Category: Editorial

A new class is being offered for the summer of 2014 to take place in New Orleans. The course will be three weeks long, similar to the Bucknell-in Summer Programs hosted by the Office of International Education. We believe that this class has a lot of potential for students to expand their depth of learning at the University.

The course only spends one week in New Orleans, but that week seems to be extremely busy with a diverse amount of activities. During that week, the mornings will be spent working for Habitat for Humanity in St. Bernard’s Parish, one of the most destroyed areas after the hurricane. This opportunity for service learning will make a great addition to the two trips to New Orleans that the University already has through the Hurricane Katrina Recovery Team. This is also a way for students to work together for a common goal of helping out those in need, which is what the University teaches us through our time here. After that, the afternoons will be spent touring social engineer attractions, like the rain pumping system. While this sounds intense, we think it would useful for students not only to know this for their lives after graduation, but also to understand the dramatic effects the pumping system had during the hurricane.

At the end of each day, students will get the opportunity to meet local musicians and attend performances. New Orleans is rich in musical culture, and will give them a great taste of the uniqueness of the music. The blend of service along  with the local culture will give students an opportunity to immerse themselves in the New Orleans community.

This class will be beneficial for people who want to study abroad but cannot afford to go to places outside of the country. Only one week of the course takes place in New Orleans, which cuts down on finding a location to house everybody for an extended period of time. We understand that students will have to pay summer tuition for the program, and we are assuming they will also have to pay for their living space on campus during that time. While that may take away from the abroad experience to an extent, they are still getting an experience to study in a place that is different than the University.

We definitely think students have a lot to gain from an abroad experience, and this New Orleans experience is no exception. We think it is beneficial to also send students to places in America because there is a lot in this country that many people haven’t seen. With the majority of the students being from the northeast, it will be beneficial for students to see what life is like in the south and how it differs to their lives at the University. Overall, we think this is a great experience and gives more options for student involvement.

William Powers came to the University on Oct. 8 as part of the First-Year Common Reading program. His book, “Hamlet’s Blackberry,” discusses the impact of technology in the digital age by observing major technological revolutions through time. He starts with the time of Socrates and brings it to the 21st century.

Nonconformity is an idea Powers carried with him as he wrote his book. In his talk, he said that he didn’t conform his writing to the typical technology article that shows how technology affects us right now. Instead, he wrote about how technology has affected society through time, not just in the present day. This is especially interesting on campus, where most students have grown up with cell phones and an internet connection from a young age. For us, the internet and smart phones have become an everyday part of life, fully integrated into most of our actions. Walking between classes, you can see students glued to their phones as they pass each other without acknowledgement. It’s as if we’ve formed a relationship with technology almost akin to our relationships with the humans around us.

Think about how you wake up in the morning. Without the technology of alarm clocks, when we were younger, most of us were kindly–or harshly, depending upon how deeply you slept– woken by our mothers. Now most of us wake up to phone alarms, and upon waking up, we check our latest emails, social media updates, and other applications on our phones.

With this in mind, it gets easier to see Powers’ point about the need for people to break away from technology. He said that for five years, his family participated in what they called an “Internet Sabbath,” which meant that they would break away from technology for the weekend. They would unplug in every sense of the word, not touching technology until Monday. The University has already begun to adopt its own form of an Internet Sabbath: the Dancing Mind Challenge. The Dancing Mind Challenge gives people the opportunity to break away from technology for the day, taking the time to read a book instead. Perhaps with the addition of more events like this, the University community can find value in time spent away from technology.

Generally, the University is a safe place. Take a lap around the library or the caf and see the countless number of laptops and cell phones lying around unattended. It’s a trustworthy campus, which makes people feel comfortable and safe while we are here.

Unfortunately, this was not the case on Wednesday night. After last year with all the break-ins and other scares that we’ve had, somebody broke into the mods again.

Even though it was not a University student involved in the break-in, it brings up the point of safety and security that needs to be addressed. We understand that since the mods are far away from campus, most people do not venture that far out of their way to do anything to them. However, the mods also do not have some of the safety measures on campus dorms such as ID pads, giving the student more responsibility for the safety of their property. Since the mods don’t have an ID pad to let them in, students have the equivalence of living downtown in that they can choose whether or not to lock their door, as opposed to the entire building being open to University students.

This recent break-in can also serve as a good lesson to students. After college, most of us will be heading out to live places where many of the security measures we have at the University will not be present. We have to learn at some point to adopt basic practices of living safe, which includes keeping our homes secure. However, has it also reached the point where the University needs to put in more security measures at places like the mods, especially if people are walking into dorms when students are in them?

It is nice when we are in college and live in a world where we have the security of the University and the administration on our side if anything goes wrong. But it’s still important to be responsible for your valuables and to understand the consequences of your actions. While we do live in a trustworthy environment where most of the people will cause you no harm, it is always safe to keep caution with little things like locking your door when you leave. Especially living with a group of people where everyone is liable for each other’s property.

We are all aware that the number of hospitalizations of drunken students was unfortunately high the first few weekends of school, totaling 19 students. On the positive side, last weekend was the first weekend of this school year that nobody was hospitalized.

This is a skewed fact, considering that the decreased number in hospitalizations last weekend was mainly a factor of the lack of parties that occurred off campus, which was likely a result of the increased police activity occurring last weekend. It seems students were too afraid to go out this weekend, considering the extreme and excessive measures that the police went to in attempt to control the party scene.

We understand that students at the University like to go out and party on weekends. We also understand that some of these parties get out of hand and can lead to danger. The question is: do we want to completely stop the party or just control it moderately?

In many ways, measures taken to shut down partying do not always result in improving the safety of students. The administration and the police department often fail to understand that it is nearly impossible to completely shut down student partying, and attempts to do so drive students to underground drinking that is often more dangerous.  We think that Dean of Students Susan Lantz and the students that met last week created a better solution to the problem by not shutting down partying but rather eliminating hard alcohol to make them safer. We were unable to see if this is a viable solution because the excessive police activity caused most parties to be shut down.

It’s difficult for the University and students to take measures downtown because the University has no jurisdiction there. Perhaps an open discussion between the University, students, and the Buffalo Valley Regional Police Department (BVRPD) would better result in a cooperation between everyone. From there, parties can begin to become better under control so that police do not have to feel they must resort to harsh tactics to control downtown.

The school and the police department have taken numerous measures in order to secure safety for the students. As students, we understand that. But the tactics they are using to approach it are actually creating an environment that will lead to more harm. If there is a way for everyone to work together to think of a new solution rather than continuing down a road that perpetuates a cycle, we think that students would be more cooperative with the administration and the BVRPD.

People tend to point fingers in times of trouble or uncertainty. The recent alleged thefts at the Mods have disturbed many students and led them to point fingers at those involved. We are troubled by this story because it is expected that University students will not steal from each other. For this reason, we feel comfortable leaving our belongings unguarded around campus for extended periods of time. When a rare theft or other breach of trust does occur, a common defense mechanism it to distance ourselves from the accused perpetrators. It can be easy to see them as people who we share very little in common with in terms of values or ethics.

Yet in reality, when a couple of students decide to break the implicit community trust, it reflects on the campus community as a whole. As students at the University, we have a lot more in common than we may think. We all ended up here together, didn’t we? While we all have characteristics that define us as individuals, there are similar characteristics and principles that define us as an entire community. One of those principles is honesty, whether it be in our personal lives or our academic work. Students may be dishonest on occasion, but that does not mean that they don’t value moral decency in general.

Following these values, we need to make the University’s Academic Honor Code a more integral part of our daily lives in order to reflect our commitment to honesty. The Honor Code, adopted from Duke University’s Center for Academic Integrity, is designed around the core values of honesty, trust, fairness, respect and responsibility. Although it only consists of four brief statements on these values, it speaks volumes about how we should conduct ourselves in the classroom. Students should actually take the time to read the Honor Code and reflect on how the can incorporate it into their academics.

More importantly, the Honor Code should be expanded to our lives outside of the classroom and be made a more integral part of our daily lives in our commitment to morality. A good model to follow could be the University of Virginia’s Code of Honor. As the nation’s oldest student-run honor system, it has become a cornerstone of their institutional identity. Similarly, we need to make the five aforementioned values explicit parts of our daily lives on campus and beyond. We should celebrate the privilege of being a part of the University’s community by striving to be our best selves in everything we do in our time here.

Many students would say that the University has a lack of diversity. The majority of students are Caucasian, wealthy and in Greek life. The bigger problem here is the lack of understanding of the differences in the school’s community.

Recently, the Interfraternity Council (IFC) began a lecture/discussion series entitled “Diversifying the Greeks.” The goal of the series is to encourage conversations among Greek organization members about diversity issues on campus–multiculturalism, sexuality, etc. Some people say that starting conversations is the way to solve problems. There does not have to be a concrete solution in every idea presented, but getting the ideas and comments flowing is what leads to students making a difference for themselves. Bringing issues such as multiculturalism to the front of the students’ minds will cause them to make better choices in regards to how to handle multiculturalism on campus.

This sounds like a pretty efficient plan, and something that is extremely useful to students as we prepare to enter a world much more diverse than the University community. While this series is a great idea, we have to wonder if it is going to solve the diversity problems on campus. Why are only Greek students being given these opportunities? The entire campus should be encouraged to attend these conversations. One could argue that the majority of campus is Greek, so that’s the only statistic that matters. But it is that exact division and stereotype that just feeds the problem.

Problems that we see here are not confined within the Greek community. There is a larger force at work–the University, as much as it encourages diversity, does not have the statistics to support it.

Further, Greek students are often encouraged to attend other organization’s events. They are a captive audience, being told to do anything and everything to show that Greek life is not their only activity on campus. But shouldn’t this be a two-way street? Greek organizations hold numerous events every semester that are open to all of campus. Unaffiliated students do not receive pressure or encouragement to attend these events any more than the occasional Message Center post or passing poster, just because they are not a captive audience. Is there a way to encourage other students to interact with Greek students, therefore bridging the gap with a more effective two-way street, as opposed to a forced one-way street?

Overall, all students on campus should be open to new cultures. Try something new every day. Learn more about someone in a different social group than you. Enrich not only yourself, but help bridge the gaps on campus that can make it such an uncomfortable place for minorities.

Uptown, the University’s nonalcoholic nightclub, is considering ways to bring more students through their doors, especially on weekends. Currently, many underage students choose to spend their time socializing in dorms or at downtown parties on weekend nights. These options are often popular because they are conducive to underage drinking. While generally harmless, these routes can lead to unsafe drinking, as demonstrated by the increase of hospitalizations at the beginning of the current semester. For these reasons, the student body could benefit from having an alternative social scene on the weekend. While Uptown does currently serve as one such option, not many students hang out there on any given Friday or Saturday night. Despite the exciting events offered, many often don’t because they can’t drink there.

It could be reasonable to say that Uptown should open their doors to underage students when alcohol is being served. Currently, they hold events such as “Pub Night” that are open exclusively to people of age. It would be fairly easy to have wristbands or some other system to make sure that only students of age are served. Opening such events to all students, including those underage, would encourage attendance because 21-year-old students would be able to spend time with their underage friends.

The risk of underage drinking occurring if Uptown were to go through with this plan is small, and the benefits could be large. Uptown could create a nice pool hall/nightclub environment that would foster casual drinking. This would be more similar to real-world situations that graduates often find themselves in, be it casually drinking with coworkers at a bar or getting a glass of wine on a potential job interview. Having drinks in a public space could help to curb excessive and binge drinking if students see how alcohol can be consumed responsibly, which is certainly an idea that the University can get behind.

In the end, if providing alcohol on a more regular basis incentivizes students to try a safer and more responsible alternative to the traditional party scene, then it is an avenue worth exploring.

When a student goes to college, their family expects them to act like an adult. Parents trust their children to make good decisions and live relatively on their own for the first time. There are no curfews or chaperones, but there are flexible class schedules, allowing students to wake up at 8 a.m. or noon. Students have to handle their own problems in classes, take themselves to the doctor, buy their own groceries and drink responsibly. An overwhelming majority of college students are at least 18 years old, and therefore legally considered an “adult,” anyway. College is a step into the real world–a look at what to expect when we move out of our parents’ homes and start living on our own.

So, if we are expected to act like adults, we expect to be treated like adults.

Last week, Geisinger Health System purchased ad space from The Bucknellian, and used it to run an ad on new liposuction technology. Since the paper went to print, we have been informed that this made some faculty members uncomfortable. The Bucknellian values free speech, and any letter sent to the staff will be personally reviewed by the editors-in-chief and printed in the following week’s issue. This is the easiest way to let us know when there is a problem. Not only will we know, but we will openly and willingly print a complaint about our actions in our own publication, for our entire readership to see. However, at no point have any of these faculty members contacted The Bucknellian. Instead, they went to the President’s office, an office completely unaffiliated with our entirely student-run newspaper.

As an adult, it is a college student’s decision as to whether or not they want liposuction, just like it is their decision whether or not they want to go to a bar or a tanning salon, both of which we have run ads for in the past and gotten no backlash for. A college student is an adult. With that in mind, we cater towards an adult audience. We can’t operate under the assumption that our audience is G-rated; it’s just not realistic. And contrary to popular belief, the University is not actually in a bubble. Turn on the TV and anyone–college students, elementary students and college professors alike–will see commercials for birth control, Viagra, liposuction and more. These do not promote promiscuous, irresponsible activity or aim to offend anyone. They serve to inform the public.

The Geisinger ad itself is not prejudiced. It is not racist, it is not sexist, it is not favoring the skinny. Quite the opposite, actually. If the faculty had looked a little closer at the page, they would see that the liposuction ad is placed next to two ads for bars and cheesesteaks. The Bucknellian does not have a bias here. We don’t mind if people want to go to a bar and consume their weight in sirloin steaks and beer. We don’t mind if a student wants to get liposuction. Further, ads placed in our paper do not represent our own opinion as an editorial board or an independent publication. This is clearly stated in The Bucknellian’s Advertising Policy. Ads are our income. We are simply printing information. It is information from the client, not a bias from The Bucknellian. We may not agree with the client’s choice to advertise to this particular audience, but again, that is not our decision.

If a student is curious about liposuction, has thought about it and wants to go through with the procedure, this ad provides them with the information that they deserve to get, from a trusted, respectable health care provider. Actually, Geisinger runs the University’s own Student Health Services. The Bucknellian is not going to censor information from our own University’s health services, or anyone that they have chosen to partner with. These are figures that we should trust, if we are going to trust anyone.

At the end of the day, The Bucknellian staff is comprised of a group of mature, responsible and logical adults. We can defend our choices. We ask to be treated like the adults that we are expected to be, and we strive to give the same respect to our readers and peers. As a student-run publication, there is no one outside of the editorial staff that has the right to tell a company that they can or cannot advertise with us. In the “real world,” not everybody will be happy all the time. That’s just not how life works. So, during this crucial time in our lives when we are expected to be adults and prepare for the challenges of the work force, how are we going to develop problem-solving and confrontation skills when we are still babysat at the first sight of conflict? Unfortunately, as evidenced by the administration’s lack of communication with the students and this student newspaper, we aren’t. How will the student body develop responsible decision-making skills and a strong will against the unattainable perfection and photoshopped beauty of advertisements when we shield them from every possible bad influence? They won’t.