Residents of Kress Hall returning from various areas around campus were greeted by a swarm of firefighters and police surrounding their dormitory on the evening of March 19 after a small fire in the basement kitchen caused an evacuation of the building.
Lewisburg Fire Co. Chief Stephen Bolinsky said in an interview after the building was reopened to residents that a small grease fire in the basement kitchen caused little damage. One person was being treated for minor burns.
Eric Ulmanis ’16, who was studying with a group of friends in the common area adjacent to the basement kitchen, had begun to pack up his things after smelling something burning, expecting the fire alarm to be set off. He walked to the kitchen to see two female students, one of which was carrying a flaming pot of oil over to the sink.
“Before I could tell them not to, they turned on the water, which set off a huge explosion,” Ulmanis said.
Pouring water on a grease fire, which is caused by heating oil past the point where it will combust, causes a large and instant fireball, as the Discovery Channel’s “Mythbusters” once spectacularly proved.
Chris Sorrentino ’15 was also studying in the common area when she began to smell something burning.
“There was a loud whooshing sound,” Sorrentino said. “I ran into the kitchen and there were flames rising out of the sink, up the wall and into the vent. There were also flames crawling across the ceiling. I realized that this was serious–it wasn’t a drill–and we ran out of the building.”
“The fire alarm went off 10 to 15 seconds after the explosion,” Ulmanis said. “And Public Safety was pulling up almost immediately after we were out of the building.”
Fire trucks were on the scene within minutes, though the fire had already extinguished itself, Bolinsky said.
“Thankfully we are well coordinated with the Bucknell Public Safety Department and so we were able to respond very quickly,” Bolinsky said.
The student cooking at the time of the fire declined to comment.
Courtesy of Bucknell.edu Jordan Vilchez survived Jonestown and spoke to the community about her experiences.
Kerong Kelly
Writer
Jordan Vilchez, one of the survivors of the tragedy at Jonestown, spoke to the University community on March 6, about her experiences as a young member of the People’s Temple.
At age 12, Vilchez became a member of the People’s Temple and subsequently relocated to Redwood Valley with her older sister. Just eight years later, they moved to Guyana. Vilchez left Jonestown the day before the mass loss of life, in order to attend a meeting in Georgetown, the capital of Guyana.
On Nov. 18, 1978, Vilchez lost her sisters and nephews during the infamous tragedy. As a member of the community, her job included being an active participant of the Planning Commission, which subsequently allowed her to familiarize herself with the inner workings of the movement. On a personal level, Vilchez recollected feelings of repression and a diminished sense of self worth and self-esteem.
“For me, I did not really exist for myself. I grew up feeling that my hopes, my dreams, my wishes, none of that mattered,” Vilchez said.
As a trusted youth in the community and the youngest member of the Planning Commission, Vilchez was chosen to complete tasks such as counting money, processing living requests and doing security shifts. Vilchez spoke about practices, such as the separation of families upon their arrival and public chastisement known as being “brought up.” Vilchez recalled specific instances, where ideas of complete control and total revolution were reflected in Jim Jones’ actions. For instance, Jones forced the youths to watch videos and read books such as “The Glass House” by Philip Johnson.
Vilchez currently lives in Berkeley, Calif. and has an integrative mentoring practice called the Cosmology of You. She also contributes to the yearly publication, “The Jonestown Report,” which includes biographical data, photographs and information of those who resided at Jonestown. It is also a compilation of remembrances and personal accounts of the experiences of living in Jonestown.
This semester, Professor of English Carmen Gillespie and Professor Emeritus Bob Gainer are teaching a course on the Jonestown massacre.
“It’s one thing reading all of these very different books to see Jonestown from different perspectives, but it’s another thing entirely to read a book or see a documentary and be able to hear the words from a person’s mouth and ask them the questions that ran through our heads as we’ve studied the tragedy. It’s really incredible,” Allison Friedlander ’16 said.
“The focus and purpose of this work is to remember and revisit the stories of Jonestown, to use narrative to uncover a deeper meaning to these events than the catchphrase about ‘drinking the Kool-Aid.’ The tragedy of Jonestown is an important piece of contemporary American history that bears continued examination in order to come to a better understanding of the intersections of power, race, sexuality, politics and the desire for social change that occurred leading up to that fateful moment. Of course, studying these events and coming to that more nuanced understanding will hopefully mean that we can learn from them, gleaning whatever positives we can from a situation with a terrible outcome, and preventing tragedies like this from happening again,” said Rebecca Willoughby, lecturer in English and interim assistant director of the Griot Institute.
“The Jonestown narrative engages fundamental questions of religion, race, nationality, power, civil rights, sexuality, poverty, aspiration and identity that are not disconnected from the dilemmas of the present moment,” Gillespie said. “I hope that both the Jonestown class and the series reintroduce the fundamental questions that the Jonestown tragedy invokes and brings about the recognition that this story resonates with issues that remain central in 2013.”
“Jonestown Reconsidered, 35 Years Later,” a series of events sponsored by the Griot Institute for Africana Studies, reflects on the events surrounding the Jonestown massacre. The lecture series creates a forum for students, professors and members of the community to discuss questions of religion, race, sexuality, power and aspiration. The talks are free and open to the general public.
W. Morris Fierman | The Bucknellian Jeffrey Finegan ’14 and Carter Wells ’14 stole laptops by breaking in through a living room window.
W. Morris Fierman
News Editor
University students Jeffrey Finegan ’14 and Carter Wells ’14 were arraigned and released on payment of $25,000 bail each on Feb. 27, facing charges of criminal trespassing, receiving stolen property and burglary.
Finegan was the president of the Delta Upsilon Fraternity, a position he has since resigned. Wells is also a member of Delta Upsilon.
The pair admitted to Public Safety Officers to entering Mods 7 and 10, removing laptop computers, textbooks, cash and other items valued by police at more than $9,600.
On Feb. 24, Delta Upsilon brothers Michael Maneri ’13 and Andrew D’Abbraccio ’15, who has since become president of Delta Upsilon, arrived at the Department of Public Safety wishing to speak with an officer. They reported to officers Paul Shipton and Trace Nevil that Finegan was responsible for the thefts.
Maneri had loaned his car to Finegan on Feb. 16 and later found out that Finegan had used it to carry out the burglaries, according to the official criminal complaint filed with the Union County Courthouse.
Two other Delta Upsilon Brothers, Nathan Opalinski ’15 and Justin Meshulam ’15, accompanied Finegan to Mod 10 on Feb. 9, planning to pull a prank on the occupants by rearranging the furniture. They witnessed Finegan remove several items from the room, placing them in his backpack, the report continues.
Finegan later gave Opalinski $60 and Meshulam $40, money that was handed over to Public Safety officers during an interview. Finegan also invited Opalinski to accompany him on a second burglary the next weekend, but he refused.
On Feb. 16, Finegan broke into Mod 10 via an unlocked living room window, handing several laptops through the window to accomplice Wells, who placed them into Wells’s car. The two then moved on to Mod 7, entering through an unlocked door and removing several more laptops, cash and backpacks full of textbooks.
They then told Opalinski and Meshulam about the incident, who asked them to return the stolen items or put them in a public place where they could be found. They were told by Finegan that several of the items were already being sold on the internet.
After receiving the “Timely Notice Warning” in an email from Public safety on Feb. 18, Finegan and Wells became nervous, and later claimed that Wells placed the laptops against a dumpster in a bag behind a Kohl’s department store in Selinsgrove, Pa., where he was shipping out several of the textbooks he had already sold online. The laptops have not been found.
Several days later, Opalinski and Meshulam told Maneri and D’Abbraccio about the incident, who then turned Finegan and Wells in to Public Safety. Public Safety carried out search warrants on Finegan’s room, Wells’ room and Wells’ car, according to Public Safety Chief Stephen Barilar. Both were interviewed by Public Safety Officers and admitted to the burglaries.
Finegan presented the officers with receipts from websites textbooksRus.com and ecampus.com where he had already sold several of the stolen textbooks.
Andrew Kilman ’15, a resident of Mod 7 who’s MacBook Pro and marketing textbook were stolen, found it hard to believe that this sort of thing could happen at the University.
“The Public Safety Officers that interviewed all of us didn’t even think that it was Bucknell students before those two guys confessed,” Kilman said.
He and his roommates, who were robbed of a Macbook Pros, wallets containing cash and credit cards, and a large number of textbooks, felt comfortable leaving their door open before the burglaries. Kilman said that “now we obviously lock our doors.”
Victims of the robberies were told that if Finegan and Wells were found guilty they would be contacted by the pair or their attorneys who would arrange compensation for the stolen items.
“Their actions at the Mods are not congruent with the values of Delta Upsilon. Currently Mr. Finegan and Mr. Wells are suspended as a brothers. We will continue to move forward as a chapter having cooperated fully with the administration and authorities,” D’Abbraccio said.
Finegan and Wells are no longer on campus and are awaiting the formal procedures outlined in the University Code of Conduct. These procedures will determine the University’s response, according to Dean of Students Susan Lantz. They are scheduled for a preliminary hearing at the Union County Courthouse on March 28.
Playwright Leigh Fondakowski addressed a small gathering of students and professors on Feb. 27 in the Elaine Langone Center Forum regarding her recent work on the Jonestown massacre.
November of 2013 will mark the 35th anniversary of the Jonestown massacre, in which 918 people committed mass suicide at their compound in Guyana after they were ordered to by Jim Jones, who had declared himself a divine being. Gruesome scenes of the aftermath of the tragedy were widely broadcast on American television.
The Griot Institute for Africana Studies has hosted a number of events to explore topics of race, religion, power and identity, in a lecture series entitled “Jonestown Reconsidered, 35 Years Later” which aims to create a forum for students, professors, artists and scholars to engage in a conversation about the Jonestown massacre.
The series featured Fondakowski, author of the “The People’s Temple,” who spoke of the process of transforming historical events into art. Fondakowski, an Emmy-nominated co-screenwriter for an adaptation of “The Laramie Project” for HBO, is also a co-writer of “The Laramie Project: Ten Years Later.” “The People’s Temple,” a collection of interviews from survivors of the Jonestown massacre, is a vivid depiction of a historical tragedy.
Fondakowski said that her play is not solely the story of mass death. She did not want to depict the tragedy solely through one lens. Fondakowski also spoke about her first interview with Stephan Jones, Jim Jones’ son, where he brought a folder labeled “The Other Side of Jim Jones,” containing candid photos of his father. As a playwright, Fondakowski was faced with the challenge of representing a wide variety of perspectives on stage. To do so, she humanized Jim Jones through Stephan, but remained faithful to survivor’s accounts.
“The words of the people are how we tell the story,” Fondakowski said.
Going into the interview process, Fondakowski decided not do extensive research before encountering the survivors in order to keep an open perspective and an unbiased point of view.
The various stage adaptations of “The People’s Temple” include the usage of boxes of archives and the passport photos of survivors as well as those who lost their lives at Jonestown. During one specific production, members of the audience attempted to climb onto the stage in order to look at the photos more closely.
Fondakowski said several times that it was not her role to determine what was true and what was not true. She is currently working on a screenplay with the hope that it will become a mini series rather than a straight feature.
“I really appreciate how Bucknell is bringing in such a wide variety of speakers–from family members to survivors to artists, etc. Everyone brings a different perspective on Jonestown. I think the most important thing is that they all seem to want to ‘humanize’ the people of Jonestown and to dispel the notion that People’s Temple members were crazy, Kool-Aid drinking cultists,” said Chloe Drennen ’15, a student currently taking a class on the Jonestown Massacretaught by Professor of English Carmen Gillespie and Professor Emeritus Bob Gainer.
Courtesy of Bucknell University The Board of Trustee’s Master Plan proposes a large addition to the south side of campus.Courtesy of Bucknell University View of New Academic Quad from the proposed Library Addition.
Uphill housing plans
Siobhan Murray and William M Fierman
As The Bucknellian reported last week, plans for new uphill residential housing were approved by the board of trustees in April of 2010 and are now moving steadily towards reality.
After they had been approved, the plans were subject to changes recommended by a study of student experiences at the University by the new president and dean of students. These included the addition of more public spaces where students can congregate informally and for events such as speakers.
Each residence hall will include four-person units that include a living room, as well as a central space for the building. The images taken from the University Master Plan include one of an atmospheric atrium with several-story high windows overlooking a common green space. The buildings will be constructed in the large open field behind the Bertrand Library and the ongoing Academic west construction site. The plan will also include a field for recreational sports and activities.
The plan has been in the works since 1998, when the Board of Trustees found non-university housing downtown, fraternity housing and the mods to be lacking and steadily declining in quality. The university has since hoped to cut down on the amount of students living off campus and consolidate the student body onto the campus. The new housing will also serve to expand the residential education programs the university already offers.
The buildings will house 340 students, which means 250 more students will be living on campus than do currently.
The Economics Department received 145 applications for the economics major this year, some 40-50 percent higher than last year. The department, which usually receives 90-110 applicants, had to turn many students away to reach its target of 100 majors.
“I would say the economy has been sluggish, it could be some students feel the need to choose a major that’s more marketable; the market for jobs is competitive, when the economy is going well students might choose differently,” said Professor of Economics Thomas Kinnaman, who participated in the selection of economics majors.
“I think the economics major has definitely become a lot more relevant because of the state of the economy in recent years. These issues were highlighted in the 2012 presidential race, which may have turned a lot of attention on the economy,” said Morgan Beams ’15, who applied and was accepted into the economics major.
Nationally, starting median salary for an economics major is $48,800 according to Forbes magazine. The Economics Department faculty looked at grades, particularly economics courses grades, of the students considered as well as an essay students submitted on an economic event or decision. Kinnaman also pointed to the department’s transition to an online application process, which may have made the major easier for students to apply to.
“I’m surprised all 4,000 students aren’t applying,” Kinnaman said. “We’d like to think that it’s because we’re doing a good job teaching fantastic and relevant courses. Many faculty believe that economics program here is very unique and offers broad range of courses not offered at peer institutions.”
The Economics Department offers such courses as African Economic Development, Political Economy of the Caribbean, Gender and Migration, Health Economics and Population and Family Economics.
“My favorite class was Urban Economics with Nancy White,” said Michel Ajjan ’14, who hopes to be employed in the aviation industry with his major. “I think that the support I get from the economics professors here will ensure my success in the future.”
Increased student interest in economics may point to the need for expansion of the University’s economics department, but the trend would have to continue for “at least three years” for a strong enough case to expand the department’s faculty, according to Kinnaman. Students who were denied the major are encouraged to reapply if their grades in economics improve.
Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons Arianna Huffington spoke at the Weis Center on Tuesday.
Kerong Kelly
Arianna Huffington, president and editor-in-chief of the Huffington Post Media Group, addressed members of the campus community regarding the impact technology has had on society thus far on Feb. 19.
In 2005, Huffington launched The Huffington Post as a news and blog site. Huffington is the author of 13 books, some of which include the New York Times best-seller “Pigs at the Trough: How Corporate Greed and Political Corruption are Undermining America” and “Right is Wrong: How the Lunatic Fringe Hijacked America, Shredded the Constitution and Made Us All Less Safe.”
As the final speaker of the “tech/no” spring series, Huffington spoke about the positive and negative aspects of social media. A mogul in the world of information and technology, Huffington recognized the change from passive consumption of news media to a world where “news is about participating and engaging.” She was adamant that the Internet is a way for people to engage themselves in activities and causes that bring meaning to their lives.
Despite her place on the cutting edge of the media landscape, Huffington placed emphasis on the idea that it is important to take a break from technology. She spoke about popular addiction to technology and the constant need for communication. Huffington then in turn said how technology is causing people unnecessary stress. Huffington spoke about the incorporation of “nap rooms” which have been a popular way that people in the office can detach themselves from the mobile and hyper connected world.
“Humorous, engaged and intelligent, Arianna Huffington warned us of our growing dependence on technology, and in order to become healthier, urged us to disconnect from it whenever possible. Coming from a media giant like herself, you must take this advice to heart,” Chris Schwake ’16 said.
Huffington also pitched the Huffington Post’s newest mobile application called “GPS for the Soul,” which enables the user to make healthier choices and find a way to disconnect in the modern world.
After she finished speaking, students and members of the surrounding Lewisburg community asked questions regarding ways in which technology will change in the future and how to bring a component of personal meaning into the equation.
Chris Paine | The Bucknellian University administration is concerned about the disturbingly high trend of alcohol-related hospitalizations, and has distributed information regarding the prevention of high-risk drinking to students and parents.
Increase in Student Hospitalizations
Kerong Kelly
Alcohol intoxication is responsible for a steep increase in the number of student hospitalizations, including eight hospitalizations in the first week of the Spring semester alone. As of Feb. 19, there have been 17 hospitalizations. The drastic increase has caused concern among members of the University administration.
As part of an initiative to inform students on the increase of alcohol abuse, pamphlets with information regarding the recent numbers of hospitalizations were placed in each student’s mailbox.
A committee called the Learning Collaborative for High-Risk Drinking, which communicates with other universities in order to address the problem, includes members from the Communications Department, Psychological Services, Fraternity and Sorority Affairs, Student Activities, Public Safety, faculty, staff and students. The committee works to educate the student body and hopefully cut down on the number of hospitalizations as a result of intoxication.
Student opinions of the University’s initiatives are mixed.
“To some extent the university might need to look at their own procedures. It’s not like the students are any different,” Tom Lukow ’16 said.
“It’s good that the University is trying to cut back on dangerous drinking but having Public Safety walk around the halls more frequently isn’t helping anything,” Ivanna Bihun ’16 said.
A reason for concern pertains to the recent incidents of inappropriate behavior exhibited by students toward the Evangelical Community Hospital staff. One specific case in particular involving a student and a member of the nursing staff is currently being handled by the Buffalo Valley Regional State Police.
University administration has stressed that keeping the student body aware of such incidents is a priority.
“We’re trying to get the word out that these are what our concerns are on campus. We want to engage students in initiatives that they think will be effective,” Dean of Students Susan Lantz said.
Dean of Students Susan Lantz and Associate Vice President for Facilities Dennis Hawley provided an update last week on the plan for a 340-student residence complex to be opened south of the Bertrand Library by fall of 2015.
The plan was approved in April of 2010 to open fall of 2013 but was put on hold in 2010 to provide further time to study student experiences under the new Dean of Students and President, according to Hawley. The Board will officially approve the development’s budget this April, planned to be approximately $45 million, according to Lantz.
The new complex will include four residential halls and one common building. Each residential hall will have four-person units with living rooms, as well as a central living room. The common building will be a multipurpose space and will include meeting rooms, room for speakers and a grab-and-go eatery. The outdoor area is planned to have open recreational spaces, a fireplace, a teaching wall and “lots of student parking,” Lantz said.
This development comes from a 1998 decision by the Board of Trustees to eliminate downtown housing to enhance student safety, said Associate Dean of Students Dan Remley. Flooding in the downtown area in recent years worsened the conditions of many of the houses and has caused many to be condemned, including 10 houses on Sixth Street. Government grants to tear down these houses expire in 2015. Landlords are agreeing to tear down on a voluntary basis, and four of these houses are scheduled for demolition as soon as this summer. The remaining condemned houses will be torn down the summer of 2014.
The decision to limit 200 students to live downtown beginning fall of 2015 is less stringent than the original 1998 Board of Trustees ban on downtown student housing starting the fall of 2013. University administration has since extended that deadline to a 200-student-cap on downtown housing by fall of 2015. Housing Services is in the process of working with Bucknell Student Government (BSG) to determine the lottery for students to apply for downtown housing. According to Remley, talks with BSG involve determining how to have fair representation of students in that lottery.
These changes in housing also come as part of the University’s recent efforts to enhance student experiences on campus by consolidating the student body onto campus.
“We want to enhance Bucknellians’ experiences, and aggregate spaces for students to engage and converse,” Remley said.
The release of the Campus Climate Report in the fall of 2011 highlighted the lack of common spaces in residential buildings for students to hang out.
“Fraternity houses are some of the only buildings on campus with these sorts of common living rooms. Residential halls like McDonnell or Hunt do have some common spaces but those spaces can be reserved by different organizations or clubs on campus, rather than living spaces that allow for more impromptu social gatherings,” Lantz said.
The University has since created focus groups to improve campus residential halls. In addition to the uphill housing plan, administration has worked to create lounges in Smith and older residential halls, installed 52-inch televisions in 38 residential halls, moved administration offices out of Vedder and replaced them with lounge spaces.
As for the uphill housing plan, administrations hopes to create a place where “peer groups can live among each other,” Remley said.
“This is a way for students to have apartment style living but still live on campus,” Lantz said.
The new uphill housing plan comes as part of the Campus Master Plan published in 2008. The first ground to be broken as part of the plan was in 2011 for Academic West, directly behind the Bertrand Library. The plan prioritizes academic spaces such as Academic West and a new arts building, and includes projects for new residential spaces and altered entrances to campus according to the University website. In addition to planning the construction of uphill housing, the administration recently demolished the Kappa Delta Rho fraternity house and has slated the Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity house for demolition. In the summer of 2012, the two new houses for these fraternities were rebuilt behind what will become Academic West to make room for Academic buildings.
Lantz addressed the new housing plan at BSG Congress’s open meeting this past Sunday. Some students raised questions about how the downtown-to-uphill shift would impact the campus drinking culture. Lantz addressed concerns about the “pregame” culture on campus, drinking and driving from downtown bars to uphill residential halls, and the tensions between students and local law enforcement officials.
“Pregaming is a major concern on this campus, and the danger of staying in a dormitory room drinking hard alcohol increases when there are less downtown party destinations. If I could get rid of hard alcohol on campus, I would,” Lantz said. “The administration is open to students’ opinions. Should we open Uptown to underage students when it’s serving alcohol? We don’t know. But we’re asking these sorts of questions.”
Students’ questions signified that changes in housing may impact many realms of campus life. President John Bravman will attend this Sunday’s BSG Congress and is expected to take questions from students.
