Mirror - Vol. 10, No. 24 - February 12, 1987

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The
FairfieldMIRRORv Volume 10, No. 24 Our Tenth Year Thursday, February 12, 1987 The Image of Fairfield
Shireen Rustom and Marianne Walsh were named co-chairs for Senior Week.
(Photo by Andrea Whitehouse)
Rustom/Walsh—Senior Co-Chairs
By Melissa Campanelli
Managing Editor
Shireen Rustom and Marianne
Walsh have been chosen as co-chairs of
Senior Week 1987. Randy Howell.
Assistant Director of the Campus Center
and Director of Senior Week, along with
Graduate Assistants Sue Costa, Greg
Morrison, Lee McElroy, and Assistant
Director of Student Activities Fran
Gencarelli, decided on the two juniors
out of the nine who applied becuase,
according to Howell, "They were both
very motivated, and seemed to have the
ability to motivate others. They were
the best."
The co-chairs first responsibility is
to choose the sub-chairs who will
organize and head each event that will
take place this year. Annual favorites
include the Senior Semi-formal, the
Parents Dance, and Pub Night. The slide-show,
according to Shireen Rustom is
the annual "tear-jerker."
As the liason between Randy, Sue,
Greg, Lee, Fran and the sub-chairs and
committee workers, the co-chairs must
both delegate responsibility and act as a
sounding board for creative ideas.
Marianne Walsh is looking forward
to her responsibilities. "Since so many
of my friends are seniors, its the least I
could do for them," she said. "In this
week, all the seniors are together as a
class for the last time. It's our job that
they have the best time possible."
For Shireen, not only is Senior
Week going to be a great experience in
programming , but it is an important
creative outlet for her, as well. Also, it
is a vital unifying factor for the juniors,
as well as for the seniors. "Senior Week
is a time to bring the Class of 1987
together as a unified group. For one
whole week, everyone becomes one big
family," she claims. "Often, seniors
have the unique experience of meeting
some of their classmates they've never
met before, even after four years together
And juniors have a chance to get together
and meet some of their classmates, as
well."
Both agree that Senior Week gives
juniors the chance to give a cherished gift
to the seniors; a gift the Class of 1987
will remember forever.
The 28 sub-chairs have been chosen,
and a meeting will take place on
Tuesday, Feb. 17 at 7:30 in Bannow
Rm. 333. Here brainstorming will take
place, and each sub-chair will be assigned
their particular department.
Ritchie Appoints VP's
By John Courtmanche
Executive Editor
Chris Ritchie, who will be
inaugurated FUSA President in April,
has appointed his first three FUSA
Cabinet members for the school year
1987-88. Carmine Anzalone, Kerry
Pollicino, and Marianne Walsh will serve
as Ritchie's Vice Presidents.
Ritchie invited all present and past
Cabinet members to apply for the three
positions. Ritchie also invited Ken
Caisse and Carmine Anzalone to apply,
even though they never served on FUSA
Cabinet. "They have been involved with
FUSA." Ritchie says, and were worth
considering.
Anzalone, Pollicino, and Walsh
were chosen from nine applicants. "My
criteria centered around the applicant's
involvement with FUSA over the last
three years, and a personal interview,"
says Ritchie. Anzalone will serve as Vice
President of Student Life; Pollicino,
Student Activities; and Walsh,
Government Affairs.
In conjunction with these
selections, Ritchie outlines his revisions
of the Cabinet. Ritchie will eliminate 12
positions next year, hopefully to
promote tighter control over FUSA
activities.
"The Financial Board was
eliminated" says Ritchie, to insure better
budgetary spending. Other expendable
committees were Financial Management,
Communications. and Oakrooms.
Daytime Programming and Coffeehouses
were combined into one committee.
Campus Center Programming.
Also. Ritchie has decided to appoint
only one Cabinet member to a number of
committees. "This will lessen the
number of leaders," says Ritchie. Arts &
Lectures, Special Events, and Publicity
will be affected by this change.
Finally, Ritchie has divided the
Sports & Leisure committee into the
Athletic committee and the Travel &
Recreation committee. "The Athletic
committee will promote all teams on
campus," says Ritchie, insuring better
sports participation on the Varsity, club,
and intramural levels. The Athletic
committee was a Ritchie campaign
promise.
Students can fetch applications for
Cabinet positions in the FUSA Office.
Applications are due by February 20.
'Amerika' Criticism Grows Locally
By Joseph Draper
Editor-in-Chief
A new ABC mini-series has drawn
out extensive local and national
controversy. Amerika, 14 hours and
scheduled to begin this Sunday, depicts
what the United States may be like after
ten years of Soviet control. According to
the script, the Soviets detonate four
nuclear bombs over the United States in
1988. They effectively cut off all
communication between the President
and the Armed Forces. Rather than risk
further destruction the President
surrenders.
The story line goes on the premise
that United Nations Peacekeeping troops
are used to take over the country. They
are used to subdue the citizens and place
the dissidents in prison camps.
At a preview Monday night in the
Nursing Auditorium Dr. Robert
Dubroff, Professor in Graduate
Education at the university pointed out
the misrepresentations in the film.
"The Peace keeping troops are
principally from Viet Nam, Cuba and
Angola, (in the film.). In real life that is
not true." Dubruff said.
Dubruff is President of the United
Nations Association of Connecticut.
Sally Swing Shelley, a Westport
resident and a member of the United
Nations for 27 years, has organized and
vocalized exactly what how she feels. "It
villifies the UN people. 150 conflicts
have been settled by the the UN." she
said.
Continued on page 6
Students Present Case to State for More Aid
By Jeanine Pollitt
On February 6, three Fairfield
students, Christopher McNulty, Carmine
Anzalone and John Chiaia attended
hearings of the Connecticut legislature in
Hartford. Chris McNulty tesjified before
the Joint Committee on Education about
student financial aid. He lobbied for two
bills: the Connecticut Independent
College Student Grant Program (CICSG)
and the Public Campus Based Grant and
Work Study Program. The CICSG
program would increase state financial
assistance for students who attend private
college. The other bill would help those
who attend public colleges. The
Governor's Task Force on Financial Aid
has recommended that state financial aid
be increased by $13 million over the.next
two years. The governor has proposed an
increase of $12 million over the next
four years. The disadvantage of his plan
is that these increases would not be
guaranteed in future budgets.
Chris McNulty is the Director of
Academics in the Fairfield University
Student Association. He spoke on behalf
of Connecticut residents who attend
Fairfield University in order to gain
support for increased financial aid. He
mentioned that last year, Fairfield
received $590,000 under the CICSG
program, which was administered to 350
students on the basis of financial need
and achievement. The average award was
$1700. If the governor's proposal is
carried out. Fairfield would get
approximately $9(X),()00 and if the task
force's bill is passed. Fairfield's aid could
increase to $1.5-$2 million.
Chris stated that if both proposed
bills are passed, it would give
Connecticut residents a choice between
independent and public colleges, and
would help all schools. He said that the
problem now is that "universities are
forced to commit an increasing portion of
institutional financial resources to
financial aid. This manifests itself as a
decline in overall educational quality, as
faculty salaries are one of the major
expenses that suffer." Chris also finds it
upsetting that although Connecticut has
the highest per capita income in the
United States, it ranks forty-first in
appropriations for education per capita,
thus ignoring much of the documented
need of its residents.
Without increased financial aid,
many Connecticut residents will find it
impossible to attend Fairfield University
or other private colleges. This may place
an increased burden on the public schools
and may lead to increased class sizes.
Also, private universities will suffer even
more than they do now from a lack of
diversity of students and they will find it
difficult to attract and maintain high
quality students.
The need for these student aid
programs is greater than ever, since
federal aid programs have been cut. These
programs have declined by 12% from
1980 to 1985, as tuition costs continued
to accelerate. These state bills have been
recommended by the Education
Committee and will go before the
Appropriations Committee this week. If
they are recommended, they could be
passed within the next few weeks, to be
placed in the state budget for the next
fiscal year. These increases would affect
Fairfield students in September.
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