Mirror - Vol. 30, No. 01 - June 24, 2004

              The
fune 24, 2004 - Vol. 30, Iss. 1 Fairfield University's Student Newspaper
New president ready for first year at Fairfield
BY EILEEN ARNOLD
For incoming Fairfield fresh-men
who are worried about being
the new kids, this year they can
draw sympathy from a man in a
powerful position. For the first
time in 25 years Fairfield :will
welcome a new president in the
person of Rev. Jeffrey von Arx,
S.J.
Rev. Aloysius R Kelley, S.J.
spent a quarter of a century at the
helm of Fairfield University and
retired at the end of June. Fr. von
Arx, whose last job was Dean of
the Fordham College at Rose Hill,
will assume his responsibilities on
July 1.
"Obviously they are big shoes
to fill," said Fr. von Arx. "Fr. Kel-ley
has been president of Fairfield
for almost half of its history. There
are few people who know anyone
else as Fairfield's president." .
Fr. Kelley's years as president
were incredibly lucrative for Fair-field.
He oversaw the expansion
and renovation of seven buildings,
increased the endowment by $ 129
million and contributed to the aca-demic
growth of Fairfield.
Still, Fr. von Arx does not
intend to be an exact replica of
Fr. Kelley.
"The best way that I can fol-low
Fr. Kelley is to be my own
person. The last thing he would
want and the last thing I want is
to copy his style. I'm going to
be my own best self, that's the
best tribute I can offer," said Fr.
von Arx.
Fr. von Arx is certainly quali-fied
to pick up where Kelley left
off.
He received his undergradu-ate
degree in history from Princ-eton
University and later earned
masters' degrees in history and
philosophy and a Ph.D. in history
from Yale University. He gradu-ated
from the Weston School of
Theology in 1981 and was or-dained
the same year.
He taught history at George-town
University and served as the
chair of the department from 1991
to 1997 and created the Center
for Australian and New Zealand
Studies in the School of Foreign
Service.
He went to Fordham in 1998
where he has served as Dean at
the Fordham College at Rose Hill
since.
"It's a wonderful exciting op-portunity
[coming to Fairfield],"
said Fr. von Arx. "Fairfield is the
great success story of Jesuit higher
education. The school is still rela-tively
young [Fairfield was estab-lished
in 1942] in comparison to
other Jesuit universities, but it is
already on the radar."
Fr. von Arx intends to add
some new issues to that radar.
Citing Fairfield's present finan-cial
shape, he spoke of the future.
"The next challenge is to improve
the quality of student life and the
educational experience of the stu-dents,"
said Fr. von Arx.
Speaking of the students, Fr.
von Arx intends to be visible and
present to them. Fr. Kelley was
often absent where student life
was concerned and students are
looking forward to the change.
Fr. von Arx wishes to be more
approachable despite his busy
schedule.
"Even when I did administra-tive
work the contact that I had
with the students was the most
fulfilling, both as a teacher and as
an administrator. As president I'll
be busy, but it's important to me to
be in regular conversation with the
student body," said Fr. von Arx.
For the freshmen, Fr. von Arx
imparted these words of advice on
how to experience college life:
"Be ready to work hard and
have real ambitions. Make an
effort to get to know the faculty,
the difference between a mediocre
and excellent educational experi-ence
is in finding faculty members
to help the students plan their fu-ture."
Mirror file photo
Freshman Father: The incoming freshman class will be.the first new
class von Arx welcomes.
ACllIliSSiOll 2[OcllS tllCt Applications from class of 2008 second largest amount
ever
BY BILL MCBAIN & STEVEN ANDREWS
Trying to find the right balance of stu-dents
to accept among a gigantic number of
applications is never easy.
"We are very pleased with the pool of
students this year," said Marianne Gumpper,
interim director of admissions. "We met all
of our enrollment goals with the class of
2008."
Admittance into Fairfield University has
become much more selective in the past seven
years according to a recent report. The facul-ty's
Admission and Scholarship Committee
(ASC) released a report to the faculty on May
4 that outlined the credentials of the students
admitted to the Fairfield class of 2008. The
report shows how qualifications have gener-ally
risen over the past seven years.
During this time period the total number
of applications has increased by more than 30
percent, with 7,131 applications received this
year, which is the second most in university
history. In addition to quantity, the quality of
the applicants has risen overall. The average
SAT score has risen for applicants from 1116
for the class of 2001 to 1184 for the class
of 2008. Average SAT scores of accepted
students have increased steadily from 1163
for the class of 2001 to 1244 for the class of
2007, dropping slightly to 1239 for the class
of 2008.
"The average SAT score for the con-firmed
freshmen stands at 1200, which is
our target," said Gumpper, who provided
additional statistics which were more recent
or not included in the report.
Average class rank has increased as well,
improving to the top 15 percent for accepted
students in the class of 2008 from the top 24
percent from the class of 2001. The students
confirmed to be attending average in the top
19 percent of their class, the best number
yet for Fairfield.
Between the acceptance of the classes
of 2001 and 2007 the university's accep-tance
rate decreased from 68.2 percent to
47.1 percent, though it increased sharply to
62.3 percent for the incoming class of 2008.
This year there are also 18 percent fewer
transfer students entering for the 2004-2005
school year than there were for the 2003-2004
school year.
For Fairfield's admissions department,
size does matter. With the graduation of the
unusually large class of 2004 the university
is left trying to increase enrollment numbers
over the next four years to compensate for the
loss of tuition from this larger class. Accord-ing
to the most recent numbers, there are a
confirmed 891 students in the class of 2008,
though that number could still change slightly
before the school year officially begins. The
majority of these students, 560, have been ac-cepted
into the College of Arts and Sciences,
with 252 accepted into the Dolan School of
Business.
"The number of students we look to
enroll each year is established by top admin-istrators,"
Gumpper said. "I would expect
the total number to drop back a bit for next
year's class."
Despite a class size increase of 205 stu-dents
from the 686 confirmed freshmen from
this time last year, the quality of students has
not been affected too adversely, though there
was the small drop in SAT score and higher
admittance rate.
Although the class size has grown 24
percent from the class of 2007 to the class of
2008, the number of African-American, His-panic,
Asian and Native American (AHANA)
students has fallen 20 percent. The class of
2008 will have seven fewer Asians, six fewer
Hispanics and a total of only eight African-
American members.
"We were disappointed by the AHANA
numbers," Gumpper said. "We have no clue
why the numbers went down, whether it had
to do with the number of applicants or other
factors. We will be researching that to try
and find an answer."