Mirror - Vol. 39, No. 16 - February 05, 2014

              THE MIRROR Student newspaper Week of February 5,2014 Vol. 39, Iss. 16
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The Fairfield Mirror
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Tebben Gill Lopez / The Mirror
Wil Haygood has captured some of America's most dynamic stories, but he does not consider his life "epic." History could decide for him.
'Witness to History' keynote shines
By Luigi DiMeglio
Managing Editor
Wil Haygood stepped onstage at the Re-gina
A. Quick Center for the Arts and there
was a brilliant shine from his tie clip.
The Washington Post award-winning
reporter and writer of several books is most
widely known today for his story that inspired
"Lee Daniels' The Butler." When Haygood got
the idea for the story, he looked for a butler
he had heard about. He called 57 people in the
D.C. area by the name of Eugene Allen. The
57th person to answer the phone was the man
who served for eight U.S. presidents (from
Eisenhower to Reagan) in the White House.
As the keynote of Fairfield's 2014 MLK
Convocation, Haygood was positioned to
tell the story through the eyes of an African-
American journalist looking to bring a buried
story to light during President Obama's 2008
campaign.
When Allen served former President John
F. Kennedy, he was given a 14-karat gold-plat-ed
tie clip as a token of appreciation for his ser-vice
- an intimate gesture from a white presi-dent
to a black butler during a great period of
racial tension in America.
"I am honored to report that I am wear-ing
that tie clip right now," Haygood told the
Quick Center audience.
"I've always tried to go after the stories
that others might overlook. Because I have
enough confidence in myself that maybe I can
bring some reporting dimension or I could
bring some writer-ly dimension to that story.
That's what I know is inside me every time I
walk out the house and I tell myself, 'OK, I got
to find a different story," Haygood said.
Then President-elect Barack Obama was
so moved by the story of Allen, written by
Haygood, that both were invited to the 2009
inauguration. Haygood said that he considers
Allen's life "epic."
When asked if he believed if his own
life as a cultural voice for America was epic,
Haygood replied: "No, no ...
"I do love the fact that maybe if I hadn't
have knocked on Mr. Allen's door, he might
have gone unknown ... I'm very proud of the
fact that the stories that I have seemed to un-cover
have found an audience. That doesn't al-ways
happen. I'm very proud of that fact."
In the film, Allen's wife is depicted as
passing away at their kitchen table one morning.
In reality, Haygood happened to interview the
elderly couple on their wedding anniversary.
Read BUTLER on Page 3
Class cancellation cuts it close
By Robert Joyce
Staff Writer
By Monday morning on Feb.
3, snow had begun to layer the cam-pus.
As weather conditions started
to worsen, students began to wonder
whether or not classes were going to
be canceled. At 1:54 p.m., students
and faculty received notice via Stag-
Alert that all classes beginning at or
after 2:00 p.m. were canceled.
Senior Vice President for Ad-ministration
and Chief of Staff Dr.
Mark C. Reed '96, stated in an email
that the announcement "was not
timely and in that sense a better de-cision
could have been made."
Sophomore Drew Mignosa
said that he "definitely questions
how these decisions are made." He
added that, "In high school, we al-ways
had a timely notice."
"The decision to close the Uni-versity,
delay, etc. is delegated to
me," Reed stated. "Whenever classes
are in session ... I talk with Fr. Paul
Fitzgerald who is our Senior Vice
President for Academic Affairs. We
talk mainly about what the impact of
a decision will be on classes."
"Typically, we would announce
it so that there is a gap of time be-tween
the announcement and the
classes affected," stated Reed.
Mignosa said, "Canceling class-es
on such short notice was unsafe.
My professor had to drive here from
New Haven just to turn around and
drive back. There was no point in
making students and faculty drive
to campus, making their risky drives
worthless."
According to Reed, "The cri-teria
to close or delay involves a
variety of factors. These primarily
include the conditions on campus,
the conditions of the main roads
and highways leading to the Univer-sity
from the surrounding areas and
any directives or advisories from the
state."
"Advising me on the decision
is a small working group that con-sists
of the Director of Public Safety,
Director of Human Resources and
Director of Facilities Management,"
Reed said.
Reed also stated that "Safety is a
top priority ... Other considerations
Read CANCEL on Page 4
Fairfield's
new vision
not quite
20/20
By Matthew Parron
Contributing Writer
Most students have heard about it.
Some even received chocolate bars during
finals with the logo on it. But people are
still left with the question: What is Fairfield
2020?
Fairfield 2020, marketed with the ta-gline
"building towards a more sustainable
future," was introduced to staffand students
on Jan. 29.
In front of a packed Barone Campus
Center Oak Room, President Rev. Jeffrey
von Arx, S.J. presented the idea of recreat-ing,
renewing and reimagining Fairfield.
The University's long-term goal is to oper-ate
more efficiently and cut down costs.
Von Arx described a vision that he
imagined 10 years ago that focuses on in-tegrity.
He stressed "integration of core cur-riculum,
living and learning and the inte-gration
of Jesuit values in our professional
and graduate education."
Fairfield 2020 will be a campus-wide
project involving students, faculty, admin-istrators
and trustees alike. Task forces will
Read STUDENTS on Page 4
Accused
student
pleads
not guilty'
By Luigi DiMeglio
Managing Editor
The former Fairfield sophomore
who turned himself in to Fairfield Po-lice
over winter break was arraigned in
Bridgeport Superior Court on Tuesday.
Police said he was bragging to friends
about an incident that the plaintiff
considers to be sexual assault.
Joshua Del Vecchio of Madison,
Conn., pled not guilty and has been re-moved
from campus since the accusa-tion
was made.
One of the texts Del Vecchio sent
to a friend after the incident read, "She
didn't want to lose her virginity until she
was in love ha ha," according to police.
Del Vecchio maintains that the sex-ual
relations he had with an 18-year-old
female student was consensual. The two
students met at a party on campus, then
went to the female student's residence
hall, police told The Connecticut Post.
According to police, she warned Del
Read COURT on Page 4
NEWS:
ge2
OPINION: THE VINE:
Page 8
SPORTS:
Page 16