Mirror - Vol. 08, No. 2 - April 27, 1984

              'The Image
of
Fairfield"
FAIRFIELD 0 1 [MIRROR Nonprofit Organization
U.S. POSTAGE
PAID
Permit No. 32
Fairfield, Conn.
Volume 8, No. 2 Friday, April 27, 1984 Fairfield University, Fairfield, Connecticut 06430 Incorporated 1977
President Assesses Issues
in University Overview
by Steven D. Lunt and
Thomas P. Moore
In a recent interview with the Rev. Aloysius P.
Kelley, S.J., the University President, issues per-taining
to the state of the school found them-selves
as topics in an hour long interview.
Discussed were the new grading system, the sta-tus
of the core curriculum at Fairfield, study
space problems and admission trends.
Regarding the national trend of decreasing ap-plications
for admission to colleges and univer-sities,
Father Kelley was optimistic about
Fairfield's position. He spoke of a "self selection
process" in which students with lower grades in
high school recognize that their chance of gain-ing
admission to Fairfield are low. They subse-quently
decide not to apply. This phenomenon,
added to the decreasing number of college stu-dents
nationwide, has caused Fairfield's pool of
applicants to decrease slightly. Father Kelley
said, "The number of high school students ap-plying
who are in the bottom half of their class
is dropping off." He added that for the past five
of six years, applications increased tremendous-ly.
This increase went against the trend that other
schools were experiencing.
When asked about the new grading system
placed into effect this year. Father Kelley stated
"I'm not as close to it as the academic Vice-
President [Rev. Christopher Mooney, S.J.]"
However, in his opinion, "Much of it (grade infla-tion)
was from the Vietnam era." He explained
this by saying that professors who gave students
a low or failing grade were in effect, sending
those students to the rice paddies. He continued
that this is a theory, and perhaps not the only
reason for grade inflation.
Other factors involved in changing the univer-sity's
grading system include graduate and pro-fessional
school admissions, specifically in the
area of low standardized testing scores in rela-tion
to student's G.P.A.'s. The President stated
that monitoring of these developments led to the
new policy.
"Once grades got that high, they couldn't go
back down without a conscious decision to do
so." He said this in reference to the fact that once
grades became inflated, it required specific ac-tion
to bring them back down.
Turning to the core curriculum, Father Kelley
stressed that "there are no plans to change it that
I know of." Regarding possible opposition to the
heavy core requirements from the School of
Business, Father Kelley dismissed the thought.
According to the President, the School of
Business has no problems with the core. Many
in the School of Business feel that the core
courses give students an edge in interviews.
In relation to the perceived lack of study space,
Father Kelley stressed that the library was not
built as a study hall. "In earlier years, students
studied and slept in their rooms. Now the dorms
have become social areas." He said that the ad-ministration
is aware of the problem, and is plan-ning
to increase lounge space in the near future.
Rev. Aloysius P. Kelley, S.J. University President, remarked that the library was never meant
to be a study hall. [Photo by Gerry McPartland]
Seminar Helps Budgeting
by Denise Murphy
Townhouse residents for the 1984-85 academ-ic
year were called to a Budget Seminar on Wed-nesday,
April 18, in Gonzaga Auditorium.
Construction of the three newest units is report-edly
on schedule. It is the aim of the Office of
Student Residences to now ready their
occupants.
Yale Professor Discusses Legal Ethics
by Carla Angelone
As the third in the Ethics in Practice lecture
series, Geoffrey C. Hazard, Jr. of Yale Law
School spoke last Tuesday night on the subject
of legal ethics. Professor Hazard is presently
Director Nominee of the American Law Institute,
Nathan Baker Professor of Law at Yale Law
School, and Professor of Law and Management
at Yale's School of Organization and Manage-ment
and is author of several books including
Ethics and the Practice of Law.
Professor Hazard began his lecture by stating
what he believed to be the two dimensions of le-gal
ethics. First, said Hazard, there is the group
of rules and established laws that will set limits
on lawyer conduct. However, there is also the
zone of personal choice that co-exists with the
law which allows for an area of personal discre-tion.
Even with this latitude, we still have an ob-ligation
to be mindful of the law.
He then proceeded to elaborate on the rules
embedded in the legal profession. He first ex-plained
what is referred to as common law, the
group of laws that grew up as the legal profes-sion
took form. Originating with particular cases
these laws are now fully recognized, although
never formally codified. Laws such as lawyer/
client confidentiality, attorney/client privilege,
and the lawyer's obligation to the court are all
laws of common law origin.
Formally expressed rules of the profession are
contained in specific documents such as the
Canons of Legal Ethics. Rules of this nature
would include the lawyer's duty in not commis-sioning
client wrongdoing and violation of the
law. Following the Canons, the more compre-hensive
and complex ABA Code of Profession-al
Responsibility was formulated to reflect
changing values. The ABA code with its compila-tion
of general principles and disciplinary rules
leads Professor Hazard to believe "the legal
profession to be a regulated industry" because
it sets limits on what practitioners may and may
not do and makes them answerable to discipli-nary
action should these rules be violated. Haz-ard
asserted that "the rules regulating the legal
profession since 1970 are more specific than any
other industry, except perhaps the standards
regulating accounting."
In 1977 The American Bar Association began
a project to rewrite the code. The Model Rules
of Professional Conduct, is still to be adopted.
Professor Hazard then summarized what he
believed to be four key problems that command
much attention in legal ethics. First, Hazard fo-cused
on the issue of lawyer's competence,
which addresses the responsiblity of a lawyer to
only undertake as much business as he can ef-fectively
and skillfully handle. This creates a
dilemma between the lawyer's economic interest
as a businessman and his ethical obligation to
render services only when he is competent to do
so.
Next, Hazard spoke about some of the qualifi-cations
to the generally accepted rule of con-fidentiality.
One such instance would be if an
attorney discovers that the enterprise of his client
is a crime or fraud, and as a rule a lawyer is pro-hibited
from assisting in a known crime or fraud.
Another qualification would be in the case of
a guilty client committing perjury. The ensuing
dilemma between the original obligation to the
person and the obligation under the law to un-cover
any client fraud is not unique to lawyers
alone, although they are especially vulnerable.
In addition, Professor Hazard pointed out the
conflict of interest and the subsequent question
of loyalty that arises for a lawyer between clients.
Continued on page 2
Carol Mansfield, head Resident Advisor at the
townhouses began the discussion by explaining
the use of the "house account" which has
proved to be successful in past years. Accord-ing
to this plan, at the start of each semester all
four members of a given townhouse deposit at
least $500 into a savings and checking account
in the name of the townhouse. The four occu-pants
are then able to write checks payable to
the university which will cover rent and utilities.
"Phone and food bills ought to be separately
managed," advised Carol, "since they will vary
proportionate to individual use."
"It is mandatory that a billing person be desig-nated
to represent each townhouse," she con-tinued.
"Monthly bills are sent to this person,
who is responsible for making timely payment to
the Townhouse Office."
Curt Washburn, a senior townhouse resident,
also, spoke at the seminar in order to deliver a
student's opinion on financing. Curt remarked,
"Be smart. You need to trust each other, but
money is not the only thing you'll have to worry
about." He humorously commented on weekly
shopping and other aspects of independent liv-ing
which will be new to residents.
Phyllis Fitzpatrick, Director of Student Resi-dences,
reminded those in attendance that they
will be part"of the campus and will therefore be
subject to all rules which apply to dorm living.
"You can entertain from your front to your back
door only," she stated. The University is now
questioning the legality of kegs.
Phyllis declared, "If after a third warning,
monthly payment is not up to date, we will not
hesitate to put our foot down." She told students
to realize that Only three bills will be due during
first semester, but that there will be five rather
large ones to account for during the second half
of the year.
New Resident Advisors Chosen
Geoffrey Hazard, Professor of Law at Yale Law School, pauses while addressing ethical dilem-mas
in legal practice. [Photo by Bill GahwylerJ
by Kathryn King
Twenty-eight new RA's were announced on
April 12th and three of this year's, Greg Shultz,
Chuck Hacker, and Kelly Harris, were rehired,
declared Phyllis Fitzpatrick, Director of Student
Residences.
Sixty-two candidates went through the full ap-plication
process. It started with a formal inter-view
with the selection committee made up of the
Assistant Director or Director, one head resident,
and two students, one of which was an RA.
The informal interview followed later as a way
to see group dynamics with an RA and six can-didates.
After these two interviews the candi-dates
were screened and the number was cut
down to 44.
On March 31st, there was a three hour long
group interview that was split into four parts:
programming, group dynamics, confrontation,
and role playing.
Of the candidates announced, two are com-muters,
one of whom will be a graduate student
next year. "We also had Off Campus Boarders
apply," said Mrs. Fitzpatrick. In regard to the
kinds of Resident Advisors they hire, Mrs. Fitz-patrick
said, "We have no quota system. We
don't hire X amount of seniors and X amount of
juniors."
After surveying the people who picked up ap-plications
and did not finish the process, Mrs.
Fitzpatrick found many different reasons why
people did not follow through. She thinks there
are two major factors. "The desirability of living
in the townhouses" and "the fact that the drink-ing
age has gone up" seem to be why there are
not as many applicants. With sixty percent of the
students on campus under the drinking age,
there are increased responsibilities in the RA po-sition.
The new RA's will be told in July where they
will be living. Their training workshop starts on
August 26. They will begin their official respon-sibilities
on September 2 and finish at
commencement.
Phyllis Fitzpatrick said that "we had fine can-didates.
It was a very difficult decision" to make
in choosing the RA's.
Ms. Fitzpatrick is making a proposal concern-ing
RA's. There are three objectives she would
like to see become reality. "The first is to cen-tralize
and reposition the RA rooms in very long
corridors as in Gonzaga and Campion."
The second is to have an RA in each wing of
buildings such as Regis and Jogues, which
separate the two wings totally. Another idea is
Continued on page 2