Mirror - Vol. 14, No. 11 - November 30, 1989

              The
FairfieldMIRROR Volume 14, No. 11 Our Second Decade Thursday, November 30, 1989 The Image of Fairfield
Housing Policy Modified
Due To Student Protest
Frosh Floors Replace Frosh Halls
AnnMarie Puckhaber
News Editor
As a result of the student
protest and the request made by the
officers of FUSA, the University
has modified its original plan to
house all of the freshmen in three
residence halls. Freshmen will now
be grouped together by floor or
wing instead of in separate halls.
"It is obviously a compro-mise,
but I see it as a victory," said
Sean Leyden, FUSA Vice Presi-dent
of Student Life. The students
and the rally "did make the differ-ence,"
he said.
"It is not essential to our
plan to house them (the freshmen)
in three buildings," said William
Schimpf, Vice President of Stu-dent
Services. The purpose of the
"freshman year experience" pro-gram
is to make the transition from
high school to college easier for
the students and to provide faculty,
staff, and student support for their
concerns. Schimpf said freshmen
residence halls were originally
proposed to "minimize disruption."
Gonzaga, Kostka, and
Claver halls will remain untouched
by the modification. Since all fresh-men
will be required to dine in
Julie Hall, Kostka and Claver will
not house freshmen due to their
proximity, said Richard Rossi,
Director of Student Residences.
The administration has
decided not to use Gonzaga to
house the freshmen because it has
always been popular with the
upperclassmen. "There's never
been more than 16% underclass-men
in Gonzaga in the past two
years and it is always closed out in
the lottery," Rossi said.
Due to the upperclassmen's
interest in Loyola Hall, only the
north end of Loyola I will be used
for freshmen residences.
Freshmen floors or wings
will therefore be designated in
Campion, Jogues, and Regis halls
providing an equal mix of males
and females. All of the new rooms
created in Julie will also house
freshmen, but current single rooms
will be reserved for upperclass-men.
Leyden said this new plan
will maintain the mix of upper-and
underclassmen. "You can't
separate them. You have to let them
interact because that's where most
of the learning takes place," he
said.
Schimpf decribed the plan
as a "very good modification." He
said, "Yes, it (the protest) did work,
but there are more effective and
efficient ways ofcommunication."
Ritter Helps Street Kids Survive
Laura Ann Frauenhofer
Staff Writer
"We don't want him, you
keep him," is the response the Rev-erend
Bruce Ritter often hears when
he calls the parents of a street kid
who has come to Covenant House.
"When I tell the kid his
parents want him to stay with me,
that's when the kid knows he is an
orphan. The saddest day of the
year is not Christmas, it's Mother's
Day. My kids cry a lot on Mother's
Day," said Ritter.
Ritter founded Covenant
House which was licensed in 1972
to operate homes for abandoned
and runaway kids.
In 1977, he opened the first
Covenant House crisis center in
Times Square, New York. Since
then, other Houses have been
opened in Florida, Texas, New
Orleans, and Toronto.
Ritter spoke to students on
November 14 in Loyola Chapel
about his kids and the lives they
lead and the help he offers them.
Covenant House is open 24
hours a day and offers food, shel-ter,
protection, and even the chance
to go home if that's possible for the
kids who knock at its doors.
Ritter estimates that in the
U.S. there are at least 300,000
homeless kids who live and die in
the streets, They become victims
of drug dealers and pimps.
"Street kids come to Cove-nant
House, not runaways. Well,
maybe a few runaways, but mostly
street kids," said Ritter.
Tom Sawyer was a kid who
left home because he was inter-ested
in experiencing all sorts of
things. He could have returned
home to a family who wanted him.
Tom was a runaway.
Huck Finn's alcoholic fa-ther
beat him, and in order to stay
alive, Huck had to leave home.
Huck was a street kid, Ritter said.
Street kids come from fami-lies
destroyed by drugs, alcohol,
and sexual abuse. These kids are
nurtured by the street, and they
learn that the street is a "brutal
parent," he said.
Sometime within a 24 hour
period the typical street kid uses a
combination of drugs and alcohol
and engages in commercial sex.
A sixteen year old once told
Ritter, "I have two choices: I can
either go with a john/customer or I
can rip someone off and go to jail,
and I can't go to jail."
Ritter explained the street
kid's rationalization. When you
have nothing to sell but yourself,
you sell yourself.
Only half of the kids who
come to Covenant House survive.
"You can't live a long time on the
street, and three months Is consid-ered
a long time," said Ritter. Many
die of alcoholism at an early age.
These kids are also becoming vic-tims
of AIDS. Ritter has estab-lished
a floor in Covenant House
especially for kids with AIDS.
Ever since the bitter cold
night in February, 1969, when six
homeless kids knocked on Ritter's
apartment door on the lower east
side of New York to ask if they
could sleep on his floor, Ritter has
been working to give kids a chance
to survive.
"The most important thing I
have to say is that you have no idea
how good they are," he said. "They
are simply trying to survive. What
happens to them should not hap-pen."
Committee
Completes Details Of
Lottery
AnnMarie Puckhaber
News Editor
At its last meeting of the
semester Monday night, the Lot-tery
committee completed the de-tails
of the townhouse and off-campus
lottery process.
Within the next two
weeks, senior groups will be re- •
quired to fill out their applica-tions
for the lottery. The groups
will mark on the applications their
preference for townhouse or off-campus
living All applications
will be due on December 14 in
the Student Services office.
Seniors will be given full
privileges throughout the lottery
process and only seniors groups
will be involved in the first lot-tery.
A senior group consists of
at least five persons from the
class of '91 in a group of six, at
least four persons from the class
of '91 in a group of five, and at
least three persons from the class
of '91 in a group of four. Off-campus
applications of groups of
three or less must be made up of
members who are all of the class
of '91 to be considered senior
status.
All groups will receive two
lottery numbers: one for the
townhouses and one for off-cam-pus.
Those applications with a
townhouse preference will be
given the top numbers for the
townhouse lottery and the lower
numbers for the off-campus lot-tery.
Similarly, those applica-tions
with an off-campus prefer-ence
will be given the top num-bers
for the off-campus lottery
and the lower numbers for .the
townhouse lottery.
This method will give next
year's seniors who want to live in
the townhouses the better num-bers
for the townhouse lottery
and it will give those who want to
live off-campus the better num-bers
for the off-campus lottery.
Members of the Lottery Com-mittee
said that they feel this will
almost guarantee that seniors are
able to live where they want.
Lottery numbers will be
given to the groups randomly
and posted on December 20.
On January 24, a meeting
will be held for all townhouse
groups to select a unit and sign
their contracts. Off-campus
groups have until February 1 to
sign a lease.
Any off-campus group
that is unable to find a lease must
notify student residences before
this date if the students wish to
return to campus, said Richard
Rossi, Director of Student Resi-dences.
Senior groups that have
not been placed by the end of
January can use their townhouse
or off-campus lottery numbers to
fill vacant spots. However, all
seniors groups must be placed by
February 1.
There are 869 spaces
available in the townhouses and
off-campus combined: 469 in
the townhouses and 400 off
campus. On February 1, Junior
groups will be given one lottery
number and will be able to fill
any remaining spots in the tow-houses
or off-campus. Approxi-matley
200 members of the class
of '92 will be eligible for
townhouse or off-campus living,
according to Rossi.
The residence hall lottery
process has not yet been designed.
The Lottery Committe will de-sign
this lottery next semester,
taking into account the new fresh-men
floor concept. The resi-dence
hall lottery will be held in
the late spring.
There will be an informa-tional
meeting regarding the en-tire
lottery process on Monday,
December 4, at 7 p.m. in the Oak
Room. The Lottery Committee
will explain the process in greater
detail at this time and answer any
questions from the student body.
Financial Aid Up 13%
Fr. Bruce Ritter poses with senior Scott Arnold (left) and junior Shawn Brady. Photo: Thomas Beirne
Emily Okenquist
Staff Writer
Financial aid and scholar-ships
have increased about 13%
for the 1989-90 academic year in
comparison to last year, according
to Paul Marchelli, Director of Fi-nancial
Aid. However, the final
statistics will not be compiled until
the spring.
The increase in aid was due
to additional fund raising in the
Development Office, in-coming
gifts, and the increase in tuition.
"There is a strong commitment to
increasing financial aid in light of
federal and state financial aid regu-lations,"
Marchelli said.
According to statistics,
during 1988-89, Connecticut gave
Fairfield $1,303,900 for the Con-necticut
Institutional College Stu-dent
Grant Program, which is only
given to Connecticut residents.
"The amount was lowered this year,
but Fairfield University still in-creased
their aid," said Marchelli.
Approximately 65% of all
students are given some form of
financial aid. All of the Univer-sity's
aid is received from grants
and scholarships, loans, and stu-dentemployment
through the Work
Study Program. Students who are
not eligible for financial aid, but
have a need for extra earnings, are
enrolled in Work Study, in which
they are given a job on campus
worth $1,200-$ 1,300 per year. All
of the loans and scholarships are
based on merit or need.
This year, thirteen freshmen
received Presidential Scholarships.
These full tuition scholarships are
based solely on academic achieve-ment,
not financial need. All vale-dictorians
and students in the top
of their class for this honor on the
basis of SATs and grades. This is
the final year Fairfield will award
these, and although they will still
be referred to as Presidential Schol-arships
in future years, eighteen
students will receive a maximum
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