Mirror - Vol. 06, No. 11 - November 11, 1982

              "The Image
of
Fairfield"
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Volume 6, No. 11, Thursday, November 11,1982 Fairfield University, Fairfield, Connecticut 06430 Incorporated 1977
Carcinogens Pose Possible
Health Hazard in Bannow
by Lucia M. Mercurio
Mirror Editor
Possible asbestos contamina-tion
has concerned Bannow and
Library personnel since the spring
of 1977. Their concern will result
in a formal laboratory test to be
performed sometime in
November.
Following the requests of Pro-fessors
Bongiorno, Combs, Khad-javi,
Meli and Salafia, a one-time
air sample from 'three rooms in
Bannow was taken by Dr. Fred
Lisman in 1977. The sample was
analyzed by Dr. John
Magenheimer who was chosen by
Provost John Barone because,
"He had the best equipment to
work in that area. We looked for
someone beyond the expertise of
a normal laboratory, people we felt
had the best equipment."
The entire question is the possi-ble
contamination of the air due to
carbon monoxide, asbestos,
petroleum solvents, fungal and
bacterial spores, and for-maldehyde,
according to the facul-ty
and safety committee of Ban-now.
A communication breakdown
between faculty and administra-tion
occurred when the faculty
received a memo stating that the
air was considered safe according
to the Occupational Safety and
Health Administration's stan-dards,
but were not given the
name of the testing lab nor given
access to the actual data.
Barone recognizes the problem
and believes "better communica-tion
is important this time."
On October 20, 1981 a memo
was sent from forty faculty and
staff members of Bannow and the
Library to the Bannow Safety
Battle Of Sexes
Dates to Chaucer
Committee. Dr. Sal Bongiorno of
the Biology Department states, "A
very broad cross-section of con-cern
was represented by that
memo." There was "no official
response" to it until February 1,
when the safety committee ad-dressed
a memo to Father
Christopher Mooney, Academic
Vice-President.
In addition to the questions of
asbestos pollution, added prob-lems
of stuffiness, odors and in-creased
respiratory problems
were stated in the memo.
Currently, Mr. Jack Hickson,
Vice-President is confronting both
situations for the university. Prior
to a test whose date is tentatively
set for sometime in November, the
air in both buildings will have to be
balanced.
This will involve getting the air
flow patterns back to building
design. During the energy crisis,
the air flow was slowed down, and
cooling procedures to rid the air of
humidity were cut back. These dif-
Continued on page 6
Taking a fresh look at our nation's unique economy and political system,
the newly formed non-partisan group, CODAC, co-sponsored a luncheon
symposium with the university. Over 250 area businessmen attended the
function in the Oak Room. Donald J. Donahue, one of the four speakers,
urged the necessity for restoring the nation's slumping economy.
[photo by John Roche]
By Lucia M. Mercurio
Arts and Entertainment Editor
and Elizabeth Bartus News Editor
"Women drive men crazy," in
Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, ac-cording
to Dr. Traugott Lawler,
Professor of English at Yale Uni-versity.
In his lecture sponsored
by the Honors Program, November
1, Dr. Lawler focused on the
aspect of "men and women in op-position
to each other" in
Chaucer's fourteenth century
literary work.
"The battle of the sexes is most
evident in the 'Wife of Bath's Tale;'
stated Dr. Lawler. It is here that we
see a one on one conflict where
the woman wins; usually easily.
When she reaches her fifth hus-band,
the battle has become a lit-tle
more difficult, but ends when
she is given sovereignty.
Another major conflict between
men and women that is present in
the poem is a situation in which
many men are in conflict over one
woman. The woman always comes
away a winner in these tales, as in
the "Knights Tale" where two
cousins fight over a woman they
have seen. One dies. The other
gets the girl.
Dr. Lawler read from the general
prologue, in the original Middle
English. The passages he chose
were the descriptions of the Wife
of Bath and the Parson. These
characterizations set side by side,
showed the contrast Dr. Lawler
sees concerning the difference
betweeen how Chaucer treated
men and women.
"The Parson is farsighted," ex-plained
Dr. Lawler, "where as the
Wife of Barth is nearsighted."
Chaucer tells the reader concrete
details about the woman, "...she
was somdeel deef..." "Bold was
hir face and fair and reed of
hewe."
We only know of the parson
through his profession. "He's all
parson, no person," stated Dr.
Lawler. "I just made that up; I kind
of like it." The parson is "a man in
the grip of an ideal."
Dr. Lawler went on to discuss
how "men expend energy on winn-ing
women." He explained that
their love for a woman causes
them to violate other values such
as male friendship or their work.
"In the one-man tales, the
craziness is even more evident.
There is male blindness in the face
of females." In the "Clerk's Tale,"
Walter cannot see that he has the
perfect wife.
The Pardoner is blinded by his
own rhetoric skill. He declares his
dishonesty in his tale, but then at
the end asks for money.
Another major aspect of his talk
was that the "clear feature of the
poem is that there are many gen-eralizations."
Women are seen as
Continued on page 3
CODAC Luncheon Symposium
Discusses National Economics
by David M. Rothbard
Staff Writer
More than 250 businessmen from various fields at-tended
a symposium held here in the Oak Room en-titled
"Toward a Revival of American Economic Effi-ciency"
sponsored by the Committee on Developing
American Capitalism (CODAC) along with Fairfield
University.
This annual luncheon which has been sponsored in
the past by The Wright Investors Service was this
year organized for the first time by CODAC. CODAC
is a newly formed non-partisan group from business,
labor, economics, and other professions, and its
main objective is to "take a fresh look at our nation's
unique economic and political system." John Wright,
President and Chairman of the Wright Investors Ser-vice,
is the Chairman of CODAC.
All who attended the afternoon symposium en-joyed
a filet mignon dinner for a thirty dollar fee
before listening to selected speakers representing
different viewpoints.
John Wright stated that there is a great need for
the positive development of our system and that the
people attending the conference were not just an-other
bunch of "theorticians" who like talking to
each other. "We need to take an objective look at
governmental mismanagement of the private and free
enterprise systems," he asserted, "and to review and
make recommendations concerning the
government's methods of managing the economy."
Donaid Donahue, Vice Chairmen and Chief Finan-cial
Officer of the Continental Group of Stamford,
spoke first and affirmed that the U.S. is no longer the
leader in the things it used to be. High cost produc-tion,
low growth of the domestic market, and high
overhead costs are the things which Donahue attri-butes
to our slumping economy. He declared, "The
economy is a result of forces more enduring than one
administration or one Chairman of the Federal Re-serve
Board. The economic cycle, like everything
else, has growth, maturity, and decline, and we are in
one of these painful changes now."
As for ideas to help restore our economy, Donahue
offered several propositions. "First of all," he said,
"interest rates must be kept down so that capital can
be invested. Middle teen rates just exacerbate the de-ficits
which are the roots of the problem. Also,
government must get control of its budget and priori-tize
exports."
Mr. Donahue also claims that we must take a good
look at our educational systems because we now
have "twenty percent human rejects from our state
supported schools."
To bring costs in line, Donahue states that a
willingness to make concessions is important by
workers, and they must hold the wage line. "Chrysler
employees were smart to vote against a strike be-cause
it would have jeopardized their jobs and the
Continued on page 3
Honoring "200 nights" until graduation, the class of '82 gathered at the Point to celebrate. Seniors partied
in the cold rain until the wee hours of the morning. [Photo by Cindy Can]
Temporary Occupancy
Permit Expires
by Matthew Benedict
Staff Writer
As of November 1, the tentative
■deadline for the Fairfield Univer-sity
Townhouse occupancy permit
expired. Before this date, the
University was ordered to comply
with the Town of Fairfield's Plan-ning
and Zoning Board concerning
sight of the Townhouses from
North Benson Road. Occupancy
was dependant on this sole factor.
The Town Zoning Board ques-tioned
the sight of the Town-houses
from North Benson, as it
was detrimental to the surroun-ding
landscape. Because of this,
the University was granted only a
temporary occupancy permit.
In an interview with Mrs. Phyllis
Fitzpatrick, Director of Student
Residences, she said "The univer-sity
has complied with the board's
guidelines. All the work has been
completed. We are now waiting for
the board to officially approve us."
Mrs. Fitzpatrick continued by say-ing
"We are not going to initiate
the official act of inquiry; they (the
Board) have made no effort to con-tact
us. No one has bothered to
phone us, and no news is good
news."
Carol Mansfield, Head Resident
at the Townhouses, said "Accor-ding
to John Dunigan (mainte-nance),
the expiration date was
not concrete; it was an arbitrary
date." In a phorie interview with
Mary Kay Wysocki, Chairperson of
the Townhouse Association, she
stated "The temporary permit of
occupany expired November 1.
The reason being the landscaping.
Since then, the University has
alleviated the problem". Ms. Wy-socki
concluded by saying "There
is no reason to believe now that
the permit will be rescinded. A per-manent
permit will be issued."