Focusing on Wellness: A Gift to Promote Growth

A core strength of a residential-education model like Bucknell’s is that it doesn’t leave a student’s basic needs to chance. Instead, it guarantees the physical conditions that make intellectual growth possible.

That all starts with a commitment to ensuring every student at Bucknell is safe and well.

A $1.75-million commitment from Lance ’85 and Julie Crenson Fritz ’85 is helping make good on that promise by plugging gaps in Bucknell’s support network and strengthening existing efforts to comprehensively promote student success.

The outright gift is enabling Bucknell to take a proactive approach that establishes a community of care across diverse dimensions of wellness, from physical, emotional and cultural to digital, financial, social and spiritual.

“Our latest gift helps ensure that students have the tools, resources and care they need to succeed,” says Lance Fritz.

The gift, which was received as part of the University’s Be the ’ray Campaign, enables strategic enhancements across Bucknell’s health and wellness ecosystem, including in the Bucknell Counseling Center, Outdoor Education & Leadership, and Interpersonal Violence Prevention & Advocacy. Strategic hires to advance the effort include a new associate dean of health and wellness and an alcohol and other drug specialist. A new Student Outreach & Support initiative aids students affected by barriers outside the classroom, while efforts such as a free mobile salon that provides culturally competent hair care help all students feel a sense of belonging.  

Together, these investments help ensure that Bucknell can anticipate and proactively respond to evolving student needs.

“We made this gift to ensure the development of these programs continues, so that when a student comes to Bucknell, everything is there for them to succeed and graduate,” says Julie Fritz.