Mirror - Vol. 18, No. 17 - March 10, 1994

              The
FairfieldMIRROR Volume 18, No. 17 Thursday, March 10, 1994 Have a Great Spring Break!
Fairfield announces merger with
Bridgeport Engineering Institute
Jennifer Luongo
News Editor
The Boards of Trustees
of Fairfield University and the
Bridgeport Engineering Institute
(BEI) have approved the plan for
a merger of the two institutions,
effective August 1. Reverend
Aloysius P. Kelley, S.J., President
of the university, announced the
plan at a press conference in
Bellarmine Hall Monday
morning and called the merger
"truly an historic occasion."
For BEI, the merger
marks an important turning point
in its seventy year history in that
the the school will now have a
permanent home.
BEI will relocate from
its leased space at the former
Ludlowe High School on
Unquowa Road and its center
will now be in McAuliffe Hall,
which the university will be
renovating in order to provide
offices and labs.As for the
merger's effect on Fairfield,
Kelley feels that it will serve to
enrich Fairfield's offerings as
well as work to diversify its
Fairfield President and BEI President proudly announce merger.
photo: K. Guterl
student body.
"The merger will make
the part-time non-traditional
student a more important
component of the university,"
Kelly said.He also stressed that
Fairfield is rapidly becoming a
national school, but it still retains
close ties to the community."[The
merger] is a response to
community needs and the
university's strong desire to
provide for the community."
BEI, which is accredited
by the New England Association
of Schools and Colleges and by
the State of Connecticut, now has
327 part-time students who attend
classes in the evening and usually
attend classes in the evening and
usually earn a bachelor's degree
in six to seven years (BEI also
offers an associates degree).
Dr. William M.
Krummel is currently president
of BEI and will be dean of the
BEI School of Engineering of
Fairfield University, as it will be
officially named. He commented
that the University of Bridgeport
and University of New Haven
have also had merger discussions
with BEI. Discussions with
Fairfield began three years ago
when John Barone, then provost,
initiated the talks.
Students are relatively
optimistic about the merger
because the courses in Fairfield's
engineering department are
currently very limited.
Now students will have
the additional BEI courses
available to them. However, a
full-time engineering program
at Fairfield is still not possible
and Engineering majors will
continue to take courses at
Fairfield for three years and then
transfer to another school to
complete the major, receiving
degrees from both schools.
Senior Eugene Lee
feels that BEI will be a very
positive addition to Fairfield. "I
think it's a good idea. It offers
more flexibility for classes and
more choices."
FUSA president Mark
Resnick agrees, "It's going to
help the Engineering program
since it will have more resources.
It will also generate revenue.
It's a win-win situation."
First Year Experience strives for improvement
Caitlin Whelan
Assistant News Editor
Despite the criticism it
has received, particularly earlier
this year, the First Year Experience
program (formerly Freshman Year
Experience) appears to be ironing
out its wrinkles and heading
toward a stronger format in the
future. On Tuesday night,
approximately 70 new First Year
Facilitators were chosen to
accompany the 30 returning
facilitators from this year in
helping the Class of 1998 adjust
to freshman year.
The program, which was
created as the Class of 1994
entered Fairfield, has gone through
many changes since its beginning
and continues to evolve. The first
year, the facilitators were an RA
and a faculty member, a system
which changed for the Class of
1995 and on to two upperclass
students meeting with the
Freshmen on a weekly basis.
Fran Koerting, Director
of Orientation and the First Year
Experience Program, says the
program has grown in the past
few years.
"We've gotten more
involvement and feedback," she
says. "It's evolved from a basic
support group to a full program.
It's slowly becoming more
popular, [people are] more
committed, though we still need
to work on attendance."
This year, the program
received criticism about the lack
of attendance and effort of
students. It was said to last too
long into the semester and not be
interesting enough for the
Freshmen to stay with it through
the semester. However, Koerting
feels that much ofthese complaints
concentrated on the large
presentations ratherthan the small
group meetings.
"I think a lot of the
criticism was unfair to the
facilitators. They were confusing
Orientation with First Year
Experience. A lot was based on
large presentations. People tend
not to go to major speakers, but
attend the small groups where
there is more facilitator contact."
Jen Decker '95, a
returning First Year Facilitator,
had a group that tended to reflect
what Koerting describes. "About
a third of the group showed up on
average. Very few ever went to
the presentations, but more came
to the small groups. When we had
a group social even more came."
Decker adds that those students
who couldn't make the meetings
usually made the effort to call and
tell her. "There are always a few
who you never hear from, but a lot
of them expressed that they
wanted to come but couldn't
because of clubs or work."
Amajor complaint ofthe
program was that it lasts too long
into the semester, a reason why
attendance tends to taper off in
mid-semester. "By late October,
it was pretty much over with our
meetings," Decker observed.
Reasons for this trend range from
more involvement in
extracurricular activities and
school, to a lack of interest as the
first semestermoveson. Koerting
says that they are working on
improving the activities and
length of the program so that its
benefits can be more easily
recognized.
"We are looking at different ways
of connecting with other
departments, and possibly
working more with the RA
program." In addition, the leaders
and Freshmen may interact with
academic departments", using
more material such as the new
cable system for bettering
communication.
"We are working hard
to restructure the program," adds
Koerting. "We haven't nailed
down the exact interaction with
RAs and academics yet, but there
are lots of things that we are
looking at."
Ultimately, the First
Year Experience program is to
give the Freshmen the
opportunity to interact on a
regular basis with a small group,
(continued on p. 3)
Seniors
volunteer at
Special
Olympics
Laurie Connors
Contributing Writer
Last weekend,
approximately forty Fairfield
University seniors volunteered to
work for the Connecticut Winter
Special Olympics Games at Ski
Sundown in New Hartford and at
Simsbury-Northeast Utilities.
Several weeks ago,
members of the Class of '94
received notices in their boxes
inviting them to participate at
Special Olympics in areas such as
awards, escorts, gatekeeper, lift
assistant, set-up/clean-up,
supporter, and a variety of other
jobs. Students worked at the nordic
downhill skiing, slalom, and giant
slalom competitions in the novice,
intermediate, and advanced levels.
Jim Fitzpatrick, Associate
Dean of Students, acted as the
liaison between the Connecticut
Special Olympics Chapter and
Fairfield University seniors. Mr.
Fitzpatrick stated, "We were
looking for a service project to
start for the senior class which
would counteract some of the
negative associations that are made
with other seniors year activities,
such as the drinking during Senior
Week.
He also stated that since
Fairfield University had hosted the
Connecticut Summer Special
Olympics Games for four years in
the 1980's, it seemed "natural" that
the university would work with
them again. Mr. Fitzpatrick also
felt that since this project was a
"one-shot deal" (there were no
meetings and it only required one
day of participation), it was a very
non-threatening way to offer the
opportunity for students to get
involved in the community. When
asked why she had volunteered to
participate, senior Karen Schroeder
replied, "I worked at the Summer
Games a few years ago and I
thought it was a lot of fun, so I
decided to do it again. I was a little
surprised this time at the amount of
responsibility I was given as a
gatekeeper. I actually had to
disqualify one of the athletes, but I
felt better when I found out that
every athlete got a participation
ribbon."
According to the Special
Olympics Information Packet, the
philosophy behind the games is
(continued on p.3)
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