Mirror - Vol. 04, No. 19 - February 20, 1981

              New York Anchorman Addresses Alma Mater
by Ken Vaughn
"We use thousands of words
every day. They are tricky and im-precise.
The trick in broadcasting
is to make it look easy." And with
these words of advice, Tony Pri-sendorf
spent two hours explain-ing
the television business to an
attentive audience of 45 or so peo-ple
at the Campus Center fireplace
February 9th.
Prisendorf is currently a week-end
anchorman and weeknight
news reporter for WNEW Channel
5 in New York. A graduate of Fair-field
University in 1960, Prisendorf
came back to his alma mater to
warn students not to rush into
journalism or graduate schools for
a media profession. "A year or two
at a newspaper is good back-ground
for a television career. To-day,
we push people into the me-dia
too early out of school; they
are just thrust in. All the networks
care about is looks," said Prisen-dorf.
He continued by adding, "The
problem with news anchormen to-day
is that they look like they
came out of the Ted Baxter
school. They have no experience
in street news coverage." An
average anchorman will write just
one or two stories a day, said
Prisendorf. "They are readers. The
only advantage of an anchorman
is that you make a lot of money."
What happens to many of these
people who immediately want to
enter the media is that they end up
anchoring the news in some small
television market in the midwest,
said Prisendorf. "Then they be-come
a media gypsy, hopping
from market to market, hoping to
make it back to New York." Rather
than take this approach, he elabor-ated
on his journey to Channel 5.
"After I left school, I went to the
Bergen County newspaper, The
Record. There I got a good under-standing
of civics that could be
applied to news reporting on any
level." Then, on what he termed a'
lucky break, Prisendorf went to be
an overseas correspondent in
Western Europe for the Herald-
Tribune. After returning to the
states to write in New York and
Washington, he received a job of-fer
from WNBC-TV to become a
newscaster. He had a brief stay
with Channel 4 before taking a
similar position at Channel 5. He
has been at WNEW for 10 years.
As far as his job goes, Prisen-dorf
puts in a 10- to 12-hour work
day. On the average, he covers one
to two stories a day; "The trick is
to come up with your own story.
Otherwise, you may get the local
dog show," he commented. He
gets these stories by reading the
papers, calling a few news
sources, and then spending time
to secure a camera crew to go out
to the scene.
In advising people who may
want to enter the field, Prisendorf
said the field was very competitive
thanks to "the media gypsys of
the midwest coming back to New
York." He added that graduate
studies may not be very profitable.
"The teachers that work in Jour-nalism
school are not currently in
the business. You are better off
going to a newspaper and learning
from working professionals."
"It's a kind of job you got to
want to do. It's not an easy job,"
said Prisendorf. However, he add-ed,
"There are not many more
ways to have fun. It makes you
want to get up in the morning."
He concluded by stating, "The
thing that is sorely lacking in
broadcast journalism is writing.
We need all the help we can get."
He encouraged students to con-tact
radio and television networks
and arrange internships to learn
the profession. The more back-ground,
the better your chances,
he summed up.
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THE
FAIRFIELD Volume 4, No. 19, Feb. 20, 1981
FAIRFIELD UNIVERSITY, FAIRFIELD, CONN. 06430 MIRROR ^ Incorporated 1977
Barakat to Leave Fairfield;
Head Coach Recommends Phelan
Basketball coach Fred Barakat, a fixture at Fairfield for the past 11
seasons, will step down effective May 31. A search committee to find a
replacement has been formed.
Students to Aid
RA Selection
by Bryan LeCierc
The names of the five students
on the RA selection committee
were recently submitted by the
FUSA Legislature. In other
business, the group approved
three new clubs on campus,
several new representatives, and
the policy towards the gym con-certs
for this semester.
Ken Vaughn, Laura Incerto, Lyn-da
Sartorio, Peggy Summer and
Mary Ann Bonomo were picked as
the students on the committee for
selecting new RAs. Other mem-bers
of the group include: Fr. Hig-gins;
Fr. Allen; Fr. Cullen; Jackie
Beard, advisor to minority stu-dents;
Marie Christopher and Lisa
Convissor, head RAs; Gary Ste-phenson,
assistant housing direc-tor;
and Phyllis Fitzpatrick, hous-ing
director for the university.
Interviews for prospective Resi-dent
Advisors will begin around
February 23 and conclude on April
24. Final announcements on those
students selected will take place
starting May 7.
In other business of the Legisla-ture,
three clubs were approved to
exist on campus. On Feb. 4 the
Society for the Advancement of
Management received its go-ahead.
The Stags and Does, a
square dancing club, and KAOS,
formerly the assassins, followed
suit on Feb. 11.
Vacancies in the Legislature
saw Cathi Sullivan, an OCB, Nancy
Cavanaugh from Julie Hall, Bill
Curley from Gonzaga, and Kathy
Doherty from Regis get sworn in
as new members. Their term
began immediately.
In SEC news, the Michael Har-rington
talk in the Oak Room lost
$300. The Punk Nite was a sellout
and a success that saw SEC break-ing
even. Because of this there are
plans for having another "theme
night" this semester instead of
the usual type of Oakroom. Stu-dents
can go to be seen, not just
to see and not be a part of it.
The Legislature approved $7000
and $12,500 for the two concerts
in the gym this semester. Ques-tionnaires
will soon be passed out
in order to see what types of
groups the students want to see.
by Patrick Reap
At a press conference last Wed-nesday
afternoon, head basketball
coach and assistant athletic direc-tor
Fred Barakat announced that
he will not renew his contract for
next year. Athletic director C. Don-ald
Cook and Vice President of
Student Services William Schimpf
are presently forming a search
committee to find a replacement
for Barakat, who is finishing his
eleventh year at Fairfield.
In a prepared statement that
Barakat read at the conference, he
stated, "During each of the past
several years, I have received
numerous offers for coaching
positions at many fine universities
as well as attractive offers from
the business world in sports
related areas. While I have declin-ed
them each year because I have
always been happy in my work
here at Fairfield, in the past two
years these offers have become in-creasingly
attractive to me.
"As a result, and after a great
deal of soul-searching, I have
decided, with the support of my
wonderful wife and family, not to
renew my contract at Fairfield
next year so that I might pursue
these new opportunities. I feel
that I am at an age when it would
be ideal for'me to undertake a new
challenge."
"And so, it is with a great deal of
regret, and a somewhat heavy
heart, that I announce my decision
to leave Fairfield at the end of this
season."
Barakat's 11-year reign at Fair-field
saw the men's basketball pro-gram
rise from what Barakat call-ed
the "bottom of the heap" to a
respected New England power.
For the first 20 years of Fair-field's
existence, the Fairfield
basketball program was directed
by part-time coaches until 1968.
Barakat, after serving University
of Connecticut head coach Dee
Rowe as an assistant for one year,
was named to the head coaching
job at Fairfield for the 1970-71
season.
After two years below .500,
Barakat directed the Stags to an
18-9 record, culminating in a first-ever
N.I.T. appearance. In that
N.I.T., the Stags knocked off Mar-shall
80-76 in the first round and
lost to Virginia Tech 77-76 in the
quarterfinals.
The next year, Barakat's crew
was back, with a 17-9 mark, and
another N.I.T. appearance, only to
lose to Hawaii, 66-65.
Thus, in just four short years,
Fairfield had become nationally
known for their basketball
achievements. To use the cliche,
Barakat's squad had put Fairfield
on the map.
With the advent of ECAC
regional playoff tournaments in
1975, Fairfield continued to rank
among the top of Eastern basket-ball.
After being shuffled among
three different ECAC regions, the
Stags managed to qualify for post-season
play in all three.
The best year of the Barakat re-gime
had to be the '77-78 season
(current seniors were freshmen
during the landmark campaign).
Fairfield ripped apart the best in
New England en route to a 22-3
regular season tally, which earned
Fairfield a ECAC playoff berth,
and a third trip to the N.I.T.
Highlights from this season in-clude
Barakat chalking up his
100th coaching victory, a 123-103
humbling of 14th-ranked Holy
Cross which set a Stag scoring
mark and a 26-game home winning
streak, which was the longest in
the nation.
Barakat's entire starting lineup
from the '77-'78 season was
drafted into the N.B.A. after their
graduation. Steve Balkun, Kim
Fisher, Darryl Strickland, Joey
DeSantis and Mark Young were all
tafcen by N.B.A. teams, although
Strickland transferred from Fair-field
to Rutgers after his first
semester placed him on academic
probation. In the 1979 draft, Fair-field
was one of only four schools
that had two players taken in the
first two rounds. (The other talent-rich
schools were Michigan St.,
Nevada-Las Vegas, and U.C.L.A.)
DeSantis and Young's senior
year in '78-79 posted a 17-9 mark,
narrowly missing a post-season
tourney bid. However, that year
had many thrills also. The Stags
opened the year winning a New
Orleans tournament impressively,
with Joe DeSantis gaining his first
of three tournament M.V.P. awards
for the year. DeSantis, who suf-fered
a fractured bone in his leg
three months before the season,
had not practiced with the team at
all before the tournament.
After a sub-par 11-16 mark last
season, Fairfield poses a real
threat of nailing down an ECAC
playoff spot in the ECAC Metro
region.
Official reaction throughout the
campus was highly positive. Athle-tic
Director Cook, in an impromptu
gesture at the press conference,
said, "I express gratitude and ap-preciation
for all Fred Barakat has
done for Fairfield basketball."
After referring to Fairfield's first
Division I coach George Bisacca
as bringing Fairfield basketball
(continued on p. 2)
Chorale Plans Concerts
by Marguerite Downing
The Fairfield Women's Chorale,
under the direction of Carole Ann
Maxwell, is currently preparing for
its planned activities and concerts
for the spring semester.
The chorale began the semester
by availing their voices to stu-dents
wishing to send "singing
valentines" on Valentine's Day.
Students ordered their singing
valentine in the Campus Center
this week for $1.00. According to
Maureen O'Donnell, chorale presi-dent,
students chose from five
songs: "Let Me Call You Sweet-heart,"
"Blue Moon," "I'm in the
Mood for Love," "Let It Be Me,"
and "You've Got a Friend." O'Don-nell
also added that long distance
calls were made at the expense of
the student.
On March 8 the Chorale will tra-vel
to St. Catherine's in Green-wich,
Ct., for a concert. Soon after,
from March 28 to March 29, the
Chorale will participate in the
Catholic Intercollegiate Women's
Glee Club Association competi-tion
at Marist College. Then, on
April 4-5, the Women's Chorale
will travel to the U.S. Naval
Academy in Annapolis, Maryland,
to perform in a concert there. The
Chorale will conclude the
semester with its annual Spring
Concert on May 3.
Carole Ann Maxwell, the direc-tor
of the Chorale, pointed out
that, "the group has grown con-siderably
this semester." There
are over sixty members presently.
Maxwell also commented on the
concerts the Chorale has perform-ed.
She stated that the concerts
are "a nice time to get together
with other women's universities
and exchange choir music."
All women interested in joining
the chorale are welcome to re-hearse
Mondays and Wednes-days,
beginning at 6 p.m. in C301.