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Arts & Life

Guest filmmakers provide insight into creation of cinema

Jen Lassen
Senior Writer

The Campus Theatre is well known for its impressive events, and it has not disappointed this year. Recently, the theatre hosted two filmmakers, Jem Cohen and Alla Kovgan, to speak about their most recent films for the Fall 2013 Bucknell Film/Media Series.

Cohen, a New York City-based filmmaker, known for his observational portraits of urban landscapes, visited the Campus Theatre on Oct. 1. His visit was sponsored by the University’s Art and Art History Department.

Cohen spoke about his newest film “Museum Hours,” which captures the beauty of Vienna in winter as perceived by a Canadian woman and a quiet, middle-aged museum guard who develop a friendship throughout the film. The film mainly takes place in Austria’s Kunsthistorisches Museum and focuses on how artwork reflects our world.

B-roll, which is typically referred to as background or extra footage in a film or television show, takes the spotlight in “Museum Hours.”

“We live in the B-roll,” Cohen said, referring to the the many shots of scenery in the film, some accompanied by music, others by silence.

On Oct. 8, New York-based filmmaker Alla Kovgan gave a presentation about her dance films and documentaries at the Campus Theatre. Kovgan has been programming for the St. Petersburg Dance Film Festival since 2000, as well as other venues worldwide, and she currently creates intermedia stage performances for the KINODANCE Company.

Kovgan showed clips from her films “Nora” and “Ritual in Transfigured Time,” along with some of her other clips, and she mainly discussed the relationship between dance and cinema. Her visit was sponsored by the University’s Theatre and Dance Department.

Rebecca Meyers, the academic film programmer for the University, highlighted the importance of participating in the opportunity to not only see films projected on-screen at the Campus Theatre, but to meet and learn from the filmmakers themselves.

“The opportunity for audiences to hear a filmmaker speak about his or her work enriches the cinematic experience, as does the space and time for reflection offered in a post-film discussion. In that setting, the dialogue between students, faculty, film-goers from the community, and the artist himself or herself illuminates how a specific film communicates the filmmaker’s intentions; equally important, we learn from this kind of conversation how to be careful, engaged viewers,” Meyers said.

Both Meyers and Associate Professor of English Eric Faden hope to bring more students to these filmmaker events so that anyone–Film/Media majors and Biology majors alike–can experience film in a unique way and actually meet the people who envision, direct, and produce the films projected on-screen.

“Over the last several years, [the University’s] Film/Media Studies department has hosted screenwriters, sound designers, visual effects artists, producers, as well as filmmakers. We bring these professionals to The Campus Theatre for two main reasons. First, films require a huge amount of craft and labor that’s not necessarily obvious on the screen. Thus, film professionals illuminate the work carried out behind the scenes so students and the community can understand how films create meaning and mood. Second, visiting film professionals provides an important networking opportunity for students. The media industry is super competitive and it is important for students to make connections with working professionals early in their careers,” Faden said.

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Opinion

Government shutdown impedes functioning of vital social and economic programs

Nicole Della Cava
Senior Writer

Changing the lives of over one million preschool children across the country, Head Start is one of the social programs which are left vulnerable as a result of the government shutdown. 18,795 children in twenty-three programs in Florida, Connecticut, Alabama, and Mississippi are in dire jeopardy. The government has the immediate responsibility to make sure impoverished children receive an education. While private philanthropy made generous contributions to reopen the seven programs that closed, it is not a solution and if the shutdown persists, children will fall behind in their education and parents will have to scramble for child care. In addendum to this serious result of the government shutdown, as of Tuesday, October 8th, the regional offices of Veterans will be closed due to furloughs of 7,000 employees.

The effects of the government shutdown continue to expand as the United States is already into the second week of the shutdown. It will remain closed until Congress can reach an agreement on a spending bill. Republican House majority leader, John Boehner, insists that they will not fund the Affordable Care Act, Obamacare, or increase the debt ceiling. Apprehensive Republicans, as of October 1st when Obamacare became implemented, know that when each day that goes by, more people are signing up for Obamacare and it will be harder to overturn. Having already voted over forty times to rescind the Affordable Care Act since 2010, Republicans are not giving up. The debate has escalated to where Democrats insists that Obamacare be fully funded and a discharge petition to pass a “clean” CR be signed. Congress uses a stopgap continuing resolution, called a CR, that maintains spending at current levels for all or part of the year – a resolution without policy change.

The United States is on the verge of maxing out a $16.699 trillion credit limit but the President must ask Congress to raise the country’s credit limit before the deadline on October 17th. It is not rare that the President seeks to raise the debt ceiling. In fact, there have been 111 instances where the government has raised the debt ceiling since Clinton was in presidency in 1993. On Monday, October 6th President Barack Obama said that in order for the “clean” CR to pass, 217 House members must vote favorably. If the CR is passed, President Obama will continue to receive money for the next six months to one year to continue daily operations. John Boehner is demanding that a clean CR will not pass although fifty to seventy-five Republicans already vocalized their support including Lous Barletta, Peter King, Charlie Dent, Frank Wolf, Michael Grimm, Ro Wittman, and Frank Lobiondo, says MSNBC News. In addition to the 195 Democrats supporting the clean CR bill, Boehner cannot prove that the vote will not pass and he is pushing the United States into default.

Republicans are violating Democratic norms – they have to allow majority to rule. The Supreme Court supports Obamacare, the House and Senate already signed off on it; therefore, it can only go through legislative process to repeal it. The President is correct; he will not negotiate with a gun to his head because Obamacare already came into law in 2010. Are Republicans holding our country hostage? Brian Kessler, economist with Moody’s Analytics estimates that a three to four week shutdown would cost the economy about $55 billion. The affects are not static because additional programs are running out of money each day such as food banks, Arizona TANF, college sexual assault investigations, approval of new home mortgages, and CDC tracking of disease outbreaks. 21,000 national park workers have been laid off and millions of visitors are prevented from entering any of the 410 parks. Facing the fact that 800,000 government employees, viewed as non-essential might not ever get repaid is detrimental to the confidence that people have in this country. Is it fair that so many innocent Americans are faced with unemployment once again? Are we creating jobs or compounding our problem?

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Opinion Uncategorized

Lack of decisions causes government shutdown

Justin Marinelli
Writer

As I have established in previous pieces this year, I believe that the legitimacy of a government derives from its capacity to govern the populace. A government that refuses to govern, like ours, quickly hemorrhages its legitimacy, contingent on the arising societal dysfunction. Luckily, though, things seem to be carrying on just fine for the most part, so I see no need to declare the illegitimacy of the current government, and I look forward to the day it resumes its duties. Still, it does concern me that it was allowed to shut down in the first place.

It strikes me as downright absurd that our government can just stop functioning without our elected officials suffering any sort of repercussions. If a business were to shut down due to internal disagreements, would there not be lay-offs and reorganizations to prevent such a thing in the future? Yet, does anyone really expect that similar measures will be adopted by our government with its unperturbed functioning?

It seems that the incentives for our elected officials to avoid a government shutdown are simply too ambiguous to be reasonably effective. While it is possible that there will be reprisals in the next election, I suspect that Democrats will blame Republicans, Republicans will blame Democrats, and there will be no unified condemnation of both parties for their childishness and immaturity. It is because of this that I have decided to propose a few measures that should be implemented to ensure that we do not again suffer the embarrassment of having a non-functional national government.

First off, in the event of a government shutdown, all members of Congress should become immediately ineligible for re-election. They may finish serving the rest of their tenures, but that should be the end of their political careers. They should be banned from holding any other political office in the future, whether it is a federal, state, or local position, since they have demonstrated their inability to live up to the responsibilities of public service.

Additionally, Congressional pay should be suspended for a year. Why should we pay people who refuse to work? Our taxes pay their salaries so that they can make laws and govern our country. If they refuse to hold up their end of the bargain, they should not receive compensation. The contract is violated, and thus rendered void.

Finally, there is nothing like public shaming to keep people in line and really hammer home the impropriety of certain behavior. I wouldn’t necessarily be opposed to putting politicians in the stocks for a day as punishment for this kind of impropriety, but I prefer a more subtle approach. Why not make them wear a scarlet letter, at least until the shut-down is over? Nothing like a little social opprobrium to keep people within the  bounds of responsible and reasonable behavior.

This may all sound extreme, but is not the very idea that our government can simply stop governing in the event of sufficient disagreement an extreme possibility in itself? This is such a departure from historical norms of governance that the overwhelming majority of humanity throughout time would be unable to comprehend it. Moderate solutions cannot fix extreme problems. We need strong measures in place to discourage politicians from shirking their duties, and strict punishments in place for those that do. To do anything less is to invite dysfunction, squabbling, and an ineffectual government.

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News

Economics student researches effect of the recession on the Susquehanna River Valley

ALLY BONI | The Bucknellian

Shannon Beauregard
Contributing Writer

Economics major Darby Hamilton ’15 is conducting research this semester on the impact of the 2007-09 recession on the Susquehanna River Valley Region.

“This research project is meant to ascertain how different levels of income, wealth, or other support systems might have caused the families within the Susquehanna River Valley Region to handle the impact of the Great Recession more severely,” Hamilton said.

The research considers a range of variables, in addition to income, to assess how local families were affected. Some of these variables include the size of the family, whether or not there are disabled family members that require increased health costs, transportation costs associated with each family, whether the family owns a home, and how gender or racial discrimination impacted the family during the recession.

“There’s very little data on specific regions because of quantities that aren’t taken into account on traditional measurements,” Hamilton said.

At the end of the previous spring semester, Hamilton asked his adviser, Associate Professor of Economics Nina Banks, if he could begin his own research project. He came up with the research idea on his own.

“Darby’s project will provide valuable information on the unmet needs of low-income households in the local community as well as provide a broader measure of poverty,” Banks said. “Mr. Hamilton’s research is also important in that he has been researching poverty effects on a broad cross-section of the poor; most studies restrict their analyses to households comprised of single moms and their children since they have been so adversely affected by welfare reform.”

Hamilton worked on a survey questionnaire on campus during the summer. The survey was designed through working in the Susquehanna community so that it would touch upon a variety of topics. Hamilton conducts the surveys by interviewing families throughout the Susquehanna River Valley Region.

“This certainly limits the scope of my research, but will allow me to get a clearer picture of a family’s position within the community, rather than simply knowing they’re technically considered poor,” Hamilton said.

Hamilton hopes the research will also reveal how differently a rural community is affected by a recession from a suburban or urban community.

“I have become fascinated with the topic. I love to learn how people are actually affected by hard times. Everyone knows the recession left people very poor, but there is little data on how people coped with the very real effect of the economic recession in the rural community,” Hamilton said.

Hamilton will present the results of his research at the Kalman Research Symposium. He also hopes to present his findings at the National Undergraduate Research Symposium in April.

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News

Lewisburg to host Woolly Worm Festival

Cooper Josephs
Contributing Writer

The Lewisburg chapter of the Kiwanis Club will host the Woolly Worm Festival on Oct. 12 from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Hufnagle Park on Market Street, which will include free craft stations for children and several dozen food and craft vendors.

“This is a year-round planning event. It is a very anxious moment for us because we (the Kiwanis Club) never really know how many people are going to show up,” Ken Kulish said.

He and his wife have coordinated the Woolly Worm Festival for the previous three years.

“When the Kiwanis Club first started the Woolly Worm Festival … there might have been probably a couple hundred people there. Now there are a few thousand people coming to it throughout the day,” Kulish said.

The festival is named for the small, orange and black caterpillars that appear during the summer and later metamorphose into the Isabella Tiger Moth.

During the annual “Weather Prognostication Ceremony,” young scientists do various tests on the woolly worms, including measuring and weighing them, and try to predict the conditions for the upcoming winter from the data obtained.

“There is a lot of showmanship to the prognostication process, but the kids have a good time having the chance to pick up the 100 or so woolly worms we bring out … and hearing how many snow days they are going to have,” Kulish said.

The proceeds from the festival go to the Kiwanis Club for several charitable works, including scholarships, school supplies for needy children, and projects for the benefit of the Lewisburg community. The proceeds also go toward a project called The Eliminate Project, which is designed to help prevent and eliminate neonatal tetanus, a disease that affects newborn children.

Due to budget shortfalls, grant money from the Lewisburg Visitor Center and Arts Center for the festival was stripped back, and organizers turned to the local community for donations.

“This year we didn’t really know what was going to happen with the festival … We weren’t able to advertise much this year, but we made it through with the help of the townspeople. We made a plea to the Lewisburg community to help support this festival, and they responded in a huge way. We raised about $3000 in start-up money, which was enough to get our bands and our advertising paid for. It was a feel-good moment when the people of Lewisburg came through to us,” Kulish said.

Lewisburg Mayor Judy Wagner praised local donations and volunteer participation in the event.

“We continue to enjoy festivals and parades, and people continue to put in the time so the whole community can enjoy themselves … We make fun for ourselves here, and we do quite well. We think of new reasons to celebrate the seasons, our town, and ourselves,” Wagner said.

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News

Music professor to perform at Russian electro-acoustic concert

Hannah Paton
Writer

Assistant Professor of Music Paul Botelho will perform at an electro-acoustic concert in Russia at the end of this month.

Botelho has been working with renowned composer Jon Appleton for several months, and the two will depart on Oct. 24 for the Urals Conservatory’s Festival of ElectroAcoustic Music in Yekaterinburg, Russia.

During their 10-day trip, the pair will be performing a set at the international festival, teaching workshops at the Conservatory on electroacoustic music, and even judging other music competitions.

To prepare for their upcoming performance, Botelho and Appleton have spent the last few months collaborating and producing numerous new tracks.

“At first we just came up with a time—seven minutes—Jon wrote the voice part, which I sang, and I wrote the piano part, which he performed,” Botelho said.

Botelho defines electroacoustic music as any sort of music made through technology. According to him, electroacoustic techniques have become increasingly popular over the last few decades and are bound to be the music of the future.

“We’re approaching the point where technology is just another instrument,” Botelho said. “There’s an entire wing dedicated to electroacoustic music at the conservatory. It’ll get there.” 

Botelho will teach one workshop about ChucK Audio Programming language, which is essentially a form of computer software like JavaScript or C++ that makes it easy to develop musical software and produce sound very quickly.

His other workshop will cover the future of electroacoustic music. He will also experiment with a theremin, an electronic musical instrument consisting of two different metal antennas that make sound based on the position of the player’s hands relative to the antennas. 

The  main goal and hope of the trip is to make connections for collaborations in the future. He even hopes to try to set up a future student exchange program with a focus in electroacoustic studies. 

“We both hope to end the ghettoisation of electro,” Botelho said.

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News

Greek life raises money for cancer research and treatment

Nick Salvo
Contributing Writer

Philanthropy leaders from the University’s Interfraternity Council (IFC) and Panhellenic Council raised over $12,000 for charity on Oct. 6 at the Greek-sponsored “B+ Challenge,” according to IFC Community Service and Philanthropy Chair Jeremy van de Rijn ’15 and Panhellenic Council Vice President of Community Outreach Ally Flessel ’15.

Van de Rijn and Flessel coordinated the event, which featured an obstacle-laden “Twisted 5K Run.”

All proceeds went directly to the Andrew McDonough B+ Foundation, a national charity that provides financial and emotional support for families of children with cancer and also provides grants for childhood cancer research.

Kappa Delta Rho, the fraternity whose national philanthropy partner is the B+ Foundation, co-sponsored the event. Every member of the fraternity signed up for the run and helped with food and refreshments during the event.

The Twisted 5k consisted of a five-kilometer run around the University’s West Fields. Nine obstacles, designed by teams from fraternities and sororities, added to the challenge of the run, Flessel said. Obstacles included trivia games and army crawls.

Over 120 people participated in the run, while 288 students raised money through donations, van de Rijn said.

Van de Rijn, a member of Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity, said that he hoped the event would open eyes on campus to the community service work done by Greek organizations.

“Community service is one of the goals of all governing bodies of Greek life. It is an important part of the Greek community on campus. And really, community service is very fun and very rewarding,” van de Rijn said.

Flessel said that she hopes support for the B+ Foundation will continue in upcoming years. She also said that it is important that events like the B+ Challenge spread beyond Greek life and become something that the entire University community supports. She stressed that philanthropy is a great way for Greek students and unaffiliated students to unite for a common goal.

“Philanthropy can be a common ground between Greek students and the rest of the campus,” Flessel said.

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News

University awards 16 professors tenured positions

Kerong Kelly
Writer

Sixteen professors were awarded tenure by the University this semester. The professors were selected among faculty from both the College of Arts and Sciences and the College of Engineering. Currently, 62 percent of the University faculty is tenured, according to the University website.

Newly tenured Associate Professor of Comparative Humanities and Asian Thought James Shields said that he was proud to be awarded the new position by his peers and the University Administration.

“My reaction was, more than anything, relief. I don’t think there are very many jobs where it takes roughly 20 years to reach the ‘entry’ gate to a stable and secure position,” Shields said.

In addition to the newly tenured professors, the University also added 10 full professors in fields ranging from geology to linguistics.

This most recent wave of growth in the faculty size marks the end of a period of significant expansion. According to Provost Mick Smyer, the increase in faculty size was originally the result of a transition from a mandatory six-course to a five-course, as well as the number of sabbatical leave positions.

In the 2008 academic year, the administration converted sabbatical leave replacement positions with 12 tenure track positions, Smyer said. The decision to replace sabbatical positions with tenured positions was part of an initiative to fulfill a chronic need of faculty, especially seen by larger departments.

“President Bravman and I have been urging our colleagues, who are associate professors, to consider going up for promotion to full [professorship]. That’s explicitly a strategic effort on part of the University to encourage colleagues to get the recognition that they deserve for their teaching and research accomplishments,” Smyer said.

Newly tenured professors:

M. Laura Beninati, associate professor of mechanical engineering

Sharon Garthwaite, associate professor of mathematics

Julie Ann Gates, associate professor of biology

Michael Gross ’03, associate professor of chemical engineering

Mark Haussmann, associate professor of biology

Peter Jansson, associate professor of electrical engineering

Sarah MacKenzie-Dawson, associate professor of education

Christopher Martine, associate professor of biology

Collin McKinney, associate professor of Spanish

Robert Nickel, associate professor of electrical engineering

Leocadia Paliulis, associate professor of biology

Adam Piggott, associate professor of mathematics

Nathan Ryan, associate professor of mathematics

James Shields, associate professor of comparative humanities and Asian thought

Matthew Slater, associate professor of philosophy

Katsuyuki Wakabayashi, associate professor of chemical engineering

Categories
Opinion

An overwhelming amount of options hinders our society

Kimberly Davis
Writer

Imagine walking through any aisle at a grocery store. Say, for instance, you are walking through the bread aisle. Now imagine deciding between white bread, wheat bread, and everything in between. An overwhelming variety of options is not unique to the food industry, as it is the case with most consumer products, internet websites, and even sports teams. In almost all situations in our lives we have multiple options. Of course it’s convenient to walk through a store and have hundreds of options, but is this convenience necessarily a good thing? This abundance of choices makes it easy for us to take everything for granted and limits our personal decision making. The idea that less can be more has been forgotten, and we rely on the production of even more options.

Every day a new product is revealed to the public, but this was not the case decades ago. Each generation grows up with more than the previous generation. If people believe they must have more, they appreciates less. If people don’t treasure what they have, they are more likely to feel unsatisfied. This dissatisfaction will only make people feel as though they need even more in their lives. When someone keeps consuming to relieve this dissatisfaction, the cycle will repeat itself. Where does it end? If people are given so many options, will there ever be a point where they restrict themselves? Having less allows people to appreciate what they have, and not dwell on what they do not have, but companies force people to feel otherwise.

Open any magazine or turn to any television station and there will be an advertisement. Whether it is the latest phone, a promising energy drink, or a new hair product that will turn women into Rapunzel, companies fill consumers’ heads with the idea that to be more, they have to have more. Today’s propaganda thrives on what people feel they lack. By using phrases like “You have to have it,” or “This will complete you,” advertisements imply that people are less without a certain product. Of course, this is effective for the company because its sales go up, but such advertising techniques negatively affect consumers. When consumers feels as though they are lacking something, they indulge in these choices and the cycle begins again.

How do we end this cycle? The first step is realizing that we are being forced to believe that we need more. When we open our eyes and realize what is happening, we can finally step back and readjust. Instead of buying something because we feel like it will complete us, buy something only if you truly want to. The idea of less is more is having things that matter, not having everything just for the sake of having it. We as consumers are ultimately in charge of what we buy and what we don’t buy. The overabundance of choices can be appreciated, but should not be taken for granted.

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Opinion Uncategorized

Wealth of social media platforms causes procrastination

Caroline Schaeffer
Writer

Anyone with a laptop knows the deal: you go on your computer with the intention of getting some work done, you open up your e-mail, Moodle, and then Facebook happens. Suddenly your productivity level has shot down to zero and you’re scrolling through your news feed with a level of attention that your statistics teacher wishes you would give to your homework. Inevitably, one of these many Facebook posts will lead to a BuzzFeed article or a post on Tumblr. As soon as you click on it, you can say goodbye to productivity of any sort. Why is it that we’re entertained by things like BuzzFeed and Tumblr? Realistically, all they are is a stream of photos and animated pictures called graphic interchange formats (gifs) with captions underneath them. Such sites hook people because they are relatable and make procrastination easy.  

Tumblr pages like #Whatshouldwecallme and the BuzzFeed website in general do a great job with creating a general sense of relevance to everyone’s life. The posts are never incredibly specific–they’re simple, funny, and quick to read, everything the young adult’s mind and attention span desires. These posts are funny because the pictures, (often taken from popular television shows and movies) help to make our everyday experiences more humorous. A gif of Zooey Deschanel shoving her face with food is funny, but it’s made better and more relatable to the masses when the caption beneath it reads “Me on a diet.” It validates the way we feel about our own lives, and it gives us permission to now share these habits with the rest of the world via social media. Everyone wants to feel like they’re special, but no one wants to feel like they’re “special.” Gif websites not only allow people to see humor in the simple things in their life, they let them know it’s okay that they occasionally spaz-dance around their living room because, hey–Zooey Deschanel does it too!

In all honesty, the posts on these websites provide people with a good reason to not do their work. When you’re avoiding doing work–and, if you’re like me, you’re always in this predicament–gif websites provide a perfect distraction. By going on them and reading through the articles, you almost convince yourself that you’re doing something productive. It’s a step above online shopping and Facebook stalking, so it feels as if you’re not really avoiding your homework at all–you’re just doing something else.

BuzzFeed and Tumblr provide an effective form of procrastination and self-validation for people. They are simple, fun to read, and often humorous. The only real issue with them is that two hours after clicking on them, you realize you have a Spanish essay due tomorrow and the most progress you’ve made on it is a blank document and an open tab to the “Google Translate” page. On the bright side though, I’m sure it would make a really funny gif.