Mirror - Vol. 13, No. 02 - September 23, 1988

              The
Fairfield
Volume 13, No. 2 MIRRORV Our Second Decade Friday, September 23, 1988 The Image of Fairfield
Russian Christianity Celebrated
Professors Discuss Millennium
Robert H. Johansen
Staff Writer
On Wednesday, September 14,
the Fairfield University History De-partament
presented a lecture en-titled
"Gorbachev's USSR." The
evening was hosted by two Fair-field
professors, Dr. Daniel Buczek
and Dr. Ed Dew. It was the first in
a series of presentations celebrat-ing
the thousandth anniversary of
the Russian Orthodox Chruch.
Professor Buczek was the first
speaker. Buczek described the
arrival of Christianity to the
Ukraine in 988 as the "single most
historical Russian event," placing
its importance above the influence
of Marx and Stalin. Buczek pic-tured
the early Russian Church as
having a "peculiar type of spiritu-ality."
The church, governed by
Greeek Bishops, was "essentially
a peasant church."
Buczek portrayed the Russian
Church on a political level inwhich
the church and state are related.
The church recognizes the state as
the ruler and is compatible with the
state as long as the state does not
prosecute it. Buczek described the
present Russian Church as attempt-ing
to rebel against the rule of the
state.
The second speaker ofthe night
was Professor Dew. Hedescribed
a Russia suffering negative eco-nomic
growth and falling eco-nomic
trade. Dew predicts that
"little will come from Perestroika
and Glasnost " because he be-lieves
Gorbachev's changes may
fail. Dew stated that Gorbachev's
plan to slacken government con-trol
of the economy is resisted by
the labor force, which fears the
lose ofjobs. Presently, as a result
of government control, there is
complete job security.
Professor Dew's oral presen-tation
was followed by a video
that he filmed this summer. The
film showed many cultural as-pects
ofRussia whichranged from
tourist attractions to food mar-kets.
The film also presented a
look at several Russian monu-ments.
In the discussion period that
followed, two important points
were talked about. The first was
about the religious situation in
Russia. Anyone in a position of
religious leadership is less likely
to receive a better job than some-
Dr. David Buczek
(Photo by Rich Nunziante)
one who is not a religious leader.
The second point debated who
should celebrate the millennial of
the Russian Chnrch. Russians who
live in the Ukraine believe it is their
celebration alone because Christi-anity
was first established in the
Ukraine. Others outside the Ukraine
believe the millennial of the Rus-sian
Church should be celebrated
by all of Russia.
Several other presentations will
be made to celebrate the thousandth
year of the Russian church. These
include a musical presentation and
an exhibit in Nyselius Library of
Russian and Ukrainian secular and
religious items.
Minority Scholarships
Granted
Tom Rhatigan
Staff Writer
This year, thirteen minority
students from Connecticut are at-tending
Fairfield University as a
result of a new scholarship that
will cover the full amount of their
financial needs.
The Rev. John LaFarge, S.J.
Scholarship is available to minor-ity
students from Connecticut who
are accepted to Fairfield and qual-ify
for financial aid. Paul March-elli,
director of financial aid at
Fairfield, said that the scholarship
will use state and federal funds
along with University funding to
meet the full financial needs of
law-income minority students.
"It's something I've been
asking for, " said Larri Mazon,
Director ofMinority Relations and
Student Academic Support Serv-ices.
"It's the first step of a major,
effort to make Fairfield University
a more diverse college."
This scholarship is more
than financial aid, however. This is
a comprehensive program in which
the student is provided with as much
counseling and academic support
as needed. "It's a complete pro-gram
of student support services,"
Mazon added. " The" counselors
well monitor the students and their
progress, in order to help them
adjust to life at Fairfield."
Dr. Robert Stepsis, Aca-demic
Vice President, said the
scholarship, which could amount
to as much as $ 14,000 for an indi-vidual,
"demonstrates a very
strong commitment on the part of
Fairfield to attract and retain
minority students."
The Rev. John LaFarge S.J.
Scholarship represents a major
step in an effort, begun by Rev.
Aloysius P. Kelly, S.J., when he
was named President in 1979, to
increase student financial aid and
minority enrollment.
This year at Fairfield there
was a 48% increase in minority
applications. There are 131 mi-nority
students attending Fairfield
now, up from 100 students last
year," Mazon said.
The scholarship is named
after a Jesuit priest who worked
for racial justice. Father LaFarge
worked for missionaries in south-ern
Maryland in the early 20th
century. An interest in racial is-sues
prompted him to write sev-eral
books on the subject including
InterracialJustice: A Study ofthe
Catholic Doctrine of Race Rela-tions.
He helped found the New
York Catholic Interracial Coun-cil,
and received such honors as
the World Brotherhood Award of
New York City, the American
Liberties Medallion ofthe Ameri-can
Jewish Committee and the
Peace Award of the Catholic
Association for International
Peace as well. Father LaFarge
died in 1963 at the age of 83.
Bright Future for Nursing
Predicted
PR - Dr. Phyllis Porter thinks the
corner has finally been turned in re-cruiting
high school seniors for
nursing. As dean of Fairfield
University's School of Nursing, she
saw the number of incoming nurs-ing
students this year increase by
better than 50 percent.
While she admits to a vigorous
campaign to attract students to
Fairfield's baccalaureate program,
she thinks other factors are at work.
"There seems to be a significant
increase in the numbers of high
school students who express an in-terest
in nursing. I think all the pub-licity
about a shortage in nursing is
helping us."
Dean Porter's point is borne out
by reports which she requested
during the past two years, from the
College Entrance Examination
Board located in Princeton, NJ. "We
asked them to do a search of those
students taking the college admis-sion
exams from a set geographical
region who held a certain rank within
their classes and had achieved a
certain level on the SATs. Using the
same parameters for both years, the
number of students who expressed
an interest in nursing increased from
2,300 to 3,300."
Sitting in her office on the Fair-field
University campus, it is evi-dent
that Dean Porter believes
strongly in the nursing profession.
Along with the bookshelves filled
with nursing textbooks and jour-nals,
there is a pin hanging from a
lamp with a heart shape proclaim-ing,
"I love nursing." On a wall is a
plaque commemorating the day in
1976 when Dean Porter helped break
ground for the new and modern
School of Nursing with its nursing
simulation laboratory, multi-me-dia
facilities and computer room.
She knows the nursing short-age
is a long range problem, but
says "the ongoing gap only sells
the profession more."
One result of the nursing short-age
has been an increase in sala-ries.
"Depending on the region of
the country, starting salaries range
from $24,000 to $30,000 and are
expected to continue to increase,"
according to Dean Porter.
In addition, efforts are being
made to make work situations more
attractive. For instance, hospitals
- seeking nursing support on week-ends
have offered to pay a 40-hour
salary for two 12-hour shifts in
certain specified areas, when a
nurse is willing to work three out
of four weekends a month. And
some hospitals reportedly are giv-ing
serious consideration to initia-tion
daycare programs as a way to
attract nurses who have young
children.
Dean Porter points out some
other advantages in the nursing
profession:
Job Security - the need for nurses
ensures that nursing graduates will
have an excellent selection of pro-fessional
opportunities.
Mobility - the national licens-ing
examination process makes it
possible for nurses to practice their
profession wherever they live in
the United States.
Flexibility - nurses are able to
arrange their work around personal
schedules, whether it involves a
shift in hours or even leaving a job
for a time.
New Townhouse
Director
Appointed
AnnMarie Puckhaber
Assistant News Editor
Patty Christiano is the new
Townhouse Director for Fairfield
University. She was appointed to
the position on July 1,1988. Chris-tiano
came to Fairfield after spend-ing
two years at Syracuse Univer-sity
as a complex director. *
Christiano is responsible for
supervising the entire townhouse
area, as well as, working with the
Head Residents and Resident
Advisors of the various dormito-ries.
One new policy being enforced
in the townhouses this semester by
Christiano is that at least one
member from every townhouse
must attend an Alcohol Awareness
Liability Seminar. The seminars
are being given by Christiano and
Barry Vesciglio, Substance Abuse
Counselor, throughout September.
Christiano recognizes the
townhouses as a "party section" of
campus. She hopes the seminars
will caution upperclassmen on
serving minors and promote re-sponsible
drinking. Christiano says
her goal is to "stress
independent responsible living."
Another goal Christiano has set
forherselfthissemesteristo"build
up the townhouses as a commu-nity."
She is working with Fair-field
University Townhouse Asso-ciation
(FUTA) to get program-ming
in the townhouses. Chris-tiano
would like to see an "atmos-phere
of community" in the
townhouses similar to that found
in the dormitories.
Christiano says that no major
repairs were necessary in the
townhouses this summer except
for a lot of painting. She encour-ages
townhouse members to report
any damages or problems as they
arise.
Variety - nurses may choose
specialty areas such as maternity,
psychiatry, surgery, and oncology,
and they may expand their bounda-ries
to administration, teaching and
management.
Because of the great variety in
nursing, Dean Porter explains, "the
career kind of unfolds with you. If
you grow weary of one segment of
nursing, you can turn the page and
go on in a different direction."
In addition to the many practi-cal
reasons for choosing nursing as
a career, Dean Porter still believes
the number one reason is to serve
people in need. "Nursing offers us
the opportunity to participate with
people during the most important
times oftheir lives, whether it' s the
birth ofa baby, a father undergoing
a coronary bypass, or a daughter
fighting breast cancer. It's a very
intimate profession and I still con-sider
it a God-given privilege to be
there."
Due to production difficulties,
this week's Mirror has been
published on a Friday. As of next
week, regular Thursday publica-tion
will be resumed.