Mirror - Vol. 05, No. 22 - March 11, 1982

              'The Image
of
Fairfield"
I THE ^ *&
FAIRFIELD W \ [MIRROR! Nonprofit Organization
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Permit No. 34
Fairfield, Conn.
Volume 5, No. 22, Thursday, March 11,1982 Fairfield University, Fairfield, Connecticut 06430 Incorporated 1977
An outspoken George McGovern addressed a capacity Oak Room on
March 2nd. [photo by Chuck Hacken)
Trustees Approve
Fee Increase
by Elizabeth Kline
Staff Writer
"I'm happy about it," said FUSA
president Mike Bentivegna after
learning that the Board of Trus-tees
passed the proposal Friday
night to increase the activity fee
ten dollars per student. The pro-posal
to increase the student
activity fee was submitted to the
Board of Trustees in November.
Bentivegna feels that the addi-tion
of $28,000 to FUSA's budget •
will make a difference in its opera-tion
next year ranging from pro-grams,
to evaluations, and to the
students themselves. "I'm so
psyched about it because I can
see next year being a fantastic
year," stated Bentivegna.
The extra money allotted to the
FUSA budget is also beneficial to
the clubs which Bentivegna finds
"in desperate need of financial
help."
FUSA President-Elect, Sean Mc-
Auliffe, felt that the increased stu-dent
activity fee will "allow FUSA
to enhance entertainment on and
off campus." During McAuliffe's
campaign, he said more money
would be budgeted to SEC for con-tracting
better bands and con-certs.
Next year, McAuliffe hopes
to make arrangements with the
University of Bridgeport to co-sponsor
a concert. Also, some of
the $28,000 will be allotted to
clubs because "they should get a
decent amount because they are a
part of student life," he further
commented.
McAuliffe finds one of the
advantages will be the financial
ability of sending his cabinet
members to more conferences
dealing with their specific posi-tion.
At these conferences, Mc-
Auliffe explained that the FUSA
representatives "get more infor-mation
on improving student pro-gramming."
McAuliffe concluded, "FUSA
won't have to turn away from ideas
because we don't have enough
money."
Senior Gift
Taking Dana Challenge
by Mary Kay Wysocki
The presentation of a senior gift
"has been a sporadic occurrence
over the years. There has never
been a tradition set. I'd like to help
establish that tradition," ex-plained
Michael Bentivegna, FUSA
president. His gift program in-volves
organizing the senior class
to contribute to the Dana Chal-lenge.
Many individual seniors have ex-pressed
interest in leaving some-thing
for the university according
to Bentivegna. "The Dana Chal-lenge
was chosen because after
speaking to a number of seniors, it
was apparent that they supported
this idea and believed it had the
most potential to benefit the uni-versity,"
stated Bentivegna. "The
senior class, with this gift, would
assist the university in obtaining
the $80,000 awarded by Dana
Foundation after meeting the
challenge."
The Dana Challenge is an alum-ni
grant given by the Charles A.
Dana Foundation "to encourage
support from the alumni in mone-tary
gifts and participation," ac-cording
to Mr. Richard Popilowski,
Director of Alumni Relations. Sel-ection
is based on a proven record
of financial stability and alumni
support.
The Dana Challenge is designed
so that Fairfield University could
be awarded up to $80,000 relative
to the degree of alumni participa-tion.
An increase of 5% in the total
number of alumni who participate
nets a gift of $10,000. An increase
of $50,000 over last year's total of
unrestricted alumni contributions
of $157,560 results in a $50,000
award. Finally, a total of $40,000 in
contributions from first-time
donors means $20,000 from the
foundation.
The most recent accounting
places the Alumni Fund approxi-mately
1000 gifts short of the 5%
increase in participation. Total
contributions amount to $164,591
of the needed $207,000, and first-time
donations come to $33,000 of
the necessary $40,000. "Our class
could make the difference,"
stressed Bentivegna.
Mr. Popilowski reiterates Mike's
belief that, "it could really be them
(class of '82) that will make this
work and show the way to the
Continued on page 2
McGovern Criticizes
Reagan's Political Agenda
by Tom Callahan
Executive Editor
"A proper Democratic agenda
would be to oppose Reagan at
every turn," according to former
U.S. Senator George McGovern.
The current president of "Amer-icans
for Common Sense" ad-dressed
an Oakroom crowd of
close to 600 last Tuesday evening
in an event sponsored by the Fair-field
University Young Democrats.
McGovern criticized the Reagan
administration for "deliberately
programming close to a $100 mil-lion
budget deficit. I'm supposed
to be a big liberal, but I'm astound-ed.
If I would have even hinted at a
$91 billion deficit in 1972 I
wouldn't have even carried Massa-chusetts."
The former senator urged Dem-ocrats
to work for education, mass
transportation, alternative energy
sources and public assistance for
the poor and elderly. "We should
not be supporting such non-essential
programs as tax relief
for the wealthy," warned McGovern.
Senator McGovern also had
strong words for President Rea-oan's
conducting of foreign af-
Honors Program
fairs. He indicated a certain irony
in the apparent contradictions vis-ible
in the Reagan foreign policy.
As one of his campaign themes,
Reagan attacked the Carteradmin-istration
for sending confused and
conflicting signals to other na-tions.
McGovern cracked, "Carter
is looking better all the time."
The former presidential candi-date
expressed surprise at the
reaction of the United States to
the Polish crisis. Rather than en-dangering
our security, McGovern
stated, "Poland would seem to be
a threat to Soviet aspirations." He
added that we should look at
Poland and Afghanistan as fail-ures
of the Soviet Union instead of
a strengthening of their system.
The Soviets will become increas-ingly
unstable if they are forced to
use troops to hold down the lid in
their satellite states, predicted
McGovern.
Regarding his political future,
McGovern wouldn't rule out seek-ing
the 1984 Democratic presiden-tial
nomination. The former sena-tor
told the Mirror, "I will keep the
door open. I would run if I felt I
could make an impact. Win or
lose, there is no forum in the world
like a presidential campaign."
While in Connecticut, McGov-ern
took time out to attend a cock-tail
party for U.S. Senate hopeful
Toby Moffett. McGovern and sing-er
Carly Simon were the main
attractions at the Westport affair.
Both are supporting Represen-tative
Moffett's election bid.
McGovern called Moffett "a con-scientious
and capable Congress-man."
He also praised Republican
incumbent Lowell Weicker but
added that he preferred Moffett
because Democrats could only
control the Senate once again if
they could regain the majority.
Senator McGovern congratu-lated
the Young Democrats for
"having the courage to sponsor an
event like this" and expressed his
pleasure at being on the campus
of "a really superb liberal arts
university." He also stated that
the Young Democrat club at Fair-field
is one of the most active in
the country. McGovern quipped,
"I'd rather be on the campus of
Fairfield University than in the
place of the man that defeated me
in 1972."
Seminar Changes Focus
by Dave Scott
with Dr. James Long
Seniors honors program chair-man,
Dr. R. James Long an-nounced
changes in the format for
the 1982-83 2 Semester Seminar
program. Six credits have been as-signed
and those students who
maintain a grade of B-plus or bet-ter
will receive a "college honors"
designation on his/her transcript.
Dr. Long explained changes
from last year's independent
departmental study which had a
lecture series centering on the
theme of crisis and creativity.
The seminar will focus on two
narrowly circumscribed historical
periods, one per semester. These
periods will be examined in the
light of all the disciplines to which
the undergraduate has been intro-duced
in the core: literature, lan-guage,
history, philosophy, reli-gion,
art and architecture, the nat-ural
and social sciences, and
mathematics.
The two periods chosen for
1982-83 are (1) the late Middle
Ages, from 1302 (the promulgation
of Boniface Vlll's Unam Sanctum)
to 1349 (the Black Death) and (2)
the Romantic Age, from 1771
(Lessing's The Education of the
Human Race) to 1832 (the death of
Hegel). Superficially having little
in common, both of these periods
are ages of transition and ambi-guity;
both ages witness the dis-integration
of a previous synthesis
and the birth pangs of a new view.
These periods are considered sig-nificant
in terms of scientific
developments as well as literary
and artistic movements; both are
pivotal in the history of philosophy
and theology. Both will amply
repay the student's serious study.
The seminar will meet twice
weekly, under the guidance of two
codirectors (Profs. Buczek and
Long for the fall semester and
Petry and Thiel for the spring).
Each week the honors student will
hear a lecture on an assigned read-ing
(or attend a concert or visit a
museum) and in the subsequent
period engage in a substantive
discussion thereon. For those
disciplines outside the codirec-tors'
expertise guest lecturers,
both from our faculty and from
other institutions, will be invited
to address the students.
continued on Page 3
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