Bucknell University

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Bucknell University
Established 1846, as the University of Lewisburg
Type Private
Endowment $560 million [1]
President Brian C. Mitchell
Staff 293, as of 2003[2]
Undergraduates 3,400
Postgraduates 155
Location Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, USA
Campus Rural, 445 acres[3]
Colors Orange and Blue
Nickname Bison
Mascot Bucky Bison
Website www.bucknell.edu

Bucknell University is a private university located along the Susquehanna River in the rolling countryside of Central Pennsylvania in the town of Lewisburg, 60 miles (97 km) north of Harrisburg. Set on a beautiful campus, it has a reputation for its rigorous academic programs (especially strong in engineering and the life sciences). Student athletes compete in 27 NCAA sports.

Contents

[edit] Brief history

The university was founded under the name of the University at Lewisburg in 1846 as a private Baptist university. In 1886 it was renamed for its benefactor, William Bucknell, a Philadelphian who bolstered the university during the post-Civil War recession.

Bucknell University has a historical link with Wilkes University in Wilkes-Barre, Northeastern Pennsylvania. Wilkes University was founded in 1933 as a satellite campus of Bucknell University, and became an independent institution in 1940, naming itself Wilkes College, after English colonial politician John Wilkes. Wilkes University received university status in 1990. During a ceremony to celebrate this designation, dignitaries from Bucknell University attended a gala event at the Arnaud C. Marts Conference Center on the Wilkes University campus to celebrate this historic event and pay tribute to both institutions history.

[edit] Presidents

Name Tenure[4]
Stephen William Taylor 1846 - 1851 *
Howard Malcom 1851 - 1857
George Ripley Bliss 1857 - 1858; 1871 - 1872 *
Justin Rolph Loomis 1858 - 1879
Francis Wayland Tustin 1879 *
David Jayne Hill 1879 - 1888
George G. Groff 1888 - 1889 *
John Howard Harris 1889 - 1919
Emory William Hunt 1919 - 1931
Charles Parker Vaughan 1931 *
Homer Price Rainey 1931 - 1935
Arnaud Cartwright Marts 1935 - 1945 **
Herbert Lincoln Spencer 1945 - 1949
Horace Augustus Hildreth 1949 - 1953
Joseph Welles Henderson 1953 - 1954 *
Merle Middleton Odgers 1954 - 1964
Charles Henry Watts II 1964 - 1976
George Dennis O'Brien 1976 - 1984
John Frederick Zeller III 1984 *
Gary Allan Sojka 1984 - 1995
William Drea Adams 1995 - 2000
Steffen H. Rogers 2000 - 2004
Brian C. Mitchell 2004 - present[5]

* - Interim President
** - Acted as interim president from 1935 to 1938

[edit] Academics

Bucknell is a competitive university with its Class of 2010 undergraduate acceptance rate of 33%.[6] It is among the best liberal-arts colleges in the USA, ranked twenty-seventh for liberal arts colleges by U.S. News and World Report as of 2006.[7] The student-faculty ratio is 11:1.[8]

Primarily an undergraduate institution, Bucknell offers 53 majors and 64 minors. Majors include environmental studies, East Asian studies, management, biology, chemistry, education, art history, English, animal behavior, Caribbean studies, economics, philosophy, theatre, and various foreign languages. Students can also design their own majors.[9]

Bucknell University's Ellen Clarke Bertrand Library
Bucknell University's Ellen Clarke Bertrand Library

The school's College of Engineering (with majors in electrical, chemical, computer science, mechanical, civil, and recently established bio-medical engineering) is particularly strong. Among American schools that do not offer a Ph.D. in engineering, Bucknell ranks No. 8.[10] The Chemical Engineering Program ranks No. 4 under the same criteria.

Bucknell is also strong in environmental studies, animal behavior, ecology and evolution. Because Bucknell is larger than many other liberal arts colleges, a wide diversity of courses can be offered in these fields, including, for example, entomology, limnology, mammalogy, invertebrate zoology, ornithology, tropical ecology, ecosystem and community ecology, conservation biology, and social insect courses. Faculty research in these areas is active, with many opportunities for student participation, field work, and travel.

The Bucknell Environmental Center (BUEC) is a group that exists on campus. The BUEC has recently sponsored a symposium series on sustainability and the global environment and has major initiatives focused on the art, culture, and ecology of the Susquehanna River basin and the greening of the Bucknell Campus. Bucknell has recently received a Solar Scholars grant, and is building an experimental student housing unit that will rely primarily on renewable energy, including photovoltaics.

Bucknell has strong programs in Theatre, Dance and Music, where students work closely with experienced professionals. State-of-the-art performance and practice facilities, including the Weis Center for the Performing Arts, enhance the undergraduate performing arts experience.

Bucknell ranks among the top universities in the number of students from liberal arts colleges that go on to gain their Ph.D's, and is No. 3 on the All-Time List (CoSida) for Producing Academic All Americans. It also ranks in the Top 100 for schools that produce America's top business leaders.

Forty percent of Bucknell students study abroad.[11]

[edit] Athletics

Bucknell University is a member of the Patriot League for Division I sports, Division I-AA in football. It ranks among the top universities for NCAA Division I in athletic graduation rates (No. 1 three times in the last 10 years).

Bucknell won the first Orange Bowl (26-0 over the University of Miami on January 1, 1935). It is also the alma mater of the legendary baseball hero Christy Mathewson who requested burial in a cemetery adjoining Bucknell's campus.

In 2005, Bucknell went to the NCAA men's basketball tournament and became the first Patriot League team to win an NCAA tournament game, in a surprising and intense upset of Kansas (64-63). The victory followed a highly successful year that included wins over #9 Pittsburgh and Saint Joseph's. They lost to Wisconsin in the following round. In 2006, the Bison continued their success with high-profile victories at Syracuse, then ranked 19th, DePaul, and Saint Joseph's, a sequence that saw the Bison nearly enter the Associated Press's top-25 rankings. However, those wins were followed by high-profile losses against Villanova, then ranked fourth in the nation, and at Duke, then ranked first. Patriot League play began after the Duke loss, and the Bison did not lose a league game in 2006. The team was ranked 24th in the nation in both the Associated Press and ESPN/USA Today college basketball polls for the week of February 13. This was the Bucknell program's first national ranking, and the first time since the league's creation in 1990 that any Patriot League men's basketball team has been ranked. The team was seeded ninth in the Oakland bracket for the 2006 NCAA tournament, and defeated the Arkansas Razorbacks in the first round (59-55). The Bison were defeated by Memphis in the second round, losing by a score of 72-56. They finished the regular season ranked 25th in the ESPN poll. The Bison have scheduled for the 2006-2007 season a number of high-profile games, including a season opener at Bucknell against Wake Forest and a game against 2006 Final Four team George Mason. In a tight game, the Bison were defeated by Wake Forest 86-83 in overtime. They did, however, go on to defeat George Mason, and Bucknell also made it to the Patriot League Championship Game to face Holy Cross in which the Bison lost by a score of 66-74

In 2006 the Bucknell Men's soccer team went on a surprise run to capture the Patriot League championship. In the semifinal they beat top seeded Lehigh in a game that went to a shootout. Then in the final they defeated Lehigh in a game that also ended in a shootout. This qualified them for the NCAA Soccer tournament. They faced George Mason in the first round and won on an overtime goal. In the second round they fell to fourth ranked Virginia.

In 2006 Bucknell's Women Rowers won the Patriot League Openweight Championship and its Lightweight Women scored a 6th place finish at the National Championship IRA Regatta.

Bucknell is the only school in Patriot League history to capture both the Men's and Women's swimming league championship in the same season (2003).

Bucknell has a strong Ultimate program. The men's team, the Mudsharks, was formed in 1975, making it arguably the longest running team name in college Ultimate. The women's team is known as the Peace Frogs and has also been a team since the late 70s.

Beginning in the 2006-2007 season, Bucknell has re-instituted its men's wrestling program, after it was originally dropped by the university in efforts to be in compliance with Title IX.

[edit] Fight song

'Ray Bucknell, 'Ray Bucknell,
'Ray for the Orange and the Blue!
'Ray, 'Ray, 'Ray, 'Ray,
'Ray for the Orange and the Blue!

[edit] Student life

First-year undergraduates are required to live on campus. The school guarantees on-campus housing for all four years. Some students choose to live off campus after their first year. All on-campus students must purchase a campus meal plan. There are multiple dining options on campus for students including the Bostwick Cafeteria and the Bison snack bar.

Because of its rural location and lack of nearby large cities (Harrisburg, PA is located about one hour south), Bucknell may seem fairly isolated. However, its more than 130 student organizations, a historical downtown movie theater, and year-end formal ball provide students with a wide array of activities.

Bucknell has active religious life involvement on campus. Groups such as Bucknell University Catholic Campus Ministry, Rooke Chapel Congregation, and Campus Jewish Life are available to students for spiritual and personal growth.

The university also has a lively Greek community. Students cannot rush until the first semester of their sophomore year, but approximately 50 percent of eligible students join the school's 13 fraternities and 6 sororities.

Bucknell University's student newspaper is The Bucknellian, which is printed weekly. Its radio station is WVBU 90.5 FM.

[edit] Notable alumni

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Mitchell, Brian C. (2007-02-02). Bucknell Board of Trustees winter meeting summary. Retrieved on 2007-02-02.
  2. ^ Standard 10: Faculty. Bucknell University. Retrieved on 2006-05-29.
  3. ^ Bucknell University At a Glance. US News and World Report. Retrieved on 2006-05-29.
  4. ^ Past Presidents of Bucknell. Bucknell University. Retrieved on 2007-02-02.
  5. ^ Brian C. Mitchell, President. Bucknell University. Retrieved on 2007-02-02.
  6. ^ Profile: Class of 2009. Bucknell University. Retrieved on 2006-05-29.
  7. ^ Liberal Arts Colleges: Top Schools. US News and World Report. Retrieved on 2006-05-29.
  8. ^ Bucknell University. The Princeton Review. Retrieved on 2006-05-29.
  9. ^ Colleges & Departments. Bucknell University. Retrieved on 2006-05-29.
  10. ^ 2006 Best Undergraduate Engineering Programs. Yahoo! Education. Retrieved on 2006-05-29.
  11. ^ Most student studying abroad. US News and World Report. Retrieved on 2006-05-29.

[edit] External links

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Patriot League
Bucknell • Colgate • Holy Cross • Lafayette • Lehigh
Non-football members: American • Army • Navy
Football-only members: Fordham • Georgetown
Women's Lacrosse-only member: Villanova
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