Top Stories
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Roth and Simic to be featured at Commencement
Acclaimed novelist Philip Roth ’54 will be honored at Bucknell’s 158th commencement in May, and Poet Laureate Charles Simic will speak at the event. [full story]
Roth will be the 16th recipient of the Stephen W. Taylor Medal, Bucknell’s most significant award, at the May 18th ceremony on the Quad. Established in 1972, the Taylor Award is given in honor of those who render extraordinary service to the University.
One of the most celebrated writers of his era, Roth won the Pulitzer Prize in 1997 for American Pastoral.
Simic, who will address the Class of 2008, emigrated from Yugoslavia to the United States when he was 16 and started writing poetry in English only a few years after learning the language. He won the Pulitzer Prize for poetry in 1990 and held a MacArthur Foundation "Genius" grant from 1984 to 1989.
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Bucknell Forum brings Jim Cramer, religion panel to campus
Jim Cramer, the investing guru and host of CNBC's "Mad Money," spoke passionately about the government's role in private industry and the national economy in his talk, "The Capitalist Citizen and Democracy," the fifth event in the Bucknell Forum speaker series. [full story]
"Do not be fooled by the sirens of laissez faire," he told a packed audience at the Weis Center for the Performing Arts on Jan. 29. The talk, recorded by WVIA-TV, the Northeast and Central Pennsylvania public television broadcaster, will air regionally several times this month. Cramer's talk will also be made available to all students, faculty, staff, alumni, and parents via myBucknell. Please check the Bucknell Forum website for details. || Video: The Podsquad meets Jim Cramer
A panel of four distinguished religion experts agreed to disagree at the Feb. 6 Bucknell Forum event, "Religion and Politics in America." Panelists included Obery Hendricks, a professor of biblical interpretation at the New York Theological Seminary; Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission; Luis Lugo, director of the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, and the Rev. Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State. The discussion was moderatated by Julie Segal Walters, founder of Civic Action Strategies.
On March 17, best-selling author Barbara Ehrenreich will speak on "Class, Citizenship, and the Presidency." Pulitzer-prize winning syndicated columnist Leonard Pitts will speak on March 24. -
Bucknell signs Climate Commitment, announces green steps
Bucknell University will join more than 475 colleges and universities across the country in signing the American College & University Presidents’ Climate Commitment, Bucknell President Brian C. Mitchell announced Jan. 31, capping the day-long Focus the Nation teach-in. [full story]
The commitment represents a pledge to minimize greenhouse gas emissions, to enhance environmental stewardship efforts, and to foster the concepts of sustainability and environmental ethics in the curriculum.
"Bucknell has a long and storied commitment to protecting the natural environment, educating students about related issues, and using our campus as a place where we can not only learn about, but also implement sustainable environmental practices," Mitchell said. || Audio: Announcement || More Focus the Nation coverage
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Former political prisoner to discuss terrorism
Berhanu Nega, a former Bucknell professor who was jailed as a political prisoner in Ethiopia, will discuss democracy and economics and their impact on terrorism in developing countries while serving this spring as a Visiting International Scholar in the Economics Department. [full story]
Nega will give the talk "American Power and the Struggle against Poverty and Terror in Africa" at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 26, in Trout Auditorium. The talk is free and open to the public.
Nega served as an economics faculty member at Bucknell from 1990 to 1994, when he returned to Ethiopia for a tenured position in the Department of Economics at Addis Ababa University. His scholarly work and teaching subsequently led to his becoming one of the leaders of the democratic opposition in Ethiopia. He became the first elected mayor in Ethiopia’s history when he won more than 75 percent of the vote for mayor of Addis Ababa in 2005.
Following his election, he was arrested, along with most of the other leaders of the opposition, and spent a year and a half as a prisoner of conscience before being released this past July.
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Chemistry receives $135,000 NSF research grant
Eric Tillman, assistant professor of chemistry, will direct a $135,000 National Science Foundation grant to investigate the development of synthetic methods leading to polymers with specific functionality. [full story]
The three-year grant, effective Feb. 1, is for a project titled "Synthesis of Amine-Terminated Polymers." Polymers are large, chain-like molecules that have widespread use in society in everything from plastic bottles to drug delivery systems.
Tillman said it was research involving Bucknell undergraduate students that helped to establish the viability of the proposed work.
Typically, he said, this sort of research at other institutions would involve graduate or post-doctoral students. || Audio: Eric Tillman
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Board announces decision to arm public safety officers
As conveyed to parents on Monday, January 28, President Brian C. Mitchell has announced the decision of the University’s Board of Trustees to authorize the arming of Bucknell's public safety officers by August 2008. [full story]
The move is subject to the development of budgets and plans for training, defining the scope and type of deployment that will best protect Bucknell students, as well as an assessment plan.
The question of arming the officers has been an ongoing discussion among the trustees and across campus since last April's shootings at Virginia Tech University. || Announcement and details || FAQs
