Mirror - Vol. 35, No. 21 - March 24, 2010

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Week of Mar. 24,2010 | Vol. 35, iss. 21
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The Independent Student Newspaper
of Fairfield University
The Reflection of FairBeld
Historic Health Care Legislation Passed
BY CHRISTOPHER HALISKOE
BUSINESS MANAGING DIRECTOR
Many students went to bed Sunday night worried about their Final
Four brackets or their 9:30 quiz the next morning. But over 300 miles
away, their legislators were working late to change the society they will
be graduating into.
This week's health care reform bill, signed into law by President
Barack Obama on Tuesday after an arduous and slim win in the House
of Representatives, guarantees that more than 30 million currently un-insured
Americans will receive health care. The bill aims to reduce cost
over time, thus lowering the national debt and improving health care
for those who already have insurance, according to lawmakers.
Children who are under their parents coverage are now covered
until they are 26 years old, when the bill takes effect.
In an interview with The Mirror, U.S. Congressman Jim Himes
(D-CT), who represents Fairfield and surrounding towns, highlighted
that college students will particularly benefit from the plan.
"I would say people in their early twenties, in an unsure job mar-ket,
could get some peace of mind," said Himes. "Many of the
WILL | PAGE 4
Contributed Photo
President Obama signed the health care legislation Tuesday morning, marking a significant moment for all Ameri-cans.
The bill is the largest expansion ofgovernment health care since Medicare and Medicaid in the 1960.
What the Health -$61 billion will be cut in fi- -Children under their parents -The overall $940 billion plan is
Care Bill Means For nancial aid for college students. coverage may stay on until projected to extend insurance to
YOUI they turn 26 years old. roughly 32 million Americans.
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Peter Caty/The Mirror
For consecutive days in the past week, students have protested in solidarity for 15 minutes a
day over the University's decision to cut down forestland. Zach Gross '12 wears a sign saying,
"I am one tree of 60.1 will not stand for more destruction."
Academic Calendar to
Get a Makeover
BY DAN LEITAO
STAFF WRITER
In the next two weeks, discussions
will take place centering around the
reassessment of and possible changes to
the University academic calendar.
The issue was brought to students'
attention at the FUSA Senate meeting
this past Sunday night.
According to Mary Frances Malone,
the University associate academic vice
president as well as the FUSA faculty
advisor for commencement, discus-sion
is focusing on three major issues
of concern. The issues are three reading
days for students, enough time between
fall and spring semesters for professors
research and student immersion trips,
along with a way to help students who
have three exams at once.
The Academic Council will be
meeting on Thursday and FUSA and
Malone are scheduled to meet next
week.
The issues under discussion will
affect the academic calendar for at least
the next two years.
In the past the academic calendar
has caused many inconveniences from
students having more than two exams
on one day to grades not having enough
time to be processed.
The Academic Council appointed
Malone, along with two more faculty
members, to look into the best ways to
address the many concerns.
The faculty's main concern was
that students need three days before
the exam period, and, because exam
period was shortened, some students
are scheduled for three exams one day,
along with the consideration of meeting
the needs of professional schools.
Do Students Think They're Safe?
BY MEAGAN FIYNN
STAFF WRITER
Walkie-talkies are beeping and confer-ence
rooms are buzzing as John Ritchie,
assistant director of the Department of Public
Safety, intendy scans through statistics on his
computer screen. The results are in for the
department's recent online safety survey, and
Ritchie knows that every detail of the report
could hold clues to how he and his fellow offi-cers
can better serve the Fairfield community.
"It gives us a benchmark of how we're
serving the community. We have our perspec-tive
of things, but sometimes our perspective
isn't the important one," Ritchie says of the
DPS Survey that students, faculty and staff
were recently encouraged to participate in.
The DPS Survey is the first one of its kind in
the past 10 years, its aim being to evaluate the
performance of the department and to better
understand Public Safety's role on campus.
The demographics of the survey are
reflective enough of the campus community to
provide an accurate depiction of community
opinion, according to Ritchie. The survey was
generally broken into two sections: one survey
for students, and another for faculty and staff.
Appropriately, the majority of respondents
(61 percent) were full-time undergraduate
STUDENTS I PAGE 5
or INDEX
Opinion* Page 7
Features • Page 9
Arts & Entertainment • Page 13
Coffee Break • Page 17
Sports • Page 24
INSIDE THIS WEEK
HUNGRY FOR A
CLEANING?
SEE PAGE 3.
WOMEN POETS
COUNTDOWN TO
TIMELINE
SEE PAGE 3.
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