Mirror - Vol. 12, No. 22 - March 24, 1988

              The
Fairfield
Volume 12, No. 22MRRORV Our Second Decade Thursday, March 24, 1988 The Image of Fairfield
Grad Comm Students Fight to
Keep Their School Open
Lynn Casey
Assistant News Editor
The Educational Planning
Committee, chaired by Dr. John
Theil, held a meeting on March 22
at 7pm in the School of Nursing
Auditorium. This forum,which
was closed to the press, has been
scheduled to "allow students of the
Graduate School of Communica-tion,
past and present, to express
their views on this matter directly
to committee members," accord-ing
to Theil.
Since the forum was closed to
the press, Katherine Pfarr, Chair-man
of the Committee To Save
The Graduate School of Commu-nication,
along with other support-ers
of the school, held a press
conference beforehand to make a
statement about their efforts.
Pfarr said in her statement that
"the committee aims to keep Grad
Comm in existence." She contin-ued,
reasoning that "our school is
absolutely unique to the area be-cause
it combines practical appli-cation
of skills with comprehen-sive
communication theory."
The threat to close the Gradu-ate
School of. Comunication
"came out of the clear blue sky,"
stated Pfarr, "with a vague expla-nation
of financial difficulty." Dr.
Robert Stepsis, Academic Vice
President, explained in a letter to
students and alumni that "The
University's decision is based
upon continuing loss of income
due to declining enrollments over
the past two years."
John Blankley, a graduate of
Grad Comm, feels the closing of
the school "is an insult," especially
since he had not been contacted
until after this decision was made.
Jean Cercillo, a Communications
student, says that the committee is
"channelling all of its energies into
saving the program." The com-mittee
agreed that it is very posi-tive
that "The University is listen-ing
tonight (March 22)."
According to Kathy Pfarr,
approximately three years ago, a
University task force and Gerald
Goldhaber, an independent con-sultant,
evaluated the School of
Communications. Pfarr claimed
the studies expressed that "there
was a definite market for a quality
graduate program in communica-tion."
Furthermore, Pfarr held that
the reports, "gave a five year pe-riod
before the graduate school
would become firmly estab-lished."
She feels that the univer-sity
has not upheld their obligation
to the results of both its own and
independent task forces.
Furthermore, on March 22,
FUSA passed a bill for the "Stu-dent
government to support the
Graduate School of Communica-tion."
Chris Ritchie, FUSA Presi-dent,
feels that a grave injustice
has been served to the Graduate
School of Communication stu-dents
by the University through
their failure to comply with the
University task force's plan. He
fully supports the students in their
efforts to keep the school open.
The University and the Edu-cational
Planning Committee
were not available at the press
conference for comment. The fi-nal
decision about the fate of the
Graduate School of Communica-tion
will be made by the Board of
Trustees in May of 1988.
Dipeolu Discusses African Food Crisis
AnnMarie Puckhaber
Staff Writer
As part of the Visiting Black
Scholars Lecture Series, Dr.
Olesugun Oladipupo Dipeolu lec-tured
on the food crisis in Africa
on Wednesday, March 16 in the
Nursing Auditorium. Dipeolu is a
biologist from Nigeria. He re-ceived
his Veterinary Degree in
Germany and his PhD in Scotland.
Dipeolu said that these is a
domestic food problem in Africa
because the "pace of increase in
African food production can not
match the pace of increase in popu-lation."
There is not an adequate
supply of food foiythe number of
people that need to be fed. Be-tween
1970 and 1980, for ex-ample,
the food production in-creased
by 1% while the popula-tion
increased by 3%.
There are many casues of the
food crisis and Dipeolu focused on
four of them. The first Dipeolu
described as the "colonial legacy."
Farmers and herders have tradi-tionally
produced food mainly for
their own family use. Farmers are
not capable of mass production
and, therefore, there is not enough
food for the non-agricultural
population.
Another reason for the crisis,
according to Dipeolu, is "natural
disaster and rapidly deteriorating
natural resources." The tropical
soils in Africa are very fragile and
a drought has caused environ-mental
degradation. Dipeolu said
that "no other peole are so depen-dant
on natural resources as Afri-cans.
A third cause is the many
parasitic diseases found in Africa.
Diseases that infect animals deny
Africans ofmeat production. Also,
human diseases cause able bodied
people to be unable to work, which
results in a decline in productivity.
The final cause discussed by
Dipeolu is a "shortage of trained
agricultural man-power." The
African society depends a lot on
women for food production byt the
women are not trained. In fact,
Africa is behind in all areas of
education.
According to Dipeolu, previ-ous
attempts to improve the situ-ation
have failed because of "mis-directed
efforts, inadequate com-mitment
by wealthy nations, and
inadequate commitment by the
African government."
Dipeoulu suggested as a solu-tion
to the problem the "evolution
of Africa's already existing farm-ing
system." Low-cost farming
technologies are needed to pro-mote
food security. Dipeolu said
that methods are needed to "stabi-lize
or increase production" and
must be designed specifically for
Africa's problems.
Dipeolu also suggested more
farmer participation in the devel-opment
of new methods. He
stressed that involvement must
come from foreign scientists, Afri-can
scientists, and African farm-ers.
The rest of the world should
be concerned with Africa's prob-lem.
Dipeolu said that foreign
support through adequate funding
is a necessity if Africa is ever
going to achieve its goals. How-
. ever, foreign aid to Africa has been
declining since 1984. For ex-ample,
the United States cut its aid
to Africa by 20% in 1986. Dipeolu
said that since the United States is
one of the richest countries in the
world, other countries follow its
example.
However, Dipeolu concluded
his lecture optimistically by say-ing
that it is possible for develop-ing
regions of the world, like Af-rica,
to accomplish their goals. But
he also stressed that the "survival
of the human species depends on
the harmony of interrelations."
Highlights
This Week
2 Speaker on Aids
3 DeVito'sFood
5 Spring Break in
Appalachia
6 An Eloquent
Mitch
9 Photography
Exhibit at C.F.S,
AIDS Task Force Formed
Lynn Casey
Assistant News Editor
The AIDS Educational Task
Force met for the first time on
Friday, March 18. The Task Force
was initiated in response to the
studenrneed for information on
AIDS at Fairfield University.
The Task Force came about
through the ideas of Mr. William
Schimpf, Vice President of Stu-dent
Services. Though there is a
lot of AIDS programming on
campus, there seems to be a need to
coordiante it.
Anne Babb, R.N. of the Stu-dent
Health Center was asked to
help organize the Task Force and,
as a result of the frist meeting, has
been named chairman. This will
be an extension of her present
duties since she is an integral part
of health education on Fairfield's
campus.
The Task Force is comprised
of representatives from all parts of
campus life. Members include .
Corey Dinnean of Faith, Peace and
Justice Programs, Beth Palmer of
Campus Ministry, Fr. Walter
Smith of the Psychology Depart-ment
and one of his students,
Denise Colaianni of the School of
Nursing, and Barry Vesiglio and
Suzy Steblein of Student Services.
Anne Babb feels that there is
"a lot of talent on this committee"
and she is very enthusiastic about
it. But, she states one of her goals
as trying to "get more students
involved in doing the educating."
One of the first programs to be
presented is the lecture by Randy
Schultz, an internationally known
writer, and author of the book And
the Band Played On. He is an
expert in the area of AIDS and
politics.
Also, there are six other
events scheduled for the month of
April. These will be publicized by
the Educational Task Force in the
form of a calendar which will be
distributed to every undergradu-ate.
This will initiate the work of
the Task Force which, says Anne
Babb, "wants to clear up the misin-formation
that is going around and
present the correct information
clearly." In general, the members
want to "deal with the medical
aspect as well as the psychological
aspect" of the AIDS issue.
In the next meeting, this ongo-ing
committee will decide on gen-eral
and specific goals of the AIDS
Educationla Task Force. They
will also ask others to join the
committee as well as try to get
more students directly involved .
This next planning session will be
held on April 22.
New Editor Appointed
Lynn Casey
Assistant News Editor
Joseph C. DeVito was ap-pointed
the new Editor-in-Chief of
The Mirror on Tuesday, March 21
by the Editorial Board and Staff. A
former Features Editor, Devito
will take over the responsibilities
of the present Editor-in-Chief,
Melissa Campanelli, on Sunday,
March 27.
Presently a philosophy major,
Devito is contemplating joining
the ranks of English writing ma-jors.
He is from New Milford,
Connecticut. Devito will be the
firstjunior to hold this editorial po-sition.
"Joe Devito will definately add
fresh, new blood to the Mirror. He
has many innovative ideas and a
great feel for the English lan-guage,"
said Melissa Campanelli.
"I'd like to wish him luck."
"I'm looking forward to mak-ing
some changes. I think we will
open some eyes and, hopefully,
some minds," stated Devito.
Devito is encouraging applica-tions
for all editorial positions.
They are due in the Mirror office
by April 1.