Two Bucknell University students, one the president of the junior class and a fraternity, admitted to burglarizing two dorm rooms on campus, stealing over $9,600 worth of items including laptops and textbooks. They were arrested and released on bail, facing charges of trespassing, receiving stolen property, and burglary. The students were turned into authorities by other fraternity brothers after admitting the crimes to them. An investigation is ongoing.

1. Clips
Students, one a Fraternity and Class President, Admit to Mod Burglaries
William M. Fierman
News Editor
3/16/2013
Two University students – one the president of the junior class and a campus fraternity – were
arraigned and released on payment of $25,000 bail each on Feb. 27, facing charges of criminal
trespassing, receiving stolen property and burglary.
Jeffrey Finegan ’14 was the president of the Delta Upsilon Fraternity, a position he has since
resigned, and currently maintains his role in the Bucknell student government as class president.
Carter Wells ’14 is also a member of Delta Upsilon.
The pair admitted to Public Safety Officers to entering Mods 7 and 10, removing laptop
computers, textbooks, cash and other items valued by police at more than $9,600.
On Feb. 24, Delta Upsilon brothers Michael Maneri ’13 and Andrew D’Abbraccio ’15, who
has since become president of Delta Upsilon, arrived at the Department of Public Safety wishing to
speak with an officer. They reported to officers Paul Shipton and Trace Nevil that Finegan was
responsible for the thefts.
Maneri had loaned his car to Finegan on Feb. 16 and later found out that Finegan had used
it to carry out the burglaries, according to the official criminal complaint filed with the Union
County Courthouse.
Two other Delta Upsilon Brothers accompanied Finegan to Mod 10 on Feb. 9, planning to
pull a prank on the occupants by rearranging the furniture. They witnessed Finegan remove several
items from the room, placing them in his backpack, the report continues.
Finegan later gave the two men a combined $100, money that was handed over to Public
Safety officers during an interview. Finegan also invited one of the men to accompany him on a
second burglary the next weekend, but he refused.
On Feb. 16, Finegan broke into Mod 10 via an unlocked living room window, handing
several laptops through the window to accomplice Wells, who placed them into Wells’s car. The two
then moved on to Mod 7, entering through an unlocked door and removing several more laptops,
cash and backpacks full of textbooks.
They then told two of their fraternity brothers about the incident, who asked them to return
the stolen items or put them in a public place where they could be found. They were told by Finegan
that several of the items were already being sold on the internet.
After receiving the “Timely Notice Warning” in an email from Public safety on Feb. 18,
Finegan and Wells became nervous, and later claimed that Wells placed the laptops against a
dumpster in a bag behind a Kohl’s department store in Selinsgrove, Pa., where he was shipping
several of the textbooks he had already sold online. The laptops have not been found.
Several days later, the two Delta Upsilon told Maneri and D’Abbraccio about the incident,
who then turned Finegan and Wells in to Public Safety. Public Safety carried out search warrants on
Finegan’s room, Wells’ room and vehicle, according to Public Safety Chief Stephen Barilar. Both
were interviewed by Public Safety Officers and admitted to the burglaries.
Finegan presented the officers with receipts from websites textbooksRus.com and
ecampus.com where he had already sold several of the stolen textbooks.
Andrew Kilman ’15, a resident of Mod 7 who’s MacBook Pro and marketing textbook were
stolen, found it hard to believe that this sort of thing could happen at the University.

2. “The Public Safety Officers that interviewed all of us didn’t even think that it was Bucknell
students before those two guys confessed,” Kilman said.
He and his roommates, who were robbed of a Macbook Pros, wallets containing cash and
credit cards, and a large number of textbooks, felt comfortable leaving their door open before the
burglaries. Kilman said that “now we obviously lock our doors.”
Victims of the robberies were told that if Finegan and Wells were found guilty they would be
contacted by the pair or their attorneys who would arrange compensation for the stolen items.
“Their actions at the Mods are not congruent with the values of Delta Upsilon. Currently
Mr. Finegan and Mr. Wells are suspended as brothers. We will continue to move forward as a
chapter having cooperated fully with the administration and authorities,” D’Abbraccio said.
Finegan and Wells are no longer on campus and are awaiting the formal procedures outlined
in the University Code of Conduct. These procedures will determine the University’s response,
according to Dean of Students Susan Lantz. They are scheduled for a preliminary hearing at the
Union County Courthouse on March 28.
Pennsylvania House passes liquor store privatization plan
William M Fierman
News Editor
4/3/2013
The Pennsylvania House of Representatives recently passed a measure to privatize the state’s liquor
stores and sell wine and spirits permits to private vendors.
The measure, pushed for by Governor Tom Corbett, passed the house without a single
Democrat voting in favor. The bill will now move to the State Senate and is likely to be heavily
deliberated.
Pennsylvania is home to some of the most stringent controls on the sale of wine and spirits
in the nation. The state is one of 18 to maintain a monopoly over the sale of such beverages.
“We do need to modernize our alcohol sales system and there is much we can do to
accomplish that without putting 5,000 state workers out of work, putting hundreds of family-owned
beer distributorships out of business, increasing alcohol-related deaths and crime and selling a state
asset that generates hundreds of millions of dollars for our general fund,” Democratic State
Representative Phyllis Mundy said.
Controlling the sale of wine and spirits has provided a steady source of revenue for the cash-
strapped state, though Corbett has said that he believes the sale of permits to vendors as well as
future taxation would balance out in the end.
Most supporters of privatization claim that controlling wine and spirits sales is not a vital
state function and that the current system is outdated.
State Senator Gene Yaw, a Republican whose constituency includes the University, said in an
interview with The Bucknellian that the main concern for constituents was convenience. People
wishing to purchase alcohol must go to a state-run store, while in most states they can do anywhere
alcohol is sold.
Mundy also agreed that her constituency was telling her that convenience was a priority. The
measure passed by the House allows for beer distributors to have priority in buying the 1,200
licenses that will become available. Grocery stores, which were given the ability to sell beer in 2010,
will be able to stock wine but not spirits or malt beverages.

3. Washington State passed a measure last year to privatize its liquor stores and consumers
have noticed a significant spike in prices due to taxation by the state. Reuters reported that prices
were about 10 to 30 percent higher statewide after the privatization plan was carried out.
When asked about the effect privatization would have on prices, Yaw said “I don’t know.
I’ve heard both sides of the argument.”
As for the possibility of the bill passing the State Senate in its current form, “No,” said Yaw.
William M. Fierman
News Editor
10/2/2013
A break-in at a student apartment at Bucknell West is being investigated by Public Safety.
Nicole Bakeman ’16, a resident of Mod 18, stepped out of her bathroom around 1 p.m. on
Oct. 1 and found a man standing in her living room by the porch door.
“He saw me and just booked it out,” Bakeman said.
Bakeman later described the man to University Public Safety Officers as a white male in his
mid-thirties, wearing a backwards baseball cap.
“We were keeping our Mod open because it is Big-Little Week,” Bakeman said, referring to
the annual tradition in which upperclassmen members of sororities leave gifts for new associate
members. She and her roommates claim they will now lock their doors.
Nothing is missing from the apartment, roommate Alexa Healey ’16 said.
“Maybe if I wasn’t there they would have taken something,” Bakeman said.
Public Safety sent a “Timely Warning Notice” email to the campus community describing
the suspect on Oct. 2, and currently has no leads, Chief Stephen Barilar said.
Three Bucknell Student Government candidates disqualified from race
William M. Fierman
Hours before the general election ballots for the Bucknell Student Government (BSG) became
available online to University students, three candidates were disqualified from the race by the BSG
Executive Board.
The former candidates Tim Jim Kim ’16, Gabby Derosa ’16 and Tim Delaney ’16 were
notified that they had been disqualified for the second time late on April 16 for violating
campaigning regulations and using the trademarked Bucknell Bison logo in a video posted to the
class of 2016 Facebook page.
Kim was running for the position of president of next year’s sophomore class, Derosa for
vice president and Delaney for treasurer.
The three had been disqualified in another incident on April 14 after being accused of a
violation for campaign fliers posted above the dish conveyor belt in the Bostwick Cafeteria,
originally labeled a violation of the rules by the BSG Executive Board. The decision was rescinded
by the BSG Executive Board after they met for an appeals process and argued their case, claiming
that the rules were not explicit in banning fliers at that location.
“We didn’t think this was a violation, so we presented them with our side,” said Kim, who
brought with him a petition that included the signatures of over 350 students in support of the three
candidates.
The executive board said in an interview soon after the meeting that the petition, though a
reassuring signal of student’s interest in the student government, had nothing to do with their
decision, which was made after concluding that the rules in question were unclear.

4. Later that afternoon and soon after they had been notified that they were back on the ballot,
three other first-year candidates arrived at the office of the faculty advisor to the student
government, Associate Dean of Students Kari Conrad, bearing the video Kim, Derosa and Delaney
had posted to Facebook that included the trademarked logo, asking that the board again disqualify
the candidates.
The three were not the only disqualified from the ballot this year. Emma Miller ’16, who was
running for the position of treasurer, was notified that her name would be removed from the
ballot after she posted campaign posters to the Elaine Langone Center bulletin boards, another
violation of campaigning rules.
BSG President Loren Jablon ’15 said that these instances were the first in recent memory
that the BSG Executive Board had moved to disqualify candidates from a general election ballot.
Especially among a first-year class, “there’s never been an election this cutthroat before,” Jablon
said.
Kim, who currently serves as vice president of the first-year class, was disappointed with the
way the election turned out. Speaking of the candidates that reported the video to Conrad, Kim said
that “they really went out of their way to scour our campaign material and find something that was
against the rules.”
As for the BSG Executive Board that disqualified them for the second time, “their hands
were tied,” Kim said.
University Cancels House Party Weekend
By William M. Fierman
In an email to the University community on Aug. 1, President John Bravman announced several
new policy changes including the cancellation of House Party Weekend.
An almost century old tradition at the University, House Party is a weekend of events during
the spring semester, most hosted by the campus’s Greek organizations. The weekend annually
includes exceptionally high rates of hospitalizations due to high-risk drinking as well as a large spike
of encounters between students and University Public Safety or local police. During the 2013 House
Party Weekend, 15 students were admitted to the hospital.
The decision to cancel House Party Weekend by Bravman came to most members of the
University community in the almost 3,000 word email that highlighted Bravman’s growing concerns
with student behavior during House Party Weekend over his three years as president.
“I can no longer support an event that tacitly enables–and seemingly encourages–our
students and their guests to be at their worst,” Bravman said in the email.
For most of the University’s history, House Party has steadily grown in size. Spending by the
Inter-Fraternity Council totaled between $50,000 to $60,000 during the previous few years, though
registration fees for students and their guests more than cover that cost. Proceeds are split between
an IFC-sponsored educational event and a donation to a charitable organization.
In recent decades, involvement by the University grew with the hope of providing for
student health and safety. During last year’s House Party Weekend, the University provided fencing,
spotlights, security and safety personnel, on-campus events, and catering service through funding for
the Department of Public Safety, the Dean of Students Office, the Campus Activities and Programs
(CAP) Center, and the Inter-Fraternity Council.
“I think it got to be that this grew over time and the University tried to step in and be
helpful–spotlights, port-o-potties, free food–trying to address issues, first and foremost, of health
and safety,” Bravman said.

5. “They cannot mount House Party Weekend as it’s been [without a University contribution].
We provide logistical support and financial support to non-trivial degrees,” Bravman said in an
interview with The Bucknellian. As it existed until last year, House Party was unquestionably “a
University-sanctioned event–it’s on the academic calendar,” Bravman said.
“The size and scope of House Party Weekend typically required us to have all of our officers
on duty for at least a portion of the weekend. To put that in perspective, that’s about three times the
coverage of an average weekend on campus,” Chief of Public Safety Steve Barilar reported in an
email to The Bucknellian.
In 2012, the Department of Public Safety spent $15,000 more on staffing on House Party
Weekend than the average weekend, though this figure does not include the contributions of salaried
employees. The Dean of Students’ office staff spent well over 250 hours planning and volunteering.
When asked about the possibility of a student-led house party this spring, Barilar said the
department has the ability to “adjust and adapt” to new circumstances in order to support the health
and safety of students this spring.
Considering the breadth of such involvement, University administration acknowledge that it
is difficult to gauge what will become of House Party Weekend without University aid.
Bravman also expressed concern that because of the unusual dynamic created by off-campus
housing, the event may simply shift downtown, where University Public Safety officers have no
jurisdiction. Past University-organized events and catering during House Party may have had the
effect of drawing students onto campus and nearer to the safety measures provided for them.
Bravman claimed that he is not blind to the likelihood that students will most likely organize a
House Party of their own during the 2014 spring semester, without the health and safety measures
provided for them in the past by the University.
“I expect this to be a very bad spring–I do. And that grieves me. Maybe I’ll be wrong, but
we’ll do the best we can,” Bravman said.
Despite these concerns, Bravman was clear that support for House Party Weekend equated
to condoning the worst behaviors of students and young alumni during the event, and that such an
approach by the University could not continue.
“We’ve sent a message in almost every way that this is almost like suspended reality for a
weekend–we’ve said that this is ok,” Bravman said.
None Hurt in Kress Basement Fire
By William M. Fierman
Residents of Kress Hall returning home on the evening of March 19 were greeted by a swarm of
firefighters and police surrounding their dormitory after a small fire in the basement kitchen caused
an evacuation of the building.
Lewisburg Fire Co. Chief Stephen Bolinsky said in an interview after the building was
reopened to residents that a small grease fire in the basement kitchen caused little damage. One
person was being treated for minor burns.
Eric Ulmanis ’16, who was studying with a group of friends in the common area adjacent to
the basement kitchen, had begun to pack up his things after smelling something burning, expecting
the fire alarm to be set off. He walked to the kitchen to see two female students, one of which was
carrying a flaming pot of oil over to the sink.
“Before I could tell them not to, they turned on the water, which set off a huge explosion,”
Ulmanis said.

6. Pouring water on a grease fire, which is caused by heating oil past the point where it will
combust, causes a large and instant fireball, Bolinsky said.
Chris Sorrentino ’15 was also studying in the common area when she began to smell
something burning.
“There was a loud whooshing sound,” Sorrentino said. “I ran into the kitchen and there
were flames rising out of the sink, up the wall and into the vent. There were also flames crawling
across the ceiling. I realized that this was serious–it wasn’t a drill–and we ran out of the building.”
“The fire alarm went off 10 to 15 seconds after the explosion,” Ulmanis said. “And Public
Safety was pulling up almost immediately after we were out of the building.”
Fire trucks were on the scene within minutes, though the fire had already extinguished itself,
Bolinsky said.
“Thankfully we are well coordinated with the Bucknell Public Safety Department and so we
were able to respond very quickly,” Bolinsky said.
All articles originally printed in Bucknell University’s student newspaper, The Bucknellian.