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FAIRFIELD UNIVERSITY
IRROR
Volume 22 Number 14 The Image of Fairfield Thursday, February 20, 1997
Van Sertima discusses Africans' role
in ancient Americas
Maura Parsons
Staff Writer
Many Americans identify
ChristopherColumbus as the first
person to discover the Ameri-cas.
Yet, Black History scholar
and anthropologist Ivan Van
Sertima and his colleagues en-countered
new evidence that sug-gests
that Africans made contact
with the "new world" long be-fore
Columbus. If this new
theory is widely embraced, his-tory
may be greatly changed.
Van Sertima, a professor at
Rutgers and a native of South
Africa, presented a lecture in the
Oak Room on Thursday evening
based upon his controversial
book entitled, They Came Be-fore
Columbus. The department
of Multicultural Relations spon-sored
this lecture as part of the
university's celebration ofBlack
History Month.
Van Sertima discovered vari-ous
forms of evidence to sup-port
his theory. According to
him, Christopher Columbus was
the first person to identify Afri-cans
in the New World when he
landed in the Americas. He
pointed to other retrieved docu-ments
that suggest that other
European explorers also wit-nessed
Africans that resided in
the Americas.
Besides these documents,
Van Sertima discussed various
African archaeological evidence
discovered in the Americas. This
evidence includes African skulls
and scripts found in the Virgin
Islands, jewelry, headdresses
and spears found throughout the
Americas that Van Sertima as-serts
could only have come from
Africa. Van Sertima believes
that much of this physical evi-dence
predates the time of
Columbus's journey to the New
World.
"I never will say that Afri-
Beach Road
parking still an
issue for students
Todd Chiaramida
Staff Writer
Parking for Fairfield Univer-sity
students who live on
Fairfield Beach Road between
Reef Road and Rowland Road
has not been easy lately. This is
because of the concern voiced
by the Fairfield Beach Road As-sociation
for pedestrian safety.
According to Bill Hurley,
Fairfield Town engineer,
Fairfield Beach Road needs to
be widened another two feet
from the present 30 feet to handle
parking and traffic. The ques-tion
of pedestrian safety is also
being considered. Ed Gleason,
one offive Fairfield Police Com-missioners,
has proposed a walk-way
for joggers, rollerbladers
and pedestrians. This would re-quire
a five-foot wide walkway
plus another five feet of grass as
a buffer zone from the street.
The town owns approxi-mately
10 feet of property on
either side of Fairfield Beach
road, which allows enough room
to build the proposed walkway
and widen the street to accom-modate
parking and traffic.
However, questions still remain
to be answered. Will the Fairfield
Beach Road Association, now
that it has voiced concern over
the safety ofpedestrians, be will-ing
to give up town land, which
they have landscaped, for the
safety of the pedestrians? Will
students and summer residents
have to give up these parking
spaces permanently, in favor of
the walkway so that members of
the Fairfield Beach Road Asso-ciation
can keep town land?
cans found American Civiliza-tion.
I've pointed to the fact that
they made contact with America
before Columbus," said Van
Sertima.
Van Sertima's theory has not
been without its share of contro-versy.
Various scholars attacked
Van Sertima's theory and ques-tioned
the validity ofhis research.
He was accused by some of de-veloping
this theory "just to make
Africans feel better."
Critics have also charged Van
Sertima with considering the Af-rican
race superior to others be-cause
of his claims. Van Sertima
responded that his "discoveries
have nothing to do with superi-ority
and inferiority."
Van Sertima stated that his-tory
is continuously being redis-covered.
He urged the audience
and his critics to keep an open
mind about his theory and sup-porting
evidence. After his lec-ture
concluded, he presented a
slide show featuring some of the
artifacts that he believes support
his claim that Africans came to
the Americas before Columbus.
New facility to
augment athletic
program
Kate Meehan
Staff Writer
The rapidly growing athletic
program at Fairfield University
is due to advance further within
the next year. A $4.7 million
addition to the Athletic Center is
scheduled to begin this March
and may be completed as soon as
December. This major project is
aimed at enhancing the
University's athletic facilities as
a whole, allowing sports related
activities to run more efficiently.
The renovated Athletic Cen-ter
will include a large locker
room on the first floor to accom-modate
the football team and an
equally impressive locker room
for men's and women's basket-ball
on the second floor. It will
also feature a practice facility as
well as a4,700 square foot weight
training center. In addition, the
Athletic Center will also house
an administrative and coaching
office as well as a multimedia
recruiting center for prospective
athletes.
The improvements also in-clude
an academic study center
focused on assisting athletes
scholastically: The 22,000
square foot study area will not
only provide varsity athletes with
a quiet atmosphere in which to
study but will also provide stu-dents
with both reference materi-als
and tutorial stations for one-on-
one tutoring.
The expansion of the Athletic
Center will affect both the Recre-ational
Complex and Alumni Hall
in that it will leave a larger amount
of free space in both buildings.
Gene Doris, Director of Athlet-ics,
explained that these vacan-cies
will be filled with more
equipment to better accommo-date
the students. Doris said,
"The basement of Alumni Hall
will contain a new free weight
multipurpose area." This facil-ity,
while still in the design stage,
will consist of a 1,000 square
foot area for free weights.
The area in the Recreational
Complex that now accommo-dates
many offices is to become a
multipurpose facility which will
include a cardiovascular area
complete with treadmills and
bikes.
Doris explained that the ex-pansion
to the Athletic Center
will greatly benefit athletes and
the University as a whole. The
addition will not only enable the
athletic community to house all
related offices in one central
building, but will also allow ath-letes
to utilize more accessible
resources while the University
enjoys a much larger facility with
more equipment.
Inside
This
Wedc
fr
Sexual
assault is a
growing
issue
p. 5
rr
JJ
TheOJ
verdict
debated
p. 8
Clint
Eastwood's
new movie
p.12
^
^
Hockey
Team
scores two
big wins
p.15
Object Description
| Title | Mirror - Vol. 22, No. 14 - February 20, 1997 |
| Date | February 20 1997 |
| Description | [PLEASE NOTE: the academic year 1996-1997 is for reasons unknown broken up into two separate volumes but contains continuous chronoligical issue numbers. January 30th is that last issue of Volume 21; the rest of the academic year continues with Volume 22. The following academic year (1997-1998) continues with Volume 23. We have not altered these dates in any way as the indexing was not affected.] The Mirror (sometimes called the Fairfield Mirror) is the official student newspaper of Fairfield University, and is published weekly during the academic year (September - May). It runs from 1977 - the present; current issues are available online. |
| Notes | A timeline for Fairfield University student newspapers is as follows: The Tentative, Nov. 7, 1947 - Dec. 19, 1947; The Fulcrum, Jan. 9, 1948 - May 20, 1949; The Stag, Sept. 23, 1949 - May 6, 1970; The University Voice, Oct. 1, 1970 - May 11, 1977; The Fairfield Free Press & Review, Sept. 10, 1970 - Apr. 24, 1975; The Fairfield Mirror, Sept. 22, 1977 - present. |
| Type of Document | Newspaper |
| Original Format | Newsprint; color; ill.; 11.5 x 17 in. |
| Digital Specifications | These images exist as archived TIFFs, JPEGs and one or more PDF versions for general use. Digitized by Creekside Digital through the LYRASIS group. |
| Publisher | Fairfield University |
| Place of Publication | Fairfield, Conn. |
| Source | Fairfield University Archives and Special Collections |
| Copyright Information | Fairfield University reserves all rights to this resource which is provided here for educational and/or non-commercial purposes only. |
| Identifier | MIR19970220 |
Description
| Title | Page 1 |
| SearchData | FAIRFIELD UNIVERSITY IRROR Volume 22 Number 14 The Image of Fairfield Thursday, February 20, 1997 Van Sertima discusses Africans' role in ancient Americas Maura Parsons Staff Writer Many Americans identify ChristopherColumbus as the first person to discover the Ameri-cas. Yet, Black History scholar and anthropologist Ivan Van Sertima and his colleagues en-countered new evidence that sug-gests that Africans made contact with the "new world" long be-fore Columbus. If this new theory is widely embraced, his-tory may be greatly changed. Van Sertima, a professor at Rutgers and a native of South Africa, presented a lecture in the Oak Room on Thursday evening based upon his controversial book entitled, They Came Be-fore Columbus. The department of Multicultural Relations spon-sored this lecture as part of the university's celebration ofBlack History Month. Van Sertima discovered vari-ous forms of evidence to sup-port his theory. According to him, Christopher Columbus was the first person to identify Afri-cans in the New World when he landed in the Americas. He pointed to other retrieved docu-ments that suggest that other European explorers also wit-nessed Africans that resided in the Americas. Besides these documents, Van Sertima discussed various African archaeological evidence discovered in the Americas. This evidence includes African skulls and scripts found in the Virgin Islands, jewelry, headdresses and spears found throughout the Americas that Van Sertima as-serts could only have come from Africa. Van Sertima believes that much of this physical evi-dence predates the time of Columbus's journey to the New World. "I never will say that Afri- Beach Road parking still an issue for students Todd Chiaramida Staff Writer Parking for Fairfield Univer-sity students who live on Fairfield Beach Road between Reef Road and Rowland Road has not been easy lately. This is because of the concern voiced by the Fairfield Beach Road As-sociation for pedestrian safety. According to Bill Hurley, Fairfield Town engineer, Fairfield Beach Road needs to be widened another two feet from the present 30 feet to handle parking and traffic. The ques-tion of pedestrian safety is also being considered. Ed Gleason, one offive Fairfield Police Com-missioners, has proposed a walk-way for joggers, rollerbladers and pedestrians. This would re-quire a five-foot wide walkway plus another five feet of grass as a buffer zone from the street. The town owns approxi-mately 10 feet of property on either side of Fairfield Beach road, which allows enough room to build the proposed walkway and widen the street to accom-modate parking and traffic. However, questions still remain to be answered. Will the Fairfield Beach Road Association, now that it has voiced concern over the safety ofpedestrians, be will-ing to give up town land, which they have landscaped, for the safety of the pedestrians? Will students and summer residents have to give up these parking spaces permanently, in favor of the walkway so that members of the Fairfield Beach Road Asso-ciation can keep town land? cans found American Civiliza-tion. I've pointed to the fact that they made contact with America before Columbus," said Van Sertima. Van Sertima's theory has not been without its share of contro-versy. Various scholars attacked Van Sertima's theory and ques-tioned the validity ofhis research. He was accused by some of de-veloping this theory "just to make Africans feel better." Critics have also charged Van Sertima with considering the Af-rican race superior to others be-cause of his claims. Van Sertima responded that his "discoveries have nothing to do with superi-ority and inferiority." Van Sertima stated that his-tory is continuously being redis-covered. He urged the audience and his critics to keep an open mind about his theory and sup-porting evidence. After his lec-ture concluded, he presented a slide show featuring some of the artifacts that he believes support his claim that Africans came to the Americas before Columbus. New facility to augment athletic program Kate Meehan Staff Writer The rapidly growing athletic program at Fairfield University is due to advance further within the next year. A $4.7 million addition to the Athletic Center is scheduled to begin this March and may be completed as soon as December. This major project is aimed at enhancing the University's athletic facilities as a whole, allowing sports related activities to run more efficiently. The renovated Athletic Cen-ter will include a large locker room on the first floor to accom-modate the football team and an equally impressive locker room for men's and women's basket-ball on the second floor. It will also feature a practice facility as well as a4,700 square foot weight training center. In addition, the Athletic Center will also house an administrative and coaching office as well as a multimedia recruiting center for prospective athletes. The improvements also in-clude an academic study center focused on assisting athletes scholastically: The 22,000 square foot study area will not only provide varsity athletes with a quiet atmosphere in which to study but will also provide stu-dents with both reference materi-als and tutorial stations for one-on- one tutoring. The expansion of the Athletic Center will affect both the Recre-ational Complex and Alumni Hall in that it will leave a larger amount of free space in both buildings. Gene Doris, Director of Athlet-ics, explained that these vacan-cies will be filled with more equipment to better accommo-date the students. Doris said, "The basement of Alumni Hall will contain a new free weight multipurpose area." This facil-ity, while still in the design stage, will consist of a 1,000 square foot area for free weights. The area in the Recreational Complex that now accommo-dates many offices is to become a multipurpose facility which will include a cardiovascular area complete with treadmills and bikes. Doris explained that the ex-pansion to the Athletic Center will greatly benefit athletes and the University as a whole. The addition will not only enable the athletic community to house all related offices in one central building, but will also allow ath-letes to utilize more accessible resources while the University enjoys a much larger facility with more equipment. Inside This Wedc fr Sexual assault is a growing issue p. 5 rr JJ TheOJ verdict debated p. 8 Clint Eastwood's new movie p.12 ^ ^ Hockey Team scores two big wins p.15 |