Mirror - Vol. 24, No. 19 - April 22, 1999

              Volume 24 Number 19 The Image of Fairfield Thursday, April 22, 1999
Battle of Bellarmine hill God Street
CUCM cooks up troublefor the administration, but does itfurther its cause?
By Paul Pennelli
MANAGING EDITOR
Their loud cries shattered the late
afternoon silence outside stately
Bellarmine Hall. With sleeping bags, food
and idealism in tow, they rushed through
the doors of the administrative office, and
filled its hallways with their chants and
applause.
It was in this fashion that the
Concerned University Community Mem-bers
(CUCM) took what appeared to be
their last stand 4 p.m. on Thursday, April
15. Approximately 40 members of
CUCM ran from points throughout cam-pus,
and converged on the long driveway
of the university's administrative build-ing.
The student protest and sit-in has
attracted the interest of national news or-
Continued on pg. 3
photo: Brian Huben
By 2:00 a.m. some of the students began exiting Bellarmine.
Seniors "Gearan" up for commencement
This year's graduation speech to be delivered by the director ofthe Peace Corps
By Brian Huben
NEWS EDITOR
What do Billy Joel, Tom
Brokaw, Ted Koppel and Elie Wiesel all
have in common? They've all been com-mencement
speakers at Fairfield Univer-sity.
This year, Mark D. Gearan, director
of the Peace Corps, will join their ranks
and give the graduates of 1999 some fi-nal
words of wisdom at Fairfield's 49th
Annual Commencement.
"With all of the bad things go-ing
on in the world right now, it's refresh-ing
to have someone come in and talk
about the positive things like helping oth-ers,"
Amanda Writer, a graduating senior
said.
Gearan has been head of the
Peace Corps since 1995 when he left his
job as deputy chief of staff and director
of communications for President Clinton.
Under his leadership, the Peace Corps has
opened programs in South Africa, Jordan,
Mozambique and Bangladesh and re-turned
its volunteers to Haiti after a five-year
absence.
Last year, President Clinton an-nounced
that Gearan was beginning a
multi-year initiative that will ultimately
increase the number of Peace Corps mem-bers
from 6,700 to 10,000 by the early part
of the next century. To reach that goal,
Gearan is streamlining agency operations
and has garnered the support of members
of Congress in both parties, resulting in
the largest budget ever for the Peace
Corps.
At the ceremonies which will be-gin
at 10:00 a.m. on May 23 on Bellarmine
Hall Terrace, Fairfield will present 1.050
degrees: 805 bachelor's degrees; 209
master's degrees; 18 certificates of ad-vanced
study and 19 associates's degrees.
Honorary Degrees will also be
given to Leslie C. Quick, Jr., chairman and
chief executive officer of Quick &Reilly/
Fleet Securities, Inc.; Rev. James L.
Connor, S.J., director of the Woodstock
Theological Center at Georgetown Uni-photo:
Public Relations
Mark Gearan, director of the Peace Corps
versity; and Gustav Meier, music direc-tor
of the Greater Bridgeport Symphony
Orchestra in Connecticut and the Greater
Lansing Symphony Orchestra in Michi-gan.
Whine...
Students express discon-tent
with Spam Jam lineup
By Christina Biagioli
CONTRIBUTING WRITER
Expectations were high and ru-mors
tlew around campus: Fairfield was
on the brink of getting The Goo Goo
Dolls, Ben Folds Five or Everclear for
the Spam Jam show on campus this year.
But the final decision to book
three-low key bands instead of a national
headliner like last year's LL Cool J has
prompted many students to say that they
are disappointed.
"I like the Pat McGee Band I
guess, but I've never even heard of the
other two. I really thought we were go-ing
to have a cool band this year for
Spring Weekend, especially since it's be-ing
considered an on-campus event now,"
said Erica Miska, '00, when she was told
that the Pat McGee Band, Bogmen and
God Street Wine are expected to enter-tain
the Fairfield University community
on Saturday, May I.
Miska's reaction is not unusual
among students.
"The spring concert is supposed
to be a big-time band, not three bands that
are relatively unheard of. We obviously
have the money because the school got
LL Cool J last year and he's definitely
expensive," said Bob Reh, '01.
However, members of FUSA in-sist
this is not so. "We just flat out don't
have the money anymore," said 1998-
1999 Vice-President of Student Activities,
Jane Nolan.
There is $27,500 in funds for
this year's Spam Jam. Broken down, that
is $10,000 each from FUSA and the
IRHG. SBRA (Student Beach Residents'
Association), UNITE (townhouses) and
the Advancement Office each gave
$2,000. A thousand dollars came from
the Alcohol Fund, which is money paid
by students who have been written up.
Continued on pg. 2
Inside this edition...
Next year's
Mirror staff
unveiled,
see p. 4
Meet Director of
Security Todd
Pelazza,
see p. 5
What did
CUCM
accomplish?
see p. 9
D.L.O returns
home to
Fairfield,
seep. 11
Softball in
post-season
contention,
see. p. 14