Mirror - Vol. 28, No. 25 - April 24, 2003

              TIME FOR SPAM
Clam Jam alternative
coming this weekend
Page 7
HOLEY COW
Faithful adaptation of the book
still works as a film
Page 10
April 24, 2003 •■ Vol. /airfield University s Student Newspaper
Let graduation commence Former deputy secretary of state
to be Fairfield's 53rd Commencement speaker
BY CHRISTIAN VILLODAS
Beach balls, bubbles, college
friends and those itchy black poly-ester
robes you can't wait to get
out of. With hours of ceremony
and an address from a former
deputy secretary of state, it can
only be one thing: Fairfield's 53rd
Commencement.
Even though graduates are
shedding the trappings of college
life and assuming the responsibili-ties
of the real world that awaits
them, they will still make time to
receive some parting wisdom from
commencement speaker Strobe
Talbott, a former deputy secretary
of state from 1994 until 2001, on
Sunday, May 18.
With the wound of 9/11 still
fresh and the presence of coalition
forces in Baghdad, seniors will
spend their final day as under-graduates
celebrating the culmina-tion
of their years of study at
Fairfield.
"In light of every-thing
that is going on, I
think that it is very rel-evant
to the times right
now," said Paula Alves,
'03.
Talbott will speak to
this year's graduating se-niors,
offering them ad-vice
as they venture out
into the job market during
uncertain times.
Administrators and
students hope Talbott will
entertain as well as in-spire
these soon-to-be
graduates as they leave
Fairfield to begin a new
chapter of their lives.
"At a time when our
foreign policy is so much
a part of American dis-cussion
and debate, Mr.
these Talbott brings to the Fairfield cam-pus
a wealth of expertise as a
TALBOTT
scholar, writer, teacher and diplo-mat,"
said Rev. Aloysius P. Kelley,
S.J., president of Fairfield Univer-sity.
Rick Johnson, '03, agreed and
is hopeful that Talbott will relate
well to the new graduating class.
"As long as he can be funny
and relate to the audience then I'm
sure he will be fine," said Johnson.
"He can't be too serious. It's our
SEE "TALBOTT" ON P. 5
SARS forces five students home
BY JESSICA HOLMBERG F
MORE INFO.
, Find out everything
about the SARS virus
Page 4
QUESTION
OF THE WEEK
Dostddents know
what SARS
_ Page 13
SARS' family ties:
Virus that normally
Contributed photo
ive Fairfield students studying in China had their semes-ters
cut short by increasing concern over an ailment blamed
for hundreds of deaths. The ailment, Severe Acute Respi-ratory
Syndrome (SARS), has struck China with the most ferocity.
The Fairfield students were sent home three weeks before the end of the semester
. when the program they were enrolled with terminated the semester, according to Susan
Fitzgerald, director of the study abroad program.
"We've been keeping close watch on the SARS situation since the prob-lem
started, and you've often been in my thoughts," wrote Christine Bow-ers,
assistant director of international education, in an email to the
students obtained by The Mirror, "So, it was with a blend of dis-appointment
and relief that I read [the Beijing Center reported]
that the semester would end early for you."
Although Fitzgerald empathized with the students and
the abrupt end to their experience abroad, she fully sup-ported
the decision to end the program.
"I feel badly if they had travel plans after the comple-
■j T-^ ■ tion of the program," she added.
* There had been rumors that the students would be
sent home because of the SARS outbreak, accord-ing
to Melissa Thompson, '04, one of the
students studying in Beijing.
"The director of The Beijing Center
& held a mandatory meeting last week, and
:%*-«#! many people back at home have been wor-ried,
putting pressure on the program to send
us home," she said. "We thought the SARS
BL jgl problem was under control. There were ar-ticles
in China Daily saying that SARS cases
were no longer a problem."
The Chinese government was covering
up SARS cases, and the number of cases was
estimated to be ten times more than what was
actually reported, according to Thompson.
"Everyone has been really anxious,"
K yM she said. "We have been getting emails from
the U.S. Embassy first on the war. now on
SARS. The World Health Organization has been
SARS is part of the coronaviridae family, an RNA
causes colds and respiratory infections.
EE ABROAD ON P.
Professors call
for investigation
of schools finances
BY ETHAN FRY
LANG
As universities across the country
struggle to negotiate the doldrums of a strug-gling
economy, a group of activist profes-sors
at Fairfield called for an independent
study of the university's finances.
Citing the fact that
"Something seems to be
seriously wrong in the
planning process" at
Fairfield, the Faculty Wel-fare
Committee (FWC), in
an April 11 newsletter,
"want a full and indepen-dent
study of the finances
of the institution."
Dr. George Lang, a
mathematics professor
and vice president of the
FWC, said a number of
factors contributed to the
request, like the
administration's imposi-tion
of a merit pay plan
that was delayed this year
due to budget shortfalls.
This year, faculty and staff were given across
the board $500 salary increases, as opposed
to a normal cost of living adjustment.
"Before the faculty accepts a salary in-crease
noticeably below the cost of living
increase they should see what the whole pic-ture
is," said Lang. "We did see something
like this a number of years ago and had
somebody do a financial analysis. They did
a presentation to the whole faculty and mem-bers
of the administration, and I think it was
SEE "LUCAS" ON P. 5
LUCAS