May 9, 2012: Board of Trustees Spring Summary

Dear Faculty and Staff,

I write to provide a summary of the most recent meeting of the Board of Trustees, which occurred on campus April 26-28. At this meeting, the board discussed specific business items giving special attention to the public launch of the comprehensive campaign this October 26-27 and campus climate issues.

At this meeting, I presented to the board, as I discussed at the recent campaign presentations for faculty and staff, my recommendation that we raise our campaign goal by 25 percent to $500,000,000 -- half-a-billion dollars. My thanks to the Development and External Relations Committee for supporting this recommendation, and to the full board for endorsing it. It is an ambitious but achievable goal that is befitting of Bucknell and its mission. Much work is going on behind the scenes to prepare a powerful case for support from our friends and donors and to initiate the public phase of the campaign with a launch event this fall unlike any other in Bucknell's history. Many colleagues across campus are working hard on these critically important efforts to initiate the public phase of this campaign in a way bolder and more exciting than Bucknell has ever tried before.

As you know, after receiving the Campus Climate Report last fall, I charged Provost Mick Smyer and Dean of Students Susan Lantz to provide me with a report this spring on their recommendations for next steps. Since last fall, a number of initiatives have been put in place. They include additional investments in non-alcohol social events, some of which have drawn many hundreds of students; regular meetings of small groups of faculty, students and staff providing recommendations to the provost and dean; the "Work Hard, Play Smart" initiative begun before House Party Weekend; and Bucknell's partnership in the Dartmouth Collaborative, discussed below. I am grateful to everyone working on these efforts, and will be providing a further update to the campus on next steps following my discussing the recommendations with Provost Smyer and Dean Lantz.

A particularly special occasion during the board's meetings were snap talks by several faculty colleagues, who presented compelling research and creative projects they have underway with their students. My thanks to all all of them for these interesting presentations, which we will soon be posting on the University website and in the myBucknell video channel.

Finally, I want to congratulate the following members of the board for being elected as officers for new three-year terms: Ken Freeman '72, re-elected as chair; Randy MacDonald P'02, re-elected as vice chair and elected as secretary; and Nancy Prial '80, elected as vice chair.

Wendy joins me in wishing you the best for the conclusion of the semester. I know all of us look forward to congratulating our seniors and master's degree recipients at Commencement on May 20 when they receive their Bucknell degrees.

Please click here to read the summary.

Sincerely,

John