Mirror - Vol. 05, No. 17 - February 4, 1982

              'The Image
of
Fairfield"
FAIRFIELD W \ MIRROR Nonprofit Organization
U. S. POSTAGE
PAID
Permit No. 34
Fairfield, Conn.
Volume 5, No. 17, February 4,1982 Fairfield University, Fairfield, Connecticut 06430 Incorporated 1977
Record Voter Turnout
McAuliffe Wins F.U.S.A.
Election By 37 Votes
|MHM
by Richard Swietek
and Lauren Pennisi
News Editors
Thirty-seven votes separated
next year's FUSA president, Sean
McAuliffe, from Beth Kramer, the
runner up, in Tuesday's presiden-tial
election.
Sixty percent of the student
body cast ballots for the can-didates.
This is the largest voter
turnout in the past five years. Mike
Bentivegna, outgoing FUSA presi-dent,
commented "I feel that the
reason so many people turned out
is that the candidates appealed to
all assets of the student body.
They were so diverse that a lot of
people turned out to support the
different candidates".
McAuliffe garnered 42 percent
of the vote. McAuliffe did not feel
surprised by the vote. "I was really
anxious about the vote, but I felt
confident," stated McAuliffe.
The new president mentioned
that a large number of people
helped him in his campaign ef-forts.
He felt the key to victory was
the "strong work by all the people
who helped me out."
In regarding the recent pres-idential
debate, Sean felt that hav-ing
the exposure helped him. He
felt questions from the audience
aided him in presenting his ideas
and platform clearly.
McAuliffe did not have an
answer for who would be chosen
to be in the new cabinet. He hoped
to have his choices finalized by
the end of this week. He would not
comment when asked if he had a
place in his administration for the
other candidates.
Beth Kramer, who ran a close
second with 40 percent of the
vote, was pleased with the large
voter turnout and with the way
students got involved. "It shows
Fairfield students are not as
apathetic as people think they
are," stated Kramer.
Jim Keenan, who received 16
percent of the votes, stated, "Sean
did a good job." Keenan also wish-ed
Seart good luck at his new posi-tion.
The voter turnout did not sur-prise
Keenan. He stated, "Ob-viously
the students care at this
university."
The closeness of the election
required the Election Committee
to recount the votes a number of
times. "No one knew which way it
would go," stated Bentivegna. He
added "I'll help Sean in any way to
become familiar with the
position."
Both Bentivegna and McAuliffe
will be working together over the
five-week transition period, before
McAuliffe takes office April 1st.
Bentivegna added his congrat-ulations
to Kramer and Keenan.
"They proved too that they could
make a very good run for it", com-mented
Bentivegna.
Once McAuliffe takes office, he
will be looking to implement his
platform which includes develop-ment
of a work shop for resume'
writing and mock interviews, for-mation
of a commuter lunch plan,
and an extension of Stag-her and
Oak Room hours.
O'Connor Resigns
Honors Program
Loses Chairman
by Delia Smith
Staff Writer
Dr. Leo O'Connor, who had for-mulated
and initiated the Senior
Honors Program, resigned his po-sition
as chairman of the Senior
Honors Program Committee on
January 1. He stated that, "Chair-ing
this program was an obstacle
to fulfilling my responsibilities as
director of the American Studies
Program."
Dr. R. James Long, professor of
philosophy, is O'Connor's succes-sor.
Long could not be reached for
comment on his new position.
O'Connor noted that he will con-tinue
to assist Long in the plan-ning
of the spring lectures.
According to Dr. O'Connor,
"The Senior Honors Program
(which is still in its first year) gives
the opportunity to distinguished
... ~*
students to pursue individual re-search
projects for college credit.
Its primary goals were to establish
an identifiable program for honor
students engaged in serious stud-ies
and to stimulate the intel-lectual
environment of the
community.
Students from the College of
Arts and Science are selected for
this program on the basis of aca-demic
achievement (students
must have at least a 3.35 QPA) and
faculty nominations. The 20 stu-dents
who are currently enrolled in
this program have had the oppor-tunity
to engage in individual
research projects and to expand
their cultural horizons through
attending ballets and drama. They
have also heard William Styron
and on April 15 will be able to hear
Dr. James Dewey, winner of the
Continued on page 3
Sean McAuliffe delivers his platform to students in attendance at the re-cent
debate held in the Oak Room last Monday. McAuliffe was voted in
as FUSA President in a close election held Tuesday.
{Photo by Ellen Dougherty]
Muller Opens Eyes To
Vietnam Tragedy
by Kathy Noonan
Staff Writer
In front of a packed Oak Room
(450 in attendance) January 27th,
Robert Muller, Vietnam veteran,
hour. His presentation was high-lighted
by a 60-minute film entitled
"Heroes" which portrayed the life
the veteran is forced to lead upon
his return to America. Veterans
founder, and executive director of were seen as being disposable
Robert Muller, Executive Director of Vietnam Veterans of America, gave
an emotional presentation on the plight of the Vietnam veterans to a
crowded Oakroom. [Photo by Chris Haggerty]
Vietnam Veterans of America alert-ed
many people to the problems
faced by veterans of the Vietnam
War. He also discussed the in-creasing
possibilities of dealing
with these dilemmas again in a
future war.
Muller lectured for more than an
and were easily forgotten as Amer-ica
tried to erase all traces of one
of her biggest embarrassments.
Muller began his lecture by ex-pressing
his encouragement in
seeing so many people of our gen-eration
interested in what hap-pened
to his generation after so
much time had elapsed. He noted
that the average age of a U.S. com-bat
soldier in Vietnam was 19,
which makes the question of war
and peace very relevant to almost
anyone who was sitting in the
audience.
Muller believes people do not
remember the early years of Viet-nam—
our memory of this time is
blurred by the strong disillusion-ment
and negative feelings of the
last years of the war. Muller point-ed
out that there was a period of
time when enthusiasm and sup-port
for U.S. involvement in Indo-china
was very high. The main goal
of U.S. foreign policy was to
"knock off Communism anywhere
and at any price."
As compared with World War II
where 2h of the soldiers were
drafted, over 80% of the soldiers
in the Vietnam War freely enlisted.
Many soldiers went over to Viet-nam
with a "John Wayne" atti-tude,
thinking American man-power
and technology could dis-pose
of their less-equipped enemy.
But Muller stated that "war is dis-gusting,
not glamorous; it is dead,
hollow, sick—there is no exhilira-tion
in war, no 'Iwo Jima' charge."
57,000 American soldiers were
killed and 300,000 were wounded.
It was the longest, costliest war
that America has ever known.
The film "Heroes," produced by
John Pilger, exposed the prob-
Continued on page 2
Griffin Steps Down as Dean,
'Feels Need to Move On'
Dr. John Griffin will resign his position this June as Dean of the School
of Business.
[Photo by Ellen Dougherty]
by Elizabeth Bartus
Staff Writer
Effective June 30, 1982, Dr.
John I. Griffin will resign from his
position at Fairfield as the Dean of
the School of Business.
Griffin was hired five years ago
after a thirty-two year career as the
Dean of the School of Business
and Graduate Studies at Baruch
College of the City University of
New York. In addition to his posi-tion
as Dean, Griffin has always
taught a Business course.
Several objectives awaited Grif-fin's
arrival five years ago. Now
that he has successfully accom-plished
these objectives, which
include, "chairing and reconstruc-ting
the department of Business
Administration, creation of the
School of Business, and the
beginning of the graduate pro-gram
in financial management," at
sixty-five Griffin feels a need to
move on. He stated, "I expect to
be doing many interesting and
professionally rewarding things,"
in the future.
"It's important that the stu-dents
at Fairfield University be
challenged to make maximum use
of their high level of ability."
Having made this statement, Grif-fin
added, "the faculty of the
School of Business will do every-thing
possible to challenge the
students to greater achieve-ments."
Fr. Mooney, Academic Vice
President, announced that a
search committee is presently be-ing
formed, and will begin accept-ing
applications for the Dean's
position in approximately two
weeks. The search committee will
consist of ten people: four Busi-ness
faculty members, one Arts
and Science faculty member, and
one member from either the Nurs-ing
or Gradaute School, two Busi-ness
students, one Business
alumnus, and one Dean.
The deadline for applications is
March 30, and a decision will be
reached by mid-May.