Mirror - Vol. 24, No. 14 - February 25, 1999

              Volume 24 Number 14 The Image of Fairfield Thursday, February 25, 1999
Is racism returning?
By Brian Huben
ASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR
February 17 seemed like a nor-mal
day for English professor, Dr. Gita
Rajan. Then she arrived at her office
door in Donnarumma Hall.
Rajan's door had been com-pletely
vandalized. Papers and her of-fice
hours were ripped down, her name-plate
was unscrewed and removed, and
most disturbingly, racial slurs were
chalked across the wooden door.
"I absolutely enjoy teaching here
and I do not understand why someone
would do this," said Rajan. "I am look-ing
forward to seeing the response from
leaders on campus." Rajan sent a letter
to Rev. Aloysius R Kelley, S.J. and vari-ous
university administrators, informing
them of the incident.
Dr. Orin Grossman, acting aca-demic
vice president and dean of the Col-lege
of Arts and Sciences, said it is an "out-rage"
that this "cowardly and disgraceful"
act took place. "It is awful to think that there
is someone on this campus who thought that
this was a fun thing to do." Grossman added
that he hopes there are swift actions to re-move
from the university whomever was
Continued on pg. 4
Justice for the janitors...
CUCM rally draws students, faculty and administrators
By Dana Ambrosini
NEWS EDITOR
Students working to unionize
the custodial workers at Fairfield Uni-versity
have characterized a recent rally
as "really successful."
Approximately 200 students,
administrators and faculty gathered with
union organizers outside the Campus
Center on Tuesday to protest the univer-sity
administration's refusal to take re-sponsibility
for ensuring the workers a
"living wage" and other benefits.
The group then marched to
Bellarmine Hall chanting "we've got the
power" and "do the right thing." A small
delegation met with Fr. Charles Allen,
S.J., executive assistant to Rev. Aloysius
R Kelley, S.J., university president while
protesters continued marching.
Union organizers had last week
sent a letter to members of the univer-sity
Board of Trustees appraising them
of their concerns. Fr. Allen referred to
the letter, saying that the board of trust-ees
are looking into the issue and "now
it's at a higher level," according to union
organizers.
Nevertheless, a flyer distrib-uted
to the ralliers by personnel from the
university public relations department
stated that Fr. Kelley would be request-ing
the chairman of the board to "return
the issue to the administration for fur-ther
discussion."
Students, faculty, administrators and
"It was really successful," said
Audra Makuch, '99, a member of CUCM
who helped organize the rally. "It's suc-cessful
any time a large number of people
come out to speak for people without a
voice."
FUSA President Michael
Piagentini had a different outlook. "I think
students should see both sides of the issue
and make an educated decision for them-selves,"
said Piagentini, regarding the
rally. "I really think they're getting brain-washed
here by only getting one side."
photo: Nick Segretario
custodial workers rally for unionization.
The university flyer also stated that
Fr. Kelley is willing to speak with campus
community members about the issue but will
not meet with "union representatives or
other third parties." The university is un-willing
to "direct the day-to-day operations
or salary and benefits practices" of it's con-tractors,
stated the release.
The janitors that work on campus
are employees of the Service Management
Group, an outside firm that Fairfield con-tracts
to do it's custodial work: The deci-
Continued on pg. 2
Sweeping
changes in
store for the
beach
By Paul Pennelli
ASST. SPORTS EDITOR
'. Yesterday, University Presi-dent
Rev. Aloysius P. Kelley, S.J. an-nounced
a broad, comprehensive ini-tiative
aimed at reducing the active
role that alcohol currently plays in the
lives of Fairfield students.
Upon the approval of
university's Board of Trustees, Fair-field
is planning to construct a $12
million apartment-style don. :tory
near the Quick Center, whici. is
scheduled to open in the fall of 2000.
"This is Father
Kelley's decision
after speaking
with the Task
Force, senior ad-ministrators,
and
legal counsel."
—Douglas Whiting
In a personnel move, Fr. Kelley plans
to install an administrator whose pri-mary
responsibility will be to create
and maintain a strong relationship be-tween
the administration and students
living at Fairfield Beach.
"This is Father Kelley's de-cision
after speaking with the Task
Force, senior administrators, and le-gal
counsel," says Douglas Whiting,
associate vice president for public re-lations.
Despite Fr. Kelley's state-ment
in the memorandum that the
university wishes to continue to of-fer
off-campus opportunities "where
they [the students] are afforded a high
Contined on pg. 4
Inside this edition
FUSA
announces new
VPs,
see p.2
Tips to
prepare your
resume,
see p. 6
Messes in
residence
halls,
see p. 9
Movie mogul
Gene Siskel
passes away,
see p. 11
Hockey bids
farewell to
Coughlin,
see p. 14