Reunion Rally 2009

President Brian C. Mitchell
May 30, 2009

Good morning everyone. It is great to be here with you. On behalf of all of us at Bucknell, welcome to Reunion Rally. We hope you are enjoying it. What do you think so far?

I especially want to thank our students. Aren’t they doing a great job?

Just two weeks ago, we had another major event on campus. Commencement. That day, about 850 graduates joined the distinguished line of Bucknell alumni that stretches around the world. I was reminded again of how special Bucknell is. I don’t know of another university where the seniors have so little interest in leaving the place. It’s surprising that we don’t have to pry their fingers off the Mathewson Gates.

'Home'
“It’s only been four years,” they say. “It went too fast,” they say. And what they say the most is, “I love it here.” The senior class speaker was Stephanie Rink. In her speech Stephanie said that she had finally found a word to explain what Bucknell meant to her. That word, she said, was “home.”

I have to think that the fact that you are here this weekend suggests how much Bucknell and the people you met here mean to you.

That is a tribute to you and the type of people who come to Bucknell. And it is a tribute to this institution that we have all inherited. Those of us responsible for Bucknell today are only its temporary custodians. We inherited one of the great institutions of higher learning. Job one, of course, is not to mess it up. But job two is to make it better.

There has been a lot of work by a lot of people over recent years to do what can be done in this time for Bucknell. I only want to mention a few of the efforts underway these days. I do so with a certain frame of reference, which is that the clock is ticking. The pressure is on. The economy is terribly difficult, as we all know. The competition has never been better, and our competitors are not sitting still. The demographics of America are changing rapidly, the world is more connected than ever, and each generation has its own expectations for what college should deliver. A university may be as close to a timeless enterprise as there is, but it can never stop changing or it will get left behind.

Superb faculty
We must change where we need to, while protecting the sacred elements of Bucknell. They include students who excel at life inside and outside the classroom. The superb faculty. The personal learning experience. The first-class residential environment.

Our aim, as I assume has been the aim of those before us, must be to protect these strengths even as we manage and build with care and confidence for today and tomorrow.

We have put in place a comprehensive strategic plan, The Plan for Bucknell, because we believe that across time, great institutions do not react, they lead. As a result, we have already achieved about 80 strategic tactics. We have established the Teaching and Learning Center and the Environmental Center. We have hired 37 new fulltime faculty to increase the personalized attention students receive. We have put in place formal plans to create an accredited College of Management. We have built a program for top-notch community college transfer students. We have dramatically expanded our career outreach to alumni, especially in this difficult economy. The list goes on, and I recommend a trip to our website to check out the progress.

In the spirit of staying ahead of the times, we have also established a new campus master plan. In many ways, we have the quintessential liberal arts campus. But there are some daunting facts. We know from detailed studies that we are sorely lacking in faculty office space. We have residential spaces inadequate to the demands placed on them by students. Our arts programs have nothing near the space that their breadth, quality and importance require. We don’t have available space to turn our management programs into the true impact-players they could be. We have few informal meeting places for students, which ought to be major contributors to the learning and socializing experience here.

Our new campus master plan lays out a clear course for improving our physical infrastructure, from teaching and office space to residence halls and a Greek Village to an arts complex and greenways. Great institutions move forward with confidence, knowing that bad times do end. This new campus master plan can do in the 21st-century what our predecessors did in the 20th – ensure that Bucknell remains one of the finest places to go to college in America.

Comprehensive campaign
Finally, let me mention one other major initiative, the comprehensive campaign. As you know, we are about two years into this campaign. It’s the largest Bucknell has ever had, with a goal of $400 million. Through this campaign we will provide unprecedented scholarship opportunities for great students of all backgrounds. We will establish endowed professorships to recruit and retain the best faculty. We will invest in our physical infrastructure. We will build new bridges to the world. The essence of what Bucknell is and can be depends on the success of this campaign.

We had, of course, the wisdom to start this campaign just as the worst recession in 80 years was about to begin.

Talk about timing.

Rising to the challenge
The truth is, we would much rather face these headwinds now than near the end of the campaign. The truth is also that Bucknellians are rising to the challenge. The campaign already has received gifts from more than 26,000 donors. More than $110 million has been raised, including almost $50 million in cash.

That sense of commitment is the reason that, for Bucknell, the present and future are so clearly connected.

With this in mind, I am so pleased that the chiming carillon bells of Rooke Chapel are part of today’s performance.

There’s a wonderful story behind those bells. The original chapel carillon, which is made of bronze bell-metal, was dedicated in 1966, in honor of Margaret Pangburn Mathias, a Bucknell alumna of the Class of 1908. The gift was made by her sons, Jay, Earl, and Roy. On this weekend when our alumni return to their alma mater, it seems such a fitting symbol.

But I wonder if alumni who attended Bucknell after the carillon was installed reached a point as students here that they didn’t even notice the music from the Rooke chimes filling the campus air every quarter-hour?

Continue to grow
As a final thought, I simply offer my observation that these chimes can be a reminder of one of the serious risks to a great university – the risk of taking it for granted. I know we all share the expectation that the quality of Bucknell will not only be sustained, but will continue to grow.

This future will only come to pass, though, if we remember that those before us made possible the Bucknell we know today. We who today are responsible for its future must recognize our duty to do what we can to change and lead, to contribute and serve, to preserve and strengthen this University, whatever the times may bring. The time for Bucknell can be now. More to the point, the time for Bucknell is now – if we want it to be.

It is great to have you with us. Have a wonderful visit home. Thank you.