Mirror - Vol. 12, No. 27 - April 28, 1988

              The
Fairfield
Volume 12, No. 27MRRORV Our Second Decade Thursday, April 28, 1988 The Image of Fairfield
Sheed: A Contemporary Author
Suzanne Smith
Staff Writer
On April 20, Wilfrid Sheed, the
third author in the Novelist's
America Series gave a lecture in
the Oak Room. Father Aloysius
Kelley, S.J. introduced Sheed and
described this British born Ameri-can
writer as " an author whose
witty and satirical treatment of the
foibles and tribulations of the
human condition has made him
one of the most respected and en-joyed
writers of today."
Sheed was born in London,
attended prep school in America
and then went back to England to
study at Oxford University. When
asked if his transcontinental edu-cation
affected his writing, Sheed
responded that his schooling gave
him "aclear moral perspective that
never seems to fail life's absurd-ity."
Sheed has worked many jobs
and held many positions. He has
been a film critic, and associate
editor of Jubilee magazine, a col-umnist
for the New York Times
Book Review, and a judge for the
Book of the Month Club.
He began by answering the
Wilfrid Sheed PR-Photo
most frequently asked question of
any writer "How do I get pub-lished?"
He agreed that the wrong
people are being published for
writing the wrong things. Finding
a good publisher, editor, and copy
editor can take as long as it does to
write the book.
One complaint of his is the dif-ficulty
of getting started each day.
"Writing, if it is any good, requires
a presiduous burst of energy and
you always have to worry whether
you are up to it at a particular
time."
Sheed also said that "The Na-tional
Reading Statistics are to-tally
misleading and the Best
Seller's List is a dirty rotten lie.
The best readers in America pass
silently through library doors and
bookstores."
When he started his latest book,
The Boys of Winter, "all he knew
was what he wanted the last line to
be." He wasn't sure how he was
going to have the. characters
evolve around the central theme,
but he did know how it was going
to end.
When questioned about his gift
of being a comic writer^ Sheed
replied "I don't think of myself as
a funny writer. It is a misunder-standing
when people laugh." He
does not sit down and set out to be
funny, and he does not have a par-ticular
audience in mind.
"I find myself writing fiction a
pleasure and non-fiction a drudg-ery.
My characters don't have
faces, but have a presence, like
characters in dreams. I have never
written about a character I didn't
like at least a little. I try not to base
characters on experience. The
reader sees who he wants to see."
When asked why he has never
written poetry, Sheed said he
"never had the divine spark."
Riel To Retire After 40 Years
Lynn Ann Casey
News Editor
Professor Arthur Riel, Jr. will
be retiring as of June 1, 1988 after
teaching English at Fairfield Uni-versity
for 40 years.
Professor Riel received his
undergraduate education at Holy
Cross from 1936-1940. Techni-cally,
his major was education but
his studies focused on philosophy
and the classical languages, in-cluding
Greek, Latin, and English
and he "loved it."
He went on to receive a masters
degree in English Literature at
Boston University because they
"valued his experience in the clas-sical
languages." Riel has always
believed in "learning for its own
sake."
His goal was to teach high
school English. Instead, Riel came
to Fairfield University at its incep-tion
and, along with three other lay
teachers and eight Jesuits, helped
begin the university in 1947. He
chose Fairfield in his wish to
"continue learning" and to "pass
on what I learned."
Professor Riel has taught
"English from the very begin-ning."
This includes freshman
English, literature courses, speech
courses since 1974, and journal-ism
courses.
When professor Riel teaches.
he wants to "teach students to
serve humanity." He doesn't teach
them "to make money, but to
communicate with one another."
"Man was made to talk to each
other," states Riel.
He enjoys pointing out to stu-
Dr. Riel, Professor of English Mirror Photo
dents "good writing that they have
done." In his freelance journalism
course, he teaches students to
write publishable material.
Among other publications, three
have been published in the New
York Times and he "treasures this."
This English professor believes
in service, as his father did. He is
very proud of the three and one
half years he spent in the Navy,
where he never faced combat, but
did face many sick people. He be-lieves
in the "freedom to serve his
country."
After he retires in June, Riel
plans to "read and write," to con-tinue
teaching part time at Fair-field,
and to continue teaching at
Holy Apostles College and Semi-nary
in Cromwell, Connecticut,
where he is presently an Adjunct
Professor of Pastoral Study.
At present, Riel lives with his
wife, a retired nurse, in Stratford,
Connecticut. Three of his children
have graduated from Fairfield
University: Mary, who graduated
in 1983, Alfred, who went on to
become a medical doctor, and Paul
who is now aclinical psychologist.
Hiqhliqkrs
2 Lawler Defends
IRA
4 Seniors Dig
Clams
9 Smokers Writes
Question
Henchar Wins
Truman Scholarship
Lynn Ann Casey
News Editor
The names of 105 college stu-dents
who will be awarded 1988
Truman Scholarships were an-nounced
on April 5 by the Board of
Trustees of the Harry S. Truman
Scholarship Foundation.
Christine Henchar, a Fairfield
University junior and a politics
major, is a recipient of one of the
scholarships.
The awards, which carry an
annual maximum stipend of
$7,000 per year for the last two
years of college and two years of
graduate study, are granted to
promising students who have
demonstrated a firm commitment
to a career in public service at the
federal, state, or local levels.
The scholarships will be re-newed
upon evidence of satisfac-tory
academic performance. In the
third or fourth year, the Truman
Scholar may, upon appropriate
qualification, enter a graduate
degree program.
Students are nominated by a
faculty member of their respective
college or university. Henchar
was nominated by Dr. John Orman
from Fairfield's Politics Depart-ment.
She fulfilled the criteria which
included: being a sophomore pur-
Continued on page 2.
Loyola Hall Break-In
A. Puckhaber 'Ass't News Editor
On Tuesday, April 12, four youths
were arrested for ripping screens off
the windows of Loyola Hall.
Three residents of Loyola Hall,
Sally Norelli, Sheila Egan, and
Meghan Tuohey, had seen the boys
hanging around outside of the build-ing.
Later, the students witnessed the
boys tearing off one of the screens and
they immediately called security.
Norelli said, "there is no reason why
we should pay for the dorm damage."
According to Todd Pelazzo, Asso-ciate
Director of Security, the com-plaint
came in at 11:22 PM and the
youths were apprehended shortly after
that. The four boys were not affiliated
with the University or Prep-school.
Two of the boys were from Redding
and the other two were from Easton.
The youths did not have any form
of identification and, therefore, secu-rity
arrested them for criminal mis-chief.
Security also issued each of
them a criminal trespass warning. The
Fairfield Police Department was
called and the four boys were taken to
the station.
The three witnesses were asked to
identify the boys for security and later
were called down to the Fairfield Po-lice
Department to give a statement.
Pelazzo said that the students were a
"very big help" and that it was "good
that they came forward."
The four boys were released to their
parents late Friday evening by the
Fairfield police. Pelazzo suspects that
if it was the youths' first offense they
will probably be put on probation,
required to do a certain amount of time
of community service work, and pay
for the damage to the University.
Librarian Of The Year
Tom Rhatigan 'Staff Writer
Barbara Bryan, Fairfield
University's Head Librarian, was
named the 1988 Librarian of the Year
by the Connecticut Library Associa-tion.
This award honors the librariari
who has demonstrated an outstanding
record of service to the library and the
library profession.
"I was thrilled, especially at the fact
that this award was given to me by my
colleagues, the people from my own
profession," said Bryan.
Bryan came to Fairfield in 1965
when she became the Assistant Direc-tor
for Nyselius Library. In 1974, she
became Director of the Library. She is
an active member of the Connecticut
Library Association, as well as a
member of other state wide associa-tions.
-
Qualifications for Librarian of the
Year include outstanding service in
their field or fields of expertise, in-volvement
in developing library coop-eration
in Connecticut, and profes-sional
library leadership. Bryan has
devoted 23 years of service to Fairfield
University, and in that time, she has
exhibited all of these qualities.
Knights Sponsor Picnic
Greg Curley 'Staff Writer
The Fairfield University chapter
of the Knights of Columbus sponsored
a Saturday afternoon picnic for 28
retarded children from local schools in
Fairfield and Bridgeport on April 23.
Events included a barbecue and ball on
the Rugby field, and indoor singing,
dancing, and games after rain chased
the party into the Kostka lounge.
Frank D'Orazio, sophomore Grand
Knight of the University's chapter,
was the director of Saturday's picnic.
He commented on the event, "Our
chapter needed to do some kind of
community service. I've worked with
the mentally retarded before and it has
always been a rewarding experience."
He contacted Nancy Habetz, a
staff member at Bellarmine Hall who
works closely with retarded children
in Fairfield, and she helped him ar-range
the event. D'Orazio called the
picnic "a great success." He said that
"Not only was it a fun day for the
children, but it afforded them an op-portunity
to meet and interact with
others with their special needs."
Thirty-five University students
helped staff the picnic. While most
were from the Knights of Columbus,
many others were from different cam-pus
organizations, including the Stu-dent
Nursing Association. Joe Sour-des,
director of the Bridgeport school
was pleased with this great involve-ment
and student support said "I was
really impressed with the Fairfield
students. They did a lot for the kids
and this means a lot to us."
Many of the students that helped
out called the event "a fun, learning
experience." John Moriarity, a sopho-more
member of the Knights said,
"The kids are great and they are really
easy to get along with." He added that
"People shouldn't be so hesitant to
work with them."
Saturday's picnic marked the re-vival
of the Knights of Columbus.
D'Orazio said the organization "was
dormant for many years." but now he
hopes that the group will "come back
to life." He hopes to run more events
such as the picnic in the future.