jumping on board with the health hazards of the substance, then why is it not banning other substances at least as harmful? With cigarette smoking still allowed on campus, students are jeopardizing their health in the same way, while often afflicting other students as well. Secondhand smoke is considered an annoyance by any student who chooses not to smoke, and many are often caught downstream, unable to separate themselves from an activity in which they choose not to participate. The health concerns associated with cigarettes should justify their placement on the banned substances list if that argument is being made for hookah.

As a health concern, there’s nothing preventing students from choosing to smoke hookah off campus. The Grasshopper, on Market Street, offers the activity at a hookah bar, creating a social setting. There’s no reason that students can’t choose to continue affecting their health by smoking.

Additionally, some students on campus smoke hookah as a cultural practice. With the University’s effort to improve and increase diversity on campus by hiring an associate provost for diversity and an associate dean of students for diversity, it seems contradictory that the new policy is so blatantly disregarding a multicultural activity. While candles are prohibited on campus, menorahs are allowed with permission during Hanukkah. If we will acknowledge and accommodate certain practices but not others, students are led to distrust the administration and its policies.

With the University’s involvement in the development of a new app for Geisinger Health System, it seems that students and the school should be more in tune to our nutritional needs. We’re so excited about the healthier options available nearby, with a Subway on Market St. and Wendy’s and McDonald’s offering lower calories choices. We aren’t so thrilled about the dining on campus.

Over the last couple of years, Dining Services has done a fantastic job of improving the campus food experience by posting nutritional information, but we find it’s still lacking. While specialty items from The Daily Dish and other stations have the caloric count and other facts posted, the standard items’ information isn’t as readily available.

At the Mexican station and the Bison Grill, any of the standard menu items do not have the information posted in an easily accessible location. Even made-to-go items don’t always provide good nutritional information. On a recent inspection of a Dirt Pudding cup, we saw the following: Calories – 937, Fat – 53g, Sugars g. The actual number of grams of sugar was non-existent on the label. Even when the information is provided, it’s somehow still incomplete.

As for the wrap and sandwich stations, it would appear that the caloric count for your meal would be easy to calculate, but it’s not. The postings give a breakdown of information for different a la carte options based on the weight of the item on your sandwich. However, the staff rarely uses a scale to measure out turkey or other items, meaning your calorie estimation could be way off base. Even when they do weigh items, students aren’t made aware of the totals.

We, as students, need to be responsible for ourselves and the decisions we make about the food we eat. Dining Services and the University need to be responsible for providing us with the options and information to make good, informed decisions.

Last week, we printed an article about the “freshman 15” and finding a way to balance a healthy lifestyle. The University offers group fitness classes at no extra cost to students, but for some reason, the ice cream freezer in the Terrace Room is more popular than any of the classes. We need to not only be monitoring how much and what we eat, but also what physical activity we’re participating in. Between the options at the KLARC and the many different club and intramural sports teams, there’s no reason we can’t find that balance.

Let this be a wake up call to all of campus: we are responsible for the decisions we make regarding our health. We have to take action and be conscious of what we’re putting in our bodies and how we’re taking care of ourselves.

With all of the Facebook status updates and tweets on Twitter, we couldn’t help but notice the lack of campus-wide events in memory of 9/11 this year.  Last year’s event, held on a Sunday, was well attended and allowed students a place to gather as a group in memory of those lost in 2001.

While the eleventh anniversary may not seem like as much of a landmark occasion as the tenth anniversary celebrated last year, many students are hesitant to let go of a memorial that greatly affected them.  The campus’s lack of acknowledgement of the day was disappointing for students whose family members and loved ones were impacted by or perished in the attacks over a decade ago.

The generation of students currently on campus can still vividly remember where they were when they learned about the attacks and that memory will stay with them forever.  In ten years, this may not be the case.  Students a decade from now will not remember what happened, where they learned of the event or even how it affected them.

As always, a display of American flags was organized on the uphill side of the Langone Center, but those students who don’t visit the LC on a regular basis didn’t know they were there.  For fraternity men and students who live in the Gateways or downtown Lewisburg, trips to the LC are few and far between, leaving them unaware of the flag decorations.

Because a large number of students at the University are from the east coast, particularly the state of New York, it is disappointing to see that we could so easily forget the effects from that fateful day 11 years ago. In addition to geographic proximity to the event, we have cultural proximity on this campus as well.  There is a thriving ROTC program and many students who come from military backgrounds.

Beyond the lack of recognition here on campus, the United States nationwide has dropped the ball.  The New York Times has come under fire for choosing not to print any 9/11 related content of their front page.  However, other news organizations chose to print articles pointing out the loss of reverence associated with events around the country.  More of the events are centered around the upcoming election season and those who speak loudly, rather than on the sacrifices the military makes on the country’s behalf.

Perhaps the Times has it right.  Maybe it is time for the country to move past an event over a decade old and look to the future.  After all, if we were still commemorating every tragic event in history, we’d still be having days of silence for the bombing of Pearl Harbor and the assassination of JFK.

While The Bucknellian editorial board often points out flaws students see in the administration and campus organizations’ decisions, we also recognize when positive efforts are made to listen to and accommodate the student voice.

With the introduction of the Humanities Carnivale di Bucknell, the University is recognizing the effort students in the College of Arts & Sciences put in on a daily basis. Up until this year, only the College of Engineering had an event to showcase talents from individuals. Engineering Week, while providing a positive and competitive outlet to engineers, often came under fire from liberal arts majors for not recognizing the achievements of all students.

Now the Carnivale di Bucknell will do just that. Students will have the opportunity to enter into art and humanity based competitions with a focus on creativity rather than science.

Through the two-day event, the University is even offering monetary rewards to those students who produce exceptional entries. We applaud the University, and specifically the University Arts Council for recognizing students as the main population on campus.

In addition to promoting the arts through the Carnivale, the University has also recently added the Catherine Payn Scholarship Fund to award to students in music, specifically those specializing in opera.  Providing one more opportunity for talented students to join the University family will only improve the attitudes and climate of campus.

Beyond just the arts, the University has also listened to the students’ concern regarding Pennsylvania’s new voter ID law. Under the new law, University IDs will no longer be valid for students to use as identification in the state of Pennsylvania without expiration dates.

The University listened to students’ upset in the spring and for the fall semester are giving out expiration stickers to validate the IDs for voting. They have plans to further the expiration date inclusion on the cards issued next year.

Activities and Campus Events (ACE) and the Campus Activities & Programs (CAP) Center are doing their part in listening to the student voice as well by changing up the musical genres performing this fall. With hip hop as the only genre represented in last year’s concerts, Fall Fest: Countrified and Avicii are welcome changes, and students are recognizing the Concert Committee’s efforts to please them.

With the University actively accommodating students’ needs and wishes, a new precedent is being set with the student as the primary customer. The University is recognizing this and taking to heart the saying, “the customer is always right.”