Mirror - Vol. 13, No. 16 - March 02, 1989

              The
FairfieldMRRORV Volume 13, No. 16 Our Second Decade Thursday, March 2, 1989 "Good to the Last Drop"
DiDonato Selects VP's
AnnMarie Puckhaber
News Editor
Recently elected FUSA
President, Warren DiDonato, has
made his vice presidential selec-tions
for the upcoming term. To
DiDonato, the choices "seemed
obvious." Mollie O'Brien has been
appointed VP of Government Af-fairs,
Noreen Cosgrove, VPof Stu-dent
Activities, and Sean Leyden,
VP of Student Life.
In making his decisions,
DiDonato said he was looking for
people "who I'd be able to work
with." He also sought people that
he feels will keepFUSA "friendly."
DiDonato added that it is neces-sary
for "the VP's to appeal to the
students."
The VP of Government
Affairs deals with the internal parts
of FUSA. DiDonato feels that
O'Brien is a "really good choice
format." O'Brien says that through
her past sub-cabinet position in
communications she "got to know
everything going on" in FUSA.
O'Brien will be respon-sible
for keeping things updated in
FUSA. She will be supervising the
new position of Director of Fi-nances,
which is taking the place
of an accountant and treasurer.
O'Brien says that she has always
been interested in finances and
wants to see this position become
organized. She hopes to inform
the students about "what's going
on and where theirmoney is going."
The VP of Government
Affairs will be working with Infor-mation
Systems in order to update
the computer system and produce
the FUSA newsletter. O'Brien is
familiar with the Macintosh sys-tem
and, as an English major, has
writing experience.
O'Brien will also over-see
the cabinet positions ofGraphic
Design, Advertising, and two new
positions, Director of Communi-cations
and the Ticket Brigade.
O'Brien sees the Director of
Communications as a "vital" posi-tion.
The Ticket Brigade will
coordinate ticket sales for all FUSA
events.
DiDonato said that VP of
Student Activities was the "tough-est
position" to make a decision
about because there were so many
qualified people. He said that
Cosgrove had "more programming
experience- than anyone else."
Cosgrove is presently the Vice
President of the Legislature and
has been involved in the planning
of many junior class events, as
well as, running '89 Nites.
« Cosgrove is described by
DiDonato as "very organized and
friendly, and able to follow up on
things." Cosgrove comments that
she is "so flattered" by the appoint-ment
and "feels privileged to have
this opportunity."
The VP of Student Ac-tivities
is in charge of all student
programming: Arts and Lectures,
Special Events, Travel and Rec-reation,
Student Entertainment
Committe, and Major Dances. She
is looking forward to working with
a new cabinet which she hopes will
be "diversified - coming from all
aspects of campus."
Last week, Cosgrove and
DiDonato attended the NACA
convention in Tennessee where,
according to Cosgrove, they
"picked up a lot of new ideas;"
DiDonato selected Ley-den
for VP of Student Life because
of his "experience with the stu-dents
and adminstration." Student
Life, according to Leyden, deals
with the "political aspect" of
FUSA. Leyden says he wants to
Continued on Page 2
Mollie O'Brien, Sean Leyden, Noreen Cosgrove Photo: Rich Nunziante
Innis Claims Media Promotes Racism
John Keating
Staff writer
Roy Innis, National Chair-man
ofCORE (Congress ofRacial
Equality), gave a press conference
and a lecture addressing the Ta-wana
Brawley case and related
racial issues on Wednesday, Feb-ruary
22.
At the pre-lecture press
conference covered by Cablevision
News 12, Innis answered ques-tions
from the press and presented
his positions on racism.
Innis' main point during his
discussion was that the media cre-ates
"racially polarizing situ-ations."
He claimed that incidents
such as the Tawana Brawley case
and the Howard Beach, New York
fight are situations not at all racist
in nature, but are made to be so by
the media.
Innis blamed the media for
what he calls the One Percent
Syndrome. This is when the media
exploits the less than one percent
of blacks who are criminals. Innis
called this the "lowest commen
denominator" of blacks.
In response to a question
about what blacks can do for them-selves,
Innis stated that it is impor-tant
to allow other voices to be
heard in the black community.
There is a need for the opposing
point of view in black America.
"The biggest conspiracy in Amer-ica
has to be the uniformity of the
media," said Innis.
According to Innis, media
censorship is not a censorship by
the government. Instead, it is the
media censoring the free speech of
others. As Innis stated, "America
is great because of its great diver-sity."
Innis doesn't blame the
problem on whites, but rather on
the black elite and the white elite
that create a "fantasy land" where
opposing points of view are cen-sored.
Television personalities
such as Oprah Winfrey and Phil
Donahue promote dramatic, often
sensationalized issues. Innis, who
favors Morton Downey, Jr., feels
he is a television talk-show host
who promotes what he calls "real-ity
TV."
Frank Jefferson, President
of UMOJA, introduced Innis to a
large turnout of students, faculty
and guests in the OakRoom imme-diately
following the press confer-ence.
k^^. / S^JB
^F ¥*': j£^p^' ^H
1IH Hfe v*li
■ •
w9f^H^^^^^^^^^^^^ ^
Roy Innis
Innis energetically labelled
the Tawana Brawley case a "fi-asco."
According to Innis, who
investigated the case with his own
private investigator and members
of his organization, the case was
not a racial incident. He claimed
that "the First Amendmenthas been
hijacked by the media," which
forces perceptions upon the pub-lic.
Innis stressed that individu-als
should always seek the oppos-ing
view when racist issues arise.
He encourages us all to "remem-ber
the gimmicks" the media uses.
In closing he stated that "the aver-age
black person wants what every
other decent American wants.. .and
is willing to work for it."
After the lecture, Jefferson
and the other members ofUMOJA
gave some of their thoughts on
Roy Innis and racism at Fairfield
University. Jefferson stated, "I see
Roy Innis as a black man with a lot
of power." He feels Innis needs to
realize the effect, both positive and
negative, he has on people when he
acts violently.
In reference to the lecture,
Jefferson felt it was "successful in
as much as it was informative."
However, the President ofUMOJA
was hoping for more direct an-swers
from Innis concerning is-sues
sounded out by the audience.
U. S. District
Judge Rules
SATs Biased
CPS- A federaljudge ruled
Feb. 3 that New York state could
not use Scholastic Aptitude Test
(SAT) scores as the sole criterion
for awarding scholarships to stu-dents.
Some students had argued
that using scores from the SAT,
which critics contend are biased in
favor of white males, to award
scholarships effectively eliminated
many women and minority men
from getting grants.
"It's really a very impor-tant,
precedent-setting case," said
Isabelle Katz Pinzler, Director of
the Women's Rights Project for
the American Civil Liberties Un-ion
(ACLU) and the students' lead
attorney.
"It's really not fair to any-body
to give a scholarship based
on a three-hour test given on a
Saturday afternoon rather than
(basing it) on four years of high
school."
U.S. District Judge John
Walker said it was apparently the
first case in which female students
sought to use federal civil rights
statutes to challenge a state's reli-ance
on standardized tests.
"The evidence is clear that
females score significantly below
males on the SAT while they per-form
equally or slightly better than
males in high school," Walker
wrote in his decision.
The judge said the state
Education Department and its
commissioner, Thomas Sobol, both
named in the suit, rely solely upon
the SAT in awarding Regents and
Empire scholarships. He said the
practice "deprives young women
of the opportunity to compete
equally for these prestegious schol-arships."
State officials had no im-mediate
comment on the ruling.
"I think it will have limited
application," said Stanford von-
Mayrhauser, general counsel for
the Educational Testing Serivce,
the creator of the SAT. "Critics of
the SAT will have false comfort" if
they think the test is doomed.
New York and Massachu-setts
are the only states that give
state scholarships based solely on
SAT performances.
The suit was filed by the
ACLU on behalf of the New York
chapter of the National Organiza-tion
for Women, the Girls Club of
America and 10 female students.
(Before yougo
awayfor spring
breaks dotVt
forget to buy
some Mirror St,
Vatrickis "Day
Messages!