The Bucknellian

Paige Bailey
Writer

A sparse crowd made up primarily of current Bucknell Student Government (BSG) members gathered in the Gallery Theater on Nov. 14  as candidates promised greater transparency and student attendance if elected to the executive board for the new year. The executive board is comprised of a President, Vice President of Operations, Vice President of Finance and a Vice President of Administration. Each leader has a critical role to play as a liaison between the executive branch and the Student Congress.

Executive board members from the current term, President Dotun Odewale ’13 and VP Finance Mo Karam ’13, moderated an hour-long debate the night before the election. This forum gave each candidate a chance to talk about their individual leadership experiences, records of achievement and plans to move BSG forward.

Two out of the seven people running for positions have never been involved with BSG, but said that they would seek to improve relations between the wider student body and the executives by making decisions more transparent. One candidate, in fact, said greater transparency would be his “number one goal.” BSG representative Jared Lowenthal ’15 said that he thinks these “people from outside of BSG would provide good insights and opinions if elected.”

Similarly, even current members agreed that through transparency there would be greater student awareness of BSG proceedings. While transparency was never defined in an extensive way, it is clear that all the candidates hoped to increase attendance and interest in the initiatives that BSG puts forth.

BSG member William Persing ’15 said he was “glad to see people passionate about serving the school.” Persing also said that overall, being on the BSG executive board is a “big position” and members are “not given enough credit.”

Post Election Panel:

Who voted and Why?

Daniel Park

Writer

On Nov. 14, a post-election panel was put together by the Bucknell Public Interest Project (BPIP) to shed light on polling and various factors that contributed to President Barack Obama’s second-term reelection. Ed Goeas, president and CEO of The Tarrance Group, Karl Agne, founding partner of GBA Strategies, Professor of Economics Christopher Magee and Assistant Professor of Political Science Chris Ellis discussed the different outcomes that were predicted during the presidential campaign as well as the factors that led to Obama’s second term.

Agne initiated the discussion by introducing the broad spectrum of policy implications that would be affected by the outcome of this year’s election, ranging from comprehensive immigration reform, gay marriage, vacancy of the federal branch and the economy.

“Although during every election, each president makes it such that it appears as if that year’s election is the most important there is, but this year it really is that important,” Agne said.

As a Democrat, he believes Obama has a unique style of leadership that the Republicans have lacked for years.

“Barack Obama had two opponents to face during the presidential campaign: he had Mitt Romney and the economy,” Goeas said.

He doubts that there was momentum for one candidate during the campaign and believed Hurricane Sandy was one of many factors as to why Romney could not win the election. He then introduced various historical statistics showing a waning voter’s participation percentage that reached as high as an eight to 10 percent decrease over the course of a decade.

“Was there really a need for people to spend millions of dollars on creating polls? Compared to the 2004 election, not only has the number of polls increased exponentially, but the quality in terms of methodology is much lower,” Agne said.

In slight mutual agreement, Goeas also discussed the huge volatility of polls, particularly national polls, making them unreliable. However, he stated that state exit polls have shown consistent outcomes.

“The success to Obama’s campaign was using not technology but volunteers to interact directly. It was a brilliant tactic that the Republicans didn’t employ,” Goeas said.

The fact that volunteers drove voters to polling stations to vote was a big contributor to Obama’s victory.

“I learned that which vote matters and which doesn’t comes down to the Electoral College. The trend currently favors the Democrats, although it is very challenging within the swing states,” Agne said.

As a Republican, even Goeas believed leadership played a key concept in this year’s election.

“Obama’s edge over Romney was over strength of leadership, not smarts. This was why Obama won over Romney,” Goeas said.

Sara Blair Matthews
News Editor

The Post-Racial America?: An Interdisciplinary Conversation Conference explored the ability of society to move past its previous racial differences. The Conference took place on Nov. 9 and 10 in the Vaughan Literature Building and included remarks from keynote speaker Farah Jasmine Griffin, who is the William B. Ransford Professor of English and Comparative Literature and African-American Studies at Columbia University. The Conference had 20 speakers from all over the region, the United States, Canada and Brazil. The Griot Institute for Africana Studies hosted the event.

“The purpose of the event was to explore, from an interdisciplinary perspective, the idea of a post-racial America. This conference was designed as a conversation among scholars from a number of areas of study, to examine this and related ideas through the intersections in their work,” Griot Assistant Coordinator Rebecca Willoughby said.

The conference began with dinner from 7-9 p.m. in the Hunt Formal dining room. The event included the keynote address from Griffin. “Griffin focused specifically on two contemporary black women in the national spotlight – Michelle Obama and Beyonce Knowles – and discussed their racial identity in terms of the creation of their public persona,” said first year English Graduate Student Eve Marie Blasinsky. 

The next day’s events included four sessions, which were each divided into two panel discussions, that began at 9:30 a.m. and lasted until 4:30 p.m. Each panel discussion focused on a different post-racial question. Some of the topics included lived experiences, racial aesthetics and conceptual thinking, race and politics, race and media as well as gender and identity.

The conference also included remarks from University faculty, such as Thomas Alexander, associate dean of students for diversity, and Bridget Newell, associate provost for diversity.

“I was impressed by the diversity of responses brought forward to the broad question of post-raciality. I think the conference lived up to its name of being a “conversation”, rather than merely a set of independent speakers expressing their views,” said first year Blasinsky.

Willoughby believes the term “Post-Racial America” is often controversial and invokes different responses from many academics.

“Some academics are using this term to describe a society in which race is no longer an issue; other scholars disagree with the implications of the term and whether we are, in fact, living in such a society,” Willoughby said. “As you might imagine, this is an especially salient topic in the wake of the last two elections.”

The event was open to the public, and registration was $55 and included two dinners. Students were also able to attend the conference and could register on either Nov. 9 or 10 for a fee of $25.

“Everyone who I spoke to was very impressed by Bucknell’s campus as well as by its hospitality,” said Blasinsky. 

Siobhan Murray
Writer

Holocaust survivor and poet Magda Herzberger spoke of her experiences on Nov. 13 in the Rooke Chemistry Lecture Hall. Her talk was part of the University’s annual remembrance of Kristallnacht, the beginning of the Holocaust, and was organized by Campus Jewish Life.

Born in 1926 in an orthodox Jewish family in Romania, Herzberger survived three concentration camps: Auschwitz-Birkenau, Bremen and Bergen-Belsen. She watched the infamous Nazi Doctor Josef Mengele send her father and uncle to their deaths, endured a 30-kilometer death march and was left dying in a pile of corpses before rescue and liberation by British soldiers.

“What kept me alive was my faith in God, passion for humanity and love for my family,” Herzberger said. “As a Holocaust survivor, one of my most important missions is to keep alive the memory of the six million Jews and others who were killed at the hands of the Nazis.”

She described working at Auschwitz’s four killing facilities equipped with gas chambers and crematory ovens, clearing bodies and inhaling the “sick stench of burning bodies … I call Auschwitz a ‘death camp’ because that was its goal, whether if you were overworked or sent to the gas chambers, you were surrounded by electric fences and watchtowers of armed guards.”

After being kept on a starvation diet, exposed to rampant diseases and surviving selection every single week, Herzberger was sent to Bremen. She was later deemed not useful, and forced to walk 30-kilometers to Bergen-Belsen camp without food or water, flanked by Nazi soldiers shooting those who could no longer walk.

“Somehow, my feet kept moving,” Herzberger said. “In those moments, God was carrying me.”

One-half of Jewish prisoners survived the march, only to arrive at Bergen-Belsen to find “a camp littered with dead bodies … Eventually, they stopped feeding us.”

After being saved in the arms of a British soldier, Herzberger recovered from her close-to-death state, returned to Romania, miraculously reconnected with her mother and eventually pursued medical school, where she would later meet her husband.

“We’re like Adam and Eve, you know?” Herzberger said, arousing laughter in the audience.

“But I had promised God that I would keep the memory alive of other victims who were left behind,” Herzberger said.

Herzberger began writing poetry in 1963 and has published several books, including her autobiography “Survival.” She concluded with reading part of the book’s epilogue: “Sufferance, agony and disappointments put something to sleep within us, but something new is born.”

“She was an excellent speaker, who connected the different parts of her life story together beautifully,” a Mount Pleasant Mills resident in the audience said. “I want to go shake her hand.”

In past years, Campus Jewish Life has featured students’ grandparents who are Holocaust survivors come to speak to commemorate Kristillnacht.

“It’s hard to find survivors who will make the journey to Bucknell, as they are elderly and traveling is difficult,” Religious Life Assistant Linda Godfrey said.

This year, Rabbi and Jewish Chaplain Serena Fujita and Godfrey were able to connect with Herzberger via the internet and telephone and organize her trip from Arizona.

In addition to this event, Herzberger gave a reading of her poetry and held a book signing at the Barnes & Noble campus bookstore on Nov. 14, where her books are currently available for sale.

Will Fierman
Contributing Writer

At a ceremony in Rooke Chapel on Sunday, Nov. 11, the Reverend Doctor John Colatch was officially installed. His installation had been delayed to accommodate a particularly hectic fall term and the University’s fundraising campaign. Dean of Students Susan Lantz, Provost Mick Smyer, President John Bravman, and the  University’s religious advisers, including Rabbi Serena Fujita and Father Fred Wangwe, all participated in the ceremony.

Having begun his tenure at the University a short four months ago, Colatch already works diligently to keep his finger on the pulse of the community he now serves, and can often be seen eating at the Bison or at the Seventh Street Cafe. As the active pastor of the Rooke Chapel Congregation, he officiates services in the Methodist tradition every Sunday. Services, he happily mentions, that are growing in attendance. This is perhaps in part due to his personal style of leadership; he prefers to abandon the pulpit to preach among the people in the aisle.

“I am part of the larger community, not above it,” Colatch said.

Colatch considers his role as a pastor one of great responsibility, and aims to make sure Rooke Chapel is always a welcoming place and  that “regardless of someone’s faith tradition, I am someone somebody can talk to.”

“This is especially true in times of tragedy, both personal and for the university as a whole” he said.

To hold the position of University Chaplain in a community as diverse as the one here is no small undertaking. Already during his term as Chaplain, he has overseen the creation of the Interfaith Council, a campus organization comprised of representatives of the many faiths and persuasions present on campus–from Atheist to Sikh.

“The best conversations are not about people of other faiths, but with people of other faiths,” Colatch said.

He hopes that the Interfaith Council, as it works to establish its presence on campus, will work toward facilitating those very conversations.

Though the University is officially unaffiliated, “you cannot miss the chapel when you come to campus,” Colatch said.

Colatch looks forward to assuring that the chapel and the Office of the Chaplain and Religious Life serve the University community.

Kerong Kelly
Writer

Effective starting in January 2013, the hours of the University’s field house and athletic facilities will be extended. This resolution does not only include extended hours, it also entails more fitness programming and activities. The athletic center will be open until 1 a.m. five days per week (Tuesday-Saturday).

“I am very excited. It will be a really nice alternative on Fridays and Saturdays to just go to the gym and play sports with friends,” Polly Englot ’16 said.

This common sentiment was the buzz around campus after the news was announced.

“This change has been a long time coming. People have been asking for a while because if you’re not an athlete, you take what hours you can find,” Dan Fritz ’13 said.

The following facilities will be open during in the extended hours: Krebs Family Fitness Center, Davis Gymnasium, Gerhard Fieldhouse, the Group Fitness Studio and Kinney Natatorium.

“I’m excited to see what new intramural leagues they add,” Claire Kawoczka ’16 said.

Jen Lassen
News Editor  

Scott Stieler ’87, owner of Zelda’s Café, believes in the future of the University.

That is why he has committed to donate five percent of all student purchases and 10 percent of all faculty and staff purchases at Zelda’s to the campaign from now until June.

“In my conversations with Dana Cohick and other friends who work in Development, I’ve learned that it takes wide participation at all financial levels to achieve ambitious campaign goals. Even a small business can make an impact,” Stieler said.

Zelda’s, located on South Sixth St., has been a long time staple of the downtown food scene and is famous for its coffee, homemade soups, sandwiches and salads, bakery items, ice cream and more.

Now a local resident and member of the University’s Alumni Board, Stieler is excited by the Administration’s new energy and plans to make the University a truly world-class learning institution.

“Bucknell is setting a higher bar for itself, and I believe it’s on the right path with its continued focus on the liberal arts and the six transformational initiatives that will distinguish the Bucknell educational experience. I believe I received an exceptional education, one that prepared me for meeting life’s circumstances and situations and not just exceeding in my first job,” Stieler said.

Visit Zelda’s to not only order off of the menu, but contribute to the University’s future at the same time.