The Bucknellian

By Meghan Finlayson

Writer

A Dove spokesperson and model challenged students and faculty to change their perceptions about real beauty in her presentation Oct. 11 in the Weis Center for the Performing Arts.

As a college student living in Chicago, Stacy Nadeau was approached on the street one day and asked to   join the Dove Campaign for Real Beauty.

Nadeau became one of the six “Dove girls” and part of Dove’s advertising campaign in 2004. The campaign was created to redefine beauty and improve self-esteem, as well as sell Dove products.

The campaign began after Dove sent out a national survey asking women if they felt comfortable calling themselves beautiful. Ninety-eight percent of those who replied to the survey answered “no.”

As a “Dove girl,” Nadeau modeled with five other women, ranging from size two to size 12. Their photos were not airbrushed or altered, and the women were stripped down to their underwear.

The goal of these photos was to show Dove’s belief that “real beauty can be stunning.”

Nadeau and the five other models felt that “if [they made] one woman feel better about herself, [they did] their job.”

Encouraging more women to feel good about themselves, the “Dove girls” made appearances on the “Today Show,” “Ellen DeGeneres” and “Oprah.“

Nadeau spoke about how women and men should strive to be “[their] own very best self” and that “your own healthy self looks different for everyone.”

She demonstrated how most advertisements today are based on a limited and distorted definition of beauty by playing a clip called “Dove Evolution.” This clip showed a model being airbrushed, altered and completely transformed through a computer program. Many in the audience were shocked to see the final photograph was completely different.

“It is about changing perceptions … it is time to change the conversation,” Nadeau said.

“You have way more to offer than your pant size,” Nadeau said.

She ended by encouraging everyone “not to pass judgment on any size” and to “change our community and respect others, starting with [ourselves].”

“She spoke with so much confidence and made me see that the media and conventional standards of beauty are really ridiculous and destructive,” Krissy Stewart ’13 said.

Nadeau is currently working as a freelance model for Dove. She plans to continue her “Embracing Real Beauty” speeches at other colleges and universities.

By Courtney Flagg

News Editor

The University will begin construction to establish infrastructure for a new academic building and prepare for new student housing as early as spring 2011.

Academic West is advertised as “a first-class learning, teaching and research facility” that will “mark the extension of the academic life of campus south of the library on the great model of the classic academic quad at the heart of the University,” according to a fundraising booklet from Development and Alumni Relations.

The Board of Trustees approved the University’s decision to proceed with preparations for Academic West in September, said Tom Evelyn, senior director of news and media relations.

The Board’s discussion of Academic West began with the completion of the campus master plan several years ago.

“We will host a groundbreaking for this infrastructure development on Saturday, Nov. 13, during the next Board of Trustees meeting,” Evelyn said.

The total estimated cost of Academic West, based on current tentative construction plans, is approximately $24 million.

“It is the University’s intention that the cost of the building, either in whole or in significant part, will be funded by donors at various levels of giving who invest in this important academic facility,” Evelyn said.

The University has already received a significant gift from a “friend of the University” totaling $6 million that will be applied to construction of the complex.

“The University is currently conducting an aggressive fundraising effort for the remaining costs of the facility, including discussions with a variety of potential donors about ways they may want to fund the building’s construction, including such opportunities that would provide for naming the building itself, various classrooms and laboratories in the building and other spaces that donors can help name with generous contributions,” Evelyn said.

Key features of Academic West include an added 70,000 square feet of space to the University’s catalog of classrooms, offices, laboratories and meeting areas and a three-story building that will form the west side of the new social science quad extending south from Bertrand Library.

Academic West will include a Geographic Information Systems Lab, a Geography lab, a teaching/research lab, an extra-large classroom, three conference rooms, four large classrooms, four medium classrooms and four hearth spaces as well as a needed supply of 59 faculty offices as well as various new classrooms.

“To suit different purposes, several classrooms in Academic West will feature tiered seating that can accommodate a lecture or create an intimate environment for a seminar,” according to the fundraising document.

The construction of Academic West will provide some difficulty.

“Any new construction project unfortunately leads to some inconvenience for people in that area, such as construction noises and interference with parking. The University will do its best to minimize the inconvenience as it develops these important additions to the University’s campus,” Evelyn said.

Two fraternities, Kappa Delta Rho and Lambda Chi Alpha, need to be relocated for Academic West to begin construction. The University is working out arrangements for doing so with representatives of both fraternities, as residents need to be moved to new houses further south of Bertrand Library.

Construction of the new “loop” road, site preparation and fraternity relocation will begin this spring and is anticipated to end late next fall. Construction on Academic West and new student housing is expected to begin spring 2012 and will likely be completed during summer 2013.

Construction dates of Academic East and the new Arts Building have yet to be determined.

The goal is to complete fundraising for Academic West so that the building can open by fall 2013.

By Rob Duffy

Managing Editor

A special committee formed to address the role of athletics at the University reaffirmed a policy of spending $3 of merit aid for non-athletes for each $1 spend on merit aid for athletes.

Provost Mick Smyer presented the committee’s conclusions and sought feedback at a campus forum on Friday in the Elaine Langone Center Forum.

According to Smyer, the three-to-one ratio was created as an “aspiration” rather than a concrete rule. Smyer said the University has now reached that target and will attempt to keep it in place in the future.

The discussion was partially prompted by an ongoing debate within the Patriot League over the advantages and disadvantages of awarding merit aid to athletes. The presidents from the Patriot League schools will meet in December to consider whether to change league policy to allow for merit aid for football players. Currently 10 sports at the University offer merit aid; football does not.

Smyer said the committee aimed to reach general conclusions rather than solve specific issues like merit aid in football, which will be the subject of a separate campus forum in the future.

He said that any changes to the aid policy will not likely affect the University’s “discount rate,” the average student’s reduction from the full price of tuition due to scholarships or other financial aid. According to Smyer, the current discount rate is roughly 30 percent.

“Our projections are not that that’s going to go down at all, but if anything we’ll have to increase that due to the competition of the marketplace,” Smyer said.

The committee’s full report can be accessed from the President’s netspace.

Some audience members expressed frustration with the report’s scope and conclusions.

George Exner, professor of mathematics, questioned Smyer’s claim that the three-to-one ratio had been met. According to Exner, the ratio’s original purpose was to establish a predominance of academics and performing arts over athletics, but since its inception, a disproportionate amount of merit aid has gone to the Posse Scholars. Subtracting the Posse Scholars brings the ratio closer to two-to-one.

Exner also questioned whether credible evidence exists that the University meets the Patriot League’s goal of “having student-athletes who are academically representative of their institutions.”

Ben Marsh, professor of geography and environmental studies, said the report avoided its stated purposes. The report begins with four questions, among them “What role should intercollegiate and intramural athletics play in the life of the University?” and “What are the advantages and disadvantages of participating at the Division I level?,” but it does not appear to address non-varsity athletics or consider any alternatives to Division I or the Patriot League.

“I’m disappointed we lost an opportunity to have a discussion of this promise,” Marsh said.

Prior to the forum, Marsh sent a message to the faculty ListServ criticizing the committee and report.

“The report seems to have been shaped from the start to support illimitable investment in athletics, without consideration of the impact of that investment on the rest of the student body or even on athletics itself,” Marsh said.

Other audience members noted that by failing to truly address the role of athletics at the University, the report failed to recognize one of the University’s greatest strengths.

“Athletics works better here than just about everywhere else,” said Carl Milofsky, professor of sociology. “[Being Division I] gives high-quality athletes an opportunity to compete at a level they want to be at and still be serious students. We should be putting that front and center.”