Mirror - Vol. 17, No. 13 - February 11, 1993

              The
FairfieldMIRROR Volume 17, No. 13 Thursday, February 11, 1993 Happy Valentine's Day
Reports of Sexual
Assault On The Rise
Debra De Shong
News Editor
Prior to last December,
Glen Griffin, assistant director of
Security, called reports of sexual
assaul, "a rare occurrence."
However, since December 8,1992,
there have been five separate
reports of sexual assault — three in
one week alone — at Fairfield
University.
Sexual assault is defined
as assault with varying degrees of
force and containing some sexual
contact.
The first incident was
reported on December 8, but the
alleged incident occurred on
October 24, the night ofthe Harvest
Dance. The incident, which
occurred in a Residence Hall, was
investigated by Security, but the
party involved declined to involve
the Fairfield Police Department.
The persons involved are both
students and the case has been
reviewed by the Judiciary
Committee. The results of that
review and details of the case will
be released in two weeks.
The second report of a
sexual assault was reported on
December 9, but the alleged
incident occurred on December 4.
In this instance, a female student is
making the allegations that she was
students as well as visitors. The
incident in question did not occur
on campus, but was investigated
by Security and is now in the
judiciary process. Again, the party
involved declined to involve the
police department.
This semester, in a span
of five days, three sexual assaults
were reported to Security. On
January 28, a female student
accused another student of assault
and the case is being investigated.
January 29, another female student
reported a sexual assault and that
case is being reviewed by the
judicial committee.
The final incident was
reported on February 1 but the
incident allegedly occurred on Jan.
31. A female student was allegedly
assaulted and Security has
encouraged her to report this
incident to the Fairfield Police.
All cases are unrelated,
and are being investigated by
Security. In order to protect the
victim, no further information
could be obtained at this time.
Griffin says that he is not
surprised by the sudden outpouring
of reports, but attributes it to "all of
the current media attention
surrounding sexual assault, both
within the university and
nationwide." He feels that with
women choosing to come forward,
accurate record of these crimes.
Ann Cole, Director of the
Health Center, says the influx of
reports are due to a raised
awareness of this issue.
"Everyone's conscious is raised,
and I'm not quite sure why these
women are choosing to come
forward at this time, but it is very
encouraging," she said. "Perhaps
they are feeling empowered due to
all of the positive attention being
given to this issue."
Although it is
encouraging that some women are
coming forth accusing their
attackers, statistically, there are
many more victims of sexual
assault who have notcome forward.
According to a survey by
MS. magazine, one in four women
are survivors of rape or attempted
rape, 84 % knew their attacker, and
57% happened on dates. Of those
women who were raped, 42% told
no one about their assaults.
Wendy Precious, '93, said
she was "shocked," that so many
women have come forward but not
shocked that it happens. "It prob-ably
happens every week and
people are just becoming aware
that it is not their fault and are
reporting it," she said.
Marcy Snyder, '93, said,
"people were probably embarasseti
to report being assaulted in the
sexually assaulted by several male security will be able to keep a more past."
Joe Clark Speaks Out On
Racism and Education
Jessica Nutley
Staff Writer
"Sometimes you have to
be bold..you have to be willing to
take life on" advised Joe Clark,
who spoke at Fairfield on Tuesday,
Feb. 2. Clark was the Principal of
Eastside High School in N.J. and
came under fire for many of his
controversial methods for
education. His nationwide fame
resulted in making the cover of
Time magazine and a film, "Lean
on Me," was based on his efforts.
Clark was the principal at
Eastside High from 1982- 89, when
he retired from education. In that
time, Eastside was declared a model
school. The students at Eastside
were mostly minority and poor. He
instilled in them the desire for
education and disciplined them to
learn. "Destiny is not to be waited
for, it is to be achieved," he said.
He spoke fervently on
several topics, including racism.
"It' s time to come together as one,"
he said. "Blacks and whites should
condem white racism and black
racism." He denounced Black
7ZT
History Month, citing that blacks
should be proud of themselves 365
days a year. Clark also declared
affirmative action as insulting and
demeaning to minorities.
Clark left Eastside High
because he needed an arena for his
ideas on education. He fervently
praised the teachers, who must take
on considerable burdens when they
decide to become educators. He
believes that all children can learn.
"If they can learn the lyrics to Janet
Jackson, then they can learn their
times tables," he said. "It's a matter
of priorities."
Clark is content on the
lecture circuit, expressing his
sometimes controversial ideas on
education. He offers this advice to
everyone: "Whatever you do in
life, don't quit."
Women's Studies Minor
Finally Approved
Debra De Shong
News Editor
Three years of planning
and preparation ended last Mon-day
when the Academic Council,
made up of faculty and administra-tion,
unanimously approved the
new Women's Studies Minor.
Co-director Johanna
Garvey, from the English Depart-ment,
who shares the position with
Lucy Katz of the Business Depart-ment,
said, "It's a way to expand
the curriculum and bring the uni-versity
into the 20th century."
The minor require an in-troductory
course called Introduc-tion
to Women's Studies 101, as
well as other courses from other
areas. Three of those courses must
be what Garvey calls "gender fo-cused"
where the main objective
of the course is to concentrate on
women's issues and perspectives.
The remaining two courses must
be "gender component" classes
where a significant portion of the
class is devoted to women and
feminist issues.
As of now, the courses
are from the School of Art and
Science but Katz and Garvey hope
to expand that to the other Schools
at Fairfield.
Student responses have
generally been positive and
Garvey says most students are
excited about it. Sophomore Pia
Hartman said "It definitely inter-ests
me because it expands the
perspectives of my education."
Senior Shari Francis said, although
not personally interested in it, "it's
a good option to have because it
broadens the course study and
defines a specific set ofclasses for
understanding women's issues."
Garvey hopes this minor
will translate into a tool that causes
professors to rethink the way they
teach their classes. She also hopes
to be granted an office for the
minor so that there will be a place
for women on this campus to meet_
and feel comfortable and recog-nized.
Multi-Cultural Awareness
Absent At Fairfield
Megan Harvist
Assistant News Editor
Look down at your shoes. Did
you know that the process of mass
producing shoes by attaching the
soles to the bottom was invented
by Jan Matzelinger, a black man?
The next time you are stopped at a
traffic light, take a good look at it.
You probably didn't know that it
was invented by Garret Morgan,
another black man. Whenever you
hear of successful open heart
surgery, remember that the first
successful one was performed by a
black doctor, Daniel Hale Morgan.
Oh, you didn't know that?
These are a few tidbits of
information that you could have
picked up at the black history film
and discussion session that took
place on Wednesday, February 3
at 12 pm in the McEleney Room.
However, no one did pick up the
information - because no one
showed up.
Could it have been a bad time,
a lack of publicity for the event, or
a lack of interest in the subject?
Whatever the reason, Larri Mazon,
the Director of Multi-Cultural
Relations here at Fairfield
University, will continue to
promote these events as part of
Black History Month. "I think
people need to know about this.
Information regarding an entire
nation of people is missing from
our culture," he commented.
The film, entitled "Black
History: Lost, Stolen, or Strayed,"
dealt with the fact that certain
elements ofblack history have been
left out of our history books and
our consciousness. Instead, we
have been bombarded with images
that create stereotypes of blacks.
These images occur in films in
which blacks are portrayed as
stupid. We rarely ever learn about
the positive things blacks have done
"These images combined with
a lack of honesty in our study of
blacks equals a vicious cycle.
Portraying only negative images
of blacks creates a sense of
worthlessness for an entire people,"
Mazon said.
Mazon is concerned with the
fact that not one course of African-
American history is offered at
Fairfield. For the past 10 years, he
has been suggesting to the
administration that a course be
started. Also, there is only one
professor here of African-
American descent, Dr. Walter
Petry. Mazon feels that students
are missing out by not receiving
the opinion of a Negro professor.
He stated, "When students don't
see African-American professors,
it reinforces the negative images
that are already there."
Elizabeth Lundy, "96, feels
that multi-cultural awareness is not
promoted enough at school. "This
isn' t something that should be done
only for Black History Month,"
she said.
Other students think that
the lack of diversity at Fairfield
makes it hard for them to be more
aware of other cultures. Heather
Tuma, '96, feels thaf'learning about
other cultures is important. We
can't get away from racist attitudes
ifwe 're not faced with how various
cultures really are." Ifmore people
feel as strongly about this, maybe
changes can be made that will last
longer than the month of February.
~7T~
Females Score
on Val's Day
page 13
luick Wrap-Up oj
Fast Food Joints
V ^ page 15
fTfi
V ^
Can Win
in Buffalo
page 20