Bucknell University is a
private liberal arts university located
along the West Branch
Susquehanna River in the rolling countryside of Central
Pennsylvania
in the town of Lewisburg
, 30 miles (48 km) southeast of Williamsport and 60 miles (97 km) north of
Harrisburg
. The university consists of the College of
Arts and Sciences and the College of Engineering.
Bucknell was founded in 1846, and features programs in engineering,
management, education, and music, as well as nationally ranked
programs and pre-professional advising that prepare students for
success in law and medicine. Bucknell is among the top 20 U.S.
liberal arts colleges in terms of the
number of graduates who go on to earn doctorates. It has over 50
majors and 60 minors.
Although it is primarily an undergraduate school (with 3,400
students), there are also 150 graduate students on the campus.
Students come from all 50 states, and from more than 50 countries.
Bucknell has nearly 200 student organizations, a large
Greek presence, and is part of
the
Patriot League in
Division I athletics.
History
Founding
Founded in 1846 as the University at Lewisburg, Bucknell traces its
origination to a group of
Baptists, from
White Deer Valley
Baptist Church, who
deemed it "desirable that a Literary Institution should be
established in Central Pennsylvania, embracing a High School for
male pupils, another for females, a College and also a Theological
Institution."
The
group’s efforts for the institution began to crystallize in 1845,
when Stephen William Taylor, a professor at Madison University (now
Colgate
University
) in Hamilton, New
York, was asked to prepare a charter and
act as general agent for the university’s development.
The charter for the University at Lewisburg, granted by the
Legislature of Pennsylvania
and approved by the governor on February 5, 1846, carried one
stipulation–that $100,000 ($ in current dollar terms) be raised
before the new institution would be granted full
corporate status. More than 4,000
subscribers ultimately contributed, including a small boy who gave
12 cents ($ in current dollar terms).
Early years
In 1846, the "school preparatory to the University" opened in the
basement of the
First Baptist
Church in Lewisburg. Known originally as the Lewisburg High
School, it became, in 1848, the Academical and Primary Department
of the University at Lewisburg.
In 1850, the department moved into the first building completed on
campus, now called Taylor Hall. Built for $8,000 ($ in current
dollar terms), the building housed both women and men’s studies
until the opening of the Female Institute in 1852. While studying
together, women were required to face east while men faced
west.
The school’s first commencement was held August 20, 1851, for a
graduation class of seven men. Among the board members attending
was
James Buchanan, who would become
the 15th President of the United States. Stephen Taylor officiated
as his last act before assuming office as president of Madison
University. One day earlier, the trustees had elected
Howard Malcom as the first president of the
university, a post he held for six years.
The description that the university was carved out of the "wilds of
Pennsylvania" is no exaggeration.
From Philadelphia
, the journey in those early years involved
traveling by stagecoach, canal boat, and unheated train, and averaged 25
hours.
Female Institute

Bucknell University in the
1870s.
Although the Female Institute began instruction in 1852, it wasn’t
until 1883 that college courses were opened to
women. Bucknell, though, was committed to equal
educational opportunities for women.
This commintment was reflected strikingly in the words of
David Jayne Hill of the Class of 1874, and
president of the university from 1879 to 1888: "We need in
Pennsylvania, in the geographical centre of the state, a
University, not in the German but in the American sense, where
every branch of non-professional knowledge can be pursued,
regardless of distinction of sex. I have no well-matured plan to
announce as to the sexes; but the Principal of the Female Seminary
proposes to inaugurate a course for females equal to that pursued
at
Vassar; the two sexes having equal
advantages, though not reciting together."
Within five years of opening, enrollment had grown so sharply that
the university built a new hall–Larison Hall–to accommodate the
Female Institute. Women could venture into town only in the company
of a female teacher who had a minimum of six years’ experience in
handling girls.
Benefactor William Bucknell
In 1881, facing dire finances, the university turned to
William Bucknell, a
charter member of the
board of trustees, for help. His generous
donation of $50,000 ($ in current dollar terms) saved the
university from ruin. For the remainder of his life, Bucknell gave
generously to the university, and in 1886 in recognition of that
generosity the trustees voted unanimously to change the name of the
University at Lewisburg to Bucknell University.
Bucknell Hall, the first of several buildings given to the
university by Bucknell, was initially a
chapel and for more than a half century the site of
student theatrical and musical performances. Today, it houses the
Stadler Center for Poetry.
Continued Expansion

Bucknell Library
The 40 years from 1890 until 1930 were ones of a steady increase in
the number of faculty members and students.
When the Depression brought a drop in enrollment
in 1933, several members of the faculty were "loaned" to found a
new institution: Bucknell Junior College in Wilkes-Barre
, Pennsyvlvania. Today, that
institution is a four-year university, Wilkes University
, independent of Bucknell since 1947.
Significant new construction in the 1970s included the Elaine
Langone Center, the Gerhard Fieldhouse, and the Computer Center.
During the early 1980s, the capacity of the Bertrand Library was
doubled and facilities for engineering were substantially
renovated. Recently, the Franks Computer Courtyard (named after
Brandon Franks, a student who owns the courtyard) was added to
provide additional computers, both PCs and Macs, to students. In
1988, the Weis Center for the Performing Arts was completed.
New facilities for the sciences included the renovation of the Olin
Science Building (which is located across from the Dana (Ragusa)
building), the construction of the Rooke Chemistry Building in 1990
and the completion of a new Biology Building in 1991. The McDonnell
Residence Hall and Weis Music Building were completed in 2000. In
addition, the O'Leary Building for Psychology and Geology opened in
the fall of 2002 and the new
Kenneth
Langone Recreational Athletic Center opened during the 2002–03
academic year.
The most recent facility, the Breakiron (Rahimi) Engineering
Building, opened in 2004. Today, more than 100 buildings dot the
campus.
Strategic planning
On April 29, 2006, the Board of Trustees unanimously approved "The
Plan for Bucknell", which calls for improvement in five areas:
strengthening the academic
core
curriculum, deepening the residential learning experience,
enhancing diversity, building bridges with the local community, and
securing Bucknell's financial future.
The university reported having $600 million in investments in its
endowment portfolio in
2007.
Presidents

President Brian C.
*Interim President
**Interim President from 1935-38
Academics
Bucknell is a highly competitive liberal arts university, with a
Class of 2012 undergraduate acceptance rate of 29.8%.
U.S. News & World Report
classifies its selectivity as "most selective." It was ranked 30th
for liberal arts colleges by
U.S. News and World
Report as of 2007. Bucknell is ranked 7th for liberal arts
colleges in the U.S. by
Washington Monthly. The 25th and
75th percentile
SAT scores for the Class of 2011
that matriculated were 600 and 690, respectively in Critical
Reading, and in Math the 25th/75th percentiles were 630 and 710.
81% of students accepted into Bucknell were in the top 10% of their
class, and 94% of accepted students were in the top 20% of their
class. The student-faculty ratio is 11:1.
Primarily an undergraduate institution, Bucknell offers 47 majors
and 65 minors. Majors include history,
mathematics, environmental studies, geology,
East Asian studies,
management,
accounting,
biology,
chemistry,
education,
music,
art history,
English,
animal behavior,
economics, philosophy, physics, political science,
psychology,
theatre, and various foreign
languages. Students can also design their own majors.
The school's College of
Engineering
(with majors in electrical, chemical, computer science, mechanical,
civil, and recently established biomedical and computer
engineering) is particularly strong. Among American schools that do
not offer a
Ph.D. in engineering, Bucknell
ranks No. 8. The Chemical Engineering Department ranks No. 4, the
Civil Engineering Program No. 5, the Electrical Engineering and
Computer Engineering Departments No. 6, and the Mechanical
Engineering Department No. 7, respectively, 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 (in fact it is the nation's largest private
liberal arts university), 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) 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 20
liberal arts colleges in the number of
students 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.
The University
sponsors semester-long programs in four locations: London
, Barbados
, Tours, France
, and Granada, Spain
, and several short-term summer programs in
locations such as Northern Ireland
and Nicaragua
, all of which are staffed by Bucknell
professors. Students can also choose to study in a variety
of other countries through alternative providers.
Athletics

Bucknell Bison logo

Naval Academy/Bucknell lacrosse game,
March 2006.
Bucknell is a member of the
Patriot
League for
Division I sports,
Division I-AA in
football.
Bucknell
won the first Orange Bowl (26–0
over the University of
Miami
on January 1, 1935) as well as the first Division
II NCAA Swimming & Diving championships in 1964. It is
also the alma mater of
baseball pitcher
Christy Mathewson, who requested
burial in a cemetery adjoining Bucknell's campus.
In 2005,
the men's basketball
team went to the NCAA men's
basketball tournament and became the first Patriot League team to win an NCAA tournament
game, upsetting Kansas
(64–63). The victory followed a year that included
wins over #9 Pittsburgh
and St. Joe's.
They lost
to Wisconsin
in the following round, but received the honor of
"Best Upset" at the 2005 ESPY
Awards.
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.
The campus is roughly divided into "uphill" and "downhill" areas by
a large slope between Moore Avenue and Dent Drive. The uphill area
flanks
U.S. Route 15 and the Susquehanna River, and features many of
the academic buildings, including the main academic quadrangle and
library, as well as some dormitories, Christy
Mathewson-Memorial Stadium
, and Fraternity Road. Downhill borders the
Victorian-era neighborhoods of
downtown Lewisburg, and features mainly residential buildings,
including the majority of first-year dormitories, the Gateway
apartment complex, the President's house, many of the indoor
athletic facilities, and Hunt Hall, home to the school's
sororities. Bucknell West, which is separated from the rest of
campus by Route 15, features some housing, athletic fields, art and
psychology/animal behavior laboratories, and an 18-hole golf
course. All on-campus students must purchase a campus meal plan.
There are several dining options on campus for students, including
the Bostwick Cafeteria, Bison snack bar, and Terrace Room in the
Langone Student Center, and the Library and 7th Street Cafes.
Because
of its rural location and lack of nearby large cities (Harrisburg,
Pennsylvania
, is located about one hour south), Bucknell may
seem fairly isolated. However, its more than 130
student organizations, a historical
downtown movie theater, many student performances, and year-end
formal
ball provide students with a
wide array of activities. Downtown Lewisburg is within short
walking distance of the campus and features a variety of shops,
museums, galleries and restaurants in addition to old-fashioned
gingerbread houses.
Bucknell's student newspaper is
The
Bucknellian, which is printed weekly. Its radio station is
WVBU 90.5
FM.
Bucknell has active religious life involvement on campus. Groups
such as Bucknell University Catholic Campus Ministry, Rooke Chapel
Congregation,
Muslim
Students Association, and
Hillel 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 7 sororities.
Active Fraternities:
Active Sororities:
Notable alumni
- Gbenga Akinnagbe, actor; plays
Chris Partlow on HBO's "The
Wire"
- Diane B. Allen, New
Jersey State Senator, Legislative
District 7
- Ted Ammon, New York financier
- Kunitake Ando, President &
Group Chief Operating Officer of Sony
Corporation
- Rob Andrews, U.S. Representative from New Jersey
(1990– )
- Peter Balakian, Award-winning
author and poet, professor at Colgate University
- Ronald S. Baron, New York financier, founder of
Baron Funds
- Jonathan Baum, CEO Dreyfus
- Theodore Beale, author &
columnist, also known as Vox Day
- Ben Benson, owner/founder of Ben
Benson's Steak House & co-owner/founder of Smith and Wollensky in NYC
- Neal
Blaisdell, former mayor of Honolulu

- Colonel Matthew
Bogdanos, Marine, NYC Assistant District Attornery, and
author
- Frank J. Brown, Dean of INSEAD
- Andrew Copelan, head coach of the
Fairfield Stags men's
lacrosse team
- Matt Daley, Major League Baseball
pitcher for the Colorado
Rockies
- Jessica Flannery, cofounder,
Kiva.org
- Benjamin K. Focht, US Congressman from Pennsylvania

- John A. Giannetti, member of Maryland Senate, District 21
- Sunil Gulati, President, United States Soccer
Federation
- Marc Hauser,
author, professor, and Director of the Cognitive Evolution Lab at
Harvard
University

- Edward Herrmann, actor
- David Jayne Hill, diplomat,
ambassador, and writer
- Clarke Hinkle,
National Football League
fullback & Hall of
Fame
inductee
- Jon Robert Holden, naturalized
Russian basketball player, currently active for PBC CSKA Moscow
- Ye Htoon, Burmese political dissident
- Bob Keegan, former Major League
Baseball pitcher
- Tim Keller,
theologian & pastor of the Redeemer Presbyterian Church,
New York
City

- Kenneth
Langone, co-founder of Home Depot,
and former director of the New York Stock Exchange

- Doug Lebda, founder & CEO of
LendingTree
- Evan Coyne Maloney, webmaster/documentary
filmmaker
- Christy
Mathewson, former Major League Baseball player & member of
the Baseball
Hall of Fame
(did not graduate)
- John McPherson,
"Close to Home"
cartoonist
- Lewis Merrill, Union army general. Attended prior to
entering West Point
.
- Les Moonves, President & CEO of
CBS Television
- Alex Necochea,
guitarist/co-founder of heavy metal band, Bang Camaro.
- Garrett Neff, fashion model
- Hal Richman, developer of Strat-O-Matic games and CEO of Strat-O-Matic
Inc.
- Philip Roth, award-winning
novelist
- Martin Rubeo, musician and founder
of alternative rock band Gramsci
Melodic
- David T. Scadden, Scientific Director, Harvard Stem Cell Institute
- Greg Schiano,
head coach of the Rutgers University
football team
- Alan Stillman, Founder of TGI Friday's and Smith and Wollensky
restaurants
- Ray Sullivan, Chief Operating
Officer of the New England
Patriots
- Theodore Van Kirk, Enola Gay Navigator on August 6, 1945
- Ralph Waite, actor
- Bill Westenhofer, 2008 winner
of the Academy Award for Achievement
in Visual Effects
- William Braucher Wood,
current U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan
- Ted Woodward,
head coach of the University of Maine
basketball team
- Jay
Wright, head coach of the Villanova University
basketball team
- Weldon Wyckoff, former Major
League Baseball player
- George Young,
former New York Giants general
manager
- David
Wood, leader of the Dell computer take-back
campaign
- Brett Wilkenson, Olympic
rower in Athens 2004
Notes
- Dandes, Rick, "Bucknell invests in new money manager", The
Daily Item, July 16, 2007.
- US News: Most Selective
External links
- Official
school website
- Official athletics website
- Bucknell Student Government
- Theiss, Lewis Edwin, Centennial history of
Bucknell University: 1846-1946, Grit Publishing Co.
Press (1946)
- Oliphant, James Orin, The rise of Bucknell
University Appleton-Century-Crofts (1965)
- Krist, Robert, Bucknell University,
Harmony House (1990), ISBN 091650929X, 9780916509293