Mirror - Vol. 20, No. 14 - February 22, 1996

              The
FairfieldMIRR®R Volume 20, Number 14 Thursday, February 22, 1996 The Image of Fairfield
$125,000 grant helps computer labs expand
Kristen Sullivan
Staff Writer
Through the aid of a
$ 125,000 grant from the Arthur
Vining Davis Foundations,
Fairfield University will be able
to improve its computer equip-ment,
which will strongly ben-efit
students in their studies of
science and mathematics.
The installation of this
equipment will begin this sum-mer
so that students will be able
to analyze data and perform ad-vanced
stimulation more effi-ciently.
The grant money will
be applied towards the upgrad-ing
of the Bannow Science
Center's Macintosh Laboratory.
The computer lab's capacity will
be more than doubled, since the
new equipment will supplement
the 10 Power Mac PC's that the
University purchased last sum-mer.
The labs in Bannow
are used days and evenings by
the chemistry, biology, physics,
computer science and math-ematics
departments, as well as
the School of Engineering.
The foundation,
based in Jacksonville, Florida,
commented that is "pleased to
support Fairfield Univeristy in
its efforts to enhance the math
and science teaching labora-tory."
Dr. Jack Beal, asso-ciate
professor of physics and
the coordinator of this project
states that the laboratory up-grade
will, "provide technical
support, equipment and facili-ties
for the needs ofthe faculty
and the students in science and
technology."
The new equipment
will help familiarize students
with the computers and the
software that they will encoun-ter
in their futures either in
graduate school or in the work-place.
15 Power Macintosh
PCs will be installed, as well
as a network server for
memory, an Internet connec-tion,
a demonstration work-station
for the facility, and a
various instructional software.
This upgraded lab will also
give the faculty greater flex-ibility
in presenting their ideas
to students. In addition, stu-dents
from all levels will ben-efit
by conducting research at
their own pace.
Since 28 percent of
Fairfield students major in
mathematics or the natural sci-ences,
the University wants to
upgrade its computer software
and its laboratory facilities.
In an effort to boost
the number of students major-ing
in the sciences and math-ematics,
the University has
continually been adding new
courses and concentrations in
these areas of study.
In 1991, a molecular
biology concjiitration was initi-ated;
a marine science
concetration ws established in
1993, and in 1994 a concentra-tion
in environmental studies
was added. A neuroscience ma-jor
is currently awaiting state
approval.
The improved labora-tories
and the new software will
enable science and mathematics
students to increase their learn-ing
through computer visuals.
Beal asserts that the new equip-ment
will place Fairfield, "on a
par with any undergraduate lab
that you can find around the
country." The visual graphics
of the new s oftware will allow
biology studnets, for example,
to view body parts, such as
muscles, veins, arteries, and
bones from different angles. In
addition, faculty and students
will access the lab from off-campus
locations.
All undergraduates
will have access to the labs since
Fairfield requires all students
in the College of Arts and Sci-ences,
School of Business, and
School of Nursing to complete
12 credits in math and sciences
as part of the 60-credit core
curriculum. While 68 percent
of the undergraduates earn de-grees
in the humanties, the list
of most popular majors include
biology and mathematics which
have about 100 graduates each
year.
The upgrading of the
computer facilities on campus
began in 1992 with access to
the Internet and the World Wide
Web in faculty offices and resi-dence
halls. The entire campus
received high speed fiber optic
networking during 1993 and
1994. A computer-based psy-chology
laboratory was estab-lished
in 1993, as were two
multi-media classrooms in
1994.
A Faculty Initiative
Group has been formed by
twenty members of the College
od Arts and Sciences to stimu-late
the sharing of ideas and
bring multimedia technolgoy
into the classrooms. Faculty
from the departemnts of
philosophy, history, ethics, re-ligious
studies, English, fine
arts, economics, and the sci-ences
are involved in the group.
Associaes working
with Beal on the project in-clude
Dean Orin Grossman,
College of Arts and Sciences;
Frederic Wheeler, associate
vice president for Developemnt;
Julie Rooney of SCT; Barbara
Kiernan, University Editor;
Cathy Borgman, director of
Corporate and Foundation Re-lations;
and Dr. Evangelos
Hadjimichael, professor of
physics and Dean of the BEI
School of Engineering.
Humanities Institute grant awarded to Spring projects
Christine Hamel
News Editor
Several events have
been scheduled for this
semester with the assistance of
the Humanities Institute. The
Humanities Institute awards
awards grants for faculty
projects.
Joyce Carol Oates
will present a reading on
Tuesday, April 2, at 7:30 p.m.
in the Regina A. Quick Center
for the Performing Arts. After
the lecture, Oates will sign
copies of her books, available
in the bookstore, in the Quick
Center lobby.
Oates, widely known
as one of the best short story
writers of the 20th century and
twice nominated for the Nobel
Prize in Literature, is the Roger
S. Berlind Distinguished
Professor of the Humanities at
Princeton. She is the author of
numerous novels and short
story collections, ,and has
published several volumes of
poetry, books of plays, five
books of literary criticism, and
the book-length essay " On
Boxing."
Oates has received
many awards for her writing.
Some of the awards she has won
are the Rosenthal Award from
the American Academy-
Institute of Arts and Letters, a
Guggenheim Fellowship, the
O'Henry Prize for Continued
Achievement in the Short Story,
the National Book Award for
her novel "Them," and in 1978,
membership in the American
Academy-Institute.
Her concern is
primarily with the political
background and popular culture
of an era, women and children
and "often the consequences of
then being victims of violence."
The Oates' visit
includes meetings with students
and is supported by a Humanities
Institute grant. The grant was
awarded to Dr. Kim Bridgford,
associate professor of English.
In addition to the Oates
visit, the Humanities Institute
has funded several other faculty
projects taking place this spring.
Dr. R. James Long,
professor of philosophy, and Dr.
David McFadden, associate
professor ofhistory, have teamed
to sponsor a lecture by Professor
George Kline, a philosopher and
Russian scholar. He lectured on
"The Immorality of Sacrificing
Present Actualities for Future
Possibilities: A Russian
Controversy."
Also, Kline addressed
a Fine Arts/Russian Studies
seminar entitled "From Icons to
Films: A Journey through
Russian Civilization" and
conducted a seminar for the
Philosophy Department on the
ontology of time with a focus on
Hegel, Marx, and Nietzsche.
Dr. Simon Schama will
lecture on "Through the Looking
Glass" on Feb. 28 at 7 p.m., in the
Quick Center for Performing Arts.
The lecture is directed by Dr.
Philip Eliasoph and Dr. Rita
Rajan.
Eileen Doktorski,
adjunct professor of studio art,
received funding for an exhibit
entitled "Body Apart" which will
run in the Lukacs Gallery in
Loyola Hall until Feb. 23.
According to Doktorski, eleven
exhibiting artists approach the
body from different viewpoints
such as attitudes toward gender,
the private experience of a wound,
and commentary on the state of
public (body) health care.
Dotorski is co-chair of
the Visual Arts Committee and a
board member of ARTSPACE, a
center for visual, literary and
performing arts in New Haven.
Prior to that, she worked for seven
years in the Exhibitions
Productions Department of the
Museum of Modern Art in New
York.
A three part series of
public lectures on Africa will
include a lectue by. Dr. Philip
Curtin, professor of history and
chairman of Atlantic Studies in
History and Culture at John
Hopkins University on March
26. He will speak on "New
Views on the Slave Trade" and
will also conduct a faculty-student
seminar entitled
"Africa After Independence:
What Went Wrong?"
The series is sponsored
by a grant from the University's
Humanities Institute. Topics of
the lecture series range from
religion, the slave trade, and to
the African roots of the Greek
civilization.
Dr. Edward Dew and
Dr. Paul Lakeland are co-sponsoring
a conference called
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