Mirror - Vol. 14, No. 10 - November 16, 1989

              The
FairfieldMRRORV Volume 14, No. 10 Our Second Decade Thursday, November 16, 1989 The Image of Fairfield
Students Protest AnnMarie Puckhaber
News Editor
Last Wednesday, over 400
students gathered outside the
Campus Center and protested the
University's new housing policy
and the naming of the chapel by the
highest donor.
Students chanted: "If you
want us to pay, give us a say!,"
"Reach for the beach!," and "Hell
no, we won't go!" In addition,
several students wore T-shirts
which read: "F.U. Housing Policy
- Help the Homeless Protest."
The rally, conducted by
FUSA and the IRHG, was launched
by senior Frank Jefferson who told
his underclassmen that this was
their time to stand up for their
school. "This is your college expe-rience
and you won't get another,"
Jefferson said.
Jefferson attracted crowds
of students filing out of Canisuius
Hall and F.O.B. after third period
by shouting "Who's school is this?"
and waiting for the crowd's re-sponse
- "Our school."
"We're paying $16,000 a
year. If we want to live on the
beach, we're going to live on the
beach; if we want to live on the
campus, we're going to live on the
campus," Jefferson said.
Warren DiDonato, FUSA
President, read to the students the
prepared statement that was later
submitted to the administration as
the student body's formal position
on the issues of the housing policy
and the chapel name.
The statement voiced three
of the student body's grievances:
- "We ask that our free-dom
to choose our own living ar-rangements
as subject to previous
agreements be restored...The Uni-versity's
decision to back out of
this agreement, despite the eco-nomic
necessity, is a clear breach
of the social contract we entered
into with the administration upon
our entrance into this comminity."
- "We ask that our free-dom
to associate with a wide range
of other students be restored...The
University' s decision to implement
Freshmen dorms, despite the stated
education goals, is a clear impedi-ment
to our and future students'
social education."
- "We ask that a restora-tion
of a community conscience
within the administration take
place. We refer of course to the
incident of the chapel after the
highest donor...We ask that the
University rescind this decision."
"People are going to be
upset that Fairdale is not just a
country club anymore," DiDonato
said. He then started the students
chanting "We are Fairfield!"
Two skits, organized by
sophomore Denis Klein of the
IRHG, were acted out at the rally.
The first showed a student being
forced out of his room in Campion
as a result ofthe formation offresh-men
halls, and the other showed a
junior being chased off of Fairfield
beach. '
"Freshmen dorms will re-ally
hurt the campus," said John
Monroe,'89.
Sophomore Patrick Foote,
legislature representative, read
from the viewbook sent out to
prospective freshmen. He said the
book highlighted Fairfield's mixed
residence halls.
Mixed residence halls "are
a definite selling point of the Uni -
continued on page 3
Students rally against the housing policy and naming of the chapel outside of
Bellarmine Hall last Wednesday. Photo: Tanya Reis
Chapel Named Egan Chapel
Of St. Ignatius Loyola
Lynn Ann Casey
Editor in Chief
The new chapel will be called
the Egan Chapel of St. Ignatius
Loyola. The name honors John J.
and Marion P. Egan, parents of
donor William P. Egan, a 1967
graduate and a member of the Uni-versity
Board of Trustees. Egan
and his wife Jacalyn have contrib-uted
one million dollars toward the
construction of the chapel.
The chapel is part of the
construction associated with Fair-field
$35 million capital campaign.
The privilege of naming the chapel
was given to Egan when he de-cided
to donate the money.
Since construction on the
chapel began, it was determined
that the name would honor the
family and a saint, but final word-ing
was not decided until last Fri-day
in a conversation between
George Diffley, Vice President,
University Advancement and
Egan.
"This is the only gift of that
magnitude to have ever been given
to Fairfield University by an
alumni," said Diffley. Diffley
commented on the relatively young
age of Fairfield as a university and
said this is the reason it was the
first.
The name was to have been
announced at a later date at the
request of the donor but was re-leased
at this time to allay con-cerns
over whether the name would
have a religious dimension.
Rev. Paul E. Carrier, S.J.,
University chaplain, said, "The
entire Campus Ministry team is
excited about the Egans' gift which
enables the dream of a chapel to
become a reality at a time when the
Campus Ministry finds itself ex-panding
and developing new pro-grams."
"We are not happy with the
chapel carrying a lay person's name
and we are not happy with the
memorial and naming opportuni-ties
associated with the chapel,"
said Warren DiDonato, FUSA
President. He said the Student
Association does not agree with
the way in which fund raising for
the chapel was administered, but is
"happy that the name of Ignatius
Loyola was carried on from the
present chapel."
In response to the student
protest last week citing the name
of the chapel as an area of contro-versy,
Diffley said "the chapel
should be a source of unity on
campus and it would be unfortu-nate
if it became a source of dis-unity."
The final decision on St.
Ignatius Loyola was made for a
number of reasons including the
fact that next year will be the Igna-tian
Year, the 450th Anniversary
of the founding of the Society of
Jesus. It is also the 500th anniver-sary
of the birth of Ignatius Loyola.
Other names considered for the
chapel were St. Robert Bellermine
and St. Francis Xavier.
Construction on the chapel
will be completed by next fall,
Continued on Page 3
/
Signs protesing the new housing policy hang outside the windows
of Campion Hall. All students who presently reside in Campion
will have to move out after this year due to the conversion to
freshman halls. Photo: Rich Nunziante
Student Reps Meet
with Administrators
Following Rally
Lynn Ann Casey
Editor in Chief
Students and administrative
representatives held an unplanned
meeting immediately following the
student protest rally on Wednes-day,
November 8th.
Representatives met in Bel-larmine
Hall after a group of more
than 400 students marched there to
conclude their protest rally.
George Diffley, Vice Presi-dent,
University Advancement and
William Schimpf, Vice President,
Student Services represented the
administration. Fr. Aloysius
Kelley, University President, was
unable to attend the meeting.
Warren DiDonato, Sean
Leyden, Tom Pellegino, and Pat-rick
Foote from FUSA and Denis
Klein and Matt Gallagher from the
IRHG represented students.
Three topics predominated
at the meeting, the purpose ofwhich
was to clarify the main ideas be-hind
the protest rally: the naming
of the new chapel by the highest
donor, the conversion of some
residence halls to all-freshman
halls, and the new housing lottery
in general. The student represen-tatives
voiced the desire of the
undergraduates of Fairfield to have
more of a voice in the administra-tion
of Fairfield University.
Since the protest, the name
of the chapel has been released. It
will be called the Egan Chapel of
St. Ignatius Loyola in honor of
John J. and Marion P. Egan, the
parents of donor William P. Egan.
Pellegrino, Legislature Presi-dent,
explained that the rally was
conducted by representatives of
FUSA "in order to keep students
organized and professional."
"I think that FUSA is one of
the appropriate means," said
Schimpf, "but protest is not a way
formeaningful, rational discourse."
He stated that students should use
proper procedure to voice com-plaints.
He did recommend that
students attend meetings ofthe Uni-versity
Council, an advisory com-mittee
which discusses problems
and issues dealing with Fairfield.
Representatives from FUSA
presented Schimpfand Diffley with
a formal statement defining the
purpose of the rally; "We, the
undergraduate student body of
Fairfield University, in an effort to
rectify present grievances, to pre-vent
future inequities, and to re-store
our rights as students, do
hereby present to the University
Administration this declaration."
The unplanned meeting cen-tered
on the issue of the chapel.
Diffley presented and rephrased a
letter he wrote which appeared in
the November 9th edition of The
Mirror.
"The three issues have an
underlying premise," said Foote,
"the students are frustrated that
they are not being allowed to par-ticipate
in many decisions of the
administration."
"With respect to the chapel,
you are right," said Diffley. "I
don't think a communal decision
could be made on this (the name.)"
In regard to the housing pol-icy
ofthe Univeristy, Schimpfsaid,
"I have been actively working on
this for a year." "What we are
looking for is the greatest good for
the greatest number of people."
Schimpfconcluded the meet-ing
by saying "You have success-fully
delivered a message."
Denis Klein later said,
"Schimpf told me that the Univer-sity
will consider the possibility of
freshman wings instead of fresh-man
dorms."