Mirror - Vol. 12, No. 21 - March 17, 1988

              The
Fairfield
Volume 12, No. 21MRRORV Our Second Decade Thursday, March 17, 1988 The Image of Fairfield
Lady Stags take MAAC
Proposal Made to
Close Graduate
School of
Communication
Lynn Casey and Chris Tyler
Assistant News Editor and
StaffWriter
Dr. Robert Stepsis, the Aca-demic
Vice-President of Fairfield
University, has made a proposal to
close the Graduate School of
Communication.
Acording to Murray Farber,
Director of Public Relations, this
proposal would, "suspend the
Graduate School of Communica-tion
within two years because it is
losing money. It would then chan-nel
these resources into improving
the undergraduate program in
Communication Arts."
A letter was sent to students
enrolled in the graduate program
on March 3, which indicated that
"as a result of declining enroll-ment,
the School of Communica-tions
would be closed." It con-firmed
that, "the faculty and deans
of the Graduate School...were in-formed
by Dr. Robert Stepsis of
his decision to end...the program."
The graduate school, which
was implemented in 1966, has
seen a decline in enrollment in the
past several years. For example, in
1980, approximately 240-250 stu-dents
were enrolled; presently
there are 115.
Students, both past and pres-ent,
have formed a group to
counter the Academic Vice-
President's proposal, and have met
several times to discuss strategy
and make plans for a meeting
scheduled between the Educa-tional
Planning Committee and
students. This meeting will be
held on March 22 at 7:00pm in the
Nursing Auditorium. Concerns
overthe quantity and quality of the
courses offered in the school have
been raised as the program will be
"phased out" over the next two
years. These and other problems
will be debated at the open forum.
The issue will first go before
the Educational Planning Com-mittee,
chaired by Dr. John Thiel,
Chairman of the Religious Studies
Department, then brought to the
Academic Council, and finally,
the Board of Trustees will make
the final decision in May.
Happy
St. Patricks
Day
See Article on page 12.
Inter-Racial Awareness Commitee Formed
AnnMarie Puckhaber
StaffWriter
One of the greatest con-cerns
among the students, faculty,
and administration of Fairfield
University is the lack of diversity
in their college community.
Through the initiative of Chris
Ritchie, FUSA President, and
Clint Lewis, UMOJA, the Inter-
Racial Awareness Council has
been formed to pool the efforts of
those concerned throughout all
areas of the University in order to
work at creating a multi-cultural
institution.
The Council will look "to
educate the campus community
about inter-racial issues and top-ics,
to advocate for cultural diver-sity
among students, faculty and
administrators, and to address the
concerns of minorities at Fairfield,
particularly in terms of retention
and support services."
In the last ten years, the per-centage
of minority students at
Fairfields has declined from 3.6%
(1977) to 2.3% (1987). Also, the
retention rate of minorities is only
53%, while for all other students, it
is 73%. This means that almost
half of the minorities who come to
Fairfield leave before they com-plete
their four years.
The Inter-Racial Aware-ness
Council has proposed a legis-lative
bill that requests the number
of minorities at Fairfield be in-creased
to make-up 10% of the
student body, that the number of
full-time minority faculty mem-bers
be increased to six, that an
Afro-American course be intro-duced
into the curriculum, and that
at least one multi-cultural event be
held each year.
The Council, which has
already held two meetings, is
comprised of members of the stu-dent
body, faculty, alumni, ad-ministration,
and Board of Trus-tees.
Each representative will
serve a two-year term and may be
reappointed or recommend a re-placement
by a majority approval
of the Council.
The officers of the Council
will consist of the Minority Rela-tions
Director, the Chairperson of
the Visiting Black Scholars Pro-gram,
one faculty member, and
two student Co-Chairs. The fac-ulty
and student leaders will be
elected by a majority vote in the
Council.
Larri Mazon, Minority Re-lations
Director, describes the
Council as a "group functioning as
an effect tool to get things going."
It will develop recommendations
for improvement or change
through its four committees: Hori-zons
Open House Weekend,
Multi-Cultural Awareness Week,
Minority Admissions, and Cam-pus
Life.
Horizons Open House
Weekend will be held every
Spring on the weekend of the
University's Open House. The
Council's committee will plan and
organize the activities for the
event. Minority students consider-ing
attending Fairfield will be
invited to spend the weekend in
order to experience the social as-pect
of the University.
The second committee of
the Council will plan Multi-Cul-tural
Awareness Week which will
be held each fall and will celebrate
different cultures. Three or four
different cultures will be high-lighted
for a week through speak-ers,
dancing, drama, food, and
anything else that is appropriate.
The Minority Admissions
committee will review all aspects
of the admissions process and see
what can be done to attract more
minorities to the University.
The Campus Life commit-tee
will review all aspects of cam-pus
life and will implement pro-grams
wherever improvements
are needed.
The long range plan of the
Council, according to Mazon, is to
"establish a multi-cultural insti-tute
or learning center." He says
that students, faculty, and admini-strations
alike will work together
to achieve this "self imposed
goal."
The formation of the Inter-
Racial Awareness Council dem-onstrates
that there is a commit-ment
at Fairfield to achieve cul-tural
diversity. Ritchie believes
that the "attitudes on campus are
changing for the better."
The Council feels that di-versity
will ultimately benefit all
members of the Universtiy. Hav-ing
a "true experience of multi-culturalism,"
says Mazon, would
make "Fairfield University the
best place to go for undergradu-ates."
Rosazza Discusses Pastoral Letter
Robert Johansen
StaffWriter
This past Tuesday, March 15,
Bishop Peter Rosazza, Auxiliary
Bishop of Hartford, came to speak
in the Nursing Auditorium. Spon-sored
by the Honors Program,
Bishop Rosazza came to speak
about the Bishops' Pastoral on the
Economy. After five years of
study, the document was finished
on November 13, 1986. It was
accepted by American bishops by
a vote of 225 to 9.
The theme of the discussion
focused on the manner in which an
American tends to handle his
money as oppoed to how a Catho-lic
is called to handle his. An
American tends to feel that the
money is his, and therefore he can
spend it as he pleases. As Catho-lics,
we are called to recognize the
moral issue involved. Also,
Catholic social thought says that
"our surplus wealth must be shared
with those whose basic needs are
not being met." Bishop Rosazza
stressed the words of Jesus when
he reminded us that "it is better to
give than to receive."
According to Bishop Ro-sazza,
the process of writing the
Pastoral on the Economy involved
many people. Opinions about the
Pastoral were heard from "people
who were of no faith, as well as
hearings from the ecumenical
community, six groups of Jewish
people, and the National Council
ofthe Churches ofChrist." During
these discussions with the differ-ent
groups, six principles were
often echoed. These principles
start "with the dignity of the hu-man
person," and are reflected
throughout the Pastoral. The Pas-toral
also reflects the solidarity of
the human race. Solidarity mustbe
both known and experienced. The
rememberance of our solidarity
and response to it is needed "be-cause
we have the book of Gene-sis,
which though not to be taken
literally, shows we are all sisters
and brothers." In Catholic social
thought, we are society first.
The goal of the Pastoral is to
guide Catholics and good-willed
people to eliminate poverty and
unemployment by recognizing our
selves as a community of humans,
rather than as individuals. How-ever,
Bishop Rosazza reminded us
that "when we go from the prin-ciples
to the application of those,
to the four areas of poverty, job
creation , agriculture, and to the
impact of the American economy
on the Third World," then our
judgements will be based less on
the ideal application of the prin-ciples.
Bishop Rosazza said that
the Pastoral is open to charitable
criticism and new ideas so long as
the goals are met.
Bishop Rosazza stated that
fairness is very important in this
country. However, we do not all
begin with the same economic
advantages. We must not believe
the poor are poor because they
want to be poor, or because they
deserve it. Therefore, according to
Bishop Rosazza, this "behooves
society to remove some of those
problems." We must erase poverty
and unemployment, and create
equality. Bishop Rosazza said that
while many do care, "there is a lot
of room for improvement."
Bishop Rosazza reminded us that
the artists were accurate when they
said that "we are the world."
Father Savage
Transferred
Janine Spinhato
StaffWriter
Rev. Thomas J. Savage, S. J.,
was chosen to be the 11th Presi-dent
of Rockhurst College in
Kansas City, Missouri. He was
notified of this decision on Febru-ary
22, and will begin his new
position in October.
In January of 1986, Fr. Sav-age
came to Fairfield University as
the Assistant Academic Vice
President. In addition to this posi-tion,
he taught a course which he
developed in the School of Arts
and Sciences called "Understand-ing
the Built Enviroment." Also,
he taught a senior course in Busi-ness
Policy in the School of Busi-ness.
Along with this, Fr. Savage
coordinated many long term proj-ects
at the university. These proj-ects
include his direction and coor-dination
of the program of Self
Study for Accredidation, the Fair-field
2000 Project which involves
20 members of the university who
study the issues that affect Fair-field
county in the next decade and
a half, coordinating Bellarmine
Lectures, getting grant proposals
for the funding of Academic Ac-tivities,
and several others.
Fr. Savage is originally from
Medford, Mass. and is a Jesuit of
the New England Province. Cur-rently
he is doing his tertianship, a
final part of the Jesuit formation in
Australia. Before coming to Fair-field,
Fr. Savage was Director of
the Cheswick Center in Boston.
Here, he acted as a consultant to
the governing boards of hospitals
and health agencies, universities,
religious organizations, and other
non-profit institutions.
In addition to all these accom-plishments,
Fr. Savage also makes
■many speeches and addresses,
holds professional and club mem-berships,
has published papers and
books, and is listed in Who's Who
in the East, Who's Who ofEmerg-ing
Leaders in America, Men of
Achievement, and The Interna-tional
Directory of Distinguished
Leadership.
All of these accomplishments
and outstanding leadership quali-ties
along with several interviews
allowed Fr. Savage to be chosen as
the new President of Rockhurst
College. Mr. Francis T. Hannafey,
S.J., the current Assistant Aca-demic
Vice President , feels Fr.
Savage possesses terrific organ-izational
skills and has a great deal
of energy and enthusiasm toward
his projects. Mr. Hannafey said
"We wish him luck at Rockhurst
and we will miss Fr. Savage at
Fairfield." Dr. Stepsis, Academic
Vice President feels Fr. Savage is
extremely qualified for his new
position. He responded, "He is a
very bright man and his experience
at Fairfield will be very beneficial
to him in his new endeavor."