Mirror - Vol. 09, No. 26 - February 27, 1986

              The
FairfieldMIRRORv Volume 9, No. 26 Thursday, February 27, 1986 The Image of Fairfield
Bye George, Tony's No. 1
Joey D's scoring mark is shattered,
Stags win 21.
Tony George accepts a gift before Saturday's game. [Photo by Kevin Wolfthal]
by Dave DeFusco
There's a silent dignity about him. He
doesn't say a lot or smile much. His emo-tions
seem to be controlled by some inter-nal
thermostat, tempered by time, molded
by losing seasons. The once-touted Terry
O'Connor recruit has satisfied all
expectations- and more. He has come full
circle. He is King- the now reigning
monarch of F.U. basketball hoopdom.
Tony George, with his 29 point effort last
Saturday night, has eclipsed The Mark of
1,916 points set by Joe DeSantis between
1975 and 1979, and has become the new
all-time leading scorer in Fairfield Univer-sity
basketball history. The historic pair of
free throws to break the record came with
1:18 left in his final game here at Alumni
Hall.
It was a perfect way to go out. Everyone
came for the same reason. We had only one
thing on our minds. The Mark. It was not
a game between Fairfield U. and Manhat-tan.
It was Tony George vs. The Record.
Favored by 28 points, the game didn't mat-ter,
everyone had their personal countdown
going from the start. When King George
got within ten points, the titanic crowd
# ripped and roared with every succeeding
basket.
Even the immortal Aaron Brown, bear-skin
jacket and all, made an appearance to
wish Tony, Pat, and the team well.
The record-breaking performance by Ge-
Continued on page 12
University attempts to increase minority enrollment
by Stephen J. Humes
Editor's Note: This article is the first of
a series of articles on minority recruitment
and retention.
Two specific proposals have been
designed recently to address the problem
of low minority enrollments here. The
proposals come only months after the Board
of Trustees adopted the Long Range Plan,
with its multi-leveled proposals for univer-sity
improvements.
According to Larri Mazon, Director of
Student Academic Support Services, and
David Flynn, Dean of Admissions, their
respective offices have prepared proposals
to present to high-ranking university ad-ministrators.
The proposals outline efforts
their departments can make to recruit and
retain minority students to Fairfield
University.
Today, less than three percent of the un-dergraduates
are minorities with their to-tal
numbering 78 students. Mazon
confirmed that minorities have the highest
percentage of transfering out of the univer-sity.
According to Mazon, some of the
problems causing low recruitment and
retention rates for minority students are: In-adequate
financial aid, institutional racism,
low grade point averages, undecided major
or career goals, lack of support services,
and the general feelings of alienation and
isolation.
Currently, 47 percent of minority stu-dents
entering the university transfer out be-fore
graduating. This statistic is
substantially higher than the university-wide
average over the last five years of a
27 percent attrition.
Mazon thinks this fact identifies a need
for action. Mazon joined the university's
Student Services division last year and calls
himself a "big advocate of multiculture on
campus." Mazon said, "I think sometimes
we get caught up in what we appear to be
doing... and that's not bad." He adds, UI just
want to see us doing things to improve it."
Mazon's improvements were outlined in
a report to be reviewed shortly by
Christopher Mooney, S.J., academic vice-president,
and William P. Schimpf, vice-president
of Student Services. Also to be
reviewed by these administrators is a report
prepared by Admissions. Sources in both
Admissions and Student Services say they
expect Schimpf and Mooney to pass the
reports on to Aloysius P. Kelley, universi-ty
president, and that Kelley may present
it to the Board of Trustees during their
March Board meeting.
The Board of Trustees adopted the
proposals of the university planning com-mittee
as a Long Range Plan. Among other
things, the plan encourages the university
to "establish specific goals for the number
and retention of minority students with at-tention
to various ethnic groups."
Admissions is concerned with the recruit-ment
of minorities according to Flynn. Ad-missions
Counselors recruit at High
Schools and college fairs during the Fall.
Although Michael Whittingham, who is
black, represents Admissions at some of the
more concentrated minority High Schools
and fairs, Flynn emphasizes that the entire
staff shares the responsibilities of recruit-ing
minority students. "There is a stability
in our approach," Flynn said. "All the staff
members do their part."
Flynn explained that Admissions sends
letters each year to 200 minority students
who score high on National Merit tests for
minorities. Also, Admissions attends spe-cial
fairs designed for minorities. Flynn
said, "We do make special efforts."
Both Flynn and Mazon said they could
not elaborate on the specifics of their
proposal prior to administrative review.
However, both agreed independently that
it is most important that all areas are work-ing
together on this. Flynn said, "I think it's
evidence of a university-wide com-mitment."
Danish Jacob Holdt presents America in Pictures
by Kathryn King
"Do you feel oppressed?" is the question
on the poster outside Gonzaga Auditorium.
Last Thursday, the Danish Jacob Holdt
presented his show, "American Pictures:
A personal journey through black Ameri-ca"
to a three quarters full auditorium.
The event, sponsored by FUSA arts and
lectures, the American Studies Club.and
the Politics Club also had the help of Su-san
Connery, the assistant chaplain, Tom
Nydegger, Stephanie Spann, and the Faith
and Justice Coalition.
Holdt began the presentation with an in-troduction.
He had lived as a vagabond,
hitchhiking across the United States, tak-ing
thousands of pictures. He came with
only 40 dollars in his pocket, and survived
by living with rich and poor families. Af-ter
a while people made donations to help
pay for his photographs. He sold blood
plasma twice a week to get money for de-veloping
his pictures before people donat-ed
money.
The thousands of pictures he took show
the racism and terrible conditions that the
American underclass live with. Travelling
across America, Holdt became involved in
rebellions at Wounded Knee, was attacked,
robbed, was involved in shoot-outs, was
arrested, and saw his friends murdered.
After leaving the United States, Holdt
put together a book, a film, and a presen-tation
with the pictures he took and the ex-periences
he had. "American Pictures"
became one of the biggest best sellers in
Europe. The book now belongs to a non-profit
American organization which gives
money to Africa.
Holdt brings his show with an underclass
and Scandinavian point of view to schools
and churches all over America. He has
shown it every day without a break since
August. He said that Catholic schools do
not have the best reaction to the show.
Everywhere he goes the entire audience
stays until the end of the show. This is not
the case with Catholic schools where peo-ple
leave before the end. Some Fairfield
students left the show half way through.
"Don't run away. Do fight back with an-gry
questions and comments. This is meant
to get a discussion going," said Holdt.
For four and a half hours, he showed his
slides with narration and music. The first
half of the show depicted the sharecrop-pers.
Picture after picture showed these
people who make only four cents an hour
picking cotton. Their homes have no elec-tricity,
running water, light, or heat.
Many live in feudal-like communities
which Holdt called slave camps. Pictures
of the dead lying in the street, stabbings,
and starving people flashed across the
screen.
During intermission, he sold his sixteen
dollar book, posters, and answered ques-tions.
The second half of the show showed
life in cities such as New York, New
Haven, and Hartford. Junkies lived in
abandoned buildings, homeless wandered
the streets, police and civilians were in-volved
in shoot-outs, and people were
murdered. He said that nine out often peo-ple
die an unnatural death in a Bronx
ghetto.
By the end of the show, people had seen
two thousand photos of blacks and what is
happening to them. Holdt says there is still
racism, and extreme poverty in the Unit-ed
States. "The American government
gives nothing to the poor," said Holdt.
They also give little foreign aid. "Ameri-ca
can give to both but it may cost some
MX missiles." He said that there's a
tremendous gap between America and
Denmark, which is a typical European
welfare state. Friends who visited him in
America said, "Wow, it's like coming to
a third world country."
Inside This Week
News 1.2
Editorials 3
Politics 4
Features 5
Spread 6,7
Arts & Entertainment 8,9
Features 10
Sports 11, 12