Mirror - Vol. 02, No. 20 - March 1, 1979

              Faculty Calls For
Alcohol Clamp-Down
by Tony Tarnell
During the general faculty meeting
of February 13, Dr. Leo F. O'Connor,
an Associate Professor of the
English/American Studies depart-ment
introduced a proposal calling
for a complete shutoff of alcoholic
consumption in all academic pro-ceedings
of Fairfield University.
The four part proposal as issued
by Dr. O'Connor read as follows:
1. The academic proceedings of
this University are to be conducted
without the use of alcohol. Included
in this list of proceedings are the
following: scheduled classes and lab-oratories,
class registration, finalex-aminations,
convocations, gradua-tion
exercises, and other appropria-tely
designated activities. Students
violating this rule should be subject
to immediate suspension.
2. Academic departments and
divisions are requested not to spon-sor
student social events with the
advertised central purpose of
alcohol consumption.
3. Those students suffering from
alcohol abuse should be directed in-to
treatment programs as a neces-sary
prerequisite for continued mem-bership
in this academic
community.
4. The faculty urges that the divi-sion
of Student Services take immed-iate
and vigorous action to curtail the
use of alcohol in non-academic
buildings and on campus grounds.
In a recent interview, Dr. O'Con-nor
noted that over 50 faculty
members of the University attended
the meeting. The first two issues of
the proposition were "passed over-whelmingly"
detailed O'Connor. The
third item was passed by the scant
margin of 22-15. Due to lack of time,
the final item could not be discussed
but will be handled at the next
meeting.
Robert J. Schumm
Photo by Alex Graziano
Schumm
Chosen
As Editor
by Gigi Byron
Robert J. Schumm, a- junior
economics major, has been chosen
Editor-in-Chief of The Mirror, it has
been announced by the editorial
board. Schumm, who has served as
co-editor of the News seciton this
past year, shall begin his term April
1, succeeding Michael "Doc"
Dougherty.
Schumm remarked about his elec-tion
"It's a great honor. The Mirror is
the 'best organization on campus.'"
Commenting on the job he is about
to undertake, Schumm explained, "I
have quite a lot to live up to, following
in the footsteps of Ned Barnett and
Doc Dougherty. A lot of people look
to The Mirror for information. That is
a big responsibility, but I feel I'll be
able to do more than just follow in
their footsteps."
Schumm has some new ideas for
the paper. One of these is expansion.
"I intend to keep the same publica-tion
frequency as this year, but I
Continued on Page 10
"I am distressed to see a school
which I care about, being turned into
a party school by a transcient minori-ty
of students." Dr. O'Connor con-tinued,
that the destruction and van-dalism
of this campus which is akin
to alcoholic consumption "will be
detrimental in the long run if it is not
altered." Asked to explain this state-ment
O'Connor stated that "the
alcohol linked violence and van-dalism
is setting a definate trend in
this University." He added that "ten
years down the line parents would
have to be complete idiots to send
their sons and daughters to a school
with a reputation like the one Fair-field
is writing for itself."
The proposal by Dr. O'Connor was
not passed until after rigorous
debate among the faculty. The
major opponents of the proposal
were John Barone, the University
Provost, and Professor Donald
Greenberg of the Politics Depart-ment.
Upon presenting the first motion,
Professor O'Connor observed that
each of the academic occasions
cited in the first motion had been
marred by alcohol consumption dur-ing
the last several years. Provost
Barone objected to the motion as
"simplistic." Professor O'Connor
responded to Provost Barone that
the administration had failed to re-spond
adequately to the deteriora-tion
of student life, and that students
lacked the means to remedy the
situation themselves. O'Connor
noted that tenured faculty had a
special responsibility in a matter
such as this.
"This problem in leadership has
been at the top of the University."
noted O'Connor. He continued that
"The administrators and the tenured
faculty don't want to make waves
because they feel that any student
repercussions will be viewed as
failure on the part of the ad-ministrators.
Dr. Leo O'Connor, whose proposals to limit
were voted on by the faculty.
Professor Leo Fay referred to a
study done by Professor Geneviere
Burch concerning concerning at-titudes
towards drinking among
members of the university communi-ty
during debate upon the proposal.
Professor Burch's study found a
"subculture" which condoned the
excessive use of alcohol as "boyish
indulgence." Professor Fay argued
that this motion put the faculty on
record as disapproving of such
behavior.
"Do we have to have a student get
killed here before the University
begins to recognize the problem it is
confronted with" noted O'Connor.
alcohol consumption
In commenting on the second item
of his proposal. Dr. O'Connor detail-ed
that "it is the worst type of
pandering when department-organ-ized
parties start mirroring one of
the least aesthetic aspects of
undergraduate life." O'Connor add-ed
that parties merely "pander for
popularity."
"There are so many positive at-tributes
involved in this University,"
noted O'Connor. He continued that
"every student has an investment in
this University. In many ways this in-vestment
will become part of our
future identification."
■ ■"It A^ Volume 2, No. 20, March 1, 1979 ^^
rAIRrlELD ^^F FAIRFIELD UNIVERSITY, FAIRFIELD, CONN. 06430 [MIRROR \^^^^ Incorporated 1977
Teacher Evaluations Discontinued
FUSA Blames Faculty, Administration
by John Hughes
The project undertaken by the Stu-dent
Association to obtain teacher
evaluations has been discontinued,
according to Kevin Lawlor of
F.U.S.A. Lawlor cited a lack of
cooperation on the part of some
faculty members as a main reason
for the cancellation.
"We had received approval from
the deans to distribute the evaluation
forms to the students through the
department heads," explained
Lawlor. "Three days before the
students were to receive the forms,
the- department heads notified
F.U.S.A. that they would not par-ticipate
in distributing them. We were
forced., to go to the individual
teachers with the forms, and some
never received them."
Another problem, Lawlor stated,
was that only 40 percent of the com-pleted
forms were returned to
F.U.S.A., and these generally proved
to be from the teachers who scored
well in the evaluation,
It was at this point that F.U.S.A.
decided not to continue the project,
which would have entailed process-ing
the data in the computer, and
printing the results in booklet-form,
at an additional cost of $1000 to
$1500. Explained Lawlor, "It may
seem like we're just flushing away
the $360 already spent on the forms,
but we're actually saving about
$1500 on a survey that would have
given us incomplete results."
Lawlor pointed out, "While the
project was, to some extent, a
failure, evaluation forms and com-puter
programs were developed with
the long-range in mind; they'll save
time in coming years." Lawlor con-tinued,
"there has been no teacher
evaluation at Fairfield in two years,
and the forms and computer pro-grams
used prior to that are lost. We
had to start from scratch."
Changes in the manner of hand-ling
teacher evaluations are being
looked into by F.U.S.A. One would in-volve
input from the three branches
of the University, not just the
students. Commented Lawlor,
"Teacher evaluations should not be
the responsibility of the Student
Association. When the Accreditation
Board visited Fairfield last year they
cited the lack of organized teacher
evaluations as. an administrative
weakness." According to Lawlor,
developing a program for evaluation
that the administration, the faculty,
and the students would agree on
would take a couple of years, but an
interim program will be studied for
next year.
State Legislature Proposes
Raise in Drinking Age
by Karen Erdos
The Connecticut State Legislature
is presently concerning itself with the
issue of raising the state's legal
drinking age. There have been ap-proximately
eleven bills introduced in
the legislature that concern this
issue and they contain various ap-proaches
to the issue. Some are in
favor of raising the drinking age to
19, others as high as 21, and still
others with raising the buying age in
package stores while retaining the
present drinking age in "controlled
atmospheres" such as bars, restau-rants,
and clubs, where the pro-prietor
has a legal obligation to
regulate the consumption of alco-holic
beverages.
The proposals in general show
deal of support from many members
of the State's Legislature and Gover-nor
Grasso has stated she will sign
into law any bill raising the drinking
age to either 19 or 20. The proposals
came as a reaction to the increase in
traffic fatalities involving persons
between the ages of 18 and 21 since
the drinking age was lowered, van-dalism
and fighting in schools, and
the availability of alcohol to young
teenagers. These bills will have to be
acted upon by the time the General
Assembly breaks in June.
In recent weeks, there have been
several public meetings in various
towns to discuss the raising of the
drinking age and the problem of alco-hol
abuse at all ages. The main con-cern
of most of the public is to get
the liquor away from high school stu-dents
and especially out of cars. One
meeting at Southington showed over-whelming
support of the measures to
raise the drinking age while one that
took place in Bridgeport last
Wednesday supported retaining the
present age. A lobby against raising
the drinking age (LARDA) has been
formed to urge citizens to write to
their legislators and to newpapers in
an effort to defeat the proposed
legislation. Its main arguments
against the proposed law are that it
would encourage minors to drive to
New York to buy liquor and possibly
cause more traffic related fatalities,
and that it would take the teen-aged
drinker out of the more regulated at-mosphere
of bars and put them into
a totally unsupervised atmosphere
because those who really want the li-quor
will find ways to get it. Other,
arguments include the failure to
meet the true problem—alcohol
abuse, which involves all age groups
and which must be solved through
education and not restriction. A last,
rather callous, argument is that it
would represent a reduction in profit
to the owners of bars and clubs and
reduce the tax revenue now provided
by the 18-21 year old drinkers.
Just how would the raising of the
legal drinking age effect student life
at Fairfield? No one can predict ex-actly
because of the variety of the
proposed bills, but as William
Schimpf, vice president of student
services stated, "of course, the
university would be obligated to com-ply
with state laws." In relation to
how the legislation would effect dor-mitory
life, Director of Student Resi-dences,
Phyllis Rogge commented
on the fact that it will cause greater
problems if the age is raised to 19
because it would have to alter floor
party and impromptu party pro-cedures.
It would also influence pri-vate
parties to a certain extent since
the person giving the private party
would be responsible for the minors
at his party.
On the other hand, if the age was
raised to 21 it would mean the total
elimination of floor parties and im-promptu
parties in the quad dormi-tories,
since the large majority of the
students living on the quad would be
under this age. Ms. Rogge cited the
Continued on Page 9
Burgers Up
20 Cents
by Claudia M. Napp
Due to ground beef costs rising
to two dollars a pound, the price of
a hamburger in the Stag-Her is
now 85 cents. This twenty-cent in-crease
has "not produced any no-ticeable
decrease in students pur-chasing
hamburgers," according
to Macke representative Mr.
William Sekelsky.
Macke does not foresee any
price increases in other areas ex-cept
in the meat category. These
prices may go down again subject
to market changes. The food serv-ice
will cut the price to students if
a change occurs, just as they
passed the increase on to the
students.
When asked what he felt the
cause of the great hike in meat
prices was due to, Mr. Sekelsky
stated: "I don't know if the price
went up because meat sellers are
holding back the supply to raise
prices or not. The farmers and
meat producers may just be trying
the same tactics that were used to
raise the price of sugar a few
years ago." If this-is true then the
Stag-Her has seen its last 65 cent
burger.
The rising cost of meat has not
reduced Macke's frequency in
serving meat entrees. Students
will notice though, that roast beef
will not be offered as much at din-ner
in the future.