Category: News

Jason Pepe
Writer

As the spring semester comes to a close, Greek organizations around campus are already beginning to recruit potential new members (PNMs). Fraternities invited potential new members to their houses to watch the NCAA men’s basketball championship on Monday, April 2. The Panhellenic Council hosted Open Suites last Sunday in Hunt Hall to further acclimate PNMs to the sorority recruiting process.

The first round of open suites started at 3:30 Sunday afternoon, and from there potential new members were introduced to each sorority. For each round, PNMs were briefly introduced to each sorority and then spent the remainder of time getting to know a few of its members.

Molly Flaccavento ’13, recruitment chair for Pi Beta Phi sorority, said the event is important because it helps both PNMs and sorority members prepare for fall recruitment.

“Open Suites is a great opportunity for us to show our spirit and let PNMs know what Pi Phi, and Greek Life as a whole, is all about,” Flaccavento said.

While there is typically a great deal of stress associated with Greek recruitment, these events help to alleviate anxiety by providing an environment where PNMs can get to know members of Greek organizations on a personal level.

“I was surprised by how comfortable the sororities made me feel and how smoothly the conversations went,” Clare Lawler ’15 said. “It got me excited for the recruitment process next year.”

Fraternities treated their PNMs to dinner and watched the Kentucky Wildcats beat the Kansas Jayhawks as they got to know the brothers.

Dave D’Alessandro ’14, recruitment chair for Phi Gamma Delta fraternity, said they watched a game on a big screen projector and enjoyed getting to know the PNMs.

“The brothers of Fiji look forward to meeting more freshmen and opening its doors to a large and diverse pledge class,” Alessandro said.

By Lauren Buckley
Contributing Writer

Turnout was less than ideal at Wednesday’s Red Cross Blood Drive in Larison Dining Hall due to a lack of student awareness. The post cards that are normally put into student mailboxes were not distributed because there was a problem getting them approved, according to Stephany Musgrave, the American Red Cross Northeastern Pennsylvania Account Manager.

“Our turnout yesterday was very disappointing,”  Musgrave said. “We only had 78 donors present, with 11 donors being deferred and 1 QNS. We ended up with 72 good pints of blood. 60 whole blood and 6 for 12 pints of double red cells. Those 72 pints will be broken down into its three components and will be used to help 216 patients.”

In addition to only getting 78 donors, there were only nine first time donors yesterday, as compared to the usual 30 or so.

According to Nancy Libbey, Volunteer Coordinator for the Red Cross Chapter of Snyder, Union, and Northumberland Counties, the University has a long history of involvement with blood drives on campus, going back several decades. Alpha Phi Omega, a co-ed service fraternity, has consistently been the campus sponsor.

“[Alpha Phi Omega] has always provided dedicated support in promoting the drives on campus, recruiting donors and helping the day of the drive by greeting/signing in donors and providing refreshments,” Libbey said.

There is currently a critical nationwide need for Type B negative and Type O negative blood. The Red Cross especially urges people with these blood types to donate. Type O negative is the universal donor type because it can be transfused to any patient in an emergency situation until there is time to type that person’s blood. Musgrave said that she was not able to get a report stating how many donors were of critical blood type.

“Shortages often occur during winter months because of cold, illness and uncertain weather conditions and in the summer because schools are on break (students account for over 30 percent of blood donated), heat and vacations. They also occur during times of disasters when the affected areas cannot collect enough blood to meet the needs of the patients. In these cases, the Red Cross uses its national inventory management system to transfer blood in unaffected areas to those that need it,” said Shannon Ludwig, the Communications Manager for the Northeastern Pennsylvania American Red Cross.

To entice more people to recognize the benefits of donating blood, the American Red Cross has offered a campaign throughout the month of April called the “Nook-a-Day Giveaway.” The contest selects one donor each day of the month to win a free Barnes & Noble Nook electronic-book reader. Donors who participated in Wednesday’s blood drive on campus were eligible to be one of these winners.

The Red Cross hopes all eligible students and faculty continue donating over the summer months as well as in the blood drives in the 2012-2013 academic year. The event coordinators are hoping to hold two-day drives for each donation period next year, held in September, November, January and April.

“It is important for young people to donate because they are helping us to ensure an adequate blood supply for the community. The more frequently individuals donate early on in life, the more likely they are to become lifetime donors. The need for blood is something that will never go away. Blood cannot be manufactured: it can only come from volunteer donors,” Ludwig said.

One quick donation can save the lives of up to three people. Donors must be 16 years of age or older, weigh at least 110 pounds and be in good health. For more information about becoming a donor, visit www.redcross.org.

By Olivia Seecof

Writer

The Greek community’s requirement to complete a certain number of community service hours was recently discontinued along with the rest of the “Plan for Prominence.” This has caused a decline in volunteers at many local organizations. One organization that has seen weakened participation is Head Start.

Associate professor of management Jamie Hendry teaches an all-senior class entitled “Business, Government and Society,” which includes discussions of moral reasoning about organizational decisions grounded in philosophical theories. Many students in this class, as well as across the University community, have expressed concern over the issue that community service is lacking due to the discontinued requirement.

“During our conversation about egoism, the question of altruistic behavior arose, which led us to talk about community service, which led someone to bring up the P4P system. Some students expressed disappointment that their fellow Greeks no longer join them for volunteer activities at local organizations like Head Start because the new Greek evaluation system doesn’t reward this,” Hendry said.

“In class we recently heard from two young women who participate in Head Start each week. They have been a part of that organization during both stages of the community service requirement, allowing them to witness what seems to be a recurring phenomenon. The number of students who used to volunteer for one hour a week has greatly diminished,” Allison Pollack ’12 said, reflecting on the class.

The Plan for Prominence was originally developed to try to increase the total benefits of  “being Greek” at the University.

“It was a blessing that every semester each chapter had to participate in community service, benefiting the community,” Pollack said. “The rumors circling around this change include the accusation that students are merely raking in hours to complete their chapter requirements with no real desire to help others, sometimes even lying about the number of hours completed.”

Now that students are aware that organizations that once experienced a great deal of support and service from the University no longer do, many students are taking time to reflect upon their actions.

“What does it say about the students, that we aren’t intrinsically motivated to help others? Why must there be something in it for us in order for us to want to do something good for someone else? Have we been so conditioned that we only associate community service as something for our own personal benefit?” Pollack said.

Head Start is just one organization that has been affected by the decision to eliminate Plan for Prominence requirements.

 “My friends and I used to go to Mostly Mutts every other Saturday morning and now we don’t go. Not that we don’t want to help out anymore, it is just that there is a lack of motivation since the sorority [and fraternity] requirement is no longer in existence,” Anna Rogers ’12 said.

The drop in student volunteers has also been seen within the Bucknell Buddies, Donald Heiter Community Center and food bank organizations, among others. These organizations all still need volunteers.

“I think that everyone has at least one hour a week to give to others, and who knows what a difference in someone else’s life that hour will do,” Pollack said.

Esra Sardag

Contributing Writer

Students and staff volunteered to assist downtown residents and businesses with their spring projects in the annual Spring Thaw Out on April 6 from 3 – 5 p.m. and April 7 from 9 – 11:30 a.m. This year, the project aimed to clean and organize the plants in Mariah’s Garden, a small garden located on South Front Street and Walnut Alley, and overlooking the Susquehanna River.

The garden is a memorial to Mariah Quant, a Lewisburg resident who died in a car accident just hours before she was to receive her high school diploma in 2000. Her parents built the park with the help of other residents and local businesses to keep her memory alive. The garden contains plants that are all indigenous to Pennsylvania. All of the plants are different and bloom in different seasons so that the garden never completely dies throughout the year.

“It was really rewarding to interact with and give back to the community. It meant a lot to me that I could help out with something that meant so much to this girl’s family,” Karen Hecht ’14 said.

Volunteers mulched, edged the garden and pulled out weeds.

“It was great to be able to work outside on a nice spring afternoon to make a beautiful area for people to enjoy. I’ll definitely be taking advantage of it,” Carla Renner ’14 said.

The grand opening of the garden was on April 7 and the garden is now open for public enjoyment.

By Sara Blair Matthews
Assistant News Editor

Several University students and a professor were the victims of racial slurs and intimidating behavior on campus on April 4 between 10 p.m. and 11 p.m. The suspects are a group of college-age, white males who were seen driving a dark colored sedan. The incident is under investigation and the charge has been classified as harassment.

“Such slurs are an affront to the values of Bucknell, violate our shared sense of civility and are an insult to the respect we share for one another. They will not be tolerated,” President John Bravman said.

Nina Banks, acting Director of the Center for the Study of Race, Ethnicity and Gender (CSREG), believes that while students, faculty and staff of color have raised concerns over racial harassment for many years, but the University has taken few meaningful steps to address these issues.

“CSREG is [especially] troubled by the recent incidents of racial harassment at the University [because] these incidents did not suddenly spring up but instead are part of [the University] climate,” Banks said.

Banks believes the racial harassment on campus is tied to a larger issue where racial, ethnic and other minority groups are too often made to feel unwelcome and marginal.

“One of the students who was accosted by the car filled with white males told me that she no longer feels safe walking around campus at night,” Banks said.

Banks sees these recent incidents not as exceptions, but rather as a pattern of students of color being verbally insulted by white students using racial slurs.

When asked whether she would consider the University a racially safe campus, Banks said it would depend on how one defines “safe.” Banks believes an environment where students of color are “subjected to ridicule by other students or made to feel unwelcome in the classroom or lab by their … classmates [is] not a racially safe environment.”

“[Neither is a place where] black staff [members’ work] is undermined by colleagues [to the point where they] worry about losing their jobs because they have upset the white power structure at Bucknell,” Banks said.

Banks thinks that the campus community needs to begin to have honest conversations about the racial problems at the University before we can reduce the atmosphere of racial tension. Other faculty members agree.

“The University [is] having a ‘crisis’ in areas of race and inclusion,” a colleague of Banks said.

In response to the recent events, the Department of Public Safety sent out a Timely Notification Bulletin alerting campus of this incident and urging students to come forward if they know any information about this occurrence. Public Safety could say nothing more than acknowledge that the investigation is ongoing.

Bucknell Panhellenic and Interfraternity Council will host Go Greek Week 2012 next week. Look out for the following events all week long!

Monday, April 16:

11 a.m. – 1 p.m. and 6 – 7 p.m. – There will be free cake in the afternoon in the ELC Mall and then in the evening in Bostwick Marketplace.

7 – 9 p.m. – Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity will present Dan Savage, creator of the “It Gets Better” Project, in the Weis Center for the Performing Arts.

Tuesday, April 17:

5 – 7 p.m. – Wing Fest, to be held in Larison Dining Hall, will support the Million Penny Project and HandUp Foundation of Milton. 

7 – 8:30 p.m. – There will be an a capella “Supershow” in Smith Quad featuring the Silhouettes, Beyond Unison and The Offbeats.

Wednesday, April 18:

3 – 6 p.m. – There will be free food and refreshments outside the Ellen Clarke Bertrand Library for a study break with Greeks.

7:30 – 9 p.m. – Chi Phi fraternity will present Randy Roberts Potts, a LGBT awareness speaker, in Trout Auditorium.

Thursday, April 19:

7 – 8:30 p.m. – There will be a faculty vs. Greek organization students basketball game with the Truck Bed Band performing for the half-time show.

Friday, April 20:

11:30 a.m. – 1 p.m. – The Career Development Center and Alumni Relations will co-host an Alumni Luncheon in Hunt Basement.

Saturday, April 21:

This is Admitted Students Day. There will be various Greek-hosted events going on all around campus, including Alpha Delta Pi sorority’s Preppy Olympics and Pi Beta Phi sorority’s Beta BBQ.

Sunday, April 22:

10 a.m. – 1 p.m. – There will be a 5K Fun Run/Walk and Zumbathon to raise funds for the LARA Pool Pass Project in the Gerhard Fieldhouse.

By Jenni Whalen

Senior Writer

Despite the fact that there are strict rules regarding Adderall prescriptions and distribution, there is a large culture of recreational use of the drug on campus.

Many students who are prescribed Adderall either sell or abuse the drug, seeing it as more of an opportunity to get high than a study aid.

“Is there elicit use of these prescriptions on this campus? Absolutely, yes,” said Dr. Don Stechschulte, director of Student Health Services.

“Several of my friends who do not have prescriptions have snorted Adderall to study, rather than just taking the pill,” an anonymous student said. “The demand for it is especially high during exam time.”

In addition to its prescribed use, many students choose to use the drug on a purely recreational basis to increase levels of focus during finals and midterms. Some students also use Adderall as an “upper” when they go to parties.

“For five dollars, I can find it at any time, any place on campus, be it for studying or recreational use. It’s everywhere here,” said another student who also chose to remain anonymous.

Adderall, a drug which combines dextroamphetamine and amphetamine, controls symptoms of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in adults and children. According to Stechschulte, the number of Americans with attention deficit disorders has grown exponentially over the last 15 years.

Students cannot acquire an initial prescription for ADHD medication from the Psychological Services or Student Health Services offices on campus; they must be diagnosed by a family doctor. Once the student arrives at the University, he or she is required to sign a contract regarding the obligations of taking ADHD medication, which reminds the student that “it is a felony to obtain these psychostimulant medications by fraudulent means, to possess these medications without a legitimate prescription, and to give or sell these medications to others.” 

“Often, students come in saying that they have lost their Adderall prescription,” Stechschulte said.

To prove that the prescription has indeed been lost or stolen, students must bring in a police report or some other evidence of the incident. To avoid allowing the student to have a double dose of the drug, Student Health Services also sends a letter to the student’s previous doctor upon prescribing Adderall.
Although Adderall can be helpful for some students, it can be detrimental for others.

“I have seen Adderall-induced psychosis during my time here at Bucknell. It happened to a student who didn’t regularly take the drug,” Stechschulte said.

Unnecessary Adderall use, especially when combined with other substances like marijuana and alcohol, can cause acute psychosis, insomnia, an irregular diet and heart arrhythmias, among other things. 

While Psychological Services offers services for students struggling with substance abuse, they were unable to provide the exact frequency with which University students use Adderall in a recreational manner.

Stechschulte also acknowledges that the use of Adderall is a complicated issue.

“There is a debate that says ‘Why can’t I be as good as I can be?’ It is a medical and ethical dilemma. If there is a single mother who needs to work two jobs in order to provide for her family and who cannot get through the second job without an extra boost from Adderall, who are we to deny her that?” Stechschulte said.