Mirror - Vol. 05, No. 21 - March 4, 1982

              "The Image
of
Fairfield"
FAIRFIELD W \ [MIRROR] Nonprofit Organization
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Fairfield, Conn.
Volume 5, No. 21, Thursday, March 4,1982 Fairfield University, Fairfield, Connecticut 06430 incorporated 1977
Faculty Reviews Proposal
For General Electives
by Elizabeth Kline
Staff Writer
Revising the General Educa-tional
Electives was the topic of a
faculty meeting held last week.
The faculty convened to vote on a
proposal from Academic Vice
President, Father Christopher
Mooney to change the GEEs into
free electives.
At the present time, the univers-ity
requires each student to take a
certain number of GEEs depend-ing
on the program he is enrolled
in. All B.A. majors must take eight
courses outside of his major area
of study. All B.S. majors (natural
science) cannot take courses with-in
the natural science or mathe-matics
areas. For business ma-jors,
GEEs cannot be taken in the
School of Business, Economics
Department or other related busi-ness
courses previously required
by his major. Four GEEs are re-quired
for any B.S. major. Nursing
students must take two GEEs.
According to Stephen Weber,
Dean of the College of Arts and
Sciences, the deans have been
aware of some faculty dissatisfac-tion
with the present GEE require-ment.
Weber states, "The deans
have been aware of this problem
for several years." The School of
Nursing and the School of Busi-ness
have voiced the most dissat-isfaction
with the GEE require-ments.
The College of Arts and
Sciences expresses dissatisfac-tion
in the natural science and
mathematics requirements.
Weber continues, "Father
Mooney forwarded the proposal
on behalf of all of us on the Deans'
Council," but all the members
contributed significant input. The
deans sent their proposal to the
Undergraduate Curriculum Com-mittee,
where it was approved
December 7, 1981. From there it
went to the general faculty last
week for a vote. The proposal will
be reviewed in the context of the
entire curriculum next year.
Although the proposal trans-forms
the GEEs into free elec-tives,
departments cannot expand
major requirements from 30 to 42
hours. "The department cannot
compel them (the students) to
take them inside the department,"
explains Weber.
A portion of the proposal states:
"Students intending to pursue
graduate or other advanced work
directly related to their major, this
proposal will allow them freely to
choose additional work within or
related to that major, if that is
deemed advisable." It goes on to
say, "The 'distributive' function
which the GEEs are intended to
accomplish is more than ade-quately
achieved through our sub-stantial
Core Curriculum."
The GEEs developed in 1969
from a reduction of the core
course requirements in the
humanities, philosophy, religious
studies, and languages. Since
their establishment in 1969, GEEs
have been misunderstood in one
particular area: that of a waiver.
The original provision of a GEE
waiver recommends that "up to
three of the General Educational
Electives be waived if, in the case
of an individual student, the ma-jority
of a department feels that
additional courses are required for
his graduate school or profes-sional
preparation. This is not a
blanket waiver for all students in a
program, but for individuals who
require additional courses be-cause
of the external demands of
graduate schools or professional
organizations." According to
Weber, "In point of fact the pres-ent
policy is not consistent with
the policy adopted. It never has
been to my knowledge."
Dr. Vincent Rosivach recalls
working on the 1969 GEE pro-posal.
"It was an exciting thing to
work on at the time. It did not
come out of a couple of hours in a
Deans' Council or a couple of
hours at a committee meeting."
Weber notes, "Feelings are in-continued
on Page 3
Since Fairfield University is a non-profit organization, its gameroom will
remain open due to an exception in the zoning regulations.
[Photo by Chuck Hacker]
Gameroom Exempt
From Zoning Laws
F.A.R.E. Battles Problems
Concerning Nuclear Energy
by Dave Scott
Staff Writer
Present and future threats of
nuclear weapons and energy were
discussed by F.A.R.E., the Fair-field
Alliance for Renewable
Energy, at A Thousand Words Art
Gallery on Feb. 23.
The organization presented a
slide show entitled "Acceptable
Risk," that focused on the past ef-fects
of nuclear power on human
life. The history of nuclear power
was traced from its devastation of
Hiroshima to the near catastrophe
at Three Mile Island, including
many victims of the irreversible
damage inflicted by radiation.
Dr. Kevin Cassidy, professor of
politics, explained that America's
increased first strike capabilities
creates an even more tense situa-tion
as there no longer exists the
frightening sense of security in
mutual destruction.
Speaking on America's invest-ment
in nuclear power Dr. Cassidy
stated that although alternative
sources of energy will be difficult
to develop now that so much
money has been invested into nuc-lear
energy, he still sees this prob-lem
as, "not a hopeless situation,
people can alter the direction
of governmental policy as they
have done so in the past, with the
rights of blacks and women, and
Vietnam."
F.A.R.E. member Lucy Katz
sees their battle as, "a slow and
frustrating process. We see apa-thy
at all levels, but we are trying
to educate and get people aware
of obvious harms of nuclear
menace." In an attempt to educate
Fairfield students about the nuc-lear
problem, future events regard-ing
nuclear energy have been
scheduled in March and April on
campus.
F.A.R.E. members hope that
these revealing presentations will
incite some response from Fair-field's
student body. The group
has been in existence since 1979
and hopes that with a new public
awareness, meaningful efforts to
thwart the potentials of a nuclear
holocaust may be accomplished.
by Elizabeth Bart us
Staff Writer
"I don't see any problem occur-ring,"
stated Mr. James Fitz-patrick,
Director of the Campus
Center, when questioned about a
possible conflict between Fair-field
zoning regulations and the
University's video gameroom,
which was opened in September,
1966.
According to Mr. Barry Michael-son,
Director of Planning and Zon-ing
in Fairfield, video gamerooms
and arcades serving the general
public as businesses are not per-mitted
in this district. However,
educational institutions are an
exception to this rule because
they are for accessory usage.
Michaelson stated, "The Univers-ity
is a non-profit organization...
not a business for profit," and
therefore no problem exists.
The Town Planning and Zoning
Commission met, February 22 and
confirmed that the gameroom
would stay open unless it adver-tised
and admitted people other
than Fairfield University students.
The question as to whether or
not the University was in accord-ance
with the town regulations
was brought up by the Fairfield
residents earlier this year when
Howard Johnson's on the turnpike
installed an amusement center.
State Police felt that this center
would encourage junior high and
high school age students to
gather in an undesirable area.
When this issue became perti-nent,
Fairfield Police called Mr.
Fitzpatrick twice questioning the
legitimacy of the university's
gameroom. First, they sought the
exact number of video games, and
then they investigated the sup-plier
of the vending machines,
who is Nealy Vending of Stamford.
The tax assessor also visited
the University. Since Nealy Vend-ing
pays property tax to the town
of Fairfield for the machines, no
problem exists in this area.
Fitzpatrick commented, "I can-not
foresee a circumstance where
the ruling is going to affect the
university."
Library Obtains $91,595
Grant For Media Department
Dr. Kevin Cassidy participated in a discussion of nuclear energy organized
by the Fairfield Alliance for Renewable Energy at A Thousand Words Art
Gallery. [Photo by Kit Armour]
by Thomas P. Moore
Staff Writer
Money donated by the Gladys
Brooks Foundation of New York
City will be used to create a Media
Resources Department on the li-brary's
ground floor.
The foundation has awarded the
library a $91,595 grant, to be used
over the next two years to reno-vate
the 5,000 square foot area
that the Media Resources Depart-ment
will occupy and to set up an
endowment fund of $50,000. The
income from the endowment fund
will be used to purchase library
audio-visual materials.
Mrs. Barbara Bryan, the Univers-ity
Librarian stated "Books will be
with us always, but the users of to-day's
libraries are no longer ade-quately
served .by a collection of
books and a card catalogue. Infor-mation
comes in a variety of con-tainers,
each of which releases its
contents in a different way."
Bryan further explained the new
Media Resources Department will
focus on assembling video cas-settes
as well as kits of slides and
film strips with audio cassettes.
Also to be placed in the Depart-ment
will be other non-print
materials including the library's
extensive collection of news-papers,
magazines and technical
Journals; several microprint sets,
including Early American books
and broadsheets dating back to
colonial times; and 2,000 photo-graph
records.
Part of the present Media
Department of the library includes
a collection of 18 plays by William
Shakespeare on videocassette as
performed on PBS which were
bought in the fall of '81.
The portion of the grant not be-ing
used to establish the $50,000
endowment fund will be used for
two things. Renovations to the
ground floor and electrical work
that must be done are those two
main items on the budget.
The renovations include moving
the stacks of Science books up-stairs
to the second floor. All of
the microfilm readers will be re-located
downstairs in the Media
Resources Dept. The space being
left open by moving these will be
used by the reference section to
expand.
The grant to the University is be-ing
funded under terms of the will
of Mrs. Gladys Brooks Thayer
which established a foundation in
1976 to support non-profit librar-ies,
educational institutions, hos-pitals
and clinics. Born in New
York, Mrs. Thayer lived most of her
life in Newport, Rhode Island, and
was an avid collector of antiques
and artifacts.
The library is organizing the
Media Dept. at a time when the
faculty is increasingly recognizing
that audio-visual materials can be
effective educational tools. Mrs.
Bryan said that a media librarian
will be added to the staff to ex-pand
the collection by purchasing
educational cassettes and acquir-ing
them from the Media Center.
The Media Center has been up-grading
its video facilities in order
to cooperate with professors in
preparing original classroom
programs.
continued on Page 3