You won’t be able to see it if you look on a map, but Bucknell’s campus is actually surrounded by something vast: the Bucknell Bubble. The bubble is both a blessing and a curse. Sure, it keeps the outside world out, but it also keeps us ignorant about what life is like outside of our beautiful, $80,000/year school. I’ve heard rumors, though I don’t believe them, that not everyone on the outside drives a super fancy car on their daddy’s dime. Shocker!
While one could write pages and pages about the socioeconomic status of students at Bucknell, I cannot be bothered. Instead, I’m going to tell you why I brought up the bubble in the first place: it has begun to lock people out.
The first reported incident of a lockout comes from Ric H. Kidd ’25 who was trying to return to campus after Fall Break. Regarding the incident, he said “Yeah, man, I don’t know. I was just driving back and when I got close… BAM! It was like a forcefield.” He went on to add, “My car? Totaled. Which is fine because my dad will just buy me another one, but it’s still annoying. Kinda like you’re being right now!”
One particularly bright student named Emma B. Spendin ’24 made the astute observation that the bubble was letting some students back onto campus. She said, “It was crazy! Not the bubble, mind you, but the kinds of people it was letting back onto campus. I could only see their cars and some of their outfits, but the cars were so old! They must have been from like… 2020… maybe even 2019. And don’t even get me started on their clothes! No shot they were students here!”
Numerous interviews with other students confirmed what Kidd and Spendin’s accounts seemed to imply: the bubble was keeping most, if not all, Bucknellians out. If you’re thinking that this doesn’t sound like a punishment because it’s essentially just an extended Fall Break, you’d be dead wrong. Typically, the Bucknell Bubble keeps Bucknellians in and the outside world out, but seeing as the bubble has turned on them, Bucknellians have now been forced to leave the privileged lives they lead on campus.
This turn of events has led to tragic consequences for Bucknellians. For example, they’ve had to find jobs. Without the bubble’s protection, they’ve also had to interact with everyday people. At first, it was a tough adjustment with one Bucknellian being quoted as saying, “I can’t live like this!” By the time the bubble opened back up, however, it seemed like this had been a net-positive experience with many Bucknellians gaining some much-needed perspective.
We often take going to Bucknell for granted, but the bubble locking students out over Fall Break served as a reminder for many the next time their parents drop them off that they’re very lucky to be a Bison!