Mirror - Vol. 15, No. 10 - November 15, 1990

              The
FairfieldMRRORV Volume 15, No. 10 Thursday, November 15, 1990 The Image Of Fairfield
Celebration Planned For
Twentieth Anniversary Of
Women At Fairfield
Christina Hennessy
News Editor
On September 8,1970,229
women arrived on the Fairfield
University campus, following a
decision made by the school the
year before to admit women after
existing for nearly 30 years as an
all male school.
The arrival of women to
campus each fall is now common-place,
but that first group started a
trend.
That trend being thatwomen
now outnumber men in the under-graduate,
the graduate and the
continuing education programs.
"It's funny how things turn
around," said Jim Fitzpatrick,
Assistant Dean, who was one year
out of Fairfield when the first
women set foot on University
grounds.
The statistics tell the story.
There are 45% men to the
55% females in the undergraduate
population, while the men make
up 30% and the women 70% in the
Continuing Education program.
Only 22% of the graduate
student body is male, while fe-males
make up the rest.
The percentages were cal-culated
by the office of admis-sions.
"We are looking forward to
the celebration, but we also hope to
raise the consciousness on campus
about the issues that women are
still facing both here and in soci-ety,"
said Dr. Lucy Katz, profes-sor
of Business Law.
"Female students have been
a very beneficial addition, be-cause
we are talking about half of
the human race, after all," said
Kelly Schofield, '91, a member of
the ad-hoc committee that is plan-ning
the celebration.
"The women or men com-ing
out of Fairfield don't know
what they are about to face," said
Ellen Sauer, '92, a member of the
planning committee.
"Feminism isn't necessar-ily
radical; it is rather a movement
that is there and necessary for
change to occur," she added.
Issues such as discrimina-tion
in the work force, specifically
in the equal wages for equal work
argument, must be something
graduates coming out of Fairfield
must be aware of, according to
Sauer.
Schofield said health issues,
such as domestic and sexual vio-lence
are still facing women today.
"There are hardly any laws
to protect women from domestic
assualt, and even now, the average
rape sentence is about two years,"
said Schofield.
Schofield said she hopes
these issues are recognized by the
students as the anniversary is cele-brated.
The lack ofwomens' courses
(see side story) in the curriculum
is a issue that directly concerns the
women on the campus, according
to Katz.
"This is a jumping point, at
which the issues are out in front of
the students and hopefully,
women's concerns will be recog-nized
and discussed," said Katz.
The event is being spon-sored
by the Womens' Resource
Center, as well as the University.
Representatives from
FUSA are helping the planners get
the nuts and bolts of the project
completed, such as booking rooms
and setting up the presentation on
the 29th.
"I think this event can serve
to be an education and an aware-ness
of the fact that it's okay to
celebrate women at Fairfield, "said
Sauer.
"Celebrating women may
be scary to men at times but it is
not bad," she added.
Invitations have been sent
to 180 female alumni living in the
area.
The festivites will begin on
Nov. 29 at 5 p.m. with Coyotes
Don't Dance, an all-female band
which will perform in the Campus
Center Lobby. A reception will
follow.
A panel discussion entitled
"Women At Fairfield: 1970-90"
will run from 6-7 p.m.
The panel will include fac-ulty,
alumni, adminstration and
students. Carmen Donnarumma
will moderate the event, which will
examine the issues facing women
when they first arrived and in the
1990s.
Members of the panel will
include Dr. Dorothea Braginsky,
Fitzpatrick, Jean DiMuzio, Schof-ield
and Camille Melika Banks,
'92.
The evening will end with
a free showing of Steel Magnolias
in Gonzaga Auditorium at 7:30
p.m.
New Minor In
Women's Studies
In The Works
Debra De Shong
Staff Writer
As the twentieth anniversary of the admission of women
to the University nears, the Women's Issues Community (WIC)
has proposed the addition ofa Womens' Studies Minor to the cur-riculum
in an effort to raise awareness to the current needs of
women on this campus and in society.
"The idea is not to exclude the men, the idea is to include
the other half of the human race," said senior Christine Murphy,
a WIC member.
"Right now the main stumbling block is whether or not
this type of minor is compatible with a Jesuit tradition," said Dr.
Betsy Bowen, a member of the community.
"We have the support of other Jesuit Universities. Geor-getown,
Loyola Marymount and Marquette all have Women
Studies Minors. Holy Cross and Gonzaga are in the process of
proposing one," Bowen added.
The minor isn't intended to advocate a certain political
stance, but will allow students to think about a pertinent issue
facing society.
An introductory course and seveal seminars will be re-quired
for the minor program.
"We are hope to give an arena for discussions on the issues
that are facing the women of this campus," said Kelly Schofield,
'91, a WIC member.
According to Schofield, there are some courses which
currently exist in the program that can be used for the proposed
minor.
The attempt of the minor will be to create a program in
which all issues facing women will be examined by many
different disciplines.
"Right now this is a major undertaking and in order to pull
this off, we need to get support from the University and the stu-dents,"
she added.
The proposal is in the assembling stage and will be pre-sented
to the Curriculum Committee when completed.
"I just hope the administration will recognize, whether
they agree or not, that this program will benefit the University,
especially since they claim they are striving for diversity," said
member Laura Sharkey, a senior..
University Honors The Six Slain A Year Ago
Debra De Shong
Staff Writer
This week marks the one
year anniversary of the murder of
six Jesuits, their cook and her
daughter in El Salvador. In order
to honor the martyrs and raise
awareness, Campus Ministry, the
Faith, Peace and Justice Program
and the Latin American-Caribbean
Studies Program has sponsored a
week ofevents, including the pres-entations
of videos and movies,
lectures and a candlelight vigil.
"The more programs we
have, more people can plug into
these events and be affected by
what we're doing," said Father Paul
Carrier, S.J., director of Campus
Ministry.
A scene from Romero, a movie which depicts the situation in El Salvador and the work of the Jesuits
there.
"Even if it is a small type
response, it's better than nothing
and someone will benefit," he
said.
The events have already
included a commemorative video
on Monday and a showing of the
feature film, Romero, starring
Raul Julia on Tuesday.
"El Salvador - Another
Vietnam", a documentary will be
shown tonight in the Nursing
Auditorium at 7:30p.m.., followed
by a teach-in "El Salvador Today".
Fairfield University profes-sors
will participate with guest
speaker Ann Lutterman, a U.S.
mission worker in El Salvador for
the 8:30 p.m. event.
A candlelight vigil will be
held at 9:30 p.m. tonight after a
procession to the Campus Center
Patio.
The week wraps up with a
memorial mass tomorrow in the
Oak Room.
"We just want people to
come away with a deeper under-standing
of the effects of our for-eign
policy," said Dr. Marie Pan-ico,
director of the Latin Ameri-can-
Caribbean Studies Program.
"Up until recently, our
government directly supported the
government that was in power at
the time of the murders," she said
"We have an obligation to
raise awareness to the fact that our
government probably knows who
committed the murders," she
added.
Several students partici-pated
in protests last year, by
marching to Washington.
Otherstudents wrote letters
to their congressman in protest of
financial support to the govern-ment
in El Salvador, according to
Panico.
"Thanks to the support some
aid was cut, but Bush is still not
rectifying the mistakes made by
Reagan," said Panico.
"We want to sensitize
people to this issue but it won't do
any good if they don't do any-thing,"
said Carrier.
By raising awareness, the
sponsors hope to put more pres-sure
on our government to stop
financial aid to El Salvador.
"America's involvement in
the Persian Gulf is no different
than what has been happening in
El Salvador. It's only the numbers
that make it more visible," said
Panico.