Eighty-nine percent of Bucknell students live on campus. Sarah Hallowell discusses the options: "As incoming freshmen, students take an online housing survey, where they indicate their rooming preferences (single, double, triple, or quad). Freshmen are live in one of five dorms: McDonald, Swartz, Smith, Vedder, Larrison, and Harris. These dorms are open to all students, but certain halls are designated as freshmen only. Upperclassmen reside in the previously mentioned dorms, as well as in Trax, Kress, Roberts, Hunt, and the five buildings that make up the Gateways. Every room has phone and internet jacks, and there is at least one lounge, kitchen, and laundry room in each building. Most halls are co-ed by room and there are both male and female bathrooms.
"Swartz and McDonald Halls are located uphill, just off the academic quad. McDonald is the newest dorm at Bucknell; while the other dorms are set up in long halls, McDonald is a four-story, H-shaped building. Each of the leg of the H is arranged as a "neighborhood," and each of these has a total of 10 rooms, all doubles, except for the RA room, plus a large common room with a kitchen and TV.
"Swartz Hall is a considerably older dorm, but has gone under extensive renovations. Swartz is split between a freshman side and an upperclassmen side. The freshman side of Swartz is commonly thought of as the party dorm for freshmen who cannot swing a frat party invitation. Smith, Vedder, Larrison, and Harris Halls are the downhill dorms, further away from the academic buildings but closer to the Student Union and the downtown area. The rooms in Smith are much like the rooms in McDonald, but in long hallways. Vedder’s rooms are Z-shaped, which gives inhabitants a little more privacy from their roommates. Harris is the CHOICE dorm, substance-free and silent. Larrison is probably one of the oldest dorms on campus, originally built to house female students at the turn of the century.
"Upperclassmen have plenty of options when comes to on-campus living. Besides the aforementioned buildings, students can live in Roberts, Trax, and Kress Halls, otherwise known as RTK. Trax and Kress are made up of singles, coed by floor and for the most part designated quiet dorms. Roberts, or Old Main, was originally the first academic building on campus, and features a mix of room sizes. This building has the distinction of being the only housing option with split doubles, where there are rooms separated by a bathroom. Because of an outdated local law, sororities are not allowed to have houses on or off-campus, so they are all located in Hunt Hall, which was built exclusively for the female Greeks. Each of the six sororities has a 13-room wing of the building called a "suite," complete with kitchen, living room, and bathroom. Every senior wants to live in the Gateways, which is a mini apartment complex. Each apartment holds four students in four single rooms off a living room and has a full kitchen and bathroom."
Bucknell's 16th president is Brian C. Mitchell, who took the office in July of 2004. Mitchell was previously president of Washington and Jefferson College, near Pittsburgh, from 1998 to 2004. He holds a doctoral degree from the University of Rochester and is considered a specialist in 19th century urban, ethnic, and labor history.
Mitchell has focused his energy on bringing different groups on campus into dialogue on the school’s future, involving students, faculty, alums, trustees, and other stakeholders together in the discussion. In the spring of 2005 he laid out the Plan for Bucknell, a comprehensive set of goals for the school for the coming years.
Rob Andrews (1979) is a Democratic congressman representing New Jersey’s first district.
Edward Hermann (1965) is an actor who has appeared in films such as The Paper Chase, The Purple Rose of Cairo and The Lost Boys.
Les Moonves (1971) is president and CEO of CBS Corporation.
Philip Roth (1954) is a prolific novelist. Roth won the Pulitzer Prize in 1997 for American Pastoral.
Jay Wright (1983) is the basketball coach at Villanova University.
