Bucknell Student Government (BSG) unanimously approved a letter telling Bucknell University President John Bravman he should make a statement recognizing that he saw the Black Student Union’s Letter and that he is working to fit their demands. 

Bucknell Student Government President Sam Douds ’25 described his “frustration” of the student body in regards to social diversity and Congress’ deliberations during their April 2 meeting.

Douds said BSG can use its power to be the voice that amplifies the needs of students on this issue, as it has been doing for a while.

The senators and members of the House held a forum where they shared their views on the statement to send President Bravman. They primarily discussed how BSG will properly communicate the statement, what is a fair amount of response time to give and what will happen when President Bravman does respond. After the forum, the body passed the resolution.

During the conversation within the room regarding the statement, heads turned when a senior raised her voice to share that this is “the biggest thing she has seen BSG ever do.” 

Before the letter was approved, BSG also met with Dining Services and discussed Congress’s initiatives.

Dining Services

The Dining Services Team presented their future endeavors — including renovations to the library café, kiosk installments in the Bison and a more convenient change to the guest swipes and Dining Dollars program — to Bucknell Student Government at their latest meeting.

Dining met with BSG for another session of Congress where they discussed their “aggressive” agenda, according to Douds. 

After the presentation, Dining Services accepted questions, where many topics of discussion were brought up: how students can get involved with food provider contract updates, accommodations of multicultural foods in community dining places and additional inquiries into the Dining Dollars program. 

Notably, the Dining Services Team said it is relying heavily on students to vanguard their improvements; however, they understand that in order to accommodate everybody, including staff, every change must be realistic.

This applies to hours of operation in regards to foot traffic, cooking recipes to fit the entire student population, proper quality checking and managing of food and the consideration of people with dieting alterations.

After the questions, the Dining Services parted and Douds of BSG initiated the meeting with a roll call, approving the minutes from the last meeting, public comments and made time for an impromptu and brief birthday celebration. 

Budgeting and accountability

Before getting into the agenda at hand, executives spoke and complemented various initiatives from the making of upcoming events on campus, updating the website and profile pictures of BSG and working on the budgeting process for next year. 

Douds then began his agenda with two resolution reminders: to “make Congress more accessible to the public” and “ease the strict protocol structure to allow for more sensible procurements.” 

The second one is a recommendation to help improve the culture around the Congress by giving more weight to House members for community chairs to equalize the workload and “make everyone feel more included…”

Both resolutions were passed and approved.

After the vote, a second resolution was brought up to better the relationship between BSG and the Board of Trustees by having an annual and documented meeting to update the latter on what Congress is doing on campus.

This is primarily to “hold them accountable, when all the choices they [the Board of Trustees] are making directly affects all of us on a day-to-day basis.”

After deliberation on the resolution, it was then approved unanimously.

To end the meeting, each committee board member shared their progress and future enterprises with the campus and specific classes. 

Douds specifically described this session of Congress as “exciting,” “hopeful,” and “unprecedented in the modern timeline of Bucknell.” 

The next session of Congress will occur on April 23 at 4 p.m. in the ELC Forum.