Whenever there is a problem at Bucknell, you will hear murmurs of how it is the fault of “The Administration.” We group every individual who has a hand in managing Bucknell into one large, indiscernible entity that seems untouchable. This is similar to blaming things on “the government,” pushing the blame away from individuals onto everyone in a group will do nothing to solve any problems. Sometimes the issue is that people don’t know who “The Administration” is. Beyond President Bravman, the Board of Trustees and Chief Morgan, the average Bucknell student wouldn’t be able to name all the members of “The Administration,” which is not necessarily their fault.

Bucknell New Student Orientation attempts to teach every first year the important faces on campus. Within their first five days on campus, students are introduced to the Dean of Students, Title IX Coordinator, Public Safety Chief, Dean of Admissions, Dean of their respective college, Community Director of their residence hall and the President of the University. They are then expected to remember these people, their titles and their responsibilities on campus. This can make it easy to lump everyone together, but it is important to remember that these are people who have specific jobs and impacts on the University.

Something that often gets overlooked is that everyone who works at Bucknell chose to work in higher education and is here because they care about the growth and development of students. If there is a decision that a student doesn’t understand or feels is negatively impacting their college experience, Bucknell employees would be more than willing to help them understand why the decision was made and what we can do to make the situation better. But we can’t go to Chief Morgan to ask about a change made by the Dean of Students. We also shouldn’t be blaming Chief Morgan for changes that were made due to influences outside of his control. It is important that, as students, we learn to understand the system that we are a part of here at Bucknell.

Since we go to a small liberal arts college, we have many opportunities to connect with people on campus who have a lot of power to create change. We should feel empowered to set up meetings to understand changes happening on campus. If we care enough about something to complain, we should care enough to try to fix it. We also need to make interactions with students worth it for people with administrative positions at Bucknell. We need to show up and be engaged and open to seeing them as humans rather than a representation of what students are upset about. All of the information about the members of the President’s cabinet and what they do for the University is a simple Google search away. We may feel like they won’t talk to us because they are “too busy” or “have more important work to do,” but the purpose behind all of their work is you. Bucknell exists for students. Bucknell exists for you. Each member of “The Administration” is here working, directly or indirectly, because they want to improve your experience. 

Fixing this disconnect between students and the members of administrative offices at Bucknell is a two-way street. That being said, we already see attempts by different offices to have more student interaction. We need students to buy-in and initiate connections to bridge the gap between students and people in administrative positions on campus. The first step is to do our research and learn who exactly is responsible for the changes we see on campus, good and bad. We can thank people for helpful changes and ask for clarification on those that we find less than helpful. But our perception needs to change; otherwise, we will never be able to close this gap and see a cohesive and united way forward.