Mirror - Vol. 07, No. 12 - November 10, 1983

              "The Image
of
Fairfield"
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Volume 7, No. 12 Thursday, November 10, 1983 Fairfield University, Fairfield, Connecticut 06430 Incorporated 1977
Fairfield Student Caught
In Grenadian Invasion
by Thomas P. Moore
Caught in the invasion of Grenada was
Kimberly McClune, junior who was on the Carib-bean
island for a week and a half.
Arriving on the island on the 13 of October,
Kimberly had only thoughts of a short visit and
then return to classes at Fairfield.
It was now the nineteenth, Wednesday, the
day of the Prime Minister, Maurice Bishop's,
assassination. Kimberly McClune said of the
situation there "Classes were cancelled and a
twenty four hour curfew was enforced. You could
go outside of Tom's apartment but not too
far."[Tom Cielsa, '82 of Fairfield is a second year
med student at St. George's Medical School.]
The curfew remained in effect on the twen-tieth,
Thursday, only to be lifted during the day
on Friday so the island's people could get out
of their homes and buy some food. "When we
went to the roadside stand we saw trucks load-ed
with troops, there were many rifles. I was
shocked. It was an unreal experience."
On Friday the curfew was lifted again. "We
were all supposed to go to a State Department
meeting", a female representative told the
students as Ms. McClune quoted, "I would value
your safety and leave as soon as you could." On-ly
about ten percent of the students at that
meeting wanted to get out then.
By Sunday their attitude changed. "There was
a plea from the parents after they had a Parents
Association meeting to tell their children to go
home." She continued, "After Sunday the phone
calls were all censored so we had to be careful
as to what we said over the phone. Some
students used their second language. One kid
spoke Dutch with his parents in order to evade
the censors."
"Now the big question was how to get back.
A lot was riding on it," is how she described the
situation Monday.
Tuesday the 25th of October was the day of
the invasion. "We awoke to planes flying
overhead. We could hear helicopters, the
sounds of the invasion," Ms. McClune said of
that early Tuesday morning. "At first we did not
know what the noises were. Everything was
shaking. I had never heard anything like it
before." Describing her reaction to the invasion
she said, "We did not move.
"All day Tuesday we saw paratroopers land.
True Blue was only a few miles away. I could not
believe what was going on. On Wednesday we
heard gunfire close to the house. I started to
wonder who was going to get to us first.
"On Thursday they blew up the ammunition
dump across the bay, over the hill—we
estimated it to be about two miles away. Our
doors were blown in, windows shattered, it hap-pened
late afternoon— early evening," she con-tinued,
"There was firing all through the night."
"By this time things were continuously
building up. We were staying with three pro-
Continued on page 2
The use of computers on campus is expanding as various departments are putting com-puter
work in their courses. [Photo courtesy of Honeywell Inc.)
Computer Systems Have
Wide Use on Campus
by Thomas P. Moore
Through the addition of several computer
courses and the increased use of terminals as
teaching aids, the amount of electronic traffic
Plans Progress For New Townhouses
by Thomas P. Moore
Fairfield University's new townhouse project took another step toward
building an additional unit. Fairfield University administration represen-tatives
attended a Town Planning and Zoning Committee Meeting and
answered questions about the new project and the ramifications of the
new construction.
The meeting, which was held on the 25 of last month, probed into mat-ters
related to the University's proposal such as traffic volume. Commen-ting
on that portion of the meeting, University Provost Dr. John Barone,
said, "There are always problems with dealing with the environment. Traf-fic
at the Northwest gate and the houses built in that area are what they
were concerned with. The questions were modest." He continued, "We
gave them the results of a study done here and showed those at the
meeting it was not a problem through a presentation of data. The data
showed that the traffic flow will not be adversely affected by the addition
of 24 houses." He commented on another topic by saying, "They (the
townspeople) want us off the beach as much a possible."
When asked about the possible starting date or when the town will give
the green light to the University, Dr. Barone said, "The election will hold
up the results for a short amount of time."
The new townhouses will be built, if approved by the Town Planning
and Zoning Committee, on a site just above the baseball diamond, situated
on the northeast corner of the campus.
The new series of houses will include an addition of 24 dwellings to the
existing complex. Fletcher Thompson Architects have drawn up the
blueprints.
Once the board gives its approval to the University's plans, the school
may begin construction of the addition to the existing complex two weeks
after that date.
Alumni Reward Outstanding Achievement
by Elizabeth Kline
In recognition of outstanding contributions to
Fairfield University and significant professional
achievement, the Alumni Association honored
five people exemplifying these qualities at its
.Annual Awards Dinner on November 5.
The Alumni Association received nominations
from alumni and administrators. The nomination
forms were sent out six months ago. The Alum-ni
Association committee recommends names
to the Alumni Association Board of Directors to
select the award recipients.
Recipient of the Honorary Alumnus, Alphon-sus
Donahue, has been a member of the Board
of Trustees since 1975. He is honored for his ex-ceptional
commitment to the university. He has
been active as a member of the Academic Affairs
Committee, Chairman of the Development Com-mittee
and head of the Faculty Office Building
fund drive. Donahue attributed the progress of
the university in the past five years to the
development of the School of Business, School
of Nursing, and the Graduate School. According
to Donahue, "there's a whole different aura" in
the way people look upon the university.
Arthur Kopit, author of the musical "Nine", discussed theatre writing in a recent lecture.
(See page 12 for story.) [Photo by Remy Steiner]
The Alumni Professional Achievement Award
went to David McCarthy, Jr. '57 in recognition
of an accomplished law career. McCarthy is uni-que
in that he is the only person to receive an
Alumni Award twice. He retired recently as Dean
of the Georgetown University Law Center. He
has contributed to several books and to the draft-ing
of legislation in the bail reform area. From
his years here at Fairfield, McCarthy recalled "a
closeness, a camaraderie."
Assistant Professor of History, Water Petry
received the Distinguished Faculty Service
Award for exemplary service in the education of
Fairfield University students. Since September,
1957, Petry has noted several changes at the
university. Petry described the student body as
a "sociological phenomenon." He detected
apathy among today's student body. "They are
more comfortable. There's no incentive for
achieving more," stated Petry. Twenty-seven
years ago, students not only came from the
upper and middle classes, but also from the
working class. Those from the working class
were often the first in their family to take advan-tage
of a higher educaiton. "They were eager to
get in and be a part of the established society,"
stated Petry.
He considered the '60's a period of "incredi-ble
activity" (sit-ins, building take-overs )
especially during the Vietnam era. An "at-mosphere
of electricity" surrounded the univer-sity
during this period.
As for the future, Petry feels there should be
a "major effort" to maintain the Liberal Arts
Continued on page 2
flowing between the computers on Fairfield's
campus is increasing.
In such diverse areas as Chemistry, Spanish,
Shakespeare, Politics and Latin, just to name a
few, teachers have put together programs and
exercises to give their students both the helpfu.
reinforcement that the material in the programs
offers as well as limited knowledge of how to
operate a computer. The terminals are being us-ed
more now than they have ever been.
In addition to the computer system located in
the basement level of Bannow, there is a new
group of computers situated on the ground floor
of Canisius. These Microcomputers are used for
a number of different purposes. The English
department utilizes them for word processing,
the School of Arts and Sciences office is using
them and the School of Continuing Education of-fers
a course dealing with microcomputers in
conjunction with the new terminals located on
the ground floor.
The School of Business is planning to change
its offerings in the area of a required computer
course through the use of some additional com-puter
terminals that will be set up in the base-ment
of the Faculty Office Building. When ask-ed
about these plans, Dr. Richard A. Montague
of the Information Systems Department said,
"The computers in Canisius will be sup-plemented
by more IBM PC microcomputers.
They should be ready for the Spring Term."
When asked what lies ahead in the way of com-puters
here at the University, Dr. Montague
predicted, "I expect it to progress gradually in
the next three years."
The data processing requirement for business
majors will be changed in the way that more time
will be spent in front of a computer during the
course.
The other area of increased computer usage
is the 'computer assisted teaching' that is being
offered in various areas of study. One teacher
who uses computer assisted teaching is Dr.
Frederick Lisman, professor of Chemistry. He
explained what type of system he set up and
designed for students desiring help, by saying,
"What we have is a package that will drill and
practice materials. If the answer given is incor-rect
then a correct solution is shown for most
problems. The material covered by this program
includes about two thirds of the first semester of
Inorganic Chemistry."
Commenting on the effort and time involved
in putting the computer exercises together Dr.
Lisman said, "It is an extremely involved system
It is like writing a book basically." Lisman said,
"The Chemistry programs have been very suc-cessful
in terms of the amount of students us-ing
the computers."
In other areas of study such as Politics, Dr.
Alan Katz will again offer a course called Political
Sociology which uses a computer program. In
Latin offered by Dr. Vincent Rosivach, computer
time is required of all of his students.