My first stop on this trip was really the first stop along the road of campus conservatism… Bucknell University. This is one of the best conservative groups in the country over the past 5 years. They also have a great Collegiate Network paper, The Counterweight, which always has great flashy covers and well-written articles. The group epitomizes what it means to be “campus specific”, to “get attention” and spread the knowledge of conservative ideas. They have events practically every month, usually bringing in a notable speaker.
This week, they are hosting free-market economist, Walter Williams. At their meeting on Monday night, which I attended, they made flashy looking posters to advertise the event. No, not mere flyers saying “Walter Williams, Room X, Building Y”, but instead they get big colorful posterboards and cut out funny or interesting looking pictures from popular magazines, and make funny posters out of them to get students’ attention on why they should come out and hear what Dr. Williams has to say. One poster, for example, had a big cut out photo (from a magazine) on it of Jennifer Anniston. Then, the students drew in a quote box that said, “Who needs Brad? I’ve got Walter Williams.” And then below it displayed the day and time of the event, which is this Thursday.
On a campus with about 3,500 students, it is a tight-knit school where people get to know everyone in their class and recognize most people on campus. The campus itself is also very beautiful. Whoever picked this place out in the 1840s to build a school in this location was really thinking. It’s almost in a valley, and when I arrived it was late afternoon, when the sun was beginning to go behind the mountains to the west. Also, the Susquehanna River is less than a mile from campus and I basically hugged the river the last hour or so drive before I made it to campus. Absolutely beautiful scenery. The campus must be a great place to go to school. I actually enjoyed a 2-mile run when I got here, and if I had the energy, I’m sure I could have found about 8 more miles of running room without feeling dizzy.
This was a great place to start off this trip… almost no one does it better than the Bucknell University Conservatives Club, and there are probably fewer prettier campuses than this one.