Mirror - Vol. 12, No. 24 - April 07, 1988

              The
Fairfield
Volume 12, No. 24MRRORV Our Second Decade Thursday, April 7, 1988 The Image of Fairfield
Siblings
to Visit
Janine Spinnato
Staff Writer
From April 22 to April 24, the
annual FUSA sponsored event,
Sibling Weekend, will take place.
This event falls under the jurisdic-tion
of the Vice President of Stu-dent
Life, Rusty Magner.
Magner organized the events,
along with his co-chairs Warren
DiDonato and Sean Leyden. The
preparation for this weekend
started back in the middle of Feb-ruary.
The events scheduled for Sib-ling
Weekend are a movie and ice
cream social on Friday night, a
picnic and games on Saturday af-ternoon,
Airbands on Saturday
night, and a mass on Sunday morn-ing
given by Fr. Bill. Also access
to the Rec Plex for the entire week-end
is available for the brothers
and sisters.
Rusty Magner commented,
"It's a great weekend because it
encompasses many committees on
campus." The participants in this
weekend are FUSA — the Film
Committee and Special Events,
and FUTA—Fairfield University
Townhouse Association. It is one
of the first big events under the
new FUSA administration.
This year, each student re-ceived
a pamphlet in their mailbox
regardirfg Sibling Weekend. Ac-cording
to this, the student has a
choice between two packages.
The student must register and pay
for their siblings by April 13.
Depending upon which package is
chosen, the cost to participate in
the events for one sibling and one
student is $28 and $13 for each
additional sibling, or $22 for one
sibling and one student and $ 10 for
each additional sibling.
The FUSA office has already
received confirmations for the
weekend. They are hoping to re-ceive
many more reservations
before the April 22nd weekend.
Teacher of
the Year
PR- Alpha Sigma Nu, the
University's chapter of the Jesuit
Honor Society, has named Dr.
Donald J. Ross, professor of biol-ogy,
the 1988 Teacher of the Year.
Dr. Ross, selected for his dedica-tion
to his profession, openness to
students, extensive knowledge,
and outstanding classroom lec-tures,
has served as the Health
Professions Advisor to students
since 1960.
In nominating him, students
praised Dr. Ross' encouragement
and willingness to help them. One
student described him as "the best
teacher of my life and a friend that
I can confide in," adding that he
has " an aura of confidence and
determination which spills over to
his students." Another student
commended Dr. Ross' inclusion of
the latest biological studies in his
lectures and praised his ability to
Continued on page 2.
Shilts Confronts Prejudice Against AIDS
Brian Holden
Contributing Writer
Randy Shilts, the 'reporter
who broke the AIDS story', spoke
in the Oak Room last Tuesday
night at 8:00 P.M. His talk cen-tered
on the prejudice attached to
AIDS. This prejudice, Shilts said,
"delayed research and the
country's reaction to the disease."
Shilts stated that when the
disease was first discovered, most
Americans saw it as a homosexual
disease that gays deserved. This
attitude delayed the country's re-action
to AIDS. Shilts estimated
that "at least two years of research
were lost in the beginning stages of
AIDS due to this prejudice."
This prejudice allowed the
leading U. S. health agencies in-cluding
the Center for Disease
Control and the American Cancer
Research Center to "bicker" about
the disease. According to Shilts,
these two agencies would not work
together "because of a debate
concerning which agency had iso-lated
the virus first." Shilts
pointed to the example of how the
leading French and American
health agencies would not ex-change
data due to an argument
over what to call the disease. Shilts
stated these arguments were al-lowed
to continue because "the
disease was killing the 'right'
people."
Shilts cited the media as an-other
institution that failed at the
beginnings of the AIDS crisis. He
condemned the press for "not rais-ing
questions concerning AIDS at
Presidential press conferences.
President Reagan did not speak of
AIDS until May 1987. Shilts
stated that the press "exaggerated
the effects ofAIDS on heterosexu-als"
to garner attention for the dis-ease.
The disease is not going to
sweep through the white middle
class, according to Shilts, but it has
reached "horrifying proportions"
in the black and Hispanic commu-nities.
He cited the high usage of
intravenous drugs in those com-munities.
Shilts faulted the Re-agan
Administration for not acting
sooner. He cited that "the preju-dice
that surrounds the hardest hit
groups deterred the Administra-tion
from acting faster."
Shilts concluded by praising
Admiral Wadkins and Surgeon
General Koop for their proposals
for preventing the spread ofAIDS.
Wadkins' plan calls for expound-ing
drug treatment programs, cut-ting
red tape, and training hospital
staff to better handle the disease.
He derided such conservatives as
William Buckley who have called
for mandatory testing. Shilts
called this "rhetoric that provides
no real solution."
Sidel Discusses Arms Race
Anne Marie Puckhaber
Staff Writer
The arms race is a pressing
and controversial issue in the
United States today. Faith, Peace,
and Justice and the Honors Pro-gram
co-sponsored a lecture with
Physicians for Social Responsibil-ity
(PSR) entitled "Destruction
Before Detonation" on Tuesday
March 29 in the Nursing Audito-rium.
Dr. Victor Sidel, M.D., Pro-fesser
of Social Medicine and one
of the founders of PSR, delivered
the speech.
PSR was formed in 1961, fif-teen
years after the bombing of
Hiroshima. The Hydrogen bomb,
introduced in the 1950's, has a
thousand times the explosive
power of the atomic bomb dropped
on Hiroshima, which was a 15
kilo-ton explosion. Sidel said PSR
was started because of the medical
consequences of having these
weapons. He said that there is
"nothing that the medical profes-sion
can do after (a Nuclear war)
therefore it is necessary to prevent
it from happening."
Sidel believes that "the arms
race itself is destructive. He said
that there is a "psychological issue
before detonation ." For example,
today, pictures of violence can be
found in bubble gum packages.
Children collect cards that have a
cartoon character holding a ma-chine
gun or throwing a grenade.
Sidel feels that this is a result of our
militaristic centered nation.
The majority of the lecture,
however, was devoted to showing
how the arms race has caused an
erosion in health care. According
to Sidel, in 1981 began "the most
rapid rise of military spending
during peacetime in US history."
Seventy one percent of federal
spending goes to the research and
development of the military. Due
to the rise in military spending,
federal funding for health pro-grams
has dropped.
Sidel gave some results of the
termination of federal support of
health programs: in New York
City alone, 18% of the women in
New York do not receive pre-natal
care, causing the infant mortality
rate to rise, and 63.7% of the chil-dren
between the ages of one and
four are not protected against
measles. Also, a sixteen week
training cycle in health care that
was funded by the federal govern-ment
in New York in the 1970's
ended in 1981.
Sidel demonstrated that the
type of military spending that the
United States undertakes undoubt-edly
effects society. The immuni-zation
of measles for the nation
over a seventeen year period
would cost less than $100 million,
while one B-l Bomber costs $200
to $300 million. Every second, a
child around the world dies from a
preventable disease, while every
second $30,000 is spent on arms.
The tremendous amount of money
spent on arms could be spent to
save lives.
According tov Sidel, it is pro-jected
that ^triere would be
140,000,000 deaths in the United
States if there ever was a nuclear
war. He said that there is presently
three tons ofTNT for every person
on the planet.
"We hide ourselves from things
around us every day" said Sidel,
but that "we can't hide" from the
arms race. He added that we must
"deal with underground nuclear
testing, make clear the explosive
force of the MX missile, work on
relationships with the Soviet Un-ion,
and work for the ratification of
cuts in long range missiles."
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8 Lacrosse Team Wins!
Role of
Women
Suzanne Smith
Staff Writer
On Tuesday, March 29, a lec-ture
entitled "Women, Power, and
Responsibility" was given by Mrs.
Patricia Russo in the Oak Room.
Russo is a member of the Commis-sion
of the Status of Women in the
state of Connecticut. She ex-plained
the Commission's goals
and how we can help improve the
quality of life for women.
Russo opened her speech with a
quote from Gloria Steinham's new
book Outrageous Acts, "When we
look at how far we've come, there
can be no turning back." Women
have been fighting for rights since
the early 1970's. Since then, it has
been a continuous struggle.
Women have been looked upon,
according to Russo, "as a minority
powerless group, whose needs are
unimportant." To her, it seems that
women's issues have not been
taken seriously.
"Today, with many women's
voices in Congress, more changes
are being made," said Russo. She
thinks that the three most impor-tant
arguments of women are the
Equal Rights Amendment, repro-ductive
freedom, and the need for
more shelters for battered women.
The state of Connecticut, ac-cording
to experts, is said to be one
of the highest per capita states in
the nation. Yet, it has three of the
poorest cities in the country: Br-idgeport,
Hartford, and New Ha-ven.
Connecticut also has the 5th
highest teenage pregnancy rate.
One of the jobs of the Commis-sions
is to "help the homeless,
AIDS victims, and pregnant ado-lescents
in Connecticut."
Twenty percent of the home-less
in this state are women with
children. The Commission helps
to bring these women up to the
poverty level. "From there up and
over to better living conditions,"
explained Russo. This, plus the
fast rate that AIDS is spreading
and affecting more heterosexuals,
led Russo to say that "There is a
desperate need for more local in-tervention
to inform the commu-nity.
The same for preventing the
number of increasing pregnancies.
She feels that "Society must be-come
aware."
Russo concluded that "The
need for today's generation of
women's liberators is increasing.
We must fight for what we believe
and continue this endless struggle
until action takes place."