Mirror - Vol. 08, No. 12 - November 1, 1984

              'The Image
of
Fairfield"
FAIRFIELD • \ IMIRRORI Nonprofit Organization
U.S. POSTAGE
PAID
Permit No. 32
Fairfield, Conn.
Volume 8, No. U Thursday, November 1, 1984 Fairfield University, Fairfield, Connecticut 06430 Incorporated 1977
Reagan Visits Fairfield
by Martin Healy
and Richard D. Fahey
President Ronald Reagan lashed out at
Democratic challenger Walter Mondale in a
Republican rally last Friday, Oct. 26. In the style
of humor that was so effective in his last Presiden-tial
debate, Reagan joked that 'if my opponent's
former administration was a book, the only way
it could have a happy ending would be to read
it from the end to the beginning'. The President
went on to say that if Mondale wore his proposed
tax plan as a Halloween costume, he would 'scare
the heck out of everybody'. On the platform with
Reagan were locally prominent Republicans such
as Stewart McKinney, incumbent from the fourth
Congressional district, and Jacqueline Durrell,
first Selectmen for the town of Fairfield.
Reagan's dramatic landing at precisely two
o'clock stole the show from Congressman McKin-ney
as the large crowd attending turned to watch
the President's helicopter, leaving the fourteen
year Congressman addressing thousands of
backs. Before the rally, Reagan had spoken to
a Jewish congregation at a Long Island syna-gogue,
where he reiterated United States' sup-port
for Israel. Fairfield was chosen as his next
stop due to the towns proximity to New York City
and its heavily Republican electorate out of the
Ferraro-Cuomo influence. Following his speech
at the Town Hall, the President was to meet with
leading Fairfield citizens in a restored tavern
where another Chief Executive, George Washing-ton,
greeted citizens after his election.
In addition to his attacks on Mondale, Reagan
again defended his hard line foreign policy posi-tion
with the statement that during his adminis-tration
'not one inch of territory has been lost to
Communist influence'. The President also
touched on issues of Religion, education and the
economy. On the whole, his speech was a syn-opsis
of his presentation in the earlier Presiden-tial
debates.
One of the more interesting aspects of the rally
was how the crowd was prepared for Reagan's
entrance. The sporadic outbursts of 'four more
years' that frequently erupted from the crowd dur-ing
the President's speech was in actuality a prac-ticed
routine the crowd was put through before
Reagan arrived. As one student onlooker
observed, Throughout the entire country people
will think Fairfield fanatically wants Reagan for
four more years. They don't know it was all primed
by an announcer and detonated by the possibili-ty
of TV. exposure.'
The sponsors of the event, various Republican
Party officials were disappointed that the turnout
was less than five thousand. The poor attendance
was caused mainly by the bad weather, and the
inability of the town hall site to afford spectators
with a good view of this nation's 40th chief ex-ecutive.
Security for the President was tight with the
landing site for the marine helicopters especially
secure. Barlowe Rd. and Round Hill Rd. as well
as parts of North Benson and the Post Rd. were
closed to traffic for the Presidential motorcade.
After the President left Fairfield he flew to Hack-ensack,
N.J. The trip was planned so that the
President could spend the entire day in the New
York City area, and get some needed exposure
on the major New York City Television stations.
Above, Marine one practices on THursday afternoon for Friday's landing to bring President
Reagan to Fairfield on Friday. [Photo by Gerry McPartland]
Nicaraguan Eyewitness Speaks
by Martin Healy
A mere twenty-four hours after her departure
from Nicaraguq, Sr. Ani Wihbey S.ND. spoke of
events in the Latin American country before a
small crowd in the Oak Room. Having served in
Professors Talk Economics Of Candidates
by Martin Healy
The economic issues of the upcoming election
were debated Monday October 29, amongst
members of the Economics Dept. in the Nursing
Auditorium. Representing the views of the Rea-gan
and Mondale camps as well as their own,
Professors Lane, Kelly, Deak and Miners, along
with coaching from Professors Walters and Buss,
covered issues ranging from Reagan's treatment
of the poor to Mondale's tax strategy.
Supporting the President, Dr. Kelly began with
a firm belief that, "Reagan is helping the poor.
His strategy is to create a society which will grow
vigorously and improve the position of the poor
by definition. Unfortunately, it just hasn't worked
yet." He went on to condemn the belief that
progress experienced by the poor during the 60's
was due to Democratic "Do-gooder programs
which create dis-incentives."
Political Groups Look at Issues
by Chris Tyler
Wednesday, two of the on-campus political
groups debated in the lobby of the Campus
Center. The debate was staged by the two groups
and the MIRROR in an effort to present the ideol-ogy
of each group with regard to the election next
week.
David M. Rothbard, Tim Porterfield, and Janet
Raschella staffed the team of College Republi-cans
while Steven Hartford, Thomas P. Moore,
and three faculty members supported the
Democratic side of the Roundtable Discussion.
The bulk of the debate centered on Economic
issues which enabled the Young Democrats to
score points over their Republican counterparts.
When the issues turned toward foreign policy,
however, it appeared as if the College Republi-cans
had an advantage over their adversaries.
Drs. Cassidy and Greenberg, Assistant Profes-sors
from the Department of Politics, and Dr. Lane,
an Assistant Professor from the Department of
Economics, were the three faculty members that
aided the cause of the young Democrats.
The discussion lasted for close to two hours
and was witnessed by students and faculty who
populated that area of the building during lunch
time hours. The audience participation added to
the discussion by raising valid and relevent
arguments for both sides.
In defense of Mondale, Dr. Lane emphasized
how his candidate advocated a true safety net for
the poor and aged, promoting justice and fairness
in the true American way. Technically, Dr. Miners
described Mondale's proposed $85 billion tax
goal, explaining how the new income tax will be
more graduated toward the rich and indexed so
inflation will not push families into a higher tax
bracket with no real increase in income. Reagan,
in contrast, has no economic plan believing, as
Miners phrased it, that "what voters don't know
won't hurt them."
Dr. Deak devoted his time to condemning both
candidates and announcing his own desire to run
for President. He expanded on the position that
the true force behind the nations' economy was
not the intentions of any administration, but the
actions of Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Vol-cker.
"What really got the economy going," he
stated, "was when the Fed decided to change
monetary targets from inflation to interest rates
at the end of 1982 and ease restraints on the
money supply." This allowed Reagan's consumer
led recovery to succeed by providing extra money.
Deak tallied 3 votes for the President by the end
of the debate.
several of the many health clinics initiated by the
Sandinistas, Sr. Ani affirmed her support for the
'experimental' government, declaring that 'under
the Sandinistas, not one person has been per-secuted'.
This was Sr. Ani's second visit to Fairfield. Last
year she also visited, and spoke before students
on her experiences in Brazil. Because she is with
the Sisters of Notre Dame, Sr. Ani stays on cam-pus
at the Sister's residence halls behind Julie
Hall.
Expressing surprise at the positions taken by
the American media, Sr. Ani called the Voice of
America broadcasts 'full of lies'. The charge that
Nicaragua is exporting terrorism was considered
ludicrous at best. Not only is the country cut off
financially from many of the major western coun-tries,
she pointed out, but the forty thousand
strong American-supported Contra guerillas
represent a severe strain on both human and eco-nomic
resources. The young Sandinista govern-ment
is therefore fighting for its very existence,
leaving little room for support of other factions
in neighboring countries.
The Contra guerrillas were described as rem-nants
of the late Somoza regime trained by the
U.S. in Florida. Motivated by vested interest, the
Contras are fighting to regain the status and
wealth once available under the Fascist dictator.
Sr. Ani cited the many health clinics she works
in as favorite targets for Contra subversion
because they represent the government working
for the people. Other than direct violence, the
Contras have been trained to take advantage of
the Nicaraguan people's strong Christian tradi-tion
by pointing out inconsistencies amongst the
various bishops, in some cases winning recruits
by proving even the Pope to be a negative in-fluence.
Alumnus Designs For NASA
College Republicans, left of center, and faculty members to the right flank Stephen Humes,
moderator at last Wednesday's Roundtable Discussion in the Campus Center Lobby.
[Photo by Michelle Byrd]
by Kathryn King
Last Thursday Mr. Paul Convertito's lecture,
"Space Science—A Snapshot of Today's Activi-ties"
filled the nursing auditorium, according to
Dr. Evangelos Hadjimichel. The lecture was spon-sored
by the Physics Department and was free.
NASA has contracted Perkin-Elmer, "a large
company that does a lot of work for the govern-ment",
to build orbiting telescopes, said Dr. Had-jimichael.
Mr. Convertito, an alumnus of Fairfield
University, is the director of the project to build
space telescopes. The talk he gave was a com-bination
of information about "the engineering
requirements for a task like this and the scientif-ic
benefits of it."
The observatories we have now have reached
their limit of efficiency. Dr. Hadjimichael said that
the atmosphere distorts the things we see and
limits our range of vision. He compared looking
through telescopes on earth to looking through
foggy glasses.
The first orbiting telescope will be used in 1986.
The telescope has a mirror that is 2.4 meters in
diameter that will collect light and beam the in-formation
to earth. "With this, we can see seven
times farther than present terrestial telescopes."
said Dr. Hadjimichael.
He explained that by the time the light we see
from very faraway planets reaches us, the light
is very old. The farther we can see the farther back
in time we see. With better information, "we can
support the origin of the universe theories" and
how things work in space better.
In 1989, Perkin-Elmer will send out a solar or-biting
telescope. The objective of this telescope
is to study nuclear reactions on the sun and other
things such as sun spots.
They are now studying the feasibility of an ad-vanced
x-ray telescope for the mid 1990's. NASA
has not yet contracted anyone for this project. This
telescope would have the same objective as the
first orbiting telescope but it senses x-rays com-ing
from planets instead of visible light.