Mirror - Vol. 37, No. 16 - February 08, 2012

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Week of February 1,20121 vol. 37, iss 7
THEW'MIRROR
fairfieldmirror.com
The Independent Student Newspaper
of Fairfield University
The Reflection of Fairfield
Anonymous Vandal Strikes Claver
Racial Slurs Carved into Plaque in Claver Hall Spark a NewWave of Diversity Awareness at Fairfield University
BY MARTIN O'SULLIVAN
NEWS EDITOR
Black History month began this
year with a shocking reminder of
the prejudice and racism that many
have worked so hard to combat.
On the morning of Feb. 1, a
Public Safety officer discovered
that a plaque located in the north
entrance of Claver Hall had been
vandalized, according to Univer-sity
officials. An unknown culprit
carved racial slurs and anti-Semitic
symbols onto the plaque, which
celebrates the life and work of Jesuit
missionary St. Peter Claver.
"Someone etched into the plaque
the word'nigger'and also etched [a]
swastika in there," said WillJohnson,
director of student diversity programs
and associate dean of students. "There
is a reference to the work St. Peter Claver
did in terms of working with slaves, and
above that someone etched in 'nig' right
next to the term slave."
In an email to the student body,
Dean of Students Karen Donoghue
asserted that "we have no reason to
believe at this time that the acts were
anything more than thoughtless, cow-ardly,
juvenile, and ignorant acts."
Although Johnson dubbed it
"an isolated incident," he stressed
that this is "certainly not the first
that has happened in recent times
here at Fairfield."
Specifically, Johnson cited
a similar event last semester, in
which an anonymous offender used
shaving cream to spell out the same
racial slur in a Jogues Hall bath-room.
He admitted that although
some have cited certain similarities
between the natures of the offenses,
no definite link has been made
between the two occurrences.
"I've heard from many individu-als
that there's sort of this undercur-rent
here of prejudice and bias and
racism and bigotry," said Johnson.
"But it goes under the current because
no one ever comes out and speaks
about it, or they feel that if they do that
they could become a target."
However, not all students agree.
"I've never felt discriminated here at
Fairfield ever,"said Gregory Chase
'13, a student of Honduran descent.
"Just hearing like something like
that happened is a rare incident."
On Feb. 6, Claver Hall residents
were required to attend a mandatory
discussion concerning these recent
occurrences. Residents were assured
that the meeting was not meant as a
punishment, since the culprit could
potentially be a non-student, let
alone a resident of a different hall.
Instead, students were informed
that the point of the gathering was to
discuss feelings and reactions to the
event as a community.
"At the end of the day, it
shouldn't matter that it happened in
our building, but that it happened
on our campus," said Meredith
Saint Peter Claver, S
(15801654)
at Peter Cl.ivcr is hest known as the saint of the slav*
to West AfriiMn sl.n ei arriving in the N
!mbhng a group of interpret
would meet each arriving ship and enter us stinking bowels
and attend to the sick as an emissary of peace and 0
ashore and housed, he instructed them in the faith and b&pti
during his mission careeY,
m Verdu, Spain, the son of a Catalonian farmer* he attended the Universil
Barcelona where he connected with the Jesuits. Claver began his noviceship
and later was sent to the college of Monteston on the island of Majorca. There he
formed a deep spiritual friendship with an elderly Brother, who spoke of the hen
of missionaries in the Americas. In 16$0 the plague swept through Cartagena,
caring for the afflicted, Claver became one of its victims and lingered OH for tout
until his death.
Memorial
September
A second plaque in Claver pays similar
Smith, Area Coordinator of the Vil-lage.
In an interview with The Mir-ror,
she added, "I wish it didn't take
an incident for students to have a
conversation about race and gender
and injustice in general."
"Maybe they're just trying to
start... small," said Claver resident Kate
Jameson'14in regard to the Claver
homage to St. Peter Claver's life work, though
gathering. "I think it's good they're
starting to do something.Theyjust
happened to start with us."
Although several students
spoke out at the Claver Hall meet-ing,
a majority of students kept
silent. When asked to comment on
this, Director of Residential Life
Ophelie Rowe-Allen said, "It made
Martin O'Sullivan/The Mirror
this one escaped being vandalized.
me think, 'Are we creating that space
for them? Is Fairfield providing that
space where their students are com-fortable
speaking out?'Not because
of their race, but because of their
cause and what they believe in."
VANDALISM I PAGE 3
Amber Nowak/The Mirror
Prof. Giovanni Ruffini, holding his iconic ponytail at the St. Baldrick's Fundraiser
CuttingYour Hair
ForA Cause
NEWS I PAGE 3 / -v
CanYou KeepA Secret?
BY COURTNEY TODD
CONTRIBUTING WRITER
His own mother called him
diabolical. Others called his idea
crazy, but now Frank Warren is
better known as the founder of
PostSecret.
In Nov. 2004, Frank Warren
had an idea. He was going to
hand out note cards to strangers
on the streets on Washington,
D.C, soliciting them for their
secrets.
"Once secrets slowly started
coming in it didn't take long for
my crazy idea to not feel so crazy
anymore," said Warren dur-ing
a presentation to an almost
entirely female audience at the
Quick Center for the Arts last
Thursday night.
All secrets are mailed to
Warren's home in Germantown,
Maryland. He then posts 20 new
secrets on the PostSecret site
each Sunday. To date, Warren
has collected half a million se-crets,
and says he receives about
1,000 postcards each week.
The original concept of the
project was that people would
anonymously decorate a post-card
and write out a secret that
they had never revealed before.
There are no restrictions on the
content of the secret; only that it
must be completely truthful and
must never have been said out
loud before.
Secrets range from admit-ting
to sexual misconduct, crimi-nal
activity and eating disorders
to confessions of secret desires
and embarrassing habits.The
secrets are meant to feel equally
empowering to both the author
and the readers.
Since the official launch of
the website on Jan. 1, 2005, War-ren
has received an abundance
of both praise and criticism,
being dubbed the most trusted
stranger in America. In addition,
he has had five books of secrets
published as well as his regular
Sunday posts.
In each book. Warren leaves
a secret of his own. In his newest
book called, PostSecret Confes-sions
on Life Death and God,
Warren says, "Sometimes when
we're keeping a secret, that se-cret
is really keeping us."
Warren said he believes
that we are all connected in our
secrets, which is why one person
admitting a dark secret is usually
Courtney Todd/The Mirror
Frank Warren, Founder of PostSecret
what encourages others to follow
and admit theirs as well.
"These postcards could
be the only time some of these
people 'out'their secret," said
Warren.
SECRET I PAGE 5