Mirror - Vol. 14, No. 05 - October 12, 1989

              The
FairfieldMIERORV Volume 14, No.5 OurSecond Decade Thursday, October 12, 1989 The Image of Fairfield
Student Committee To Design Lottery
Members Say Committee Is Being UsedAs A Scapegoat
AnnMarie Puckhaber
News Editor
A student committee,
formed two weeks ago to devise
the new lottery system, claimed at
a recent meeting that it is being
used as a "scapegoat" by the ad-ministration.
The committee is com-prised
of nine students represent-ing
different segments of the Uni-versity:
FUSA-Warren DiDonato,
Sean Leyden, Tom Pellegrino,
Brian Hayes; IRHG - Denis Klein,
David Mclntosh, Matt Gallagher;
Beach - Janet Sue Clark; and
Townhouses - Alan Couture.
Patrick Rombalski, As-sistant
Director of Student Resi-dences,
also sits on the committee.
The purpose of the com-mittee
is to work out the details of
a positive lottery system which is
necessary due to the changes in the
housing policy made by the Uni-versity.
These changes, resulting
primarily from the purchase of the
Julie Hall complex, include fresh-men
dormitories, additional hous-ing
in Julie, and limiting the num-ber
of off-campus boarders.
"It is a good political
move to have students on this com-mittee,"
said DiDonato, FUSA
President. He said that the stu-dents
are being forced into the new
policy and by having students
outline the lottery it appears to be
an accepted student decision.
"I think we are involved
in a political game right now," he
said.
Members of the commit-tee
said that they do not have many
options, given the administration's
decision. "It seems like whatever
we do, they're (the administration)
going to shape it the way they
want," Gallagher said. "We are a
scapegoat," added Leyden, FUSA
Vice-President of Student Life.
William P. Schimpf,
Vice-President of Student Serv-ices,
said, "it is clear that the deci-sion
to go to a positive lottery was
an administrative decision."
Schimpf said that he has
more "respect for the students'
intelligence," then to think that
because students are participating
in the lottery, everyone is going to
hold them responsible for the deci-sion.
The reason for the stu-dent
committee, according to
Schimpf, is "to get as much student
input so the basic lottery system is
fair."
"If anyone thinks that I'll
be able to fool students to believe
this was a student decision, they
place a lot in the students' gullibil-ity,"
he said.
However, he added that
if students complain about the
system, he will tell them that it is a
student policy.
Rombalski told the com-mittee
that it could either make a
policy for the lottery even though
it does not like the whole idea or
not make the policy and the ad-ministration
will. "The lottery is
going to happen either way."
Rombalski said that he
thought whatever the committee
outlined would be accepted by the
administration.
Schimpfsaid it really does
$800 Raised
For Hugo Victims
Laura Ann Frauenhofer
Staff Writer
A donation of $790.64
will be sent to the victims of Hur-ricane
Hugo in Puerto Rico as the
result ofefforts made by Fairfield's
Minority Relations Department,
Campus Ministry, and SALSA.
Jorge Chiluisa, Graduate
Assistant in the Minority Relations
Department, coordinated the Uni-versity's
fundraising efforts with
Cesar Batalla, Press Secretary of
the Crisis Committee of Bridge-port,
which was formed to raise
money for the hurricane victims.
"The position of this of-fice
(Minority Relations) is to bring
Fairfield University closer with the
surrounding community," Chilu-isa
said.
On September 22, 1989
Chiluisa sent letters to the Univer-sity's
faculty, administration, and
staff asking for donations.
SALSA, the Spanish
American Latin Student Associa-tion,
asked for donations from
students in the Campus Center
lobby, while Campus Ministry
provided special collections at
several of the Masses.
"It is a tribute to Fairfield
that it assisted in a way that no
other University did. Just the
thought that the students came
forward and did what they did was
rewarding," Batalla said. He fur-ther
added, "we are proud and
thankful to Fairfield University."
The hurricane hit Puerto
Rico on Sunday, September 17,
and by Monday afternoon Puerto
Rico was already devastated.
Approximately 30,000 people are
homeless and the Puerto Rican
economy is at a stand still, Chiluisa
said. There is a lack of electricity,
and disease is widespread because
of an impure water supply.
Batalla explained that the
Crisis Committee was formed
Monday, September 18. To date,
the Committee has raised $64,000.
Jose Lugo, President of
WCUM, a twenty-four-hour Span-ish
speaking radio station helped
the Committee inform the people
of Bridgeport about the situation
in Puerto Rico, and announced that
donations could be brought to the
Spanish Amercian Development
Agency on the East side of Bridge-port.
Batalla says that local
churches held vigils and were
instrumental in collecting monies,
as well as many businesses.
Chiluisa says that he
"thanks the whole University for
supporting our Ruerto Rican broth-ers
and sisters, as well as the com-mittees
who worked with us." He.
also sends special thanks to Cam-pus
Ministry, the Faith, Peace and
Justice Coalition, and SALSA for
their cooperation.
not matter what the committee
comes up with as long as the resi-dence
halls are filled and the fresh-men
are in a separate area. Ap-proximately
$900,000 would be
lost by the University if the beds
are not filled, he said.
"I still think they're (the
administration) is pushing this too
quick," DiDonato said. Members
of the committee said they do not
like the idea of freshmen dormito-ries
or forcing some juniors and
seniors to remain on campus.
Mixed dormitories are "a
definite selling point of the Uni-versity,"
DiDonato said. "There
is going to be total class segrega-tion
now," Klein added.
Rombalski explained that
the "freshman year experience"
has become a national interest and
is something many universities are
building up.
The committee also ques-tioned
the legality of forcing stu-dents
to remain on campus, espe-cially
since some students move
off for financial reasons. Living at
the beach is "much cheaper than
the townhouses," Leyden said.
Schimpfsaid that, accord-ing
to the University's attorneys,
everything that is being done is
"perfectly legal." He added, "if
you're admitted as a resident stu-dent,
that's what you are."
The committee has not
yet settled on a complete lottery
system. One thing it did decide is
that seniors will be given priority.
Options pertaining to
squatters rights are still being dis-continued
on page 2
Lottery To Bypass
University Council
AnnMarie Puckhaber
News Editor
In all likelihood, the
new lottery system will not have
to pass through the University
Council for approval once it is
completed.
William P. Schimpf,
Vice-President of Student Serv-ices,
said that "nothing has to go
through the University Council,''
and he does not expect this to
because it is a matter of students
residences.
The Council is a body
comprised of students, adminis-trators,
and faculty members that
meets four to six times a year to
discuss matters of University
policy.
"It is a channel of com-munication
in areas where more
than one segment of the commu-nity
is involved," Schimpf said.
The Council is com-prised
of four students: Donna
Triblets, '91, Eileen East, '92,
Pat Brainard, '90, and Pam
Hart,'91; four administrators:
Schimpf; Jim Fitzpatrick, Assis-tant
Dean of University Activi-ties;
Steven Jacob, Assistant Pro-vost;
and Mary Francis Malone,
Assistant Academic President;
and four faculty members: Con-solacion
Garcia-Devesa, Freder-ick
W. Mis, Katherine Schwab,
and Tom Reagan.
Student members of the
council are appointed by the
FUSA President and approved by
the legislature, faculty members
are elected by the general faculty
at their last meeting of the year,
and the administrators are ap-pointed
by the University Presi-dent.
The new housing policy
was mentioned at last year's No-vember
meeting of the Council
when the purchase of the Julie
Hall complex was reviewed. "Ev-eryone
wanted the Julie purchase
and inadvertently passed the
freshmen dorms with it," said
Warren DiDonato, FUSA Presi-dent.
However, Schimpf ex-plained
that the Council is "not a
decision making body." The
Council was given an overview
of the housing problem and the
implications of the changes. "It's
sole power is power of recom-mendation,"
he added.
The Council needs seven
people for a quorum. Of these
seven, there must be one person
from each segment.
Wright: Congressmen Not Saints
Christine Doody
Staff Writer
Jim Wright, former
democratic Speaker of the House,
lectured on Policy and Power on
Capitol Hill on Tuesday, October
3.
Wright introduced him-self
with a brief history of his
involvement in politics. He has
been a political candidate in 23
elections and has officiated in both
houses of Congress for 34 years.
During this time, he served under
eight presidents.
Under the Bush admini-stration,
Wright was forced to re-sign
because he was facing the
tough fight in the house Ethics
Committee over alleged violations
of House rules on outside income.
Wright described Con-gress,
which began in 1789 and
celebrates its 200th birthday this
year. He described today's Con-gress
as "no collection of saints or
wise men but... the cross section of
American people." Wright also
noted that Congress is the greatest
institution because it is "the clos-est
to the people and freedom."
He summarized his feel-ings
with a quote by Hal Boggs.
"The Congress ofthe United States
is a collection of ordinary men and
women dealing with extraordinary
problems."
Wright detailed the re-sponsibilities
and obligations of a
Congressman. A Congressman
receives an average of 219 letters
daily, of which 40% deal with a
personal problem an individual
encounters with the bureaucracy.
He believes that a Congressman
has "a responsibility to respond to
the individual" even if their diffi-culty
may not be of importance to
the federal government. Even
personal problems "should get
consideration from the government
and intervention if needed."
Wright made a few gen-eralizations
about Congressmen,
such as that most vote the way the
majority of their constituents sup-port.
Some of the pressures on
Congress include the need for
environmental protection, the
population explosion, military
competition, and most of all the
three major deficits that exist, ac-cording
to Wright. The Budget
deficit implies that the government
is operating on a negative balance
of billions of dollars.
Wright expressed that the
high deficit is mostly the result of
high defense spending. In addi-tion,
the U.S. has created a trade
deficit because it imports more than
it exports, thus causing an imbal-anced
import/export ratio. Wright
asserted that the U.S. has "to find
ways to compete so we can gener-ate
more revenues." The third
deficit is the Social deficit which
has developed as money from so-cial
programs such as Social Secu-rity
and Medicare has been taken.
The national debt was less
than 1 trillion dollars until the end
ofthe Carter administration. Since
then, the national debt has increased
to 2.8 trillion, where it stands to-continued
on page 2