Mirror - Vol. 10, No. 18 - December 04, 1986

              The
FairfieldMIRRORV Volume 10, No. 18 Our Tenth Year Thursday, December 4, 1986 The Image of Fairfield
Bishop's Letter On Economics Evokes Extensive Discussion
By Connie McKenna
News Editor
On Wednesday, November 19, Fairfield
University hosted a double-session confer-ence
on the Bishops' Pastoral Letter on the
Economy. The conference featured more
than five speakers who presented views
from the church, the academic communi-ty,
the business sector, and opinions from
economic experts.
The afternoon session, entitled "Origins,
Objectives and Significance of the Pastor-al
Letter" featured contributions from The
Most Reverend Peter A. Rosazza, Aux-iliary
Bishop, and the Rev. Peter J. Henri-ot,
S.J., Director of the Center of Concern
and distinguished author. Both the after-noon
and evening sessions were presided
over by Drs. James A. Buss and Paul F.
Lakeland, and were introduced by Univer-sity
President Rev. Aloysius P. Kelley. S.J.
The evening session examined the poli-cy
implications of the Pastoral Letter, and
included the perspectives of the Church,
business and scholarly community.
Rev. J. Bryan Hehir, Secretary ofSocial
Development and World Peace among
many other accomplishments, began the
evening with a perspective from the Church
Blueprint shows the building plans for proposed townhouses. Existing townhouses are off
to the right.
FUSA Approves
Anti-Apartheid Bill
By Melissa Campanelli
Managing Editor
On Thursday November 20, 1986 FU-SA's
Student Legislature voted unanimous-ly
to pass a bill that would promote
awareness about the apartheid situation in
South Africa, as well as the importance of
American divestiture.
The Apartheid Awareness Commitee of
FUSA felt that since our President, Father
Aloyisius P. Kelley, and the Board of
Trustees of Fairfield University divested
their funds from companies in South Afri-ca
last spring, it is neccessary that a bill be
passed that will bring this vitally important
issue to other schools. The bill will be
presented to many universities across the
nation, in the hopes that they perhaps will
follow in our footsteps, divesting their
funds and bringing the issue out into the
open for thicr student body. Perhaps, if
enough people are reached, we can become
closer to stopping the unfair and unjust
government tactics that are taking place in
the South African nation.
The committe feels, that in keeping with
the moral amd ethical code of our univer-sity
as well as our religion as a whole, it is
the duty of Fairfield to bring awareness and
spread the word of hope to our contem-poraries.
All legislators present voted unanimously
on the bill, hence, achieving the commit-tees
goal of awareness. Pete Fay, Student
Legislature President stated, "By passing
this bill, we are showing to the student
body, as well as other students across the
nation, that we are very concerned with the
world around us and all its issues."
on the Bishops' Letter. "Perhaps the most
beneficial result of the Bishops' Letter is
that it will hopefully become a means for
others to engage in discussion and decision
making; a viable form in which to deal with
the Bishops and public policy." Hehir also
asserted that the Pastoral Letter has a grow-ing
purpose in society, since the '80s have
brought about "a new edge to the question
of religion in the role of political life."This
new edge, stated Hehir, was instigated by
new organizations such as the Right-to-Life
movement, and new political figures such
as Jackson and Falwell. "In the kind of is-sues
faced in public policy debate there has
emerged a moral factor. We're coming to
the realization that if we can't decide what
a good policy is in moral terms, it's even
harder to decide what a good policy is in
empirical terms." Hehir concluded that the
function of the Letter is to be catalytic and
to draw others into debate. "The process of
dialogue is meant to go beyond the Letter,
and to start, not finish, discussion until we
can eventually reach a moral consensus."
Charles W. Parry. Chairman of the
Board and Chief Executive Officer of Al-coa
next spoke of his criticisms of the
Bishops' Letter. Parry acknowledged that
"reminders of our duties to the poor and
powerless are needed in this age of the Yup-pie,
especially when government seems in-sensitive
to the needs of the poor." He
asserted, however, that Capitalism is an ef-fective
way to achieve this justice, and
questioned whether we are morally bound
to buy American products. Parry also ex-pressed
his disapproval of government-sponsored
job training programs, stating
that he didn't see how they helped to solve
long-term unemployment problems. "It's
desireablc to have a high standard of liv-ing",
concluded Parry, "we need the free-dom
to allow the creation of wealth due to
natural transactions in the marketplace. Af-ter
all, fortunes generate a great deal of em-ployment
which distributes wealth naturally
Continued on page 2
Construction Continues
By Joseph Draper
Editor-in-Chief
Construction of the access road behind
Bellermine Pond is nearly complete. Ac-cording
to Dr. John A. Barone, Universi-ty
Provost the road should be open by
December 15.
The hole that has been dug just north of
Bellermine Pond is being used to bury the
tree roots from the area cleared for the
road. Gravel found in the pit was taken out
and laid on the road. Barone explained that
there is no place off-campus that will take
the roots for the university. Consequently
they must be disposed of at an on-campus
sight.
In conjunction with the road the univer-sity
will provide parking by the library. The
access road will run between the library and
Kostka hall.
The town has required the sch(x>l to build
a swamp southeast of the road behind
Claver Hall as a outdoor laboratory. The
town of Fairfield has lost much wetlands in'
the past ten years. It is seeking to find out
how to recreate these marshes.
Barone also said that townhouse con-struction
will begin as soon as possible. The
new townhouse units are scheduled to open
next September. The new units will consist
of 28 six person townhouses and one four
person townhouse designed for the han-idicapped.
They will be located behind
McAuliffc Hall. The units will have three
bedrooms and one and half baths. The full
bath will have an additional shower stall.
Members of student legislature consider the bill proposed by FUSA.
[Photo by Andrea Whitehouse]
Coming
Next Week!
Special
Christmas
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INSIDE
THIS WEEK
News 1, 2
Editorials 4
Commentary 5
Features 6, 7
Spread 8, 9
Arts & Entertainment .11, 12
Sports 13, 14