Mirror - Vol. 17, No. 11 - December 10, 1992

              The
FairfieldMIRROR Volume 17, No. 11 Thursday, December 10, 1992 Merry Christmas and Happy New Year
Faculty Butts Heads
With Administration
Stag-her Debate Still
Raises Concerns
Debra De Shong
News Editor
After what can only be
described as a tense and emo-tional
meeting, the University
Council has reluctantly agreed to
instruct the Community Life
Committee to review the current
policies and procedures concern-ing
sexual assault and harrasment
and to consider the possibility of
hiring of an outside consultant to
examine this issue at Fairfield.
This stems from a proposal put
forth by the faculty that urges the
President of the University, Fr.
Kelley, to hire an outside source
in the near future. The proposal,
which was passed by the Aca-demic
Council on Monday, was
presented to the University Coun-cil,
where it was stopped dead in
its tracks. What ensued was a
heated and often personal de-bate.
Dr. Lucy Katz, a mem-ber
ofthe economics department,
addressed the council saying that
this proposal comes out of a se-mester
in which several situations
of assault and rape have been
brought to the attention of the fac-ulty.
Katz feels that whatever is
being done to address sexual as-sault
on campus, is not adequate.
"Whatever is being done just isn't
doing it." She requested that an
outsider be hired to take a fresh
look at the situation.
Dr. Vincent Rosivach, an-other
representative of the faculty
who addressed the Committee said,
"If we get someone in here who is
an expert to look at our policies
and procedures, if there is smoke
and no fire, than everyone will
have confidence in these policies."
Assistant dean of univer-sity
activities, Jim Fitzpatrick and
Vice president of Student Services,
William Shimpf, vehemently op-posed
the obtainment of an out-side
source, claiming that the
sources already in place were well
equipped to handle the type of
inquiry described by the faculty.
Fitzpatrick called the proposal a
"drastic proposal" and chastised
the faculty for "omitting steps in
their research of the issue." Both
claimed that procedures already
installed are adequate to deal with
the situation.
Shimpf said that to bring
in an outside source would bring
with it "the notion that the com-munity
itself cannot deal with the
problem."
After almost two hours
of bickering about procedure, pa-tients
began to wear thin and Katz
said, "Wake up. We should not
be arguing about procedures.
Women are being assaulted and
writing procedures can't do it."
Student Fiona Edwards
said, "The only thing stopping us
from getting the outside source is
pride, and suck it up. We have to
deal with this." She feels the con-flict
concerning the proposal is a
question of what are the needs of
(continued on p.4) Forum Exposes Censorship
Debra De Shong Oc£**=»nanrf lrnCr\u; r\ar\ fammniicp-^ usan
News Editor
As the sign facing North
Benson Road says, Fairfield is
fulfilling "The Jesuit Ideal." But
if someone were to ask you what
it is, would you be able to an-swer?,
This ambiguous concept
may not be obvious to students,
but it is definitely shaping the
atmosphere in which they live and
work. It is this ideal that many cite
in deciding what students hear,
see and know on campus.
In a public forum called
"Censorship on Campus" spon-sored
by the Politics Honor Soci-ety
on Monday, it was revealed
that Peer Counselors have been
instructed that when conducting
seminars on AIDS awareness, they
cannot mention that condoms are
a form of prevention. Echoing the
sentiments of the Catholic Church,
they must say that abstinence is
the only form of prevention.
Last year, during AIDS
awareness week, pamphlets on
condoms were confiscated and
the counselors were told that vis-iting
lecturers from Bridgeport
could not mention condoms.
No source could be pin-pointed
with the responsibility of
handing down the decision and
director Barry Vesiglio was un-available
to comment.
Bookstore manager
Douglas Brouder says that no one
has ever expressly told him not to
(continued on p. 4)
Debra De Shong
News Editor
Although a weak com-promise
has been made, it is obvi-ous
that the question of the
renamiatng of the Stag Her Inn is
still generating debate among stu-dents
and faculty alike. At the
forum sponsored by the Politics
Honor Society on Monday, titled
"Censorship on Campus," the
open discussion among students
quickly turned into a debate over
the name of the Stag Her.
Senior Ann Black ques-tioned
the FUSA Senate's blan-ket
statements that "the students"
were in opposition to renaming
the snack bar. "Who decided that
the Senate would take that posi-tion.
Was there some kind of
vote?" she asked. Black's con-cern
was for the many students
who are not in agreement with the
Senate's vehement opposition to
changing the name. She ques-tioned
whether or not the fact that
students might want the name to
be change was taken into consid-eration.
The sentiment expressed
in the discussion did not echo that
put forth by the FUSA Senate:
that the name change being
(continued on p. 3)
This Christmas, Celebrate the Birthday of... Mithra??
Claire St. Louis
Editor-in-Chief
Forthoseofyou who think
Christians invented Christmas,
think again. In fact, most Chris-tian
traditions and practices
spawned from pagan Greek tradi-tions,
among others.
Forexample, take Decem-ber
25th, the date we observe as
the birthday ofChrist. Early Chris-tians
didn't even consider this date
at first. They had narrowed down
their choice to two days, either
March 25 or January 6. March 25
falls on the vernal equinox and
signifies springtime, a time of re-newal.
January 6 celebrates the
feast of the Epiphany, the visita-tion
of the Christ Child by the
three Magi.
Perhaps the first Christians
shied away from December 25
because it already marked the birth-day
of another cult figure. Mithra
was the date's original birthday
boy, according to Dr. Ronald
Davidson, professor of Religious
Studies at Fairfield.
"One of the most impor-tant
traditions to impact Christian-ity
is the Mithraic," says Davidson.
"The first mention of Mithra was
around the twelfth century B.C."
Obviously, this Mithra
character predates the emergence
of Jesus onto the cult scene. But
the two figures have several strik-ing
similarities.
For starters, Mithra is also
regarded as a savior.
"Mithra interceded be-tween
the Supreme Being and
man on behalfofman," Davidson
states. "At some point, in Roman
times, around the third century
A.D., Mithra was identified with
Sol Invinctus, or the 'Invincible
Sun,' his Roman cohort."
The Mithraic tradition
did not arbitrarily choose Decem-ber
25 as the birthdate of its cul-ture
hero. The day signifies the
return of the sun, of light. And
"The evergreen represents the
return of the sun, which makes
the tree grow, and also eternal
life," Davidson explains. "Mithra
would sprout from the evergreen
tree."
Even the stories about the
Wise Men, the three Magi who
visited the infant Jesus with gifts
of gold, myrrh, and frankincense
and who are celebrated in Chris-tianity
on January 6, descended
from this tradition. After all, says
Davidson, the Magi were priests
of the cult of Mithra. That's why
offerings are made to the Christ-mas
evergreen tree on his birth-day
and why we put gifts under
our own Christmas trees. The
gifts of the Magi to the savior of
the world are incorporated into
the cult.
The Mithraic cult was
popular among the Roman mili-tary
and, because ofChristianity' s
similarity to the Mithraic tradi-tions,
it was easy to make the
changeover to the newer religion.
Both belief systems have similar
ideologies, such as the idea of a
soul and the savior as a divine
man.
The cult was not too popu-lar
with the Church, however.
"The Mithraic cult was so
threatening to the early Church
that two of the early Church fa-thers,
Justin MartyrandTertullian,
termed it and the Greek cults as
'diabolical imitations of Chris-tianity,'"
says Davidson.
However, this fear of
Mithra's devilish influences did
not stop the Christian Church from
adopting December 25 as the
birthdate of its own culture hero.
So as you offer up your
gifts to the evergreen tree this
Christmas, remember that it's
Mithra's birthday, too.
Visiting Prof
Discusses
Yugoslavia
page 4
*£}o> 't freak
Yow Engage-ments
page 5
Student Groups
Propose New TH
Policy
page 13
Jew Films Heat
up Winter
page 15
Stags Snatch
Tourney Title
page 20