Author: Tracy Lum

Categories
Editorial Opinion

Editorial

Students’ behavior at the Howard Gardner lecture last Thursday evening prompted a debate about proper decorum that shouldn’t be necessary on a campus like ours, where maturity is an unstated expectation. The event, however, does raise important questions about the Transition to College course and student engagement at the University.

The fact that first-year students were required to attend the lecture as part of their Transition to College course does not excuse disrespectful or rude behavior. Texting, sleeping and chatting during the presentation reflects poorly on the University as a whole and is a juvenile way of expressing displeasure. Having scholars visit our campus and sharing their ideas is a privilege that we liberal arts students should relish.

As college students, we should be held responsible for our actions, and we should promote change through alternative means, such as well-reasoned argument.

Of course, students are not the only ones at fault. Many students were not engaged in the lecture, perhaps because of the book selection for the first-years’ common reading. Some students believe Gardner’s book, “Five Minds for the Future,” was too light and fluffy, politically correct and even arrogant. Much of the class of 2014 agreed that they hated the book before they even arrived on campus. Still others said Gardner was dismissive of questions and did not handle criticism well. In the future, a book should be chosen that engages students and stimulates intellectual debates.

The Transition to College course itself could also be at fault. Many first-year students do not take this pass-fail course seriously, and this disdainful attitude could have carried over to the lecture. The course, we believe, is valuable to the first-years’ development and adjustment to college life; however, it needs to be presented in a way that will be taken seriously. Perhaps the course could be administered online over the summer, or the information could be conveyed through foundation seminars or interaction with resident assistants. Still, acting out during the speaker’s presentation is a poorly executed way of expressing dissatisfaction with the course.

More generally, we fear the students’ behavior is indicative of a decline in student engagement. In many classes, especially large lectures, students spend their time texting or surfing sites unrelated to classwork. We question whether this is a matter of teaching students how to behave in a college environment, or if it simply speaks to a growing trend of disrespect and apathy in an increasingly mobile and networked age.

Regardless of the causes of students’ poor decorum in presentation spaces and in the classroom, we strongly urge University students to think deeply about why they are in college and about how they comport themselves. If they are here to truly learn and broaden their minds, we hope they will show it by putting down their mobile devices, staying awake during lectures, paying attention in class and acting like mature and engaged college students.

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Letters to the Editor Opinion

Letter to the Editor

To the editor:

Thanks much for the thoughtful coverage of the recent Faith/Science and Science/Faith debate, which stimulated thoughtful discussion and agreement on the need for compassion and humility among people with different points of view on campus.
Given the necessary boiling down of complex issues in the article, I just wanted to clarify one point attributed to me from the discussion. In the Orthodox Christian tradition, creation is regarded as good and beautiful based on the Genesis account. It became corrupted for human beings because of the Fall and the corruption of humans. The Fall did not change the fundamentally good and beautiful nature of human beings and of creation. But it did bring with it a kind of cosmic objectification that obscured and warped both together. Thus the grasping of the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil was a kind of immature reach for a dualistic knowledge of everything–an effort to know and possess knowledge of the world selfishly, bringing disaster due to a lack of humility. One way to think about this is through the term “to demonize”: When we demonize something or someone, we objectify our reality and become in a sense ourselves demon-like.
That is one way of thinking about what the Fall was about in Orthodox Christian tradition, involving a kind of objectification of both the world and ourselves. While we are not individually culpable, we live amid the collective effects.

Alf Siewers

Associate Professor of English

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Letters to the Editor Opinion

Letter to the Editor

To the Editor:

Two weeks ago, the Bucknellian included an article entitled “University panel presents findings in study of sexual assault on campus.” While reading the continuation of the article on page three, I was struck by a set of photos of sorority recruitment activities on page two. One of those photos in particular does a great deal to highlight the problems posed by the current climate for women, particularly women students, on our campus: a photo of a smiling female student displaying a sign with the words “welcome Chi Omega baby hooters.” I have no idea how many women students at the University either think of themselves as, or aspire to be, “baby hooters.” But the fact that a female student presented this characterization publicly, and appeared to do so proudly, provides an indication of how far we have to go in our efforts to create a healthy campus environment for women on this campus. Notwithstanding the picture on the poster, I do not believe that the operative metaphor had anything to do with owls.

Gary Steiner

John Howard Harris Professor of Philosophy

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Headline News

Student behavior sparks dialogue on proper audience decorum

By Tracy Lum

Editor-in-Chief

Howard Gardner spoke about his book, "Five Minds for the Future," in the Weis Center Sept. 15.

Student behavior at a lecture last Thursday evening has sparked ongoing discussion between faculty and students about proper decorum during presentations and classes.

According to accounts from professors and first-year students, many in the audience of Howard Gardner’s talk on “Five Minds for the Future” were disrespectful toward the speaker. First-year students were required to read Gardner’s book and attend the lecture as part of their Transition to College course.

“Some [students] were sleeping. Some were texting. Some were doing their homework,” Tamerat Feyisa ’14 said.

Mitch Chernin, professor of biology, was “appalled” at the behavior.

“I could hear a constant din within the Weis Center,” he said. “I realize that this was a required event for first-year students and many of them would have preferred doing something else at that time; however, it is not unreasonable to expect respectful behavior during a lecture.”

Mike Toole, associate professor of civil and environmental engineering, noticed similar behavior from where he sat in the front row.

“I heard this coughing nonstop throughout the lecture,” he said. After seeing many people “sleeping, chattering and not paying attention,” he speculated the coughing was part of a coordinated effort through which the class expressed displeasure and boredom.

“It was just very frustrating to me,” Toole said.

The morning after the lecture, Toole spoke to other faculty members before posting a message expressing his concern about the students’ behavior on a virtual faculty forum (vforum). Besides describing the rude behavior he perceived, Toole also wrote “students cheered the first two questions simply because the questioners pointedly criticized the book and speaker without stopping to listen and reflect on whether the criticism had merit” during the question-and-answer section of the talk.

According to Toole, the message received approximately 25 replies by Monday afternoon. In addition to addressing concerns about behavior at the lecture, the posting also raised questions about the state of student behavior in general on campus.

Some faculty members believe student behavior in the classroom is not an issue as long as expectations about decorum are established at the start of class.

“In one class recently I allowed [students] to bring in their laptops, and I realized that was a mistake because that facilitated communication between them that wasn’t directed toward the class,” said David Kristjanson-Gural, associate professor of economics.

Other faculty members do not believe student behavior is an issue.

“My view from giving lectures in physics classes over the years [is] that I haven’t seen a significant change in student behavior,” said Ben Vollmayr-Lee, associate professor of physics, on the vforum.

The conversation on decorum has spread to the classroom.

Kristjanson-Gural devoted a 20-minute discussion about the lecture in the foundation seminar course he teaches. He said many students “expressed embarrassment … and disapproval of the attitude of the students who were disrespectful.”

In many Transition to College classes this week, instructors discussed the issue of decorum with first-year students. Ashley Rooney ’14 said during class, students were asked to fill out a survey including questions about what constitutes proper behavior and a respectful audience.

“Most kids said that the first few pages and then rest of the book had an arrogant tone,” Rooney said. ”Some kids described [the book] as pompous and said [the tone] carried throughout the lecture.”

Rooney, one of the students who questioned Gardner about the ethics of capitalism and socialism as economic systems, said she did not notice any misbehavior during the lecture, but that she believes criticism should be expected when an author writes a book based on opinion.

“I think it’s fine to ask questions and to be critical,” Rooney said. “Thomas Jefferson tells us to question boldly.”

Feyisa, a 32-year-old first-year from Ethiopia, also spoke during the question-and-answer portion and criticized the book as too “career-oriented.”

“My argument was that it was not a book that promotes intellectual virtues,” Feyisa said.

He said the book did not promote “the life of the mind … the life of the intellect” and that it did not encourage critical thinking.

Feyisa attributes the students’ behavior to a lack of engagement with the book. Before even coming to the University, Feyisa said that a discussion about the book unfolded on the “Bucknell University Class of 2014” Facebook page.

“We sort of had this cyber community,” he said. “Everybody was talking about how they hated the book.”

The book’s failure to create discourse and start controversy, he said, was the real problem behind the students’ lack of engagement and subsequent behavior during the lecture.

Several students in the audience thought their fellow students’ behavior was uncalled for.

“I thought that we owed him a lot more than we gave him. Even if we didn’t like the book, he’s still another human being, and there’s a level of respect that shouldn’t be breached,” Liane Chesek ’14 said.

Maddy Liss ’14 expressed a similar opinion about the question-and-answer part of the talk.

“I was really embarrassed,” she said. “I wanted to stand up and say something.”

No official disciplinary action has been taken. Toole believes discussions about unacceptable behavior will prevent the texting, sleeping and chatting during lectures from occurring in the future.

“We know that this was not the entire class of 2014,” Toole said. “It was just some students who felt that they didn’t need to be there.”

Categories
Editorial Opinion

Editorial

Famed choreographer, dancer and director Twyla Tharp opened the Bucknell Forum’s new speaker series, “Creativity: Outside the Box,” Tuesday night in an inspired departure from the Forum’s previous topics of politics and global leadership.  Instead of focusing on what we as students should know in order to become active and educated citizens, the series highlights the goal to harness and refine the creativity already within us. It is this return to basics and to the arts that we found most satisfying about the new theme.

The new series on creativity puts the focus back on the arts, which have often been neglected in the past. The University boasts a number of creative outlets and resources that few students take advantage of. The Weis Center Series, for example, brings a variety of diverse cultural experiences to campus for the benefit of students and community members alike. The performance center itself is a visual and architectural masterpiece, with its glossy exterior and spiral staircase. Other resources include the Samek Art Gallery, sequestered on the third floor of the Elaine Langone Center and the Sigfried Weis Music Building, which houses a library, keyboard composition laboratories, percussion studios, numerous practice rooms as well as the Natalie Davis Rooke Recital Hall. And then there’s the Craft Center, where students can experiment with new artistic media and direct their creative energies.

The Bucknell Forum’s speaker series revives and affirms interest in the arts—something that is especially important in times of recession, when the arts budget is usually cut first. It is our sincere hope that the Campus Master Plan, with its inclusion of a new arts building, will sustain and bring the arts back to center stage, bringing a more enriching, cultural experience to the University.

But creativity infiltrates all disciplines, not just what is traditionally viewed as the arts. Creativity can be applied in engineering, management, the sciences and the social sciences. As Tharp said in her lecture Tuesday, creativity is most simply a way to turn ideas into reality. The new series reminds us to engage in an interdisciplinary approach to learning, critical thinking and problem solving–a core principle of a liberal arts institution.

The University is, after all, a liberal arts institution, and its mission statement reads, “Bucknell is a unique national university where liberal arts and professional programs complement each other. Bucknell educates men and women for a lifetime of critical thinking and strong leadership characterized by intellectual exploration, creativity and imagination.” The selection of “Creativity: Outside the Box” as the theme of the new Bucknell Forum series accomplishes just this.

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Letters to the Editor Opinion

Letter to the Editor

To the editor:

I wonder how many of the students complaining so loudly about the back-breaking 15 minute trek from the new bookstore to campus can be found five days a week, with glazed eyes and numbed expressions, running in place on a treadmill at the gym. My friends, there are flowers and birds on the road to Market Street; you will learn things from them that the television monitors and other machinery at the gym cannot teach you, if you will but listen.

Alexander Riley
Dept. of Sociology/Anthropology

Categories
Editorial Opinion

Editorial

The recent technological upgrades and changes around campus seem to promise greater efficiency, shorter lines and less consumer and environmental waste. From the new package system with digital tracking and the new cash registers in the Bison to the operating system and software upgrades on the library computers, the innovations and adjustments are numerous. But all of these changes cause us to reflect on the degree to which change is necessary and the ways to improve the implementation of change.

Students now receive e-mail alerts when they have a package ready for pickup. In the previous system, students received an orange slip in their mailboxes notifying them of current parcels stashed in the mailroom.  According to the e-mail they receive, students need only bring their student ID and a copy of the e-mail to the mailroom. Students then sign a touchpad electronically to receive their packages. The process is supposed to cut down on paper waste and make it easier to retrieve parcels.

How much the new procedure cuts down on waste, both physical and temporal, remains dubious. During the first weeks of implementation, many students experienced longer lines and delays during peak student mailroom hours as mail services employees tried to figure out how to use the new touchpad device and tracking system.

Moreover, confusion remains about what constitutes a “copy” of the e-mail notification. Many students believe they must print a physical copy of the message before going retrieving a package. Printing hard copies for the thousands of packages processed each year certainly would not fulfill the promise of making a greater green effort. In fact, it would probably generate more waste than the old system of placing reusable orange slips in student mailboxes. The problem of printing is only exacerbated by the current lack of functioning printers on campus, leading to unnecessary frustration and wasted time.

Another issue is the overwhelming number of e-mails students receive daily. Bombarded with so many e-mails from the Message Center, professors, friends, classmates and now the mailroom, students can easily become overwhelmed by the sheer quantity of messages waiting in their inboxes.  Unclaimed packages could then accumulate, actually taking up space and inhibiting efficiency.

The new system cannot yet process all of the packages so students must still check their mailboxes for the little orange slips. The hybrid system is confusing, causing many students to question how many packages they have and whether or not they should actually approach the mail counter.

Of course, the new system has its perks. Students can find out where their package is at any time simply by providing the tracking number to student mail services. But for now, the cons outweigh the advantages. While the change is headed in the right direction, the lack of training for staff members and the overall muddled implementation leave much room for improvement. When making any technological change on campus, we only ask that the University provide proper training  and maintain a contingency plan in order to avoid potential disaster.

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Headline News

Blaze in downtown Lewisburg causes scare

By Tracy Lum and Rob Duffy

Editor-in-Chief and Managing Editor

A fire tore through White Pine and Hawn alleys between South Seventh and South Eighth streets early Tuesday morning, leaving in its wake the charred, skeletal frame of a barn and a line of burned cars buried in rubble.

University students and Lewisburg residents say they heard loud explosions and pops and saw smoke before 40-foot orange flames emerged in the sky at around 1:15 a.m. Witnesses said the fire began in a barn containing several cars located in the center of the alley and later spread across the lane, catching a dumpster and another garage and house on fire before the first fire engine arrived on scene. The barn belonged to Brian Gockley of the University’s Teaching and Learning Center.

“It was shocking to wake up to that terrible blaze,” Gockley said. “It was hot, it was frightening. We were fearful it would spread to other buildings.”

Doug Shribman ’11 and Gerry Runyan ’12 were sitting in the living room of their house on Seventh Street when they saw police cars coming down South Seventh Street. “We got out before the fire started and saw smoke coming away,” Shribman said. The two then began calling neighbors to alert them of the fire and tell them to evacuate their houses.

“I was scared at first, especially since all the ash was blowing toward our house,” Runyan said, adding that he saw “burning pieces” falling out of the sky. Lewisburg residents said they saw ash on the other side of town.

Robin Hammersley ’11, who also resides on Seventh Street, said she saw the flames and “heard a lot of noise.” She and neighbors all came out of their houses and watched the fires burn until around 3:30 a.m., when the fire was mostly out.

According to witnesses, police officers evacuated nearby houses. University students who lived in the vicinity were also evacuated.

The fire also spread to a telephone pole and the surrounding electrical wires, according to witnesses on the scene.  In total, eight buildings caught fire–-four were total losses, three were safe and one was mostly gone.

“We’re saddened by the loss but grateful there were no injuries to people,” Gockley said. “We’ve got a lot of cleaning up and rebuilding ahead.”

Student volunteer firefighters including Michael Stagnitto ’13 and Warren Ziegler ’13 responded to the dispatch. Seven fire engine companies responded, and just over 70 firefighters were on the scene at the peak of the call. The scene was cleared at 5:30 a.m.

No injuries were reported, and the cause is still under investigation.

Fire marshal Norman Fedder was unable to be reached for comment.


Categories
Editorial Opinion

Editorial

The recent changes to formal recruitment procedures implemented by sororities on campus have toned down the highly involved process. The changes comply with National Panhellenic Council’s regulations and seem to bode well for the University and student life.
For one, the new rules seem to follow a societal desire to trim excess. They eliminated recruitment skits, cut extra decorations and preference letters and established a budget cap. They also placed restrictions on noise, forbidding screaming and keeping singing or chanting at a reasonable decibel level. In addition, sorority members must keep both feet on the ground at all times–a rule that Hunt Hall’s structural integrity can appreciate.
Although the switch to “no frills” has its perks, it also raises several questions about the change itself and the recruitment procedure as a whole.
The new NPC regulations have been in place since 2003, but the University’s Panhellenic council did not adopt them until this year, citing “tradition” as an inhibiting factor. Many sorority members believe the former recruitment process involving skits, cheering and energy truly embodies the personality of a sorority. Do such tactics alone convey all there is to know about a sorority? What about the traditions of philanthropy, community service, educational programming and sisterhood? The frills emphasize the superficial aspects and stereotypes of sororities, and stripping them away should help potential new members focus on what the experience is supposed to be about.
Moreover, the restrictions associated with recruitment policy as a whole seem to stifle the personalities and characteristics of potential new members. Current members are not allowed to discuss boys, alcohol, financial status, brand names, politics or religion with potential new members during the discretionary period, according to the Bucknell University Panhellenic Association Recruitment Rules and Procedures. Such topics are a central part of one’s identity. The recruitment process is supposed to help sisters and potential new members get to know each other, but these restrictions limit the degree to which members and potential new members can actually get to know each other just as much as the glitter and shouting do.
By amending the rules for recruitment procedures, the University’s Panhellenic Council calls into question the procedures by which members are currently selected as well as the definition and purpose of a sorority. While implementing these changes, perhaps the Panhellenic Council should consider suggesting further revisions to National Panhellenic Council.
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News

University panel presents findings in study of sexual assault on campus

By Christina Oddo

Contributing Writer

The University community is constantly searching for ways to improve sexual assault awareness, supply support for survivors and enhance educational services, said guest speakers at the 2010 Sexual Assault Discussion, held Tuesday, Aug. 31 in the Elaine Langone Center Forum.

Bill Flack, associate professor of psychology, joined a group of University faculty and staff to present the 2009 survey results for sexual assault at the University.

The October 2009 and early November 2009 survey consisted of a web-based lottery system. The total sample included 342 women (ranging from sophomores to seniors). First-year students were excluded from the survey. There was a 38 percent response rate. The Sexual Experiences Survey (nation-wide for sexual assault researchers), Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test and Hooking Up Questionnaire were measures included in the survey.

The results of the survey show that sexual assault victimization (experienced one or more times while at the University, which does not include breaks or summer vacations) ranges over a variety of different sexual assault forms. One hundred and seventy people claimed that they were victims of “Touching.” One hundred and two were victims of “Attempted Rape.” Sixty survey participants said they were victims of “Completed Rape.”

Flack made a continuous effort throughout the presentation to make the connection between alcohol, and the more recently used term, “hooking up,” crystal clear.

“Hooking up” is a risk factor of sexual assault, and 80.4 percent of the sample members had hooked up one or more times while at the University. Correlations between alcohol consumption and different types of hooking up were investigated in the study, and highlighted throughout the presentation. Hooking up with a stranger, “Type 1,” is related to higher levels of alcohol consumption. People are less likely to hook up with their “default partner,” or “friends with benefits,” if they have been drinking.
Victims report that virtually all of their perpetrators are male University students. In the 2001-2002 survey, 10 percent of men and two percent of women admitted to being perpetrators. In the 2005-2006 survey, two percent of men and four percent of women said they had “touched” someone, when that person they perpetrated clearly did not want to be touched. Seven percent of men and one percent of women attempted unwanted sex, and five percent of men admitted to having completed unwanted sex. In both the 2007-2008 and 2008-2009 surveys, only males admitted to such offenses.

Risk factors for sexual assault victimization at the University include: being female, high alcohol consumption, hooking up, Greek membership and time of year. Sorority members are significantly more likely to report any victimization. The “red zone” means the first semester of the first year of college.

Tracy Shaynak, director of the University’s Women’s Resource Center spoke about the National College Health Assessment, administered electronically by the American College Health Association at the University in the spring of 2009. The entire undergraduate population was surveyed, and 545 surveys were completed.  Shaynak discussed drinking habits, stating that many students believe that other students drink far more than they actually do. She connected this misconception to the hook up culture, emphasizing the nature of assumption, and the pressure a student might feel in a social context, under the overarching umbrella of the prevalent hook up culture.

According to Shaynak, more meaningful work needs to be done on campus. She said the University needs to give more support to survivors, empower its students to make a change, and work hard to tie resources on and off campus.

University Staff Psychologist Dr. Mary Elizabeth Shaw spoke about continuing a group initiated early last year, a survivors of sexual assault support group.  Shaw emphasized the importance of “working for prevention efforts, promoting consent and healthy relationships, and collaborating with different groups on campus to truly make a difference.”

The lecture also consisted of information about the sexual assault advocate program, a program that provides critical information in order to ease difficult decision making for victims including counseling, academic and legal advice.

Concluding the night, all lecture participants, student and faculty agreed on that many students go into college full of expectations, most of these expectations derived from different modes of the media, from films to music. Many agreed that these expectations should be disregarded as they are often fictitiously based.

University representatives stressed the importance of communication and said that the resources and contacts on campus are abundant, and the psychologists, peer educators, advocates, and other workers, are dedicated to ensuring proper prevention, education, safety, guidance and care.