Mirror - Vol. 36, No. 25 - May 04, 2011

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Week of May 4,20111 vol. 36, iss 25
THEW'MIRROR
fairfieldmirror.com
The Independent Student Newspaper
of Fairfield University
Where Have All ofthe Fairfield Men Gone?
BY DAVID WEIS
CONTRIBUTING WRITER
You're sitting in class. You look
around, surveying your fellow Stags
and their reactions to the professor's
questions. You start to notice, more
and more, that the majority of stu-dents
who answer these questions or
participate in class are the ladies of
Fairfield, rather than the gentlemen.
How pronounced is this dis-crepancy
here on Fairfield's campus?
After doing some research into the
male/female breakdown of academ-ics,
the answer remains somewhat
unclear.
Phi Beta Kappa, one of the
most prestigious honor societies in
the country, has a chapter here on
campus. Even after taking the male/
female ratio, Fairfield still seems to
have"smarter"girls on campus: only
30% of Phi Beta Kappa members are
men.
Karen Pellegrino, Director of
Undergraduate Admission, main-tains
that Fairfield does not seek to
recruit males any more than it does
females: "We are conscious of the
male/female breakdown in the class,
but there are no special activities in
place [to recruit more males], nor
would you find a vast discrepancy
between the quality of the men and
women admitted."
While it remains unclear to
what extent Fairfield mirrors national
trends, women are outperform-ing
their male counterparts in the
classrooms not just at Fairfield but
also across the country. Despite
Fairfield's 62% female population,
several points ahead of the national
average, it remains uncertain how
pronounced these gender roles are
on campus.
So why then are men falling so
far behind?
Numerous studies have been
conducted questioning why women
are outperforming men throughout
the country. Campuses across the
country are averaging nearly 60%
female populations, and one is hard-pressed
to find a college that has a
higher male-to-female ratio.
Now that women are outpac-ing
men in the classroom, the trends
have only increased towards a heav-ily
female-dominated educational
landscape, one in which affirmative
action is unofficially practiced in a
bias towards recruiting and accept-ing
males into colleges.
Approximately 170,000 more
bachelor's degrees will be bestowed
upon women than men this year.
If this downward trend continues
the last man to receive a bachelor's
degree will do so in 2068, says Dr. Mi-chael
Thompson, a school psycholo-gist
who has done extensive research
in the educational gender gap.
"Boys hear that the way to shine
is athletically," said Thompson. "And
boys get a lot of mixed messages
GENDER INEQUALITIES | PA^5
Photo Illustration by Tom McKiver/The Mirror
Michelle Onofrio, Lauren Nugent, Julianne Murrary, Nick Pescuma, and Cherian Paul studying at the library.
The Reflection of Fairfield
Clarifying
"Total
Compensations":
Numbers Still
Noticeably Increasing
for Administrators
BY MIKAELATIERNEY AND LOAN LE
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF AND VINE DIRECTOR
On April 21, Vice President of
Finance Julie Dolan released a memo to
all Fairfield faculty and staff members to
"correct the factual errors"in the article
'Top Fairfield Admin. Get Salary Bump"
featured in last week's issue ofThe Mir-ror.
While there is room for clarification
in last week's article, her memo did not
bring the issue to the attention of the
students, the predominant readers of
The Mirror, but instead was internally
distributed to faculty and staff.
In the interest of bringing this
to the attention of the entire Fairfield
community, The Mirror wishes to clari-fy
the content of last week's article.
The numbers in last week's article
reflect the total compensation of the
individuals mentioned, not solely their
salaries. Staff, faculty and administrators
all received increases in their compen-
CLARIFYING j RAfefe4
Osama bin Laden Killed, Students on Campus React Strongly
Photo Contributed by Crystal Rodriguez
Students celebrated Obama's announcement of the death of Osama bin Laden in the Quad on campus late Sun-day
night. Groups of students joined together and walked around campus in a chaotic fashion.
BY DAVID WEIS
CONTRIBUTING WRITER
It's hard to imagine that nearly a
decade ago, the pristine blue skies of
Manhattan were shattered by the wail of
Boeing jet engines, going from a normal
work day for thousands ofAmericans
to one filled with destruction, grief, and
tears. Fortoo many, lives were cut short
without so much as a goodbye; fathers,
mothers, daughters, sons, brothers, and
sisters bid farewell that morning without
knowing that it would be the last time
they would see their loved ones.
This story, too common among
those in the tri-state area, is also the story
of Maria Waring, a freshman here at Fair-field.
Maria's father, JimmyWaring, then
just 49 years old, worked in the South
Tower of the World Trade Center at Cantor
Fitzgerald and was killed in the attacks on
September 11th.
While some Fairfield students took
to the Quad, theTownhouses, Bellarmine
Hill, and the Apartments
to sing patriotic songs
and celebrate the death
ofOsama bin Laden,
Maria felt an incredible
mix ofemotion and did
notjoin the celebration
until much later.
"It was a weird
feeling. It was a lot
of mixed feelings...
[bin Laden's death]
didn't register. While
everybody was out cel-ebrating,
I was shaking.
I wasn't expecting those
feelings,"she said. "I just
kept remembering
everything like it was
yesterday?
Osama bin Laden,
the most wanted man
in the world, was as-sassinated
late Sunday
evening by an elite
group oftwo dozen
Navy SEALs during a raid on a property
in Abbottabad, Pakistan, about 31 miles
from the capital of Islamabad.
Bin Laden's body was given a
"proper, Muslim"burial, with his body
being "gently placed" in the Arabian Sea,
according to the press release. Following
Muslim law, his body was washed and
CAMPUS REACTS I R#«fe3
Peter Caty/The Mirror
While many celebrated the news of Osama's death,
the event reminded others of the 9/11 attacks that
so intensely affected the American population.
INDEX
Opinion • Page 9
The Vine-Page 11
Coffee Break-Page 19
Sports • Page 24
OPINION:
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CHALLENGES
PG.9
NEWS:
RELAY FOR LIFE
UPDATE
PG. 5
SUMMER PREVIEW
EDITION! PG. 11