Mirror - Vol. 14, No. 19 - March 29, 1990

              The
FairfieldMRRORV Volume 14, No. 19 Thursday, March 29, 1990 The Image of Fairfield
Students Protest In Washington
Christine Doody
Staff Writer
On Saturday March 24,
twenty-three Fairfield students
participated in the March on Wash-ington
commemorating the tenth
anniversary of the death of Arch-bishop
Oscar Romero and demos-trating
their desire to end U.S.
military aid to El Salvador.
According to Cornelia Din-nean
of the Faith, Peace, and Jus-tice
Office, Connecticut's Cen-troamerica
Network asked the
university to encourage participa-tion
in the march. Dinnean ex-plained
that Connecticut wanted to
focus all its energy on getting
people to go to the march in an
effort to honor Central America
Week, which is March 23-April 1.
For approximately the last
ten years the U.S. has sent a billion
dollars a day in aid to El Salvador
on the claim that it is preserving a
democratic government in El Sal-vador.
As Dinnean noted, the gov-ernment
in El Salvador may be
"procedural democracy, but not
economical democracy." There
are currently fourteen families who
control the Salvadorian govern-ment,
owning most of the land,
wealth and means of production.
Because of this situation,
the poor of El Salvador have been
calling for reform for years. They
organize demonstrations in an at-tempt
to receive the basic needs
that they are often denied, such as
education, health care, clean water
and even food. However, these
demonstrations are always sup-pressed
by the military and often
their leaders executed.
The awareness in the U.S.
of the devastating conditions in El
Salvador grew significantly as a
result of the assassination of Arch-bishop
Romero and the murders of
the four U.S. Church women, both
in 1980. With the killing of the six
Jesuits at the Jesuit University of
Central America in November,
1989, the response in America has
changed dramatically. As Din-nean
notes, "the momentum of the
peace and justice movement for El
Salvador in the U.S. has really
picked up."
Although the march, taking
advantage of the tenth anniversary
of Archbiship Romero, was
planned before the killing of the
six Jesuits, it could not have hap-pened
at a more critical moment,
with Congress debating whether
or not to end aid to El Salvador, the
elections in Nicaragua, and the U.S.
invasion of Panama.
In addition to the call for an
end of U.S. aid to El Salvador, the
march also called for other poli-cies
towards Central American
countries such as an end ofthe U.S.
sponsored Contra war in Nicara-gua,
a politically negotiated solu-tion
to the war in El Salvador, and
an end to military spending' in
Central America with a call for
funding for human needs.
Before the students from
Fairfield left for DC, they organ-ized
a rally for the march on Fri-day,
March 23 from 7-9 p.m. in the
Nursing Auditorium. At this rally,
Jack Bopp, a 1973 Fairfield gradu-ate
spoke of his recent experiences
in Central America. Bopp's talk
was followed by music from him-self
as well as other Fairfield stu-dents
such as Bob Sullivan and
Kurt Lucas.
The march itself began Sat-urday
morning with an Ecumeni-cal
service at St. Aloysius Church
followed by a march from the
Capitol to the White House, where
the rally took place. Several speak-ers,
such as Jennifer Casolo, Jesse
Jackson, and Rul Julia, the star
actor from the film Romero spoke
of U.S. policy in Central America.
People protested U.S. aid to El Salvador in front of the Capital Building in Washington D.C. Saturday.
Twenty-three Fairfield students participated. Photo: Mark Sarro
Fire Chief Recommends Renter's
Insurance For Beach Residents
Lynn Ann Casey
Editor Emeritus
Fairfield students who live
at the beach should purchase ren-ter's
insurance to protect their be-longings
and replace them in case
of a fire, according to David W.
Russell, Fire Chief of the Fairfield
Fire Department.
The subject of renters insur-ance
was brought up after the fire
that destroyed 95 percent of 1359
Fairfield Beach Road, the rented
residence of five senior girls at the
beginning of March.
Often, the landlord and owner
of the beach houses do have fire
insurance which protects the dwell-ing
itself from fire.
In the case of 1359 Fairfield
Beach Road, the dwelling will be
mostly rebuilt and covered by the
owner's fire insurance.
The possessions of students,
however, are not covered under
the landlord's fire insurance.
The only way to protect the
possessions of the students is by
the students purchasing their own
renter's insurance, Russell said.
Sometimes, the possessions
of students will be covered by their
parents homeowner insurance, but
this is not guaranteed, he added.
Russell encourages students
to look into their parent's home-owners
policies and to take out a
renter's insurance policy.
Russell estimates the cost of
renter's insurance to be $100.00
Seniors Recovering From
Aftermath OfFire
Lynn Ann Casey
Editor Emeritus
The senior girls who lost
their rented beach house and pos-sessions
during a fire in early
March at 1359 Fairfield Beach
Road, "Lowtide," will have many
of their possessions replaced by
their parents' homeowners insur-ance.
The girls are now residing
at 997 Fairfield Beach Road, the
old "Green River." They will
receive three months rent back
from their landlord from the house
that caught fire, but their security
deposits will not be refunded.
After the fire, which de-stroyed
the entire upstairs of the
house, students from other beach
houses and townhouses brought
over food and clothing for the girls.
In addition, the bookstore loaned
all the girls the books they will
need for the semester.
Fr. Aloysius Kelley, S.J.,
University President and William
Schimpf, Vice President of Stu-dent
Services personally visited
the girls and offered them free room
and board for the remainder of the
semester. However, the girls
chose, to stay at the beach near
many of their friends.
Some of the things in the
downstairs of the house were re-coverable,
but many were dam-aged
by water. Many of the girls
i wardrobes were completely lost as
well as personal possessions such
as pictures. Some jewelry was
recovered.
Julie Matthai, one of the
girls from the Lowtide, said that
her housemates, Missy Lotufo,
hadjust put a battery in the smoke
alarm the morning of the fire.
If it hadn't been for the
warning ofthe smoke alarm, said
Matthei, 100 percent ofthe house
would have been lost.
Also, she and Lotufo who
were home at the time of the fire
and could have suffered more
serious injuries if they had not
been warned by the smoke alarm.
The two were brought to Park
City Hospital for smoke inhala-tion.
and "well worth it."
"The main thrust of the Fair-field
Fire Department is to prevent
fire," said Russell.
He said that cooperation
between the University and the
fire department is good right now
in terms of keeping students edu-cated
about fire.
The fire hazards at the beach
houses are not that the houses are
older and in danger of faulty elec-trical
wiring, said the fire chief, but
that it is human error and accident
that cause most of the fires. He
recommends smoke detectors as
one measure.
"You should change your
batteries when you change your
clocks," said Russell.
Testing a smoke alarm by
pressing the button merely means
that the horn works. It does not
mean that the sensitivity to smoke
will set off the alarm, he said.
"The problem with fire serv-ice
is apathy," said Russell. He
feels that education would prevent
many of the fires today.
"Children should be taught
as early as 5th and 6th grade how to
prevent fires and how to protect
themselves from burns and smoke
inhalation as well as correct evacu-ation
procedures."
Russell also mentioned that
though, false fire alarms were
rampant in the past, these "mali-cious
fire alarms have been greatly
Vandals
Strike
Campus
Ministry
AnnMarie Puckhaber
News Editor
A group of students vandal-ized
the Campus Ministry corridor
in Loyola Hall on St. Patrick's
Day.
Students were seen going into
Loyola between 11:30 p.m. and 12
a.m., but none of the vandals have
been identified.
Three framed prints of Jesus
Christ were ripped off of the corri-dor
wall in front of the Campus
Ministry offices and stolen.
"It's a sad commentary on
some of the people here," said
Father Paul Carrier, University
Chaplain. He said it was the first
time in eight years that there has
been vandalism in the Chapel or
Campus Ministry Center.
"I have a feeling of sadness
and anger knowing it was people
from Fairfield who did it," he
added.
According to Jeanne Di-
Muzio, Judicial Officer, vandal-ism
on campus has risen signifi-cantly
this year.
Act;; of .'?.r.du'iir-r> "rf>"st?*^-
ments against your own commu-nity,"
she said. "What they (the
vandals) took and what they dam-aged
on St. Patrick's Day is a real
statement."
DiMuzio refers to the inci-dent
as the "St. Patrick's Day Mas-sacre"
and she said it may deter-mine
whether or not students are
going to be on campus on St. Pat-rick's
Day in the future.
"If we find that the students
can't handle being here on St.
Patrick's Day we'll work Spring
Break around it," she said.
Joseph M. Bouchard, Uni-versity
Physical Plant Shift Super-visor,
said that vandalism on cam-pus
ranges from "feast to famine."
He said that more incidents are
occurring this semester than last.
According to Bouchard,
other school the size of Fairfield
have less vandalism than what is
seen on this campus.
The physical department
spent $164,000 last year on dam-ages
ir '..dividual rooms and corri-dors
in the residence halls and in
the townhouses.
"Vandalism is a hinderance
to everyone in the community and
has no purpose whatsoever,"
Bouchard said.
According to DiMuzio sanc-tions
for vandalism range from
counseling to fines to probation to
community service to being
removed from campus depending
on the seriousness of the act.
"What we try to do is sensi-tize
students as to how their behav-ior
has affected the community,"
DiMuzio said.
Fr. Carrier has posted signs
on the empty spaces on the walls in
Loyola where the pictures ofChrist
once were explaining that they have
been vandalized.
By doing this, he said he
hopes to "appeal to the consciences
of people at Fairfield who really
don't belong here or who need
help."