Mirror - Vol. 15, No. 08 - November 01, 1990

              The
FairfieldMRRORV Volume 15, No. 8 Thursday, November 1, 1990 The Image Of Fairfield
New
Registration
System
Postponed
to Fall '91
Semester
Christina Hennessy
News Editor
Students looking forward to
the new registration system will
have to wait until next fall to get
excited again.
After further review the
deans of the different departments
and members of the faculty de-cided
that the new computer regis-tration
system will be tested on a
smaller basis, using the students
from the School of Nursing as the
tester group.
Students from the School of
Business and the College of Arts
and Sciences will continue to use
the opscan system that has been in
effect since 1982.
This year, however, the
University Registrar's office has
asked students to concentrate on
avoiding stray marks on the sheets
to allow the a much quicker pas-sage
of the sheets through, as the
staff must check each individual
sheet and correct errors before they
are sent through the computer.
The new system which util-izes
terminals set up in the various
buildings manned by the Registrar
staff was found to have too many
small details that had to be worked
out, according to Robert Russo,
University Registrar.
"We really didn't want to
rush into it. We postponed it for
one semester so as to use that time
to refine the details and make sure
the system would be a success for
both faculty and students," he
added.
Introducing the new system
for a full academic year and ensur-ing
that there would be enough
time for advisement were two rea-sons
the various constituencies
suggested to postpone the system.
In addition, software had to be
installed and new computer lines
had to be put up in some of the
buildings.
"We really don't want this
to backfire and this office wants to
make it as easy as possible by
bringing everybody together," said
Russo.
The School of Nursing has
119 students, that are broken down
rather evenly among each class.
This group, along with their advi-sors
will give the registrar feed-back
on the system through ques-tionnaires
filled at the end of their
one day of registering for classes.
"I'm hopeful that it will be
a better system for the students,
and I am certainly willing to try,"
said Dr. Nancy Fasano, dean of the
School of Nursing.
"One of the problems of the
old system was that as students
were bumped out of classes they
would work with the registrar and
not their advisors. It will be inter-esting
to see how it will work with
the involvement of the advisors on
this level," she added.
Peer Counselors "Take AIM"
Against Alcohol Abuse
Debra DeShong
Staff Writer
On November 4, 1988, a
freshman attending Fairfield was
struck and killed by a drunk driver.
Her name was Karen Whitaker and
her mother has been a professor in
the English department for eight
years. The man who hit Karen was
sentenced to five years, three of
which were suspended. He is now
home with his two daughters.
Not many students know of
Karen. They do not realize that
this situation can occur in their
safe college community. This
ignorance? is why Peer Counsel-ors
sponsor Alcohol Awareness
Week.
"We just want students to
attend the events andbecome aware
of the relationship alcohol plays in
their lives," said Barry Vesciglio,
moderator of Peer Counselors.
Alcohol Awareness Week
consisted of lectures given by rep-resentatives
of MADD (Mothers
Against Drunk Driving) and a
dance on Friday. A table was set
up in the Campus Center, as well,
with informational pamphlets, all
free to the students. Peer Counsel-ors
wanted both educational and
recreational programs over the
week.
"This year we tried to fo-cus
on alternative programs for
usual party nights, as well as infor-mative
programming," said
Christina Fox, co-leader of the
Alcohol Awareness Team.
"The school does not plan
programs on the weekends and we
■ i
A grim reminder of the effects of drinking and driving photo: Tom Beirne
hope that will change," said Laura
Haywood, Fox's partner.
Alcohol Awareness Week
at Fairfield was held one week
after the National Alcohol Aware-ness
Week because of Harvest
Weekend.
"We chose to have Take
A.I.M., Alcohol in Moderation, one
week later so we could extend the
programming through the week-end.
It was important to us this
year that we provide programs on
the weekend," said Vesciglio.
Equally as important as the
alternative programming were the
lectures. One was given by Rose-anne
Aylesworth and the other by
Pat Palombi. Palombi, like
Whitaker, lost a daughter to a drunk
driver.
"We are raised by our par-ents
to make good decisions, but
one bad decision, the decision to
drink and drive, can change many
lives," Palombi said.
There were 22,415 alcohol
related vehicular deaths last year
in America, according to Palombi.
This number is down 880 from
1988. The number of deaths have
decreased 11 percent in the past
seven years.
"Before you drink, think!"
Palombi said. "In the predawn
hours, one in four drivers are
drunk."
Palombi's lecture focused
on three messages: never ride
with a drunk driver, buckle up, and
there is no such thing as respon-sible
drinking. "Designated driv-ers
must not even have one drink,"
Palombi said.
Despite the success of Al-cohol
Awareness Week, members
of the Team said they are not sure
their efforts have made a differ-ence.
"Our programs are treated
as token by the campus commu-nity,
including the administration.
We aren't taken seriously," said
Haywood.
Vatican Sets Guidelines for Catholic Universities
Faculty's Freedom to Express Personal Opinions Maintained
AnnMarie Puckhaber
Editor-In-Chief
Teachers at Catholic uni-versities
throughout the world can
continue to speak their minds in-side
the classroom according to
new guidelines issued from the
Vatican.
Pope John Paul II, seem-ingly
about to put Catholic univer-sities
more firmly under Church
control, issued new guidelines on
September 25 that lets schools base
their classroom decisions on edu-cation,
not doctrine.
"The document reaffirmed
the two things which are so essen-tial
to universities - academic free-dom,
without which there could be
no university, and institutional
autonomy," said Fr. Aloysius P.
Kelley, S.J., University president.
The 49-page document
written in the form ofaconstitution
is the Vatican's first set of guide-lines
issued to Catholic campuses.
"Many people were appre-hensive
in the beginning because
educational systems differ," Fr.
Kelley said. "They were afraid the
Vatican would make a model that
wouldn't fit in at many places."
However, Fr. Kelley said
the Vatican was very responsive to
the feelings and comments of out-side
sources, and the document
reflects that. "The final document
is very different from the first," he
said. "They clearly listened and
reacted."
"The faculty has an obliga-tion
to teach the common accepted
teaching oftoday," Fr. Kelley said.
"They can express their personal
views as long as they distinguish
between what is commonly thought
and their personal thoughts."
The Vatican document also
stipulated that the majority of the
faculty be Roman Catholic. Fr.
Kelley said this is "very condi-tioned
by circumstances."
"People are not asked what
religious affiliation they are when
they are hired, but are asked if they
are comfortable with the Univer-sity's
affiliation," Fr. Kelley said.
"They are asked to respect the tra-dition."
"This was a very wise deci-sion
of the Vatican," said Dr. Paul
Lakeland, chairman of the Reli-gious
Studies Department, "Catho-lic
schools can still be a place of
academic freedom."
"The classroom is about free
inquiry and Religious Studies is no
different than other academic dis-cipline,"
Lakeland said. "It doesn't
try to sell Catholicism and
shouldn't. You only learn by being
free to express your opinion."
"It was a very bold decision
for the benefit of the people to-day,"
said junior Brian Hayes. "A
lot of people think the Church is
backwards and living in the past -
this shows it is moving ahead."
"You need to learn about
other views in life and have the
opportunity to hear what other
people are thinking," said junior
Pam Ryan. "The whole world is
not Catholic."
(continued on p. 4)
Student Beach House
Destroyed in Fire
James Donnelly
Contributing Writer
A fire ripped through the top floor of a female student beach
house known as "The Irish Barn" on Tuesday totally destroying two
of the four bedrooms and a bathroom.
Firefighters arrived at 1030 Reef Road around 12 p.m., ap-proximately
15 minutes after the blaze began.
The cause of the fire has not yet been established, but the resi-dents
did mention that they had a new furnace put in. Fire Chief
Gardner said that since the fire seemed to start in one of the bedrooms,
the possibility of the furnace being the cause seemed unlikely.
Gardner said that an electrical appliance, such as a curling rod,
an iron, or even an extension cord would be a more likely cause of the
incident, judging from the location of most of the flames.
None of the women who live in the house were injured, as most
of them were in class at the time. Desiree Khan was the only one
present in the house at the time of the fire, but she was able to escape
the house unharmed.
Khan said she was in the bathroom when she smelled smoke
coming from the hallway. When she opened the door, smoke was
coming from the adjacent bedroom door. There was fire under one of
the beds, but the flames were too large to put out, she said.
"The house was pretty smoky, and it wasn't until I was running
out of the house when I heard the smoke alarm go off," Khan said.
Gardner explained that the smoke alarm was located on a high
ceiling, and that it probably took some time for the smoke to reach the
(continued on p. 4)