Mirror - Vol. 23, No. 20 - April 08, 1998

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FAIRFIELD UNIVERSITY
MIRROR
Volume 23 Number 20 The Image of Fairfield
More core being considered
Maureen Cuddy
Contributing Writer
Fairfield students may
soon have another core require-ment
to fulfill if the University
approves the plans to add a non-
Western course to the current
core curriculum.
"Students need expo-sure
to the diversity of world cul-tures,"
said Orin Grossman, dean
of the College of Arts and Sci-ences.
"Students already get
some exposure to Western Euro-pean
and American culture, but
there needs to be a way for stu-dents
to have contact with a more
remote culture."
The proposal would re-quire
students to take a course
which focuses on Native Ameri-can,
Russian, pre-Colombian,
Latin American, or any other
non-Western culture. The faculty
debated the issue on March 6,
and it generated a great deal of
discussion. Because there was
not a quorum present, a vote
could not be held and it was post-poned
until April 17.
"The purpose of this re-quirement
is so Fairfield Univer-sity
students graduate with some
understanding of some society
other than their own," said Dr.
Marcie Patton, head of the com-mittee
with created the proposal.
"It is a good idea in
theory, but I feel that it only com-plicates
scheduling classes," said
Carol Mclntyre, '00. Mclntyre,
like many students, feels that add-ing
another requirement would
only make fulfilling core require-ments
harder. "It especially com-plicates
things for students like
myself, who are trying to fulfill
course requirements in two ma-jors
in addition to the core,"
Mclntyre said.
Some faculty members
are concerned about the core be-coming
too complicated if an-other
requirement-is added. "The
debate is not if it is a good idea.
It is that the core has gotten too
complicated," said Grossman.
"The University is reaching a
point where the core is too com-plex,
and there are restrictions in
the time codes."
"I am in favor of the
non-Western requirement, but I
am sympathetic to the faculty's
logistic problems," said
Grossman.
Those in favor of the
proposal say students will not
have to add credit hours or an
extra course to his or her
workload. Students will be
able to select a designated
course from core requirement
courses, major courses, or
electives, such as the case
with the current diversity re-quirement.
In a statement, the
committee said that the ratio-nale
for this requirement is
that it is important to
Fairfield's mission of liberal
education. "Fairfield Univer-sity
has a responsibility to fos-ter
this cognizance, as well as
a commitment that distin-guishes
a Fairfield University
education."
"A non-Western di-versity
requirement is some-thing
people have talked
about for a while," said Dr.
Susan Rakowitz, the Chair of
the Undergraduate Curricu-lum
Committee. "When the
Continued on p. 4
Simpson chosen as
commencement speaker
Brian Huben
Contributing Writer
Maura Parsons
News Editor Emeritus
ABC News Anchor
Carole Simpson will join the
ranks of fellow national news
anchors Tom Brokaw and Ted
Koppel- as well as many past
noteable speakers - to deliver
Fairfield University's com-mencement
address.
Simpson, best known as
the anchor of "World News Sun-day",
will address the class of
1998 and receive an honorary
degree at the 48th commence-ment
exercises on May 17 at the
Bellarminc Hail Terrace.
She won an Emmy
Award for her role as a corre-spondent
forABC News and fre-quently
reports on national issues
for "World News with Peter
Jennings".
Simpson has covered
some of the grandest media stories
over the past few decades includ-ing
the Persian Gulf War, the
Tiananmen Square Massacre, and
the Clarence Thomas-Anita Hill
Hearings. She also moderated a
1992 presidential debate.
An active advocate for
women and minority broadcasters,
Simpson has garnered numerous
awards and distinctions for her ef-forts.
In 1992, the National Asso-ciation
of Black Journalists named
Simpson the Journalist of the Year.
"I've seen
Carole Simpson's work on ABC
News-her reporting duties, moni-toring
presidential debates," said
Lisa Urso '98. "She's done an ex-cellent
job and is an excellent
choice for commencement
speaker."
Along with Simpson,
David E. Carson, CEO of People's
Bank and a community leader, and
Dr. Thomas Banchoff, professor of
mathematics at Brown University,
Carole Simpson will speak at
the graduation cerenmony for
the class of 1998.
will also be awarded honorary
degrees at the commencement
ceremony.
Simpson was chosen
as speaker by the standard com-mencement
speaker selection
Continued on p. 4
Viva
Variety!
Le.Lo Lai dancers spiced up
the evening.
Dana Ambrosini
News Editor
Roasting professors
and Puerto Rican dances were
the highlights of the very en-thusiastic
International Cabaret
that played to a packed audi-ence
in the Oak Room last
Thursday.
The annual Cabaret is
an opportunity for students,
professors and families repre-senting
the many languages
and cultures taught on-campus
to join together in an evening
of song, dance and humor and
celebrate diversity.
"I thought that it was
better than ever and it is ex-tremely
gratifying to see the
kind of enthusiasm that stu-dents
show in their willingness
to participate," said Dr. Marie
Panico, professor of Spanish,
"Language should be fun."
And in the name of
fun, students from Panico's
122 class performed skits in-terspersed
throughout the event
that poked fun at both her and
Prof. Angela Tauro, who orga-nized
the event along with
Profs. Antonio Ortiz and Eileen
Wilkinson, of modern lan-guages.
Song and dance was
the mainstay of the event. The
Puerto Rican dances performed
by Le Lo Lai, a new club on-campus,
served as a zealous in-troduction
for the group which
was born out of the Spanish-
American Latin-American Stu-dent
Association (SALSA).
Continued on p. 4
Wednesday, April 8,1998
Inside this
week
Tuition
increase
announced
Find out how much on
P-3
Once upon a
time....
Spring Break in Paris,
seep. 5
From the
Mirror to the
Fairfield County
Catholic
Fr. Walsh profiled,
see p. 6
Did you wear
jeans on
Tuesday?
Gay Jeans Day
debated, see p.8
Dear
Monica....
Career planning di-rector
writes back to
Lewinsky, see p. 9
New band
on campus
Find out who's playing
a Jedi Mind Trick on you,
seep. 11
Madonna ex-presses
herself
Check out her latest CD,
"Ray ofLight," seep. 11
What time is
it? It's
O'Toole time.
Stags hire Tim O'Toole as
new head coach for men's
b-ball, see p. 14